The speeches of Jeff Davis betoken the close of the War. The rebellion
is becoming exhausted, and I hope ere many months will be entirely suppressed.
Not that there may not be lingering banditti to rob and murder for a while
longer, the offspring of a demoralized state of society, but the organized
rebellion cannot long endure.
One of the assistants from the office of Judge-Advocate Holt came from
that office to make some inquiries as to the views of the Department in
Scofield's case. He says that Thurlow Weed and Raymond are very urgent in the
matter, and that some one named Williamson is active and pressing. I have no
doubt a heavy fee lies behind a pardon in this case, which is pressed upon the
President as if it were all-essential that it should be granted before the
election. It pains me that the President should listen to such fellows in such
a matter, or allow himself to be tampered with at all. The very fact that he
avoids communicating with me on the subject is complimentary to me; at the same
time it is evident that he has some conception of the unworthy purpose of the
intriguers I mention.
General Banks called on me yesterday formally before leaving
Washington. I have not previously seen him since he returned, though I hear he
has called on part of the Cabinet. We had some conversation respecting his
command and administration in Louisiana. The new constitution, the climate,
etc., were discussed. Before leaving, he alluded to the accusations that had
been made against him, and desired to know if there was anything specific. I
told him there had been complaints about cotton and errors committed; that
these were always numerous when there were reverses. That, he said, was very
true, but he had been informed Admiral Porter had gone beyond that, and was his
accuser. I remarked that several naval officers had expressed themselves
dissatisfied, — some of them stronger than Admiral Porter, — that others
besides naval officers had also complained.
The Republican of this evening has an article evidently
originating with General Banks, containing some unworthy flings at both Lee and
Porter. Banks did not write the paragraph nor perhaps request it to be written,
but the writer is his willing tool and was imbued with General Banks's
feelings. He is doubtless Hanscom, a fellow without conscience when his
interest is concerned, an intimate and, I believe, a relative, of Banks.
