Have a letter from Governor Andrew, who in a matter
misrepresented me; claims to have been led into error by the “Gloucester men,”
and is willing to drop the subject.1 I shall not object, for the
Governor is patriotic and zealous as well as somewhat fussy and fanatical.
General Marston and others, a delegation from New Hampshire
with a letter from the Governor, wanted additional defenses for Portsmouth.
Letters from numerous places on the New England coast are received to the same
effect. Each of them wants a monitor, or cruiser, or both. Few of them seem to
be aware that the shore defenses are claimed by and belong to the War, rather
than the Navy, Department, nor do they seem to be aware of any necessity for
municipal and popular effort for their own protection.
Two delegations are here from Connecticut in relation to
military organizations for home work and to preserve the peace. I went to the
War Department in their behalf, and one was successful, perhaps both.
There is some talk, and with a few, a conviction, that we
are to have a speedy termination of the war. Blair is confident the Rebellion
is about closed. I am not so sanguine. As long as there is ability to resist,
we may expect it from Davis and the more desperate leaders, and when they quit,
as they will if not captured, the seeds of discontent and controversy which
they have sown will remain, and the social and political system of the
insurrectionary States is so deranged that small bodies may be expected to
carry on for a time, perhaps for years, a bushwhacking warfare. It will likely
be a long period before peace and contentment will be fully restored. Davis,
who strove to be, and is, the successor of Calhoun, without his ability, but
with worse intentions, is ambitious and has deliberately plunged into this war
as the leader, and, to win power and fame, has jeopardized all else. The noisy,
gasconading politicians of the South who figured in Congress for years and had
influence have, in their new Confederacy, sunk into insignificance. The
Senators and Representatives who formerly loomed up in Congressional debate in
Washington, and saw their harangues spread before the country by a thousand
presses, have all been dwarfed, wilted, and shriveled. The “Confederate
Government,” having the element of despotism, compels its Congress to sit with
closed doors. Davis is the great “I am.”
In the late military operations of the Rebels he has
differed with Lee, and failed to heartily sustain that officer. It was Lee's
plan to uncover Washington by inducing Hooker to follow him into Pennsylvania.
Hooker fell into the trap and withdrew everything from here, which is
surprising, for Halleck's only study has been to take care of himself and not
fall into Rebel hands. But he felt himself safe if Hooker and the army were
between him and Lee.
From the interrupted dispatches and other sources, it is
ascertained that Lee's plan was the concentration of a force of 40,000 men at
Culpeper to rush upon Washington when our army and the whole Potomac force was
far away in the Valley of the Cumberland. But Davis, whose home is in
Mississippi and whose interest is there, did not choose to bring Beauregard
East. The consequence has been the frustration of Lee's plans, which have
perished without fruition. He might have been disappointed, had he been fairly
seconded. Davis has undoubtedly committed a mistake. It hastens the end.
Strange that such a man as Davis, though possessing ability, should mislead and
delude millions, some of whom have greater intellectual capacity than himself.
They were, however, and had been, in a course of sectional and pernicious
training under Calhoun and his associates, who for thirty years devoted their
time and talents to the inculcation first of hate, and then of sectional
division, or a reconstruction of the federal government on a different basis.
Nullification was an outgrowth. When Calhoun closed his earthly career several
men of far less ability sought to wear his mantle. I have always entertained
doubts whether Calhoun intended a dismemberment of the Union. He aimed to
procure special privileges for the South, — something that should secure
perpetuity to the social and industrial system of that section, which he
believed, not without reason, was endangered by the increasing intelligence and
advancing spirit of the age. Many of the lesser lights — shallow political
writers and small speech-makers — talked flippantly of disunion, which they
supposed would enrich the South and impoverish the North. “Cotton is king,”
they said and believed, and with it they would dictate terms not only to the
country but the world. The arrogance begotten of this folly led to the great Rebellion.
Davis is really a despot, exercising arbitrary power, and
the people of the South are abject subjects, demoralized, subdued, but frenzied
and enraged, with little individual independence left, — an impoverished
community, hurrying to swift destruction. “King Cotton” furnishes them no
relief. Men are not permitted in that region of chivalry to express their views
if they tend to national unity. Hatred of the Union, of the government, and of
the country is the basis of the Confederate despotism. Hate, sectional hate, is
really the fundamental teaching of Calhoun and his disciples. How is it to be
overcome and when can it be eradicated? It has been the growth of a generation,
and abuse of the doctrine of States' rights, — a doctrine sound and wholesome
in our federal system when rightly exercised. But when South Carolina in 1832
assumed the sovereign right of nullifying the laws of the government of which
she was a member, — defeating by State action the federal authority and setting
it at defiance, — claiming to be a part of the Union but independent of it
while yet a part, her position becomes absolutely contradictory and untenable.
Compelled to abandon the power and absolute right of a State to overthrow the
government which she helped to create, or destroy federal jurisdiction, the
nullifiers, still discontented, uneasy, and ambitious, resorted to another
expedient, that of withdrawing from the Union, and, by combining with other
States, establishing power to resist the government and country. Sectionalism
or a combination of States was substituted for the old nullification doctrine
of States' rights. If they could not remain in the Union and nullify its laws,
they could secede and disregard laws and government. Can it be extinguished in
a day? I fear not. It will require time.
It is sad and humiliating to see men of talents, capacity,
and of reputed energy and independence, cower and shrink and humble themselves
before the imperious master who dominates over the Confederacy. Political
association and the tyranny of opinion and of party first led them astray, and
despotism holds them in the wrong as with a vise. The whole political, social,
and industrial fabric of the South is crumbling to ruins. They see and feel the
evil, but dare not attempt to resist it. There is little love or respect for
Davis among such intelligent Southern men as I have seen.
Had Meade done his duty, we should have witnessed a speedy
change throughout the South. It is a misfortune that the command of the army
had not been in stronger hands and with a man of broader views, and that he had
not a more competent superior than Halleck. The late infirm action will cause a
postponement of the end. Lee has been allowed to retreat — to retire —
unmolested, with his army and guns, and the immense plunder which the Rebels
have pillaged. The generals have succeeded in prolonging the war. Othello's occupation
is not yet gone.
_______________
1 This refers to the statement, in a letter of July 1, from
Governor Andrew to Secretary Welles, that the Navy Department had sent no
vessels to the defense of the Massachusetts coast till after the Confederate cruiser
Tacony “had rioted along the Vineyard Sound for four days.” The Secretary,
under date of July 11, showed the incorrectness of this allegation, and
Governor Andrew, in his letter of the 16th, withdrew it and explained that it
was made “upon the authority of municipal officers and citizens of Gloucester.”
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 375-9
