. . . . In the evening Judd and Usher, and Nicolay and I
were talking politics and blackguarding our friends in the Council Chamber. A
great deal had been said about the folly of the Edward Bates letter — the Rockville
Blair speech, etc. — when the President came in. They at once opened on him,
and after some talk he settled down to give his ideas about the Blair business.
He said:—
“The Blairs have, to an unusual degree, the spirit of clan.
Their family is a close corporation. Frank is their hope and pride. They have a
way of going with a rush for anything they undertake; — especially have Montgomery
and the Old Gentleman. When this war first began, they could think of nothing
but Frémont; they
expected everything from him; and upon their earnest solicitation he was made a
General, and sent to Missouri. I thought well of Frémont. Even now I think he
is the prey of wicked and designing men, and I think he has absolutely no
military capacity. He went to Missouri, the pet and protegé of the Blairs. At
first they corresponded with him and with Frank, who was with him, fully and
confidently thinking his plans and his efforts would accomplish great things
for the country. At last the tone of Frank’s letters changed. It was a change
from confidence to doubt and uncertainty. They were pervaded with a tone of
sincere sorrow, and of fear that Frémont would fail. Montgomery showed them to
me, and we were both grieved at the prospect. Soon came the news that Frémont
had issued his Emancipation Order, and had set up a Bureau of Abolition, giving
free papers, and occupying his time apparently with little else. At last, at my
suggestion, Montgomery Blair went to Missouri to look at, and talk over
matters. He went as the friend of Frémont. I sent him as Frémont ‘s friend. He passed
on the way, Mrs. Frémont coming to see me. She sought an audience with me at
midnight, and taxed me so violently with many things that I had to exercise all
the awkward tact I have, to avoid quarreling with her. She surprised me by
asking why their enemy, Montgomery Blair, had been sent to Missouri. She more than
once intimated that if Gen'l Frémont should conclude to try conclusions with me,
he could set up for himself.”
(Judd says: — “It is pretty clearly proven that Frémont had
at that time concluded that the Union was definitely destroyed, and that he
should set up an independent government as soon as he took Memphis and
organized his army.")
“The next we heard was that Frémont had arrested Frank Blair,
and the rupture has since never been healed.”
“During Frémont’s time, the Missouri Democrat, which
had always been Blair’s organ, was bought up by Frémont, and turned against
Frank Blair. This took away from Frank, after his final break with Frémont, the
bulk of the strength which had always elected him. This left him ashore. To be
elected in this state of things he must seek for votes outside of the
Republican organization. He had pretty hard trimming and cutting to do this
consistently. It is this necessity, as it appears to me, of finding some ground
for Frank to stand on, that accounts for the present, somewhat anomalous,
position of the Blairs in politics.”
Judd: — “The opinion of people who read your Message to-day
is that, on that platform, two of your ministers must walk the plank — Blair
and Bates.”
Lincoln: — “Both of these men acquiesced in it without
objection. The only member of the Cabinet who objected to it was Mr. Chase.”
SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 132-5; For the whole diary entry see
Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and
letters of John Hay, p. 130-4.
