On the morning of
Friday, the 21st, I went by appointment or agreement to the Capitol at 6 A.M.
Stanton had agreed to call for me before six and take me in his carriage, the
object being to have but few present when the remains were taken from the
rotunda, where they had lain in state through Thursday, and were visited and
seen by many thousands. As I knew Stanton to be uncertain and in some respects
unreliable, I ordered my own carriage to be ready at an early hour. I wished
also to take my sons with me to the obsequies, the last opportunity they or I
would have to see the remains and to manifest our respect and regard for the
man who had been the steady and abiding friend of their father. Stanton, as I
expected, was late, and then informed me he had not, as he agreed he would,
informed Governor Dennison of our purpose. He said he had to go for another
friend, and wished me to take up Governor D. Not until I had got to Dennison's
house was I aware of Stanton's neglect. It was then about six. Governor D., who
had not yet risen, sent me word he would be ready in three minutes. I think he
was not five. Stanton, I perceived, did not tell me the truth about another
visitor. He moved in great haste himself, being escorted by the cavalry corps
which had usually attended the President.
We hurried on,
reached the Capitol, and entered the rotunda just as Mr. Gurley was commencing
an earnest and impressive prayer. When it was concluded, the remains were
removed and taken to the depot, where, in waiting, were a car and train
prepared for the commencement of the long and circuitous journey of the
illustrious dead to his last earthly resting-place in Springfield, in the great
prairies of the West. We were, as we had intended, an hour in advance of the
time, and thus avoided the crowd, which before the train departed thronged the
roads and depot.
The meeting of the
Cabinet was not protracted. Stanton did not bring forward his reconstruction or
reëstablishing scheme. He seemed desirous of evading or avoiding the subject. I
alluded to but did not care to press it, if no one seconded me. We discussed the
measure of amnesty, and the Attorney-General expressed his views as to the
construction which he would put upon the proclamation and declarations of the
late President. Stanton and he, I perceived, were acting in concert, and one if
not two others had been spoken to in advance.
Stanton called at my
house about 6 P.M. and invited me to a hasty Cabinet convention at 8 P.M. on
important matters requiring immediate action. When we had assembled, General
Grant and Preston King were also present. Stanton briefly mentioned that
General Grant had important communications from General Sherman, and requested
that he would read them, which he did. It stated he had made a peace, if
satisfactory, with the Rebels, etc., etc. This and everything relating to it
will be spread before the world. Among the Cabinet and all present there was
but one mind on this subject. The plan was rejected, and Sherman's arrangement
disapproved. Stanton and Speed were emphatic in their condemnation, though the
latter expressed personal friendship for Sherman. General Grant, I was pleased
to see, while disapproving what Sherman had done, and decidedly opposed to it,
was tender to sensitiveness of his brother officer and abstained from censure.
Stanton came charged with specified objections, four in number, counting them
off on his fingers. Some of his argument was apt and well, some of it not in
good taste nor precisely pertinent.
It was decided that
General Grant should immediately inform General Sherman that his course was
disapproved, and that generals in the field must not take upon themselves to
decide on political and civil questions, which belonged to the executive and
civil service. The military commanders would press on and capture and crush out
the Rebels.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon
Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864
— December 31, 1866, p. 293-5
