Diary of Adam Gurowski, September 1861

WILL McClellan display unity in conception, and vigor in execution? That is the question. He seems very energetic and active in organizing the army; but he ought to take the field very soon. He ought to leave Washington, and have his headquarters in the camp among the soldiers. The life in the tent will inspire him. It alone inspired Frederick II and Napoleon. Too much organization may become as mischievous as the no organization under Scott. Time, time is everything. The levies will fight well; may only McClellan not be carried away by the notion and the attempt to create what is called a perfect army on European pattern. Such an attempt would be ruinous to the cause. It is altogether impossible to create such an army on the European model, and no necessity exists for it. The rebel army is no European one. Civil wars have altogether different military exigencies, and the great tactics for a civil war are wholly different from the tactics, etc., needed in a regular war. Napoleon differently fought the Vendeans, and differently the Austrians, and the other coalesced armies. May only McClellan not become intoxicated before he puts the cup to his lips.

Fremont disavowed by Lincoln and the administration. This looks bad. I have no considerable confidence in Fremont's high capacities, and believe that his head is turned a little; but in this question he was right in principle, and right in legality. A commander of an army operating separately has the exercise of full powers of war.

The Blairs are not to be accused; I read the letter from F. Blair to his brother. It is the letter of a patriot, but not of an intriguer. Fremont establishes an absurd rule concerning the breach of military discipline, and shows by it his ignorance and narrow-mindedness. So Fremont, and other bungling martinets, assert that nobody has the right to criticise the actions of his commander.

Fremont is ignorant of history, and those around him who put in his head such absurd notions are a pack of mean and servile spit-lickers. An officer ought to obey orders without hesitation, and if he does not he is to be court-martialed and shot. But it is perfectly allowable to criticise them; it is in human nature—it was, is, and will be done in all armies; see in Curtius and other historians of Alexander of Macedon. It was continually done under Napoleon. In Russia, in 1812, the criticism made by almost all the officers forced Alexander I. to leave the army, and to put Kutousoff over Barclay. In the last Italian campaign Austrian officers criticised loudly Giulay, their commander, etc., etc.

Conspiracy to destroy Fremont on account of his slave proclamation. The conspirators are the Missouri slave-holders: Senator Brodhead, old Bates, Scott, McClellan, and their staffs. Some jealousy against him in the Cabinet, but Seward rather on Fremont's side.

McClellan makes his father-in-law, a man of very secondary capacity, the chief of the staff of the army. It seems that McClellan ignores what a highly responsible position it is, and what a special and transcendent capacity must be that of a chief of the staff—the more so when of an army of several hundreds of thousands. I do not look for a Berthier, a Gneisenau, a Diebitsch, or Gortschakoff, but a Marcy will not do.

Colonel Lebedeef, from the staff of the Emperor Alexander II., and professor in the School of the Staff at St. Petersburg, saw here everything, spoke with our generals, and his conclusion is that in military capacity McDowell is by far superior to McClellan. Strange, if true, and foreboding no good.

Mr. Lincoln begins to call a demagogue any one who does not admire all the doings of his administration. Are we already so far?

McClellan under fatal influences of the rampant pro-slavery men, and of partisans of the South, as is a Barlow. All the former associations of McClellan have been of the worst kind—Breckinridgians. But perhaps he will throw them off. He is young, and the elevation of his position, his standing before the civilized world, will inspire and purify him, I hope. Nay, I ardently wish he may go to the camp, to the camp.

McClellan published a slave-catching order. Oh that he may discard those bad men around him! Struggles with evils, above all with domestic, internal evils, absorb a great part of every nation's life. Such struggles constitute its development, are the landmarks of its progress and decline.

The like struggles deserve more the attention of the observer, the philosopher, than all kinds of external wars. And, besides, most of such external wars result from the internal condition of a nation. At any rate, their success or unsuccess almost wholly depends upon its capacity to overcome internal evils. A nation even under a despotic rule may overcome and repel an invasion, as long as the struggle against the internal evils has not broken the harmony between the ruler and the nation. Here the internal evil has torn a part of the constitutional structure; may only the necessary harmony between this high-minded people and the representative of the transient constitutional formula not be destroyed. The people move onward, the formula vacillates, and seems to fear to make any bold step.

If the cause of the freemen of the North succumbs, then humanity is humiliated. This high-spirited exclamation belongs to Tassara, the Minister from Spain. Not the diplomat, but the nobly inspired man uttered it.

But for the authoritative influence of General Scott, and the absence of any foresight and energy on the part of the administration, the rebels would be almost wholly without military leaders, without naval officers. The Johnsons, Magruders, Tatnalls, Buchanans, ought to have been arrested for treason the moment they announced their intention to resign.

Mr. Seward has many excellent personal qualities, besides his unquestionable eminent capacity for business and argument; but why is he neutralizing so much good in him by the passion to be all in all, to meddle with everything, to play the knowing one in military affairs, he being in all such matters as innocent as a lamb? It is not a field on which Seward's hazarded generalizations can be of any earthly use; but they must confuse all.

Seward is free from that coarse, semi-barbarous know-nothingism which rules paramount, not the genuine people, but the would-be something, the half-civilized gentlemen. Above all, know-nothingism pervades all around Scott, who is himself its grand master, and it nestles there par excellence in more than one way. It is, however, to be seen how far this pure American—Scott military wisdom is something real, transcendent. Up to this day, the pure Americanism, West Point schoolboy's conceit, have not produced much. The defences of Washington, so much clarioned as being the product of a high conception and of engineering skill,—these defences are very questionable when appreciated by a genuine military eye. A Russian officer of the military engineers, one who was in the Crimea and at Sebastopol, after having surveyed these defences here, told me that the Russian soldiers who defended Sebastopol, and who learned what ought to be defences, would prefer to fight outside than inside of the Washington forts, bastions, defences, etc., etc., etc.

Doubtless many foreigners coming to this country are not much, but the greatest number are soldiers who saw service and fire, and could be of some use at the side of Scott's West Point greenness and presumption.

If we are worsted, then the fate of the men of faith in principles will be that of Sisyphus, and the coming generation for half a century will have uphill work.

If not McClellan himself, some intriguers around him already dream, nay, even attempt to form a pure military, that is, a reckless, unprincipled, unpatriotic party. These men foment the irritation between the arrogance of the thus-called regular army, and the pure abnegation of the volunteers. Oh, for battles! Oh, for battles!

Fremont wished at once to attack Fort Pillow and the city of Memphis. It was a bold move, but the concerted civil and military wisdom grouped around the President opposed this truly great military conception.

Mr. Lincoln is pulled in all directions. His intentions are excellent, and he would have made an excellent President for quiet times. But this civil war imperatively demands a man of foresight, of prompt decision, of Jacksonian will and energy. These qualities may be latent in Lincoln, but do not yet come to daylight. Mr. Lincoln has no experience of men and events, and no knowledge of the past. Seward's influence over Lincoln may be explained by the fact that Lincoln considers Seward as the alpha and omega of every kind of knowledge and information.

I still hope, perhaps against hope, that if Lincoln is what the masses believe him to be, a strong mind, then all may come out well. Strong minds, lifted by events into elevated regions, expand more and more; their "mind's eye" pierces through clouds, and even through rocks; they become inspired, and inspiration compensates the deficiency or want of information acquired by studies. Weak minds, when transported into higher regions, become confused and dizzy. Which of the two will be Mr. Lincoln's fate?

The administration hesitates to give to the struggle a character of emancipation; but the people hesitate not, and take Fremont to their heart.

As the concrete humanity, so single nations have epochs of gestation, and epochs of normal activity, of growth, of full life, of manhood. Americans are now in the stage of manhood.

Col. Romanoff, of the Russian military engineer corps, who was in the Crimean war, saw here the men and the army, saw and conversed with the generals. Col. R. is of opinion that McDowell is by far superior to McClellan, and would make a better commander.

It is said that McClellan refuses to move until he has an army of 300,000 men and 600 guns. Has he not studied Napoleon's wars? Napoleon scarcely ever had half such a number in hand; and when at Wagram, where he had about 180,000 men, himself in the centre, Davoust and Massena on the flanks, nevertheless the handling of such a mass was too heavy even for his, Napoleon's, genius.

The country is—to use an Americanism—in a pretty fix, if this McClellan turns out to be a mistake. I hope for the best. 600 guns! But 100 guns in a line cover a mile. What will he do with 600? Lose them in forests, marshes, and bad roads; whence it is unhappily a fact that McClellan read only a little of military history, misunderstood what he read, and now attempts to realize hallucinations, as a boy attempts to imitate the exploits of an Orlando. It is dreadful to think of it. I prefer to trust his assertion that, once organized, he soon, very soon, will deal heavy and quick blows to the rebels.

I saw some manœuvrings, and am astonished that no artillery is distributed among the regiments of infantry. When the rank and file see the guns on their side, the soldiers consider them as a part of themselves and of the regiment; they fight better in the company of guns; they stand by them and defend them as they defend their colors. Such a distribution of guns would strengthen the body of the volunteers. But it seems that McClellan has no confidence in the volunteers. Were this true, it would denote a small, very small mind. Let us hope it is not so. One of his generals—a martinet of the first class—told me that McClellan waits for the organization of the regulars, to have them for the defence of the guns. If so, it is sheer nonsense. These narrow-minded West Point martinets will become the ruin of McClellan.

McClellan could now take the field. Oh, why has he established his headquarters in the city, among flunkeys, wiseacres, and spit-lickers? Were he among the troops, he would be already in Manassas. The people are uneasy and fretting about this inaction, and the people see what is right and necessary.

Gen. Banks, a true and devoted patriot, is sacrificed by the stupidity of what they call here the staff of the great army, but which collectively, with its chief, is only a mass of conceit and ignorance few, as General Williams, excepted. Banks is in the face of the enemy, and has no cavalry and no artillery; and here are immense reviews to amuse women and fools.

Mr. Mercier, the French Minister, visited a considerable part of the free States, and his opinions are now more clear and firm; above all, he is very friendly to our side. He is sagacious and good.

Missouri is in great confusion—three parts of it lost. Fremont is not to be accused of all the mischief, but, from effect to cause, the accusation ascends to General Scott.

Gen. Scott insisted to have Gen. Harney appointed to the command of Missouri, and hated Lyon. If, even after Harney's recall, Lyon had been appointed, Lyon would be alive and Missouri safe. But hatred, anxiety of rank, and stupidity, united their efforts, and prevailed. Oh American people! to depend upon such inveterate blunderers!

Were McClellan in the camp, he would have no flatterers, no antechambers filled with flunkeys; but the rebels would not so easily get news of his plans as they did in the affair on Munson's Hill.

The Orleans are here. I warned the government against admitting the Count de Paris, saying that it would be a deliberate breach of good comity towards Louis Napoleon, and towards the Bonapartes, who prove to be our friends; I told that no European government would commit itself in such a manner, not even if connected by ties of blood with the Orleans. At the start, Mr. Seward heeded a little my advice, but finally he could not resist the vanity to display untimely spread-eagleism, and the Orleans are in our service. Brave boys! It is a noble, generous, high-minded, if not an altogether wise, action.

If a mind is not nobly inspired and strong, then the exercise of power makes it crotchety and dissimulative in contact with men.

To my disgust, I witness this all around me.

The American people, its institutions, the Union—all have lost their virginity, their political innocence. A revolution in the institutions, in the mode of life, in notions begun—it is going on, will grow and mature, either for good or evil. Civil war, this most terrible but most maturing passion, has put an end to the boyhood and to the youth of the American people. Whatever may be the end, one thing is sure that the substance and the form will be modified; nay, perhaps, both wholly changed. A new generation of citizens will grow and come out from this smoke of the civil war.

The Potomac closed by the rebels! Mischief and shame! Natural fruits of the dilatory war policy—Scott's fault. Months ago the navy wished to prevent it, to shell out the rebels, to keep our troops in the principal positions. Scott opposed; and still he has almost paramount influence. McClellan complains against Scott, and Lincoln and Seward flatter McClellan, but look up to Scott as to a supernatural military wisdom. Oh, poor nation!

In Europe clouds gather over Mexico. Whatever it eventually may come to, I suggested to Mr. Seward to lay aside the Monroe doctrine, not to meddle for or against Mexico, but to earnestly protest against any eventual European interference in the internal condition of the political institutions of Mexico.

Continual secondary, international complications, naturally growing out from the maritime question; so with the Dutch cheesemongers, with Spain, with England - all easily to be settled; they generate fuss and trouble, but will make no fire.

Gen. Scott's partisans complain that McClellan is very disrespectful in his dealings with Gen. Scott. I wonder not.. McClellan is probably hampered by the narrow routine notions of Scott. McClellan feels that Scott prevents energetic and prompt action; that he, McClellan, in every step is obliged to fight Gen. Scott's inertia; and McClellan grows impatient, and shows it to Scott.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, pp. 92-103

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, June 18, 1866

Senator Doolittle brought me last evening the rough draft of a proposed call for a national Union convention which he had prepared. Some of the points were well put, but there was too much restriction, too much fear that we should have men we did not care to fellowship with, although we might agree on present issues. To this I excepted, but my strongest point was the omission to meet and present the real issue, our objections to the proposed change of the Constitution which has passed the two houses of Congress.

"What," said I, "are the reasons for calling a convention at this time? Is it not because the faction in Congress, assisted by schemers out of Congress, have concocted a scheme under party excitement and by party machinery to change the Constitution in important particulars, and that by a snap judgment Governor Curtin has addressed a circular letter to the Governors of the several States, inviting an immediate convening of the State legislatures to adopt the proposed change, before the people can have an opportunity to express an opinion? An alarm should be sounded, warning the people of the movements that are being made to alter the organic law, and insidiously change the government."

These and other suggestions I saw made an impression on Doolittle, but still he hesitated and was embarrassed. Pressing him on this point, he admitted he wanted Raymond to sign the call, he being Chairman of the National Republican Committee, and Doolittle wanted others of that committee also to sign it. This I thought of less importance than to have a proper call; certainly I would not suppress the great essential for such a trimming, unreliable man as Raymond. As I urged the matter, he admitted that Raymond had seen the call and approved it; further that the President had read it, and I have no doubt that Seward had also seen it, although that was not distinctly stated. The call, if not the convention itself, is, I think, perverted to an intrigue in behalf of the old Whig Party, on which Weed and Seward rely.

I proposed that we should go and see Mr. McCulloch. It was raining intensely hard, but he at once accorded. He had been to Silver Spring and submitted the document to Mr. Blair and his son, who, he said, approved it.

Mr. McCulloch was not at home, and we parted, but the paper which D. presented, the convention, and the aspect of affairs gave me infinite concern. There is no doubt that Seward and Stanton have a personal understanding to act together. Stanton is in concert with the Radicals, and, at the same time, Seward is prompting Doolittle. The public is ripe for a convention, but this call is an artful contrivance to weaken it. The President is being subordinated by the intriguers, and the design is obviously to weaken the Administration and give the Radical Party the ascendant. Seward, beguiled by Stanton, expects to control the convention by the aid of Weed and Raymond. The fruition of seven months' intrigue means that and nothing else. They intend to rule the President, and I fear he will let them.

I stopped early this morning at Judge Blair's and inquired what he thought of the call. He said he had not been in any mood or mind to think of anything, having been without sleep the previous night, but it had appeared to him to have a too narrow basis. I then told him my view and the conversation Doolittle and myself had. Blair most earnestly agreed with me, said my views corresponded with his own, and promised to see the President if he could.

I called on McCulloch, who agreed to come to my house this evening and go with me to the President. When he called, I detailed the conversation with Doolittle, told him of my apprehensions, and dwelt emphatically on the subject of the Constitutional changes as the true basis of action, and our sounding the bugle-note of warning to arouse the people. My earnestness and the facts excited him, and we went to the President.

We spent an hour in a free and unrestricted conversation with the President. McCulloch, full of the views which I had urged, advised that the President should at once issue a proclamation after the manner of Jackson in regard to nullification, appealing to the people.

I inquired of the President if he had seen Doolittle since Sunday, and told him what I thought of the proposed form of call, and that the just alarm on the proposed change of the Constitution ought not on any account to be omitted. The people ought not to be deluded and cheated by trash. He concurred with me. I inquired if he had noticed that important omission in the proposed call. He did not answer direct, but said the call was too much in detail.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 529-31

Diary of Gideon Welles, Tuesday, June 19, 1866

After current business at the Cabinet was closed, I inquired of Seward if it was true that he had sent out a special official certificate of the Constitutional Amendment to Governor Hawley of Connecticut. I saw notice to this effect in the papers. Seward said yes, and his manner indicated that he wished I had not put to him the question.

Stanton at this moment, without any design perhaps, drew off the President's attention and they went to one of the windows, conversing audibly. In the mean time Seward and myself got into an animated conversation on the subject of these proposed changes, or, as they are called, amendments of the Constitution. I thought the President should pass upon them. At all events, that they should not have been sent out officially by the Secretary of State, obviously to be used for electioneering purposes, without the knowledge of the President. McCulloch agreed with me most decidedly. Seward said that had not always been the practice. Dennison made some undecisive remarks, evincing indifference. But all this time Stanton and the President were engaged on other matters, and as the President himself had proposed last evening to bring up this subject in Cabinet, I was surprised that he remained away during the conversation, the purport of which he must have known. I became painfully impressed with the apprehension that Seward had an influence which he should not have, and that under that influence the President did not care to be engaged in our conversation.

On leaving the council chamber I went into the Secretary's room adjoining. McCulloch was already there, and we had a free talk with Colonel Cooper, the Private Secretary of the President and his special confidant in relation to public matters, about the necessity there was for prompt and decisive action on the part of the President. Colonel C. fully agreed with us.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 531-2

Diary of Gideon Welles, Wednesday, June 20, 1866

Went with G. W. Blunt to see the President this morning. Blunt wants to be Naval Officer and has been a true and earnest friend of the Navy Department during the War and boldly met our opponents when friends were needed. Of course I feel a personal regard for him and have two or three times told the President that, personally, Blunt was my choice. If other than personal consideration governed I had nothing to say.

After Blunt left, the President and myself had a little conversation. I expressed my apprehension that there were some persons acting in bad faith with him. Some men of position were declaring that he and Congress were assimilating and especially on the Constitutional change. He interrupted me to repeat what he said to McCulloch and me,—that he was opposed to them and opposed to any change while any portion of the States were excluded. I assured him I well knew his views, but that others near and who professed to speak for him held out other opinions. I instanced the New York Times, the well-known organ of a particular set, which was constantly giving out that the President and Congress were almost agreed, and that the Republican Party must and would be united. The fact that every Republican Representative had voted for the changes, that the State Department had hastened off authenticated copies to the State Executives before submitting to him, the idea promulgated that special sessions of the legislatures in the States were to be called to immediately ratify the amendments, or innovations, showed concert and energy of action in a particular direction, but that it was not on the road which he was traveling.

He answered by referring to yesterday's conversation with Seward; said he had sent early yesterday morning to stop action at the State Department, but found the circulars had been sent off. He seemed not aware that there was design in this hasty, surreptitious movement.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 532-3

Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, Wednesday, March 12, 1862

Walked up to the camp of the 98^th at Meridian Hill with Julia after dinner. Saw all our officer friends there. Called upon Col Dutton who is sick at the old Comodore Porter Mansion. He appeared quite sick and was as I thought very uncomfortable. I invited him down to our house where he could have quiet and rest for a few days. He declined. Said he would be “all right” in a day or two. Mr Seward was at the camp of the 103^rd German Reg^t nearby. We got home before dark, pretty tired.

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.

Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Saturday, May 19, 1860

At 9 A. M. left Chicago on my way home, and arrived at midnight, having been delayed several hours on the way. Gov Selden¹ of New York, who was one of the delegates to the Convention, came down the road as far as Batavia. He introduced himself to me, and thanked me, on behalf of the New York delegation, for my speech of yesterday.

I had a good deal of conversation with him upon political subjects. He thinks with great effort New York may be carried for Mr Lincoln, but does not regard it as certain. The delegation of that state was greatly devoted to Mr Seward, and are mortified and disappointed.

_______________

¹ Henry R. Selden, 1805-1885. Lieutenant governor of New York from 1850 to 1858.

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 408

Diary of Henry Greville: Wednesday, December 11, 1861

I had a pleasant little dinner of nine people here yesterday-Enfields, Mrs. Sartoris, Lady Adelaide Cadogan, Henry Loch, Robert Meade, Bertie Mitford, and Robert Bourke. The latter was very amusing with his account of his late American tour, and particularly of his interview with Seward, whom he describes as a dry, irritable little personage, not to say blackguard. Bourke is much in favour of the Confederates. He saw a large portion of their army—very fine men, well drilled, but badly accoutred.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, p. 415

Senator Charles Sumner to Henry Wilson, April 29, 1852

Seward has just come to my desk, and his first words were, “What a magnificent speech Wilson made to Kossuth! I have read nothing for months which took such hold of me.”¹ I cannot resist telling you of this, and adding the expression of my sincere delight in what you said. It was eloquent, wise, and apt. I am glad of this grand reception. Massachusetts does honor to herself in thus honoring a representative of freedom. The country is for Kossuth; the city is against him. The line is clearly run.

_______________

¹ Wilson was then president of the Massachusetts Senate.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 272

German Republican Documents.

The speeches of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Hon. Owen Lovejoy, Hon Galusha A. Grow, and Mr. Carl Schurz in the German language, published by the New York Deomkrat, can be obtained of Messrs. Erbe and Kapprueier, No. 63 Clark street.

SOURCE: “German Republican Documents,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 4, col. 6

The War of the Outsiders.

The National Republican Convention meets at noon to-day. The busybody’s occupation is about gone. The task of casting the votes and giving the opinions of the various States is resigned to the delegations respectively. This will be a harrowing circumstance to a large number of well meaning people. A Considerable squad of outsiders from New York were here yesterday alleging that Mr. Seward could not carry that State in November; another volunteer delegation were urging that Mr. Seward could carry both Pennsylvania and Illinois. On both sides these persons were much more vociferous than the delegates themselves, and committed themselves to positions pro and con with a violence which the delegates would never assume. Nearly all the bitterness of the hotel controversy during the past two or three days has been evolved by these self-constituted representatives of the people.—The delegations, so far as we have had opportunity to observe have been discreet and judicious, refraining from objurgation, and forming their opinions by consultation with each other, rather than with the blowers and strikers of this or that candidate, whom half fare tickets have provided with the means of displaying their loquacity before an unusual audience. On Monday night, the delegates having mostly retired, these guardians of the people’s rights fell to beating on the nomination of their favorites, and staked large amounts of imaginary bank credit, ideal dry goods and improbable farms on the result. Thus far no perceptible effect of their impertinences has been noticed.

SOURCE: “The War of the Outsiders,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 1, col. 1

Telegraphic.

REPORTED FOR THE DAILY GAZETTE.

_______________

BY WISCONSIN STATE TELEGRAPH LINE,

Office in Union Passenger Depot.

_______________

CHICAGO, May 16.

At 12’o’cock the convention was called to order by Gov. Morgan, and after reading the call for the convention, Hon. David Wilmot of Pa., was nominated as temporary chairman.

Mr. Wilmot made an able and eloquent speech.

Prayer was made by the Rev. Mr. Humphrey.

A committee of one was appointed from each state and territory to report permanent officers.

Desultory motions and speeches were made, among which was a motion to accept an invitation of the Board of Trade to a pleasure excursion this afternoon on Lake Michigan, which was agreed to, and afterwards reconsidered and deferred, many delegates representing the paramount necessity of proceeding to business.

The Convention took a recess from 2 to 5 o’clock.

The Wigwam is crowded, and great enthusiasm prevails. The feeling is strongly for Seward.

NEW YORK, May 16.

The excitement about the New York postoffice defalcation continues unabated.—An investigation is getting on, which promises to develop additional frauds and implicate several employees of the department. A deficiency has been discovered in the accounts of the stamp clerk, amounting to $2,000. Mr. Fowler has not yet been arrested, and his whereabouts is not known.

NEW YORK, May 16.

Marshal Rynders, in company with his deputy, paid a visit to Wall street yesterday for the purpose of arresting a brace of operators who where charge with forging names on the pension office with intent to defraud the U. S. The parties implicated are S. Brainard, a broker in Wall street, and Joseph Lawrence, an attorney and notary public. It is supposed that their operations in the way of forged land warrants for soldiers, and sailors bounties and pension claims will reach $500,000. Commissioner Belts ordered them to be held to bail in the sum of $5,000 each.

WASHINGTON, May. 16.

On motion of Mr. Morris, of Ill., a resolution was adopted calling on the P. M. General to communicate to the house as soon as possible all the facts and circumstances relative to the defalcation of Mr. Fowler, post master at New York.

The Japanese paid a visit to the state department to-day. The house committee have waited on the embassy, extending to them invitations to visit the Capitol, but they declined at present, fixing no time for that purpose, nor will they reply to municipal invitations from New York and elsewhere before being visited by the President. They are particularly observant of etiquette.

LOUISVILLE, KY., May 16.

Display at Picket warehouse of two hundred and forty hhds. Of premium tobacco, averaging twelve hundred weight, under patronage of the Kentucky State Agricultural Society, said to be the largest display of fine tobacco ever witnessed in the world. Tobacco dealers are present from every section of the Union. Premiums well be awarded this afternoon.

HALIFAX, May 16.

The royal mail steamship Europa, Capt. Leth, from Liverpool on the 5th, via. Queenstown, 6th inst., arrived at this port at 11 o’clock last night and sailed early this morning for Boston at which port she will be du by Thursday noon.

The royal mail steamship Persia from New York, April 25th, arrived at Queenstown of Friday, 4th inst. The general news unimportant. Rumors were prevalent of renewed troubles in Sicily. Spain grants a general amnesty. Liverpool breadstuffs declined. Provision market generally dull.

The Market.

NEW YORK, May 16.

Flour market without striking change sales 16,000 bbls-5,20 super state; 5,2625,35; extra state; 5,20 super western; 5,25a5,60 common to medium extra western. Wheat without striking changes, sales 26,000 bush. 1,27a1,28 Milwaukee club 1,45 winter and red western; 1,55 choice white Michigan, Rye steady. Barley quiet and steady.

SOURCE: “Telegraphic,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 5.

Editorial Correspondence of the Gazette.

CHICAGO, May 15, 1860.

Since my letter of yesterday, thousands of republicans have arrived in the city. The railroad arrivals from every direction come with lengthened trains and burthened with their human freight. All night, or until two o’clock this morning, the streets were made vocal with bands of music accompanying the different delegations which were frequently arriving. It was a grand rallying of freemen from every hill and valley of the north and south.

Last night there was speaking in the great wigwam. It was nearly full and would have been quite so, if thousand had not been watching and preparing for the grand reception of the New England delegation which arrived at 9.45 P.M. All the streets in the neighborhood of the depot were crowded. Michigan avenue was illuminated. The arrival of the train was announced by rockets, the booming of cannon, and the loud hurrahs of the people. The Wide Awakes were out and formed a brilliant torch light procession, accompanying the delegates to their quarters.

There were about three hundred of the Wide Awakes—each man carried a torch held aloft by a staff, and wore upon his head a cap, and over his shoulders hung a black oil silk mantle to prevent the oil from the torches from soiling his clothes. They made an animated appearance, and are an institution to be widely disseminated during this campaign. They are a military company and a fire company, combined with political zeal; a compound sufficiently exciting to draw numerous votaries, and will give much zest to the approaching political contest.

The speakers at the Wigwam were Hon. Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, Hon. Thomas B. Van Buren of New York. They were all good speeches, were plentifully imbued with the “irrepressible conflict” doctrine. Mr. Coffey was especially zealous, and declared that the republicans could carry Pennsylvania with any candidate fairly representing their principles.

This was the first time he have attended a public meeting in the Wigwam. Its capacity is equal to the accommodation of ten thousand people, although its extension would not indicate it. The platform is large enough to contain the members of the national convention. There are roomy galleries, while under them, and in their front many thousand people can stand. The whole is built in the form of an ampitheatre, sustained by tall columns which reach to the roof which are festooned with evergreens. Around in front of the galleries are painted coats of arms of several states. The whole interior is elegantly decorated, and when lighted with gas and filled by an enthusiastic audience presents a fine appearance. The people of Chicago deserve and receive great credit for their liberality and taste in getting up with the Wigwam.

To-day has been spent by the thousands who throng the streets and the hotels, in discussing the nomination. It is carried on with zeal, but with perfect good feeling. The friends of Seward are by far the most numerous, and act fully in concert. They are in earnest for his nomination, believing that now is the time to nominate and elect him. Such is the judgment of his most cool and calculating friends. They are therefore working for him with a will.—They think they can count upon more than one-third of the vote upon the first ballot. It is believed that neither Bates nor McLean will have much of a show in the convention. Lincoln, Chase, Wade and Cameron are most mentioned next to Seward. The nomination will be one of these four with the chance much in favor of Seward.

The enthusiasm of the people along the various lines of railroad, especially in Michigan and Northern Indiana, is represented by the delegates to be great; while here it is up to fever heat, and will soon spread over the whole country.

There are whole sets of delegates from Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri. The majority of the delegates from the two former states are for Seward, and propose to fight the battle upon principle, rather than expediency.

The Missourians have brought with them a Bowie knife as a present to Hon. John F. Potter, which is of rather formidable dimensions. Including the handle, it is seven feet long; the blade is three feet and six inches in length, and three inches in width. On one side of the blade is inscribed “presented to John F. Potter of Wisconsin, by the republicans of Missouri—1860.” On the reverse—“Will always meet a ‘Pryor’ engagement.” This present attracts great attention and excites much mirth at Pryor’s expense. It is rather a significant instrument, and means a good deal more than it says.

A meeting of the Wisconsin delegates which was attended by quite a number of the citizens of the state not delegates, was held at their head quarters, opposite the post office, this afternoon. Mr. Schurz was selected as chairman of the delegation to give the vote of the state, and was instructed for Mr. Seward, as long as he shall be a candidate before the convention. Mr. Crocker was recommended as one of the presidents, Mr. Frisbie as one of the secretaries, Mr. Schurz as one of the committee on resolutions, Mr. Rann as one of the committee on credentials, and Mr. McGregor as one of the committee on permanent organization.

A resolution was adopted that the citizens of Wisconsin meet at 11 o’clock to-morrow forenoon at the head-quarters of the delegation, and escort the delegation to the convention.

The editorial fraternity is largely represented. The Journal of this afternoon reports 121 as already registered at that office, and this number does not include several registered since.

A long letter might easily be written noticing minor incidents connected with this convention, but the difficulty of discriminating, and deciding what shall be omitted,  comprises a task we can easiest avoid by declining to notice any.

The convention meets as 12 o’clock to-morrow. The canvass, as we have already stated, for President is a very animated one. Many of the ablest and best known republicans in the Union are present as outsiders, and if the convention fails to make a good nomination, the failure cannot be attributed to a lack of advice or want of positive opinion as to a proper person.

A day or two will determine the question of nomination, and until then we will waive all opinion on the matter.

SOURCE: “Editorial Correspondence of the Gazette,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 2-3.

The Douglas meeting . . .

. . . held at New Orleans last week, to endorse the action of those who stayed in the Douglasite convention, and denounce the seceders, is described by the Delta as a fizzle. It says there were hardly enough people present to organize a territory under Douglas’ doctrine of squatter sovereignty, which we believe is about one hundred and fifty. It was a “muss meeting” in the open air. Speeches were made by Messrs. Morse, Heisland, Hahn, and Clack.

Hon. Mr. Morse said that if Stephen A. Douglas was not elected the next president, William H. Seward would be—a sentiment which may be safely commended to the consideration of the weak-kneed republicans.

SOURCE: “The Douglas meeting,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 6.

The Winning Man—Abraham Lincoln.

In presenting ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the National Republican Convention, as a candidate for the Presidency, were are actuated not by our great love and esteem for the man, by any open or secret hostility to any other of the eminent gentlemen named for that high office, nor by a feeling of State pride or Western sectionalism, but by a profound and well matured conviction that his unexceptionable record, his position between the extremes of opinion in the party, his spotless character as a citizen and his acknowledge ability as a statesman, will, in the approaching canvass, give him an advantage before the people which no other candidate can claim. We are not disposed to deny that Mr. SEWARD, is the question of availability being set aside, the first choice of perhaps a majority of the rank and file of the party; that Gen. CAMERON has claims upon Pennsylvania which his friends will not willingly have overlooked; that the statesman like qualities, inflexible honesty and marked executive ability of SALMON P. CHASE entitle him to a high place in Republican esteem; that Mr. BATES’ pure life and noble aims justly command the confidence of troops of friends; that the chivalric WADE has extorted the admiration of the North and West; that FESSENDEN, for his gallant service but be gratefully remembers; and that JOHN McLEAN, whose life is without a stain and whose love of country has never been challenged, must be remembered as a strong and unexceptional man. But Illinois claims that Mr. LINCOLN, though without the ripe experience of SEWARD, the age and maturity of BATES and McLEAN, or the fire of FESSENDEN and WADE, has the rare and happy combination of qualities which, as a candidate, enables him to outrank either.

I. By his own motion, he is not a candidate. He has never sought, directly or indirectly, for the first or second place on the ticket. The movement in his favor is spontaneous. It has sprung up suddenly and with great strength, its roots being in the conviction that he is the man to reconcile all difference in our ranks, to conciliate all the now jarring elements, and to lead forward to certain victory. Having never entered into the field, he has put forth no personal effort for success, and he has never made, even by implication, a pledge of any sort by which his action, if he is President, will be influenced for any man, any measure, any policy. He will enter upon the contest with no clogs, no embarrassment; and this fact is a guaranty of a glorious triumph.

II. In all the fundamentals of Republicanism, he is radical up to the limit to which the party, with due respect for the rights of the South, proposes to go. But nature has given him that wise conservatism which has made his action and his expressed opinions so conform to the most mature sentiment of the country on the question of slavery, that no living man can put his finger on one of his speeches or any one of his public acts as a State legislator or as a member of Congress, to which valid objection can be raised. His avoidance of extremes has not been the result of ambition which measures words or regulates acts but the natural consequence of an equable nature and in mental constitution that is never off its balance. While no one doubts the strength of his attachments to the Republican cause, or doubts that he is a representative man, all who know him see that he occupies the happy mean between that alleged radicalism which binds the older Anti-Slavery men to Mr. Seward, and that conservatism which dictates the support of Judge Bates. Seward men, Bates men, Cameron men and Chase men can all accept him as their second choice, and be sure that in him they have the nearest approach to what they most admire in their respective favorites, which any possible compromise will enable them to obtain.

III. Mr. LINCOLN has no new record to make. Originally a Whig, though early a recruit of the great Republican party, he has nothing to explain for the satisfaction of New Jersey, Pennsylvania or the West. His opinions and votes on the Tariff will be acceptable to all sections except the extreme South, where Republicanism expects no support. Committed within proper limitations set up by economy and constitutional obligation to the improvement of rivers and harbors, to that most beneficent measure, the Homestead bill, and to the speedy construction of the Pacific Railroad, he need write no letters to soften down old asperities, growing out of these questions which must inevitably play their part in the canvas before us. He is all that Pennsylvania and the West have a right to demand.

IV. He is a Southern man by birth and education, who has never departed from the principles which he learned from the statesmen of the period in which he first saw the light. A Kentuckian, animated by the hopes that bring the Kentucky delegation here, a Western man, to whom sectionalism is unknown, he is that candidate around whom all opponents of the extension of Human Slavery, North and South, can rally.

V. Mr. LINCOLN is a man of the people. For his position, he is not indebted to family influence, the partiality of friends or the arts of the politician. All his early life a laborer in the field, in the saw-mill, as a boatman on the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi, as a farmer in Illinois, he has that sympathy with the men who toil and vote that will make him strong. Later a valiant soldier in the Black Hawk war, a student in a law office, bonding his great powers to overcome the defects of early training; then a legislator, and at last a brilliant advocate, in the highest courts, and a popular leader in the great movement of the age, there is enough of romance and poetry in life to fill all the land with shouting and song. Honest Old Abe! Himself an outgrowth of free institutions, he would die in the effort to preserve to others, unimpaired, the inestimable blessings by which he has been made a man.

VI. Without a stain of Know-Nothingism on his skirts, he is acceptable to the mass of the American party who, this year, will be compelled to choose between the candidate of Chicago and the nominee of Baltimore. The experience of two years has proved their error and his wisdom. They want the chance to retrieve the blunders of the past. Endeared by his manly defence of the principles of the Declaration of Independence to the citizen of foreign birth, he could command the warm support of every one of them from whom, in any contingency, a Republican vote can be expected.

VII. Mr. LINCOLN is an honest man. We know that the adage “Praise overmuch is censure in disguise” is true; and we know, too, that it is the disgrace of the age that in the popular mind, politics and chicane, office and faithlessness go hand in hand. We run great risk then in saying of Mr. Lincoln what truth inexorably demands,—that in his life of 51 years, there is no act of a public or private character, of which his most malignant enemy can say “this is dishonest,” “this is mean.” With his record, partizanship [sic] has done its worst and the result we have stated. His escutcheon is without a blemish.

VIII. After saying so much, we need not add that Mr. LINCOLN can be elected, if placed before the people with the approbation of the Convention to meet tomorrow. In New England, where Republicanism pure and simple is demanded, and where he has lately electrified the people by his eloquence, his name would be a tower of strength. New York who clings with an ardent embrace to that great statesman, her first choice, would not refuse to adopt Mr. LINCOLN as a standard bearer worthy of the holy cause. Pennsylvania, satisfied with his views in regard to the present necessity of fostering domestic interests, and the constitutional moderation of his opinions upon slavery, would come heartily into his support.

The West is the child of the East, and aside from her local pride in one of the noblest of her sons, she would not fail by her plaudits to exalt and intensify the enthusiasm which the nomination of Honest Old Abe would be sure to excite. The West has no rivalry with the East except in the patriotic endeavor to do the most for the Republican cause. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin desire no triumph in which the East does not share—no victory over which the East may not honestly exult. In a contest for Lincoln, they will fight with zeal and hope that has never before animated the Republican hosts.

We present our candidate, then, not as the rival of this man or that, not because the West has claims which she must urge; not because of a distinctive policy which she would see enforced; not because he is the first choice of a majority; but because he is that honest man, that representative Republican, that people’s candidate, whose life, position, record, are so many guarantys [sic] of success—because he is that patriot in whose hands the interests of the government may be safely confided. Nominated, he would, we believe, be triumphantly elected; but if another, in the wisdom of the Convention, is preferred we can pledge him to labor, as an honest and effective as any that he ever done for himself, for the man of the Convention’s choice.

SOURCE: “President Making,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15, 1860, p. 2, col. 1-2

President Making.

To the Editors Press and Tribune:

These are President making days. I presume there are very few men in these United States, who have not for the last few months, been trying their hands at it. I am among the number, and I beg to give you my conclusions on the subject. I am afraid of extremes. My father was a Revolutionist, a red-hot Whig,—ardent and, I guess, oftentimes a little fast. He used to often caution me to look out; to be careful and avoid extremes. Now I think pretty well of Senator Seward, but I am afraid he is a little on the extremes. He is quite a young man yet. He is doing very good service where he is, and we may want to send him as our Minister to England. I guess we had better take someone else this time.

I think firstrate of our own Lincoln. Why he is a real Harry Clay of a fellow. I love him. He too, however, is quite young yet. He will if he lives, be much better known four our eight years hence. I hope to live and see him President; but I think it will be best to have him serve us four years as Attorney General, and then, or four years after that, try him for President.

Gov. CHASE of Ohio, has ardent admirers, not only in that state, but through all the free States. He is an able man. I guess a very good man; but his record does not all of it suit me. He clung rather too long to Locofoco Democracy. He, too, is yet a quite a young man and can well afford a little longer probation. I am by no means sure he is not a little on extremes on the slavery question. I think he is a good man, but I am not in favor of giving him the first post yet.

My deliberate first choice for President is Thomas Corwin of Ohio. You can’t better it I believe. He will avoid extremes and is highly conservative. He has had a few lies told about him, in relation to his being a little fond of money. It is all nonsense. If we get no worse “Galphim” to take care of our strong box, I shall be glad. He cannot be beat. I propose Gov. Banks as Vice President with him. As my second choice, I propose Edward Bates of Missouri, and Gov. Banks as Vice President. The country will be safe under the administration of either of those gentlemen.

REPUBLICAN WHIG DEMOCRAT.

SOURCE: “President Making,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15, 1860, p. 2, col. 7

Seward vs. Douglas.

Editors Press and Tribune:

The Nomination of Mr. Seward will necessitate the nomination of Mr. Douglas at Baltimore. If Mr. Seward is placed on the track, the Slaveholders will postpone their quarrel with the Northern Democracy until after the November election, when it will again be renewed, until doughfaces succumb. There is no future event more sure than the nomination of Douglas, and his receiving the united support of the Democratic party, if our convention takes Mr. Seward. The nomination of the latter will draw the broken Democracy together with an adhesion stronger than Spaulding’s glue. And it is also certain that Mr. Bell will draw off a great many of the old Fillmore supporters whose foolish predjudices picture Mr. Seward as an ultra Abolitionist, and Northern fire-eater. Yet I have such confidence in the force and strength of Republican principles, that I firmly believe Mr. Seward can be triumphantly elected over Douglas, notwithstanding the union of the Democracy and the desertion to Bell. I hail from a State where we know no fear, no such thing as defeat. Give us Mr. S. and victory will perch on our banners

MICHIGAN.

Chicago, May 14, 1860.

SOURCE: “Seward vs. Douglas,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15, 1860, p. 1, col. 1

Diary of Adam Gurowski: August 1861

THE truth about Bull Run will, perhaps, only reach the people when it becomes reduced to an historical use. I gather what I am sure is true.

About three weeks ago General McDowell took upon himself the responsibility to attack the enemy concentrated at Manassas. Deciding upon this step, McDowell showed the determination of a true soldier, and a cool, intelligent courage. According to rumors permeating the whole North; rumors originated by secessionists in and around Washington, and in various parts of the free States; rumors gulped by a part of the press, and never contradicted, but rather nursed, at headquarters, Manassas was a terrible, unknown, mysterious something; a bugbear, between a fortress made by art and a natural fastness, whose approaches were defended for miles by numberless masked batteries, and which was filled by countless thousands of the most ferocious warriors. Such was Manassas in public opinion when McDowell undertook to attack this formidable American Torres Vedras, and this with the scanty and almost unorganized means in men and artillery allotted to him by the senile wisdom of General Scott. General McDowell obtained the promise that Beauregard alone was to be before him. To fulfil this promise, General Scott was to order Patterson to keep Johnston, and a movement was to be made on the James River, so as to prevent troops coming from Richmond to Manassas. As it was already said, Patterson, a special favorite of General Scott, kindly allowed Johnston to save Beauregard, and Jeff. Davis with troops from Richmond likewise was on the spot. McDowell planned his plan very skilfully; no European general would have done better, and I am sure that such will be the verdict hereafter. Some second-rate mistakes in the execution did not virtually endanger its success; but, to say the truth, McDowell and his army were defeated by the imbecility of the supreme military authority. Imbecility stabbed them in the back.

One part of the press, stultified and stupefied, staggered under the blow; the other part showed its utter degradation by fawning on Scott and attacking the Congress, or its best part. The Evening Post staggered not; its editors are genuine, laborious students, and, above all, students of history. The editors of the other papers are politicians; some of them are little, others are big villains. All, intellectually, belong to the class called in America more or less well-read men; information acquired by reading, but which in itself is not much.

The brothers Blair, almost alone, receded not, and put the defeat where it belonged—at the feet of General Scott.

The rudis indigestaque moles, torn away from Scott's hands, already begins to acquire the shape of an army. Thanks to the youth, the vigor, and the activity of McClellan.

General Scott throws the whole disaster on politicians, and abuses them. How ungrateful. His too lofty pedestal is almost exclusively the work of politicians. I heard very, very few military men in America consider Scott a man of transcendent military capacity. Years ago, during the Crimean campaign, I spent some time at West Point in the society of Cols. Robert Lee, Walker, Hardee, then in the service of the United States, and now traitors; not one of them classed Scott much higher above what would be called a respectable capacity; and of which, as they said, there are many, many in every European army.

If one analyzes the Mexican campaign, it will be found that General Scott had, comparatively, more officers than soldiers; the officers young men, full of vigor, and in the first gush of youth, who therefore mightily facilitated the task of the commander. Their names resound to-day in both the camps.

Further, generals from the campaign in Mexico assert that three of the won battles were fought against orders, which signifies that in Mexico youth had the best of cautious senility. It was according to the law of nature, and for it was crowned with success.

Mr. Seward has a very active intellect, an excellent man for current business, easy and clear-headed for solving any second-rate complications; but as for his initiative, that is another question. Hitherto his initiative does not tell, but rather confuses. Then he sustains Scott, some say, for future political capital. If so it is bad; worse still if Mr. Seward sustains Scott on the ground of high military fitness, as it is impossible to admit that Mr. Seward knows anything about military affairs, or that he ever studied the description of any battle. At least, I so judge from his conversation.

Mr. Lincoln has already the fumes of greatness, and looks down on the press, reads no paper, that dirty traitor the New York Herald excepted. So, at least, it is generally stated.

The enemies of Seward maintain that he, Seward, drilled Lincoln into it, to make himself more necessary.

Early, even before the inauguration, McDowell suggested to General Scott to concentrate in Washington the small army, the depots scattered in Texas and New Mexico. Scott refused, and this is called a general! God preserve any cause, any people who have for a savior a Scott, together with his civil and military partisans.

If it is not direct, naked treason which prevails among the nurses, and the various advisers of the people, imbecility, narrow-mindedness, do the same work. Further, the way in which many leech, phlebotomize, cheat and steal the people's treasury, is even worse than rampant treason. I heard a Boston shipbuilder complain to Sumner that the ubiquitous lobbyist, Thurlow Weed, was in his, the builder's, way concerning some contracts to be made in the Navy Department, etc., etc. Will it turn out that the same men who are to-day at the head of affairs will be the men who shall bring to an end this revolt or revolution? It ought not to be, as it is contrary to logic, and to human events.

Lincoln alone must forcibly remain, he being one of the incarnated formulas of the Constitution, endowed with a specific, four years' lasting existence.

The Americans are nervous about foreign intervention. It is difficult to make them understand that no intervention is to be, and none can be made. Therein the press is as silly as the public at large. Certainly France does not intend any meddling or intervention; of this I am sure. Neither does England seriously.

Next, if these two powers should even thirst for such an injustice, they have no means to do it. If they break our blockades, we make war, and exclude them from the Northern ports, whose commerce is more valuable to them than that of the South. I do not believe the foreign powers to be forgetful of their interest; they know better their interests than the Americans.

The Congress adjourned, abandoning, with a confidence unparalleled in history, the affairs of the country in the hands of the not over far-sighted administration. The majority of the Congress are good, and fully and nobly represent the pure, clear and sure aspirations, instincts, nay, the clear-sightedness of the people. In the Senate, as in the House, are many, very many true men, and men of pure devotion, and of clear insight into the events; men superior to the administration; such are, above all, those senators and representatives who do not attempt or aim to sit on a pedestal before the public, before the people, but wish the thing to be done for the thing itself. But for the formula which chains their hands, feet, and intellect, the Congress contained several men who, if they could act, would finish the secession in a double-quick time. But the whole people move in the treadmill of formulas. It is a pity that they are not inspired by the axiom of the Roman legist, scire leges non est hoc verba earum tenere, sed vim ac potestatem. Congress had positive notions of what ought to be done; the administration, Micawber—like, looks for that something which may turn up, and by expedients patches all from day to day.

What may turn up nobody can foresee; matter alone without mind cannot carry the day. The people have the mind, but the official legal leaders a very small portion of it. Come what will, I shall not break down; I shall not give up the holy principle. If crime, rebellion, sauvagerie, triumph, it will be, not because the people failed, but it will be because mediocrities were at the helm. Concessions, compromises, any patched-up peace, will for a century degrade the name of America. Of course, I cannot prevent it; but events have often broken but not bent me. I may be burned, but I cannot be melted; so if secesh succeeds, I throw in a cesspool my document of naturalization, and shall return to Europe, even if working my passage.

It is maddening to read all this ignoble clap-trap, written by European wiseacres concerning this country. Not one knows the people, not one knows the accidental agencies which neutralize what is grand and devoted in the people.

Some are praised here as statesmen and leaders. A statesman, a leader of such a people as are the Americans, and in such emergencies, must be a man in the fullest and loftiest comprehension. All the noblest criteria of moral and intellectual manhood ought to be vigorously and harmoniously developed in him. He ought to have a deep and lively moral sense, and the moral perception of events and of men around him. He ought to have large brains and a big heart,—an almost all-embracing comprehension of the inside and outside of events,—and when he has those qualities, then only the genius of foresight will dwell on his brow. He ought to forget himself wholly and unconditionally; his reason, his heart, his soul ought to merge in the principles which lifted him to the elevated station. Who around me approaches this ideal? So far as I know, perhaps Senator Wade.

I wait and wait for the eagle which may break out from the White House. Even the burning fire of the national disaster at Bull Run left the egg unhatched. Utinam sim falsus, but it looks as if the slowest brains were to deal with the greatest events of our epoch. Mr. Lincoln is a pure-souled, well-intentioned patriot, and this nobody doubts or contests. But is that all which is needed in these terrible emergencies?

Lyon is killed,—the only man of initiative hitherto generated by events. We have bad luck. I shall put on mourning for at least six weeks. They ought to weep all over the land for the loss of such a man; and he would not have been lost if the administration had put him long ago in command of the West. O General Scott! Lyon's death can be credited to you. Lyon was obnoxious to General Scott, but the General's influence maintains in the service all the doubtful capacities and characters. The War Department, as says Potter, bristles with secessionists, and with them the old, rotten, respectable relics, preserved by General Scott, depress and nip in the bud all the young, patriotic, and genuine capacities.

As the sea corrodes the rocks against which it impinges, so egotism, narrow-mindedness, and immorality corrode the best human institutions. For humanity's sake, Americans, beware!

Always the clouds of harpies around the White House and the Departments,—such a generous ferment in the people, and such impurities coming to the surface!

Patronage is the stumbling stone here to true political action. By patronage the Cabinet keeps in check Congressmen, Senators, etc.

I learn from very good authority that when Russell, with his shadow, Sam. Ward, went South, Mr. Seward told Ward that he, Seward, intends not to force the Union on the Southern people, if it should be positively ascertained that that people does not wish to live in the Union! I am sorry for Seward. Such is not the feeling of the Northern people, and such notions must necessarily confuse and make vacillating Mr. Seward's—that is, Mr. Lincoln's policy. Seward's patriotism and patriotic wishes and expectations prevent him from seeing things as they are.

The money men of Boston decided the conclusion of the first national loan. Bravo, my beloved Yankees! In finances as in war, as in all, not the financiering capacity of this or that individual, not any special masterly measures, etc., but the stern will of the people to succeed, provides funds and means, prevents bankruptcy, etc. The men who give money send an agent here to ascertain how many traitors are still kept in offices, and what are the prospects of energetic action by the administration.

McClellan is organizing, working hard. It is a pleasure to see him, so devoted and so young. After all, youth is promise. But already adulation begins, and may spoil him. It would be very, very saddening.

Prince Napoleon's visit stirs up all the stupidity of politicians in Europe and here. What a mass of absurdities are written on it in Europe, and even by Americans residing there. All this is more than equalled by the solemn and wise speculations of the Americans at home. Bar-room and coffee-house politicians are the same all over the world, the same, I am sure, in China and Japan. To suppose Prince Napoleon has any appetite whatever for any kind of American crown! Bah! He is brilliant and intelligent, and to suppose him to have such absurd plans is to offend him. But human and American gullibility are bottomless.

The Prince is a noble friend of the American cause, and freely speaks out his predilection. His sentiments are those of a true Frenchman, and not the sickly free-trade pro-slaveryism of Baroche with which he poisoned here the diplomatic atmosphere. Prince Napoleon's example will purify it.

As I was sure of it, the great Manassas fortifications are a humbug. It is scarcely a half-way fortified camp. So say the companions of the Prince, who, with him, visited Beauregard's army.

So much for the great Gen. Scott, whom the companions of the Prince call a magnificent ruin.

The Prince spoke with Beauregard, and the Prince's and his companions' opinion is, that McDowell planned well his attack, but failed in the execution; and Beauregard thought the same. The Prince saw McClellan, and does not prize him so high as we do. These foreign officers say that most probably, on both sides, the officers will make most correct plans, as do pupils in military schools, but the execution will depend upon accident.

Mr. Seward shows every day more and more capacity in dispatching the regular, current, diplomatical business affairs. In all such matters he is now at home, as if he had done it for years and years. He is no more spread-eagle in his diplomatic relations; is easy and prompt in all secondary questions relating to secondary interests, and daily emerging from international complications.

Hitherto the war policy of the administration, as inspired and directed by Scott, was rather to receive blows, and then to try to ward them off. I expect young McClellan to deal blows, and thus to upturn the Micawber policy. Perhaps Gen. Scott believed that his name and example would awe the rebels, and that they would come back after having made a little fuss and done some little mischief. But Scott's greatness was principally built up by the Whigs, and his hold on Democrats was not very great. Witness the events of Polk's and Pierce's administrations. His Mississippi-Atlantic strategy is a delirium of a softening brain. Seward's enemies say that he puts up and sustains Scott, because in the case of success Scott will not be in Seward's way for the future Presidency. Mr. Lincoln, an old Whig, has the Whig-worship for Scott; and as Mr. Lincoln, in 1851, stumped for Scott, the candidate for the Presidency, the many eulogies showered by Lincoln upon Scott still more strengthened the worship which, of course, Seward lively entertains in Lincoln's bosom. Thus the relics of Whigism direct now the destinies of the North. Mr. Lincoln, Gen. Scott, Mr. Seward, form a triad, with satellites like Bates and Smith in the Cabinet. But the Whigs have not the reputation of governmental vigor, decision, and promptitude.

The vitiated impulse and direction given by Gen. Scott at the start, still prevails, and it will be very difficult to bring it on the right track—to change the general as well as the war policy from the defensive, as it is now, to the offensive, as it ought to have been from the beginning. The North is five to one in men, and one hundred to one in material resources. Any one with brains and energy could suppress the rebellion in eight weeks from to-day.

Mr. Lincoln in some way has a slender historical resemblance to Louis XVI.—similar goodness, honesty, good intentions; but the size of events seems to be too much for him.

And so now Mr. Lincoln is wholly overshadowed by Seward. If by miracle the revolt may end in a short time, Mr. Seward will have most of the credit for it. In the long run the blame for eventual disasters will be put at Mr. Lincoln's door.

Thank heaven! the area for action and the powers of McClellan are extended and increased. The administration seems to understand the exigencies of the day.

I am told that the patriotic and brave Senator Wade, disgusted with the slowness and inanity of the administration, exclaimed, "I do not wonder that people desert to Jeff. Davis, as he shows brains; I may desert myself." And truly, Jeff. Davis and his gang make history.

Young McClellan seems to falter before the Medusa—ruin Scott, who is again at his tricks, and refuses officers to volunteers. To carry through in Washington any sensible scheme, more boldness is needed than on the bloodiest battle-field.

If Gen. Scott could have disappeared from the stage of events on the sixth of March, his name would have remained surrounded with that halo to which the people was accustomed; but now, when the smoke will blow over, it may turn differently. I am afraid that at some future time will be applied to Scott  *  *  *  quia turpe ducunt parere minoribus, et quæ imberbi didicere, sense perdenda fateri.

Not self-government is on trial, and not the genuine principle of democracy. It is not the genuine, virtual democracy which conspired against the republic, and which rebels, but an unprincipled, infamous oligarchy, risen in arms to destroy democracy. From Athens down to to-day, true democracies never betrayed any country, never leagued themselves with enemies. From the time of Hellas down to to-day, all over the world, and in all epochs, royalties, oligarchies, aristocracies, conspired against, betrayed, and sold their respective father-lands. (I said this years ago in America and Europe.)

Fremont as initiator; he emancipates the slaves of the disloyal Missourians. Takes the advance, but is justified in it by the slowness, nay, by the stagnancy of the administration.

Gen. Scott opposed to the expedition to Hatteras!

If it be true that Seward and Chase already lay the tracks for the Presidential succession, then I can only admire their short-sightedness, nay, utter and darkest blindness. The terrible events will be a schooling for the people; the future President will not be a schemer already shuffling the cards; most probably it will be a man who serves the country, forgetting himself.

Only two members in the Cabinet drive together, Blair and Welles, and both on the right side, both true men, impatient for action, action. Every day shows on what false principle this Cabinet was constructed, not for the emergency, not in view to suppress the rebellion, but to satisfy various party wranglings. Now the people's cause sticks in the mud.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, p. 78-91

The Secretary of State.

Secretary Seward is much better to-day, we are gratified to state, having rested well last night. He was able to sit up for a few hours this morning, for the first time since the day he received his injuries.

SOURCE: “The Secretary of State,” Evening Star, Washington, D. C., Friday, April 14, 1865, p. 2, col. 4

The Condition of Secretary Seward

The Friends of Secretary SEWARD will be glad to learn that he is able to sit up to-day; that he is able to eat substantial food, besides liquids; sleeps well at night; and, his physicians think, will be able to attend to his official duties in a few weeks.

SOURCE: “The Condition of Secretary Seward,” Daily National Republican, Washington, D. C., Friday Evening, April 14, 1865, p. 2, col. 4

The Secretary of State.

Secretary Seward is improving as rapidly as could be expected under the circumstances. He rested well last night, and there is every indication of his speedy recovery.

SOURCE: “The Secretary of State,” Evening Star, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, April 12, 1865, p. 2, col. 4