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
