I have a letter from
Eames, who is at Long Branch, ill, and has been there for three weeks. He
informs me that Senator Sumner wrote Mrs. E., with whom he corresponds, wishing
that she and her husband would influence me to induce the President to change
his policy. This letter Eames found on his arrival at Long Branch, and wrote
Sumner he could not change me.
Sumner bewails the
unanimity of the Cabinet; says there is unexampled unanimity in New England
against the policy of the Administration; thinks I ought to resign; says Wade
and Fessenden are intending to make vigorous opposition against it, etc., etc.
The proceedings of
the political conventions in Maine and Pennsylvania leave no doubt in my mind
that extensive operations are on foot for an organization hostile to the
Administration in the Republican or Union party. The proceedings alluded to
indicate the shape and character of this movement. It is the old radical anti-Lincoln
movement of Wade and Winter Davis, with recruits.
That Stanton has a
full understanding with these men styling themselves Radicals, I have no doubt.
It is understood that the Cabinet unanimously support the policy of the
President. No opposition has manifested itself that I am aware. At the
beginning, Stanton declared himself in favor of negro suffrage, or rather in
favor of allowing, by Federal authority, the negroes to vote in reorganizing
the Rebel States. This was a reversal of his opinion of 1863 under Mr. Lincoln.
I have no recollection of any disavowal of the position he took last spring,
although he has acquiesced in the President's policy apparently, has certainly
submitted to it without objection or remonstrance. The Radicals in the Pennsylvanian
convention have passed a special resolution indorsing Mr. Stanton by name, but
no other member of the Cabinet. Were there no understanding on a point made so
prominent by the Radicals, such a resolution would scarcely have been adopted
or drafted. Convention resolutions, especially in Pennsylvania, I count of
little importance. A few intriguing managers usually prepare them, they are
passed under the strain of party excitement, and the very men who voted for
them will very likely go against them in two weeks. At this time, however,
unusual activity has been made by Forney, Kelley, and others, and the
resolution has particular significance.