Diary of Adam Gurowski, December 1861

MCCLELLAN is now all-powerful, and refuses to divide the army into corps. Thus much for his brains and for his consistency.

The message — a disquisition upon labor and capital; hesitancy about slavery. The President wishes to be pushed on by public opinion. But public opinion is safe, and expects from the official leader a decided step onwards. The message gives no solution, suggests none, accounts not for the lost time — foreshadows not a vigorous, energetic effort to crush the rebellion; foreshadows not a vigorous, offensive war. The message is an honest paper, but says not much.

The question of emancipation is not clear even in the heads of the leading emancipationists; not one thinks to give freeholds to the emancipated. It is the only way to make them useful to themselves and to the community. Freedom without land is humbug, and the fools speak of exportation of the four millions of slaves, depriving thus the country of laborers, which a century of emigration cannot fill again. All these fools ought to be sent to a lunatic asylum.

To export the emancipated would be equivalent to devastation of the South, to its transformation into a wilderness. Small freeholds for the emancipated can be cut out of the plantations of rebels, or out of the public lands of each State — lands forfeited by the rebellion.

State papers published. The instructions to the various diplomatic agents betray a beginner in the diplomatic career. By writing special instructions for each minister, Mr. Seward unnecessarily increased his task. The cause, reasons, etc., of the rebellion are one and the same for France or Russia, and a single explanatory circular for all the ministers would have done as well and spared a great deal of labor. Cavour wrote one circular to all cabinets, and so do all European statesmen. So, as they are, the State papers are a curious agglomeration of good patriotism and confusion. So the Minister to England is to avoid slavery; the Minister to France has the contrary. All this is not smartness or diplomacy, but rather confusion, insincerity, and double-dealing. One must conclude that Lincoln and Seward have themselves no firm opinion. The instructions to Mexico would sound nobly worded but for the confusion and the veil ordered to be thrown upon the cause of secession. That to Italy, above all to Austria, has a smack of a schoolmaster displaying his information before a gaping boy. It is offensive to the Minister going to Vienna. It may be suspected that some of these instructions were written to make capital at home, to astonish Mr. Lincoln with the knowledge of Europe and the familiarity with European affairs. All this display will prove to Europeans rather an ignorance of Europe. The correspondence on the Paris convention is splendid, although the initiative taken by Seward on this question was a mistake. But he argued well the case against the English and French reservations.

Never any government whatever treated so tenderly its worst and most dangerous enemies as does this government the Washington secessionists, spies for the enemy, and spreading false news here to frighten McClellan.

The old regular, but partly worn-out Republican leaders throttle and neutralize the new, fresh, vigorous accessions. So Curtis Noyes, one of the most eminent and devoted men, could not come into the Senate because Greeley wished to be elected.

No living man has rendered greater services to the people during the last twenty years than Greeley; but he ought to remain in his speciality. Greeley is no more fit for a Senator than to take the command of a regiment. Besides, the events already run over his head; Greeley is slowly breaking down. McClellan is beset with all kinds of inventors, contractors, etc. He mostly endorses their suggestions, and on this authority the most extravagant orders are given by the War Department. All this ought to be investigated. Somebody back of McClellan may be found as being the real patron of these leeches.

If the genius or capacity of a commander consists not only in closely observing the movements of the enemy, but likewise in penetrating the enemy's plans and in modifying his own in proportion as they are deranged by an unexpected movement or a rapid march, then the generalship is altogether on the other side, and on ours not a sign, not a breath of it.

A civil war is mostly the purifying fire in a nation's existence. It is to be hoped that this great convulsion will purify the free States by sounding the death-knell of these small intriguing politicians. The American people at large will acquire earnestness, knowledge of men, and clear insight into its own affairs. Tricky politicians will be discarded, and true men backed by majorities.

The South has for its leaders the chiefs who for years organized the secession, who waged everything on its success, as life, honor, fortune, and who incite and carry with them the ignorant masses.

The reverse is in the North. Mr. Lincoln was not elected for suppressing the rebellion, nor did he make his Cabinet in view of a terrible national struggle for death or life. Neither Lincoln nor his Cabinet are the inciters or the inspiring leaders of the people, but only expressions — not ad hoc — of the national will. This is one reason why the administration is slower than the people, and why the rebel administration is quicker than ours.

The second reason, and generated by the first, is, that every rebel devotes his whole soul and energy to the success of the rebellion, forcibly forgetting his individuality. Our thus called leaders think first of their little selves, whose aggrandizement the public events are to secure, and the public cause is to square itself with their individual schemes.

Such is the policy of almost all those at the helm here. Not one among them is to be found deserving the name of a statesman, endowed with a great devotion, and with a great power, for the service of a great and noble aim. From the solemn hour that the fatherland honorably chains him to its service, the genuine statesman exists no more for himself, but for his country alone. If necessary, he ought to consider himself a victim to the public good, even were the public unjust towards him. He is to treat as enemies all the dirty, tricky, and mean passions and men. His enemies will hate, but the country, his enemies included, will esteem him. Such a man will be the genuine man of the American people, but he exists not in the official spheres.

It is for the first time in history that a young, insignificant man, without a past, without any reason, is put in such a lofty position as has been McClellan; he is to be literally kicked into greatness, and into showing eventually courage. All this is a psychological problem!

Kent's Commentary upon the qualifications of a President is the best criticism upon Lincoln.

These mosquitoes of public opinion, the sensation-seekers, the sentimental preachers, the lecturers, the amateurs of the thus called representative men, these oratorical falsifiers of history, but considered here as luminaries, are already at their pernicious, nay, accursed work.

They poison the judgment of the people. These hero-seekers for their sermons, lectures, and sensation productions, have already found all the criteria of a hero in McClellan, even in his chin, in the back of his horse, etc., etc., and now herald it all over the country. Curses be upon them.

No nation has ever raised idols with such facility as do the Americans. Nay, I do not suppose that there ever existed in history a nation with such a thirst for idols as this people. I may be a false prophet; but this new idol, McClellan, will cost them their life-blood.

The Blairs are now staunch supporters of McClellan. It is unpardonable. They ought to know, and they do know better. But Mr. Blair wishes to be Secretary of War in Cameron's place, and wishes to get it through McClellan.

And poor Lincoln! I pity him; but his advisers may make out of him something worse even than was Judas, in the curses of ages.

Polybius asserts that when the Greeks wrote about Rome they erred and lied, and when the Romans wrote of themselves they lied or boasted. The same the English do in relation to themselves, and to Americans. Above all, in this Trent affair, or excitement, all European writers for the press, professors, doctors, etc., pervert facts, reason, and international laws, forget the past, and lie or flatter, with a slight exception, as is Gasparin.

The Trent affair finished. We are a little humbled, but it was expedient to terminate it so. With another military leader than McClellan, we could march at the same time to Richmond, and invest Canada before any considerable English force could arrive there. But with such a hero at our head, better that it ends so. Europe will applaud us, and the relation with England will become clarified. Perhaps England would not have been so stiff in this Trent affair but for the fixed idea in Russell's, Newcastle's, Palmerston's, etc., heads that Seward wishes to pick a quarrel with England.

The first weeks of Seward's premiership pointed that way. Mr. Seward has the honors of the Trent affair. It is well as it is; the argument is smart, but a little too long, and not in a genuine diplomatic style. But Lincoln ought to have a little credit for it, as from the start he was for giving the traitors up.

The worst feature of the whole Trent affair is, that it brought back home from France this old mischief, General Scott. He will again resume his position as the first military authority in the country, confuse the judgment of Lincoln, of the press, and of the people, and again push the country into mire.

The Congress appointed a War Investigating Committee, Senator Wade at the head. There is hope that the committee will quickly find out what a terrible mistake this McClellan is, and warn the nation of him. But Lincoln, Seward, and the Blairs, will not give up their idol.

Louis Napoleon said his word about the Trent affair. All things considered, the conduct of the Emperor cannot be complained of. The Thouvenel paper is serious, severe, but intrinsically not unfriendly. Quite the contrary. Up to this time I am right in my reliance on Louis Napoleon, on his sound, cool, but broad comprehension.

Mr. Mercier behaves well, and he is to be relied on, provided we show mettle and fight the traitors. Now, as the European imbroglio is clarified, at them, at them! But nothing to hope or expect from McClellan. I daily preach, but in the wilderness. Prince de Joinville made a very ridiculous fuss about the Trent affair.

Americans believe that a statesman must be an orator. Schoolboy-like, they judge on English precedents. In England, the Parliament is omnipotent; it makes and unmakes administrations, therefore oratory is a necessary corollary in a statesman; but here the Cabinet acts without parliamentary wranglings, and a Jackson is the true type of an American statesman. Washington was not an orator, nor was Alexander Hamilton.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, pp. 129-36

Diary of Gideon Welles, Tuesday, July 24, 1866

Busy through the day until dark on the subject of promotions, except for a short time at the Cabinet. The promotions will, unavoidably, give pain to many worthy men, but the principle which I have adopted will cause immensely less dissatisfaction than the original recommendations of the boards convened under the previous law. My action has been based on their recommendations, only deviating in a few cases when I was convinced injustice had been done by partiality or prejudice.

Many would be glad to dispense these promotions, but it has been to me a labor of sadness in many respects, and, though as glad as anyone to assist in rewarding merit, yet, when accompanied with the knowledge that a lifelong sorrow is to be inflicted on others, necessarily, because extra promotion cannot be made without overriding others, some of them estimable men though not proved heroic officers, I am grieved.

Mr. Stanbery, the new Attorney-General, took his seat to-day in the Cabinet. He seems to have encountered no opposition in the Senate.

Seward presented a letter which he had prepared to our Minister to Japan. I did not like it, nor have I been favorable to the course which our Government and authority have in some respects pursued towards the Japanese. We Americans had found favor in their eyes above any Christian nation. To us they had opened ports and permitted trade. The English and French sought the same privilege; ultimately these countries and the Japanese became involved in hostilities, and the two powers had their fleets there. They intrigued to get us to unite with them. But the Japanese wanted no quarrel with us. Yet Mr. Pruyn, our then Minister, persuaded or directed Captain McDougal, commanding the Jamestown, to furnish a small detachment to go on board a small steamer which was chartered and entered, with the American flag, into the fight. Although performing little or no service, the two powers were delighted, extolled our men, who were mere spectators, gave honors to our officers, who rendered no service, and when the Japanese came to terms and agreed to pay three millions, it was insisted the Americans, with their little chartered steamer and with no expectation, should receive the same as the other powers with their large fleets and great expense. Of this money, called indemnity, three hundred thousand dollars have been received. The Japanese have now requested delay in the payment of the other installments. Seward's letter was very arrogant, dictatorial, and mandatory. This Government would consent to no delay; immediate and full payment must be promptly made, unless the two other powers decided on a different course, when our hostile policy would yield and conform to theirs. I was disgusted and said so.

There was, moreover, a by-transaction in which Thurlow Weed and Lansing of Albany, a brother-in-law of the Minister, were interested to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars in gold, which had been intrusted to their hands under the advisement of the Minister for building ships years ago. When the war came on in Japan these two gentlemen with Japanese money in their pockets desired our Government to take the vessel which they had then built. President Lincoln, when I declined the purchase, was appealed to. He had one or two interviews with me, and as I considered the proceeding improper he put his name to a paper expressing a wish that she might be taken into our service. But I was finally successful, though with much difficulty, in resisting the scheme. Difficulties between our Government and Japan on other subjects relieved Weed and company in their matters.

When, therefore, Seward read his letter to-day, I expressed a wish that if a refusal were to be sent, it might be less harsh. I preferred, if he so shaped our relations that we must be tied to England and France, they should take the initiative, and we, acting independently, should consent to a reasonable delay even if they did not assent. This, I thought, sufficiently humiliating. Seward was not pleased. Stanton saw the point of my suggestion and doubted whether we should complicate ourselves with the other powers. No other one made a remark or asked a question to draw me out. They saw, which indeed was very perceptible, that Seward was nettled, and they knew not the preceding history.

I took occasion, immediately after the adjournment, to inform the President of the main points and also McCulloch. On learning the facts, both declared themselves against Seward's letter. The President said he recollected former remarks of mine in Cabinet when the notice of the first installment was announced and Seward took great credit to himself for the money. I said it cost the nation dear.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 559-62

Diary of Gideon Welles, Saturday, July 28, 1866

Went to the Capitol a little before ten this A.M. Apprehended I should be late, for we had agreed yesterday in Cabinet to meet in the President's room at nine. Only Randall was there when I arrived, and it was more than an hour before the President and others came. There had been some misunderstanding as to the hour of adjournment, on which there had been conflicting votes.

The two houses sat all night, and finished their labor of the session by increasing their own salaries $2000 each per annum, and by a bounty bill involving an expenditure of probably one hundred millions. Trumbull, who has gone astray, says not over sixty-five millions. This is waste and reckless extravagance as well as imprudent and careless legislation in almost all respects.

The President spoke to me on the subject soon after he arrived. I said promptly I hoped he would not sanction the proceeding; that it was profligate legislation and a good question with which to go before the people, — I should be glad of such an issue; — that neither wisdom, sound policy, nor good government would sanction such reckless extravagance, though the country appears dumb and indifferent over extravagant inroads; that the result of such waste and profligacy, if countenanced and approved by Executive and Congress, must end in the prostration of the Government and general repudiation.

When the bill was received and read, Seward at once remarked that the President was not responsible for the act and he had but one course to take, which was to sign the bill. Stanton said promptly he would not have voted for it had he been a Member, but that he would not advise a veto. McCulloch said the bill was not so bad as it might have been and thought the Government could stagger through it. Stanbery thought it had better be approved. I still objected. The President was reluctant, but at length signed the bill. McCulloch put his arm around me as I walked around the room and brought me up towards the President. As he did so, he said, "I know this is against your opinion, but under the circumstances we all think it is best." I told him and the President that I submitted, and he perhaps could hardly be expected to do otherwise than assent to the Act of Congress, supported by his entire Cabinet, including the Secretary of the Treasury, I only differing. The President yields on questions when his friends advise and urge him. They do not always have an opportunity. In the Cabinet economy is not a cardinal point. McCulloch has correct views, but he, also, yields too much. I should have been glad to have stood out with the President on this issue, or rather to have had him with me. The country would have been with him, because he would have been right.

I told the President that I regretted the appointment of Clark¹ to be judge in New Hampshire. He said it was not acceptable to him, but there was a confused state of things. It was hard to ascertain who was worthy. He thought some good results might grow out of it. I can see nothing good and so said. On every Constitutional point that has been raised, Clark has opposed the President. He has been vindictive. He was the tool of Fessenden in expelling Stockton, and has been as mischievously hostile as any man in the Senate. Yet he is selected to be a judge. Such selections destroy public confidence.

So far as I am, or the Navy Department is, concerned, Clark has been friendly and kind, but in his course towards the President and as a politician and legislator I think badly of him. The President has, under bad advice, committed a mistake. I am told Hendricks and some other Senators interfered for Clark. There are loose political morals in the Senate, and the President should disregard Senatorial interposition for their own members, for they favor one another at the country's expense.

I do not think the Members were exactly satisfied with themselves in closing up the session. A feeling of disappointment was apparent, and by many confessed, accompanied with conscious guilt of wrong and feebleness. Weak capabilities, shallow statesmanship, and intense partisanship are the qualities of this Congress.

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¹ Daniel Clark, Senator from New Hampshire, 1857-66, appointed United States Judge for the District of New Hampshire.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 563-5

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, July 30, 1866

Senator Doolittle called and wished me to accompany him to the President to meet General Dix, and we sent to McCulloch to go there also. The selection of Dix as Minister to The Hague, a third-class mission, is doing good. It is opening the eyes of Doolittle and McCulloch, and I think the President, to the course of Weed and Seward.

Doolittle called on me the morning that this nomination was announced, and asked what it meant. Said we could not spare Dix from the country at this time. I told him there was no probability that Dix would leave. Certainly not on that mission. "What, then, does it mean?" said Doolittle. I replied that it was intended to dispose of Dix. The appointment was derogatory and designed to belittle him, and then, as he would not accept, the place would be kept open for Seward to play with.

I saw when I met Dix this morning that he was, for him, a good deal disturbed, and was glad to have him express his dissatisfaction and his opinions, and the views of others. He says Weed is playing a strange game in relation to Governor of New York. Tells of Weed's and Seward's policy, though only Weed's name used. Says that when Weed wants his own party and servants to be beaten, he selects a weak candidate, etc.

Smythe, the Collector, came in soon after Dix went out, and he was even more full than Dix in disclosing Weed's intrigues and the lectures and teachings of which he was the recipient. Weed told Smythe he was a merchant and no politician. Smythe said he knew enough to fire at mark, though he might not hit it.

 SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 566

Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, Saturday, January 12, 1861

Mr Sewards Speech is the great event of the day. Did not hear it. The Senate Chamber was crowded by 9 o'clock. Got letter from Julia through Cha^s. Wrote her today. Hardly know how to get her Home, or (in fact) whether it is best for her to come here to Washington at this Crisis. Went round to the Hotels this evening. Gave Mr Hoard M.C. from N.Y. name of ex^mr in Pa^t office who got pay in advance and then “Seceded” (R. R. Rhodes of Mississippi). Pay Clerk Hugh M^cCormick, all unlawful. The indications now are that Virginia & Maryland will both “secede.” Cold and windy today. Temperature about the same as yesterday.

SOURCE: Horatio Nelson Taft, The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865. Volume 1, January 1,1861-April 11, 1862, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington D. C., image 7.

Diary of Henry Greville, Wednesday, January 29, 1862

Tottenham Park.¹—І came here on Monday and found the Flahaults, Charles Bruces, Lady Ailesbury², Granville, Dunkellin, Henry Corry, and George Bruce. The place is much improved by the alterations already made, and those in progress. Some days ago Lady Holland wrote to me from Paris, that it was believed there that one of the objects of King Leopold's visit to England was to advocate an arrangement by which his son-in-law, the Archduke Maximilian, should be made Emperor of Mexico, and that the new Empire should be guaranteed by England as well as France and Austria. I treated this report as an idle canard, though it was subsequently repeated in the French newspapers. To-day I was surprised, on mentioning the report to Flahault, to hear from him that the Emperor would be very willing to lend himself to any such arrangement, provided there were a strong monarchical party in Mexico, and that His Majesty would not object even to lend the aid of a French Army if it were necessary. It is now said that the Archduke declines having anything to do with this project. John Russell's despatch in answer to Mr. Seward's long rigmarole on the rights of neutrals is published, and is a well-reasoned document, and will show the Americans that they will not be allowed to play their tricks with impunity.

There is also a curious correspondence published on the Papal Question between M. Thouvenel and M. de Lavalette, wherein the Pope is conjured, ' whilst it is time, to act no longer on the basis of exploded pretensions and untenable claims, but to descend from the imaginary elevation on which he has placed himself, into the lower world of facts and opinions, of things and realities, and to condescend to look at his own position through the medium of a plain common sense.' To this, M. de Lavalette replies, that to all suggestions of this nature, His Holiness answers, 'Let us wait on events,' that on addressing himself to Cardinal Antonelli, His Eminence has recourse to the non possumus. It is not, he maintains, in the power of any Pope or College of Cardinals to assent to the diminution of the States of the Church. They have taken an oath to maintain them in their integrity. It is argued by some people, and not without good reason, that if the Emperor intended to perpetrate the occupation of Rome, he would not have suffered this correspondence to be published, because his position with regard to that question was already bad enough, without aggravating it by making it transparently manifest to the rest of the world that he was powerless to obtain any concessions from the Pope. I suspect the Papal feeling in France is so strong as to make the withdrawal of the French army from Rome dangerous to the Emperor, and Cardinal Antonelli is quite conscious of the strength of that party. As a proof of this strong feeling, I will cite a curious thing that happened the other day at Paris. Edmond About, the famous author of several anti-Papal pamphlets, brought out a drama at the Odéon a short time ago, called 'Gaetana.' The audience positively refused to allow the piece to be heard, and at the very beginning made such an uproar, that the actors were unable to proceed. This scene was repeated on every subsequent attempt to act it, and it was ultimately withdrawn; and a large part of the audience proceeded to About's house, where they gave him a charivari. In the provinces the same thing occurred, and at Lyons the tumult was so serious that the military were called out to quell it, and About with difficulty escaped from ill-treatment at the hands of the mob.

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1 Tottenham Park. Now called Savernake. It stands in Savernake Forest. I believe the present owner has reverted to the former name.—Ed.

2 Lady Ailesbury. Maria, second wife of the first Marquis of Ailesbury. Known in society as “Lady A.”—Ed.

 

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 13-5

Diary of Adam Gurowski, November 1861

THE season is excellent for military operations, such as any Napoleon could wish it. And we, lying not on our oars or arms, but in our beds, as our spes patriæ is warmly and cosily established in a large house, receiving there the incense and salutations of all flunkeys. Even cabinet ministers crowd McClellan's antechambers!

The massacre at Ball's Bluff is the work either of treason, or of stupidity, or of cowardice, or most probably of all three united.

No European government and no European nation would thus coolly bear it. Any commander culpable of such stupidity would be forever disgraced, and dismissed from the army. Here the administration, the Cabinet, and all the Scotts, the McClellans, the Thomases, etc., strain their brains and muscles to whitewash themselves or the culprit—to represent this massacre as something very innocent.

Victoria! Victoria! Old Scott, Old Mischief, gone overboard! So vanished one of the two evil genii keeping guard over Mr. Lincoln's brains. But it will not be so easy to redress the evil done by Scott. He nailed the country's cause to such a turnpike that any of his successors will perhaps be unable to undo what Old Mischief has done. Scott might have had certain, even eminent, military capacity; but, all things considered, he had it only on a small scale. Scott never had in his hand large numbers, and hundreds of European generals of divisions would do the same that Scott did, even in Mexico. Any one in Europe, who in some way or other participated in the events of the last forty years, has had occasion to see or participate in one single day in more and better fighting, to hear more firing, and smell more powder, than has General Scott in his whole life.

Scott's fatal influence palsied, stiffened, and poisoned every noble or higher impulse, and every aspiration of the people. Scott diligently sowed the first seeds of antagonism between volunteers and regulars, and diligently nursed them. Around his person in the War Department, and in the army, General Scott kept and maintained officers, who, already before the inauguration, declared, and daily asserted, that if it comes to a war, few officers of the army will unite with the North and remain loyal to the Union.

He never forgot to be a Virginian, and was filled with all a Virginian's conceit. To the last hour he warded off blows aimed at Virginia. To this hour he never believed in a serious war, and now requiescat in pace until the curse of coming generations.

McClellan is invested with all the powers of Scott. McClellan has more on his shoulders than any man—a Napoleon not excepted—can stand; and with his very limited capacity McClellan must necessarily break under it. Now McClellan will be still more idolized. He is already a kind of dictator, as Lincoln, Seward, etc., turn around him.

In a conversation with Cameron, I warned him against bestowing such powers on McClellan. "What shall we do?" was Cameron's answer; "neither the President nor I know anything about military affairs." Well, it is true; but McClellan is scarcely an apprentice.

Again the intermittent fear, or fever, of foreign intervention. How absurd! Americans belittle themselves talking and thinking about it. The European powers will not, and cannot. That is my creed and my answer; but some of our agents, diplomats, and statesmen, try to made capital for themselves from this fever which they evoke to establish before the public that their skill preserves the country from foreign intervention. Bosh!

All the good and useful produced in the life and in the economy of nations, all the just and the right in their institutions, all the ups and downs, misfortunes and disasters befalling them, all this was, is, and forever will be the result of logical deductions from pre-existing dates and facts. And here almost everybody forgets the yesterday.

A revolution imposes obligations. A revolution makes imperative the development and the practical application of those social principles which are its basis.

The American Revolution of 1776 proclaimed self-government, equality before all, happiness of all, etc.; it is therefore the peremptory duty of the American people to uproot domestic oligarchy, based upon living on the labor of an enslaved man; it has to put a stop to the moral, intellectual, and physical servitude of both, of whites and of colored.

Eminent men in America are taunted with the ambition to reach the White House. In itself it is not condemnable; it is a noble or an ignoble ambition, according to the ways and means used to reach that aim. It is great and stirring to see one's name recorded in the list of Presidents of the United States; but there is still a record far shorter, but by far more to be envied—a record venerated by our race—it is the record of truly great men. The actually inscribed runners for the White House do not think of this.

No one around me here seems to understand (and no one is familiar enough with general history) that protracted wars consolidate a nationality. Every day of Southern existence shapes it out more and more into a nation, with all the necessary moral and material conditions of existence.

Seeing these repeated reviews, I cannot get rid of the idea that by such shows and displays McClellan tries to frighten the rebels in the Chinaman fashion. The collateral missions to England, France, and Spain, are to add force to our cause before the public opinion as well as before the rulers. But what a curious choice of men! It would be called even an unhappy one. Thurlow Weed, with his offhand, apparently sincere, if not polished ways, may not be too repulsive to English refinement, provided he does not buttonhole his interlocutionists, or does not pat them on the shoulder. So Thurlow Weed will be dined, wined, etc. But doubtless the London press will show him up, or some "Secesh" in London will do it. I am sure that Lord Lyons, as it is his paramount duty, has sent to Earl Russell a full and detailed biography of this Seward's alter ego, sent ad latus to Mr. Adams. Thurlow Weed will be considered an agreeable fellow; but he never can acquire much weight and consideration, neither with the statesmen, nor with the members of the government, nor in saloons, nor with the public at large.

Edward Everett begged to be excused from such a false position offered to him in London. Not fish, not flesh. It was rather an offence to proffer it to Everett. The old patriot better knows Europe, its cabinets, and exigencies, than those who attempted to intricate him in this ludicrous position. He is right, and he will do more good here than he could do in London—there on a level with Thurlow Weed!

Archbishop Hughes is to influence Paris and France,—but whom? The public opinion, which is on our side, is anti-Roman, and Hughes is an Ultra Montane—an opinion not over friendly to Louis Napoleon. The French clergy in every way, in culture, wisdom, instruction, theology, manners, deportment, etc., is superior to Hughes in incalculable proportions, and the French clergy are already generally anti-slavery. Hughes to act on Louis Napoleon! Why! the French Emperor can outwit a legion of Hugheses, and do this without the slightest effort. Besides, for more than a century European sovereigns, governments, and cabinets, have generally given up the use of bishops, etc., for political, public, or confidential missions. Mr. Seward stirs up old dust. All the liberal party in Europe or France will look astonished, if not worse, at this absurdity.

All things considered, it looks like one of Seward's personal tricks, and Seward outwitted Chase, took him in by proffering a similar mission to Chase's friend, Bishop McIlvaine. But I pity Dayton. He is a high-toned man, and the mission of Hughes is a humiliation to Dayton.

Whatever may be the objects of these missions, they look like petty expedients, unworthy a minister of a great government.

Mason and Slidell caught. England will roar, but here the people are satisfied. Some of the diplomats make curious faces. Lord Lyons behaves with dignity. The small Bremen flatter right and left, and do it like little lap-dogs.

Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, ex-Governor Boutwell, are tip-top men—men of the people. The Blairs are too heinous, too violent, in their persecution of Fremont. Warned M. Blair not to protect one whom Fremont deservedly expelled. But M. Blair, in his spite against Fremont, took a mean adventurer by the hand, and entangled therein the President.

The vessel and the crew are excellent, and would easily obey the hand of a helmsman, but there is the rub, where to find him? Lincoln is a simple man of the prairie, and his eyes penetrate not the fog, the tempest. They do not perceive the signs of the times - cannot embrace the horizon of the nation. And thus his small intellectual insight is dimmed by those around him. Lincoln begins now already to believe that he is infallible; that he is ahead of the people, and frets that the people may remain behind. Oh simplicity or conceit!

Again, Lincoln is frightened with the success in South Carolina, as in his opinion this success will complicate the question of slavery. He is frightened as to what he shall do with Charleston and Augusta, provided these cities are taken.

It is disgusting to hear with what superciliousness the different members of the Cabinet speak of the approaching Congress—and not one of them is in any way the superior of many congressmen.

When Congress meets, the true national balance account will be struck. The commercial and piratical flag of the secesh is virtually in all waters and ports. (The little cheese-eater, the Hollander, was the first to raise a fuss against the United States concerning the piratical flag. This is not to be forgotten.) 2d. Prestige, to a great extent, lost. 3d. Millions upon millions wasted. Washington besieged and blockaded, and more than 200,000 men kept in check by an enemy not by half as strong. 4th. Every initiative which our diplomacy tried abroad was wholly unsuccessful, and we are obliged to submit to new international principles inaugurated at our cost; and, summing up, instead of a broad, decided, general policy, we have vacillation, inaction, tricks, and expedients. The people fret, and so will the Congress. Nations are as individuals; any partial disturbance in a part of the body occasions a general chill. Nature makes efforts to check the beginning of disease, and so do nations. In the human organism nature does not submit willingly to the loss of health, or of a limb, or of life. Nature struggles against death. So the people of the Union will not submit to an amputation, and is uneasy to see how unskilfully its own family doctors treat the national disease.

Port Royal, South Carolina, taken. Great and general rejoicing. It is a brilliant feat of arms, but a questionable military and war policy. Those attacks on the circumference, or on extremities, never can become a death-blow to secesh. The rebels must be crushed in the focus; they ought to receive a blow at the heart. This new strategy seems to indicate that McClellan has not heart enough to attack the fastnesses of rebeldom, but expects that something may turn up from these small expeditions. He expects to weaken the rebels in their focus. I wish McClellan may be right in his expectations, but I doubt it.

Officers of McClellan's staff tell that Mr. Lincoln almost daily comes into McClellan's library, and sits there rather unnoticed. On several occasions McClellan let the President wait in the room, together with other common mortals.

The English statesmen and the English press have the notion deeply rooted in their brains that the American people fight for empire. The rebels do it, but not the free men.

Mr. Seward's emphatical prohibition to Mr. Adams to mention the question of slavery may have contributed to strengthen in England the above-mentioned fallacy. This is a blunder, which before long or short Seward will repent. It looks like astuteness—ruse; but if so, it is the resource of a rather limited mind. In great and minor affairs, straightforwardness is the best policy. Loyalty always gets the better of astuteness, and the more so when the opponent is unprepared to meet it. Tricks can be well met by tricks, but tricks are impotent against truth and sincerity. But Mr. Seward, unhappily, has spent his life in various political tricks, and was surrounded by men whose intimacy must have necessarily lowered and unhealthily affected him. All his most intimates are unintellectual mediocrities or tricksters.

Seward is free from that infamous know-nothingism of which this Gen. Thomas is the great master (a man every few weeks accused of treason by the public opinion, and undoubtedly vibrating between loyalty here and sympathy with rebels).

All this must have unavoidably vitiated Mr. Seward's better nature. In such way only can I see plainly why so many excellent qualities are marred in him. He at times can broadly comprehend things around him; he is good-natured when not stung, and he is devoted to his men.

As a patriot, he is American to the core—were only his domestic policy straight-forward and decided, and would he only stop meddling with the plans of the campaign, and let the War Department alone.

Since every part of his initiative with European cabinets failed, Seward very skilfully dispatches all the minor affairs with Europe—affairs generated by various maritime and international complications. Were his domestic policy as correct as is now his foreign policy, Seward would be the right man.

Statesmanship emerges from the collision of great principles with important interests. In the great Revolution, the thus called fathers of the nation were the offsprings of the exigencies of the time, and they were fully up to their task. They were vigorous and fresh; their intellect was not obstructed by any political routine, or by tricky political praxis. Such men are now needed at the helm to carry this noble people throughout the most terrible tempest. So in these days one hears so much about constitutional formulas as safeguards of liberty. True liberty is not to be virtually secured by any framework of rules and limitations, devisable only by statecraft. The perennial existence of liberty depends not on the action of any definite and ascertainable machinery, but on continual accessions of fresh and vital influences. But perhaps such influences are among the noblest, and therefore among the rarest, attributes of man.

Abroad and here, traitors and some pedants on formulas make a noise concerning the violation of formulas. Of course it were better if such violations had been left undone. But all this is transient, and evoked by the direst necessity. The Constitution was made for a healthy, normal condition of the nation; the present condition is abnormal. Regular functions are suspended. When the human body is ruined or devoured by a violent disease, often very tonic remedies are used—remedies which would destroy the organism if administered when in a healthy, normal condition. A strong organism recovers from disease, and from its treatment. Human societies and institutions pass through a similar ordeal, and when they are unhinged, extraordinary and abnormal ways are required to maintain the endangered society and restore its equipoise.

Examining day after day the map of Virginia, it strikes one that a movement with half of the army could be made down from Mount Vernon by the two turnpike roads, and by water to Occoquan, and from there to Brentsville. The country there seems to be flat, and not much wooded. Manassas would be taken in the rear, and surrounded, provided the other half of the army would push on by the direct way from here to Manassas, and seriously attack the enemy, who thus would be broken, could not escape. This, or any plan, the map of Virginia ought to suggest to the staff of McClellan, were it a staff in the true meaning. Dybitsch and Toll, young colonels in the staff of Alexander I., 1813-'14, originated the march on Paris, so destructive to Napoleon. History bristles with evidences how with staffs originated many plans of battles and of campaigns; history explains the paramount influence of staffs on the conduct of a war. Of course Napoleon wanted not a suggestive, but only an executive staff; but McClellan is not a Napoleon, and has neither a suggestive nor an executive staff around him. A Marcy to suggest a plan of a campaign or of a battle, to watch over its execution!

I spoke to McDowell about the positions of Occoquan and Brentsville. He answered that perhaps something similar will be under consideration, and that McClellan must show his mettle and capacity. I pity McDowell's confidence.

Besides, the American army as it was and is educated, nursed, brought up by Gen. Scott, —the army has no idea what are the various and complicated duties of a staff. No school of staff at West Point; therefore the difficulty to find now genuine officers of the staff. If McClellan ever moves this army, then the defectiveness of his staff may occasion losses and even disasters. It will be worse with his staff than it was at Jena with the Prussian staff, who were as conceited as the small West Point clique here in Washington.

West Point instructs well in special branches, but does not necessarily form generals and captains. The great American Revolution was fought and made victorious by men not from any military schools, and to whom were opposed commanders with as much military science as there was possessed and current in Europe. Jackson, Taylor, and even Scott, are not from the school.

I do not wish to judge or disparage the pupils from West Point, but I am disgusted with the supercilious and ridiculous behavior of the clique here, ready to form prætorians or anything else, and poisoning around them the public opinion. Western generals are West Point pupils, but I do not hear them make so much fuss, and so contemptuously look down on the volunteers. These Western generals pine not after regulars, but make use of such elements as they have under hand. The best and most patriotic generals and officers here, educated at West Point, are numerous. Unhappily a clique, composed of a few fools and fops, overshadows the others.

McClellan's speciality is engineering. It is a speciality which does not form captains and generals for the field,— at least such instances are very rare. Of all Napoleon's marshals and eminent commanders, Berthier alone was educated as engineer, and his speciality and high capacity was that of a chief of the staff. Marescott or Todleben would never claim to be captains. The intellectual powers of an engineer are modeled, drilled, turned towards the defensive,—the engineer's brains concentrate upon selecting defensive positions, and combine how to strengthen them by art. So an engineer is rather disabled from embracing a whole battle-field, with its endless casualties and space. Engineers are the incarnation of a defensive warfare; all others, as artillerists, infantry, and cavalry, are for dashing into the unknown—into the space; and thus these specialities virtually represent the offensive warfare.

When will they begin to see through McClellan, and find out that he is not the man? Perhaps too late, and then the nation will sorely feel it.

Mr. Seward almost idolizes McClellan. Poor homage that; but it does mischief by reason of its influence on the public opinion.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, pp. 115-28

Diary of Gideon Welles, Friday, July 6, 1866

Went down to the Capes of the Chesapeake on Tuesday, and remained at Hampton Roads and in the Chesapeake Bay, not returning until this morning. Have overdone, been indisposed for some weeks, or rather not in right condition. Seward, Doolittle, and three or four naval officers, and my two sons, Edgar and John, went with me. Had a pleasant time, but did not much recruit or improve in health.

Had several conversations with Seward in regard to the proposed convention, as well as public affairs generally. He, as usual, is very oracular and confident. Says the movement will be a great success. It might have been, had the real issue been presented. The convention, he says, is very well and will bring together many who have differed, will be a success, etc., etc. What will be the attitude of parties and persons in New York was not so clearly stated.

Doolittle tells me that Seward has written a letter to the Tammany Society, which he, Seward, thought was better than to write to Randall. In this D., indoctrinated by Seward, seemed inclined to acquiesce; said he had seen the letter, or had it read to him by S. I questioned whether it was the best way, and thought it would have more influence and be more creditable to frankly and directly communicate to Randall. It is a characteristic dodge.

Seward says Morgan (Senator) was not apprised of the call until it was published. He, Morgan, had concluded to go with the Radicals on the Civil Rights Bill, which, of course, meant the whole Radical policy; had told him (S.) how he intended to vote, the day preceding the final passage; said, in justification, the Evening Post favored it; that the legislature had instructed him. Seward remonstrated, but Morgan took his course, and thenceforth the intimacy had been broken. This modifies my conception of the matter, provided Weed was [not] in the thing; but if Weed advised or was in any way committed, Morgan was duped, and yet not that, perhaps, unless duped by his own folly and ambition, for he knows perfectly well the intimate relations of Seward and Weed, and that they always act in concert and understandingly, though apparently on opposite sides at times. But this pretended opposition is always deceptive and for a purpose, — they never antagonize.

When the call for a convention was in preparation and about to be issued, Seward tells me he sent for Weed, who looked it over and approved the measure and the sentiments set forth. He (S.) then told Weed he must inform Morgan, so that he should not be wholly taken by surprise, but Weed delayed and finally missed the opportunity.

I am not sorry if Morgan feels himself slighted. He has proved to be a calculating but not profoundly skillful trimmer during the session, and has lost irrevocably the higher position which he occupied early in the session. That he has flattered himself he could screen his vote, if unfortunate, under legislative instruction, I have never doubted, while if it was popular he should take to himself credit, was equally clear.

I find in the papers on my return to-day Seward's Tammany letter. It is, as I supposed it would be, a Seward dodge. With tints and hues and words to amuse, and hereafter turn as he may wish. It will not help the cause or help the President, and I am surprised that Doolittle should be satisfied with it. It shows how much he is under Seward's influence.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 547-8

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, July 9, 1866

Senator Morgan spent last evening at my house. Our conversation was chiefly on public affairs, but there was not that unreserved and cordial intimacy which we have sometimes had. No allusion was made to the national convention, which was unnatural and could not have been, had there been our old and friendly sympathy.

I censured strongly, perhaps harshly, the proposed Constitutional changes and the method of getting them through Congress by caucuses, excluding the Democratic minority and one third of the States, etc. He attempted no defense or justification. Trumbull, he tells me, has introduced another of his revolutionary bills to deprive the President of his Constitutional right of removing from office. This subject, like most measures in each house, was passed through a caucus crucible. M. says he refused to give it his sanction, and so did one other.

I have no doubt Morgan feels a little uncomfortable in the existing state of things, and I fancy he is conscious he has committed a mistake. There are strange men in position in New York. The Weed school is a bad one. Raymond is a specimen. A man of considerable talent, but of little consistency of principle. I have so said to the President more than once, and I think he understands R., yet Seward is in with him, directs his movements by Weed's help, and has influenced the President in R.'s favor to some extent. No man has more injured the cause of the President in Congress or more strengthened the Radicals than Raymond, the pronounced organ of the Administration, but only the confidant of Seward. He has by his fickle, versatile changes, attempting to go with the President but always deserting him, and always clinging to party, deterred [some] by his example, others by his ridiculous somersaults. No one follows him.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 549-50

Diary of Gideon Welles, Tuesday, July 10, 1866

No very striking matters in Cabinet. Seward read a long dispatch to Mr. Adams. Stanton excepted to the mention of our domestic affairs in such a document. I cared less about it in a confidential dispatch to our own Minister, but I did not like the phrase, or expressed hope, that Congress would concede to the Southern Members their seats. I preferred to hope that Congress would not much longer deny them their rights to seats.

Dennison, who has been absent for a fortnight in Ohio, was present.

Received telegram from California that my nephew, Samuel Welles, was severely injured by explosion of a boiler. Am distressed and anxious about him.

Doolittle called, and I went with him to McCulloch's. Had an hour's conversation. Doolittle is getting along and doing well. He is an honest, conscientious, and patriotic but credulous man. In this movement for a convention, of which he is the principal getter-up, he had permitted himself to be hampered by a hope that he could control in a great degree the Republican organization and retain it intact. He cannot give up that organization, of which the Radicals have possession, without reluctance. This is Seward's policy, and he has influenced Doolittle much on this point. Even yet he clings to Raymond. Is confident that Raymond will get a majority of the National Republican Committee to unite in favor of the Philadelphia Convention. It may be well enough, but is of less consequence than D. supposes. I think R. has scarcely any influence with the Committee. Seward thinks otherwise.

I told both Doolittle and McCulloch that I would thank them to inform me of the shape things were in, and were to be in, in New York. The President's friends and supporters were the Democrats, whom Seward, Weed, and Raymond were opposing, while their special friends were all Radicals and fighting the President. But while their followers are thwarting and resisting the President, the triumvirate claim to be his friends, and are actually and undeniably, by their intrigues, directing his movements, influencing and controlling such men as Doolittle to evade the true issue. I trust D. is beginning to have a more correct appreciation of matters.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 550-1

Diary of Gideon Welles, Friday, July 13, 1866

The morning papers contain my letter to Senator Doolittle in response to his inquiry conveying my views of the Republican Convention. It is very explicit and much complimented.

Seward read to the President and myself a letter which he had written on the same subject. I told the President I ought, perhaps, to apologize for not having read my letter to him also, that I had thought of it, but concluded I ought not to make him in any way responsible for my unofficial acts. He said he would cheerfully assume the responsibility of every sentiment of my letter, which he had twice read and heartily approved.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 553

Diary of Henry Greville, Thursday, January 9, 1862

Last night, John Bidwell, who dined with me, brought the news of the surrender of Mason and Slidell, which had reached the Foreign Office at four o'clock to-day. Lyons had sent a telegram to say that Seward had notified to him that the prisoners would be delivered up when and where he pleased, and that a voluminous despatch would be forwarded by the mail. This news was announced at some of the theatres and received with great cheering. It is curious that Lyons wrote only the day before these men were surrendered that he had very faint hope that they would be given up, and the mission had begun to pack up, to be ready for a start. Great disgust is felt here at the measure which has been resorted to by the Federals of sending vessels laden with stones, in order to destroy the harbour of Charleston: a rather barbarous mode of warfare.

The Queen held a Privy Council on Monday, which was attended only by Newcastle, Granville, and Sir George Grey. Her Majesty keeps entirely to her private apartments, and excepting the Royal Family, sees no one, not even her usual attendants, with the exception of Phipps and Lady Augusta Bruce, who is now all in all to her, and through whom all her orders pass. The difficulty as to the Private Secretaryship to the Queen is not yet solved; Palmerston, it is said, does not approve of a joint Secretaryship in the persons of Grey and Phipps, and there may be objections to such an arrangement; but no one could be so useful to the Queen as Grey, who is cognisant of all the Prince's affairs and wishes as to the correspondence he has left, which is very voluminous, and must be very curious. Phipps is said to be fond of power and influence (I can speak from my own experience that he is obliging and courteous), Charles Grey to be prejudiced and self-willed, though very straightforward and independent; but neither of these men is quite fitted for so important and delicate a post.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 7-8

Diary of Henry Greville, Saturday, January 11, 1862

Great indignation is expressed by the whole French press at the destruction of the harbour of Charleston. Yesterday, on calling at Queen's Terrace to enquire after Mrs. Bradshaw,¹ I was greatly shocked to hear she was dying. She heard of my being in the house, and asked to see me, and I went up to her bedside, when she took a most affectionate leave of me.

The American and English correspondence on the Trent' affair has been published in extenso. Seward's despatch on surrendering the prisoners is a longwinded piece of special pleading full of exaggeration and misrepresentation of all he could rake up of English law and practice most adverse to neutral rights, for the apparent purpose of justifying Wilkes, at the moment when he is compelled to admit the act itself to be unjustifiable. John Russell, in his reply, says that the English Government differ from Mr. Seward in some of his conclusions, and adds that a better understanding on several points of law (International) may be arrived at between the two countries by his stating in what that difference of opinion consists, and that he will do so in a few days. We heard on Tuesday evening that the United States Bank, and all the private Banks, had suspended specie payments, and this is foretold to be the beginning of the end of the war. The American press urges heavy taxation as the only legitimate means of relief. Mason and Slidell had been sent to Halifax, and their departure had caused no sensation.

________________

¹ Mrs. Bradshaw was Mary Tree, sister of Ellen Tree, who married Charles Kean the younger. She was beautiful, and had a lovely voice.—Ed.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 8-9

Senator Charles Sumner to Charles Francis Adams Sr., June 21, 1852

We hear that Scott is nominated at last. I tell you confidentially how Seward regards it. He thinks that his friends have been defeated, that Scott is made to carry weight which will probably defeat him, and that the campaign can have little interest for the friends of our cause. He will take an opportunity, by letter or speech, to extricate himself from the platform. Seward's policy is to stick to the Whig party; no action of theirs can shake him off. But the cause of freedom he has constantly at heart; I am satisfied of his sincere devotion to it. Major Donaldson says that there is now no difference between the Whigs and Democrats; their platforms, he says, are identical. This is the darkest day of our cause. But truth will prevail. Are there any special words of your grandfather against slavery anywhere on record, in tract or correspondence? If there are, let me have them. I wish you were here.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 281

Diary of George Templeton Strong, May 16, 1860

Chicago Convention is in full boil and bubble. Strong opposition to Seward, but he will be nominated at last. That wily old Thurlow Weed, the most adroit of wire-pullers, seldom fails when he takes hold of a case in earnest. General Dix is to be Fowler’s successor in the post office. Butterworth of the assay office will decline the appointment.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 27

Diary of George Templeton Strong, May 19, 1860

Thy Nose, O W. H. Seward, is out of joint! The Chicago Convention nominates Lincoln and Hamlin. They will be beat, unless the South perpetrate some special act of idiocy, arrogance, or brutality before next fall.

Lincoln will be strong in the Western states. He is unknown here. The Tribune and other papers commend him to popular favor as having had but six months’ schooling in his whole life; and because he cut a great many rails, and worked on a flatboat in early youth; all which is somehow presumptive evidence of his statesmanship. The watchword of the campaign is already indicated. It is to be "Honest Abe’’ (our candidate being a namesake of the Father of the Faithful). Mass-meetings and conventions and committees are to become enthusiastic and vociferous whenever an orator says Abe. But that monosyllable does not seem to me likely to prove a word of power. "Honest Abe’’ sounds less efficient than "Fremont and Jessie,’’ and that failed four years ago.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 28

Diary of George Templeton Strong, Thursday, May 31, 1860

Seward’s special friends grumble at Lincoln’s nomination, but seem disposed to support it in good faith. It looks to me as if Honest Abe were going to run well. The Democrats must patch up their domestic difficulties, and select a strong and available candidate, or they will be beat.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 30

Diary of Adam Gurowski, October 1861

As in the mediæval epoch, and some time thereafter, anatomists and physiologists experimented on the living villeins, that is, on peasantry, serfs, and called this process experientia in anima vili, so this naïve administration experiments in civil and in military matters on the people's life-blood.

McClellan, stirred up by the fools and peacocks around him, has sent to the War Department a project of a showy uniform for himself and his staff. It would be to laugh at, if it were not insane. McClellan very likely read not what he signed.

The army is in sufficient rig and organization to take the field; but nevertheless McClellan has not yet made a single movement imperatively prescribed by the simplest tactics, and by the simplest common sense, when the enemy is in front. Not a single serious reconnoissance to ascertain the real force of the enemy, to pierce through the curtain behind which the rebels hide their real forces. It must be conceded to the rebel generals that they show great skill in humbugging us. Whenever we try to make a step we are met by a seemingly strong force (tenfold increased by rumors spread by the secessionists among us, and gulped by our stupidity), which makes us suppose a deep front, and a still deeper body behind. And there is the humbug, I am sure. If, on such an extensive line as the rebels occupy, the main body should correspond to what they show in front, then the rebel force must muster several hundreds of thousands. Such large numbers they have not, and I am sure that four-fifths of their whole force constitutes their vanguard, and behind it the main body is chaff. The rebels treat us as if we were children.

McClellan fortifies Washington; Fremont, St. Louis; Anderson asks for engineers to fortify some spots in Kentucky. This is all a defensive warfare, and not so will the rebel region be conquered. We lose time, and time serves the rebels, as it increases their moral force. Every day of their existence shows their intrinsic vitality.

The theory of starving the rebels out is got up by imbeciles, wholly ignorant of such matters; wholly ignorant of human nature; wholly ignorant of the degree of energy, and of abnegation, which criminals can display when firmly decided upon their purpose. This absurdity comes from the celebrated anaconda Mississippi-Atlantic strategy.

Oh! When in Poland, in 1831, the military chiefs concentrated all the forces in the fortifications of Warsaw, all was gone. Oh for a dashing general, for a dashing purpose, in the councils of the White House! The constitutional advisers are deaf to the voice of the people, who know more about it than do all the departments and the military wiseacres. The people look up to find as big brains and hearts as are theirs, and hitherto the people have looked up in vain. The radical senators, as a King, a Trumbull, a Wade, Wilson, Chandler, Hale, etc., the true Republicans in the last session of Congress — further, men as Wadsworth and the like, are the true exponents of the character, of the clear insight, of the soundness of the people.

McClellan, and even the administration, seem not to realize that pure military considerations cannot fulfil the imperative demands of the political situation.

October 6th. — I met McClellan; had with him a protracted conversation, and could look well into him. I do not attach any value to physiognomies, and consider phrenology, craniology, and their kindred, to be rather humbugs; but, nevertheless, I was struck with the soft, insignificant inexpressiveness of his eyes and features. My enthusiasm for him, my faith, is wholly extinct. All that he said to me and to others present was altogether unmilitary and inexperienced. It made me sick at heart to hear him, and to think that he is to decide over the destinies and the blood of the people. And he already an idol, incensed, worshipped, before he did anything whatever. McClellan may have individual courage, so has almost every animal; but he has not the decision and the courage of a military leader and captain. He has no real confidence in the troops; has scarcely any idea how battles are fought; has no confidence in and no notion of the use of the bayonet. I told him that, notwithstanding his opinion, I would take his worst brigade of infantry, and after a fortnight's drill challenge and whip any of the best rebel brigades.

Some time ago it was reported that McClellan considered this war had become a duel of artillery. Fools wondered and applauded. I then protested against putting such an absurdity in McClellan's mouth; now I must believe it. To be sure, every battle is in part a duel of artillery, but ends or is decided by charges of infantry or cavalry. Cannonading alone never constituted and decided a battle. No position can be taken by cannonading alone, and shells alone do not always force an enemy to abandon a position. Napoleon, an artillerist par excellence, considered campaigns and battles to be something more than duels of artillery. The great battle of Borodino, and all others, were decided when batteries were stormed and taken. Eylau was a battle of charges by cavalry and by infantry, besides a terrible cannonading, etc., etc. McClellan spoke with pride of the fortifications of Washington, and pointed to one of the forts as having a greater profile than had the world-renowned Malakoff. What a confusion of notions, what a misappreciation of relative conditions!

I cannot express my sad, mournful feelings, during this conversation with McClellan. We spoke about the necessity of dividing his large army into corps. McClellan took from the table an Army Almanac, and pointed to the names of generals to whom he intended to give the command of corps. He feels the urgency of the case, and said that Gen. Scott prevented him from doing it; but as soon as he, McClellan, shall be free to act, the division will be made. So General Scott is everywhere to defend senile routine against progress, and the experience of modern times.

The rebels deserve, to the end of time, many curses from outraged humanity. By their treason they forced upon the free institutions of the North the necessity of curtailing personal liberty and other rights; to make use of depotism for the sake of selfdefence.

The enemy concentrates and shortens his lines, and McClellan dares not even tread on the enemy's heels. Instead of forcing the enemy to do what we want, and upturn his schemes, McClellan seemingly does the bidding of Beauregard. We advance as much as Beauregard allows us to do. New tactics, to be sure, but at any rate not Napoleonic.

The fighting in the West and some small successes here are obtained by rough levies; and those imbecile, regular martinets surrounding McClellan still nurse his distrust in the volunteers. All the wealth, energy, intellect of the country, is concentrated in the hands of McClellan, and he uses it to throw up entrenchments. The partisans of McClellan point to his highly scientific preparations his science. He may have some little of it, but half-science is worse than thorough ignorance. Oh! for one dare-devil in the Lyon, or in the old-fashioned Yankee style. McClellan is neither a Napoleon, nor a Cabrera, nor a Garibaldi.

Mason and Slidell escaped to Havana on their way to Europe, as commissioners of the rebels. According to all international definitions, we have the full right to seize them in any neutral vessel, they being political contrabands of war going on a publicly avowed errand hostile to their true government. Mason and Slidell are not common passengers, nor are they political refugees invoking the protection of any neutral flag. They are travelling commissioners of war, of bloodshed and rebellion; and it is all the same in whatever seaport they embark. And if the vessel conveying them goes from America to Europe, or vice versa, Mr. Seward can let them be seized when they have left Havana, provided he finds it expedient.

We lose time, and time is all in favor of the rebels. Every day consolidates their existence — so to speak, crystallizes them. Further — many so-called Union men in the South, who, at the start, opposed secession, by and by will get accustomed to it. Secession daily takes deeper root, and will so by degrees become un fait accompli. Mr. Adams, in his official relations with the English government, speaks of the rebel pirates as of lawful privateers. Mr. Seward admonished him for it. Bravo!

It is so difficult, not to say impossible, to meet an American who concatenates a long series of effects and causes, or who understands that to explain an isolated fact or phenomenon the chain must be ascended and a general law invoked. Could they do it, various bunglings would be avoided, and much of the people's sacrifices husbanded, instead of being squandered, as it is done now.

Fremont going overboard! His fall will be the triumph of the pro-slavery party, headed by the New York Herald, and supported by military old fogies, by martinets, and by double and triple political and intellectual know-nothings. Pity that Fremont had no brilliant military capacity. Then his fall could not have taken place.

Mr. Seward is too much ruled by his imagination, and too hastily discounts the future. But imagination ruins a statesman. Mr. Seward must lose credit at home and abroad for having prophesied, and having his prophecies end in smoke. When Hatteras was taken (Gen. Scott protested against the expedition), Mr. S. assured me that it was the beginning of the end. A diplomat here made the observation that no minister of a European parliamentary government could remain in power after having been continually contradicted by facts.

Now, Mr. Seward devised these collateral missions to Europe. He very little knows the habit and temper of European cabinets if he believes that such collateral confidential agents can do any good. The European cabinets distrust such irresponsible agents, who, in their turn, weaken the influence and the standing of the genuine diplomatic agents. Mr. S., early in the year, boasted to abolish, even in Europe, the system of passports, and soon afterwards introduced it at home. So his imagination carries him to overhaul the world. He proposes to European powers a united expedition to Japan, and we cannot prevent at home the running of the blockade, and are ourselves blockaded on the Potomac. All such schemes are offsprings of an ambitious imagination. But the worst is, that every such outburst of his imagination Mr. Seward at once transforms into a dogma, and spreads it with all his might. I pity him when I look towards the end of his political career. He writes well, and has put down the insolent English dispatch concerning the habeas corpus and the arrests of dubious, if not treacherous, Englishmen. Perhaps Seward imagines himself to be a Cardinal Richelieu, with Lincoln for Louis XIII. (provided he knows as much history), or may be he has the ambition to be considered a Talleyrand or Metternich of diplomacy. But if any, he has some very, very faint similarity with Alberoni. He easily outwits here men around him; most are politicians as he; but he never can outwit the statesmen of Europe. Besides, diplomacy, above all that of great powers, is conceived largely and carried on a grand scale; the present diplomacy has outgrown what is commonly called (but fallaciously) Talleyrandism and Metternichism.

McClellan and the party which fears to make a bold advance on the enemy make so much fuss about the country being cut up and wooded; it proves only that they have no brains and no fertility of expedients. This country is not more cut up than is the Caucasus, and the woods are no great, endless, primitive forests. They are rather groves. In the Caucasus the Russians continually attack great and dense forests; they fire in them several round shots, then grape, and then storm them with the bayonet; and the Circassians are no worse soldiers than are the Southrons.

European papers talk much of mediation, of a peaceful arrangement, of compromise. By intuition of the future the Northern people know very well the utter impossibility of such an arrangement. A peace could not stand; any such peace will establish the military superiority of the arrogant, reckless, piratical South. The South would teem with hundreds of thousands of men ready for any piratical, fillibustering raid, enterprise, or excursion, of which the free States north and west would become the principal theatres. Such a marauding community as the South would become, in case of success, will be unexampled in history. The Cylician pirates, the Barbary robbers, nay, the Tartars of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, were virtuous and civilized in comparison with what would be an independent, man-stealing, and man-whipping Southern agglomeration of lawless men. The free States could have no security, even if all the thus called gentlemen and men of honor were to sign a treaty or a compromise. The Southern pestilential influence would poison not only the North, but this whole hemisphere. The history of the past has nothing to be compared with organized, legal piracy, as would become the thus-called Southern chivalry on land and on sea; and soon European maritime powers would be obliged to make costly expeditions for the sake of extirpating, crushing, uprooting the nest of pirates, which then will embrace about twelve millions, — every Southern gentleman being a pirate at heart.

This is what the Northern people know by experience and by intuition, and what makes the people so uneasy about the inertia of the administration.

Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, Gen. Scott, and other great men, are soured against the people and public opinion for distrusting, or rather for criticising their little display of statesmanlike activity. How unjust! As a general rule, of all human sentiments, confidence is the most scrutinizing one. If confidence is bestowed, it wants to perfectly know the why. But from the outset of this war the American people gave and give to everybody full, unsuspecting confidence, without asking the why, without even scrutinizing the actions which were to justify the claim.

Up to this day Secesh is the positive pole; the Union is the negative, — it is the blow recipient. When, oh, when will come the opposite? When will we deal blows? Not under McClellan, I suspect.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, pp. 104-114

Diary of Gideon Welles, Thursday, June 21, 1866

Senator Doolittle took tea with me. He wished me to go with him to the President, where some friends were to assemble to consider and decide in relation to the proposed call for a national convention. Senator Cowan, Browning,¹ Randall,² and three other persons whom I did not know, but who seemed attachés of Randall, and who, I understood, belonged to the National Union Johnson Club, composed the sitting. The call, which had been modified in slight respects, still omitted any allusion to the Constitutional changes, the really important question before the country. This I thought a great and radical defect, and Cowan and Browning concurred with me, as did McCulloch. Randall, who is flattered and used by Seward, opposed this, and his principal reason was that he would leave something for the convention to do. I asked why the convention was called, if not on this great issue which stood prominent beyond any other. "Well," he said, "it would hasten the calling of the State Legislatures to pass upon it." That, I told him, if properly used might be made to weaken them and strengthen us, we would demand an expression of popular sentiment through the instrumentality of an election, and thereby expose the recent hasty action which was intended to stifle public opinion.

Much of the conversation between eight and eleven o'clock was on this point, during which I became satisfied that Randall was prompted by Seward and unwittingly used for party purposes of Weed and Seward. The President evidently was with me in his convictions but forbore taking an active part. My impressions are that Seward has, in his way, indicated objections to making the Constitutional question a part of the call; that it would prevent Raymond and others from uniting in the movement. Finally, Browning and then McCulloch and Cowan yielded. They probably saw, as I did, that it was a foregone conclusion, was predetermined, that the meeting had been cunningly contrived and pushed by Randall.

Doolittle stated his purpose of having the members of the Cabinet sign the call. Both McCulloch and myself had doubts of its expediency and effect. The President, without expressing an opinion, showed that he concurred in Doolittle's suggestion.

McCulloch asked if Seward would put his name to it, and two or three undertook to vouch for him. I expressed my readiness to unite in what would be best for the Administration and the cause. If it was to have official significance, a proclamation I thought best. Seward, I am satisfied, would not sign it if the Constitutional point was presented, and I doubt if he will under any circumstances.

Something was said respecting Thurlow Weed, and the President remarked that Weed would be here to-morrow, but he knew Weed approved this movement and would sign the call. All this pained me. Seward and Weed are manifestly controlling the whole thing in an underhand way; they have possession of the President and are using the Administration for themselves and party rather than the President and country. They have eviscerated the call and will dissect and, I fear, destroy the effect of this move. Randall is a man of lax political morality, and I think his influence with the President is not always in the right direction. Seward knows his influence and intimacy in that quarter and has captured him, probably without R.'s being aware of it. The President finds that R. agrees with Seward, and it carries him in that direction. While R. means to reflect the President's wishes, he is really the tool of Seward and Weed, and is doing harm to the cause and to the President himself. But this matter cannot be corrected and will, I fear, prove ruinous.

I left soon after eleven and came home, desponding and unhappy. The cause is in bad and over-cunning if not treacherous hands, I fear. The proposed convention has no basis of principles. It will be denounced as a mere union with Rebels.

_______________

¹ O. H. Browning, who shortly succeeded Harlan as Secretary of the Interior.

² A. W. Randall, soon to succeed Dennison as Postmaster-General.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 533-5

Diary of Gideon Welles, Friday, June 22, 1866

When I went to Cabinet-meeting only Seward was there with the President. I was prompt to time; Seward was in advance. Directly on entering, the President handed me a message which he had prepared, with an accompanying letter from Seward, relative to the proposed Constitutional changes which Congress had requested him to forward to the State Executives. The whole was very well done. As Seward had sent off authenticated copies to the Governors, the ready, officious act was very well gotten over by a declaration in the message that it was a ministerial act which was not to be understood as giving the sanction of the Executive or of the Cabinet to the proceeding.

I made a complimentary remark on the message, with my regret that there had not been more time and consideration in sending off copies to the States. Seward was annoyed by the remark and said he had followed the precedent of 1865, but the President was, I saw, not at all displeased with my criticism.

Subsequently, when all the Cabinet were present except Stanton and Speed, the message and papers were read. McCulloch expressed his approval of the message and said he should have been glad to have had it more full and explicit. In this I concurred.

Dennison took exception, which served to show that he had been consulted by the Radicals and had advised or consented to the course previously adopted. He and Seward each made some remarks, and Dennison showed much indignation because Seward had used the word "trick" on the part of Congress in sending this resolution to the President. Seward disclaimed the word and denied he had used it. I was not aware he had done so.

Dennison proceeded to say that Bingham had introduced, or been the means of introducing, the resolution; had consulted with him; that his object was pure; that he approved it; that although the proposed Amendment was not in the precise shape he wished, he, nevertheless, gave it his support; that it had been approved by the Republicans of Ohio, and were he at home in October, he should vote for candidates who favored it.

I assured him that therein he and I differed, for that I would not vote for the Amendment, nor knowingly vote for any man who supported it.

Seward said he had no doubt that the Republicans of the Auburn district would oppose it very generally, and that if he was at home in November he expected to vote for men who would oppose it.

I took higher ground. I cared not what parties favored or what parties opposed it, my convictions and opinions were in my own keeping, and I would vote for no man of any party who favored that Amendment.

Dennison said that with the explanations of Mr. Seward he took no exceptions, but he expected to act with the Union Party of Ohio.

Harlan said he thought the views of each would be reconciled. I doubted if we were a unit. Party seemed to have a stronger hold than country.

When the others had left, the President told McCulloch and myself that he had struck from the message the concurrence of his Cabinet. This I regretted, but he said Dennison's assent, even with his explanation, was not full and gave him an opportunity to evade, if convenient hereafter; he, therefore, chose to stand uncommitted, or trammeled by others. Before sending off the message, which he had done while we were there, he had erased the words referred to.

Dennison has evidently been tampered with and has made up his mind to go with his party, though aware that the party organization is being committed against measures of the Administration. He certainly does not yet anticipate leaving the Cabinet on that account, but will soon come to it. How the President is to get along with such a Cabinet I do not see. McCulloch spoke of it and said there were four in opposition. "Yes," said the President, "from what we now see of Dennison, and if we count Stanton after his patched-up speech; but it is uncertain where he wishes to place himself." There is no uncertainty on the part of any but the President. Speed and Harlan should, from a sense of propriety and decent self-respect, resign. This the President has repeated to me many times. Why he should cling to Stanton, who is working insidiously against him, and to Seward, who works with and shields Stanton, either doing more against him than the two feeble men of whom he speaks so freely, I do not understand. Stanton he knows is not in accord with him, though he does not avow it, and if Seward is presumably friendly, the fact that all the influence which he can exercise is dumb or hostile is notorious.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 535-8