Headquarters, District
of Cairo,
December 30, 1861.
DEAR WASHBURNE:
Yours of the 21st is at hand. I was no less astounded at the
contents of your note than you must have been at the information reported to
you.
I thank you for the confidence manifested by you in the
frank manner of your inquiry. I feel that you of all other men had the right,
as you would feel it your duty, to investigate the charge. I know how much you have
done for General Grant and how jealous you are of his good name, and assure you
it is appreciated not only by General Grant but by all his friends.
I will answer your inquiry fully and frankly, but first I
would say unequivocally and emphatically that the statement that General Grant
is drinking very hard is utterly untrue and could have originated only in
malice.
When I came to Cairo, General Grant was as he is to-day, a
strictly total abstinence man, and I have been informed by those who knew him
well, that such has been his habit for the last five or six years.
A few days after I came here a gentleman made him a present
of a box of champagne. On one or two occasions he drank a glass of this with
his friends, but on neither occasion did he drink enough to in any manner
affect him. About this time General Grant was somewhat dyspeptic and his
physician advised him to drink two glasses of ale or beer a day. He followed
this prescription for about one or two weeks (never exceeding the two glasses
per day) and then being satisfied it did him no good, he resumed his total
abstinence habits, until some three or four weeks after the Battle of Belmont,
while he was rooming at the St. Charles Hotel, Colonel Taylor of Chicago, Mr.
Dubois, Auditor of State, and other friends, were visiting Cairo, and he was
induced out of compliment to them to drink with them on several occasions but
in no instance did he drink enough to manifest it to any one who did not
see him drink. About this time Mr. Osborne, President of the Illinois Central
Railroad Company, our mutual friend J. M. Douglas, and several of their friends
made a visit to Cairo, and gave a dinner (or lunch) on the cars, to which the
General and I were invited with others; champagne was part of the fare. Sitting
near the General I noticed that he did not drink more than half a glass. The
fact of his drinking at all was remarked simply because of his usual total
abstinence.
But no man can say that at any time since I have been with
him has he drunk liquor enough to in the slightest unfit him for business, or
make it manifest in his words or actions. At the time I have referred to,
continuing probably a week or ten days, he may have taken an occasional drink
with those gentlemen and others visiting Cairo at that time, but never in a
single instance to excess, and at the end of that period he voluntarily stated
he should not during the continuance of the war again taste liquor of any kind,
and for the past three or four weeks, though to my knowledge frequently
importuned on visits of friends, he has not tasted any kind of liquor. Ever
since I have been with General Grant he has sent his reports in his own
handwriting to Saint Louis, daily when there was matter to report, and never
less than three times a week, and during the period above referred to he did
not at all relax this habit.
If there is any man in the service who has discharged his
duties faithfully and fearlessly, who has ever been at his post and guarded the
interest confided to him with the utmost vigilance, General Grant has done it.
Not only his reports, but all his orders of an important character are written
by himself, and I venture here the statement there is not an officer in the
Army who discharges the duties of his command so nearly without the intervention
of aides, or assistants, as does General Grant.
Some ten or twelve days ago an article was published in the Chicago
Tribune, charging frauds on the Quartermaster's Department here, in the
purchase of lumber at Chicago. General Grant immediately sent Captain W. S.
Hillyer, a member of his staff, to Chicago, with instructions to thoroughly
investigate and report the facts. That report and a large mass of testimony
substantiating the charge had been forwarded to St. Louis when orders came from
Washington to investigate the charge. The investigation had already been made.
Thus time and again has he been able to send back the same answer when orders
were received from St. Louis in reference to the affairs of this District.
I am satisfied from the confidence and consideration you
have manifested in me that my statement is sufficient for you, but should the
subject be mooted by other parties, you can refer them to Colonel J. D.
Webster, of the 1st Illinois Artillery, General Grant's Chief of Staff, who is
well known in Chicago as a man of unquestionable habits. He has been counsellor
of the General through this campaign, was with him at and all through the
Battle of Belmont, has seen him daily and has had every opportunity to know his
habits. I would further refer them to General Van Renssalaer, who was specially
sent to inspect the troops and investigate the condition of the District by
Major General McClellan, and Generals Sturgiss and Sweeny, who were sent here
by Major General Halleck for the same purpose. These gentlemen after a full and
thorough investigation returned to St. Louis some two weeks ago. I know not
what report they made; but this I do know, that a few days after their return
an order arrived from St. Louis creating the District of Cairo, a District
including Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, and all of Kentucky west of
the Cumberland, a District nearly twice as large as General Grant's former
command. I would refer them to Flag Officer A. H. Foote of the U. S.
Mississippi Naval Fleet, a man whose actions and judgments are regulated by the
strictest New England standard, a strict and faithful member of the
Congregational Church who for months has had personal as well as official intercourse
with the General.
If you could look into General Grant's countenance at this
moment you would want no other assurance of his sobriety. He is in perfect
health, and his eye and intellect are as clear and active as can be.
That General Grant has enemies no one could doubt, who knows
how much effort he has made to guard against and ferret out frauds in his
district, but I do not believe there is a single colonel or brigadier general
in his command who does not desire his promotion, or at least to see him the
commanding general of a large division of the army, in its advance down the
Mississippi when that movement is made.
Some weeks ago one of those irresponsible rumors was set
afloat, that General Grant was to be removed from the command of the District,
and there was a universal protest expressed against it by both officers and
men.
I have one thing more to say, and I have done, this already
long letter.
None can feel a greater interest in General Grant than I do;
I regard his interest as my interest, all that concerns his reputation concerns
me; I love him as a father; I respect him because I have studied him well, and
the more I know him the more I respect and love him.
Knowing the truth I am willing to trust my hopes of the
future upon his bravery and temperate habits. Have no fears; General Grant by
bad habits or conduct will never disgrace himself or you, whom he knows and
feels to be his best and warmest friend (whose unexpected kindness toward him
he will never forget and hopes some time to be able to repay). But I say to you
frankly, and I pledge you my word for it, that should General Grant at any time
become an intemperate man or an habitual drunkard, I will notify you
immediately, will ask to be removed from duty on his staff (kind as he has been
to me), or resign my commission. For while there are times when I would gladly
throw the mantle of charity over the faults of friends, at this time and from a
man in his position I would rather tear the mantle off and expose the
deformity.
Having made a full statement of all the facts within my
knowledge, and being in a position to know them all and I trust done justice to
the character of him whom you and I are equally interested in,
I remain, your
friend,
John A. Rawlins.
SOURCE: James Harrison Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 68-71
