Simon Cameron to Abraham Lincoln, June 26, 1862

St Petersburg

June 26, 1862.

My dear Sir,

I must begin this my first letter from Russia, by thanking you for your message to Congress, in relation to the N. York agencies. It was a good act, bravely done. Right, in itself, as it was, very many men, in your situation, would have permitted an innocent man to suffer rather than incur responsibility. I am glad to see that the leading presses of Europe speak of it, in high terms, as an act of “nobleness”; and if I can believe what I hear from home, you will lose nothing there. At all events, I can assure you, that I will never cease to be grateful for it.

Yesterday, I had the honor of being introduced to the Emperor, of which I shall send an official account to-day to the State Dept. The interview was a long one, and his majesty was more than cordial. He asked me many questions shewing his interest in our affairs, and when I thanked him, in your name, for his prompt sympathy in our cause, the expression of his eyes, and his subsequent remarks, shewed me very clearly that he was particularly well pleased for he soon after turned the conversation to England.

The whole Court is at present out of the city, and all the high officials will remain absent, for some months. The Emperor came to town only to receive me. There is never much to be done here by an American Minister, and now there is really nothing for me to do. I more than ever regret that Mr Seward did not give me authority to travel, as you said I might have.

Feeling sure that no harm can come to the Government, by the absence of its minister at this time, I am induced now to ask you for a forlough to go home, as was given I think to Mr. Schurze, to look after my private affairs I make this request with more confidence in the assurance that the Legation will be well conducted, during my absence by Mr Taylor. I certainly would not have left home when the attack was made on me in the House of Reps strengthened as I was by your repeated assurances that I might take my own time for leaving, only that all my arrangements had been made for sailing, my passage taken and paid for, to which I had been urged by the belief that wrong was being done to Mr Clay by my delay, = but when I came here I found he was entirely content, and would have been satisfied if my arrival had been still later.

I should like to leave here by the middle of September, as then the lease of the house which I took from Mr. Clay to relieve him, will expire. The rent is a heavy item in the expenditures of a Minister, being over $3000 & more than one fourth of his yearly pay. Going at that time too, will enable me to reach home in time before the Pennsa. election to be of some service to my country, for I think your troubles will soon be removed from the Army to Congress. I shall make this application to the State Department officially – but I ask it now, from your friendship

I have been gratified all over Europe to find the high reputation you are making, and from home, too, there are indications of a growing belief that you will have to be your own successor. While it is, in my judgment, the last place to find happiness, I think you will have to make up your mind to endure it.

This is a great city and Russia is a mighty nation, and I have many things to say of them, which will be deferred till we meet. The climate I regret to say does not suit the health of my family, and they wish to leave it.

Please give to Mrs. Lincoln, the kindest regards of my wife, and believe me

Your friend Truly

Simon Cameron

Hon. A. Lincoln

Your prompt reply to my request, will especially oblige me.

SOURCE: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

John G. Nicolay to Therena Bates, January 14, 1862

[Washington, 14 January 1862]

. . . The President made an item of news yesterday for the country by appointing Edwin M. Stanton of Pa Secretary of war in place of Simon Cameron whom he sends as Minister to Russia.  Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky, now holding that place will come home and take a generalship in the army.  Quite a little shuffle all round.

So far as the Secretaryship of War is concerned I think the change a very important and much needed one.  I don’t know Mr. Stanton personally but he is represented as being an able and efficient man, and I shall certainly look for very great reforms in the war department.  So far the Department has substantially taken care of itself. . . .

SOURCE: Michael Burlingame, Editor, With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, p. 66

Diary of Edward Bates: January 13, 1862

To night, I was taken by surprise in hearing that Mr. Cameron sec. of War, has resigned, and goes to Russia, in lieu of Cash: M. Clay ²⁶ — and that Edwin M. Stanton ²⁷ is to take his place. This was a street rumor in the afternoon. At night, I was told by Senator Harris,²⁸ that the nominations had been actually made. Strange — not a hint of all this was heard last friday, at C.[abinet] C.[ouncil] and stranger still, I have not been sent for by the Prest. nor spoken to by any member. The thing, I learn, was much considered saturday and sunday — Hay²⁹ told the ladies at Eames’³⁰ jocosely, that the Cabinet had been sitting en permanence — and Mr. E[ames] himself informed me that Mr. Seward had been with the Prest: the whole of Sunday forenoon.

[Marginal Note.] Upon reflection, it is not strange — When the question is of the retaining or dismissing a member of the cabinet, the Prest. could not well lay the matter before the cabinet — he must do that himself.

There is a rumor in town, that Burnside³¹ has landed to attack Norfolk (proven afterwards, as I expected at the time, false)[.]

_______________

²⁶ Cassius M. Clay, Kentucky abolitionist, editor, politician, had supported Lincoln In 1860 and expected to become secretary of War, but was appointed minister to Russia instead, 1861-1862, 1S63-1869. He was now returning -with a brigadier-generalship to make room for Cameron to be eased out of the Cabinet, but, when he got here, he refused to fight until the Government abolished slavery in the seceded states, and so the next year when Cameron tired of the post, he returned to Russia.

²⁷ Able Pittsburgh lawyer who practiced frequently before the U. S. Supreme Court; anti-slavery Democrat who believed in protection of slavery in the South where It legally existed; Free-Soiler in 1848; attorney-general in Buchanan's Cabinet, 1S60-1861, where he vigorously opposed the plan to abandon Fort Sumter ; bitter critic of Lincoln in 1860-1861; secretary of War, 1862-1868; professed supporter of Lincoln; treacherous enemy of Johnson. Bates shares Welles's distrust of Stanton even under Lincoln.

²⁸ Supra, Jan. 4, 1862, note 11.

²⁹ John M. Hay: poet; journalist; private secretary to the President; later, ambassador to Great Britain, 1897-1898; secretary of State, 1898-1905; historian of Lincoln.

³⁰ Charles Eames: international lawyer; commissioner to Hawaii, 1849; editor of the Nashville Union, in 1850, and the Washington Union, 1850-1854 ; minister resident to Venezuela, 1854-1857; at this time (1861-1867) counsel for the Navy Department and the captors in prize cases and for the Treasury Department in cotton cases.

³¹ Supra, Nov. 29, 1861, note 97.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859-1866, p. 226-7

Diary of John Hay: [April 27, 1864]

On the evening of the 25th Fox, who had been frequently telegraphed by Butler to come down to Fort Monroe, determined to go, and asked me to go with him. We started for the Navy Yard at 5.30, passing Willard’s while Burnside’s splendid column was moving down 14th Street across the Long Bridge into Virginia. This is the finest looking and best appointed force I have ever yet seen. A little gorgeous and showy, reminding one of the early regiments who went shining down to Bull Run and the Peninsula as if to a picnic. The 3d N. J. Cavalry looked fine and yellow in their new cloaks and gold-braided breasts. The officers looked so superbly outlandish that it surprised one to hear them speaking in a Yankee accent, pure American as Cash Clay calls it. The black regiments looked well, and marched better than others — as in fact they always do.

We went down the river among the twilight “shadders” and got some fish and dined off shad roe and shad. Fox had brought with him some of his choice Oolong tea. . . . We got to Fortress Monroe in the morning, and Welles and I visited the “Iroquois,” Capt. Raymond Rogers, while Fox went to see the General. Coming ashore we skirmished for some time about the walls of the Fortress before we could find the right entrance. We went in; saw Schaffer and Kent who was lounging round with an air intensely ennuyeé, and who said: — “There are plenty of indications here which to a green hand would presage an early movement; but we blasé fellows don't seem to see it; we are familiar with large promise and scanty performance.”

Joined Butler and Fox on the ramparts. Butler said he was walking there for the first time in several months; preferring to take necessary exercise on horseback. He spoke highly of the negro troops — especially of their walking powers. They start off and trot slouchingly without wasting any muscle in grace of action, he said, illustrating the shuffling step, on the ramparts, bending his knees, and dragging his feet over the oniony grass. He spoke of the delight with which Bob Ould ate the good dinners he got while at the Fort — saying that one breakfast he got at Shaffers would have cost $2,000 in Richmond. . . . . I had a good deal of a talk with Shaffer, one of “the best staff a man was ever blessed with, — Strong Turner Shaffer and Weitzell” as Butler says. Shaffer is sanguine about the coming movement. “We will fasten our teeth,” he says, “on his line of supplies, and he must leave his positions to come and beat us off;” — relying on Grant’s not being the man to let that be done quietly. . . .

Fox seemed troubled sorely by the prospect. He fears the details have not been sufficiently studied; that the forces are to bulge ahead and get badly handled; that they rely on help from the navy in places where the navy cannot possibly help, — but rather “will be useless as an elephant with his trunk unscrewed and his tusks unshipped;” that going up the James between the precipitous banks, a few riflemen on the banks will produce a panic that nothing can remedy. He seemed surprised that the navy should not have been informed of the intended movement until to-day; or that Grant should have sanctioned, and concluded that G. must be letting the thing slide on without suggestion from him, to squelch it before it was consummated, or, relying upon his other plans, might have given this column up to the fate of a reconnoissance in force which will have accomplished its object if it diverts from his front a force large enough to destroy it. . . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 183-6; See Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House,: the complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 189-91 for the full entry.

Diary of John Hay: November 22, 1863

This evening Seward read to the President a despatch from Cash Clay, in which he discussed the whole field of American politics — European diplomacy — and the naval improvements of the century. This man is certainly the most wonderful ass of the age. He recently sent a despatch to Seward, criticising in his usual elusive and arrogant style, the late Oration of Sumner on Foreign Relations, concluding in regular diplomatic style by saying: — “You will read this to Mr. Sumner, and if he desires it, give him a copy.”

Seward says: — “It is saddening to think of the effect of prosperity on such a man. Had not we succeeded, and he prospered, he would always have been known as a brave, sincere, self-sacrificing and eloquent orator. I went all the way to Kentucky to see and to encourage him. It is prosperity that has developed that fearful underlying vanity that poisons his whole character.”

I asked Mr. Seward if he heard of the three revolutions of Matamoras, of which we have been talking to-day. He said: — “Yes! I have received a despatch about it from Gov^r Banks. I am surprised that a man so sagacious and cautious should have been on the brink of doing so imprudent a thing.”

“He was about to fire on them then?” said the President.

“Yes!” said Seward. “Our consul at Matamoras asked for protection, and he brought his guns to bear on the Castle for that purpose. I wrote to him at once that that would be war; that if our consul wanted protection he must come to Brownsville for it. Firing upon the town would involve us in a war with the Lord knows who.”

“Or rather,” said the President, “the Lord knows who not.”

I happened to mention the Proclamation of Emancipation, and Seward said: — “One-half the world are continually busying themselves for the purpose of accomplishing Proclamations and Declarations of War, etc., which they leave to the other half to carry out. Purposes can usually better be accomplished without Proclamations. And failures are less signal when not preceded by sounding promises.

“The slave States seem inclined to save us any further trouble in that way,” he continued. “Their best men are making up their minds that the thing is dead. Bramlette has written an admirable letter in answer to some slaveholders who ask him how he, a pro-slavery man, can support a war whose result will be the abolition of slavery. He tells them the war must be prosecuted, no matter what the result; that it will probably be the destruction of slavery, and he will not fight against it, nor greatly care to see the institution ended.”

The President added, as another cheering incident from Kentucky, that Jerry Boyle has asked for permission to enlist three thousand negroes for teamsters, paying them wages and promising them freedom.

The President is very anxious about Burnside.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 125-8; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 124-5.

Diary of John Hay: September 23, 1862

The President wrote the Proclamation on Sunday morning carefully. He called the Cabinet together on Monday, Sept. 22, made a little talk to them, and read the momentous document. Mr. Blair and Mr. Bates made objections; otherwise the Cabinet was unanimous. The next day Mr. Blair, who had promised to file his objections, sent a note stating that, as his objections were only to the time of the act, he would not file them lest they should be subject to misconstruction.

I told the President of the serenade that was coming, and asked if he would make any remarks. He said, no; but he did say half a dozen words, and said them with great grace and dignity. I spoke to him about the editorials in the leading papers. He said he had studied the matter so long that he knew more about it than they did.

At Gov. Chase’s there was some talking after the serenade. Chase and Clay made speeches, and the crowd was in a glorious humor. After the crowd went away, to force Mr. Bates to say something, a few old fogies staid at the Governor's, and drank wine. Chase spoke earnestly of the Proclamation. He said: — “This was a most wonderful history of an insanity of a class that the world had ever seen. If the slaveholders had staid in the Union, they might have kept the life in their institution for many years to come. That what no party and no public feeling in the North could ever have hoped to touch, they had madly placed in the very path of destruction.” They all seemed to feel a sort of new and exhilarated life; they breathed freer; the President's Proclamation had freed them as well as the slaves. They gleefully and merrily called each other and themselves abolitionists, and seemed to enjoy the novel accusation of appropriating that horrible name.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 66-7; Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War: in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 50.

Diary of John Hay: Monday, April 22, 1861

. . . . The whining traitors from Baltimore were here again this morning. The President, I think, has done with them. In conversation with Major Hunter last night, in reply to the Major's blunt assertion that the troops should have been brought through Baltimore if the town had to be leveled to the earth, he said that that order commanding them to return to Pennsylvania was given at the earnest solicitation of the Maryland conservatives who avowed their powerlessness in Baltimore, but their intention to protect the federal troops elsewhere, granted them as a special extension; as an exhaustion of the means of conciliation and kindness. Hereafter, however, he would interfere with no war measures of the army.

A young lady called to-day from Baltimore, sent by her father, H. Pollock, Esq., to convey to the Government information as to the state of affairs in the Plug-ugly city. She was very pretty and southern in features and voice, and wonderfully plucky and earnest in the enunciation of her devotion to the Stars and Stripes. She stated that the mails had been stopped at the Baltimore Post-office — arms expected from Virginia — Fort McHenry to be attacked tonight — the scared Commanders here thoroughly traitorous, and other things. I met her again this afternoon and talked three hours. Her quiet courage and dauntless patriotism brought back to me the times of De Montfort and Queen Eleanor, and the girl of Dom Remy. I gained a new idea of the possibilities of true, brave hearts being nourished in Republics. Just as she stepped into her carriage, her friend called her “Lilie,” and I knew her name. She seemed so heart whole in her calm devotion to the Union that flirtation died in her presence and better thoughts than politicians often know, stole through the mind of one who listened to the novelty of an American woman, earnest, intelligent, patriotic and pretty.

This afternoon the Pocahontas and the Anacostia came peacefully back from their cruise and folded their wings in the harbor. The Pocahontas has done her duty at Norfolk and is welcome to our bay, with its traitor-haunted shores. She reports no batteries at the White House Point, and makes no record of any hostile demonstration from the banks of Alexandria. The very fact of the Pocahontas coming so quietly in, is a good one.

A telegram intercepted on its way to Baltimore states that our Yankees and New Yorkers have landed at Annapolis. Weary and foot-sore but very welcome, they will probably greet us tomorrow.

. . . . It is amusing to drop in some evening at Clay’s Armory. The raw patriots lounge elegantly on the benches, drink coffee in the ante-room, change the boots of unconscious sleepers in the hall, scribble busily in editorial note-books, while the sentries snore at the doors, and the grizzled Captain talks politics on the raised platform, and dreams of border battle and the hot noons of Monterey.

It was melodramatic to see Cassius Clay come into the President's reception room to-day. He wore, with a sublimely unconscious air, three pistols and an Arkansas tooth pick, and looked like an admirable vignette to 25 cents worth of yellow-covered romance.

Housekeepers here are beginning to dread famine. Flour has made a sudden spring to $18 a barrel, and corn-meal rejoices in the respectable atmosphere of $2.50 a bushel. Willard is preparing for war, furling all sails for the storm. The dinner-table is lorn of cartes, and the tea-table reduced to the severe simplicity of pound-cake.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 18-21; Michael Burlingame, Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 6-8

Leonard Swett to Abraham Lincoln, November 30, 1860

Bloomington

Nov 30, 1860

Dear Lincoln

I received, yesterday the enclosed letter from Sanderson I suppose it was intended for your eyes, more than mine, and therefore I forward it to you. I am annoyed, a little, that these applications of Cameron's friends are made so prominently through Judge Davis & myself. Yet, on the whole, from what occured at Chicago I think they have a right to do it. My objection is that it seemingly puts us in the advocacy of Cameron and leaves the inference of our interest to do so This is not the truth about it The truth is, at Chicago we thought the Cameron influence was the controlling element & tried to procure that rather than the factions The negotiations we had with them, so far as I can judge was one of the reasons, which induced the Cameron leaders to throw the bulk of that force to you. That having been done and a correspondence having been kept up by us with them, during the summer, they naturally seek the same channel to get back to you. This is all the only reason I know of, why they write to us.

While I arrogate to myself no might to my opinion, yet if they want it, opinions are cheap & in this instance certainly wont do harm.

This flurry at the South it seems to me can be got along with, but I dont think it ought to be helped with. The Country wants firmness & justice Cameron has the negative merit of not being offensive to them the South.

If it is conceded Penn. should have a Cabinet officer the weight of party there, all other things equal, should, I think, indicate him. Cameron would seem to satisfy the majority Reed, or any other man, only a minority A reason for this may be, that in adition to Cameron's real strength the politicians can heal their local differences by having two vacancies in the Senate to fill.

My belief is that no man, other that C. can be selected there without considerable dissatisfaction There is also the argument too that the Cameron influence, as much as any thing nominated you, while the other influences there did & could do you no considerable good The arguments against him I dont fully know, for my intercourse has been with his fends The only exception to this is Joseph Lewis of West Chester & I think he is a fussy old fellow who doesn't amount to much

Is not the fact that Seward may be satisfied with a mission to England worthy of consideration Tis true he undertands the foreign relations of the Gov & would be of great service but the domestic relation are the ones most complicated—

I understand that Cassius Clay is anxious to get into the Cabinet Does not this complicate matters It seems to me, he would be more odious to the South than any man but Seward[.] Putnam has written me two very long letters. He wants a second class foreign mission & has asked me at a proper time to name it to you

Yours Truly

Leonard Swett

SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner,* November 26, 1846

Cincinnati, Nov. 26, 1846.

My Dear Sir: I promised Mr. Vaughan, sometime ago, to write you in reference to the True American, but have been prevented by various circumstances from fulfilling the promise. I have little leisure now, but possibly a few words may be offered.

You are aware, doubtless, of all the circumstances relating to C. M. Clay’s¹ connection with the paper. I was well aware of that gentleman's aversion to editorial duty, and the last letter I rec'd from him before he left Louisville with his Company advised me that he should not continue the paper under his own charge any longer than was absolutely necessary. I had, however, no idea that its publication would be abandoned during his absence, or that he had given a discretionary power over the very existence of the paper to Brutus I. Clay, his brother, an open and avowed enemy of the movement and anxious to disengage his brother C. M. from what he (B. I.) deemed a false position. I am not yet willing to believe that Mr. C. M. Clay, in giving a general power of attorney to Brutus to act for him in all his affairs (including of course the paper) had any expectation that the American would be discontinued during his absence. He made an engagement with Mr. Vaughan² to edit it; he accepted with expressions of gratitude my own offer of assistance, which assistance, however, I am bound to say Mr. Vaughan's superior ability and tact rendered totally unnecessary; and, I feel very sure that at the time of his last letter to me he relied on the American as a powerful and indispensable auxiliary to the great effort which he designed to make on behalf of emancipation immediately after his return. Whether he afterward changed his purpose or not I am unable to say. I will not believe that he did except upon evidence. I am unwilling to condemn a man who has acted nobly, until I see proofs of absolute and total dereliction.

However, the paper by the act of B. I. Clay is discontinued. But the friends of Freedom in Kentucky are determined that it shall not stay discontinued. They have organized in Louisville and elsewhere, and have resolved that the paper shall go on under the charge of Mr. Vaughan, provided the necessary assistance can be had. To see whether this assistance can be had Mr. Vaughan has this day started for the east. I beg leave to commend him and his object to your kindest consideration. Mr. V — is a South Carolinian, and might, had he been willing to identify himself with the Nullifiers, have occupied almost any position in his native State. His principles forbade this, and he afterwards removed to this city. Almost from his first arrival his sentiments on the subject of Slavery have been advancing, until he now stands on the same or nearly the same platform which you occupy. I feel sure that no man fitter for the time and place can be found. As to the importance of the paper, it cannot well be overestimated. There is a vast amount of antislavery sentiment in the Slave States, which requires to be fostered and developed. All the hill country is favorable, except so far as mere prejudice prevents, to Freedom. The paper has a very good circulation in the Slave States. It is the link between the Antislavery sentiment of the North and South. It cannot be lost without great detriment to the cause both North and South. I trust, therefore, Mr. Vaughan's efforts will be liberally rewarded by the enlightened Friends of Humanity, Freedom, and Advancement in the East.

I do not often solicit such a favor, but may I beg a copy of your Phi Beta Kappa address? I believe I have heretofore thanked you for your 4th July Oration on the True Grandeur of Nations, and expressed the admiration with which its perusal inspired me — an admiration shared, I believe, by all readers of the document except the devotees of Conservatism, falsely so called.

Why can not the Friends of Freedom stand together? Why exact from me, a Democrat, addresses to the Whigs, or from you, a Whig, addresses to the Democrats? Is not the question of Freedom paramount, and is it not great enough in itself and its connexions for a party to stand on, without dividing addresses?

I pray you to pardon the liberty I have taken in writing this to one to whom I am almost wholly unknown, and believe me, With very great respect,

Yours truly,

[Salmon P. Chase]

_______________

* All the letters from Chase to Sumner are from the Pierce-Sumner Papers in the library of Harvard University.

¹ The wellknown Cassias Marcellus Clay.

² John C. Vaughan, cf. Wilson's Slave Power, II, 143-144, 510, and Pierce's Sumner, III, 165.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 111

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 12, 1861

Mr. Forsyth had been good enough to invite me to an excursion down the Bay of Mobile, to the forts built by Uncle Sam and his French engineers to sink his Britishers — now turned by “C. S. A.” against the hated Stars and Stripes. The mayor and the principal merchants and many politicians — and are not all men politicians in America ? — formed the party. If any judgment of men's acts can be formed from their words, the Mobilites, who are the representatives of the third greatest part of the United States, will perish ere they submit to the Yankees and people of New York. I have now been in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and in none of these great States have I found the least indication of the Union sentiment, or of the attachment for the Union which Mr. Seward always assumes to exist in the South. If there were any considerable amount of it, I was in a position as a neutral to have been aware of its existence.

Those who might have at one time opposed secession, have now bowed their heads to the majesty of the majority; and with the cowardice, which is the result of the irresponsible and cruel tyranny of the multitude, hasten to swell the cry of revolution. But the multitude are the law in the United States. “There's a divinity doth hedge” the mob here, which is omnipotent and all good. The majority in each State determines its political status according to Southern views. The Northerners are endeavoring to maintain that the majority of the people in the mass of the States generally shall regulate the point for each State individually and collectively. If there be any party in the Southern States which thinks such an attempt justifiable, it sits silent and fearful and hopeless in darkness and sorrow hid from the light of day. General Scott, who was a short time ago written of in the usual inflated style, to which respectable military mediocrity and success are entitled in the States, is now reviled by the Southern papers as an infamous hoary traitor and the like. If an officer prefers his allegiance to the United States flag, and remains in the Federal service after his State has gone out, his property is liable to confiscation by the State authorities, and his family and kindred are exposed to the gravest suspicion, and must prove their loyalty by extra zeal in the cause of Secession.

Our merry company comprised naval and military officers in the service of the Confederate States, journalists, politicians, professional men, merchants, and not one of them had a word but of hate and execration for the North. The British and German settlers are quite as vehement as the natives in upholding States’ rights, and among the most ardent upholders of slavery are the Irish proprietors and mercantile classes.

The Bay of Mobile, which is about thirty miles long, with a breadth varying from three to seven miles, is formed by the outfall of the Alabama and of the Tombigbee Rivers, and is shallow and dangerous, full of banks and trees, embedded in the sands; but all large vessels lie at the entrance between Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, to the satisfaction of the masters, who are thus spared the trouble with their crews which occurs in the low haunts of a maritime town. The cotton is sent down in lighters, which employ many hands at high wages. The shores are low wooded, and are dotted here and there with pretty villas; but present no attractive scenery.

The sea-breeze somewhat alleviated the fierceness of the sun, which was however too hot to be quite agreeable. Our steamer, crowded to the sponsons, made little way against the tide; but at length, after nearly four hours' sail, we hauled up along-side a jetty at Fort Gaines, which is on the right hand or western exit of the harbor, and would command, were it finished, the light-draft channel; it is now merely a shell of masonry, but Colonel Hardee, who has charge of the defences of Mobile, told me that they would finish it speedily.

The Colonel is an agreeable, delicate-looking man, scarcely of middle age, and is well known in the States as the author of “The Tactics,” which is, however, merely a translation of the French manual of arms. He does not appear to be possessed of any great energy or capacity, but is, no doubt, a respectable officer.

Upon landing we found a small body of men on guard in the fort. A few cannon of moderate calibre were mounted on the sand-hills and on the beach. We entered the unfinished work, and were received with a salute. The men felt difficulty in combining discipline with citizenship. They were “bored” with their sand-hill, and one of them asked me when I “thought them damned Yankees were coming. He wanted to touch off a few pills he knew would be good for their complaint.” I must say I could sympathize with the feelings of the young officer who said he would sooner have a day with the Lincolnites, than a week with the mosquitoes for which this locality is famous.

From Fort Gaines the steamer ran across to Fort Morgan, about three miles distant, passing in its way seven vessels, mostly British, at anchor, where hundreds may be seen, I am told, during the cotton season. This work has a formidable sea face, and may give great trouble to Uncle Sam, when he wants to visit his loving subjects in Mobile in his gunboats. It is the work of Bernard, I presume, and like most of his designs has a weak long base towards the land; but it is provided with a wet ditch and drawbridge, with demi lunes covering the curtains, and has a regular bastioned trace. It has one row of casemates, armed with thirty-two and forty-two pounders. The barbette guns are eight-inch and ten-inch guns; the external works at the salients, are armed with howitzers and field-pieces, and as we crossed the drawbridge, a salute was fired from a field battery, on a flanking bastion, in our honor.

Inside the work was crammed with men, some of whom slept in the casemates — others in tents in the parade grounds and enceinte of the fort. They were Alabama Volunteers, and as sturdy a lot of fellows as ever shouldered musket; dressed in homespun coarse gray suits, with blue and yellow worsted facings and stripes — to European eyes not very respectful to their officers, but very obedient, I am told, and very peremptorily ordered about, as I heard.

There were 700 or 800 men in the work, and an undue proportion of officers, all of whom were introduced to the strangers in turn. The officers were a very gentlemanly, nice-looking set of young fellows, and several of them had just come over from Europe to take up arms for their State. I forget the name of the officer in command, though I cannot forget his courtesy, nor an excellent lunch he gave us in his casemate after a hot walk round the parapets, and some practice with solid shot from the barbette guns, which did not tend to make me think much of the greatly-be-praised Columbiads.

One of the officers named Maury, a relative of “deep-sea Maury,” struck me as an ingenious and clever officer; the utmost harmony, kindliness, and devotion to the cause prevailed among the garrison, from the chief down to the youngest ensign. In its present state the Fort would suffer exceedingly from a heavy bombardment — the magazines would be in danger, and the traverses are inadequate. All the barracks and wooden buildings should be destroyed if they wish to avoid the fate of Sumter.

On our cruise homewards, in the enjoyment of a cold dinner, we had the inevitable discussion of the Northern and Southern contest. Mr. Forsyth, the editor and proprietor of the “Mobile Register,” is impassioned for the cause, though he was not at one time considered a pure Southerner. There is difference of opinion relative to an attack on Washington. General St. George Cooke, commanding the army of Virginia on the Potomac, declares there is no intention of attacking it, or any place outside the limits of that free and sovereign State. But then the conduct of the Federal Government in Maryland is considered by the more fiery Southerners to justify the expulsion of “Lincoln and his Myrmidons,” “the Border Ruffians and Cassius M. Clay,” from the capital. Butler has seized on the Relay House, on the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with the rail from Washington, and has displayed a good deal of vigor since his arrival at Annapolis. He is a Democrat, and a celebrated criminal lawyer in Massachusetts. Troops are pouring into New York, and are preparing to attack Alexandria, on the Virginia side, below Washington and the Navy Yard, where a large Confederate flag is flying, which can be seen from the President's windows in the White House.

There is a secret soreness even here at the small effect produced in England compared with what they anticipated by the attack on Sumter; but hopes are excited that Mr. Gregory, who was travelling through the States some time ago, will have a strong party to support his forthcoming motion for a recognition of the South. The next conflict which takes place will be more bloody than that at Sumter. The gladiators are approaching — Washington, Annapolis, Pennsylvania are military departments, each with a chief and Staff, to which is now added that of Ohio, under Major G. B. McClellan, Major-General of Ohio Volunteers at Cincinnati. The authorities on each side are busy administering oaths of allegiance.

The harbor of Charleston is reported to be under blockade by the Niagara steam frigate; and a force of United States troops at St. Louis, Missouri, under Captain Lyon, has attacked and dispersed a body of State Militia under one Brigadier-General Frost, to the intense indignation of all Mobile. The argument is, that Missouri gave up the St. Louis Arsenal to the United States Government, and could take it back if she pleased, and was certainly competent to prevent the United States troops stirring beyond the Arsenal.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 192-6

Diary of Salmon P. Chase: Wednesday, September 24, 1862

The President called a special meeting of the Cabinet to-day, and asked our judgments on two questions:

First, as to the expediency of Treaties with Governments desiring their immigration, for voluntary colonization of blacks.

Second, As to the proper answer to be returned to the letter from John Ross, excusing the Treaty of the Cherokees with the Rebels, and asking the protection of the United States and the fulfilment of old Treaties.

On the first question, there was the usual diversity of opinion. I not thinking Colonization in its self desirable, except as a means of getting a foothold in Central America,¹ thought no Treaties expedient; but simple arrangements, under the legislation of Congress by which any person who might choose to emigrate, would be secured in such advantages as might be offered them by other States or Governments. Seward rather favored Treaties, but evidently did not think much of the wisdom of any measures for sending out of the country laborers needed here. The President asked us to think of the subject, and be ready to express our opinions when we next come together.

As to the Cherokee question there seemed to be a general concurrence that no new pledges should be given them but that, at the end of the war, their condition and relation to the United States should have just consideration.

After Cabinet, went with Stanton to War Department, and laid before him sundry applications for positions, with such verbal support as I thought due to them. Returning to the Department, I found there young Mr. Walley, and gave him an earnest recommendation to Stanton; and was surprised, an hour or so after, to receive a note from him thanking me for my kindness, but saying that Mr. Stanton told him there was no likelihood of his receiving an appointment; and that he was going to enlist as a private. Wrote note to Mr. Walley (his father) expressing my regret.

Nothing at Department but routine — except direction to Cisco to receive deposits of gold, and a call from Eli Thayer about his project for colonizing East Florida, with which I sympathize.

Had proposed to Genl. Garfield to take him over and call on Genl. Hooker, but it rained and he did not come. After dinner, however, the sky cleared some what, and Katie and I rode out and called on him. He was still improving.

An hour or two after our return, a band of music, which had just serenaded the President by way of congratulation on the Proclamation, came to my house and demanded a speech — with which demand I complied briefly. Gen. Clay, who was with me, responded more at length. After the crowd had passed on, Gen. Clay, Mr. Clark, of Mercer, Penna., Genl. Robinson, of Pittsburgh, and Mr. Wm. D. Lewis, of Philadelphia, came in and spent a little time with me.

_______________

¹ Chase, like Seward, contemplated the expansion of the United States southward to the Isthmus. See his letter to James H. Smith, May 8, 1849.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 92-4

Diary of Salmon P. Chase, Tuesday, September 9, 1862

Maj. Andrews came to breakfast. Told him I had seen Secretary of War, who had assured me that Col. Crook's commission as Brigadier had been sent him.

Went to Department. Directed Commission for 10th New York district to be sent to Hyatt. Directed Mr. Rogers to proceed to New York and expedite alteration in Exchange and Custom House, and make proper contracts for the same.

Went to President's to attend Cabinet Meeting, but there was only a talk. I proposed the creation of a Department beyond the Mississippi and that Clay be placed in command, with whom Frank P. Blair should be associated; and that an Expedition should be organized to Petersburgh and afterwards to Charleston.

Genl. Van Ransellaer called to ask my interest for him as Paymaster-General; and Mr. Carroll, to ask the same for Genl. Griffin. — Went to War Department, where Watson told me that Genl. McClellan had telegraphed expressing doubt if there was any large rebel force in Maryland, and apprehension that their movement might be a feint. — Watson dined with me. Read him Denison's letter from New-Orleans about evacuation of Baton Rouge — Butler's black Regiment — etc., etc.

Just after dinner, Capt. —— came in with Mr. G—,who had been arrested near Soldiers' Home as a suspicious character — taken before Genl. Wadsworth, to whom he said he was known to me — sent by Genl. W. to me — identified and discharged. He is an Englishman of a Manchester House, who brought a letter from Mr. Sayard to acting Minister Stuart, by whom he had been commended to me. Riding around to gratify curiosity he had fallen into trouble.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 71

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, September 8, 1862

Less sensation and fewer rumors than we have had for several days.

The President called on me to know what we had authentic of the destruction of the Rebel steamer in Savannah River. He expressed himself very decidedly concerning the management or mismanagement of the army. Said, “We had the enemy in the hollow of our hands on Friday, if our generals, who are vexed with Pope, had done their duty; all of our present difficulties and reverses have been brought upon us by these quarrels of the generals.” These were, I think, his very words. While we were conversing, Collector Barney of New York came in. The President said, perhaps before B. came, that Halleck had turned to McClellan and advised that he should command the troops against the Maryland invasion. “I could not have done it,” said he, “for I can never feel confident that he will do anything effectual.” He went on, freely commenting and repeating some things said before B. joined us. Of Pope he spoke in complimentary terms as brave, patriotic, and as having done his duty in every respect in Virginia, to the entire satisfaction of himself and Halleck, who both knew and watched, day and night, every movement. On only one point had Halleck doubted any order P. had given; that was in directing one division, I think Heintzelman's, to march for the Chain Bridge, by which the flanks of that division were exposed. When that order reached him by telegraph, Halleck was uneasy, for he could not countermand it in season, because the dispatch would have to go part of the way by courier. However, all went off without disaster; the division was not attacked. Pope, said the President, did well, but there was here an army prejudice against him, and it was necessary he should leave. He had gone off very angry, and not without cause, but circumstances controlled us.

Barney said he had mingled with all descriptions of persons, and particularly with men connected with the army, and perhaps could speak from actual knowledge of public sentiment better than either of us. He was positive that no one but McClellan could do anything just now with this army. He had managed to get its confidence, and he meant to keep it, and use it for his own purposes. Barney proceeded to disclose a conversation he had with Barlow some months since. Barlow, a prominent Democratic lawyer and politician of New York, had been to Washington to attend one of McClellan's grand reviews when he lay here inactive on the Potomac. McClellan had specially invited Barlow to be present, and during this visit opened his mind, said he did not wish the Presidency, would rather have his place at the head of the army, etc., etc., intimating he had no political views or aspirations. All with him was military, and he had no particular desire to close this war immediately, but would pursue a line of policy of his own, regardless of the Administration, its wishes and objects.

The combination against Pope was, Barney says, part of the plan carried out, and the worst feature to him was the great demoralization of his soldiers. They were becoming reckless and untamable. In these remarks the President concurred, and said he was shocked to find that of 140,000 whom we were paying for in Pope's army only 60,000 could be found. McClellan brought away 93,000 from the Peninsula, but could not to-day count on over 45,000. As regarded demoralization, the President said, there was no doubt that some of our men permitted themselves to be captured in order that they might leave on parole, get discharged, and go home. Where there is such rottenness, is there not reason to fear for the country?

Barney further remarked that some very reliable men were becoming discouraged, and instanced Cassius M. Clay, who was advocating an armistice and terms of separation or of compromise with the Rebels. The President doubted if Clay had been rightly understood, for he had had a full and free talk with him, when he said had we been successful we could have had it in our power to offer terms.

In a conversation this morning with Chase, he said it was a doubtful matter whether my declining to sign the paper against McClellan was productive of good or harm. If I had done it, he said, McClellan would have been disposed of and not now in command, but the condition of the army was such under his long manipulation that it might have been hazardous at this juncture to have dismissed him. I assured him I had seen no moment yet when I regretted my decision, and my opinion of McClellan had undergone no change. He has military acquirements and capacity, dash, but has not audacity, lacks decision, delays, hesitates, vacillates; will, I fear, persist in delays and inaction and do nothing affirmative. His conduct during late events aggravates his indecision and is wholly unjustifiable and inexcusable.

But I will not prophesy what he will do in his present command. He has a great opportunity, and I hope and pray he may improve it. The President says truly he has the “slows,” but he can gather the army together better than any other man. Let us give him credit when he deserves it.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 115-8

John G. Fee to Cassius M. Clay, December 12, 1859

Pittsburg, Pa., December 12, 1859.

Mr. C. M. Clay —

Dear Friend: — I am still in the free States, being detained longer than I expected. My health is better than when I left home. We shall raise money enough to pay for our land, and open the way for other more extended interests.

I find Republicanism rising. The Republicans in Philadelphia have separated from the “mere peoples’ party.” They are going into the work in good earnest. I stopped with some true friends of yours, Wm. B. Thomas and Professor Cleveland. Many inquired for you. I told them you were still in the field, and the true friend of freedom. I believe this, and I am pained when I hear Republicans talk of such men as Bates, Blair, etc., and omit your name.

I have repeatedly spoken of you in public and private. I think the spirit is rising in the Republican ranks, and will yet demand a representative man. If you or Chase or Seward are on the ticket, or tried men, I shall expect to work with the Republicans. I shall continue to do all I can to urge a higher standard. Wm. B. Thomas of Philadelphia says he will thus work and expend money to induce a higher standard; but, if the party “flattens down” below what it was last time, he is off. Hundreds of others will do the same — yes, thousands; and that class of men the party can not well do without.

Dr. Hart of New York proposed that I address a letter to you, calling you out. I thought it not best to do so until I should see you personally, or write to you, and have an arrangement. I am having encouraging audiences — staying longer than I had intended — perhaps ’tis all well. I learn there is some feeling against me in Kentucky in consequence of an article in the Louisville Courier, representing me as approving John Brown's course, etc. Such is a direct perversion of my uniform and invariable teaching. I have been careful here, and always said I disapproved his manner of action — attempts to abduct, or incite insurrection; but that I thought God is speaking to the world through John Brown, in his spirit of consecration. I suppose I can not help the gullibility of the people, unless I attempt to correct by publishing. Is this best? Write to me at Cincinnati, care of Geo. L. Weed. I shall start for Lewis in a day or two; from thence to Cincinnati, and home.

John. G. Fee.

SOURCE: Cassius Marcellus Clay, The life of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Volume 1, p. 575-6

Abraham Lincoln to Simon Cameron, January 11, 1862 - Private

Private

Executive Mansion,

Washington, Jan. 11, 1862.

Dear Sir:

Though I have said nothing hitherto in response to your wish, expressed long since, to resign your seat in the cabinet, I have not been unmindful of it. I have been only unwilling to consent to a change at a time, and under circumstances which might give occasion to misconstruction, and unable, till now to see how such misconstruction could be avoided.

But the desire of Mr. Clay to return home and to offer his services to his country in the field enables me now to gratify your wish, and at the same time evince my personal regard for you, and my confidence in your ability, patriotism, and fidelity to public trust.

I therefore tender to your acceptance, if you still desire to resign your present position, the post of Minister to Russia. Should you accept it, you will bear with you the assurance of my undiminished confidence, of my affectionate esteem, and of my sure expectation that, near the great sovereign [sic] whose personal and hereditary friendship for the United States, so much endears him to Americans, you will be able to render services to your country, not less important than those you could render at home.

Very sincerely your friend

A. LINCOLN

SOURCE: Roy P. Basler, Editor, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, p. 96-7; A copy of this letter can be found in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.

Washington News, Rumors &c.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20. – Yesterday the Senate confirmed Cassius M. Clay as Major-General, and Jesse L. Reno, of Burnside’s column, as Brigadier-General.  It also rejected Quartermaster Charles Lieb for the second time, the Military Committee stating that he had a million of dollars unaccounted for.

Mr. Vallandigham was much agitated while speaking on Mr. Hickman’s resolution.  When he concluded only two members went to him, Cox and Pendleton.  The Kentucky members are evidently against him.

Mr. Washburne, of Ill., pushed the House in Committee of the Whole through all the Senate’s amendments to the Treasury note bill at a gallop, cutting off a number of long-winded speeches.  The vote concurring in the amendment paying interest in cash was, ayes 76, nays not counted.  The sinking fund amendment was rejected on the unanimous recommendation of the Ways and Means Committee, though opposed by the Homestead, because it devotes to this fund the proceeds of sales of public lands.

The Richmond Examiner of Saturday contains an editorial commencing with the following: – From the valiant Senator down to the timid seamstress, the question on every tongue in Richmond is, whether the enemy are likely to penetrate with their gunboats to this quarter.

The House District of Columbia Committee will report a bill abolishing slavery and incorporating Pennsylvania Avenue.

Assistant Secretary Seward was examined by the Judiciary Committee on censorship of telegraph yesterday.  The investigation is drawing to a close.

A report was made in the Senate Executive Secession yesterday on Mexican affairs by the Committee on Foreign Affairs.  It has been ordered printed.

Mr. Rice of Minnesota, from the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, reported yesterday a joint resolution giving authority to the President to appoint a Lieutenant General by brevet.  The same committee reported in favor of an appropriation to purchase and distribute silver medals to privates and non-commissioned officers, in both army and navy, for distinguished services during the present war.  They also decide not to grant brevet commissions except for gallant conduct in the face of the enemy.

All stories purporting that Gen. Fremont has received a clean bill of health from the Committee on the Conduct of the War, or that he has been assigned to a new command, are without foundation, at least premature.  What may be done eventually depends on the Committee.

The Committee on Conduct of the War has recently been inquiring into the case of Dr. Ives and into the blockade of the Potomac.  On the first matter Mr. Hudson, managing editor of the New York Herald, and on the 2^nd, Capt. Dahlgren were examined.

The Navy Department will issue proposals for steam men of war.  Construction of gunboats will be pressed.

No more titles by brevet will be given, except for distinction in battle.

Mr. Trumbull said in the debate on the army deficiency bill to-day, that he had received authentic information that there were only 28,000 Union soldiers under Gen. Grant at Fort Donelson, instead for 40,000 or 50,000, as reported.

In the House Mr. Voorhes of Indiana made a thorough secession speech, declaring that the people of Indiana were in favor of compromise with the rebels.

Mr. Washburn of Illinois replied to him, saying that the people of Illinois were in favor of Gen. Grant’s compromise with Buckner, viz: immediate and unconditional surrender.  (Loud applause on the floor and galleries.)

Thirty transports ran the Potomac blockade unharmed Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Gen. Thomas Williams is released from command at Hatteras, and will have command under Gen. Butler, now at Ship Island.

Butler’s New England department has been abrogated, and his authority to raise and equip troops and make contracts revoked.

Governors of States are hereafter to be the only persons authorized to raise regiments.

Mr. Richardson of Illinois, from the House Military Committee, reported a resolution urging that no rebels who have been in the civil, military or naval service of the United States, be exchanged, with the design of keeping and punishing them as ringleaders.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 3

News Summary

The Chicago Journal (Republican) says that the Congressional Apportionment Bill was passed at the recent session of the legislature, though not equalizing the districts as well as it might have done, is fully as fair as could have been expected. Stark County is in the 11th District composed of the following counties: Rock Island, Mercer, Henry, Bureau, Stark, Whiteside, and Lee. Population 231,183: Political status at last election, 15,777 Republicans,7,186 Demcrats, Republican majority 8,250.

The rumor comes through rebel sources that the gunboat Queen of the West, which ran the rebel blockade at Vicksburg, on the 3d inst., has been captured while attacking Fort Hudson, a few miles below that city up the Red River.

It is rumored that the government intend suppressing the circulation of all political papers among the soldiers and that it has already been done on the Potomac, a sensible movement.

A Washington dispatch announces the arrival there of a large number of civilian prisoners from Camp Chase, Ohio, to be exchanged and sent south.

The discovery of precious metal in Nevada warrant the belief that it will in a few years surpass California.

It is said that $23,000,000 have been stolen in the quartermaster’s department in the last few months.

Thurlow Weed, the great whig leader of Albany, N.Y., and now a conservative Republican, has been to Washington at the instance of the President, he has been in consulting with him the offshot of which is being watched for with no little anxiety.

Maj. Gen. Cassius M. Clay it is said is about to return to Russia.

Montana is the name of a new Territory which is about being organized by Act of Congress in the unorganized part of old Oregon.

The new Stafford projectile is making extraordinary havoc with iron-clad targets. Previous experiments with these projectiles prove conclusively that targets of 9 inch iron plates, back by 21 inches of hard wood can be readily penetrated. Its peculiarities of construction are kept a secret.

The spirits have predicted in Andrew Jackson Davis’ paper that France will be soon fighting for the Confederacy and England for the United States. Mr. Davis has weekly war despatches [sic] by spiritual telegraph.

The London correspondent of the Chicago Journal (probably its polite editor Charles Wilson who is sec’y of legation) says, that the ladies must be prepared to hear before many months of the abolishment of one of their daring institution – Crinoline –.

MARRYING BY TELEGRAPH. – The Syracuse Journal as the announcement of the marriage of C. S. Gardiner a soldier stationed at Washington to a Miss Palmenter of N. Volna N. Y. by telegraph, Rev. W. H. Carr officiated as the clergyman. The parents of the bride objected and this mode was planed to cheat the old folks.

The cultivation of sugar beets as well as sorghum, is attracting attention at the West and the prospect is that large amounts of beet sugar will soon be made.

– Published in the Stark County News, Toulon, Illinois, Thursday, February 26, 1863