CINCINNATI, May 8,
1861.
DEAR GUY: — I have just received and read your letter of the
27th ult. It does me good to hear from you again. I have thought of you often
since these troubles began. Curiously enough, having a bad cold and a slight
fever, I dreamed of many things last night. Among others I dreamed of seeing
you at the Burnet House; that you wore on your cap some sort of secession
emblem and that you were in danger of getting into difficulty with some
soldiers who were in the rotunda, and that it was after some effort that I
succeeded in getting you rid of them. I should have written you soon even if I
had not heard from you.
Your predictions as to the course of things have indeed been
very exactly fulfilled. I can recollect distinctly many conversations had twelve,
perhaps even fifteen, years ago in which you pointed out the probable result of
the agitation of slavery. I have hoped that we could live together
notwithstanding slavery, but for some time past the hope has been a faint one.
I now have next to no hope of a restoration of the old Union. If you are
correct in your view of the facts, there is no hope whatever. In such case, a
continued union is not desirable were it possible. I do not differ widely from
you as to the possibility of conquering the South, nor as to the expediency of
doing it even if it were practicable. If it is the settled and final judgment
of any slave State that she cannot live in the Union, I should not think it
wise or desirable to retain her by force, even if it could be done.
But am I, therefore, to oppose the war? If it were a war of
conquest merely, certainly I should oppose it, and on the grounds you urge. But
the war is forced on us. We cannot escape it. While in your State, and in
others, perhaps in all the cotton-growing States, a decided and controlling
public judgment has deliberately declared against remaining in the Union, it is
quite certain that in several States rebellious citizens are bent on forcing
out of the Union States whose people are not in favor of secession; that the
general Government is assailed, its property taken, its authority defied in
places and in a way not supported by any fairly expressed popular verdict.
Undoubtedly the design to capture Washington is entertained by the Government
of the Southern Confederacy. Undoubtedly that Confederacy has not by its acts
sought a peaceful separation. Everything has been done by force. If
force had been employed to meet force, I believe several States now out of the
Union would have remained in it. We have an example before us. Two weeks ago
Maryland was fast going out; now, aided by the power of the general Government,
the Union men seem again to be in the ascendant. The same is true of Delaware,
Kentucky, Missouri, and western Virginia, with perhaps allowances in some
quarters.
I do not, of course, undertake to predict what will be the
ultimate object of the war. I trust it will not be merely the conquest of
unwilling peoples. Its present object, and its obvious present effect, is to
defend the rights of the Union, and to strengthen the Union men in the doubtful
States. We were becoming a disgraced, demoralized people. We are now united and
strong.
If peaceful separation were to be attempted, it would fail.
We should fight about the terms of it. The question of boundary alone would
compel a war. After a war we shall make peace. It will henceforth be known that
a State disappointed in an election can't secede, except at the risk of fearful
war. What is left to us will be ours. The war for the purposes indicated —
viz., for the defence of the capital, for the maintenance of the authority of
the Government and the rights of the United States, I think is necessary, wise,
and just. I know you honestly differ from me. I know that thousands — the great
body of the people in some States, perhaps, — agree with you, and if we were
only dealing with you and such as you, there would be no war between us. But if
Kentucky, Virginia, and other States similarly situated leave the Union, it
will be because they are forced or dragged out; and our Government ought not to
permit it, if it can be prevented even by war.
I read your letter to Judge Matthews. We agree in the main
respecting these questions. I shall be pleased to read it to George [Jones]
when we meet. He has two brothers who have volunteered and gone to Washington.
Lorin Andrews, President of Kenyon, our classmate, is colonel of a regiment. My
brotherin-law, Dr. [James D.] Webb, has gone as a surgeon. I shall not take any
active part, probably, unless Kentucky goes out. If so the war will be brought
to our own doors and I shall be in it. If I felt I had any peculiar military
capacity I should probably have gone to Washington with the rest. I trust the
war will be short and that in terms, just to all, peace will be restored. I
apprehend, and it is, I think, generally thought, that the war will [not] be a
long one. Our whole people are in it. Your acquaintances Pugh, Pendleton, and
Groesbeck, are all for prosecuting it with the utmost vigor. Vallandigham is
silent, the only man I have heard of in any party. He has not been
mobbed and is in no danger of it. I will try to send you Bishop McIlvaine's
address on the war. It will give you our side of the matter.
We shall, of course, not agree about the war. We shall, I am
sure, remain friends. There are good points about all such wars. People forget
self. The virtues of magnanimity, courage, patriotism, etc., etc., are called
into life. People are more generous, more sympathetic, better, than when
engaged in the more selfish pursuits of peace. The same exhibition of virtue is
witnessed on your side. May there be as much of this, the better side of war,
enjoyed on both sides, and as little of the horrors of war suffered, as
possible, and may we soon have an honorable and enduring peace!
My regards to your wife and boy. Lucy and the boys send much
love.
As ever,
R. B. HAYES.
P. S. — My eldest thinks God will be sorely puzzled what to
do. He hears prayers for our side at church, and his grandmother tells him that
there are good people praying for the other side, and he asks: "How can He
answer the prayers of both?"
GUY M. BRYAN,
Texas.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary
and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 13-6
