YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cfc«-*i4«, "I give thefe Books for the founding of a College in this Colony" ' YMJE 'WM vni&sinrY° BEQUEST OF WILLIAM LAMPSON 1897 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. (From the Stntue by Augustus St. Gonrteiis.) RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION BY L. E. CHITTENDEN HIS REGISTER OF THE TREASURY NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1891 Copyright, 1891, by Harmr & Brothers. AU rights reserved. » ALfi THIS VOLUME HAS GROWN OUT OF MY LOVE AND RESPECT FOR ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND KNOWING NO WAT IN WHICH I CAN BETTER ATTEST TIIE SINCERITY OF ITS TURPOSE 11 De&icate it to ms son ROBERT T. LINCOLN HIKISTER OF TIIK UNITED STATES TO THE COURT OP ST, JAMES CONTENTS. T T3 FAQS 1. PRELIMINARY AND EXPLANATORY. — ORIGIN OP THIS VOL UME. — Its Scope and Purpose 1 II. A Glimpse of a Noted Campaign.— The State Elec tions Early in October, 1860, which Virtually Settled the Presidential Contest ... .8 III. Office - Seeking by an Inexperienced Candidate. — Appointment to the Peace Conference.— Senator Foot, of Vermont. — His Premonitions of Rebel lion. 17 IV. Notes on the Peace Conference. — The Plans of the Conspirators. — Adam Gurowski. — James S. Wadsworth . . . 23 V. An Official Call upon the President.— It Unites the Loyal Members of TnE Conference 32 VI. Another Official Call. — General Scott. — His Loy alty and its Influence ufon the Declaration of the Electoral Vote 86 VII. The 13th of February, 1861. — The Election of Pres ident Lincoln Declared. — Firmness of Vice-Pres ident Breckinridge. — Anger of the Secessionists 40 VIII. Another Incident of February 13Tn. — Judge Smal- ley on Treason. — Seizure of Arms in New York City. — Action of its Mayor . . . . : . .47 IX. An Altercation in the Peace Conference. — Sena tor Lot M. Morrill and Commodore Stockton. — A Test of Northern Courage 50 X. TnE Conspiracy of Assassination.— Its Details.— Mr. Lincoln Consents to Follow the Advice of His Friends 58 vi CONTENTS. PAGB XI. How did Mr. Lincoln "Get through Baltimore"? 65 XII. A Second Presidential Reception. — Mr. Lincoln Converses with Leading Southerners. — His Duty to the Constitution 68 XIII. The Last Week of President Buchanan's Adminis tration .79 XIV. The Inauguration. — A Memorable Scene . . 84 XV. Some Notes upon General Scott and Robert E. Lee 93 XVI. TnE Nones and Ides of March. — Tins New Cab inet . 103 XVII. A Novel Induction into Office 109 XVIII. The Isolation of the Capitol.— An Alarmed Vir ginian .... . . 115 XIX. Baltimore Blocks the Way ... 120 XX. TnE First Volunteer Defenders of the Capitol. — TnE Plug-Uglies of Baltimore. — The Seventh New York and the Eighth Massachusetts Regi ments . .... . . . . 125 XXI. The "Trent Affair."— Statesmanship of Mr. Sew ard . . 133 XXII. The Antagonism of the Regular to the Volun teer Service. — The Influence of President Lin coln .... . . .... 149 XXIII. The Colored People. — Their Industry in Learn ing to Read.— TnEiR Implicit Confidence in Pres ident Lincoln 158 XXIV. Secretary Cameron.— His Resignation.— General Fremont. — His Troubles in the Department of the West. — Secretary Stanton.— His Character. — The Davis Commission. — Mr. O'Neill's Report on Secretary Stanton's Services . . . 168 XXV. Making $10,000,000 of U. S. Bonds Under Press ure. — The Construction of Confederate Iron clad Ships in British Shipyards. — The Depart ure of Two Prevented. — An Englishman Offers a Great Service to Our Republic— His Incog nito 194 CONTENTS. vii TAaa XXVI. President Lincoln's Connection with the Ori gin of Armored Vessels. — His Faith in Iron clads. — The Influence of Assistant-Secretary Fox. — His Interview with the President on the 7th of March, 1862 ..... . 212 XXVII. President Lincoln's Confidence in Armored Vessels, Continued. — The "Monitor "and nEis Battle with the " Merrimac " Described by Captain Worden 222 XXVIII. Joseph Henry and Abraham Lincoln. XXIX. Inter Arma, Scientia. — The Potomac Natural ists' Club . . XXX. A Night wrm TnE Potomac Naturalists' Club — The Giant Octopus 235230 246 XXXI. Hospital Notes. — The Wounded from the Wil derness. — Charities of TnE Colored Poor. — Sisters of Charity. — Anesthetics 251 XXXII. President Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel. — Erroneous Versions of TnE Story. — Will iam Scott, of the Third Vermont, Sentenced to Death for Sleeping on nis Post. — He is Pardoned by the President. — His Last Mes sage to the President. — His Death at the Battle of Lee's Mills . . . . : 265 XXXIII. Treasury Notes and Notes on the Treasury . 284 XXXIV. New Moneys of Lincoln's Administration. — Demand Notes. — " Seven-Thirties." — Postage Currency. — Fractional Currency. — Legal- Tender Notes, or "Greenbacks." — Their Ori gin, Growth, and Value 296 XXXV. Grant and McClellan 316 XXXVI. TnE Confederates Exchange a Party of their Prisoners of War 323 XXXVII. President Lincoln's Story of Daniel Webster 330 XXXVIII. President Lincoln the Unappreciated Friend of the South. — His Offer of Compensated Emancipation. — He Meets a Vermont Con tractor. — Their Impressions of Each Other. 335 viii CONTENTS. PACK XXXIX. The Professional Detective. — His Employment by the United States and its Influence upon the People 341 XL. Public Misconceptions of the Value of Salaried Officers.— General Stannard 353 XLI. Was General Thomas Loyal 1 360 XLII. The Impartial Judgment of President Lincoln. — The Resignation of Secretary Chase. — Its Causes and Consequences .... . . 366 XLIII. The Campaign against Washington in 1864.— The Battle of Monocacy . . 385 XLIV. General Early before Washington in 1864. — Battle of Fort Stevens 403 XLV. The Judgment of President Lincoln. — His Cool ness in Times of Excitement.— His Faith that the Union Cause would be Protected against Serious Disaster. — Four of his Letters now First Published 428 XLVI. Abraham Lincoln.— A Sketch of Some Events in his Life 431 Index 455 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. I. PRELIMINARY AND EXPLANATORY.— ORIGIN OF THIS VOLUME.— ITS SCOPE AND PURPOSE. When the notes were made which are now expanded into a volume, I had no purpose beyond that of record ing, so far as I had time and opportunity, my personal knowledge of current events, which might afterwards possess some interest for my family and my immediate personal friends. . Neither then nor for a quarter of a century afterwards had any thought of their publica tion occurred to me. As time passed, and many of these events were imperfectly or inaccurately described in the numerous current publications, corrections of them, which I verbally made, appeared to possess an unexpected in terest to those who heard them. I have been told many times, and by those whose judgments are entitled to re spect, that ray version of these occurrences formed a part of the history of Mr. Lincoln's administration, and that their publication and preservation was in some sense a duty. Accordingly, and by way of experiment, I brushed 1 2 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the dust of more than a score of years from my note books, and acting as my own amanuensis, wrote out the article entitled "Making United States Bonds under Pressure," which was published in the number of Har per's Monthly Magazine for May, 1890. How that ar ticle was received the public knows. The correspond ence to which it gave rise was extensive enough to be come a burden. While the criticisms were generally favorable, the complaint was many times repeated that I ought to have given more details — that the article was too much condensed — that I should have given more of the conversations — what was said by the President and Secretary Chase, etc. This complaint was unexpected because I supposed that the more condensed it was, the greater was the merit of the article. It was followed by others which were not unfavorably received, and the interest excited, with the possibly too partial judgment of my friends, has resulted in the preparation of this volume. Whatever other criticism may be made, it cannot be said that the book has been thoughtlessly written. Thoughts have rushed upon me like a flood — the diffi culty has been to avoid giving expression to them, and to restrict my pen to the record of the events. The reader will comprehend some of these reflections if he will place himself in my position. He will appreciate as he never did before, how quickly "one generation passeth away and another generation cometh." There were giants in those days. It has been a labor of love for me to recall some of their mighty works. But where are the giants now ? The great war cabinet, the great soldier, and the President, greater than all com bined, have all passed away. The last of the three finan cial secretaries of President Lincoln, stricken while I am writing, now lies upon what is feared will be his dying AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 3 couch. I am the last surviving officer of the Treasury, above the grade of a clerk, connected with the issue of securities during the war. General Spinner, the incor ruptible guardian of the gold of the nation, the last of my official associates, has recently passed away. In his letter to me, one of the last written by his hand, he says : " In my 89th year an incurable disease has so affected my vision that I can only write with great difficulty, and for five weeks all my letters have been written by another hand. I wish I could write you a long letter about old times, but I cannot. So, good-bye, old friend, and may God bless you 1" His death sadly reminds me that if there is any importance in having this history written by one who had some part in it — some personal knowl edge of its details, I am almost the only civil officer of that time upon whom the duty rests, and that I have but little time left for the performance. It was natural that the story of the military and naval operations of the war should have been first Avrit ten. This work has been comprehensively performed. It probably fills more volumes than the history of any other four years since the invention of printing. They represent both parties to the contest, and are usually written by admirers of the heroes whose achievements they record. They are interesting, but in many details they are not history ; they are so far from it as to sug gest a doubt whether events can be accurately described by their contemporaries. If, as I am sure he will, the reader shall find statements herein directly opposed to the assertions of the authors of some of these military histories, I ask the same charity which I will concede to others. Let the statements be judged by all the evidence, intrinsic as well as external. If they will not stand that test, they are not true and have no place in history. 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN When I took charge of a bureau in the Treasury, I naturally wished to understand the theory of its con struction. What were the functions of the several bureaus? their relation to the secretary and to each other? I wanted a history of the institution. Mr. Hamilton was its reputed creator. What were his plans ? his objects? How did he propose to secure them? No such history existed. The memoirs of Mr. Ham ilton were silent upon the details of this the greatest work of his life. The only printed book which gave any promise of the information I wanted was a work by " Eobert Mayo, M.D., Compiler of a New System of Mythology," published in 1847. In these thin quartos, buried in an indigestible mass of circulars, instructions and decisions of secretaries, were a few details of the functions of the different bureaus, and that was all. Such knowledge as I acquired of the Treasury, and of all the matters referred to in this volume, was derived through my own personal experience in the operations of the government and personal contact with its officers. I am therefore solely responsible for the accuracy of my statements, where I have not given the authority upon which they are made. I acquired, as I believe justly, a high opinion of the Treasury system and of the importance of a rigid en forcement of its regulations. By its complete control of the finances during the war it was a mighty power for evil as well as for good. The fate of the nation depended upon its competent management. Directed by an able financier who could reinforce the military and naval departments by tho confidence born of a strong national credit, ours was one of the strongest governments on earth. In the hands of an incompetent secretary, careless of the national credit, the future AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 5 promised was bankruptcy, defeat in the field, and a divided union. Important as it was in the suppression of the rebel lion, I do not intend to write the history of Secretary Chase's financial policy, nor any financial or other his tory. This volume, like the notes of which it is an extension, has no special object. It will meet all my expectations if it records facts, does no injustice, and gives credit to whomsoever credit is due. I must protest in advance against any inference against public men whom I hold in high esteem because the truth of history requires me to mention acts of theirs which their friends have always regretted. No man is at all times entirely great. If he were, he would be a hero to his valet. In the early part of the war, the public judgment was very unreliable. Those were the days when the people were shouting, " On to Rich mond!" and looking to Providence for a Moses or a Napoleon. An unimportant victory was sufficient to make them cry out, " Behold, he is a leader and a com mander to the people " — a single failure and they were equally ready to crucify him. Later on they learned to tolerate errors and excuse failures, and value public men by the general balance of their services. Their judg ment was more matured and reliable when Secretary Chase, after more than two years of labor, had estab lished the public credit, when Grant would fight it out on that line if it took all summer, and Sherman was leading an army through the enemy's country on a march which commenced in November and ended with the war in May. The sectional divisions of the country must be consid ered by those who would comprehend the earlier events of the war. The North believed that slavery was the 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN sum of all villainies — the South that it was the mother of all virtues ; one that it degraded, the other that it ennobled, the Avhite race ; one that it changed men into coarse, brutal tyrants, the other that deprivation of its salutary influences had converted the North into the home of a race of traders too cowardly to fight ¦ and too inferior to govern. With such extreme views, they necessarily misjudged and misunderstood each other. Sectional differences in our republic belong to the past. By the war, slavery, its cause, has perished. There is no longer any excuse for sectional divisions. The ship of state, manned by a united crew, has turned away from the dangers of the past, and is sailing over tranquil seas towards the peaceful port of her manifest destiny, the supremacy of the nations of the Western Continent. The enterprise to secure that supremacy will bo furnished bjr her own sons, the wealth to main tain it will be gathered from her own mines and forests, and the products of her own soil, and not from weaker nations despoiled. The sections devastated by the Avar have been the first to recover their strength. Manufac tures are pushing southward ; neAV toAvns and cities are springing up, and everywhere the sun of prosperity is shining over a reunited and reconstructed union. Such political and industrial conditions must not be ignored by those Avho Avrite of the history of the Avar. Such Avriters oAve a duty to the future as well as to the past. It is plainly a part of that duty not to revive old controversies which the Avar has settled. No one can be made better or happier by threshing over the straw of old accusations, which only serve to awaken old ani mosities. There Avere events of the Avar, there are events in all Avars, Avhich good men should regret, Avhich should as quickly as possible be blotted from the memory of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 7 man. It would be almost criminal to revive and per petuate them. I have sought to keep this duty and these facts in mind Avhile Avriting this book. On the other hand, it is not to the advantage of either section that facts should be suppressed or misinterpreted which may hereafter be of service by Avay of warning or instruction. I have corrected some misdescription in accounts of battles. I have spoken plainly of the treat ment of Federal prisoners, and of those Avho I believe were responsible for that crime against humanity. But here and in every sentence I have sought to write in the temper of mind which Avould have controlled the martyr-President, Avho, especially in the closing days of his noble life, was mindful that "the end of the com mandment is charity." RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN II. A GLIMPSE OF A NOTED CAMPAIGN.— THE .STATE ELECTIONS EARLY IN OCTOBER, 1860, AVHICH VIRTUALLY SETTLED TIIE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. Vermont was the first state Avhich held an election after the nomination of Mr. Lincoln. The first Tues day in September had come, and the Republicans had carried Vermont. If doubts had existed, they were now dispelled. The Republicans Avere united; they had made a strong pull and a pull all together, and when they made a united effort they almost always carried Vermont. Their majority being greater than the com bined vote of all their opponents, the state Avas consid ered safe for Lincoln at the presidential election in No vember. As soon as the election Avas over I Avas invited by the National Committee, then in continuous session, to come to the Astor House, NeAV York, for consultation. They wanted to knoAv something about our Vermont meth ods ; also what Vermont could do for other states where the contest Avas more doubtful. At the committee rooms I first met Judge William D. Kelley, then making his first run for Congress in Philadelphia. He had not then gained the name of " Pig-iron Kelley," nor the grateful affection of his state and the country Avhich he after- Avards earned by long, efficient, and most reputable ser vice in the popular branch of the national legislature. We made short speeches at the same mass-meeting in Jersey City. When the meeting Avas over he said to AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 9 me, " Your style will just suit my district. Come over to Philadelphia Avith me, and give us a taste of your Green Mountain quality. You may return to NeAV York early on Monday." I assented, Avith little thought of the danger of trust ing myself to the friendly contact of Philadelphia poli ticians. I went Avith Judge Kelley to what was then a suburb of the city of brotherly love, GermantoAvn by name, Avhere I made an out-door address to ten thousand Wide-aAvakes and other Republicans. The newspapers said the speech was " a cracker." I had never heard the term before applied to any form of political or intellect ual Avork. It Avas evidently commendatory, and indi cated the partiality of the Philadelphians to Avhat I thought was rather a dry form of edible. On the folloAving morning Judge Kelley introduced me to some of the campaign managers at the committee rooms. I remember two of them, for their names be came afterwards pretty Avell knoAvn to the people of this republic. There were AndreAv G. Curtin and Col. Alexander McClure. The first-named Avas running for governor, and Col. McClure Avas running him. Both greeted me with effusion. They could now tell me in per son what I should have learned later by letter. They had decided that Col. Frank Blair and myself were a matched pair of speakers for the country. They had, therefore, appointed a series of meetings for us which would occu py nearly every afternoon and evening until the Friday preceding the state election in October. They had tele graphed the notices to every toAvn and city where the meetings were to be held. I objected that this was rather a cool proceeding ; that Col. Blair and myself had never met ; that I had busi ness engagements at home ; that I protested on general 10 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN principles against an appropriation of my time for tAvo or three Aveeks Avithout mentioning the subject to me. They swept my objections aAvay like cobwebs ; declared that Ave " Vermonters did not knoAV the first principles of running a campaign ; that if they waited to arrange all the details in advance, they Avould never get the speak ers they Avanted ; that the only safe way Avas to make the appointments and then capture the speakers ; that in our case there had been no difficulty ; Col. Blair and myself Avere both Avithin easy reach, and they knew we Avould never consent to disappoint fifty thousand Repub licans, disarrange the plans of the committee, and per haps endanger the election." Resistance appeared to be unavailing. I surrendered, telegraphed home some of the details of my capture, and that I did not anticipate an early escape out of the hands into which I had fallen. The next day tAvo very lively young Republicans took charge of Col. Blair and myself, and carried us far into the dark regions of a Democratic county. Where we travelled, what places Ave visited, I never inquired. The image of that fortnight upon my memory represents a continuous procession of committees of eminent citizens, mass -meetings, torch -light proces sions, Wide-aAvakes in uniform, shouting, singing political songs, and hurrahing for the ticket. In the afternoons Col. Blair and myself usually addressed the same mass- meeting. As soon as one bad concluded he was hurried aAvay to a distant toAvn or city, to be in time for the even ing meeting. The other made his speech, and was rushed off in the opposite direction. Some nights we Avere hun dreds of miles apart, at noon the next day together. Such sleep as we got Avas on the cars. We Avere only permitted to see Republican newspapers, Avhich declared that our converts Avere numerous, our missionary work AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. n a pronounced success. ¦ We never failed to make our connections, and, as agreed, were returned to the Girard House in Philadelphia, on Friday preceding the Mon day of the state election. We were a used-up pair of campaigners. We had lost our voices ; could not speak above a whisper, and in desperate need of the rest and sleep to which we intended to appropriate the next forty- eight hours. But rest and sleep Avere not for us. Col. Blair Avas hurried off someAvhere, and I did not see him again until the second year of the war. John T. Nixon, afterwards a Federal judge in the southern district of New Jersey, was lying in Avait for me. He was running for Con gress ; was having a hard fight, and there Avere special reasons Avhy, he said, I must go into the southeast corner of Ncav Jersey to a great mass-meeting and barbecue, where I had been advertised to speak. I pleaded exhaus tion, loss of voice, general dilapidation and worthless- ness, in vain. I could "save the district," he said. "A night's rest Avould set me all right. I must go and show myself, if I had to be carried on a stretcher, or he Avould be accused of intentionally deceiving and disappointing five thousand people in a rural community. Promptly at seven next morning he would come for me." , I Avas awakened out of a dream. It was early morn ing. From my windoAV I saAV that the street in front of the hotel Avas filled by a croAvd of Wide-awakes, who Avere loudly proclaiming, with accompaniment of trumpet and drum, that " Old John Brown's body lay mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on." They Avere to form my escort to the train for Southeastern New Jersey. Omitting the intervening details, let me say at once that, attended by Mr. Nixon and a party of his friends, 12 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I reached the place of meeting shortly after midday. There Avas no town or village, scarcely a collection of houses. I do not know that the place had any name. It Avas near Avater communication Avith DelaAvare Bay, for during the afternoon four steamers arrived, bringing as many thousand Wide-awakes from Philadelphia and vicinity. Seats had been provided in a lovely grove, and these were already occupied, apparently by the pop ulation of the locality en masse. Fathers and mothers with their families, young persons of both sexes, to the number of six or seven thousand — the most orderly, quiet, cleanly rural population it has ever been my good-fortune to see. They had come not to shout, but to listen. Their good example reacted. Nobody could talk nonsense to such an audience. The speeches were argumentative, sensible, the best I had heard during the campaign. The Wide-awakes attended, to close the exercises Avith a torch-light procession. Coming from the city on ex cursion steamers, a political organization, to attend a political meeting in the country, it may be anticipated that, being well provided with poor whiskey, they turned the meeting into a pandemonium, and, to use a phrase not then invented, that they " painted the place red." Nothing of the kind. There were oxen roasted entire, refreshments in abundance, but no whiskey nor evidences of Avhiskey. There was a grand political meeting, good, sound, creditable speeches, an attentive, respectful audi ence, ending with one of the most beautiful torchlight processions I eA'er Avitnessed^ music, songs, but not one incident of roAvdyism or disorder to mark or mar the day or the occasion. At the very close, two pre-revolu- tionary anvils performed duty as cannon, and made con siderable noise. The whole affair was a credit to the orderly community Avhich conducted it. Judge Nixon, AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 13 referring to it during the next session of Congress, said its object Avas to stir up the community. It Avas at first feared that it had not produced the effect desired. But on election day, Avhen he carried the county by an un heard-of majority, it Avas decided that an earthquake, reinforced by a cyclone, could not have done the Avork so thoroughly as that quiet, Avell-orderecl meeting. It had been arranged that I should return to Philadel phia by one of the steamers. I took the one said to be least croAvded, but it turned out that there Avere at least tAvo Wide-aAvakes for every square foot of standing- room it afforded. We got under Avay ; ran out into the bay ; also into a fog as thick as molasses, as dark as Ere bus, and as cold as the shady side of an iceberg. All that long night, until tAvo hours after daylight, we rolled and wallowed in the waters of the bay. The fog was so thick that it was unsafe to run by compass, or even to start the boat ahead. There was not a bed or a blanket on board. In my exhausted condition, with no place to lie or even to sit doAvn, I suffered dreadfully. Some of the boys finally hunted up an old sail, Avrapped it around me, and laid me away on a cushioned seat in the pilot house. I slept through all the racket, until Ave reached the dock at Camden, Avhere I Avas taken to the residence of a hospitable Republican, had a bath and a bed, and slept until election morning. That Avas an exciting election day. It settled the presidential contest. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, if I rightly remember, then held their state elections on the same first Monday in October. I was admitted to the rooms of the committee. At frequent intervals during the day reports came from many sections that the election was ATery quiet, men were keeping their promises, and all seemed to be going well. But there Avere no results for 14 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN comparison until evening, Avhen the large hall was packed, and the street in front completely blocked by an expect ant croAvd, awaiting the announcement of victory or defeat in the most important election since the Declara tion of Independence. It Avas arranged that the reports from other states should come through state committees. Those in Pennsylvania came through many sources. The first figures were from Ohio. Names I have for gotten, nor are they material. Call this one Dover. The operator read out, " Dover, Republican first time. Seventy majority. Last year one hundred and ten Dem ocratic." Some one started a cheer; others shouted, " Hush !" The next was from a Democratic county in Pennsylvania. It announced a Democratic majority of, say seventy. One Avho held the record of the last cor responding votes added instantly to the despatch, " A Democratic loss of ninety votes." The silence Avas still unbroken. Another Pennsylvania despatch : " C. beats D. by eighty, and is elected." The reader of the record adds, " A Republican gain of a member ; a Democratic loss on the vote of nearly tAvo hundred." A Republi can, Avith powerful voice, exclaimed, " That means that Abraham Linooln is the next President of the United States, and Andrew Curtin the next Governor of Penn sylvania !" The roar of triumph that went up from that crowd Avas enough to have started the roof from its fas tenings. It was caught up outside as the signal of vic tory, and the sound of human voices suppressed the sound of cannon, which instantly commenced a salute of one hundred guns. It might Avell have been impressive, for it Avas Republican notice to the world that the people had decreed, in the Avords of Washington, that " the Union must be preserved !" The announcement Avas accidental; it was dangerously AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 15 premature. Prudent men Avere very anxious lest it might be necessary to recall it. But the despatches came in rapid succession — as fast as the operator could read them — faster than the vote could be compared Avith that of preceding years. Their tenor Avas constant Republi can gains, Democratic losses ! When the returns upon the state ticket began to come in, the average improved. It Avas nearly ten o'clock, and not until Ave kneAv that Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, and probably Illinois, Had gone Republican, that some remote little precinct, far up the Alleghany Mountains, reported the first tri fling Democratic gain. Tliere Avas a howl of derision, when some one said, "I knoAV that place. It's where they are still voting for Jefferson and Burr." As soon as it Avas known to a certainty that Ave had carried these four states, I quietly elboAved my way through the crowd to my hotel, with a thankful heart for the victory. The mighty croAvd Avas celebrating it Avithout the least evidence of rioting or disorder. There Avas but little sleep that night ; all this noise and crowd was directly underneath my AvindoAv. But I was so weary that a battery of artillery, engaged in target-prac tice in the next room, Avould not have kept me aAvake. I Avas asleep Avithin a minute after my head rested on the pilloAv, and for ten hours nothing disturbed me. It Avas eight o'clock next morning when a delegation from the committee called, to ascertain Avhat disposition I had made of myself, and, as it happened, to give me ray first lesson in " Practical Politics." " Hoav many city members of Congress do the Repub licans elect?" I asked. "When I left you last night almost everything else Avas settled; but the Congres sional vote Avas the last counted, and no complete returns Avere in from any district. Is Judge Kelley defeated?" 16 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " I should think not !" replied one of my visitors. " We have swept the decks. We have elected four con gressmen from this city, sure. When I left the commit tee-rooms they Avere debating whether they should per mit the Democrats to count in the other. It hadn't been decided." " Counting in," I exclaimed — " what do you mean by " counting in a member?" " You poor, unsophisticated Vermonter," he said, " you pretend you don't knoAV what ' counting in ' means ! You must have played the count ing-out games of children ! This is the same thing, only it Avorks the other way." Young men Avill better comprehend the progress back ward of politics within a little more than a fourth of a century Avhen I say that my guilelessness Avas not at all assumed. I was born in a community in which the casting of a ballot Avas regarded as a solemn and serious duty. In my boyhood, election meetings Avere opened Avith prayer, and until the vote Avas counted there was no act unbefit ting the church in Avhich the elections Avere ahvays held. I had never heard of " counting. out " or " counting in " a candidate. The suggestion dawned upon me like a sug gestion of a crime. Such remarks make no impression noAv. I have become too familiar with the practice, pro fessionally and otherwise. The person referred to after- Avards became a Democratic leader. I still occasionally meet him, but never Avithout recalling this observation Avith a sensation Avhich is neither creditable to him nor agreeable to myself. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 17 III. OFFICE-SEEKING BY AN INEXPERIENCED CANDIDATE.— APPOINT MENT TO THE PEACE CONFERENCE.— SENATOR FOOT, OF VER MONT.— HIS PREMONITIONS OF REDELLION. The October elections decided the presidential contest. Pennsylvania was the keystone. " As goes Pennsyh'a- nia, so goes the Union !" was the slogan of all the politi cal clans. The praises which were the reward of my services in Pennsylvania naturally increased my estimate of the value of those services, so that when I returned to my law office I looked about to see what office Avould suitably reward me. I had been treading out corn for a month — the Republicans would not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn — the laborer was Avorthy of his re ward, and I did not doubt that I should be strongly sup ported as a candidate for any place in my own state for which I might apply. The collectorship of the port would, as I thought, just suit me — the salary Avas not large — under two thousand dollars, but it was the largest in the state in the gift of the President, and therefore best worthy of my attention. Mindful of the success of the traditional early bird, I would take time by the forelock and secure the support of my Republican friends before any other candidate started in the race. I would not even wait for the elec tion. I would begin now. I prepared letters to leading Republicans in all parts of the state. I am sure they were models. I put the whole responsibility upon my friends. Personally, I said, I Avas rather disinclined to 2 18 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN take the office — but my friends Avere so persistent — they insisted that I ought to receive some substantial reAvard — that my appointment would do credit to the state, to myself, and the party. I had decided to take their ad vice. If the gentleman addressed agreed with them, Avould he kindly furnish me with his written recommen dation to the President for my appointment ? The result Avas a trifle disappointing in t\vo respects. My friends, " all with one consent, began to make ex cuse." Every one had pledged himself months before to some one else. Candidates were as numerous as the counties. A few answered that they would stand by me if I said so, although it would embarrass them to recede from their pledges. The general tenor of the correspond ence might be poetically expressed in the solemn words, " Too late ! Too late ! Ye cannot enter now." October, November, December passed ; Lincoln and Hamlin Avere knoAvn to be elected. What power Avas it that closed our eyes to current events and their conse quences ? The people of the South Avere infatuated — of the North, blind ! blind ! Was it one of those mysterious Avays in Avhich the Almighty Avorks his sovereign will, Avhich led to the sealing up of Northern eyes ? Day after day we saAV the funds of the United States transferred to Southern depositories ; cannon, small-arms, and military supplies transferred to Southern arsenals ; Southern lead ers seizing upon and appropriating moneys which the United States held in trust for Avards of the nation. South Carolina called a convention Avhich passed an or dinance of secession, without one dissenting vote. Her representatives and senators in Congress shook the dust of Washington from their feet and left the capital, with insult aud contumely for the Union on their lips ; every Southern state engaged openly in preparations for the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 19 destruction of the Union ; and while all this was going on the people of the North Avent, one to his cattle, an other to his merchandise, and if they cast a glance at the angry clouds gathering in the Southern sky, declared that they might result in a sprinkle, but that we should not have much of a shoAver after all ! To us the Union Avas the ark of our covenant, men might rage and bluster and threaten, but to touch it Avith unhalloAved hands in volved a measure of depravity of Avhich we believed no American capable. That fine old merchant, manufacturer, and patriot, Erastus Fairbanks, was then Governor of Vermont. On Saturday, the second day of February, late in the day, he telegraphed me that he wished me to lay aside all busi ness, and leave Burlington that evening for Washington — that I was appointed a member of a delegation — my associates Avould meet me on the train — one of his aids would bring us our commissions,with the feAv suggestions he thought proper to make to us. I obeyed his injunction. When the train reached Troy, there Avere on board of it Gen. H. H. Baxter, ex-Governor Hall, Messrs. Un derwood, Harris, and myself. There, a letter from the governor was handed us, stating that we were dele gates appointed to represent Vermont in a Peace Confer ence called by Governor Letcher, of Virginia, to be held in Washington on the 4th of February, only two days later. Governor Fairbanks bound us by no instructions, made but one brief recommendation. It was that we should consult with our delegation in Congress, and then represent Vermont in the conference according to her principles and her traditions, Avitholding nothing that ought to be surrendered, submitting to nothing that was wrong, unjust, or inconsistent with Republican principles. We reached Washington on time ; other delegates 2Q RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN boarding the train as it passed through NeAV York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. We went to Willard's, then the principal hotel, owned by tAvo young Vermont ers, who informed us that the city was crowded with strangers, principally from the South. With a brief delay to clear ourselves from the dust of travel, we drove to the Capitol. Senator Foot was the only member of the Vermont delegation we found there. We knew him at home as a prudent, cautious, rather re tiring statesman, very conservative in his vieAvs, and eminently cautious in his expressions, in short, a typical Vermonter in Avhom all Vermonters had unlimited con fidence. He met us with his usual cordiality, but the first mention of the Peace Conference appeared to enrage him. " It is a fraud, a trick, a deception," he exclaimed, " a device of traitors and conspirators again to cheat the North and to gain time to ripen their conspiracy. I at first hoped Governor Fairbanks Avould pay no attention to it. I am now glad that he has sent delegates. At home they do not believe Ave are living here in a nest of traitors. You Avill be able to see and judge for your selves !" Ex-Governor Hall, one of the most amiable of men, was shocked by the senator's violence. " You do not mean, senator," he said, " that we are on the eve of rebellion — that there is danger ?" " That is precisely what I do mean," he said ; " the plot to seize the Capitol and prevent the inauguration of Lincoln is already formed — they will prevent the count ing of the votes, if they dare. Their chief present diffi culty is want of time. That time you are to assist them in gaining by useless debates in a misnamed Peace Con ference. But you have no need to take my Avord for it. Keep your eyes open and judge for yourselves !" AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. £1 " We are here for consultation," continued Governor Hall ; " we have decided to do nothing except upon con sultation and the advice of our delegation in Congress." "I think you are wise in that," said the senator. " There are no divided counsels in the delegation. We all think alike, but possibly I express my opinions with the least reserve." As Ave Avere about to AvithdraAv the senator observed : "There is one subject in addition which I ought to mention. I should speak plainly, possibly to your sur prise. The city is overrun Avith Southerners. A feAv of them are gentlemen, but the large majority are roughs and adventurers, Avho profess great contempt for what they call the coAvardice of Northern men. They are all armed — they believe that Northern men will run rather than fight — that they may be insulted Avith impunity. They Avill probably insult you. I believe street fights Avould be common if these felloAvs were not ruled Avith an iron hand by their leaders, Avho do not Avant any fighting until they are prepared. Northern men noAv carry arms Avho never carried them before, and are pre pared to defend themselves. I think each individual must determine such matters for himself. I have de cided that, so long as I represent Vermont as one of her senators, I shall express my opinions touching her in terests upon all proper occasions in such language as I deem consistent Avith the dignity and position of a sena tor. If assaulted or insulted for such expressions, I shall undertake to defend the honor of Vermont. I do not believe in fighting, nor in submitting to the charge of coAvardice. These men are traitors, conspirators, rebels, leagued together for the destruction of the Union. I do not hesitate to tell them so to their faces !" "Senator!" exclaimed one of our number, astounded 22 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN at these expressions from one ordinarily so prudent and self-controlled. " Do you advise us to prepare for street fights ? to carry pistols ? If I had a loaded pistol in my pocket I should feel as if I were preparing to commit a burglary." " I advise nothing," he responded, " I am merely put ting you upon your guard. You are Vermonters ; you knoAV how to defend your state and yourselves. After you have been here a few days you Avill judge for your selves whether it Avill be Avise for you to carry arms." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. £3 IV. NOTES ON THE PEACE CONFERENCE.— THE PLANS OF THE CON SPIRATORS.— ADAM GUROWSKI.— JAMES S. AVADSWORTII. I do not aspire to the dignity of a historian. I am not writing a history of the Peace Conference. I may, how ever, venture to hope that the incidents I shall describe may be of use to future historians. They concern the very origin of the rebellion. The Peace Conference Avas a prelude to the bloody drama which followed it, and its record must be read and understood by those Avho would comprehend in their chronological order the events which ended all hope of a peaceful solution of the long- pending controversy between freedom and slavery by the opening gun against Fort Sumter. Willard's great hotel, like a parasitic plant, had grad ually groAvn around and taken in an old Washington church, which Avas then called Willard's Hall. Here the members of the Conference were notified to assemble. They found that its self-appointed managers had attend ed to all the preliminary work. Without any effort to ascertain who were commissioned as members, a tempo rary chairman and secretary were elected, and a Com mittee on Rules and Organization was appointed. An uninstructed member then moved the admission of re porters for the press, a large number of whom were then waiting at the door, directed, as the member said, to make public the proceedings of the most important con ference which had been held since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. 24 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Mr. James A. Seddon, of Virginia, Avho assumed the duties of managing director of the Conference, objected. He did not see that any good could possibly come of giv ing publicity to its proceedings. Wide differences of opinion would be found to exist at the outset ; these Avere to be harmonized by mutual concessions and com promises. The interference and criticisms of the press, he said, Avould destroy every hope of success. Members would not have the courage to consent to necessary compromises if they were subjected to the daily attacks of the newspapers. If the Conference was to produce any good results, it must transact its business behind closed doors. The motion to admit the reporters, to use the Southern phrase, " passed in the negative." The programme arranged for the three folloAving da)Ts was followed Avithout the slightest change. The Repub licans contented themselves by looking on, Avithout any interference Avith the harmony of the proceedings. Ex- President John Tyler Avas made permanent president, a series of rules was reported by the committee and adopted ; a Committee on Credentials Avas then appoint ed and made an immediate report ; a Committee on Resolutions, consisting of one member from each state represented, to which all resolutions and propositions for the adjustment of existing difficulties betAveen states were to be referred without debate, Avas appointed ly ihe president. After some informal consultations among themselA'es, the Republican members decided that the time had ar rived for them to take a more active part in the exer cises. One of them, after remarking that a record of the resolutions introduced and disposed of should be pre served for future use, moved the appointment of a re cording secretary. Another insisting that every mem- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 25 ber should be accurately reported, and should be able to show to his constituents Avhat he had said as well as how he had voted, moved the appointment of an official stenographer, Avho should take notes of the debates and hold them subject to the order of the Conference. Both motions Avere promptly rejected. I obtained the bad distinction of casting the first fire brand into the inflammable materials of the Conference. I introduced a formal resolution for the appointment of a stenographer, Avhich was laid on the table. I then ob served that it Avas a part of my duty to make an accu rate report of all that transpired in the Conference to the Executive of Vermont ; that I Avas no stenographer, and did not crave the labor I Avas about to undertake ; that, after the votes declining to make any record or to preserve the materials from Avhich a record might after wards be made, I intended openly to take notes and make the best report of the debates and record of the proceedings I could, and to make such use of them as I thought proper. Then there Avas trouble. The Southerners and their Northern allies Avere furious. No member, they said, had a right to disregard the vote of the Conference. One demanded that the Committee on Rules should im mediately report a vote of censure ; another demanded my expulsion, unless I would promise obedience. Mr. Seddon called up an amendment he had offered to the report of the Committee on Rules, prohibiting any com munication of the proceedings except by members to the states they represented, and called for a vote upon it. There was great confusion. A dozen Southerners, each offering different remedies, were all trying to speak at the same time. There Avas but one remark from a Northern delegate — William Curtis Noyes, with a quiet 26 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN emphasis which cut like a finely tempered sabre, said that there was a considerable body of delegates on that floor who intended to secure the rights of every indi vidual delegate. President Tyler, whose discretion never deserted him, saw that the time for his interference had come. He sternly commanded and restored order. He announced peremptorily that the proposed attempt to control the individual conduct of an orderly member, and to interfere with his communications to his constituents, Avas unparliamentary and out of order. The amend ment of Mr. Seddon, by the rule already adopted, must be referred to the Committee. Order Avas restored, the storm passed, and the skies were clear again. Among the singular people at that time collected in Washington, perhaps the most extraordinary person Avas Adam Gurowski. I came to know him intimately after wards, but neither myself nor any one else, so far as I could ascertain, ever kneAV anything of his previous history or of what country he Avas a native. He Avas a fine scholar and writer, with an excellent command of language ; a brilliant conversationalist in all the modern European tongues. He claimed acquaintance with sev eral croAvned heads and many of the statesmen of Eu rope, Avas perfectly familiar Avith diplomatic usages, a gentleman in dress and carriage. Without any very definite knowledge, I formed the conclusion that he Avas a Russian, Avho had been connected with the diplomatic service, but compelled to leave Europe on account of opinions Avhich were someAvhat erratic, if they Avere not revolutionary and socialistic. He Avas unobtrusive, yet he managed to form the acquaintance of everybody of any note, and usually to secure their good opinion. Diplomatists, cabinet officers, senators, and members of the House— everybody Avas accessible to him and re- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. £7 ceived him on a familiar footing. He was the firm friend of the North, and entertained an inveterate hatred of slavery and its influence. I mention him here, be cause I afterwards learned that his ability to obtain re liable information of important facts was phenomenal. His conclusions were usually accurate, though probably in great part the result of intuition. Within a week after our arrival in Washington, Ave found ourselves con versing with Gurowski upon the footing of an acquaint ance, and I believe he had made himself known to every Northern member of the Conference. On the evening of the day of our first flurry in the Conference, Gurowski called at the rooms where the Northern members were accustomed to confer. " Do I intrude ?" he asked. " I felt it my duty to call at once and congratulate you. You are beginning to experience the maternal cares of the ' mother of the presidents,' ' even as a hen gathereth her chickens un der her wing,' etc. How do you Northern gentlemen like the experience ?" We denied his knoAvledge of what had been done in the Conference. He related its action, the substance of the speeches, the president's decision, Avith perfect ac curacy. "You will make a mess of it between you," he said. " These conspirators do not know hoAv to conspire, and you Republicans I — I don't know hoAv to take you. Are you lambs to be eaten up unresistingly by the wolves of secession ? Or are you fishes Avith blood so cold that it cannot be stirred to action? Don't you know the de tails of the plot ? I can give them to you to the dotting of every i and the crossing of every t — from the first capital to the final period. If you kneAV them as I do, you Avould not be Avasting your time in Washington." 28 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I shall give Gurowski's version, not because I think it should be accepted upon his evidence, but because it pre sents in a compact form a plan of which subsequent events furnished strong confirmatory proof. " Mr. Lincoln's election," he said, " decided the ques tion of secession. The leaders agreed that the electoral vote should not be counted, that his election should not be officially declared. General Cass Avas to be quarrelled out of the Cabinet. Mr. Buchanan, naturally infirm of purpose and weakened by age, could be controlled by the remaining members, Avhile as much as possible of the national property was transferred into the Southern states. South Carolina was to secede at once — other states to folloAv as fast as possible— Washington was to be packed with fighting Southerners, and on the 13th of February, during the count of the electoral vote, a riot Avas to be started in the House, the Capitol and the de partments seized, and a neAV confederacy proclaimed Avith Jefferson Davis as President ad interim. " Floyd and Cobb had upset the entire plan by their premature and criminal acts, which drove them from the Cabinet, and brought in General Dix and Mr. Stanton. General Cass had been driven out as they intended, but in a brief spasm of resolution Mr. Buchanan had insisted upon putting Judge Black in his place, and Judge Black could not be trusted by the South. General Scott also had made an unexpected difficulty. Old and rheumatic as he Avas, he had declined to submit to temptation or control; he had smelt the danger, collected such regu lars from the army as he could in Washington, and had given the plotters notice that the first one that laid a hand of force on the government should be shot doAvn without trial, mercy, or delay. When Congress convened in December, the plot to prevent the count of the elec- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 29 toral vote Avas a failure. There had been too many rogues and fools admitted into the counsels of the con spirators. " Then a neAV conspiracy had to be formed. It Avas agreed that Jefferson Davis should be its head and gen eral manager. Special work might be assigned by him to individuals, but he alone should determine how far others should be admitted to a knowledge of its details. It dated from the day, or rather the night, of the 5th of January, when Judah Benjamin, Slidell, Mallory, and Mason met at the house of Mr. Davis in Washington. It was then agreed that the electoral vote should be counted and the result declared. All the senators and representatives should remain in Congress, draAving their pay, until their respective states had seceded. South Carolina Avas already out of the Union. In the Gulf states, secession should be hastened as much as possible. Slidell and Mallory were to prepare a plan for the con federacy and to call a convention of the seceded states to adopt it at Montgomery, Alabama, not later than the middle of February. The Border states could not be voted out of the Union in time, but they Avere nearest Washington, and could provide the men to seize the government on the 4th of March, to which date the rebellion was now postponed. " Here," exclaimed GuroAvski, " comes in the most dis reputable part of the conspiracy. The people of the free states, their representatives in Congress, were to be played Avith like children. They were to be entertained by the hope of an arrangement, of some peaceful settle ment of the controversy, which, at the fall election, passed irrevocably beyond the limits of peaceful settle ment. This part of the plot Avas committed to Mr. Mason. Virginia, the home of Washington, the mother 30 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN of the presidents, should apparently intervene to save the Union. Her legislature Avas in session ; her governor should invite the states to send delegates to a conference to be held in Washington, to agree upon terms of com promise and peace. The North Avould respond, the con ference Avould occupy the time until March 4th, and so long as such a conference existed the North would sleep on undisturbed, doing nothing in the Avay of prep aration until aAvakened by the sound of revolutionary cannon on the morning appointed for Mr. Lincoln's in auguration. " The rest you knoAV," he continued. " Here you are permitting yourselves to be used as the instruments of a treasonable conspiracy, Avhen you ought to be at home, organizing and drilling your regiments, preparing to de fend the only government Avorth living under left upon the face of the earth. " Adieu, gentlemen," said the old man, politely taking his leave ; " I have made my little speech. I have told you plain truths, because I love this republic, how Avell you Avill never knoAV until you have passed through my experiences, from which may the Almighty Father pro tect and preserve you." There Avas present one of the noblest men ever pro duced by this or any country, Avho afterwards laid doAvn his life for the Union — he Avas the model of an Amer ican gentleman — James S. Wadsworth, of New York. " I suppose that man is a crazy foreigner," said Mr. Wadsworth, "but I do wish there were not so much method nor quite so much intelligence in his madness. If he is half right, our position here deserves the con tempt of the Avorld. Yet we cannot deny that, Ayith few exceptions, the Northern press hailed the invitation of Virginia to this Conference Avith favor and commen- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 31 dation. It urged the Northern states to accept it, to send as delegates their most conservative and compro mising men. It gives me a chill to think how carefully the state of NeAV York has made up her delegation. Subtract one member from it, and the South to-day controls one half that delegation. I begin to think it is time we held a caucus, and found how many members we have upon whom Ave could absolutely rely." There Avas sAvift assent to Mr. Wadsworth's sugges tion. Different members undertook to notify a caucus to be held the folloAving evening. Mr. Clay, of Ken tucky, George W. Summers, of Virginia, and other Southern members came in, and there was no opportu nity for further consultation. 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN V. AN OFFICIAL CALL UPON THE PRESIDENT. — IT UNITES THE LOYAL MEMBERS OF THE CONFERENCE. Theee Avas but little for the Conference to do until the Committee had reported their propositions for the amend ment of the Constitution. President Tyler, on the 7th of February, announced that an official call upon the Presi dent Avas a manifest duty of the Conference, that he had made the necessary arrangements, and the President would receive us immediately upon the adjournment. This call Avas so clearly a part of the programme that no objection Avas made to it. Preceded by the Vir ginia delegation, with President Tyler at its head, Ave marched to the Executive Mansion with the solemnity of a funeral procession. It was to the Northern members a memorable call. It would be more agreeable to omit any account of it, as I should certainly do, were it not that the Executive Avas a factor in the existing situation which cannot be com prehended unless the measure of his influence is under stood. We went to the White House, believing that the President, the sworn defender of the Constitution, the head of the army and the navy, held in his OAvn hands the poAver to command all the resources of the republic for the crushing of secession and the suppression of treason. We came aAvay convinced that, so far as the defence of the Union depended upon him, the barrier against secession Avas so frail that a breath Avould blow it away. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 33 We found tho venerable President advanced in years, shaken in body, and uncertain in mind. He exhibited every symptom of an old man Avorn out by worry. No one doubted his personal fidelity to his country, but every action, all his conversation with the delegates, in dicated that his mind Avas completely unsettled by appre hension and anxiety. He received every person presented with effusion, Avith uncontrollable emotion. His thoughts ran oxclusiA'ely upon compromise and concession. It Avas very painful to see him throw his arms around the neck of one stranger after another, and, Avith streaming eyes, beg of him to yield anything to save his country from " bloody, fratricidal Avar." This appeared to be his favor ite phrase. He used it many, many times. He had not one Avord of condemnation for disunion, secession, or treason. Ho appeared to look upon the South as a deeply injured party, to Avhich the North owed apology and promise of bettor conduct in future. It Avas natural that tho South should resent assaults upon her domestic institutions, ho said, and that she should demand, if not indemnity for tlie past, at least security for the future. That security tho Conference could give. By consent ing to tho amendments to tho Constitution Avhich tho South demanded, because they Avere indispensable to sat isfy the Southern peoplo, the Conference could give peace to a distracted country, and save the Union ! What a noble object ! What a patriotic Avork ! How could we stop to measure concessions Avhich Avould produce such grand results ? His remarks Avere noticeable for Avhat they did not, as well as for Avhat they did, comprise. They were so nearly identical Avith those of the Secession delegates as to suggest consultation. They did not contain the slight est reference to his successor or to his incoming adminis- 3 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN tration. When a delegate suggested that, by the elec tion of Mr. Lincoln, the people had pronounced judgment upon the important claims now made by the South, and that the Conference had no power to reverse that judg ment, there was an immediate interference in the con- A^ersation by several of the Southern delegates, and a diversion to other topics. Such a reference was evi dently inconsistent with the preconcerted harmony of the visit. " What do you think of it ?" said one Northern dele gate to another, after witnessing a number of repetitions of the emotional conduct of the President as different members were presented to him. " These vieAvs are not original with President Buchan an," he said. " They are the doctrines of Sir Boyle Roche, the inimitable maker of Irish bulls. He de clared emphatically that he would give up a part, and, if necessary, the whole of the Constitution, to preserve the remainder /" This call upon the President produced an impression very different from that anticipated by those Avho brought it about. It was well known that disagree ments in the Cabinet had arisen. General Cass had been compelled to resign. The position of Secretary Stanton Avas not, at that time, knoAvn to us. The despatch of General Dix to Hemphill Jones, "If any man hauls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot !" had sent a thrill through the North, showing that there was one member of the Cabinet who was true to his country. Now, it was plain to the delegates that a disorganized and divided Cabinet, Avith its President thus broken in mind and body, formed an Executive Department in no condition to cope Avith the adroit, energetic agents of secession. The dangers of the situation became appar- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 35 ent. Months of debate could not have united the North ern delegates together so firmly as the insensible influ ence of this formal call. Even before they left the White House, many had decided that loyal men of all shades of political opinion must noAv stand together in a firm pur pose to maintain the integrity of an unbroken Union, and to resist all further aggressions of the slave poAver. That evening a caucus Avas held, attended by nearly every Republican delegate Avho had supported Mr. Lin coln. Mr. Chase was made its permanent chairman. A resolution Avas adopted to the effect that no action should be taken in the Conference Avhich the Republi cans could delay, until it had been first considered in the caucus. Since probably none but national ques tions would arise in the Conference, upon Avhich there Avould be only slight differences in Northern opinion, it was decided that the co-operation of all loyal Democrats should be cordially invited. From that time the Repub lican delegates acted as a compactly united body. 36 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN VI. ANOTHER OFFICIAL CALL. — GENERAL SCOTT.— HIS LOYALTY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE DECLARATION OF THE ELEC TORAL VOTE. The 13th of February, the day appointed by law for counting the electoral vote, was rapidly approaching. The impression Avas almost universal that the count would not be interrupted — that the project of seizing the government by force was postponed to the 4th of March, the day of inauguration. Still, there Avere many indications, very troublesome to patriotic minds. The influx of Southerners into Washington increased. Every available room in the hotels, boarding or private houses, was croAvded with guests. They took full possession of all the saloons and places where liquor was sold. One of their favorite pastimes was to collect in front of the liquor saloons and jostle or crowd the " Avhite-livered, black Republicans" and Avomen into the street. The Northern visitors to the capital were careful to avoid all collision Avith them. The air was filled with rumors. Few Northern men in the city doubted that a conspiracy to seize the govern ment existed among the trusted leaders of secession; that the force to execute it Avas organized, armed, and to be furnished by the adjacent states of Maryland and Virginia ; and that the brutal horde which at that time infested the streets of Washington Avas a part of that force. Whether any adequate preparations had been made for the defence of the city against such a force, we AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 37 did not know. There Avas, consequently, a general feel ing of uneasiness ; and if a revolution had broken out at any time, it would not have caused much surprise. I should have mentioned that the argument for excluding the public from the debates of the Conference which had the most force with the Republicans was that the trait ors might seize upon any confusion or disorder that should arise as an excuse for a riot, or an armed attack upon the officers employed to enforce order, and thus give the signal for open rebellion. On the 8th of February, after a brief session of the Conference, filled with this feeling of anxious uncertainty, I determined, somewhat impulsively, to call upon Gen eral Scott, and learn whether any preparations had been made to secure the undisturbed counting of the electoral vote, and declaration of the result on the following Wednesday, only five days later. His headquarters were then in Winder's Building, opposite the old War Department, Avhich at that time was under the control of Judge Holt, the loyal successor of the criminal Floyd. I sent in my card with my address written upon it, and without the least delay Avas shown by Colonel Townsend, one of his aides, into the private room of the lieutenant- general. The grand old man lay upon a sofa. He raised his gigantic frame to a sitting posture. There was infirmity in the movements of his body, but it was forgotten the moment he spoke, for there was no suspicion of weakness in his mind. " A Chittenden of Vermont !" he said. " Why, that was a good name Avhen Ethan Allen took Ticonderoga ! I know the Vermonters — I have commanded them in battle. Well, Vermont must be as true to-day as she has always been. What can the commander of the army do for Vermont ?" , 38 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " Very little, at present," I answered. " I called to pay you my personal respects. You may, however, do me and some others a favor. In common Avith many loyal men, I am anxious about the count of the electoral vote on next Wednesday. Many fear that the vote Avill not be counted nor the result declared." " Pray tell me Avhy it will not be counted ?" he asked, without any apparent effort, but with a voice which rang like an order through a clear-toned trumpet. " There have been threats on that subject," he continued, " but I have heard nothing of them recently. I supposed I had suppressed that infamy. Has it been resuscitated? I have said that any man Avho attempted by force or un parliamentary disorder to obstruct or interfere with the lawful count of the electoral vote for President and Vice- President of the United States should be lashed to the muzzle of a twelve-pounder and fired out of a windoAV of the Capitol. I would manure the hills of Arlington with fragments of his body, were he a senator or chief magistrate of my native state I It is my duty to sup press insurrection — my duty/" It had been upon my lips to ask him Avhether he had any adequate force to stamp out a revolution in the capital ; but it was aAvkward to do so. He spoke of his duty as something inevitable ; its performance was not to be doubted. Accordingly, I said : " Permit me to express my gratitude, general. There is relief, encouragement, satisfaction in your assurance. The Vermont delegation will sleep more quietly to-night Avhen they hear it.'' " I Avill say further," he continued, " that I do not be lieve there is any immediate danger of revolution. That there has been, I know. But the leaders of secession are doubtful about the result. They are satisfied that some- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 39 body Avould get hurt. I have the assurance of the Vice- President of the United States that he will announce the election of the President and Vice-President, and that no appeal to force Avill be attempted. His word is reli able. A few drunken roAvdies may risk and lose their lives ; there will be nothing which deserves the name of a revolution. But no promises relieve me from my duty. While I command the army there will be no revolution in the city of Washington!" I made no secret of this intervieAv Avith General Scott. It soon became known that, although he was suffering intensely from disease, he Avas always to be found at his quarters, and that he Avas the most accessible public man in Washington. His visitors were numerous. Every loyal man left his presence with his hopes for the future strengthened, his faith renewed, his confidence in the General of the Army absolute, his principal regret be ing that such a tried and true patriot could not exert a more poAverful influence upon the administration. There was an energy in the emphatic declarations of this loyal veteran Avhich compelled belief, even in the hearts of traitors, that he understood his duty, and had accurately estimated his own ability to insure its performance. 40 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN VII. THE 13 TH OF FEBRUARY, 1861.— THE ELECTION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN DECLARED.— FIRMNESS OF VICE-PRESIDENT BRECK INRIDGE.— ANGER OF THE SECESSIONISTS. All governments have their crises. Our republic never escaped one more alarming than that of February 13th, 1861. It Avas the day appointed for the seizure of Washington. Preparations had been made ; armed bod ies of men had been enlisted and drilled, and many of them had reported in the city pursuant to orders. When the managers Avere compelled to postpone the rebellion, these recruits declined to accept the necessity or to put off the opening drama. They had assembled for a revo lution Avith its natural consequences — booty and plun der ; any delay Avas felt to be a personal injury to each individual. The sun rose in a cloudless sky on the morning of Wednesday, February 13th, the day appointed by law for counting the electoral vote and declaring the result. Train after train from the South, the West, and the North poured its volume of passengers into the streets of an already overcroAvded city. As early as eight o'clock in the morning croAvds began to climb the sides of Capitol Hill, every individual intent on securing a comfortable seat in the gallery of the hall in Avhich the two Houses of Congress Avere to meet in joint assembly. They Avere doomed to disappointment. At every en trance to the building stood a guard of civil but inflex ible soldiers, sternly barring admission. Prayers, bribes, AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 41 entreaties, oaths, objurgations, were alike unavailing. No one could pass except senators and representatives, and those Avho had the written ticket of admission signed by the Speaker of the House or the Vice-Presi dent, the presiding officer of the Senate. Even mem bers could not pass in their friends. Consequently the amount of profanity launched forth against the guards would have completely annihilated them if words could kill. The result was that, although solid humanity out side could have been measured by the acre, the inside of the building was less crowded than usual, and there was no difficulty in passing from room to room in all parts of the Capitol. The members of the Conference had been, by vote, admitted to the floor of the House of Representatives. My certificate of membership enabled me to pass the guard without difficulty, and by the courtesy of a door keeper I secured a seat in the gallery, where my view of the hall Avas unobstructed. By twelve o'clock the galleries Avere comfortably filled, and all the seats and standing-room in the hall were occupied, except the seats reserved for members of the two Houses. The Southerners were a vast major ity ; in fact, except the members, there were very few persons present from the Northern states. To one who knew nothing of the hot treason Avhich was seething beneath the quiet exterior of the spectators, the exer cises would have appeared to be tame and uninter esting. Except the guards at the entrances, there were no sol diers visible. None Avere supposed to be present. A friend who resided in the city recognized me and took a seat by my side. Aware that he had organized a selected body of loyal men into a regiment, of which he 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN was colonel, more than a month previously, I expressed my surprise at his presence in citizen's dress, and said, "I supposed you would be on duty to-day Avith your regiment." He smilingly replied, " We are minute men, you know ; that is, we enter a room as private citizens, and come out of it a minute afterwards, a regiment, armed Avith loaded repeating-rifles. Such a thing might happen here to-day, if the necessity arose. My men are within easy call, and their rifles are not far aAvay. Some men get excited on election day, and require con trol. However, I think this is to be a very quiet elec tion." Two large connecting committee-rooms, on the north side of the hall, Avere, as I had noticed, inaccessible to all persons. This observation of the colonel explained the reason why. The House was noAv called to order, and my attention was directed to its proceedings. First, a message was ordered to be sent by the House to the Senate, informing senators that the House was in ses sion, awaiting tlieir presence, so that in a joint assem bly the electoral votes for President and Vice-President might be opened and counted. There was a gathering of Southern members on the floor below me, which a young member from Virginia (Avhose name is omitted, because he is now, I have no doubt, an earnest friend of the Union) was addressing with much gesticulation. He Avas urging that then was "the best time to give them some music, before the Senate came in." At that moment the Senate of the United States Avas announced, and, preceded by Vice- President Breckinridge, the officers leading the way, the senators entered. The members of the House arose and remained standing, Avhile the senators took their seats in a semicircle arranged for them in front of the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 43 clerk's desk. The Vice-President Avas conducted to the chair. Senator Trumbull, and Messrs. Washburn and Phelps of the House, who had been appointed tellers, Avere shown to seats at the clerk's desk. Absolute silence prevailed throughout the hall. Vice-President Breckinridge rose, and in tones no louder than those of an ordinary conversation, but Avhich Avere heard in the most distant corner of the gallery, announced that the two Houses Avere assembled, pur suant to the Constitution, in order that the electoral votes might be counted for President and Vice-Presi dent, for the term commencing on the fourth day of March, 1861. " It is my duty," he said, " to open the certificates of election in the presence of the two Houses, and I noAv proceed to the performance of that duty." There is an unmeasured, latent energy in the per sonal presence of a strong man. If he could be remem bered only for his serATices on that day, Vice-President Breckinridge Avould fill a high place in the gallery of American statesmen, and merit the permanent gratitude of the American people. He kneAV that the day Avas one of peril to the republic — that he was presiding over Avhat appeared to be a joint meeting of two delib erative bodies, but which, beneath the surface, was a caldron of inflammable materials, heated almost to the point of explosion. But he had determined that the re sult of the count should be declared, and his purpose was manifested in every word and gesture. Jupiter never ruled a council on Olympus with a firmer hand. It Avas gloved, but there was iron beneath the glove. One member rose — "Except questions of order, no motion can be entertained," said the presiding officer. The member exclaimed that he wished to raise a point of order. " Was the count of the electoral vote to pro- 44 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ceed under menace? Should members be required to perform a constitutional duty before the janizaries of Scott Avere withdraAvn from the hall ?" " The point of order is not sustained," Avas the decision Avhich sup pressed the member, more by its emphasis than by its words. The presiding officer opened the envelope con taining the electoral vote of Maine, handed it to Senator Trumbull, who read out the long certificate. The vote of Maine Avas announced for Lincoln and Hamlin. There was a slight ripple of applause which Avas instantly sup pressed. Several other states followed, the reading of each record occupying some minutes. Senator Douglas suggested that the reading of the formal parts of the re maining certificates be omitted. There was no objection, and the announcement and record of the A'otes proceeded rapidly to the end. The only interruption was an ex pression of mingled contempt, respect, ridicule, and ven eration when the vote of South Carolina Avas declared. In a silence absolutely profound, the Vice-President arose from his seat, and, standing erect, possibly the most dignified and imposing person in that presence, declared : " That Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, having received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, is duly elected President of the United States for the four years beginning on the fourth day of March, 1861 ; and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, having received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, is duly elected Vice-President of the United States for the same term." The Avork of the joint meeting Avas completed. The Senate retired to its OAvn chamber. The fuse Avas fired, the outbreak attempted, but the hoped-for explosion did not take place. Its object had failed; the election of Abraham Lincoln by the people of the United States AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 45 had been proclaimed to the world. A dozen angry, disappointed men were on their feet before the door had closed upon the last senator, clamoring for recognition by the speaker. For a few minutes the tumult Avas so great that it was impossible to restore order. The con centrated venom of the secessionists was ejected upon the General of the Army. There Avere jeers for the "rail-splitter," sharp and fierce shouts for "cheers for Jeff. Davis," and "cheers for South Carolina." But hard names and curses for " old Scott " broke out every- Avhere on the floor and in the gallery of the crowded hall. The quiet spectators seemed in a moment turned to mad men. " Superannuated old dotard !" " Traitor to the state of his birth !" " CoAvard !" " Free-state pimp !" and any number of similar epithets Avere shoAvered upon him. Members called on the old traitor to remove his " minions," his " janizaries," his " hirelings," his " blue- coated slaves," from the Capitol. I glanced around me. The seat next me was empty ; my military friend, and the quiet gentlemen I had noticed near by, had van ished — where and for Avhat purpose I knew only too Avell. For a feAV moments I thought they Avould offi ciate in a revolution. It was, however, " vox et prceterea nihil." The power of the human lung is limited, and howling quickly ex hausts it. The speaker soon pounded the House back to order, and the danger inside had passed. I Avent out at the north front of the Capitol, and, entering the first carriage I found, I ordered the colored driver to take- me to my hotel. He drove through the crowd on that side without difficulty. It Avas orderly and undemon strative, for just beyond the Square was the old Capitol, and along the street in front of it were two batteries of artillery, quiet themselves, but none the less causes of 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the quiet around them. The avenue in the direction of the Treasury Avas choked with a howling, angry mob. We escaped through one of the cross streets to F Street, and reached the rear entrance of Willard's Hotel. The mob had possession of the avenue far into the night. Reputable people kept in -doors, and left the patriots Avho Avere so injured by the election of Mr. Lincoln to consume bad whiskey and cheer for Jeff. Davis undisturbed. There Avas much street-fighting, many arrests by the police, but no revolution. I believed at that time, and I have never since doubt ed, that the country was indebted for the peaceful count of the electoral vote, the proclamation of the election of Mr. Lincoln, and the suppression of an attempted revolution on that day, to the joint influence of Major- General Winfield Scott and Vice-President Breckin ridge. A perfect understanding existed betAveen them. General Scott kneAV that he could rely upon the prom ised assistance of the Vice-President, who had repeat edly declared that until the end of his term he should perform the duties of his office, under the sanction of his oath. Faithfully, without evasion or paltering with his conscience, after the manner of Cobb and Floyd, he kept his pledge. General Scott defined his purposes upon all proper occasions, especially to the apologists for secession, Avith emphasis, and if he was not misrep resented, sometimes Avith an approach to profanity. When challenged by Wigfall, whether he Avould dare to arrest a senator of the United States for an overt act of treason, he was reported to ha\re ansAvered, " No ! I Avill blow him to h — 1 !" These tAvo men, both South ern-born, on the 13th of February conducted the repub lic safely through one of the most imminent perils that ever threatened its existence. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 47 VIII. ANOTHER INCIDENT OF FEBRUARY 13TH.— JUDGE SMALLEY ON TREASON.— SEIZURE OF ARMS IN NEAV YORK CITY.— ACTION OF ITS MAYOR. Another incident of the same 13th of February illus trates the rapidity with which the spirit of national patriotism Avas overcoming the ties of party, and driv ing good men into their true relations to the coming contest. Hon. David A. Smalley, of Vermont, had, in the nominating convention, powerfully contributed to, if he had not caused, the nomination of Mr. Buchanan. He was chairman of the Democratic National Commit tee which conducted the successful campaign, and he had been reAvarded by Mr. Buchanan with the appoint ment of Judge of the Federal Court for the District of Vermont. The appointment was political, and few sup posed that he Avould exhibit any sympathies of a higher type than those for his party. He proved a national disappointment, especially to those who imagined that he would carry his politics upon the bench, or that he would not interfere Avith treasonable practices, because indulged in by Southern Democrats. Judge Smalley held the January term of the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York. In his charge to the grand jury he had defined in vigorous terms the elements of the crime of treason, and the duty of grand juries to make inquest and present every guilty person. He Avas the first Federal judge who 48 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN mentioned the subject, and on that account and because of its energetic language tho charge attracted wide attention, and one result of its influence was the seizure by the police of New York City of a consignment of arms to the state of Georgia, only a few days after the charge was delivered. This seizure was denounced in severe terms by Mayor Fernando Wood, in a corre spondence Avith Senator Toombs of Georgia, as an unjus tifiable and illegal interference Avith private property, for Avhich the city of NeAV York ought not to be held responsible, because the mayor, most unfortunately, had no control over the police, or he would have summarily punished such an outrage. This semi-proclamation of the mayor of New York had given great comfort to our Southern brethren in Washington, who regarded it as a guarantee against further interference with such ship ments, and a sure indication that the commercial cities of the North, particularly New York, warmly sympa thized Avith secession, and rejected the vieAvs of Judge Smalley. Nor was this conclusion of the active agents of seces sion so remarkable as it may appear to the present gen eration. Some weeks before Judge Smalley hurled his judicial bolt against Northern traitors, South Carolina had defined treason to consist in adhering to the enemies of that commonAvealth, and giving them aid and com fort ; a crime to be punished Avith death and an added penalty, supposed to be especially severe Avhere Chris tian observances were so universal, death without benefit of clergy ! A leading newspaper in Alabama had an nounced that Mr. Lincoln's life Avould not be Avorth a Aveek's purchase after a single gun had been fired ao-ainst Fort Sumter. Mr. Benjamin had taken leave of the Senate in Avhat he called " a conciliatory speech," in AND HIS ADMLNISTRATION. 49 which he prophesied that the South could never be sub jugated, a prediction received by the packed galleries Avith uproarious shouts of applause. When, after such expressions, the mayor of NeAV York declared that inter ference Avith the shipment of guns into the South, to be used against the government, Avas a lawless interference with private rights of property, it is not singular that inexperienced traitors deemed it safe to continue their treasonable commerce in contempt of Judge Smalley's charge. The announcement of the election of Mr. Lincoln was not the only act of oppression which the 13th of Feb ruary imposed upon the persecuted agents of secession. They had shipped another consignment from NeAV York, this time of fixed ammunition, on a steamer bound for the port of Charleston, and the incorrigible police, not having the fear of the mayor before their eyes, had seized and carried it aAvay. Instead of ordering the ammunition to be released without notice and without delay, Judge Smalley had returned the papers to the lawyer who made the application, with an expression of his regret that the police "had not also seized the rascals Avho made the shipment." This seizure was the subject of extended comment in Washington, and among the secessionists the opinion was almost universal that they could not remain in a Union Avhere such tyranny Avas tolerated. 4 50 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN IX. AN ALTERCATION IN THE PEACE CONFERENCE.— SENATOR LOT M. MORRILL AND COMMODORE STOCKTON.— A TEST OF NORTH ERN COURAGE. The Northern delegates so conducted themselves as to secure the respect of the gentlemen from the South, and Avere careful to avoid contact with the rougher classes. In the good-natured discussions, Avhich sometimes oc curred, of the relative fighting qualities of the represen tatives of the tAvo sections, the Northerners generally admitted (at all events they did not deny) that they were not fighting men, and held with Falstaff that discretion was the better part of valor. An incident occurred in the Conference, however, Avhich may be Avorth relating, for it produced an impression that some Northern men, notwithstanding their protestations, Avere not altogether destitute of personal courage. Two days after the peaceable election of Mr. Lincoln had been proclaimed, and before the heated brains of many Southern visitors to the capital Avere reduced to their normal temperature, the Committee on Resolutions made a majority and minority report to the Conference. That of the minority may be dismissed as unimportant ; that of the majority recommended amendments to the Federal Constitution, which should assert the right of the OAvner to transport liis slave through any state or territory and into any state or territory south of lati tude 36° 30' ; the admission of neAV states north or south of that parallel Avith or Avithout slavery, as the people of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 51 the new state might determine ; that slavery in the Dis trict of Columbia should not be abolished Avithout the consent of Maryland ; and that, Avhen these amendmehts were adopted, they, with certain other articles of the Constitution, should not be changed without the consent of all the states. These propositions were not prolix, but they were a comprehensive abandonment of the vital principles upon Avhich the people had just passed final, decisive judgment in the election of Mr. Lincoln. It may appear incredi ble, after the lapse of time, but it is the fact that many delegates from the free states — four out of the nine from the state, and one of them from the city of New York — were ready and voted to accept these drastic measures, solely to avoid a civil war, without any pledge that one of the six states Avhich had then seceded would return to the Union. While the majority of the Committee claimed that their report presented fair terms of compromise, which all the states ought to accept as conditions of per petual union, Mr. Seddon, of Virginia, objected to them, because they did not contain sufficient guarantees ; in fact, because they did not render the humiliation of the free states sufficiently abject. The general debate was opened by Mr. Seddon. He was the most conspicuous and active member of his dele gation, which comprised several distinguished men. His personal appearance was extraordinary. His frame was fleshless as that of John Randolph, and he was equally with that statesman intense in his hatred of all forms of Northern life — from the statesman of NeAV England to the sheep that fed upon her hillsides. The pallor of his face, his narrow chest, sunken eyes, and attenuated frame indicated the last stages of consumption. His voice, husky at first, cleared with the excitement of debate, in 52 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Avhich he became eloquent. Notwithstanding his spec tral appearance, he survived to become Secretary of "W ar in the Confederacy. He Avas the most poAverful debater of the Conference, skilful, adroit, cunning, the soul of the plot Avhich the Conference was intended to execute. His speech was an arraignment of the free states for offences of which they were not guilty, a picture of the moral beauties of the domestic institution, an attempted demonstration of the equity of the demands of Virginia. He had no word of condemnation for secession, of hope for the return of South Carolina and the five other states which by that time had seceded. He struck the key-note of the debate for slavery, and many Southern speeches folloAved in the same key. Instead of arguing in favor of the report of the majority, the position of tho speak ers appeared to be opposition to any compromise Avhich did not involve the complete humiliation of the North. The effective ansAver to tho speech of Mr. Seddon from a Northern Republican came from Maine, a state repre sented in the Conference by her Congressional delega tion. It Avas made by Lot M. Morrill, one of her sena tors. His age Avas about sixty years, his figure rather slight, his manner retiring, and his general appearance somewhat effeminate. There Avas not a trace of the bully in his composition, not the slightest suspicion of aggressiveness in his character. On the contraiy, he Avould have been selected as almost the last man in tlie Conference to become involved in a personal controversy — as one naturally disposed to concession, who would yield much for the sake of peace. He was never an abo litionist of the extreme typo, but he Avas an early free- soiler, and a good representative of his state in her steadfast opposition to the extension of the territory or the political influence of slavery. His quiet, peaceful AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 53 nature Avas dooopf ivo to strangers ; for at tho bottom lay a stratum of resolution Avhich avouUI havo carried him to the stake before ho avouUI surrender a natural right or abandon an important principle His ideas Avoro clear and decided. J Io possossod great facility in expression and a command of langungo which qualiliod him for tho discussion of great questions wifh a poAVor and force sel dom excelled in any legislative body. Commodore Stockton was one of the dolegatos from New Jersey. Imperious and overbearing by nature, his long service in the navy had accustomed him to com mand, and rendered him intolerant of opposition, or any contradiction of tho opinions Avhich ho entertained. His ago must havo been above seventy years; ho stood six foot high, liis physiquo Avas poAverful and his manner authoritative, lie Avas a Northern man Avith Southern principles. He had a lofty admiration for tho Southern character, and entertained pro-slaveiy views of a more pronounced typo than thoso of tho delegates from tho Border sla.ve-stat.os. 1 Io Avon Id havo been selected as tho most fiery, Senator Morrill as tho least combative, mem ber of tho Conference. Although tho Republicans had abandonodall expecta tion of any beneficial results from tho Conference, and were not very at tent ivo to tho debate, Senator Mori-ill had not been many minutes on his feet boforo ho had a large body of interested auditors. His voice, at first low and quiet, gathered volume as he proceeded, until, as ho approached tho real points in controversy, his lucid argu ments cut like a. Damascus blade. " You tell us," ho said, "that our multiplied offences aro moro than you can endure ; that our unfriendly criti cisms of slavery, our obstructions to the surrender of tho fugitive slaves, our opposition to tho admission of Kan- 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN sas with a constitution which tolerates slavery, justify extreme measures on your part; that, although some have left the Union, the states here represented will con done our offences by one more compromise. But only upon one condition : that we consent to write it into the fundamental law that slavery is to be perpetual in the republic, and that any territory with sufficient popula tion, wherever situated, shall, if its people so vote, come into the Union as a slave state, and its status once fixed, shall be forever unchangeable. " I shall not noAv debate the issues of the past ; I look to the future. I agree with you that the time has come to settle for all future time the grave questions which have disturbed our peace. You say that there is but one way to settle them. That the North must accept what you term another compromise, or the Union must perish. " We have made compromises before, not one of which was ever broken by the North, by every one of Avhich the South ultimately refused to abide. You proposed the Missouri Compromise. You solemnly agreed that all the states north of 36° 30' should be free. How you kept the faith let Kansas answer ! You demanded the Fugitive Slave Act as a condition of preserving the Union. Your demand was conceded, and your slaves have been returned to you by Northern hands from under the shadoAV of Bunker Hill. Now you demand another compromise which changes a free republic into slave territory. You say the North must make the conces sion as the price of union. Must is a word Avhich does not promote a settlement founded upon compromise. If avo must, what then ? Thcro is in your propositions of amendment no pledge, no promise on the part of the South. What does the South propose to do? If we assent to the terms, will South Carolina — will the Gulf AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 55 states return to the Union ? Or Avill the South repeat her history?— do as she has always done before? — perform her agreement as long as it will serve her interests, and then violate — " " Silence, sir !" shouted a voice from a gigantic form, which rushed toAvards Senator Morrill with violent and angry gesticulations. " We will not permit our South ern friends to be charged Avith bad faith, and Avith vio lating an agreement ! No black Republican shall — " The sentence was never completed. In a moment, by a common impulse, tAventy or thirty Republicans were on the floor, and had surrounded Senator Morrill like a living wall. " Back to your seat, you bully !" exclaimed a stahvart Vermonter, the equal of Commodore Stockton in size and his superior in strength and activity. The Southerners rushed to the assistance of their volunteer defender. They could not check the impetus of his com pulsory retreat, until he was forced into his seat. For an instant many believed an armed encounter Avas unavoid able. It was prevented by the prompt intervention of President Tyler. " Order !" he shouted. " Shame upon the delegate who would dishonor this Conference by violence !" His command was obeyed ; the danger passed as suddenly as it had arisen. None of the actors in this scene were proud of their participation. Still, its influence was excellent. It Avould have surprised no one if a gentleman of Senator Morrill's delicate organization had exhibited some excitement or discomposure under such an aggressive attack, supported by an angry crowd which was restrained from bloodshed only by the effective interference of one of their num ber. But the senator's face was not flushed, nor his cir culation apparently quickened by so much as one pulsa- 56 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN tion. Without a tremor in his voice, as soon as order was restored, he continued : " As I Avas inquiring, Mr. President, is it the purpose of the representatives of the slave-power to force this compromise upon us, and then to violate it, as they have violated all former compromises ? You are wasting your time, gentlemen. Until some one, having authority, will pledge the South, including the seceded states, to accept your proposed amendments as a finality, and henceforth to abide in the Union, the North will never consider the subject of their acceptance ! NeArer! Never!" Very soon afterwards, possibly on the following even ing, in a mixed company of moderate Northern and Southern men, this occurrence was adverted to. An able and courteous Kentuckian, addressing an ex-governor of a New England state, Avidely knoAvn and loved as one of the purest and most amiable of men, observed : "I do not understand why you NeAv-Englanders so persistently repudiate the possession of personal cour age. We know in Kentucky that our citizens of New England origin are destitute of fear. Senator Morrill shoAved to-day that he had courage enough and to spare. The men that hurried to his support were NeAV England men. Are you quite ingenuous ? Is this a time to incul cate a false estimate of Northern character? I prefer that the South should understand Avhat I know, that, in the quality of personal courage, Northern men have no superiors, certainly not in the South. Had the South been more accurately informed on the subject, Ave should not have drifted so near to revolution !" " I think you misjudge us," replied Governor II . " Northern men do not know Avhether they aro men of courage or not. How is one to knoAV Avhether or not he is a coward until he is put to the test ? The masses of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 57 Northern men go through life without any experience on this subject. You Avould not have us assume a virtue which we are not certain of possessing ?" " I would have both sections form just estimates of the character and qualities of each," said the Ken- tuckian. " I do not regret the occurrence in the Confer ence. I am quite certain that it Avill lead to a better judgment among our peoplo of the Northern men." This conversation took place many years ago. I have never since heard from an intelligent Southerner any ex pression of doubt as to the courage of Northern men. In the first year of the Avar, such rabid sheets as the Baltimore Sun and the Charleston Mercury were accus tomed to use vile names, and to declare that a "flunkey," a " servile follower," Avas a local, an unadulterated Yan kee product; but the experiences of the first tAvelve months of rebellion relegated such expressions to the era of many other Southern errors. 58 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN X. THE CONSPIRACY OF ASSASSINATION— ITS DETAILS.— MR. LIN COLN CONSENTS TO FOLLOW THE ADVICE OF HIS FRIENDS. The 4th of March was approaching. Rumors of in tended revolution multiplied ; evidences of a design to seize Washington augmented daily, attended by dark hints of some event Avhich aa^ouM paralyze the North and enable the Secessionists to secure the Capitol Avithout loss of life. Gurowski openly said to the Republicans, " Lincoln is to be assassinated — I knoAv it. I tell you of it in time for you to prevent it. I know that wagers at heavy odds have been laid that he will never reach Washington alive. Yet you do not believe what I tell you ! It is not even an independent plot ; it is part of the conspiracy of secession." A small number of younger Republicans, then tem porarily in Washington, had undertaken to act as an in dependent committee of safety. They were in active communication by wire Avith the principal Northern cities. The investigation and exposure of rumors was a part of their work. On the afternoon of Sunday, February 17th, when we knew that the President-elect Avas in Buffalo, a mes senger, duly authenticated, from reliable friends in Bal timore, came to Washington to tell us that they Avished to have tAvo or three members of our organization re turn with the messenger to that city. Their purpose in inviting us, the latter stated, would be explained on our arrival. It Avas too important to be trusted to the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 59 mails or the telegraph, or even to be put upon paper. He himself did not know Avhat it was. He was directed to say to us that our coining over that evening Avas necessary to enable the Republican party of Baltimore to sustain itself, and to be of any service in the coming emergency. It was arranged that, with a single companion, I should take a late train that evening which made a stop at the Relay House, a few miles out of Baltimore. My associate Avas a contractor, accustomed to deal Avith large bodies of foreigners. I Avas an acquaintance and friend of the Republican Who sent the invitation, but my com panion and myself were alike strangers in Baltimore. We took the train as arranged. It was boarded at the Relay House by my Baltimore friend, Avho stared me in the face, and then passed me without apparent recog nition. A few minutes after the train started, a stranger half stumbled along the aisle of the dimly lighted car, partially fell over me, but grasped my hand as he re covered himself and apologized for his awkwardness. I felt that he left a paper in my hand. I went into the dressing-room to read it. It contained these words : "Be cautious. At the station follow a driver who will be shouting ' Hotel Fountain,' instead of ' Fountain Hotel.' Enter his carriage. He is reliable and has his directions." I destroyed the paper. We followed its directions, and were driven — where, I never knew. It was, however, to a private residence. A gentleman waiting outside shoAved us into the house, and the driver hurried away. Our friend of the train came soon after, and we were taken to an upper room where were half a dozen Repub licans, to Avhom we were presented. No time was wasted. Mr. H , well known to me as a true Re- 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN publican, said: "We want you to help us save Balti more from disgrace, and President Lincoln from assassi nation. We find our Avork difficult. We are Avatched and shadowed so that we cannot leave the city Avithout exciting suspicion. We have sent messengers to leading Republicans in Washington, notifying them of the plot against the President's life ; but they will not credit the story, nor, so far as Ave can learn, take any action. We also learn that Mr. Lincoln declares that he Avill pursue his journey openly, if he loses his life in consequence. Within ten minutes after the presidential train reaches the Canton station it will be surrounded by a mob of tAventy thousand roughs and plug-uglies, from Avhich he Avill never escape alive. We have every detail of the plot ; Ave knoAv the men who have been hired to kill him ; we could lay our hands upon them to-night. But Avhat are Ave to do if our friends will not believe our report ?" " You call the plot a certainty. What proof havo you ? Direct proof, I mean ?" " We will show you some of it. The sporting men gave it away by betting at odds that Mr. Lincoln would never reach Washington. Recently they have modified it by betting that he will not pass through Maryland alive. Then a Woman about to be abandoned by her lover betrayed him to us — he had no scruples, and promptly sold his associates in the plot." "You cannot condemn reputable men upon such evi dence, lie is an accomplice !" " You should hear his story and its confirmations be fore you say that. Bring in the felloAV !" he said to one of the company. Two men entered the room with the supposed as sassin. He looked the character. He represented a genus of the human family seen in pictures of Italian AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 61 bandits. His square, bull-dog jaws, ferret-like eyes, furtively looking out from holes under a low brow, cov ered with a coarse mat of black hair ; a dark face, every line of Avhich was hard, and an impudent swagger in his carriage, sufficiently advertised him as a Ioav, cowardly villain. I shall not attempt to imitate his dialect, or the shameless unconcern with which he described his bar gain to murder and his betrayal of his associates. " A bad president," he said, " Avas coming in the cars to free the negroes and drive all the foreigners out of the country. The good Americans wanted him killed. They had employed Ruscelli to do the job ; Ruscelli was a barber who called himself Orsini since he escaped from Italy, where he was in trouble for killing some men Avho failed to pay their ransom. There Avere five who were to put the president out of life, who Avere to have each a hundred dollars, besides twenty dollars paid when they made the promise. They Avere to follow Ruscelli into the car. Each was to strike the president Avith a knife, to make sure. Then they were to go quick away to sea. Yes, the two gold eagles Avhich Mr. H had Avere a part of his pay." There Avere more details of the felloAv's story. He and his associates were the mere tools. Their employ ers Avere known — they were secessionists, pot-house politicians of a Ioav order, with some admixture of men of a better class, some of them in the police. Our friends had an agent Avho had joined the conspiracy and attended all the meetings. Through him they had learned that the murder had been several times in part rehearsed to avoid mistakes. At that time the cars were drawn through the city by horses. At the end of a certain bridge the track was to be suddenly torn up. When the President's car was 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN stopped at the obstruction the assassins were to follow their leader into the rear of the car, pass rapidly through it, each knifing the president, out at the forward door, through the crowd to a rum shop, at the rear of which lay a schooner, with a tug under steam, which, would . immediately go down the bay Avith the schooner in tow. Clearance papers would be provided for the port of Mo bile, to which the schooner would as speedily as possible make her way. If he left the cars for a carriage, its progress was to be blocked, and the President killed at the same crossing. The Avhole Avork, it was found, from arresting the car to the departure of the schooner, could be done in five or six minutes. To add to the confu sion, bombs and hand-grenades, which exploded by con cussion, were to be thrown into the cars through the windows. The seven or eight gentlemen present were reliable citizens of Baltimore. They had not believed at first that the conspiracy comprised any but members of the criminal class. Now they Avere satisfied that there Avere leading Secessionists privy to the plot ; some of them in fluential politicians and citizens Avho had argued them selves into the belief that this was a patriotic work which would prevent greater bloodshed and possible war. They provided the money which had been used with a free hand in purchasing the schooner and taking measures to avoid detection. The disappearance of the hired ruffian and the woman through whom the plot Avas first discovered had made the conspirators watchful, and some of them had not only Avithdrawn from the plot, but had left the city. Tho others held nightly meetings, and had no intention of giving up the project. Our friends were now at a standstill, because Mr. Lincoln persisted in passing through the city openly, on the day AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 63 appointed, and the leading Republicans of Washington would not accept the evidences of the conspiracy. " Why," Ave asked, " do not the Republicans of Balti more arm, organize, and themselves protect the Presi dent in his journey through the city ?" " Because," they replied, " the police, from superinten dent to patrolmen, would oppose us and protect the con spirators. The Plug-Uglies of Baltimore number thou sands, and have been notorious for years as the Avorst fighting roughs in existence. If Mr. Lincoln's train reaches the Canton station, it will, Avithin five minutes, be surrounded by a crowd of rowdies. If he takes a carriage, the croAvd will block it, and have ample time to tear him to pieces. If driven to the car, as they in tend he shall be, he cannot pass the bridge. What can Ave do, Avith the police, the roughs, and the Seces sionists against us ? It would require disciplined regi ments to control them. They will surround the car or the carriage, they will swoop doAvn upon it like vultures, or swarm over it like monkeys. No, Ave have done all that men can do; we have the names of the conspira tors ; we have agents who attend their meetings, Avho contribute to their expenses. We knoAV that they are not all hired assassins. Tliere are men among them Avho believe they are serving their country. One of them is an actor Avho recites passages from the tragedy of Julius Caesar in their conclaves. They are abundantly supplied with money. Where does it come from, if not from men of substance? No, gentlemen, Ave have done every thing in our power! If the government itself will not interfere, and if, as he declares he will, Mr. Lincoln in sists on passing through Baltimore in open day, on the train appointed, his murder is inevitable. We have in vited you here that you might convince yourselves, and 64 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN to ask you to help us to convince others. Have we satisfied you ?" " I am satisfied," said my companion, " and I believe I can satisfy General Scott. But I should like first to wring the neck of that miscreant in the other room, and carry his head to Washington as a voucher of the plot !" The consultation Avas prolonged until it was time for an early morning train to Washington. In the gray of the morning Ave drove to the house of Elihu B. Wash burn, called him from his bed, and in a few Avords summed up our night's experience, with the statement that Ave had come for his assistance in precautionary measures. He said that we might put aside our anxiety ; that he knew positively that Mr. Lincoln had determined to fol low the advice of his friends, and Avould reach Wash ington Avithout risk. It Avas deemed wise that none but those who had charge of the President's journey should know by what route or at Avhat time he Avould pass through Baltimore, but that he himself, Mr. Seward, and General Scott had become satisfied that precautions must be taken to protect his life, and they would be effectual. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 65 XI. HOAV DID MR. LINCOLN "GET THROUGH BALTIMORE"? The story of Mr. Lincoln's journey through Baltimore, as recorded in history, requires some correction. Like other sufferers by the hat of the period, he was pro vided Avith a knitted woollen cap for use in the cars, particularly at night. This he wore on his night-trip to Washington. The myth of the disguise and the Scotch cap had " this extent, no more." There was no neces sity for disguise. Mr. Lincoln entered the sleeping-car at Philadelphia, and slept until aAvakened within a few miles of Washington. The street-lights Avere not yet extinguished on the early morning of the 23d of February, Avhen Elihu B. Washburn and Senator Seward stepped from a carriage at the ladies' entrance of Willard's Hotel. A tall man, with a striking face, followed them into the hall, the swinging doors closed, and the future president and pre server of the republic was safely housed in its capital. The pledge of Mr. Washburn had been kept, and Repub licans could lay aside their anxiety. There were a few Republicans whose faces shone as they greeted each other, when they met at the opening of the Conference that day. They were in the secret of Mr. Lincoln's arrival. Members Avere not particular about the position of their seats, and mine then hap pened to be betAveen one occupied by Mr. Seddon and that of Waldo P. Johnson, an impulsive Secessionist, afterwards a Confederate general, who then, in part, 5 66 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN represented Missouri. The body-servant of Avhom Mr. Seddon Avas then proprietor was a man scarcely darker than himself, his equal in deportment, his superior in figure and carriage. This chattel had made himself a favorite by his civil and respectful manner, and by gen eral consent was the only person, not a member or offi cer, Avho had the entree to the sessions of the Conference. As soon as the meeting Avas called to order, this ser vant approached his master and handed him a scrap of paper, apparently torn from an envelope. Mr. Seddon glanced at it, and passed it before me to Mr. Johnson, so near to my face that, without closing my eyes, I could not avoid reading it. The Avords written upon it were, " Lincoln is in this hotel !" » Tlie Missourian Avas startled as by a shock of electric ity. He must have forgotten himself completely, for he instantly exclaimed, " Hoav the devil did he get through Baltimore?" With a look of utter contempt for the indiscretion of the impulsive trans -Mississippian, the Virginian growled, " What would prevent his passing through Baltimore ?" There Avas no reply, but the occurrence left the im pression on one mind that the preparations to receive Mr. Lincoln in Baltimore Avere known to some Avho were neither Italian assassins nor Baltimore Plug-Uglies. Mr. Johnson Avas not the only delegate surprised by the an nouncement of Mr. Lincoln's presence in Washington. As the news circulated in Avhispers through the hall, members gathered in groups to discuss it, and Avere too much absorbed to hear the repeated calls of the chair man to order. No event of the Conference, not even the collision between Commodore Stockton and Senator Morrill, produced so much excitement. The member Avho was addressing the chair, after repeated attempts AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 67 to make himself heard above the din of voices, gave up the effort and resumed his seat. It Avas not until some one had moved an adjournment that the burden of prep aration weighing upon so many members, and the danger of losing the opportunity of delivering their speeches, combined to restore order and enable the Conference to resume its business. But the attempt to go on Avith the debate was una vailing. The fact of the arrival of the President-elect was quickly knoAvn to every one. Members were not in a condition of mind to make speeches or to listen to them. There was a hurried consultation among the Republicans, Avhich resulted in a motion by Mr. Logan, one of the delegates from Mr. Lincoln's state, that the president of the Conference wait upon the President elect and inform him that the Conference Avould be pleased to visit him in a body at such a time as would suit his convenience. This motion Avas fiercely opposed. Waste of precious time was the open ground of opposi tion. There were cries of " No ! no ! Vote it doAvn !" " Lay it on the table !" with exclamations, in an under tone, of " Rail-splitter 1" " Ignoramus !" " Vulgar clown !" etc. Again President Tyler interfered to prevent the making of a disreputable record. He declared that "the proposal Avas eminently proper ; that the office, and not the individual, was to be considered ; that he hoped that no Southern member would decline to treat the incom ing President with the same respect and attention already extended to the present incumbent of that honorable and exalted office." These appropriate observations sup pressed the opposition ; the motion of Mr. Logan was unanimously adopted, and the Conference, having re solved upon an evening session, adjourned. 68 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XII. A SECOND PRESIDENTIAL RECEPTION.— MR. LINCOLN CONVERSES WITH LEADING SOUTHERNERS. — HIS DUTY TO THE CONSTI TUTION. The Republican members of the Conference Avere not pleased Avith the manner in which the chairman per formed his duty. Instead of waiting upon the President elect in person, as directed by the vote, he announced at the evening session that he had addressed him a note of inquiry, in reply to Avhich Mr. Lincoln said that he would be happy to receive the members at nine o'clock that evening, or at such other time as might suit their con venience. As Mr. Lincoln had taken no exception to the manner of the invitation, and as President Tyler could have pleaded the communication to Mr. Buchanan as a precedent, they decided to raise no question about what was, after all, but a mere matter of form. I thought it might prove of advantage to Mr. Lincoln to have some information in advance of the men who would meet him that evening. I therefore called upon him, with the intention of informing him who would visit him out of respect, and Avho would come out of cu riosity, or only to jeer and ridicule. This, my first meet ing Avith him, Avas an event Avhich Avould have been more impressive had I then appreciated that he was the great est of Americans, Avhose life-labors Avould restore the broken Union, and whose death would cement the foun dations of the republic. As I entered his apartment, a tall, stooping figure, AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 69 upon which his clothing hung loosely and ungracefully, advanced to meet me. His kindly eyes looked out from under a cavernous, projecting broAV, with a curiously mingled expression of sadness and humor. His limbs were long, and at first sight ungainly. But in the cor dial grasp of his large hands, the cheery tones of his pleasant voice, the heartiness of his Avelcome, in the air and presence of the great-hearted man, there Avas an as cendency Avhich caused me to forget my errand, and to comprehend Avhy it was that Abraham Lincoln won from all classes and conditions of men a love that " was wonderful, passing the love of Avomen." " He was pleased," he said, " to have an opportunity of meeting so many representative men from different sections of the Union ;• the more unjust they were in their opinions of himself, the more he desired to make their acquaint ance. He had been represented as an evil spirit, a gob lin, the implacable enemy of Southern men and women. He did not set up for a beauty, but he was confident that, upon a close acquaintance, they would not find him so ugly nor so black as he had been painted. He hoped every delegate from the slave states Avould be present, especially those most prejudiced against himself. He mentioned one or two whom he had knoAvn in Congress ; also Mr. Rives and Judge Ruffin, as influential states men Avhom he particularly wished to knoAv. I left him, having said nothing I had intended to, Avith a conviction that he would require no guardian. From that first visit to the time Avhen my more matured judgment and intimate knoAvledge of the noble qualities of his mind and heart led me to account him the greatest of Ameri cans, he never ceased to grow in my esteem. The hour of nine arrived; the Conference adjourned, so that those who Avished might attend Mr. Lincoln's 70 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN reception. Not, as Avhen Ave called on President Bu chanan, Avere Ave formed in procession and marshalled on our way, preceded by our presiding officer ; but in straggling groups we made our Avay as best we might to the draAving-room, in Avhich the President-elect was to be placed on exhibition, before Avhat was, in the main, a most unfriendly audience. No delegate from a slave state had voted for him ; many entertained for him sen timents of positive hatred. I heard him discussed as a curiosity by men as they would have spoken of a clown Avith Avhose ignorant vulgarity they Avere to be amused. They took him for an unlettered boor, with no fixed principles, Avhose nomination Avas an accident, and his election the victory of the ultra anti-slavery faction. A small number of more conservative men from the slave, and very nearly a majority of the delegates from the free states, Avere inclined to respect his office, but regard ed its prospective incumbent as an extremist, with no qualification for its duties. Some queried Avhether, like old John Brown, he actually longed for an insurrection of the slaves. Even the small minority of his political supporters, Avho had resolved in their hearts that he should be inaugurated, though stanch in his defence, had not discovered his intellectual strength, and sus pected few of his sterling qualities. An experienced politician Avould have prepared him self for such an occasion. In fact, his friends antici pated that Mr. Lincoln would conduct himself with ex treme reserve, and use great caution in the expression of his opinions. Mr. Lincoln had not made the slightest preparation. He stood in the corner of one of the public draAving- rooms of the hotel alone, unattended. Mr. Lamon, who had accompanied him from his home, and who it was AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 71 understood he Avould appoint marshal of the district, Avas not present until a later hour. No one had been provided to introduce the delegates or give any direction to the proceedings. I observed the omission as I en tered the room, and, there being no time to stand upon ceremony, took a position, as if by arrangement, at Mr. Lincoln's side, and presented each member of the Con ference by name. Their number was as large as that present at President Buchanan's reception. A general curiosity prevailed to Avitness the manner in which the incoming President would conduct himself, and many wished, by a closer observation of his appearance and awkAvardness, to nourish their contempt for the " rail- splitter." Many " who came to scoff " did not find the entertainment to their liking, if they did not " remain to pray." An experienced public man, Avho had travelled con stantly for ten consecutive days, making from one to four addresses daily, Avho had just escaped a conspiracy against his life, might have pleaded some excuse if, with in fifteen hours after his arrival, in his first public ap pearance, and before a contemptuously inimical audi ence, he had failed to seem entirely at his ease. But it was soon discovered that the friends of Mr. Lincoln might dismiss Avhatever anxiety they might have felt on his account. He was able to take care of himself. The manner in which he adjusted his conversation to repre sentatives of different sections and opinions Avas striking. He could not have appeared more natural or unstudied in his manner if he had been entertaining a company of neighbors in his Western home. Mr. Lincoln's reception of the delegates was of an en tirely informal character. There was no croAvded ap proach, nor hurried disappearance ; no procession of the 72 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN members beyond where he stood. There Avas a point of attraction — not of repulsion. As the guests Avere suc cessively and cordially received, they gathered round him in a circle, which enlarged and widened, until it com prised most of the delegates. His tall figure and ani mated face toAvered above them, the most striking in a group of noted Americans. His words arrested the at tention ; his Avonderful vivacity surprised every specta tor. He spoke apparently Avithout premeditation, Avith a singular ease of manner and facility of expression. He had some apt observation for each person ready the mo ment he heard his name. " You are a smaller man than I supposed — I mean in person : every one is acquainted Avith the greatness of your intellect. It is, indeed, pleas ant to meet one Avho has so honorably represented his country in Congress and abroad." Such Avas his greet ing to William C. Rives, of Virginia, a most cultivated and polished gentleman. " Your name is all the endorse ment you require," he said to James B. Clay. " From my boyhood the name of Henry Clay has been an inspi ration to me." " You cannot be a disunionist, unless your nature has changed since we met in Congress !" he exclaimed as he recognized the strong face of Geo. W. Summers, of Western Virginia. " Does liberty still thrive in the mountains of Tennessee ?" he inquired as Mr. Zol- licoffer's figure, almost as tall as his own, came into vieAV. After so many years, much that he said is forgotten, but it is remembered that he had for every delegation, almost for every man, some appropriate remark, which Avas forci ble, and apparently unstudied. Tliere Avas only one occurrence which threatened to disturb the harmony and good humor of the reception. In reply to a complimentary remark by Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Rives had said that, although he had retired from public AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 73 life, he could not decline the request of the Governor of Virginia that he should unite in this effort to save the Union. "But," he continued, " the clouds that hang over it are \Tery dark. I have no longer the courage of my younger days. I can do little — you can do much. Every- thing noAv depends upon you." " I cannot agree to that," replied Mr. Lincoln. " My course is as plain as a turnpike road. It is marked out by the Constitution. I am in no doubt which way to go. Suppose now we all stop discussing and try the experi ment of obedience to the Constitution and the laws. Don't you think it Avould work ?" •"Permit me to answer that suggestion," interposed Mr. Summers. " Yes, it Avill Avork. If the Constitution is your light, I Avill follow it Avith you, and the people of the South Avill go with us." " It is not of your professions Ave complain," sharply struck in Mr. Seddon's sepulchral voice. " It is of your sins of omission — of your failure to enforce the laAvs — to suppress your John BroAvns and your Garrisons, Avho preach insurrection and make war upon our prop erty !" " I believe John Brown Avas hung and Mr. Garrison imprisoned," dryly remarked Mr. Lincoln. " You cannot justly charge the North with disobedience to statutes or Avith failing to enforce them. You have made some which were very offensive, but they have been enforced, notwithstanding." " You do not enforce the laws," persisted Mr. Seddon. " You refuse to execute the statute for the return of fugitive slaves. Your leading men openly declare that they will not assist the marshals to capture or return slaves." " You are wrong in your facts again," said Mr. Lin- 74 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN coin. " Your slaves have been returned, yes, from the shadow of Faneuil Hall in the heart of Boston. Our people do not like the work, I know. They will do Avhat the laAv commands, but they will not volunteer to act as tip-staves or bum-bailiffs. The instinct is natural to the race. Is it not true of the South ? Would you join in the pursuit of a fugitive slave if you could avoid it ? Is such the work of gentlemen ?" " Your press is incendiary !" said Mr. Seddon, chang ing his base. " It advocates servile insurrection, and ad vises our slaves to cut their masters' throats. You do not suppress your newspapers. You encourage their violence." " I beg your pardon, Mr. Seddon," replied Mr. Lincoln. " I intend no offence, but I will not suffer such a state ment to pass unchallenged, because it is not true. No Northern newspaper, not the most ultra, has advocated a slave insurrection or advised the slaves to cut their masters' throats. A gentleman of your intelligence should not make such assertions. We do maintain the freedom of the press— we deem it necessary to a free government. Are Ave peculiar in that respect ? Is not the same doctrine held in the South ?" It Avas reserved for the delegation from New York to call out from Mr. Lincoln his first expression touching the great controversy of the hour. He exchanged re marks Avith ex-Governor King, Judge James, William Curtis Noyes, and Francis Granger. William E. Dodge had stood, aAvaiting his turn. As soon as his opportunity came, he raised his voice enough to he heard by all present, and, addressing Mr. Lincoln, declared that the Avhole country in great anxiety Avas awaiting his inaugu ral address, and then added : " It is for you, sir, to say Avhether the Avhole nation shall be plunged into bank- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 75 ruptcy; Avhether the grass shall groAV in the streets of our commercial cities." " Then I say it shall not," he ansAvered, Avith a merry twinkle of his eye. "If it depends upon me, the grass will not grow anywhere except in the fields and the meadoAvs." "Then you will yield to the just demands of the South. You will leave her to control her own institutions. You Avill admit slave states into the Union on the same con ditions as free states. You will not go to Avar on account of slavery !" A sad but stern expression swept over Mr. Lincoln's face. " I do not knoAV that I understand your meaning, Mr. Dodge," he said, Avithout raising his voice, " nor do I know Avhat my acts or my opinions may be in the •future, beyond this. If I shall ever come to the great office of President of the United States, I shall take an oath. I shall swear that I Avill faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, of all the United States, and that I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. This is a great and solemn duty. With the support of the people and the assistance of the Almighty I shall undertake to perform it. I have full faith that I shall perform it. It is not the Constitution as I would like to have it, but as it is, that is to be defended. The Consti tution will not be preserved and defended until it is en forced and obeyed in every part of every one of the United States. It must be so respected, obeyed, en forced, and defended, let the grass grow Avhere it may." Not a Avord or a whisper broke the silence Avhile these words of Aveighty import were slowly falling from his lips. They Avere so comprehensive and unstudied, they exhibited such inherent authority, that they seemed a 76 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN statement of a sovereign decree, rather than one of fact Avhich admitted of debate. Comment or criticism upon them seemed out of order. Mr. Dodge attempted no re ply. The faces of the Republicans Avore an expression of surprised satisfaction. Some of the more ardent South erners silently left the room. They were unable to com prehend the situation. The ignorant countryman they had come to ridicule threatened no crime but obedience to the Constitution. This was not the entertainment to Avhich they Avere invited, and it was uninteresting. For the more conservative Southern delegates, the statesmen, Mr. Lincoln seemed to offer an attraction. They re mained until he finally retired. A delegate from NeAV Jersey asked Mr. Lincoln point edly if the North should not make further concessions to avoid civil Avar ? For example, consent that the peo ple of a territory should determine its right to authorize slavery Avhen admitted into the Union ? "It Avill be time to consider that question when it arises," he replied. "Now we have other questions Avhich Ave must decide. In a choice of evils, war may not always be the worst. Still I Avould do all in my poAver to avert it, except to neglect a Constitutional duty. As to slavery, it must be content Avith Avhat it has. The voice of the civilized Avorld is against it ; it is opposed to its growth or extension. Freedom is the nat ural condition of the human race, in which the Almighty intended men to live. Those Avho light the purposes of the Almighty Avill not succeed. They ahvays have been, they ahvays will be, beaten." A general conversation folloAved, in Avhich Judges Brockenbrough and Ruffin and Mr. Summers sought to draAv from him some more definite expression of his views concerning the seceded states. Without exhibit- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 77 ing the slightest desire to conceal his opinions, he gave no further expression to them. His own duty, as defined by the Constitution, seemed to engross his mind. The Union must be maintained if the Constitution was to be enforced as the supreme laAv of the land. If he became President, all the executive powers of the government Avould be used to enforce obedience to the supreme law. Further than this, he had nothing to say. After the reception several of the delegates com mented upon the remarks of the President-elect. Mr. Rives expressed the change in his OAvn opinions concern ing him with perfect candor. " He has been both mis judged and misunderstood by the Southern people," he said. " They have looked upon him as an ignorant, self- Avilled man, incapable of independent judgment, full of prejudices, Avilling to be used as a tool by more able men. This is all Avrong. He will be the head of his ad ministration, and he will do his own thinking. He seems to have studied the Constitution, to have adopted it as his guide. I do not see that much fault can be found with the vieAvs he has expressed this evening. He is probably not so great a statesman as Mr. Madison, he may not have the will-power of General Jackson. He may combine the qualities of both. His will not be a Aveak administration." Judge Ruffin regarded his pronounced opinions against concessions as a misfortune. The controversy had been carried so far that great concessions must be made to avoid actual conflict. Still, he could not find much fault with Mr. Lincoln's opinions. They were evident ly founded upon the Constitution. At the close of this intervieAV Mr. Lincoln had not been twenty-four hours in Washington. That he had created a profound impression, favorable to himself, was 78 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN undeniable. The Republican members of the Confer ence felt encouraged and strengthened by his presence. The sympathizers Avith secession Avere correspondingly discouraged and depressed. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 79 XIII. TIIE LAST WEEK OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. The forces which change the current of public opinion are often remote and difficult of discovery. One of the most unexpected of these changes, occurring Avithin my experience, Avas synchronous Avith Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Washington. Before that day the groAvth of disunion had been vigorous. True, it had met Avith some checks, principally caused by the indiscretion of those who should have been, and in the future would be, excluded from the higher councils of the leaders. These checks had compelled the postponement of the seizure of the capital. General Dix, Judge Holt, and Mr. Stanton had been disturbing agencies in the cabinet, and General Scott had made trouble by his contemptuous refusal to listen to or temporize with secession. On the other hand, six states Avere already out of the Union ; others were ready to folloAv, a confederacy had been formed', its president and general officers elected ; successive del egations had taken leave of Congress, declaring that the South could never be subjugated; military supplies, money, and other national property to a large value had been transferred from the North into the seceded states ; the national credit had been undermined. Newspapers and influential leaders in Northern cities had declared against the use of force to subjugate the South; the Peace Conference had performed its allotted service, secession in Maryland and Virginia Avas ripening, and 80 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Congress would soon adjourn, leaving a Aveakened gov ernment Avithout means of defence or resistance. On the whole the situation was satisfactory, the future prom ising, and the capture of the government on the 4th of March assured. It could be accomplished without blood shed, if General Scott and "his janizaries" would not interfere. The secessionists were confident, the friends of the Union verging toAvards despondency. A change in the situation came unexpectedly. It was coextensive Avith the political horizon, it was written upon the faces of the people of Washington and of the strangers Avithin her gates. It began on the morning after Mr. Lincoln's arrival, and before evening it had pervaded the community. Ten regiments of veterans, coming to reinforce General Scott's handful of soldiers, could not have more effectually annihilated the plot for armed seizure of the capital on the morning of the day of inauguration. Nor Avas the arrival of Mr. Lincoln the only event which occurred to darken the prospects of the disunion- ists. They had counted upon the support of the North ern Democrats, and of the conservative element in the Republican party. It Avas a common saying among them that no regiment for the subjugation of the South Avould be permitted to pass through the city of New York. But now, the example of General Cass, the ring ing command of General Dix for the protection of the flag, Mr. Stanton's bold declaration to the President that the surrender of the forts and property in Charleston Harbor Avas an indictable crime, and the far-reaching, though more quiet, influence of that patriotic Kentuck- ian, Judge Holt, began to call back responsive echoes from the North and West. I cannot enumerate these, but I must not omit to mention one of the first and most AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 81 poAverf ul, the letter from that tried old Democrat, General Wool. These statements proclaimed a united North: Douglass Democrats, the numerical majority and all the best elements of Democracy, together Avith Republicans and men of no party, declared they Avould give short shrift and sAvift execution to any Avho should raise the hand of treason in the capital of the republic. It was also quickly known that Mr. Lincoln would call into his cabinet representative men like Senators SeAvard, Chase, and Cameron, avIio Avould unite the country if they did not constitute a united cabinet, and that he Avould offer one or tAvo places to true men from the disloyal states. General Scott also Avas strengthen ing his defences. Several volunteer companies of the most loyal young men in Washington had been organ ized, and had received their guns and ammunition. They Avould be ready for service on a few moments' notice. Another type of American now became common in the streets of Washington. They were the young stalwart Republicans from all sections of the North and West who had been influential in the election of Mr. Lincoln, and who had come to give their personal attention to his inauguration. They became quite as numerous as the visitors with slouched hats from the Border states, and they had ATery promptly offered their services to General Scott to act as guards, as soldiers, or as police men on the day of inauguration. v Whether the joint operation of these events Avas the cause of the change, or Avhether the actual presence of the President-elect produced it in whole or in part, the fact of the change was beyond dispute. The precautions Avere not relaxed, but the extreme solicitude, which had previously influenced loyal men, had completely disap peared. Instead of the excitement anticipated, the last 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN days of the Peace Conference were positively dull. The absence of David Dudley Field Avhen the final vote Avas recorded, of Avhich an unfair advantage Avas taken by some of his colleagues, and the decision of the pre siding officer that the vote of New York should be con trolled by the delegates present, and not cast as direct ed by the resolution adopted by a clear majority of all the delegates from that state on the previous evening, neutralized the vote of NeAV York, and led to the adop tion of the amendments proposed by the majority of the Conference Committee on Resolutions by the slender majority of one vote. Such a result carried no weight with Congress or the country. The proposed amend ments Avere submitted to the Senate and to the House. But it Avas during the last hours of the session, and neither house Avould permit them to be brought before it for action. They Avero offered in the Senato by Avay of an amendment to the Avell-known Crittenden Res olutions, and rejected by a vote of tAventy- eight to seven. The Conference adjourned on the 27th of Feb ruary, having served the purpose of its originators and done one good Avork for the country — that of uniting the Republicans and many Democrats in the defence of the Union. From Monday, the 25th of February, to Monday, the 4th of March, a kind of paralysis appeared to have fallen upon the disunionists. They did almost nothing to at tract public attention. The usual arrangements Avith the outgoing administration Avere made for the inau guration. The city Avas croAvded Avith visitors, so that there Avas a large overfloAv to GeorgetoAvn and Balti more. The event Avhich attracted the greatest measure of public attention Avas an address by Senator SeAvard to a body of his constituents Avho called upon him in AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 83 Washington, and the chief point of interest in this was its omission to disclose any of the purposes of the in coming administration, of Avhich it was understood that he was to become the premier. 84 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XIV. THE INAUGURATION.— A MEMORABLE SCENE. A bright sun rose over the city of Washington on March 4th, the day appointed by laAv for the inaugura tion of President Lincoln, It Avas an orderly city ; a stranger Avould not have suspected that any preparations had been made to suppress insurrection, or that the ne cessity for such precautions existed. The leading seces sionists had taken their departure. Those who remained belonged to the reckless, disorderly class, below the aver age respectability of the party they served. Since the influx of Northern Republicans, these roughs had be come less demonstrative, so that it Avas safe for ladies and gentlemen to make use of the streets and sidewalks. Some experiments had been tried in insulting and jos tling the recent arrivals, which had resulted disagreeably for the assailants, who were much depressed by another postponement of the revolution. General Scott had sta tioned his small force of regulars and volunteers where they Avere inconspicuous, but could be made serviceable at very short notice. His dispositions had been so qui etly made that surprise was expressed because so little had apparently been done by way of preparation. At an early hour a dense multitude occupied both sides of the avenue from the Executive Mansion to the foot of Capitol Hill, Avhere it divided, surroundino- the grounds and filling the open space and the square on the east front of the Capitol, on the steps of which a AND HIS ADMINISTRATION, 85 broad platform had been erected, whence the inaugural address was to be delivered. At all the street crossings platforms Avith seats had been built, all of Avhich Avere croAvded. Every window overlooking the avenue was filled Avith the bright costumes of ladies and children, Avhile many displayed the national colors. Cables had been stretched on either side of the carriage-Avay which Avas kept clear by a small force of policemen, Avithout apparent difficulty. No shops were open ; business Avas suspended, and the real, and not the pretended closing of the liquor saloons by the order of General Scott, essentially contributed to the order of the day. The procession set out from the Executive Mansion. President Buchanan there entered the carriage Avhich, drawn by four led horses, and preceded by the Marshal of the District with his aids on. horseback, moved out of the grounds to the avenue. Here a selected company of the sappers and miners of the regular army, com manded by Captain Duane of the Engineers, Avho had sought and obtained the position of a guard of honor, formed in a holloAV square, Avith the carriage in its cen tre. No body of men of finer appearance and discipline, or more trustworthy and loyal, ever guarded the great Frederick or a Roman emperor. With the surrounded carriage they moved down the avenue with the unity and precision of a machine, followed by several compa nies of uniformed volunteers, the whole procession com prising not more than five hundred men. In front of Willard's Hotel a halt was made. Mr. Lincoln walked out through the crowd Avhich civilly opened a lane to permit him to pass, and entered the carriage. The ven erable form, pallid face, and perfectly Avhite hair of Mr. Buchanan contrasted powerfully with the tall figure, coal-black hair, and rugged features of Mr. Lincoln, and 86 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN suggested that the exhausted energies of the old were to be followed by tho vigorous strength of tho neAV ad ministration. The appearance of the President-elect Avas the signal for a slight cheer of Avelcome and the Avaving of ban ners from the AvindoAvs. It was time for me to leave for the Capitol. As my carriage drove rapidly (Ioavii F Street, to a station Avhere arrangements had been made to pass invited guests through the croAvd to the platform, I heard the volume of cheers roll down the aA'enue pari passu with the procession. I learned af ter- Avards that the tall form of Mr. Lincoln Avas exposed during the whole distance, so that a shot from a con cealed assassin from any one of the thousand AvindoAvs Avould have ended his career. But not only Avas no as sault attempted, but, as I Avas assured by the marshal, no Avord of discourtesy or insult Avas heard during the progress of the procession through over a mile of the crowded streets. A memorable spectacle lay before our eyes, after avo had ascended the steps inside and come out upon the platform. North and south from the ends of the great Capitol building, the ground fell off, Avhilo on the east were 'the vacant Capitol grounds, a broad square, each side of Avhich measured some five hundred yards, bound ed on the farther side by a street. All this space, includ ing the eastern portico, Avas filled by tho multitude, patiently awaiting the arrival of the President. The people Avere quiet, orderly, silent. They had come to see and hear. A few policemen Avere present, but the only duties they performed appeared to be the directing of persons holding tickets to their seats on the platform. Not a soldier Avas visible. Far out on tho street, in front of the building afterwards Avell knoAvn as the " Old Cap- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 87 itol Prison," was a thin line of mounted men. Had I not been informed beforehand, I should not have sus pected thai these horsemen Avere the visible parts of two batteries of horse artillery of the regular army, ready for action should any occasion arise for their ser vices. We were not long kept Avaiting. A passage had been kept open from the columns of the eastern portico, across the whole platform, to its front. From betAveen the tAvo central columns first appeared the marshal with a man of soldierly bearing by his side. The tall, bent form Avith the intellectual face of the Chief Justice of the United States folloAved, arm in arm Avith the Presi dent-elect. Senators, congressmen, officers of the army and navy brought up the rear. But the croAvd had no eyes for them. All were fixed upon Mr. Lincoln. The party advanced to the front of the platform, Avhere a small table had been placed for Mr. Lincoln's conven ience. Without seating himself, the silvery voice of Senator Baker, of Oregon, rang out over the multitude with these simple Avords, "Fellow-citizens, I introduce to you Abraham Lincoln, the President-elect of the United States of America!" A slight ripple of applause folloAved this introduction. The commanding figure of Senator Baker receded into the audience. When I next saAv it, the soul had gone out of it at Ball's Bluff. It lay, torn and disfigured by a score of rebel bullets, in the east room of the White House, covered by the flag in defence of Avhich he gave his life. With head uncoATered, towering above the eminent men by Avhom he Avas surrounded, Mr. Lincoln advanced to the table and commenced the reading of his address. There Avere few persons in that uncounted throng who 88 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN expected to hear, or were in a frame of mind to appre ciate, the import of that address. It needed the light of subsequent events for its comprehension. - I count it as one of the valued opportunities of my life, that, seated only a few yards away from the speaker, I heard dis tinctly every word he uttered, Avatched the play of his strong features, and noted the effect of his emphatic sentences upon the persons around me. A flash of light SAvept over the field as the faces of the multitude Avere turned towards Mr. Lincoln, Avhen the words " Fellow- citizens of the United States" fell from his lips. Few of those faces were turned away until his last words had been spoken. Mr. Lincoln's ordinary voice Avas pitched in a high and not unmusical key. . Without effort it AATas heard at an unusual distance. Persons at the most distant mar gins of the audience said that every Avord he spoke was distinctly audible to them. The silence Avas unbroken. No speaker ever secured a more undiAdded attention, for almost every hearer felt a personal interest in what he Avas to say. His friends feared, those Avho were not his friends hoped, that, forgetting the dignity of his posi tion, and the occasion, he would descend to the practices of the story-teller, and fail to rise to the level of a states man. For he Avas popularly known as the " Rail-split ter;" Avas supposed to be uncouth in his manner, and low, if not positively vulgar, in his moral nature. If not restrained by personal fear, it was thought that he might attack those Avho differed with him in opinion Avith threats and denunciations. But the great heart and kindly nature of the man were apparent in his opening sentence, in the tone of his voice, the expression of his face, in his Avhole manner and bearing. The key-note of his address might have AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 89 been shoAvn in a sentence. Distrustful of himself, and relying upon the assistance of the Almighty, he should, to the best of his ability, discharge the trust which his office imposed, of supporting the Constitution, and main taining the Union of the states in its integrity, as it Avas bequeathed to us by our fathers. But he required, he desired, he besought, the cooperation of his felloAv-citi- zens in the execution of his trust. This same duty rested alike upon himself and all his fellow-citizens. It was the defence and preservation of their joint inheritance. He Avas about to take an oath in their presence, before Almighty God, to protect and defend the Constitution. Would his felloAv-citizens assist him to keep the oath, and execute the trust it involved ? Whatever else might happen, " the Union must be, should be preserved !" His introduction had not been Avelcomed by a cheer, his opening remarks elicited no response. The silence was long-continued and became positively painful. But the power, of his earnest Avords began to show itself; the sombre cloud which seemed to hang over the audi ence began to fade away Avhen he said, " I hold that in the contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitu tion, the Union of these states is perpetual!" — Avith the words " I shall take care, as the Constitution itself ex pressly enjoins upon me, that the ' laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states /' " And when, Avith uplifted eyes and solemn accents, he said, " The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government," a great wave of enthusiasm rolled over the audience, as the united voices of the immense mul titude ascended heavemvard in a roar of assenting applause. From this time to the end of the address, Abraham 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Lincoln controlled the audience at his will. He had gained the confidence of his hearers and secured their respect and affection. Nor did he abuse his power. There Avas not a trace of menace, not a word of criti cism, not an unfriendly suggestion in the entire speech. Who that heard them Avill ever forget the influence of those affectionate sentences with which the address ter minated ? " I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection." " The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet SAvell the chorus of the Union, Avhen again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature !" There was no hesitancy in the judgment Avhich the audience was prepared to pronounce upon this inaugural address. From end to end of the Capitol, from the farthest limits of East Capitol Square, from the distant street where General Scott and his batteries Avere posted as a corps of observation, and from every superficial foot of the enclosed space, a burst of applause arose which made loyal hearts beat more rapidly, and the blood in loyal arteries leap joyously to their extremities. Over and over again the cheer was repeated. Grave senators and judges "joined in the rapturous cry, and even the ranks of slavery could scarce forbear to cheer !" The Chief Justice of the United States noAv came for ward. His venerable appearance gave to what might have been a mere matter of form great dignity and im pressive significance. He extended an open Bible, upon Avhich Mr. Lincoln laid his left hand, and, uplifting his AND niS ADMINISTRATION. 91 right arm, he slowly repeated after the Chief Justice the words of the Constitution. " I do solemnly SAvear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God!" The ceremony ended. Those upon the broad platform rose and remained standing as the President and his party passed back into the building. The procession re formed in the same order as before and returned, leav ing at the White House, as President of the United States, the private citizen it had escorted from the hotel. Within the hour another carriage, in Avhich there was a single occupant, Avas driven doAvn the avenue to the only railroad-station then in Washington. It contained ex- President Buchanan, returning as a private citizen to his Pennsylvania home, bearing with him less credit for loyal service to his country than he deserved. The crowd rapidly melted aAvay. The change Avas com pleted. Without disorder or disturbance, Avith the dig nity befitting an act of such transcendent importance, and, as events proved, upon the very threshold of civil war, the will of the people expressed at the ballot-box was executed, the old administration had surrendered its great powers to the neAV, and Abraham Lincoln, with the prestige of law and order in his favor, had become the President of the Republic. To this de sirable result, General Dix and Mr. Stanton had each powerfully contributed ; Judge Holt and others less con spicuously. Mr. Buchanan might justly have claimed credit for patriotic intentions partly executed. It Avas less his fault than his misfortune that the weakness of declining years led him to repose confidence in those who Avere false to their country and to himself. But 92 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN it was the united opinion of the closest observers that the man to Avhose prudence, energy, and patriotism the country was chiefly indebted for the peace of March 4th, 1861, Avas Winfield Scott, Lieutenant-General, Com manding the Army. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 93 XV. SOME NOTES UFOK GENERAL SCOTT AND ROBERT E. LEE. Accident, united with admiration for some of his ster ling qualities, at this time gave me opportunities of acquaintance Avith General Scott and members of his military family. Disregarding the chronology of events, possibly this is as good a time as I shall have to bring together and revise the impressions made upon me by these intervieAvs. No man, not Mr. Lincoln himself, Avas at this time more intensely hated by the secessionists than General Scott. A Virginian by birth and education, he became a citizen of South Carolina, and, while residing in Charles ton, left the laAv for the career of a soldier. He was a favorite with Southern officers throughout his long ser vice in the army, and they confidently anticipated that he Avould side with the South Avhen the hour of separa tion came. He had been called from New York to Wash ington early in December. Even before the election, correctly forecasting its results, he had urgently advised President Buchanan to reinforce the Southern forts and put them in a better condition for defence. Many times after he came to Washington he had pressed similar suggestions upon the Executive. He had become suspi cious of the Secretary of War, and on one noted occa sion had personally requested permission to send two hundred and fifty men, Avith munitions of Avar and sup plies, to Fort Sumter Avithout the knowledge of that 94 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN officer. His request was disregarded, and he then turned his attention to the defence of Washington and its secur ity during the inauguration. Although himself reticent upon the subject, it Avas known to his friends that strong influences, founded upon his attachment to his native state, had been brought to bear to detach him from the cause of the Union ; that appeals to his duty to Vir ginia, offers of high command, and arguments of influ ential Virginians had failed to shake his loyalty to his flag. He Avas reported to have sternly informed one Virginia senator that his friendship for that gentleman Avould not survive a second suggestion of desertion. Unable to obtain even the promise of his neutrality, they abandoned all hope of influencing him, and set him down as an enemy to be removed or destroyed. Then there was a change ! The intensity of secession Avrath and fury contrasted poAverfully Avith the magnificent con tempt for both with Avhich the veteran pursued his path to duty. They exhausted the vocabulary for Avords of invective, and threats of assassination became so nu merous that a mail Avhich did not bring them Avas the exception. I shall not soil my pages with the foul epi thets with which they made the city vocal. One of their charges had some evidence in its support. " He was untrue to the South," they said, " not because he loved the Union, but because he hated Jefferson Davis. They had been enemies for thirty years. The cause grew out of General Scott's vanity, which had been Avounded by changes in his " General Regulations for the Army," for Avhich he held Mr. Davis responsible while he Avas connected with West Point. Mr. Davis, also, as chair man of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, had felt bound to oppose, and had for several years succeeded in postponing, the passage of the resolution Avhich au- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 95 thorized the President to confer upon General Scott the brevet rank of lieutenant-general. As a cabinet officer, he had prevented any increase of pay under the resolu tion, until Congress interfered by a positive declaration that it be alloAved. " It Avas selfish interest and Avounded vanity," they said, "and not patriotism or fidelity to the Stars and Stripes, that bound him to the decaying cause of the Union." I once heard the subject of his relations with Mr. Davis, and this charge, mentioned in his presence. It Avas on the 9th of February, the day following the elec tion of Mr. Davis to the Presidency of the Southern' Confederacy. " I have no quarrel with Mr. Davis," said the veteran chief ; " I must decline to discuss the statements to Avhich you refer. Possibly they may have some color of truth. For more than thirty years he has been my persistent, deadly enemy. Yet he never did me much harm. The American people took excellent care that his plots against me should not succeed. But I can give a better reason Avhy loyal men ought not' to consort with him. He is a false man — false by nature, habit, and choice. His patriotism consists in promoting the interests of Jeffer son Davis and his pets. His pets are the men that he can use. General Taylor should have been a good judge of Mr. Davis, for he was his father-in-law, and had excel lent opportunities of estimating his value. He despised him thoroughly." "I am amazed," he continued, warming to his sub ject, " that any man of judgment should hope for the success of any cause in which Jefferson Davis is a leader. There is contamination in his touch. If secession Avas the 'holiest cause that tongue or sword of mortal ever lost or gained,' he would ruin it ! He will bear a great 96 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN amount of watching. My friends in Congress learned that he had arranged for a veto of the resolution Avhich had. passed both Houses, giving me the pay and alloAV- ances of a lieutenant-general, according to their inten tion, of Avhich his machinations had deprived me for three years. Against his opposition, they then incor porated the resolution as an amendment into the Mili tary Appropriation Bill, Avhich he could not afford to veto. He Avas chairman of the Military Committee; they had to appoint a committee of their OAvn number to Avatch the amendment from its adoption until it Avas Avritten into the engrossed bill to prevent its being lost ! He is not a cheap Judas. I do not think he Avould have sold the Saviour for thirty shillings ; but for the succes- sorship of Pontius Pilate, he Avould have betrayed Christ and the apostles and the Avhole Christian Church !" In his intercourse Avith Northern men, about the time of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, General Scott expressed his opinions without any apparent reserve. He had no sympathy with the abolitionists ; his opinions Avere de cidedly pro-slavery. Long after others had abandoned all hope of a peaceful settlement, he clung to the hope that a great Union party might be formed on the basis of the " Crittenden Resolutions," Avhich would brino- back the seceded states, and prevent Avar. If Avar be came inevitable, he declared it Avould be long, bloody, and expensive. The North would prevail, because it Avas the stronger in numbers and resources ; -but it Avas hopeless to attempt to subjugate the South Avith an army of less than three hundred thousand men. The assertion that the South Avas the superior of the North in personal courage excited his contempt. He had led men in battle from every state in the Union. There Avas little difference in their fighting qualities. Why AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 97 should there be ? They were of the same race and ori gin. Even the immigrants were principally of the same descent. If the Southern men had more dash, the North ern had better staying qualities. He spoke of himself Avith equal freedom. " His day," he said, " had passed. Age and pain had exhausted him. He had not for many months been able to Avalk Avithout assistance, or to move Avithout pain. The general com manding an army must be able to lead as well as to direct it. Successful generals, from Alexander to Napo leon, with few exceptions, had been young men. Desaix and Hoche, the youngest marshals of Napoleon, had been his most efficient generals." Twice, in my presence, General Scott spoke in compli mentary terms of Colonel Robert E. Lee. One of these occasions Avas previous to the day of the inauguration, immediately after Colonel Lee arrived in Washington from Texas, and about the first of March. He " kneAV him thoroughly. He was an accomplished soldier, equal to any position — to the command of the army." He spoke of the opinions of Colonel Lee as from personal knowledge. " He is loyal to the Union," he said, " from principle as well as birth, and his education as a soldier." He had very recent evidence that Colonel Lee was not and never would be a secessionist. The biographer of General Lee has very recently made public the evidence which, I have no doubt, enabled General Scott to speak so positively of the opinions at that time held by Colonel Lee. He has published a letter written by the latter from Texas to his son in Washington under date of January 23d, 1861, in which secession is condemned in emphatic, terms. He said : " Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never would have exhausted so much 7 98 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and sur rounded it Avith so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of tho confed eracy at will. It is intended for perpetual union, as expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dis solved by revolution or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy Avould have been established, and not a govern ment, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and all the other patriots of the Revolution." Within six Aveeks after, the 4th of March, I had occa sion to recall these strong expressions by General Scott, of his confidence in the loyalty of Colonel Lee. Instead of Avaiting for the paymaster to make his rounds, the officers of the army and navy, who resigned to take service Avith the Confederacy, secured an arrangement with their departments by whioh they Avere paid, to the date of their resignations, by treasury-warrants. I be lieve it Avas General Spinner, the treasurer, Avho suggest ed that, as these gentlemen Avere going South, we should pay them by drafts on the stolen assistant-treasuries in the seceded states. As the Avarrants passed my office, I marked them for such drafts Avhen I had the necessary information. On one of the dark days Avhich afterwards shrouded the capital, Avhen these officers Avere deserting their flag and resigning their commissions by scores — being care ful to collect the last dollar of their pay — one of these Avarrants, payable to a member of the family of Colonel Lee, Avas brought to me for signature. It was on the 20th day of April, three days after the secession of Vir ginia. I marked it, " Pay by draft on Richmond," as there Avas more government money there than in the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 99 treasury at Washington. Though avo know tho robols had seized it, wo thought it avouUI sorve for tho payment of robel claims. My innocent noto made trouble Several of tho olllcor's friends callod to assure mo that I Avas do ing himself and his family great injustico; that thoy Avoro all loyal; that ho rcsignod bocauso he could not light his native stato— but ho would novor fight against tho Union. Thon it was that I heard tho report that it was not Colonel Leo Avho Avas to resign ; it Avas General Scoff, and Colonel Lee was to bo his sucoossor in the command of tho Union army. I Avas inlloxiblo. 1 would not change tho order except upon the Avritten plodgo of the ollieor not to enter tho Confederate service It is unnecessary to atid that tho plodgo Avas not given. At tho time 1 Avas being urged to pay this claim, tho resignation of Colonel Lee was iu tho hands of General Scott. "It has cost mo a struggle," ho Avroto, "to separate from superiors and comrades Avho havo been so kind and considerate to mo." Hut for tho republic, to tho bounty of Avhich ho owed his education, his position, and tho greater part of his possessions, thoro Avas no word of gratitude, obligation, or regret. "Save in do- foueo of my nafivo state," ho said, "I novor desire again lo dnuv my sword." His intent and purpose did not correspond to his desire. Throe days later, in the state houso in Richmond, ho received from Governor Letcher tho appointmont of "Commander of all tho military and naval forces of Virginia," as ho declared, Avith an approving conscience, there pledging himself to hor service, and assorting that, "e.veept in. Jut behalf, he would never again draw his sword." On tho ,10th of May lie acceptod tho command of " all the forces of tho Confederate States in Virginia." Twice ho led an invading army to moot disaster and do- 100 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN feat north of the Potomac ; and if the republic was not destroyed and a slave-ocracy erected upon its ruins, it was not because he failed to labor diligently to that end from the date last named Until rebellion Avas driven by loyal hands to its unlamented grave. No loyal American desires to abate or diminish by one grain any credit gained by any participant in the rebellion. He is content that the Confederacy should rest quietly on the bloody field where it fell until it has faded from the memory of man. It had no right nor reason to be. It was a rebellion against the freest government that ever existed. It was soAvn in con spiracy, nourished by patriotic blood, and perished from exhaustion. The sooner it is forgotten, the better for those who caused and upheld it, for the country, and mankind. The defection of Colonel Lee has been treated by the loyal North with exceptional charity. His conscientious ness in resigning his commission has not been questioned. His admirers should have accepted the situation and not have excited discussion by presenting his example as one worthy of imitation by patriotic men. That discussion inevitably raises the question, What would have happened if Colonel Lee had followed the example of General Scott and Major Geo. H. Thomas, and continued loyal to the Union ? For more than tAvo centuries the Lees had been the most influential family in Virginia. It Avas a Lee Avho gave to Washington his deserved place — " First in Avar, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrj^men." By his marriage, Colonel Lee had united the Avealth and influence of the Washingtons and the Lees. He had been made the Avard of the republic ; he had been edu cated at its expense ; he had voluntarily enlisted in its service. He had obtained his first, and every succeeding AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 101 commission, by pledging himself on his honor, " to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of Amer ica — to serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whatsoever, and to obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over him, according to the rules and articles of AA~ar." If between the tAvo oceans that Avash its remotest limits there was one man more firmly than any other bound to the service of the republic by tra dition, training, associations, pecuniary considerations, and the honor of a soldier, that man was Colonel Lee. The final verdict of history must be that Colonel Lee had no justification for his course. A skilful casuist may sometimes break the force of an invincible argument by some bold assertion Avhich, although it may be true, has no relevancy to the subject. The only plea of justifica tion made by himself at the time, or his eulogists since, was that he "could not draw his sword against Vir ginia." To this plea I demur, for irrelevancy. There was no issue with Virginia, no question pending of draw ing swords against her or in her defence. Colonel Lee came to Washington on the 1st of March, opposed to secession, as is shown by his letters. A president, Avhose election Avas admitted to have been fair and by constitu tional methods, was shortly afterwards inaugurated, and became the head of the government. He Avas pledged to non-interference with slavery, bound by his oath to maintain the Union. He had made no threat, proposed no violent measures. Virginia was still a member of the Federal Union. At her last election the Unionists Avere a poAverful majority. Had Colonel Lee remained loyal, had he thrown the weight of his family, his name, and his influence into the scale for the Union, had he accepted the command of the Union armies, which he 102 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN says Avas tendered to him by the President's authority, who shall say that tho balanco Avould not havo been turned— that he Avould not havo saved tho country from Avar and Virginia from devastation ? The ability of General Lee as a leader of armies Avas very great. It Avas acquired in the service of tho United States. His character was elevated, and in many re spects Avorthy of imitation, for its foundations Avere laid in the first military school of the republic. Ho Avas not unduly elated by victory, nor depressed by defeat. He Avas respected by his foes, admired by his intimates, beloved by his soldiers. Next after his desiro to Avin victories Avas his purpose to mitigate the evils of Avar. Only one unsoldierly act, and that Avas one of omission, Avas ever mentioned to his discredit. It Avas that ho did not actively interfere to suppress tho horrible treatment of Union prisoners. Of that no man should be accused except upon plenary proof. He Avas the pride of the Confederacy, and the lovo which the Virginians bore him surpassed their love for Washington. Peace to his ashes, and honor to his memory ! But it cannot bo for gotten that his otherwise stainless life Avas defaced by one gigantic error, Avhich must not bo suppressed lest any man fall after the same example. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 103 XVI. THE NONES AND IDES OF MARCH— THE NEW CABINET. Tiie inaugural address called forth opinions as diverse as the issues which disturbed the country. The Union ists in the South received it with favor. They said its tone was pacific, and that no just complaint could be made of the evident purpose of the author to preserve the Union and to perform his constitutional duty of enforcing the Lows. The organs of the Douglas Democ racy declared that in its statesmanship it met the ex pectations of the country, and its effects Avould be salu tary. The Secessionists denounced it as sectional and mischievous, and insisted that if the President meant Avhat he said, it Avas the knell and requiem of the Union, and the death-blow of hope. The pronounced Republi cans were inclined to reserve their judgment. They did not quite Hke his positive pledge not to interfere with slavery ; but, on the other hand, with a strong tendency to conciliate, it Avas decided in its condemnation of seces sion and in its purpose to preserve the Union. The fact Avas that none of the parties appreciated the dignity and power of the document, nor the ability and sound sense of its author. Read by the light of subsequent events, it proved to be one of the most able state papers of its generation, and fully equal to the great demands of the emergency. The announcement of the names of the cabinet officers for the moment diverted the public attention from other subjects. They were obviously selected upon the noArel, 104 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN and it was feared dangerous, principle of placing the government in the hands of those members of the suc cessful party most in favor Avith the people, as shown by their strength in the nominating convention. Upon this principle Mr. Seward had no competitor for the De partment of State. Mr. Chase was selected for the Treasury, Mr. Cameron for the War Department, and Mr. Bates for the Attorney-Generalship. The President desired that the slave-holding states should have a more decided representative of their interests than Mr. Bates, and places Avere offered to distinguished statesmen of Vir ginia and North Carolina. Upon their declination the vacancies remaining Avere filled by Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Avho had considerable strength in the nom inating convention, Caleb B. Smith, a moderate Repub lican from Indiana, and Mr. Welles, of Connecticut, a very conservative representative of New England. In the construction of his cabinet Mr. Lincoln had ob viously determined to secure strength at the sacrifice of unity. It was scarcely to be expected that the views of Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase, or Mr. Cameron and Mr. Bates, could be harmonized. On the other hand, the Cabinet comprised some of the strongest men of the party, who would administer their several departments, each in his own wa3r, perhaps, but with force and energy. One question was settled by the announcement of their names : there Avould be no more concessions to slavery ! My own aAvakening to the proximity of Avar occurred on the evening of March 3d. I had been the secretary, and Governor Chase the chairman, of the caucus of Re publican members of the Peace Conference. We oc cupied adjacent apartments at the Rugby ; Ave were thrown together almost daily, and I had acquired a high opinion of the abilities of the Ohio statesman. On the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 105 evening in question, he called at my rooms, and in his peculiarly concise manner said : " I have consented to accept the Treasury under Mr. Lincoln. I wish to have you take one of its bureaus." I thanked him, but said it Avas impossible for me to accept the offer. I was dependent upon my profession, I had a young family to educate, and I could not afford to accept office upon so small a salary. " We are living at a time Avhen such considerations have no weight," he said. " Within a few weeks men of your age and health will have no choice. You will be compelled to enter the service of the government. You are worth more in the Treasury than you can be in the field ; therefore it is your duty to go into the Treasury." " Is it possible," I asked, " that you think we are on the verge of war ? that Ave are to have bloodshed ?" " There is no more doubt of it, in my opinion," he said, " than there is of your existence. There is only one way to avoid it. It is that suggested by General Scott, to say to the seceded states, ' Wayward sisters, depart in peace !' Would New England consent to that ?" "No," I answered, "not to the diminution of the Union by one square inch ! But I cannot take in the possibility, the suggestion of war, with all its conse quences. I must think over what you tell me. I can not leave Vermont — it is the home of my fathers." The words of Governor Chase were a shock as well as a surprise to me. Except our brief experience in dis tant Mexico, the existing generation kneAV nothing of war. We had all assumed that the good sense of Con gress would discover some way of avoiding war— of ar ranging the controversy without disunion or final sepa ration. This conviction of Mr. Chase confounded me. But I persisted that family duties and professional busi- 106 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ness forbade my acceptance of any office except the col- lectorship of my OAvn district, for Avhich I then informed him I should be an applicant. I returned to my Vermont home and my law office. After the confirmation of the Cabinet, for nearly three Aveeks there Avas a lull in the public excitement, and ne gotiations on the part of the seceded states Avere again attempted. On the 22d of March I was summoned to Washington. I met Governor Chase, who informed me that he had appointed a collector for the district of Ver mont, and, as I thought, with very little consideration for my claims. He again pressed me to accept an ap pointment in the Treasury, which I Avas again compelled to decline. On my way home I passed the night at the Astor House, in New York city, and at breakfast, on the morning of March 26th, read in the neAVspapers the an nouncement of my confirmation as Register of the Treas ury, to which office I had been appointed on the day before. On reaching my home I found a letter from Secretary Chase, asking me to accept the office of register, at least for the time, and to return to Washington as soon as I could make arrangements for an absence of a feAv weeks from my business. I set about these arrange ments, and for nearly three weeks was actively occupied with them. On the 14th of April there was a whispered rumor, which found speedy confirmation. The first gun of trea son had been fired against Fort Sumter. Next we heard that Sumter had fallen. The first effect of this informa tion on the public mind Avas stupefying, as Avhen a deadly blow is struck across the temples. It Avas nearly tAvo days before the reaction began. Then it swept every thing before it. In a moment, in the twinkling of an AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 107 eye, as if at the call of a trumpet, the united voice of the loyal North denounced the treason and invoked judg ment on the traitors. I have some notes of the begin ning of the uprising of a great people made at the time. I Avill transcribe a few of them : " Monday, April 15th, at 9 a.m., I left Burlington for Washington. Yesterday the noAvs of the surrender of Fort Sumter to the rebels by Major Anderson swept through New England. The indignation is indescribable. With it came the answer of the President to the delegates from Virginia, that he should not depart from the prin ciples of his inaugural address. Crowds were collected at all the stations on the railroads, even at the small country towns, thirsting for neAvs. At Rutland we had the Troy morning papers, with the proclamation for an extra session of Congress on the 4th of July, and the President's call for seventy-five thousand men for the re capture of the Southern forts and the defence of the country. We had an hour at Troy. The croAvds in creased in numbers and exultation. A mass-meeting is called for to-night to arrange for enlistments. Leading citizens say that there is only one party noAv— the party of the Union. Gen. Wool heads the call. Passed through great crowds at every station on the railroad, and reached the Astor House at ten o'clock in the even ing. City Hall Square is packed with an orderly crowd, which has made a demonstration against the New York Herald, and compelled it to display the Union flag. No expressions against the Union or the President are per mitted." There Avas little sleep that night in the loAver part of the city. Cheers for President Lincoln and the Union, and patriotic songs rang through the streets. A despatch from Governor Fairbanks requested me to ascertain 108 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN when the First Regiment of Vermont Volunteers Avould be accepted. I Avas unable to get any decent seat in the train until the following evening, and the cars then were crowded. I reached Washington at daybreak on Wednes day, April 17th. The enthusiasm pervaded Philadelphia, but Avas not apparent in Baltimore, nor visible in Wash ington. If the experiences of that journey could be adequately represented on paper, they would serve as an instructive lesson to all Avho in future may harbor the thought of trifling with the Union, or showing any want of respect to the national flag. Men may come and men may go, but the love of Americans for the Stars and Stripes will abide forever. Never before had the flag seemed to me half so glorious. I left my home with no thought but that of returning to it as soon as I had performed any temporary service which I might be able to render to the Secretary. When I reached Washington I was willing to take any place in Avhich I could render the best service to my country. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 109 XVII. A NOVEL INDUCTION INTO OFFICE. I had an invitation to breakfast Avith Secretary Chase at the Rugby House. He had so many friends Avho "Avaited on their office according to their order," and AAdio pursued him even to the breakfast-room, that he only had time for a feAv Avords Avith me. " Your com mission," he said, "is in the hands of Mr. Harrington (the First Assistant Secretary). 1 wish j^ou would get it, take the oath, and assume possession of your office this morning. Whatever may happen, I must have some Republicans near me upon whom I can rely." Mr. Harrington directed me to one of the district judges, before whom I could take the oath of office. A clerk, Avho he said was well known to the judge, ac companied to identify me. We found " His Honor " not in a judicial temper, and evidently much tossed about in his mind. " He transacted his business in court," he said, "and not at his private residence." He declined to recognize my attendant. He did not knoAV " Avhy he should be annoyed by Republican office-seekers. He should not inconvenience himself to accommodate them ; his court was held at the City Hall ; it opened at eleven o'clock."1 " I am here," I remarked, " at this early hour, at the special request of the Secretary of the Treasury. I am assured that you have often administered oaths upon- the identification of the clerk sent here with me. Being HO RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN myself a lawyer, I can recognize an unsound excuse for the non-performance of a judicial duty. I respectfully ask you to administer the oath, or, in plain terms, and not by inference, decline to do so." He snatched the commission from my hand, mutter ing, in an undertone, something about " committal " and " for disrespect," scraAvled his name upon the paper, and flung it at me in a contemptuous manner. " You have certified to what is not true," I said. " If this manner of administering an official oath suits you, I think your certificate will ansAver my purpose." It Avas, I think, his last judicial act. He " went South" the next day, and I saw him no more. 1 refer to this incident because it illustrates the sullen anger of the Secessionists Avho at that time SAvarmed in the streets of Washington. My predecessor in office received me courteously, and introduced me to the clerks and employes in the bureau. He had prepared for the change, and delivered the office to me in excellent working order. He soon after took his departure, offering his services should I, at any time, have occasion to need them. My first discovery in office Avas that its atmosphere Avas one which I could not breathe, and to which I could never become accustomed. It Avas as fatal to personal independence as carbonic-acid gas to animal life. The clerks approached the presence of the head-officer as if he were a superior being. I never could tolerate the sight of a person who came up to me " Avashing his hands with invisible soap in imperceptible water." The change of a cringing, grovelling carriage in the presence of supe riors Avas my first official decision. It had been attend ed with petty tyranny over inferiors. There were but slight indications that Washington AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. m Avould take any part in the answer Avhich I knew would be returned from the North to the call of the President for seventy-live thousand men. One or tAvo volunteer companies had tendered their services, and the War De partment had accepted them. But every one seemed to be Avaiting to see Avhat Virginia would do. If Vir ginia seceded, the prevailing opinion seemed to be that the cause of the Union Avas hopeless. I did not like the atmosphere nor the surroundings. My first day of offi cial hfe Avas neither cheerful nor satisfactory. The first papers presented for my signature, on the morning of April 18th, were certificates for the fraction of the month's salary claimed by tAvo clerks who had resigned to take office under the Confederacy at Mont gomery, Alabama. My chief clerk said that my cer tificates were necessary to enable them to draw their money. "Why should they draw their money?" I asked. " Does not a deserter ahvays forfeit any pay otherwise due him ?" He did not know, he said. It had been the custom in all the bureaus. My predecessor had always signed the certificates. He supposed I Avould not wish to change the practice. I said the matter Avould require consideration. From the effect produced by this observation, one would have supposed desertion to be a virtue rather than an offence. The story of the " outrage " flew on the Avings of the Avind. The injured clerks demanded an interview. They were filled with indignation. Had they not a right to resign ? Could they do othenvise than f oIIoav the fortunes of their states ? The practice of paying up to the date of the acceptance was universal. This refusal deprived them of their earned wages, etc. 112 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I made an end of the subject by the remark that, mor ally, I could seo no distinction between their cases and that of a soldier Avho deserts his flag ; that I had neither love nor respect for traitors or deserters, and that, with my present views, I should not sign those nor any simi lar certificates Avithout the special order of the secre tary. I had scarcely disposed of these gentlemen before I received a request to attend at the office of Assistant Secretary Harrington, at two o'clock on the same day. It was a meeting of the chiefs of the bureaus of the Treasury. There were no absentees. Mr. Harrington said that the secretary would like to have our views concerning the defence of the Treasury, if an attack should be made upon it. I think General Francis E. Spinner, whom I then met for the first time, made the first answer. " I am for defending the Treasury," he said ; "but first I would put it into a condition to be defended. The building needs cleaning out. I prefer to take my seces sion clear, unadulterated, from the outside. We should know whom we can depend upon. The doubtful and uncertain should be excluded from the building. I do not wish to have men around me who require watching." These views met with universal assent. In less time than is required to write the account it was agreed that the clerks and messengers of all the bureaus should be called together at four o'clock, and the number of those ascertained who would unite in the defence of the Treas ury. " I Avill have my say !" said one, as the indications of adjournment became pressing. " My military education was neglected. It consisted in bloAving the fife one day at a June training. Why may Ave not have an officer AND niS ADMINISTRATION. H3 from the War Department to teach us at least the drill of the awkAvard squad ?" "Your question, I think, justifies me in giving you information of one fact," said Mr. Harrington, address ing the meeting. " It Avas arranged that Captains Shi- ras and Franklin, from the War Department, should or ganize the Treasury regiment, Avhen the secretary de cided first to consult you. You will find the appearance of the Treasury changed in the morning. There Avill be no Avant of arms or instructors." We returned to our offices. I can only speak of what took place in my own. To insure that all should be notified, I called the clerks into my room, and gave the notices in person. There was a flutter of excitement, followed by several applications for leave of absence. None Avere granted. At five o'clock each employe of the office had the opportunity to sign the following pa per : " I will defend the Treasury, under the orders of the officer in charge of it, against all its enemies, to the best of my ability." This Avas not a complicated pledge, but it was not re ceived with enthusiasm. In fact, it reminded me of the reception of an invitation mentioned by St. Luke, for "They all, Avith one consent, began to make excuse." I do not know that any of them had bought a piece of ground, or five yoke of oxen, or had married a Avife, but one had a sick Avife, another was surrounded by Seces sionist neighbors, who would make his life a burden if he openly joined any Union organization; there was a perfect epidemic of heart and nervous diseases, and one belonged to a family in Avhich palpitation of the heart was hereditary, and ahvays brought on by any sudden shock. I assured them that I sincerely regretted their unfortunate situations, but I could not see that it was 114 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN important to the government whether it was deprived of their services by cowardice or misfortune ; it Avas the loss of the services in defence of the Treasury which was material. It remained for an old Southerner to put them to shame. He had been in the office almost half a century ; he belonged to an old Carolina family. He had been appointed Avhen very young, and Avas put in charge of surrendered ship's registers, in the basement of the Treasury, Avhere scarcely any one ever had occasion to go, and Avhere he had been for so long a time that con nections Avith his family and friends had long since ceased to exist. " I never fired a gun in my life," he said. " I could not hit the side of a barn, and I have no doubt that I am a coward. But as long as the star-spangled ban ner waves, I have something to live for. If I am too old to be of any other use, I can at least act as a powder- monkey, and my body will stop a Secession bullet with the best of you." He seized the pen, and the name first signed to the paper was that of Francis Lowndes. His example was folloAved by all except two or three. They Avere directed to report for further orders at nine o'clock on the following morning. On the six-o'clock train between five and six hundred Pennsylvanians arrived, the first volunteers for the de fence of the capital. " There is a rumor that the Vir ginia Convention has passed the ordinance of secession ! All the cars and locomotives have been sent to Richmond. The government should have seized them ten days ago. Commodore Paulding, from Norfolk, reports no disturb ance there, and that he has tAvo ships in position to pro tect the government property. These reports are unsat isfactory. If Virginia has seceded, a long war seems to me inevitable." Such was my note of that day. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. H5 XVIII. THE ISOLATION OF THE CAPITOL.— AN ALARMED VIRGINIAN. No account of the isolation of Washington has yet been Avritten. It began on Friday, April 19, and ended on the Thursday following. It Avas unpredicted, and to many as alarming as eclipses formerly were to super stitious peoples. On Friday morning the Treasury seemed singularly metamorphosed. Armed men guarded its entrances, and excluded all but officers and employes. Stacks of rifles and boxes of cartridges occupied the halls ; busy men were fitting huge beams into the openings, and pil ing sand-bags into exposed places. Barricades, from floor to ceiling, closed the way to the vaults, and the sharp notes of the bugle rang out at intervals. Captains Franklin and Shiras had opened an enlistment office, and Avere forming the Treasury regiment, and recruits in squads were already being drilled in all the unoccupied spaces. Applications to the register for leaves of absence were numerous. The epidemic of nervous diseases was on the increase. I granted them freely. I did not ex pect the applicants would return, and I was not disap pointed. Colonel Lane, of Kansas, and Cassius M. Clay, of Ken tucky, each formed volunteer companies from strangers temporarily in the city, which were accepted as guards of the Executive Mansion. Squads of these companies were under instruction, and were being drilled in the 116 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN vacant lots and broad streets in the vicinity of the White House and the Treasury. The first news received from the outside was that the company of regulars at Harper's Ferry had sent as many of the arms as they could place on the train to Wash ington, and had burned the remainder— about fourteen thousand stands. The Virginians had organized a force to capture the armory as soon as the ordinance of seces sion had been adopted by the Virginia Convention. At noon another rumor convulsed the city. It was said that the Seventh NeAV York Regiment had been cut to pieces by a mob in the streets of Baltimore. I knew that regiment had not yet left NeAV York. But some regiment had been attacked, and it Avas assumed, in the excitement, that a similar attack would be made upon the feAv volunteers in Washington. Soon we heard that the regiment had fought its way through Baltimore, and was coming, with its dead and wounded, on a train which Avould arrive about six o'clock that evening. I Avent to the station to aAvait the arrival of the train. The croAvd was large, and in no mood to listen to trea sonable observations. I heard one man remark that the regiment Avas one of those sent by that d — d abolitionist, Governor Andrew. The next moment he Avas spraAvling in the gutter. Not a Avord was spoken by his assailant. The train arrived. The soldiers left the cars and formed in two lines on the street. Then a procession of men, with stretchers, came out of the station. On each lay a wounded man. I counted seventeen. Their dead they had left in Baltimore. The Avounded were placed in ambulances and sent to the Washington Infirmary. Three or four persons in citizen's dress Avere engaged in an excited conversation with a number of officers. They were from Baltimore, and had come to arrest the and his administration. 117 soldier who had fired from the train and killed one Davis, a Baltimore merchant. These officers claimed that they could identify the soldier, and proposed to arrest him on the spot. The colonel said that he would interpose no objection, but he would not assist them in making the arrest, because the man was cheering for Jeff. Davis when he was shot. He should leave the matter with his men. The men, with few words, convinced the officers that they could not arrest one man unless they Avere prepared to arrest the entire regiment, whereupon they abandoned the undertakin£:. A Baltimore acquaintance described the march of the last one hundred men through the streets as an act of singular gallantry. They were cut off from the rest of the regiment, and surrounded by the mob. Forming into a square, with fixed bayonets, in double-quick time they drove their way through a howling crowd of a hundred times their number, and a shower of clubs, stones, and shots, to the train, without firing a shot in return. The rumors flying over the city on Saturday were numerous, contradictory, and kept every one who gave them much attention in a flutter of excitement. The steamers running to Aquia Creek were ordered to Richmond, but were sent to the navy yard, and taken possession of by the War Department. The Department was closed at twelve o'clock, the keys, except of the vaults, being left in the doors to enable the engineers and two hundred regulars under their orders to com plete the defences of the building. Awkward squads, belonging to the Department regiments, were being drilled wherever there was a suitable place. Sunday morning brought a heavy crop of new rumors, but no mails or newspapers from the North. The mo- 118 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN notony of the day Avas broken by one incident, which Avas both amusing and interesting. After church, I walked doAvn the avenue in the direction of the Capitol. The sidewalks Avere croAvded, and I Avas suddenly throAvn into the carriageway by a person avIio, Avith head bowed doAvn, was rushing madly forwards, apparently desirous of avoiding observation. Believing that I recognized an acquaintance, acting in a very strange manner, I over took him, and, Avith some difficulty, identified him. It proved to be the author of the " Private Libraries of NeAV York" — a native of Virginia, recently domiciled in NeAV York city. He would not recognize me at first, but on my insisting, he assumed a position of entreaty and exclaimed, " Hush, hush ! I must not be known. For God's sake, tell me how I can get across the river." I thought he had gone crazy, but he proved to be only excited. I invited him, and, after much persuasion, in duced him, to go to my rooms. But ho insisted that he was pursued — that his life was in danger, and he should not be safe until he could reach Virginia. He Avas suf fering from hunger as Avell as terror. He Avas an edu cated gentleman, naturally of a nervous temperament, who really believed the North had gone mad. From his account of the departure of the Seventh New York, and the preparations for the great meeting on Saturday, I began to gain some idea of the great uprising. After I had persuaded him to take some refreshment, Avhich somewhat quieted his nerves, I ascertained that he had come by the way of Annapolis, and might be able to give some reliable information concerning the New York Seventh and the Massachusetts Eighth regiments, which we had last heard from at Philadelphia on Saturday, where they Avere taking steamers to come to Washing ton, either by Avay of Annapolis, or up the Potomac AND IIIS ADMINISTRATION. 1 19 River, lie was uncommunicative, until I proposed that if ho would go with 1110 to tho Kxeeutivo Mansion and givo tho President all tho information ho had, 1 would procure him a pass across tlio Potomac into Virginia. Ho accepted tho offer. I introduced him to the Presi dent, who, by a skilful cross (examination, extracted tlio lew InclH iu his possession. New York, ho said, was ablazo with excitement. Nothing favorable fo the South was permitted to bo published or spoken. All the Southerners had boon notified to leave the city within ten hours on pain of death ; all their property had been seized, and sovoral had been hung to the lamp-posts. Ho saw the Sovonth Regiment depart. Tho Avhole city Avas out to seo thorn off. They had left Philadelphia, on Saturday Avith a Massachusetts regiment ou separate steamers, and had not since boon heard of. The bridges on tho railroads had been burned; he saw some of them burning. I Io Avas, or claimed to be, unable to fell by what route ho came. One prevailing idea filled his mind. The Avholo North was already on tho -way to tho invasion and de struction of the South! They were coming down like an avalanche. General B. F. Puller was fo bo tho loader of the invading army. Tho information extorted from tho doctor scarcely paid for the trouble. He received his pass, however, and disappeared, making rapid speed in tho direction ot tho Louie Pridyo across tho Potomac River. 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XIX. BALTIMORE BLOCKS TnE AVAY. On Saturday, April 20th, Washington was detached from the loyal states. We had no mails from the North, no communication by railroad or telegraph Avith Phila delphia, Harrisburgh, or places north or Avest of either city. For neAvs Ave had only rumor, which informed us that bridges had been burned on all the railroads running into Baltimore ; that the steam ferry-boat at Havre-de-Grace had been sunk, and that no regiments on the Avay could reach the capital. For outside information Ave Avere served Avith the Baltimore Sun. That rebel sheet declared that " Yes terday the best blood of Maryland Avas spilled by North ern mercenaries." It demanded that " not another sol dier from the North shall desecrate the soil of Maryland." It reported a public meeting of citizens of Baltimore, one of whom, Carr by name, Avas " ready to shoulder his musket for the defence of Southern homes," and Avho demanded to be immediately informed, " Avhether the minions of Lincoln should cross the soil of Maryland, to subjugate our sisters of the South." And the citizens answered by unanimous shouts, " No ! never !" There has been so much Avritten that is Avronff touch- ing the action of the officers and peoplo of Maryland on and after the 19th of April, that I feel justified in con tributing some definite facts to the literature of the sub ject. Maryland never seceded. Her governor, and the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 121 members of her Legislature were elected as Union men. Baltimore Avas a Secessionist city. With the exception of a small minority of true and daring Republicans, her people Avere disunionists. When the call for seventy- five thousand men was issued, for the general service of the government, Governor Hicks had undertaken to say that " no troops Avould be sent from Maryland unless it may be for the defence of the national capital;" and the mayor of Baltimore ha,d joyously exclaimed "Amen !" In fact, the governor, instead of boldly placing himself on the side of the Union, had practically surrendered his authority to the officials of Baltimore. Accordingly, no preparations Avere made to protect the Northern regiments, and the second one that passed through Baltimore had to fight its way through a mob of ten times its number of ruffians, Avho kneAV they had the moral support of the authorities. The newspapers said that only three soldiers were killed and eight Avound ed, Avhen more than tAventy, with serious injuries, Avere lying in the Washington Infirmary. The mayor of the city forthwith despatched to the President a committee "to explain the fearful condition of affairs," and to in form him that " the people are exasperated to the highest degree by the passage of troops, and the citizens are universally decided that no more troops should be or dered to come ;" also that " the authorities of the city did their best to prevent a collision, and, but for their efforts, a fearful slaughter Avould have occurred." Gov ernor Hicks fully concurred in all that was said by the mayor in the above communication. " A public meet ing of citizens," continued the mayor, " has been called, and the troops of the state and the city have been called out to preserve the peace. They will be enough." The governor, the mayor, and the police board telegraphed 122 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to " send back the troops from Rhode Island and Massa chusetts to the borders of Maryland," and President Garrett " most cordially approved the advice, and gave the necessary order." The mayor and his committees met the President and General Scott on the 20th and 21st, and reported that the President recognized the good faith of the city and state authorities ; that his sole object in concentrating troops Avas the defence of the capital ; that he protested that none of the troops brought through Maryland Avere intended for any purpose "aggressive as against the Southern states," and that, Avhile insisting that troops Avere necessary for the defence of the capital, both the President and General Scott agreed that they Avould bring them around the city, and not irritate the people by marching them through Baltimore. The report is too long for insertion here, but in substance it repre sented the President as satisfied with the conduct of the Baltimore authorities ; that he Avas conscious that the " people of all classes Were fully aroused, and that it Avas impossible for any one to ansAver for the consequences of the presence of Northern troops anywhere Avithin the borders of Maryland." Had these statements been true, had the President and General Scott been in the temper of mind here repre sented, Washington Avould have been in rebel hands Avithin forty-eight hours. There Avere many official acts of President Lincoln which seem to have exerted a pow erful influence upon the fortunes of the republic, but there Avas none more beneficial in its results, or Avhich more clearly sIioavs his cool judgment, than his dealing Avith the Secessionists of Baltimore at this time of universal excitement, almost at the beginning of his official career. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 123 When he gave these gentlemen his answer, he knew of some events of which they Avere ignorant. He kneAV that his call for men had already been approved by the loyal nation ; that more men than he had called for had been tendered by a single state ; that there had been a great uprising of the people Avhich rendered tho insolent answers of some rebel governors pitiful by contrast ; that every hamlet, as well as every city, from Maine to Ore gon, was alive with the Avork of preparation, and that choice regiments from Massachusetts and NeAV York, the advance guard of the legions to follow, were already within the Abaters of Maryland. No ; Abraham Lincoln did not take that moment to bargain with Secessionists. It is not impossible that these gentlemen Avere deceived by his apparent unconcern. In the account given by himself to Baltimore Republicans of his interview Avith the mayor and his friends, he said that he told them that he Avould do all in his power to prevent bloodshed, and that the service, for Avhich the regiments Avere called, was expressed in the call itself. It Avas " to repossess the forts, places, and property Avhich have been seized from the Union." He said that the defence of the capital was first to be provided for, and that the routes by Avhich the regiments came were mat ters with Avhich he had nothing to do. They concerned General Scott and his subordinates. What he Avas anx ious about Avas to haAre the regiments get here. Vir ginia had noAV seceded ; it was reported that she would close the Potomac River by her batteries. Maryland bounded Washington on the north and west. These regiments could not fly over her in a balloon or dig un der her by a tunnel. Hoav were they to get here with out crossing Maryland ? Those Avho objected to the way proposed must find some other ! 124 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN The Baltimore delegation admitted the difficulties. They could not remove them, and did not come for that purpose. They proposed to relieve themselves from the responsibility for bloodshed. The Marylanders were a proud and sensitive people ; the sight of these Northern invaders was offensive to them. They would not permit them to pass through Baltimore, probably not to enter the state. They would rise as one man, and defend their state from such an invasion ! The final ansAver of the President was that he regret ted such a conclusion, and that he would have to refer them to General Scott. He supposed the War Depart ment, like all other departments, Avas much engaged just then in preparing for the defence of the capital against the disloyal persons, with whom the people of Maryland Avere apparently in sympathy. But if the condition of public opinion in Maryland was accurately represented by the committee, he was quite certain that some means would be found of informing the people of that state that " there Avas no piece of American soil too good to be pressed by the foot of a loyal soldier on his march to the defence of the capital of his country." Such Avas President Lincoln's account of his interviews Avith the mayor of Baltimore and his associates. It dif fers materially from the versions made public by them immediately aftenvards. It was accepted by the loyal friends of the Union. It certainly had the probabilities in its favor. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 125 XX. TIIE FIRST VOLUNTEER DEFENDERS OF TnE CAPITAL.— THE PLUG-UGLIES OF BALTIMORE.— THE SEVENTH NEW YORK AND TIIE EIGHTH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENTS. Foet Sumter fell on Saturday. • On Monday, April 15th, the President called for seventy-five thousand men. On Thursday Pennsylvania sent her first regiment into Washington. On Friday, at noon, the Sixth Massachu setts Avas fighting its Avay through the Baltimore mob. When it reached the capital, all the railroads through Maryland were broken, and the state for all practical purposes Avas under Rebel control. At the hour when the Sixth was fighting the Seces sionist rabble, the Eighth Massachusetts was speeding southward to the defence of Washington on an express train through New Jersey. A feAv hours later the Em pire State had sent her choicest regiment, the gallant Seventh, one thousand strong, Avith like speed on the same errand. At Philadelphia these regiments learned that the railroad bridges had been burned, and that the steam ferry-boat, Maryland, the only means of crossing the Susquehanna, had been sunk. Ordinary men would have gone into camp and aAvaited the opening of the rail road ; but General Butler pushed on to Havre-de-Grace, Avhere he found the Maryland still afloat, and, placing his regiment on board, he started for Annapolis. Colonel Lefferts chartered the first steamer he could find, the Seventh boarded her in Philadelphia, and on Sunday morning was on the ocean outside the capes of Dela- 126 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ware. Turning into the capes of Virginia, he sailed up the bay, and, hearing that the Potomac Avas commanded by rebel batteries, turned northward, and at dawn on Monday dropped anchor in the harbor of Annapolis. The Maryland Avas already there ; but, in toAving the old Constitution out of danger of rebel seizure, by the treach ery of the pilot she had been run aground Avith the regi ment on board. After laboring in vain all day to get her off, just at evening the regiments Avere landed, disre garding the protests of the mayor and citizens, that their appearance Avould cause bloodshed, Colonel Lefferts' ob serving that, if they Avere " let alone, they would dis turb nobody." The railroad from Annapolis to Annapolis Junction, with the main line from Baltimore to Washington, was torn up, and many of the rails Avere carried away and sunk in deep Avater. The locomotives had been dismantled, and bodies of rebels were lurking about the vicinity ready to attack the regiments if opportunity offered. Massachu setts soldiers reconstructed the engines, placed cannon and men to serve them on a platform-car in front, the baggage of the two regiments Avas loaded on cars in the rear, and, Avith the train thus made up, they took up their march, rebuilding the railroad as they advanced. Com panies were detailed to forage and cook, for they lived on the country. Their progress Avas slow, but on Thurs day morning they reached Annapolis Junction. Learn ing that a party of twelve or fifteen thousand rebels was preparing to attack them, the Massachusetts regi ment remained at the junction to meet them. The Seventh New York took a train for Washington, where they arrived at noon on Thursday, April 23d, a little more than five days after their departure from New York. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 127 As already mentioned, Baltimore had for some years bred a neAV variety of the human species called the " Plug-Ugly " — a hybrid of slavery and brutality, first developed for political purposes. Its representatives had no reason for existence, no visible means of support. They were idle, vicious, muscular, sensual brutes, Avho subsisted upon whiskey and crime. They Avere very bold in the presence of the weak, and very cowardly in con tact Avith brave men. Their numbers had enormously multiplied Avith the growth of secession. Washington had caught the overflow, attracted by the hope of pos sible plunder Avhen the rebellion should break out. Its postponement had made them hungry and desperate. Now that Avar was inevitable, they thought their time had come. They had a rude sort of organization, which enabled them to collect in great numbers at a given point on short notice. To the " Plug-Uglies " was assigned the congenial task of burning the bridges, breaking up the railroads, and fall ing upon and destroying the neAV and inexperienced regi ments on their Avay to Washington. They professed great contempt for the " counter-jumpers " and " kid- gloved darlings " Avho constituted these regiments, and regarded their destruction as a pleasant pastime. As soon as they kneAV that communication Avas to be attempted from Annapolis, they selected the junction of the branch railroad Avith the main line as the best place at which to fall upon the Yankees. It Avas central, their friends could come by rail from Baltimore and Washing ton, and it was a good point at which to concentrate the bands scattered over the state. They arranged to collect there a force of fifteen thousand, and widely proclaimed that Annapolis Junction Avas the selected field for the destruction of the Northern invaders. 128 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN So successfully had they spread this proclamation that a battle at the junction Avas regarded as inevitable. It would have taken place if General Butler and Colonel Lefferts with their regiments could have been persuaded to Avait a week or ten days longer. But they Avould not wait. These regiments expected to fight — that was the purpose of their coming. Many messengers had been sent from Washington to inform them of the rebel prepa rations. One or two of them escaped capture, and brought contradictory advices. Col. Landers, the last, brought such an account of the anxiety of General Scott for the safety of Washington, that Colonel Lefferts determined to push forward, though he expected to meet Avith a loss of a portion of his men. Annapolis Junction had been reached. The Massachusetts regi ment halted there to await the promised attack, and the Seventh started for Washington Avithout coming within musket-shot of an armed rebel. The Eighth Massachusetts, after waiting some hours for the attack, came to the Capitol, and Avere comforta bly quartered under its dome before the Secessionists as near as Baltimore could be convinced that they had passed the junction. Farther South they refused to credit the collapse of the plan so elaborately prepared for a victory at Annapolis Junction. A Baltimore paper of the 25th published the report, as coming from " three or four different sources," "that the Seventh had been cut to pieces at Annapolis." " It Avas probably true, but it Avould be Avell to Avait for further confirmation." The papers of Charleston and other cities put no such restraint upon their exultation. For some hours they gave free rein to their wild delight. They announced in bold head -lines, " Glorious neAvs ! The crack regiment of New York cut to pieces between Annapolis and Marl- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 129 boro ! Three times three cheers for the brave Mary landers !" While the seceded states Avere giving this ludicrous exhibition of their joy over a victory before the battle was fought, I was an eye-witness of a different picture. The Seventh NeAV York Avas marching between two mighty Avaves of cheers from the masses of loyal citi zens Avhich filled the broad streets of the capital. The regiment halted near the open space, Avest of the Na tional Hotel. That space contained the Washington contingent of the species described, Avhich their sympa thizers supposed Avas at the junction. They had infested the streets since the previous February, and Avere readily recognized. For the first time I passed through them without insult. They appeared depressed. Sorrow was on their faces and blasphemy on their lips. As the Seventh halted I stood on a corner and saAAr that vil lainous multitude melt away. It was their last appear ance, they were visible for the last time. That night there Avas a flight into the Egypt of secession of a most unholy family. The species became extinct in Washing ton, and everywhere north of the Potomac excessively rare. As a frost cuts down the noxious weeds which choke the sprouting corn, so did the tread of these tAvo regiments, as they landed upon her shores, arrest and deaden the rank growth of secession in Maryland. In one week from the time of the President's call, they had formed the front rank of the great column from the loyal states, had burst their way through rebel obstructions, and stood almost tAvo thousand strong Avithin the shadow of the dome of the Capitol. It Avas afterAvards said that the President seemed pleased Avith their appearance; that he Avas very cordial to them without distinction of 9 130 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN rank. Could they have seen him a day or two before, Avhen his countenance Avore that peculiar expression, I think the saddest "ever sliown upon the face of man, they Avould have more perfectly comprehended his esti mate of the value of their services. The citizens of Washington Avould havo made these soldiers their guests. They felt hurt because discipline required the men to go into camp and sleep under can vas. There was not one instance in Avhich a private of either regiment was guilty of the slightest excess or in subordination. They Avere gentlemen always as Avell as soldiers. They Avere overwhelmed Avith civilities and comforts, which they divided with less-favored regiments. A private of the Seventh lost his life by an accident. The Avhole city mourned his loss, and hundreds sent expres sions of sympathy. Having been selected for the pro tection of tho President and to lead tho march into Vir ginia, tho work of this regiment Avas accomplished. They offered to re-enlist at the expiration of their term of ser- ATice, but were finally discharged Avith this statement, that "it is the desire of the War Department, in relinquishing the services of this gallant regiment, to make knoAvn the satisfaction that is felt at the prompt and patriotic man ner in Avhich it responded to the call for men to defend this capital Avhon it was believed to be in peril, and to acknowledge the important service Avhich it rendered by appearing here in an hour of dark and trying ne cessity." I knew many members of tho Seventh personally, and saAV much of them during their thirty days' service. I thought then, and I haA'e never sinco changed the opinion, that, in tho succession of stirring events, tho public attention Avas so diverted that the regiment failed to receive that full measure of appreciation Avhich its AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 131 services deserved. The debt which the republic OAves for its gallant service Avas largely due to the cool judg ment and splendid, soldierly accomplishments of Marshal Lefferts, its colonel and commander. 132 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXI. THE "TRENT AFFAIR."— STATESMANSHIP OF MR. SEAVARD. It has been stated already that no attempt Avould be made to arrange these notes as a connected history or in chronological order. There were weeks and some times months when great events Avere happening, but when no time could be spared for any but official duties. Occasionally it Avas possible to record memoranda of some occurrence of special importance of which I hap pened to have knoAvledge. One of these Avas the " Trent affair " as it Avas called, which, because it so clearly illus trates the influence and statesmanship of Secretary SeAV- ard, I thought worthy of particular notice, and Avhich may as well be presented in the present connection. The "Trent affair" Avas an incident of the war Avhich furnished the only occasion within my recollection Avhen the judgment of a substantial majority of the people Avas reA^ersed by the publication of a single state paper. Before the commencement of hostilities there Avere good reasons for anticipating the friendship of Great Britain for the loyal North. The relations of that power to slavery alone Avould have furnished a basis for such a hope, Avhich was confirmed by the leading English jour nals. The London Times had declared that " the seces sion of states and the formation of a neAV confederacy are events which this journal has ahvays declared to be im possible;" "that should the clamor of secession, by any chance, be carried too far, and the threat, uttered in jest or earnest, lead to bloodshed, . . . Mr. Lincoln Avill in AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 133 that case command a majority in Congress, and carry Avith him the support of all those Avho, however tolerant of slavery, will not acquiesce in its becoming the basis of a hostile and illegal confederacy." The Saturday Review had declared that " the dissolution of the Union, so far from being hailed as a profitable transaction, will be lamented in this country (England). ... It is a truth, absolutely certain, that any policy will miscarry Avhich assumes that England can be coaxed or bribed into a connivance at the extension of slavery." Less influen tial papers teemed with similar articles. During the first six months of the Avar, there was an extraordinary change in the sentiments of the English people. The Times proclaimed that "there must be two federations — on no other footing Avill peace ever be made." " In our opinion, the forcible subjugation of the South will prove a hopeless task." The Saturday Re view said that it was " the unanimous opinion of nine teen out of tAventy educated Englishmen that a more hopeless enterprise than the reconquest of the South by the Federal government has never been projected by any ancient or modern state." " The North is just as fool ish for trying to reconquer the South, as Xerxes was Avhen he led half the world against Athens, or as Na poleon was Avhen he led Europe against Russia." Mr. Roebuck regarded "the attempt of the North in en deavoring to restore the Union by force as an immoral proceeding, totally incapable of success." And even Mr. Gladstone said that " Mr. Jefferson Davis has made of the South a nation, and separation is as certain as any event, yet future and contingent, can be." With this change of opinion had arisen a popular de mand in Great Britain for the recognition of the South ern Confederacy by the great powers of Europe. It was 134 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN apparent that Great Britain was prepared for such rec ognition Avhenever France Avould join her, and that a very sipall excuse would suffice to induce her to act in the matter Avithout further delay. There was one inci dent referred to by Mr. Bright in his celebrated speech at Rochdale, Avhich almost savored of contempt of the North in the British Cabinet. Fully alive to the import ance of amicable relations Avith Great Britain, the United States government had commissioned Mr. Charles Fran cis Adams, one of its first statesmen, as its represen tative at the Court of St. James. On the day of .his arrival in London, but without waiting for any com munication with him, the British Cabinet published a proclamation, intended to prepare the Avay for a full rec ognition of the Confederacy, and Avhich unmistakably evinced the ultimate purpose in that respect of the Brit ish crown. The defeat of Bull Run appeared to be hailed in Eng land Avith delight. It apparently determined the party in poAver to settle the fate of the Union Avithout further postponement. From this time, until the final capture of the army of General Lee in April, 1865, the possibil ity that the rebellion might be suppressed was scarcely admitted in Great Britain. Mr. Bright, and perhaps half a dozen others, Avere the only leading Englishmen Avilling to speak a friendly word for the North, and every act of our government was performed under the impending danger of a recognition of the Confederacy, a disregard of the blockade, and the actual intervention of Great Britain in our attempt to suppress an insurrec tion upon our own territory. On the 17th of November, 1861, the United States steamer San Jacinto arrived at Fortress Monroe Avith Messrs. Mason and Slidell prisoners on board. Captain AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 135 Wilkes, her commander, immediately reported to the Navy Department that, learning that these parties had been appointed on some diplomatic mission from the Southern Confederacy to Great Britain and France, and had run the blockade, reaching Havana from Charleston, expecting to depart from the former place on the 7th of the month in the English steamer Trent for St. Thomas, on their way to England, he had intercepted the Trent, in the Bahama Channel, on the 8th of November, about two hundred and forty miles from Havana, brought her to by firing a shell across her bows, and had forcibly captured from her Messrs. Mason and Slidell, Avith their secretaries, and now held them on board his ship in Hampton Roads. Detailed reports of all the officers concerned in the capture, Avith the protest of the Con federate envoys, and Captain Wilkes's reply thereto, ac companied the account of the capture. On the receipt of this report, Mr. Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, congratulated Captain Wilkes, and stated that his " conduct in seizing these public enemies was marked by intelligence, ability, decision, and firmness, and has the emphatic approval of this Department." On the first day of the December Session of Congress, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, ten dering the thanks of Congress to Captain Wilkes for the capture and arrest of Mason and Slidell. As soon as the facts reached the State Department, which was some time about the first of December, Secre tary Seward addressed a note to the American Minister in London, Avhich he was requested to read to Earl Rus sell, stating that the action of Captain Wilkes was with out any instructions from his government, and that he trusted that the British government Avould consider the subject in a friendly temper. The first information, 136 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN therefore, received by Great Britain from our govern ment, after the capture, announced that it A\ras made Avithout authority, and declared the Avillingness of the United States to consider the questions Avhich it in- Arolved upon settled principles of international laAv. The first communication from Earl Russell in relation to the capture indicated a very different temper. It Avas sent by a special messenger to Lord Lyons, Avho was directed to inform Secretary SeAvard of its con tents. It declared that the act of Captain Wilkes Avas an affront to the British flag, and a violation of inter national laAv. It announced that " the liberation of the four gentlemen named and their delivery to your lord ship, together Avith a suitable apology for the aggression, alone Avould satisfy the British nation." With this de mand came information of the public excitement in England upon the first reception of the news of the capt ure, and of the action of the British authorities, which appeared to indicate their purpose to force the two coun tries into a Avar. As soon as the telegram announcing the boarding of the Trent by a Federal vessel of war was received in Liverpool, a placard Avas posted on the Exchange an nouncing the "outrage on the British flag," and calling a public meeting. This meeting was presided over by Mr. James Spence, Avho, upon taking the chair, read a resolution calling upon the goA'ernment to assert the dignity of the British flag by requiring prompt repara tion for this outrage. The resolution offered by Mr. Spence Avas carried by a tremendous majority. The English Cabinet took its cue from the Liverpool meeting. Knowing that the capture Avas the unauthor ized act of Captain Wilkes, and that precedents Avere not Avanting of similar acts committed bv British offi- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 137 cers, and defended as lawful by the British government, the first act of Earl Russell was to despatch the per emptory demand referred to. It was afterwards known that the demand was first framed in language so offen sive that our government would have been compelled to reject it on that account, and that its terms were greatly moderated by the intervention of the amiable husband of the queen. The last note ever written by the prince consort was the one suggesting a modification of the peremptory character of the British demand, and ex pressing the hope that Captain Wilkes had acted with out instructions, or that, if he had instructions, that he misapprehended them. An intimation from so high a quarter could not be disregarded, and the despatch, was modified as Prince Albert suggested. His death oc curred only a few days later. For this noble act of friendship he deserved the gratitude of all loyal Ameri cans. Before the messenger intrusted with Earl Russell's letter had left her shores, the ports of the United King dom resounded with preparations for war. Steam trans ports were chartered, a large number of troops ordered to Canada, the Guards were directed to prepare for im mediate, active service, all the saltpetre in the British islands was seized, and every possible preparation made to attack us with the whole naval and military force of the empire the instant the demand of Earl Russell was refused. The press wrought itself up to fury. It in sisted that Captain Wilkes and Lieutenant Fairfax must be reprimanded and dismissed from the United States Navv ; the rebel envoys delivered up : atonement must be made for the shot and shell fired, without notice, at a steamer conveying the royal mail, and in the words of the Morning Chronicle, Congress " must sit down, like 138 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ancient Pistol, to eat the leek it had insultingly brand ished in British faces !" At the same time, all the Confederate sympathizers in the North Avere seized with a violent attack of pa triotic indignation. With one voice they declared that the insult offered by England Avas mortal, and that even the moderate measure of self-respect Avhich the Lincoln Cabinet Avas supposed to possess required the rejection of the British demand in equally insulting terms. Many newspapers of similar tendencies added fuel to the flames. Clement L. Vallandigham, on the 20th of De cember, 1861, introduced in the House of Representa tives a resolution Avhich recited the capture of the envoys, who were conspirators, rebel enemies, and dan gerous men, for Avhich Captain Wilkes had received the approval of the Navy Department, and the thanks of Congress, with mention of the request made to the Presi dent by the House of Representatives, that he should confine Mason and Slidell in the cells of convicted Mons, until certain military officers of the United States should be treated as prisoners of war, and then resolved that it Avas the duty of the President firmly to maintain the stand thus taken, approving and adopting the act of Cap tain Wilkes, in spite of any menace or demand of the British government, and pledging to him the support of the House in thus upholding the honor and vindicating the course of the government and people of the United States against a foreign poAver. This resolution Avas re ferred, without debate, to the Committee of Foreign Affairs. It must not be forgotten that over and over again Great Britain had exercised the right Avhich she now denied to us. The London Times aftenvards declared that " un welcome as the truth may be, it is nevertheless a truth, AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 139 that we (Great Britain) have ourselves established a sys tem of international laAv which now tells against us." The Saturday Review, a fierce Tory sheet, said that " it must in fairness be admitted that the outrage was not so glaringly in excess of belligerent rights as to be recog nized in its true character until after a careful study of precedents and legal authorities." Professor NeAvman, one of the highest of British authorities in international law, stated that the liberties taken by English ships against the Americans, in the war with Napoleon, were as hke the act of Captain Wilkes as two peas, in a moral point of view, and that Great Britain would have to pull the beam out of her own eye before instituting a search after the mote in her neighbor's. In fact, the proof was abundant that for the last one hundred j'ears that power had always exercised this right, especially against Aveaker nations. It is also undeniable that this demand of England stirred to its depths the indignation of many patriotic citizens of the loyal states. The United States had upon its hands the most gigantic rebellion the world had ever. seen ; it had met with disasters in the field ; every re source was being employed in raising, and equipping another army ; the leaders of opinion in Great Britain almost unanimously predicted defeat, and spoke of the enterprise "to restore a, defunct Union" as "altogether hopeless." The demand of the English premier under these circumstances must have been intended to deliver us an insult which we could not resent, or, if we would not endure the humiliation, Avhich would drive our peo ple into a war, and so give Great Britain what she so much desired, a pretext for joining hands with the South and disrupting the Union. In either aspect, the act was discreditable to a nation in which loyalty to the rules of 140 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN fair fighting has always been supposed to be as universal as loyalty to its sovereign. The two countries were saved from a Avar which could have had none but evil consequences by the good sense of President Lincoln and of two statesmen, their respec tive representatives — Lord Lyons and William H. SeAV- ard. Lord Lyons Avas a model Englishman. His sub stantial frame and broad shoulders furnished a suitable support to a head Avell provided Avith solid sense.. An open face and clear blue eyes indicated the sincere and generous character of the man, and his contempt for falsehood and meanness. He would have been accepted as an umpire by any contestant who relied upon justice and merit alone. He had the traditional love of the Anglo-Saxon for fair play. He thoroughly understood the controversy between North and South, and kneAV that upon its issue depended the supremacy in the re public of freedom or slavery. His sympathies Avere heartily with the North ; but he was, at the same time, a faithful representative of his OAvn nation, and Avatch- ful in the protection of her interests. We have no special information as to what passed be tween the English ambassador and Secretary SeAvard in their private interviews. But comparing events with the character of the men, we may pretty safely assume that the reading of Earl Russell's pronunciamento did not disturb the equanimity of either. Probably, after knocking the ashes from his cigar, Lord Lyons observed, " You will give up the men, SeAvard, of course ! As prisoners, they may be of consequence enough to cause a Avar ; set free, they are no good to anybody. You did not authorize their capture ; their surrender involves no dishonor. Say yes, and you may deliver them up at your own time, and in your OAvn Avay." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 141 " Your lordship is perfectly right," Secretary SeAvard probably said. "Your vieAvs are such as we had the right to anticipate from your justice, and your knowl edge of the facts. We don't Avant these people. You know, and I am surprised that it did not occur to Earl Russell, that Ave could not retain them against his de mand, Avithout repudiating the principles for Avhich we once went to war, and Avhich Ave have maintained for half a century. I think I take no risk in asking your friendly co-operation. Our people will be excited by all this unnecessary parade of preparation, and the impera tive tenor of Earl Russell's demand. We have mischief- makers among us who will try to arouse opposition to the surrender, especially if it is made the occasion of dis play in one of our larger ports, or to one of your large vessels. Suppose you name some quiet harbor on the coast of NeAV England, into Avhich you can safely send a fourth -class vessel, as the place of delivery. I will send the prisoners there ; you can have them quietly taken on board and sent on their Avay." Possibly a smile spread over the face of the noble lord as he appreciated the full import of the secretary's sug gestion. I had it from good authority, at the time, that he declared his complete indifference as to the time and place of surrender, and said that it was all the same to him Avhether it Avas made in New York Bay, or in the harbor of a fishing village on Cape Cod. In fact, it im pressed him as a duty to conform to the Avishes of the secretary in the matter of the surrender. The only other point upon which the secretary insisted was that the despatch of Earl Russell dealt with questions of such grave international importance as to render a hasty an swer highly improper, and he might find it necessary to take all the time consistent with diplomatic usages to 142 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN frame a suitable reply. This was also assented to ; the representatives of the two countries had come to a per fect understanding, and they separated on the best of terms. In fact, the ansAver of Mr. Seward Avas shown to Lord Lyons within tAventy-four hours, although it Avas not made public until the 27th of December. The general excitement increased with every hour's delay. England seized upon the excuse for Avar. Her gov ernment spared no pains to proclaim its Avarlike purposes. Tory and Liberal coalesced ; Lord Derby Avas consulted by the government, and hastened to its support. He suggested to ship-owners to instruct the captains of out ward-bound ships to signal to any English vessels they might meet that war#Avas extremely probable, and the underwriters approved the statesmanlike suggestion. Discussion of the affair had been prevented in Congress, but British threats and warlike preparations so clearly sliOAved a purpose to bully our government into submis sion that the North became a unit against the surrender of the envoys. Had any greater delay intervened it would probably have been resisted by force. The sun of De cember 26th set, and the night closed in over a danger ously angry people. On the morning of December 27th the clouds had all disappeared, and the political horizon to the eastward was quiet and serene. Mr. SeAvard had poured upon the angry Avaves of popular excitement the calming oil of his answer to Earl Russell's demand, and straightway the tempest Avas stilled. At considerable length, Avith the impartiality of a judicial opinion, the secretary summed up the facts of the capture as given by the British premier, slightly modified by the report of Cap tain Wilkes, and then set forth the demand, divested of its imperative or disagreeable features. He then added AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 143 " some facts Avhich doubtless Avere omitted by Earl Rus sell, Avith the very proper and becoming motive of allow ing them to be brought into the case on the part of the United States," and concluded by saying that, accord ing to the laAv of nations, the capture in this case Avas left unfinished or was abandoned — that Avhile Great Britain might Avaive the defect, if, on the contrary, she insists upon it, the United States have no right to retain the captured persons, the chief benefits of the capture, by proving them contraband. On the contrary, the vol untary release of the Trent must be permitted to draw after it all its legal consequences. Having thus shown, as the secretary trusted he had done, " by a very simple and natural statement of the facts, and an analysis of the laAv applicable to them, that this government has neither meditated, nor practised, nor approved, any de liberate Avrong in the transaction to which they have called its attention, it necessarily f olloAved that what has happened has been simply an inadvertency, consisting in a departure by a naval officer, free from any wrongful motive, from a rule uncertainly established, and prob ably by the several parties concerned either imperfectly understood or entirely unknoAvn. For this error the British government has a right to expect the same rep aration that Ave, as an independent state, should expect from Great Britain, or from any other friendly nation in a similar case." " Nor haAre I been tempted at all," he continued, " by suggestions that cases might be found in history Avhere Great Britain refused to yield to other nations, and even to ourselves, claims hke that Avhich is now before us. Those cases occurred when Great Britain, as Avell as the United States, was the home of generations Avhich, with all their peculiar interests and passions, have passed 144 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN away. She could in no other Avay so effectually dis avow any such injury, as Ave think she does by assum ing now as her OAvn the ground upon Avhich Ave then stood. . . . " The four persons in question are now held in military custody at Fort Warren, in the State of Massachusetts. They will be cheerfully liberated. Your lordship Avill please indicate a time and place for receiving them." In a second despatch to Lord Lyons, dated on the same 30th of No\rember, and received by Lord Lyons on the 18th of December, not intended to be read to Mr. SeAv ard, the British ambassador had been directed thus : " Should Mr. Seward ask for delay . . . you Avill consent to a delay not exceeding seven days. If, at the end of that time, no ansAver is given, or if any other answer is given except that of compliance Avith the demands of her majesty's government, your lordship is instructed to leave Washington, Avith all the members of your lega tion, and to repair immediately to London." Lord Ly ons was also directed to communicate Mr. Seward's an swer to Vice-admiral Sir A. Milne, and to the governors of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Jamaica, Ber muda, and such other of her majesty's possessions as might be Avithin his reach. Mr. Seward's letter went to its mark with the force and directness of a pointed projectile from one of Sir William Armstrong's steel guns. A war Avith Great Britain in defence of the act of Captain Wilkes Avould have been a war resulting from the direct opposite of the cause for Avhich Ave Avaged against the same poAver the Avar of 1812. It, therefore, logically folloAved that the menaces, the elaborate preparations to strike us Avhen we could not return the blow, and the Avrath and anger of the British lion, all Avere founded upon a sud- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 145 den and complete abandonment, without notice, of the principles of international law, for Avhich Great Britain had ahvays contended, and to Avhich we intended to re main loyal. Without comment or objection, Mr. Sew ard left to her whatever of honor or credit such conduct might gain, but his recommendation to his own country was the pursuit of its own policy Avithout variableness or shadow of turning. Contemporaneously with Mr. SeAvard's letter, sugges tions Avere published Avhich might have had the same origin. Attention Avas called to the fact that, to decline the surrender of the prisoners, and so make them a casus belli, Avould enable them to pose in the character of mar tyrs, and give them an importance which they could not otherAvise secure. But, if they were surrendered, they would drop into obscurity as soon as their admirers dis covered that no profit was to be made from them, and not be heard of again. This prediction Avas completely verified. From the publication of Mr. SeAvard's letter there Avas no objection heard in the loyal states to its reasoning or its conclusions. Citizens saw its wisdom ; some of the neAvspapers Avhich had been most earnest against the surrender of the envoys hastened to retract their error, and range themselves on the side of the secretary and the country. The Confederate sympathizers saw that the current of opinion Avas too strong to be stemmed, and stood dumb. The course of the English press was as singular as before the demand. It would have been scarcely decent not to show some satisfaction at the re moval of such threatening differences between the two countries, and two or three of the leading journals promptly recognized the statesmanship of Secretary Seward and the value of the influence of Lord Lyons. 10 146 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN The London Times, the Saturday Revieio, and other sheets hostile to the North, attributed the surrender of the prisoners to American cowardice and fear. Their success Avas not encouraging. They were noticed only to be ridiculed, and very soon subsided into a mortified silence, occasionally broken by grumbling denials of our successes in the field. The feeling of sympathy Avith the South and hostility to the North continued to exist in many British minds, but it Avas more cautious in its manifestations, and never again had such an opportu nity ,for development as it found in the case of the Trent. Not many months aftenvards France kindly offered her mediation between the American belliger ents, but was promptly informed by Mr. Seward that no war betAveen belligerents, but only an armed insur rection, existed, Avhich the United States was vigorously and triumphantly putting down ; that Ave were obliged to our ancient ally for her good intentions, but as for her mediation, or that of any other power, we would have none of it. After this the powers of Europe left us to settle our own controversies in our OAvn way. It Avas found convenient for Lord Lyons to send a small English steamer to the quiet harbor of Province- toAvn, on the Massachusetts coast, Avhere our government undertook to deliver the prisoners, previously confined at Fort Warren, near Boston. The season and the cir cumstances subjected them to some inconveniences. Our larger steamers Avere all on duty, and it was therefore necessary to send the envoys from Fort Warren on board a tug, not provided with passenger accommodations. They Avere sent in charge of Mr. Webster, a subordinate in the State Department. From him I learned that the weather Avas unusually tempestuous, even for December ; that, in fact, the trip Avas made in a furious northeast gale. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 147 The prisoners Avere not good sailors ; the tug rolled and pitched fearfully, so that the unfortunate envoys Avere extremely sea-sick all the Avay to the rendezvous. There were times Avhen he feared he would be unable to deliver them, for they claimed ATehemently that life, under such disagreeable conditions, Avas undesirable. But, notAvith- standing the difficulties, they succeeded at last in mak ing the harbor; the prisoners were delivered into the charge of the British ship, Avhich they declared was no better than the tug, and altogether unfit for diplomatic service. This spirit of captiousness was annoying to the officers of the ship, who maintained that a vessel Avhich served as the home of officers of the Royal Navy was good enough for Confederate prisoners. Their voyage across the Atlantic did not begin under favorable aus pices, but Avas finally accomplished, and thus closed this much-talked-of incident in American history. As the secretary had predicted, the mission of the envoys to the great powers of Europe was a failure, and their proceed ings never afterwards disturbed our peace. President Lincoln's views upon the "Trent affair" Avere promptly expressed Avith his customary common- sense and brevity. As soon as the capture was reported, he said that " it did not look right for Captain Wilkes to stop the vessel of a friendly power on the high seas, and take out of her, by force, passengers who went on board in one neutral port to be carried to another. And if it Avas, he did not understand Avhence Captain Wilkes got the authority to turn his own quarter-deck into a court of admiralty." With the people, it is not improb able that this plain, forcible view was as convincing as the able legal argument of Mr. Seward. After Mr. SeAvard's death, Mr. Gideon Welles, Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of the NaA^y, published several mag- 148 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN azine articles, afterwards collected in a volume, in Avhich he claimed that Mr. Seward at first opposed, and only consented to the surrender of the prisoners when he Avas overruled by the President and a majority of the Cabinet, and consequently Avas entitled to no credit in the premises. It is unpleasant to take issue with Mr. Welles, but the first despatch to Mr. Adams, to which I have referred, shoAVS Mr. SeAvard's position ; and I know that his opinion Avas unchanged from the first report of the capture to the surrender. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 149 XXII. THE ANTAGONISM OF THE REGULAR TO THE VOLUNTEER SER VICE.— THE INFLUENCE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. The events of the War of the Rebellion followed each other in such rapid succession that there Avas no time for contemporary examination of their relative importance. Those who were then in the public service will remem ber how, before one occurrence could be dealt with, an other pressed upon their attention, so that any event outside the line of their duties necessarily passed with out particular observation. As the general picture of those terrible years recedes into the past, some of its points, before unnoticed, rise into prominence. There were seAreral such incidents which attracted slight atten tion while the war was in progress, which, regarded from a later standpoint, singularly illustrate the powerful in fluence for the maintenance of the Union, always exerted by the strong, native common-sense of Abraham Lincoln. The heads of bureaus and of divisions in the bureaus seldom changed with the administration before the year 1864. In the spring of 1861 these positions in the War and Navy Departments were filled by officers of those services, usually more than sixty years of age. They had had but little experience in war. Such as they had was restricted to the war with Mexico, in Avhich the fighting was wholly on land and- in another country, be sides a few local contests with the Indian tribes. There had been no fighting in the navy since 1815. It was the fact, hoAvever, that officers Avhose names Avere scarcely 150 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN known to the country Avere at the head of these bureaus at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion, and con trolled the subjects of arms, munitions, equipment, cloth ing, medicine and surgery, hospitals, the construction of vessels, steam-machinery, and engineering ; in short, the administration of all the military and naval resources of the nation. , In these bureaus everything Avas provided for by " regulations." An application made to the sec retary for the introduction of any neAV arm, invention, or proposed improvement Avas by rule referred to the bu reau with Avhich it was connected for a report. All the traditions of these bureaus assumed that their respective regulations Avere perfect, that all knoAvn sources of in formation respecting them Avere to be there found, and that any change for the better Avas impossible. Add to these traditions contempt for popular ideas as crude and impracticable, and it is obvious that the accomplishment of any change in the theory or practice of one of these departments was a work to be accomplished, if at all, only by great perseverance and patience. At the commencement of the Avar, except a small num ber of Colt's revolvers for the cavalry, there Avas not a breech-loading gun in tho service. The old smooth-bore musket of the Revolution, modified by a few changes made in the armories of the United States, Avas the arm of the infantry. When the first call for seventy-five thousand men Avas made, it became necessary to pur chase guns for tlieir use. A large number of muskets, Avhich Belgium had discarded for an improved Aveapon, had been sent over to Noav York city, Avhere they Avere offered to the Government at a very Ioav price— about three dollars each. As these afforded an economical means of arming the Volunteer Infantry at a small ex pense, they Avere promptly purchased, and issued to the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 151 regiments first mustered into service. Complaint of them was general. Men who were accustomed to handle the rifle declared that the least dangerous point of their effective field Avas in front of their muzzles. The First Vermont Regiment Avas one of the earliest regiments mustered into service after the call. It com prised several uniformed companies, drilled and disci plined, in which were to be found merchants, manufact urers — in short, the very best native Vermonters. Its colonel (Phelps) had been educated at West Point ; after long and gallant service in the regular army he had re signed, leaving a most creditable record. Governor Fair banks, who was aware that the personnel of the regiment was Avell known to me, sent one of his aides to say that it was rumored that the regiment Avas to be armed with the Belgian muskets ; that Colonel Phelps was of opin ion that they Avere unfit for use ; that the government had new Enfield rifles, then on shipboard in the harbor of New York, of Avhich the First Vermont would make as good use as any other regiment ; that he respectfully requested the delivery of one thousand of these rifles to the regiment ; that if this request could not be complied with, the state preferred to purchase good arms for the regiment if the Secretary of War would authorize him to do so. He added that immediate action was neces sary, as the regiment would arrive in New York city on the foUowing day. Taking a personal interest in the regiment, and desir ing to promote the object of Governor Fairbanks, I im mediately laid the facts before Secretary Cameron, who referred me to Colonel Thomas A. Scott, then the Assist ant Secretary of War. Colonel Scott said that I must know that such a request was required by the regula tions to be made in writing to the secretary, who must 152 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN have a report upon it from the proper bureau, before he could either grant or reject it, adding that an officer of one department ought not to request an official of an other to violate its rules. I replied that I Avould have taken the usual course if I had wished to have Governor Fairbanks's request denied, as applications from civilians invariably Avere, but that, as I wanted the rifles, I had ap plied to those Avho had the power and sometimes the will to grant such requests ; and that, moreover, I had no time to Avaste in applications which Ave both knew Avould be refused. Finding that I Avas rather persistent, Colonel Scott finally said that the application must be made to the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, but if he re fused it I might return, and he Avould see what could be done ! I told him that I would go through the formal ity if I must, but that I should certainly return Avithin half an hour. I found the Chief of the Ordnance hedged in by more successive guards than the Secretary of War. Disre garding their remonstrances, I Avent directly to the chief official, apologizing that my OAvn duties prevented me from giving time to the usual formalities of his ap proach. I found an elderly gentleman, Avho Avould never see seventy again, Avith very Avhite hair and a very red face. I replied to his inquiry, "What I Avanted," in the fewest possible Avords : " An order from the War De partment on the proper office in New York, to deliver one thousand Enfield rifles to the governor for the use of the First Vermont Regiment." The scarlet hue of his face deepened into crimson, as he exclaimed : " Such an application Avas never heard of ! Why Avas it not made regularly through the Secretary of War ?" " Be cause there was no time," I was about to say, Avhen he fiercely continued : " It is too late. The guns for that AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 153 regiment have been issued and the orders signed. They Avill not now be changed." " I supposed the order had been issued," I said, " and that it Avas to arm the regiment with the Belgian mus kets. It is that order Avhich I wish to have changed. I knoAV that the Department has Enfield rifles ; the Ver monters Avant them. The emergency is pressing, and I cannot Avaste any time in mere formalities. I have come to you at the request of Colonel Scott, avIio, I under stood, Avas your superior officer. I assured him that my application to this bureau Avould be unavailing ; but the Vermonters must have the rifles. If I cannot get the order for them here or elseAvhere, I must go to the Pres ident." The shock of the intimation that an order of his bu reau, once signed, could be recalled, or of the proposition to ask the President to overrule it, appeared for a mo ment to arrest the action of his organs of speech, or I am certain he would not have listened to so long a state ment. His face and hands turned to a dark purple, as his words vainly struggled for expression. He bounded from his chair and made a rush, which I thought Avas in tended for my person. But the impetus carried him by me to a corner of the room, where stood a musket of the old Springfield pattern^ the stock of which Avas held to the barrel by the Avell-known iron-bands. Except that it had a percussion lock, it Avas the identical arm which frightened the croAvs from the cornfields in my boyhood. This gun he seized with both hands, raised it above his head, and shook it furiously. He had gained command of his voice noAv, for he roared, rather than exclaimed : " These volunteers don't knoAV what they want ! There is the best arm that was ever put into the hands of a raw volunteer ! When he throAvs that aAvay, as they gener- 154 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ally do, he does not throw aAvay twenty-five dollars' Avorth of government property !" I remarked that the Vermonters had no use for guns to be thrown away, and retired. Returning to Colonel Scott, I related my experience, and obtained the order for the rifles without further difficulty. The fact that President Lincoln could be reached in this case was con trolling. But for that the First Vermont Avould have carried Belgian muskets through their nine months' campaign. I had taken note of the excited bureau-chief's remark, that "the First Vermont had already got its orders." This might mean that they had been ordered to some disagreeable post, when I knew that they preferred ac tive service. I therefore, before leaving the department, determined to call on General Scott, and see whether I could not influence the destination of the regiment. I obtained access to him Avithout any delay. The gallant old hero of Lundy's Lane at once recognized the name of Colonel Phelps, and said : " Write to Colonel Phelps that I have not forgotten him ; your request in behalf of his regiment shall be attended to." As I Avas taking my leave Colonel ToAvnsend requested me to Avait a few moments in his office. He Avas one of the aides of the Commander of the Army. His consultation Avith Gen eral Scott occupied but a feAv moments. He then came to me in his own room, and said : " I cannot inform you Avhere the regiment of Colonel Phelps will be sent. He Avill receive his orders to-morroAV in NeAV York, and he Avill be quite satisfied Avith them." The regiment Avas ordered to Fortress Monroe, the post which Colonel Phelps Avould himself have selected. ' In this instance the accessibility of the President and the use of his name sufficed to overcome the hard-shelled AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 155 formalities of the War Office. In other instances that Department resisted every influence but the active inter vention of Mr. Lincoln's common-sense. The next expe rience iti attempting to introduce a change was with the bureau of the Surgeon-General of the Army. If seventy-five thousand volunteers Avere suddenly called into active service in the swamps and marshes of the South, subject to the diseases incidental to constant exposure in a new climate, together Avith the casualties of battle, it Avas obvious to everybody except the Sur geon-General that the ordinary resources at his com mand Avould be wholly inadequate to preserve their health or secure their comfort. The recent experiences of European nations in Avar, which had availed them selves to the fullest extent of the assistance of private organizations to supplement the deficiencies of a better service than our OAvn, had demonstrated the great value of such organizations, if any proof had been needed. As if by a common impulse, the charitable and benevolent of all the loyal states contributed large sums of money, and organized that magnificent charity, now well-known in history by its excellent work in saving lives, the Sani tary Commission. Dr. BelloAvs, of NeAV York, accompa nied by equally eminent citizens from other large cities, proceeded to Washington, and tendered their organiza tion, Avith its abundant resources and supplies already accumulated, to the War Department for the use of the army. In the regular course of such human events their offer was referred to the bureau of the Surgeon-General of the Army. To their surprise and confusion, their offer Avas rejected with undisguised contempt. They were told, in substance, that they were interfering Avith mat ters Avhich did not concern them, about which they knew nothing ; that the Department was able to perform its 156 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN own duties, and Avanted none of their assistance. In short, they Avere, figuratively, turned out of the office and told to go home and attend to their OAvn affairs, for their volunteered assistance Avas an annoyance, the repe tition of which Avould not be tolerated. The indignant mortification of these eminent citizens may be imagined. They had previously supposed them selves engaged in an honorable public service — they were told noAv that they Avere impertinent intermeddlers with matters beyond their sphere. Upon one conclusion they Avere agreed : they would shake the dust of the War Office from their feet, go home, and supply their com forts directly to the soldiers, Avithout the endorsement or intervention of the fossils of that department. They were about to depart from the capital, when some happy thought or fortunate suggestion turned their minds to Abraham Lincoln. They called upon him and related their experience. He " sent f or " the Surgeon- General. A request for his immediate attendance at the Executive Mansion was one Avhich even that exalted of ficial did not think it prudent to decline. " These gen tlemen tell me," said the President, "that they have raised a large amount of money, and organized a parent and many subordinate societies throughout the loyal states to provide the soldier with comforts, Avith mate rials to preserve his health, to shelter him, to cure his wounds and diseases, Avhich the regulations of the War Department do not permit your office to supply — that they offer to do all this Avithout cost to the government or any interference with the action of your department or the good order and discipline of the army, and that you have declined this offer. With my limited informa tion I should suppose that this government Avould Avish to avail itself of every such offer that was made. I Avish AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 157 to have you tell me why you have rejected the proposals of these gentlemen ?" ' Had the President realized the cruelty of confronting an old bureau officer of the War Department, encrusted Avith all the traditions of " hoAV-not-to-do-it," suddenly and Avithout previous opportunity to frame an excuse, with the hard, inflexible sense of such a question, he would have been more merciful. The officer Avas con founded. He could only mumble some indefinite ob jections to outside interference with the management of the War Office, and claim that the Department could take care of its own sick and Avounded — in short, his at tempts at excuse wTere failures. " If that is all you can say," remarked the President, " I think you will have to accept the offer, and co-operate to the extent of your ability with these gentlemen in securing its benefits to the army." Bureaucracy struggled against common- sense no longer. The Sanitary Commission Avas the greatest, the most active charity of the Avar. Tens of thousands of saved lives, of naked men clothed, of wounded men sheltered and made comfortable, had good reason to bless the name of Abraham Lincoln, Avhose common-sense secured for them the benefits of such an invaluable organization. 158 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXIII. THE COLORED PEOPLE.— THEIR INDUSTRY IN LEARNING TO READ.— THEIR IMPLICIT CONFIDENCE IN PRESIDENT LIN COLN. I had some opportunities, particularly during the first few months of my residence in Washington, of observ ing the influence upon the colored race of their pros pective emancipation, Avhich were A'ery interesting at the time. I transcribe from my journals some of the notes Avhich I thought were Avorthy of preservation. In the first month of my official life, an old resident and former official of the city, Ex-Mayor Wallach, called to ask me to appoint a colored man as a laborer in the register's office. He was a slave, Avhose master was a Virginia Secessionist ; he Avas out of employment, and in absolute Avant. Mr. Wallach recommended him highly, saying that, besides making himself useful in the office, he was perfectly competent to assist, if any one Avished to entertain dinner or other company, by taking charge of the entire affair — making provision for, cooking, and serving a dinner to the satisfaction of the most exacting. Besides, he Avas thoroughly honest, for the ex-mayor and his friends had employed and trusted him for many years. In vieAV of so high a recommendation, I promised to give him a trial. His name, Mr. Wallach said, Avas Walker Lewis. The next morning LeAvis called upon me. He Avas about forty years of age, and, except for his color, had few of the characteristics of the negro. He Avas AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 159 erect, rather slim, with a face and lips which would not have discredited any white man. He Avas neatly dressed, and in manner and conversation a gentleman. I addressed a feAv inquiries to him, and by degrees dreAV from him the history of his life. From boyhood his master had hired him out as a servant at hotels and watering-places. He had been for many seasons at the White Sulphur Springs and Old Point Comfort, and during the sessions of Congress he had been employed by one of the Wash ington hotels patronized by Southerners. He had been married once, when quite young, but his family had become separated, and he never expected to see them again. Asked if his master allowed him to have any part of his wages, he replied no, that he had to pay to him not only his wages, but all the gratuities which gentlemen gave him. He was acquainted Avith many leading Southern statesmen, and had served some of them. He had been steward for President Tyler and several others. When I asked him what his last em ployment had been, he answered, without the slight est hesitation, that he had been the steward of Major H 's gambling-house, until the Avar broke out, when, all the gentlemen having gone South, business was dull, and the house had been closed. He was, therefore, out of employment, had no money, and, if I would give him a place, he would serve me very faithfully. "But, Lewis," I said, "if I secure you a place in the Treasury, your Avork would be carrying money, bonds, and securities, in large amounts, from one room or office to another. Do you think it would be safe to put a man in such a position Avhose last employment was in a gam bling-house ?" An expression passed over his face that touched me. It was pitiful. His voice trembled, and his eyes filled 160 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN with tears as he said, " I wish you Avould only try me, master ! I never gambled ; I never drink liquor ; I don't think I am any worse for working in a gambling-house. If I had had any choice about it, it might have been dif ferent. But I never had any choice of employment in my life. I have had to go Avhere my master hired me out, and do Avhat I Avas told to do. Seems a little hard, master, that I can't have one trial !" " It is hard, Lewis !" I said, " and you shall have one trial. Come here to-morrow, and your name shall be placed on the roll. But the first time you go Avrong you will probably go to prison ; and you must drop that Avord 'master,' which you have used so many times. Every man in this bureau who does his duty and obeys the rules is his OAvn master, and will have no other." " But, master," he exclaimed, " I can't help it. I kind of forget myself. I was never spoken to so before. No ! no white man ever treated me like you do. I should like to call you master. Seems like I must do some thing to show you how grateful I am." LeAvis's name Avas borne on the pay-roll of the register's office for many years after I left it ; until, indeed, his hair Avas Avhite, and he had accumulated a modest competence. He married, and became in time one of the leading citi zens of his race in Washington. When I left the Treasury I Avas of the opinion that, in the three or four past years, LeAvis had handled more money and securities than any other person in that department or outside of it. He Avas a model of industry, gratitude, and integrity. I never could break him of the use of the Avord " master." Long after his appointment I noticed that, whenever I met LeAvis in one of the halls of the Treasury, he would invariably cross over to the other side, and pass me as far away as possible. This was so often repeated that I AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 161 saw it was intentional, and I insisted upon an explana tion. I said that his conduct indicated that he was afraid of me. " Oh, no, master," he exclaimed, " I am not afraid of you, the best friend I ever had ! I -will tell you about it. If I lost one of these bundles, or anybody got one aAvay from me, I would be ruined ; you would think I Avas dishonest. When I first began to carry money, I said to myself, ' Noav, if I never let anybody get within ten feet of me when I am carrying a Treasury bundle, I will be sure that nobody gets that bundle.' So I just made a little rule, only for myself, you see, and it is this : ' Walker, Avhen you have a Treasury bundle in your hands, never let anybody, not your best friend, not the register, come Avithin ten feet of you, until you have put that bundle Avhere it belongs !' " It Avould have been to the profit of many treasuries if other messengers had adopted the Walker Lewis rule. There Avas, at the corner of Eleventh and K Streets, a colored church, the oldest, I believe, in Washington. I passed it every day on my way to the Treasury, and fre quently attended its meetings. At first, minister and members Avere reserved in my presence, and I saw little Avhich might not have taken place in the churches of Drs. Gurley and Sunderland. But on one occasion it was my fortune to listen to a plain discussion of my charac ter and relations to the colored race, which ended in an expression of confidence, and a conclusion that, since I had recommended colored men to office, and was the friend of Massa Linkum, there was no reason Avhy I should not be admitted to their most secret councils. Afterwards their services were conducted Avithout any apparent no tice of my presence. Meetings Avere held in this church almost every even- 11 162 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ing. Once or twice a week discussions were held of public questions in which the colored people were inter ested. The debates were usually opened by the pastor, but participated in by members of the church of both sexes. When it is remembered that the pastor Avas a slave, who Avorked for his master six days in the week, and that the members, with feAv exceptions, Avere born in slavery, and had no knowledge of freedom save the hope of it in the future, through the influence of " Massa Linkum," my readers will not wonder at the interest I felt in these debates, nor at my surprise at the manner in which they Avere conducted. I was once invited to act as umpire, or judge, at one of these discussions. The question was, " What makes the Avhite man the superior of the colored man ?" I ex cused myself on the ground that I Avas interested in the question, and could not trust my own impartiality. But I did not fail to attend the meeting at which the subject was to be discussed. The principal remarks were made by the minister. The report is deprived of much of its interest, and all of its genuine pathos, by my inability to give the dialect of the speakers. I shall only attempt to show by a feAv extracts the good sense Avhich was a prominent feature of the discussion, the accuracy with Avhich these peo ple, Avhom we called ignorant, appreciated the situation, and the intelligence Avith whioh they set about preparing themselves for the coining change in their condition. The Avhite man, the pastor said, was their superior. This must be so, or he would not have been able to keep them for generations in slavery, and he Avould not now be able to live upon their labor. " He makes the world believe that we are a careless, thriftless race ; that, like the grasshopper, Ave will not lay up anything for the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 163 future, and would starve when Avinter comes, if he did not take care of us. We knoAV this is not true. Hoav many men can I count in this congregation who are sup porting the families of their white masters Avith the wages of their labor, besides taking care of their OAvn wives and children ? I am doing it, for one, and I do not know of any income Avhich my master has had for a long time except the earnings of his slaves. If we support our selves and our masters while we are slaves, Ave can surely take care of ourselves Avhen we are free. "Brethren, the great God has been very kind and merciful to us and our generation. Just like as he saved Moses from the crocodiles, and raised him up to lead his people out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage ; just like as he saved the dear Lord from the butchers of old Avicked Herod, and bred him up to give every sinful black or Avhite man or woman one chance to repent and escape out of the hands of old Satan, so he has noAv raised up Massa Linkum, and preserved his life, so that he might give us freedom. If we don't do our part towards getting ready for freedom, we don't deserv6 to be set free. One thing that we must do in getting ready is, to show the world that we can take care of ourselves, and that the superiority of the white man is not given him by the Almighty, and that he cannot hold it, if we do our duty. " For the power and control of the white man over us comes from his education. He can make books and newspapers, and he can use them for his advantage. He can read history, and profit by it ; he can carry on trade, make bargains, and use us to build houses and railroads, because he is educated, and can read and write and make figures. We cannot do all that he does, be cause we cannot read and write. What can he do with 164 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN his arms and hands that we cannot do ? And, if Ave had his education, Avhy could we not do all these other things as Avell as he ? Brethren, this is not a question. A ques tion has two sides to it — this has got only one. You know that an ignorant Avhite man is a poorer creature than an ignorant colored man. A poor Avhite in the South is lower down than any slave. Who supports the rum-shops in this city ? Is it the ignorant whites or the ignorant colored men ? Yet these white men go every week from the grog-shops to the penitentiary, claiming how much better they are than the ' niggers,' Avith whom they are too respectable to associate ! " Oh, my dear brethren, I have only just noAv learned to read. Until we heard that Massa Linkum was elect ed I never had a spelling-book or learned my letters. I was sixty-five years old before I knew the difference be tween A and B. I thank the Lord that now I can read the news ; that I can read the Bible. I am learning ev ery day. Every hour that I can save from my Avork I give to my Reader, Geography, and Arithmetic. I want to see every colored man and Avoman, and every colored child, Avith a spelling-book or a primer or some other book always in their hands. Pretty soon now we shall have our freedom. I don't know just Avhen, but the Lord and Massa Linkum knows, and they will tell us in their own good time. Freedom will come before we are ready. Let us get ready as fast as Ave can. Getting ready means learning to read and Avrite, and make fig ures. When we all learn to do these things — Avhen we educate ourselves and our children, Ave shall be the equals of any white race on the face of the earth ; we shall be come a credit to our race, to the country, and to that great and good man avIio has been raised up by the Lord to give us freedom. The Bible is all full of directions to AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 165 get wisdom, to get education. It tells how one poor man saved a city when a great king, Avith a mighty army, tried to take it, because he had Avisdom." Suddenly the old man dropped upon his knees, and, raising his clasped hands in the most unstudied attitude of supplication, exclaimed, " Oh, Lord, teach my people ! teach my people !" I never heard a more earnest and touching prayer. Every person in the crowded church Avas kneeling, and spontaneously their musical AToices, pitched to the same key, swelled a mighty refrain — "Hear him, good Lord! hear him!" A single voice sang, "Praise God!" and with an effect almost inde scribable the old doxology rang through the church from floor to roof-tree. I came away Avhile the influ ence of the scene was upon me, humbled and abashed by the lesson Avhich the old colored preacher had taught me of the injustice of my race, and deeply impressed by the earnest simplicity of this effort of a simple-minded man to prepare his people for emancipation. At this period observing men could not have failed to notice that many colored men had become students of the spelling-book and primer. Porters at the hotels were poring over the well-thumbed pages whenever they had a moment of spare time. One of the laborers in my office, an old, Avhite-haired man, had arranged to per form his service with promptness, and then to be called whenever he should be Avanted. His mysterious disap pearances led me to make inquiry, and, through a clerk, I soon discovered the old man's occupation during the intervals of Avork. The files-room of the register was in the basement of the Treasury. In a recess, formed by a window at the farther end of the room, was a space large enough to seat four persons. It was a corner sel dom visited, and far away from the hall or passage. 166 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Here four colored employes of the Treasury had im provised a school-room. Not one of them Avas under sixty-five years of age ; the man employed in the Regis ter's Office must have been fully threescore and ten. They had arranged narrow seats facing each other, and at the time of my entrance their teacher, a colored boy of about ten years, was hearing their lessons. My old laborer, through an enormous pair of horn spectacles, was reading out his lesson in words of three letters. He attacked his task with great earnestness, shaking his white, woolly head as he came to a hard place in it, but finally spelled out, without assistance, " The-dog-can-run." His teacher praised His improvement, and said he should soon put him in words of four letters. His old, wrinkled face beamed Avith delight as he asked, " Do you t'ink I can manage 'em, sonny? Dey're drefful hard!" The teacher assured him that he could, and that before very long he would be able to read the neAvspaper, Avhich ap peared to be the universal desideratum. The colored people frequently had the latest and fresh est news. How they got it I never ascertained. When armies were fighting, they used to assemble in parties of a dozen or twenty, when one would read aloud to the others all the news from the morning journals. They had other sources of information of Avhich we kneAV nothing. Several times my colored messengers brought me intelligence in advance of the press. It had been decided to issue the Emancipation Proclama tion before the battle of Antietam. I Avas first informed of its intended postponement by one of these messen gers, Avho said that the President Avould not issue it un til Ave had gained a victory ; that, if issued at that time, it might be regarded as a desperate act, resorted to be cause Ave despaired of success in the field. His informa- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 167 tion was perfectly accurate. To my inquiry whether the delay Avould not prove a disappointment to the ne gro race, he made the answer which Avas so frequently repeated, and Avhich illustrated their absolute confidence in the President, " Why, no, sir ! Of course Massa Lin kum knows best !" 168 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXIV. SECRETARY CAMERON.— HIS RESIGNATION.— GENERAL FREMONT. —HIS TROUBLES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE WEST.— SECRE TARY STANTON— HIS CHARACTER.— THE DAVIS COMMISSION. —MR. O'NEILL'S REPORT ON SECRETARY STANTON'S SERVICES. The circumstances which led to the resignation of the War Department by Secretary Cameron, and the selec tion of Mr. Stanton as his successor, have never been fairly presented to the public. They form a complicated chapter of our Avar history ; they are numerous and de serve greater space than I can afford to give them. I have long felt that the general estimate entertained by the American people of the character and services of Mr. Stanton was much less favorable than it should be. Some of the facts Avithin my knowledge may tend to a more correct appreciation of the great War Secretary, and to remove public misapprehensions, Avhich but for his strong peculiarities Mr. Stanton Avould have himself rendered impossible. In December, 1861, our republic was passing through a very trying period of its existence. There had been no successes in the field to compensate for the disaster of Bull Run. The country Avas putting forth a mighty effort to raise and organize an army, under a young and untried general ; the Confederates, united and defiant, had suppressed every expression of loyalty in the revolt ed states, and their sympathizers in the North were hold ing conventions and resolving that the war was a fail ure. Just at this time Great Britain had found in the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 169 " Trent affair " an excuse to deal us a blow which we had not the strength to return, and tho Treasury, taxed to its utmost capacity, and struggling under its burdens, had reached a point Avhere it must be relieved from the demands Avith Avhich it was flooded from the " Depart ment of the West," or publicly confess its inability to carry them. Secretary Cameron, as tho result of his oavii experi ence, had decided that the War Department required the services of a more energetic secretary. No friend of the Union doubted the loyalty or the patriotism of this eminent Pennsylvanian. His long connection with, and administration of, large corporations gave him most ex cellent business qualifications for the War Office. Then, as now, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company Avas gen erally accepted as a model for the business management of a great institution. Colonel Thomas A. Scott was credited with originating its business system. Ho Avas then in the prime of life, and, Avith his corps of lieuten ants in the railroad service, folloAved his old chief into the War Department. So far as its business manage ment Avas concerned, this Department Avas supposed to be better equipped than any other in the government. And so it Avas. The quick perception and energy of Colonel Scott, in Avhich his aides participated, rapidly re vealed the time-sanctified obstructions, and so cleared away the dead-Avood of the office that it was brought to the highest state of efficiency. But Colonel Scott encountered one obstruction Avhich he could not overcome. It was the contempt of the offi cers of the regular army for the appointments from civil life. At that time every head of a bureau in the War Office Avas an officer of the regular army, Avith a very limited experience in the field. They sincerely believed 170 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN that all good things came out of West Point, and that four years there, foUowed by twenty-five years of theoretical service in the army, were the indispensable qualifications of a bureau officer. These* men never openly opposed efforts at improvement. They were always apparently ready to correct abuses, avoid procrastination, and co operate in making the Department a model of business efficiency. But, somehow, it always happened that when it was proposed to carry a new rule into practice, and cut off some venerable excrescence, it could not be done. No one openly objected — the difficulties arose spontane ously. If the change was pressed, objections multiplied, and the endeavor was sure to encounter the opposition of every employe, reinforced by Avhatever outside influ ence he could control. That the existing system was perfection itself was the principal article of faith of the bureau clerk. The result commonly was, that the en thusiasm for reform waned, as objections multiplied, and, after continuing the contest for a few weeks without ac complishing any good result, the advocate for improve ment gave it up, and the bureau settled down into its former quiet inefficiency, much to the comfort of the official in command and his subordinates. It is true that public indignation eventually interfered, but how many lives were lost, what an aggregate of suffering and waste of money were entailed, by the hostility of the regular service to anything proposed by civilians cannot readily be estimated. The custom of the heads of some military depart ments to make contracts without regard tp the ability of the Treasury to meet their payments more than once brought the Treasury to the verge of bankruptcy. A very brief experience satisfied Colonel Scott of the im- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 171 minenco of this danger, and the total lack of necessi ty for the same. He proposed a change, which Avould still havo left to such commander a limited discretion, but Avould have restricted his powers Avithin safe lim its. He met with tho united resistance of the Avhole Department. It Avas declared an insult to military officers to subject them to such rules. Had these bureau officers seconded the Avise proposals of Colonel Scott an enormous Avaste of money Avould have been avoided and the necessity for a change of secretaries would not havo arisen. Finding that all his efforts at reform only served to excite opposition, and as his Avish to assist his old chief had been his only reason for coming into the Department, Colonel Scott left it, and returned to his railroad, whither all his lieutenants fol lowed him. In June, 1861, General Fremont, just returned from abroad, was appointed to the command of the " Depart ment of the West," with his headquarters at St. Louis. Missouri had been saved to the Union by the vigorous loyalty of her citizens. There was, therefore, some ex cuse for giving to General Fremont powers in addition to those usually vested in the head of a military depart ment. He Avas authorized to purchase or construct ves sels for use upon the Western rivers ; in effect to create a navy. During April and May there had been much looseness in the allowance of claims upon the national Treasury from St. Louis and its vicinity ; tho War Department had assumed some claims created by citizens Avithout previous authority. The apology for this gross irregu larity, if any such apology existed, was that the govern ment property could not be otherwise protected. The consequences Avere not slow in making their appearance. 172 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Men are apt to be hberal with the money of others, and the loyal citizens of Missouri were much like other men. As soon as the precedent was established, these claims increased to a frightful aggregate, Avhich led to the crea tion of the Department of the West, and an order, that thereafter aU the moneys of the United States must be disbursed by the regularly appointed officers of the gov ernment. This order produced no diminution in the claims. To every remonstrance General Fremont replied that the claims originated before his appointment, and that he was not responsible for them. During the summer and autumn they reached an amount which it was difficult for the Treasury to meet, and some disposition must be made of them, or their continued payment be openly re fused. Suspicions of their honesty began to arise. For example, an account for army blankets of a weU-knoAvn description had been allowed, and a warrant drawn for its payment. The register caused the list to be copied, without the prices, and submitted to two Washington dealers, who were requested to name the prices at which they would furnish five or ten pairs of hke blankets to the Treasury. Both named the same price, which was only 32 per cent, of that paid at St. Louis. The facts Avere communicated immediately to Secretary Chase. The subject was considered in Cabinet meeting, where it was determined that payment of all claims against the Mihtary Department of the West Avhich originated prior to the appointment of General Fremont should be suspended until they were examined by a commission Avhich should report the facts, with its opinion upon the amount equitably due. The order first applied only to " unsettled claims," but before its labors finally terminated the commission's jurisdiction Avas extended AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 173 to claims which hud boon approved by tho accounting officers. Towards the end oT October tho President appointed David Davis, oT Illinois, Joseph Holt, of Kontucky, and Hugh Campbell, of Missouri, members oT this commis sion. Those gentlemen were eminently fitted for tlio stern duties thoy were required to perforin. Thoy avoi-o just men, who would as rea.dily reduce tf) its true valuo tho claim of the most influential citizen as of tho most iiiHignilicanl. person. Before this commission was appointed, General I'Yo- niont had involved himself in complications Avhich seri ously interfered with his cllioioncy. Uo had issued- a, proclamation manumitting tho slaves of robols, Avhich President Lincoln found it necessary to modify. A man of great amiability of char.aoter, ho had too groat con fidence in the statements of others, and thus Avas easily influenced by designing mon. His personal integrity was unquestioned, but his amiable weaknesses were so avoII known that tho President had been unwilling to place him in command of suoh an important depart ment, and had only boon induced to do so by the per sistence of the general's influential relatives and friends. His appointment was tho signal for tho gathering at St. Louis of tho clans of tho speculative, the unprincipled, and the dishonest. Those men applaudod him in tlio newspapers and extolled him to his face. They lost no opportunity of assuring him that ho Avas the greatest military loader, tho most distinguished statesman of his generation; in short, that the finger of destiny pointed to him as the coming President, tho inevitable successor of Mr. Lincoln. Thoro aro fow men, and General Fre mont was not of tho number, Avho do not like to be praised. Tho interested persons referred to Avero ox- 174 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN tremely vigilant. They took almost entire possession of the general, and made it very difficult for others to ap proach him, or to get his attention to the most urgent public business. A profitable contract was the one thing needful, the single reward Avhich every one of these per sons Avas seeking. The demands upon the Treasury in dicated that feAv of them sought it in vain. The criticisms upon the conduct of General Fremont culminated in charges against him, preferred by General Frank Blair. Although the confidence of loyal citizens in his fidelity to the Union remained unshaken, Presi dent Lincoln determined that the good of the service re quired his removal from his command. The order to that effect reached him at Springfield, Missouri, on the 2d of November. His conduct upon that occasion should ahvays be remembered to his credit. He was in hourly expectation of a Confederate attack. His body-guard, which Avas devoted to him, was excited and indignant. But instead of sulking in his tent, he continued his prep arations to meet the enemy, and spent the night in Avatch- ful inspection of the defences, ready to lead the army if the anticipated attack should be made. His brief ad dress to his men, Avritten during that night, is a model of its kind. It contains no trace of sullenness. It urges the army principally to make him proud of them by continuing to his successor the cordial support Avhich had so much encouraged him. His single regret Avas that he could not have the honor of leading them to the victory they were about to Avin, but he should claim the right to share in the joy of their triumph, and to be al ways remembered by his companions in arms. He will be a cold-hearted American, who in after-times shall read that letter and fail to recognize the fervent patriot ism of its distinguished author. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 175 Tho first experiences of tho commission in tho investi gation of these claims in St. Louis produced discoveries which led fo tho enlargement of its jurisdiction fo all tho claims iu the Department, whatever their date or origin, which had not passed the accounting officers of tho Treasury. Hut this increase of its powers was among tho least important results of the commission. Hy tho end of tho year tho amount of these claims al lowed by tho accounting ollleers became so largo as to again threaten tho solvency of tho Treasury. Py tlieir allowance thoy became a part of tho admitted national debt. What was to bo dono Avith thorn? Thcro Avere many anxious Cabinet consultations for fhe purpose of devising some means of refusing payment of these claims, without subjecting tho Treasury justly to tho charge of repudiation. Thcro Avas but one Avay discov ered iu which if could bo done. Possibly (hero Avas but 0110 man in tho nation who had the moral courage to do if. Tho way avus for the Secretary of War to undertake the personal examination of tho facts in each case, and fo refuse fo send any claim to the Treasury for payment until he had become satisfied of its justice and equity. In this way the aggregate daily demands upon tho Treas ury might bo kept Avithin its ability to pay. At this time another subject was demanding the greatest possible efficiency in the administration of tho War Ollico. Treasonable id.tora.nces in the loyal stales from newspapers and individuals were becoming bold and frequent. Tlio fact that such newspapers were allowed freely fo continue their objectionable publica tions avus certainly one form of giving aid and comfort lo the enemy, and niii.de it difficult to call, wifh success, upon the country for volunteers, money, and materials. Tho voice of loyalty to the Union Avas suppressed in tho 176 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Confederate States on pain of death. To permit the ad vocacy of Secession principles in the loyal states was to place them at an insufferable disadvantage. The Habeas Corpus Act had not yet been passed, and the measures for the suppression of open disloyalty must necessarily originate in the War Department. The ex cellent judgment of Mr. Cameron determined that he was not the secretary Avho could enforce such measures Avith the greatest success. He was conservative, delib erate, strongly averse to going beyond the bounds of laAvful authority. If the Avrit of Habeas Corpus Avas to be suspended, certain Northern neAvspapers suppressed, and Northern men of disloyal tendencies imprisoned by military authority, the exigency demanded at the head of the War Department a bold, fearless man, prompt to assume responsibility in doubtful cases. The immediate cause, hoAvever, of the secretary's res ignation Avas the decision of the Cabinet to decline pa}r- ment of claims from the Department of the West which arose out of contracts lawfully made and for which the government Avas liable according to established rules of laAv, and especially such as had been allowed by the ac counting officers. He had no doubt that, in fact, the claims Avere grossly exaggerated, but the method pro posed for dealing Avith them he regarded as undignified, or, as he expressed it, too much like pretending to pay specie by counting out dimes and half-dimes Avhen bills were presented for redemption. Such a proceeding, he did not think, Avould be successful under a secretary en tertaining his views, and he therefore tendered his res ignation, Avhich Avas accepted on the 14th of January, 1862. I think I Avas in a position to knoAv that Mr. Cameron retained the full confidence of the President and of his AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 177 associates in the Cabinet, notAvithstanding some criti cisms made at the time by his enemies upon his official conduct. These criticisms produced considerable im pression. One act of his led to the passage by the pop ular branch of Congress of a resolution of censure, some months subsequent to his resignation. The charge was that he had intrusted Mr. Alexander Cumming with the custody of large amounts of the public money, and au thority to purchase military supplied, without taking any security. But the President was too just a man to per mit an act to be exclusively imputed to Mr. Cameron for which himself and the whole Cabinet Avere responsi ble. He promptly ansAvered the resolution by a message, in which he stated that on the 20th of April, 1S61, after the fall of Sumter, and while the capital Avas in a state of siege, he authorized Governor Morgan and Alexander Cumming to make aU necessary arrangements for the transportation of troops and munitions of War, and gen erally to assist the officers of the army in its movements, until communications should be re-established ; and di rected the Secretary of the Treasury to advance, Avith out security, two millions of dollars to John A. Dix, George Opdyke, and Richard M. Blatchford, of New York, to be used in meeting requisitions for the public defence. Every dollar of the money had been accounted for, and Mr. Cameron was no more responsible than him self and the other members of the Cabinet for whatever fault had been committed in the premises. This vigor ous language ended all further criticism, and no more attacks Avere made upon the late secretary. So long as the President lived he entertained the kindliest feeling for Mr. Cameron, and gave him a large measure of his confidence. Edwin M. Stanton belonged to a class of men whose 12 178 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN public acts seem to invite misinterpretation. There was no man in a conspicuous position during the Avar Avhose objects Avere more universally misunderstood or whose motives Avere more harshly criticised. These results, equally unjust to himself and unfortunate for the coun try, Avere more his fault than his misfortune. They Avere induced by his own carelessness of speech and contempt for public opinion ; they might haAre been at any time corrected. ' He had been so long accustomed to uncharitable criticism that it had ceased to annoy him or even to attract his attention. In the year 1861, Mr. Stanton was in the very prime of his intellectual and physical life. He Avas about five feet eight inches in height, his figure being slightly in clined to corpulence. His face Avas dark, and the lower portion of it was completely covered Avith a long, heavy, dark beard. His eyes Avere small, dark, and piercing. His movements Avere quick. Vigorous alertness Avas indicated by every change of his countenance and movement of his body. His mind was as active as his person. It Avas original and mechanical rather than philosophic or thoughtful. Its type Avas indicated by his success at the bar, Avhere he had attained an enviable reputation as an advocate in patent cases, Avith but little celebrity in the investigation or discussion of abstract principles. His perceptions Avere too quick to be ahvays accurate ; his ideas seemed to burst forth from his brain like a torrent from a mountain-side, Avith a force of cur rent Avhich SAvept along Avith it obstructions of every description. He impressed those Avho kneAV him best Avith a sense of his own personal courage, the existence of Avhich was denied by his numerous enemies. What ever he may have been in the presence of danger to his person, his Avhole official life Avas a witness to his com- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 179 plete insensibility to the opinions of others upon his ac tions. These qualities constituted a character eminently aggressive ; a man capable of lofty purposes, which, once formed, Avere to be pursued to failure or success. He Avas, or at least appeared to be, insensible to all influ ences outside of his own construction of the laAv. He had the capacity of so shutting in his own consciousness that he Avas as impervious to external influences as if he had been made of metal or stone. The circumstances under which Mr. Stanton had en tered the Cabinet of the last administration were as try ing to himself as his services there Avere invaluable to the country. The crimes of Floyd, the machinations of Cobb and his associates, had driven that loyal old 'Democratic soldier, General Cass, from the chair of state. Cobb had resigned ; Floyd and Thompson were stiU there, with the new Secretary of State, Avhose opin ion, as Attorney- General, " that Congress had no power to make Avar upon a state," still dominated the Cabinet. Stanton was tendered the office of Attorney-General, as the successor of General Black, whose political faith he was supposed to have embraced. He had decided to de cline the appointment. There Avas nothing of reputa tion to be gained in the office during the fraction of the term which remained ; there was but one loyal member left, and he was a Kentuckian. Mr. Stanton went to the Executive Mansion to thank the President and ex plain his declination. He saAV and appreciated that the only defence of the Union against Secession for the mo ment was the wavering President who had called him to his aid. The picture changed his determination. In stead of declining, he then and there accepted the ap pointment. The circumstances of the first Cabinet meeting he at- 180 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN tended should be recalled by those who care to deal justly with the reputation of Mr. Stanton. In addition to those already mentioned, they Avere reported to be as foUoAvs : The meeting occurred on an unfortunate day for Secession. It Avas the 8th of January, the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans. Floyd had made the refusal of the President to AvithdraAV the troops from Charleston Harbor the pretext for tendering his resig nation, Avhich had not been accepted. Cobb, after deal ing a deadly blow at the national credit, had been suc ceeded by a man of no positive opinions from a Border state. The only member present knoAvn to be true to the Union was Judge Holt. All the other members were iu sympathy Avith Secession, or, like the President, were struggling to maintain a neutral position, when neutral ity was little better than treason. " Should Major Anderson be reinforced or withdraAvn from Fort Sumter ?" Avas then the burning question. The discussion was fierce and long, and almost Avholly on the Secession side. It ended by a motion made by Secretary Thompson that Major Anderson be commanded to retire and abandon Fort Sumter. The only voice raised against it Avas the single one of Judge Holt. Floyd, Thompson, Thomas Avere openly, Judge Black and the President secretly inclined in its favor. The occasion demanded a man of courage, and he was there. It Avas the first Cabinet experience of Mr. Stanton. The proprieties of the occasion, the traditions of Cabinet action, and his OAvn inclinations combined to secure his silence. But he Avas not the man to become an accom plice in crime. It is a public misfortune that the Avords of burning denunciation Avhich constituted the first re marks of Secretary Stanton in a Cabinet meeting Avere not recorded at the time ; that, to recall them, Ave arc AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. igl constrained to rely upon the memory of Judge Holt, the only other loyal member among traitors in intention, to whom the whip of his stinging scorn Avas applied. From him Ave learn that the words were, in substance, these : " Mr. President : At your solicitation I have consented to become, for a very brief time, your constitutional adviser in matters of law. It is an office I did not seek, but Avhile I hold it I shall perform its duties. The mo tion of your Secretary of the Interior presents my first official duty. That motion is, that you surrender the soldiers and abandon the property of the United States to its enemies. When that motion passes, its author, its supporters, every member of your Cabinet present, and yourself, if you and they do not oppose it, -will have com mitted a crime as high as that of treason !" Had a bomb exploded, the party would not have been more astounded. Such Avords had never been heard in that presence. Thompson and Floyd, their voices para lyzed Avith anger, vented their Avrath in threatening gest ures. Judge Holt moved around the end of the table to Stanton's side. Menaces were not replied to in kind by him, but, if contempt could have burned, his look would have scorched the traitors. Thompson first controlled his voice into intelligible speech. "Who," he almost screamed, "Avill dare to arrest me for treason? And what army officer Avill assist him in his Black Republican Avork ? Tliere are tAvo hundred men in my OAvn depart ment Avho Avill protect me if I call on them !" " If the officer appointed by laAv calls for assistance to arrest you or any other traitor, I will render it, for one," replied Mr. Stanton, " and one of the oldest and bravest of our generals has publicly declared that, if Fort Sumter is surrendered, he will, within tAventy days, 182 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN lead tAvo hundred thousand men to take vengeance on all the betrayers of the Union!" The meeting dispersed Avhile the President was wait ing for mutual concessions. Within a few hours the frauds of Floyd became public, and compelled the ac ceptance of his resignation. Thomas also made Avay in the Treasury for General Dix, Avho, within the month, had Avritten an order Avhich will carry his name to the last page of the latest history of patriotism, and enough of stamina was infused into the enervated administra tion to carry it through its expiring hours without any very humiliating concessions to disunion. With the undeniably strong and valuable qualities which controUed the mind of Mr. Stanton were mingled others Avhich were injurious to his reputation and a det riment to his usefulness. His judgment of other men was as partial as that of Secretary Chase. But Avhile the latter did not resist the influence of personal ad miration and praises of himself, Mr. Stanton was ex tremely suspicious of anything like personal commenda tion. Probably no man ever repeated the attempt to praise him. The first almost certainly produced either a shaft of satire or a glance of contempt. Other great faults Avere mixed with his great powers. He acquired permanent prejudices against others without an effort and often without a cause, and, once imbibed, they be came indelible. His temperament was censorious and rather gloomy. He was parsimonious of his commenda tions of others, but not sparing in his criticisms. Men of his very peculiar nature are constantly making enemies, who are retained Avithout effort, Avhile they make but few friends, and those are not to be retained without Avatchful attention. Cant, pretence, and hypocrisy were the Parcae which AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 133 never passed the door of Mr. Stanton's favor. He could not endure the breath of either. It irritated him to hear any one speak of his OAvn patriotism or his sacrifices. Such men, he maintained, Avere necessarily hypocrites, and it must be admitted that herein his estimate was seldom at fault. There was one sin for Avhich, before the bar of his judgment, there was neither excuse, pardon, nor remission : it Avas fraud or peculation in the public service. In the catalogue of crimes, as he would have arranged it, these were more iniquitous than openly bearing arms against the government. This Avas no hasty or superficial conclusion of his mind — it was reached by a process of logical reasoning. To him the republic Avas like a woman whom we pro fessed to love, assailed on every side by some of the children she had borne and nourished ; herself defenceless, Avith her life depending upon the loyalty of those who Avere still faithful. While these, by thousands, were shedding their blood and laying doAvn their lives to save hers, there Avere a few clothed in her uniform and sworn to defend her flag who Avere treacherous enough to make profit of her necessities by selling the arms, the food, the clothing of their sick, Avounded, and dying brothers. In such a stress and strain there could be no abstraction from the national resources by unjust profit or by fraud, Avhich did not in some Avay diminish the arms, supplies, the clothing or comforts of our soldiers in the field. A defrauding contractor Avas a greater criminal than an open, Avilling rebel. And there was one superlative type of unmitigated rascal, and that Avas a man who, wearing the uniform or invested Avith the authority of the United States, could use his rank, his office, or his position for his oavu secret, unlaAvful, personal gain ! An actual occurrence AviU illustrate both the careless- 184 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ness qf expression in which Secretary Stanton indulged, and the intensity of his feeling toAvards men of this class. At a reception one evening he was engaged in conversa tion Avith an officer Avhen a person passed them. Turning the subject, he suddenly exclaimed : " Do you know that person ?" at the same time indi cating the individual Avho had passed, Avho still stood within hearing but for the sound of conArersation. " KnoAV him ? Certainly. He is Mr. , chief of the bureau in your oavh Department. Why do you ask ?" " Because he is a pretender, a humbug, and a fraud," said Mr. Stanton. " Did you ever in all your life see the head of a human being which so closely resembled that of a cod-fish ?" " He is not responsible for his head or his face. But why do you say he is a fraud ? The neAVspapers call him a reformer, and give him credit for great efficiency." " I deny your conclusions," he replied. " A man of fifty is responsible for his face ! Yes, I know he is courting the newspapers : that proves him a humbug and presumptively a fraud." A few months later the official in question was found guilty by a court-martial of peculation and fraud in the management of his bureau, and dishonorably expelled from the service. Mr. Stanton's unpopularity, if the term is permissible, Avas due to his OAvn neglect and carelessness. It was owing to his negligence that he never cared to give any one a favorable impression of himself — it Avas his fault that his dislikes Avere caused by slight circumstances, and often inexplicable. When he made an unpleasant remark about another it was seldom forgotten, for he could put more caustic bitterness into a brief sentence of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 185 personal criticism than Carlyle, or any knoAvn master of the vocabulary of denunciation. But, perhaps, enough has been said to indicate the qualities which led to his selection by President Lincoln as the successor in the War Office of Secretary Cameron. Men of Mr. Stanton's temperament could not be the favorites of President Lincoln. There Avere also reasons of a personal character Avhich Avould have barred his en trance into the Cabinet, if Mr. Lincoln had been an ordi nary man. They were known to each other before the Avar. Both had been counsel for the same party in an action in Avhich, by professional courtesy, Mr. Lincoln Avas entitled to make the argument, unless he voluntarily waived his right. It Avas an action in Avhich he took a deep interest professionaUy, and for Avhich he had made thorough preparation, and Avas, consequently, certain to have made a better argument than his associate. But Mr. Stanton, Avithout consulting his colleague, in a domi neering manner not uncommon Avith him in similar cases, although he Avas the younger man, coolly assumed control and croAvded Mr. Lincoln out of his own case. The latter felt deeply hurt at the slight, which Avas the more remarkable since it is the only recorded instance in Avhich he seems ever to have claimed in his own favor any question of precedence. No laAvyer Avould have ex pected Mr. Lincoln to overlook such a gross discourtesy, or. to take its author into confidence, Avithout the most ample apology. But Avhen did any personal consideration Aveigh a feather in the mind of President Lincoln if the public safety Avas in question? Oblivion of himself on such occasions was the indisputable demonstration of his moral greatness. He who, two years later, could say of one Avho, without excuse, had added to the heavy 186 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN burden of his cares, " If I have the opportunity I will make him chief justice," and kept the promise, now recognizing in Mr. Stanton the qualities Avhich the War Office required, invited him into his Cabinet as cordially as if thoy had been old friends. From that time, through dark and evil days, through nights of solicitude and fear ful responsibility, they together carried the burden of Avar, until, and largely OAving to their joint labors, the rebellion was crushed and the republic saved. In the dark night of another day of evil the most sorroAvful heart by the bedside of the murdered Presi dent throbbed in the bosom of his Secretary of War, and his voice it Avas which spoke his grandest eulogy in the Avords, "There lies the most perfect ruler of men the Avorld has ever seen !" On the 14th of January, 1862, Mr. Stanton was in vited into the Cabinet and accepted his nomination as Secretary of War. He was expected to diminish the demands of the Department of the West upon the Treas ury, but it was not supposed that he Avould wholly arrest them. There Avere numerous monthly requisitions from the War Department upon the Treasury, authorized by statutes, Avhich it Avas necessary to provide for, in order to carry on the regular operations of the government. For almost a fortnight none of these Avere made. The delay became so embarrassing to the daily operations of the government that the Secretary of the Treasury re quested one of his bureau chiefs to call upon Secretary Stanton and ascertain the reason for the delay. This officer solicited an interview, and the Secretary of War named six o'clock p.m. on January 28th as a convenient time. Two hours after the close of business on January 28th this officer found Secretary Stanton literally buried AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. • 187 in accumulated heaps of requisitions on the Treasury, each paper of which was an account, upon which some one was, by the judgment of the War Office, laAvfuUy entitled to a Treasury Avarrant for its payment. There were, literally, cords of these requisitions. The piles sur rounded the Secretary's desk, and were higher than his person Avhen he stood erect. He Avas carefully examin ing each account with its vouchers. The result of his day's Avork lay by his side, possibly a dozen requisitions approved, and five times as many reserved for further investigation. The Treasury officer asked him Avhether he Avas discharging the functions of an " auditor" of these claims. " I am discharging a duty imposed by statute," he re plied. " No further payments AviU be made by the Treas ury on the requisitions of this Department until I know that they ought to be made !" " You are undertaking an impossibility," said the rep resentative of the Treasury. " You will stop the wheels of government. No five men can do Avhat you are un dertaking !" " I am not responsible for that," said the Secretary. " I am responsible for aiding the payment of fraudulent claims. You yourself have put me upon inquiry. You arrested a Avarrant for the payment of $26 each for muskets, previously offered to this Department for less than $4 each, and the offer was declined. Such claims are scandalous as well as fraudulent. I intend to arrest them !" He Avould not be moved from this position. He would not approve the formal requisitions, Avhich Avere unques tionably just, out of their regular order. He would do nothing but take up each account in its order, and either approve or reject it, as the facts seemed to Avarrant. To 188 " RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN every argument or statement of the evil consequences that must follow from this practical suspension of the payment of Avar claims, his answer Avas that the statute and not the secretary Avas responsible. In a few days the Department of the West Avas in an uproar — there Avas a rebellion within the loyal states. Every Western man, of any influence, hurried to Wash ington. The War Office Avas in a state of siege — the Secretary Avas Avaylaid in the streets, at his residence, even in his bed. No combination so poAverful had been made since the fall of Sumter as that Avhich now beset the White House and aU, the departments to induce Sec retary Stanton to change his policy, and permit these claims to be presented to the Treasury for payment. Every conceivable means, influence, effort, and endeavor, every imaginable prediction of calamity, mischance, and disaster, even denunciations, menaces, and threats Avere brought to bear to persuade or to drive him to remove the obstruction, and permit the current of public money into the Department of the West to resume its flow. But all in vain. The Washington Monument Avas not more insensible to the breath of a summer Avind than Avas Secretary Stanton to all these supposed influences. He labored diligently, through the night-Avatches as Avell as in the daytime. Possibly a tenth of the average num ber of requisitions Avere made daily by his Department upon the Treasury; but Avhen the average was once established, it never increased, nor had the Treasury any difficulty in meeting the moderate aggregate of his demands. Many Aveeks of this delay did not elapse before the claimants began to implore for some measure of relief. Was no compromise possible ? Was there no Avay of ob taining payment of such portion of these demands as AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 189 was clearly just ? Secretary Stanton had one uniform reply. The Court of Claims was open. It Avas the tri bunal provided by laAV for claimants not satisfied Avith the proceedings of the Department. At length, when all other resources had failed, the claimants in the De partment of the West voluntarily offered to submit their claims to the Davis Commission, if the Treasury Avould pay such amounts as that commission found was equita bly due. To this Mr. Stanton Avould assent, provided the claimants Avould accept the amount so found justly due in full payment, but not otherwise. After a vain effort to move him from this position, the claimants con sented, and the Avhole accumulated mass of unpaid Avar claims in the Department of the West Avas sent to the commission for investigation. They Avere so numerous that it Avas more convenient to measure them by the cubic foot than otherwise. The commission dealt with them justly, and Avith all practicable despatch. It Avas readily proved that, as a rule, claimants and contractors had been permitted to fix tlieir OAvn prices. Blankets, tents, provisions, and nu merous other articles had been accepted at four and six times the ordinary retail prices, and the account certified as just. Many of the claims Avere allowed at tAventy and thirty per cent, of the amounts claimed, and the final re sult was that the amount of all the claims alloAved by the commission was about one half the aggregate allowed by the accounting officers. As fast as the claims were liqui dated they Avere paid by the Treasury. The claimants accepted payment of these reduced amounts under pro: test and, as they claimed, upon compulsion. Suits to re cover the amounts reduced Avere brought in the Court of Claims, and that court rendered judgment in favor of the claimants ; but, upon appeal, the Supreme Court of the 190 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN United States reversed these judgments, on the ground that the acceptance of tho amounts alloAved by the Com mission operated in law to discharge the entire claim. The official reputation of Mr. Stanton Avas essentially established by these early acts of his public career. Thoy were fiercely denounced at the time as unjust and arbi trary. As he never defended his acts — as no one Avas interested to justify them — his reputation has necessarily suffered. Now that the supposed sense of personal in jury has passed aAvay, a more just judgment of these acts may be formed. It should be remembered that the Treasury could not havo paid these claims. Tho scale of prices they introduced would have bankrupted the na tion during any six months of the war. The claims Avere fraudulently excessi\re. The equity of the Commission was never challenged — it Avould not have reduced tho claims one half Avithout good reason. Tho net result, then, of this conduct of the Secretary of War was to save the Treasury from bankruptcy, the country from the payment of unjust claims to a very largo amount, and from the introduction of a ruinous standard of prices, and to administer a stinging rebuke to tho pre tended patriots Avho Avere robbing tho Treasury while vaunting their loyalty. It Avas the common opinion that the nature of Mr. Stanton Avas pitiless, that he Avas insensible to all ap peals for mercy, or for the relief of human suffering or sorrow. This opinion has outlived him, and still dark ens his memory. There aro individuals Avho have under taken to Avrito history Avho have recorded dark hints that the torments of a conscience, aAvakened too late to undo the miseries ho had inflicted, actiudly drove him to end his own life. While these persons have earned AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. JQl nothing but contempt for their prurient vagaries, it is time that this injustice should be corrected. I will call a single Avitness to the accuracy of this im perfect sketch of the character of Mr. Stanton. Charles O'Neill, of Philadelphia, entered Congress before the war, and his term of useful service is not yet ended. No man knew Mr. Stanton better than Mr. O'Neill. As chairman of a committee Avhich reported a bill for the erection of a monument to Mr. Stanton, Mr. O'NeiU's committee made the folloAving record : " To the intense patriotism and great personal force manifested by Mr. Stanton in 1860-61 Avas due his ap pointment as Secretary of War, Jan. 20, 1862. He Avas thus made chief of staff of President Lincoln, Avho was by virtue of his office the commander-in-chief of the military forces of the United States ; and, although that great magistrate never abdicated his authority, the Avorld knows that the confidence he reposed in Mr. Stanton made the latter mainly responsible for the placing of armies in the field and for the selection of the generals Avho finally led them to victory. "From the day of his entrance into the War Office the change in the conduct of affairs Avas most marked. His organizing power Avas felt at once in every bureau of the Department. To the raising of men and the sup plying of them Avith the munitions of Avar, clothing, sub sistence, medicines, and transportation, he gave his great capacity for organization, his restless energy, and his Avonderful powers of endurance. He Avas a prodigy for Avork. " He had a resolute will to do Avhat his judgment told him was necessary, and struck out neAV paths when the old ones led only to pitfalls, and the moral courage to pursue the course thus marked out. 192 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN "His faith in the national cause was never shaken, and he had the magnetism Avhich enabled him to com municate it to those Avith whom he came in contact. "Laggards and absentees from the army, contract brokers, and purveyors of contraband neAvs were made to feel his righteous anger. Called upon to perform labors which would have exhausted a dozen men, taking but little sleep, and his nerves constantly wrought up to the highest tension, it Avould have been strange if he had not often been abrupt and impatient Avhile engaged in the rapid despatching of business, and especially Avith people who insisted upon consuming time which could not properly be given them. "The leaders of Congress had the most unbounded confidence in his wisdom as well as in his integrity, and treated him as one of themselves. The committee which had to deal with questions connected Avith the Avar gave great weight to his recommendations. The vast levies of troops and the enormous appropriations for their movement and support were in the main measured by him under advice of the generals of the army. " When Congress had given the authority asked, he directed the marshalling of the great resources of the country thus made available. From his executive mind came the organization of the Avork by Avhich tAvo mill ions and a half of soldiers Avere enlisted to fight the battles of the Union. He was the impersonation of honesty, and, after controlling the expenditure of $3,000,000,000, he died poor as he had lived. "President Lincoln had in him an absolute trust. When the chief-justiceship Avas vacant, and the good Bishop Simpson Avas urging Stanton for the place, Mr. Lincoln replied that he would gladly place him there if he Avould find him another such Secretary of War. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 193 " When the nation made General Grant President, he appointed Mr. Stanton to a place on the Supreme Bench. He received his commission, but disease prevented him from entering upon the duties of the office. The mighty strain of the Avar upon him impaired his constitution and caused his death. He was a martyr as Avell as a hero. " To perpetuate by enduring monuments the memory of the great few who are thus raised up in great crises for the salvation of a nation is a duty and a privilege, sanctioned by custom and demanded by the natural feel ings of grateful patriotism." 13 194 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXV. MAKING $10,000,000 OF UNITED STATES BONDS UNDER PRESS URE.— THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONFEDERATE IRON -CLAD SHIPS IN BRITISH SHIP-YARDS.— THE DEPARTURE OF TWO PREVENTED. — AN ENGLISHMAN OFFERS A GREAT SERVICE TO OUR REPUBLIC— HIS INCOGNITO. Ten millions are " a good many " things of any kind. They seemed to be more than a good many to the offi cer who had to sign coupon-bonds to that amount in de nominations of $1000 and less, within the time and under the pressure of the circumstances about to be described. Except upon this single occasion, it is questionable wheth er so large an amount of coupon securities, of the same issue, of our government Avere ever brought together. Communication between the United States and Great Britain was much more irregular and required longer time in 1862 than in 1891. Now, on regular sailing- days, twice every Aveek, as many as ten large steam ships leave New York for English ports on a single tide. Telegraphic communication between Washington and London is almost as frequent as betAveen New York and Philadelphia, and it is not interrupted unless four cable-lines are simultaneously broken. Then there Avere fewer lines of steamships, and during the war the sail ing-days of some of them were irregular ; only one cable had been laid across the Atlantic, and that Avas not in working order. Special messengers carried all the im portant despatches between our country and Great Brit ain ; there Avas time for a revolution to break out and AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 195 be suppressed on the Continent before we heard of its existence. It Avas such a messenger who brought the first news to America of the furious rage of our trans atlantic cousins excited by the capture by Captain Wilkes of those Confederate (almost) protomartyrs Mason and Slidell. About eleven o'clock on a well -remembered Friday morning, in 1862, the Register of the Treasury AAras re quested to go to the Executive Mansion immediately, without a moment's delay. He obeyed the summons, and found there Secretaries Chase and SeAvard, in anx ious consultation Avith the President. They Avished to knoAv what Avas the shortest time within which $10,000,000 in coupon " five-tAventies " could be prepared, signed, and issued. They Avere informed that the correct answer to that inquiry Avould depend upon the denominations al ready printed ; that if a sufficient number of the largest denomination, of $1000, Avere on hand, they might be issued within four or five days; if the denominations were smaller, longer time would be required ; that the number printed could be ascertained by sending to the Register's Office, for there was a report from the custodi an of unissued bonds made every day. Both Mr. Chase and Mr. Seward said that so much time could not be given ; that these bonds must be regularly issued, and placed on board a steamer Avhich Avas to leave New York for Liverpool at tAvelve o'clock on the folloAving Monday, if this could possibly be done ; that the register could command all the resources of the government, if neces sary, but he must see that the bonds were on board the steamer at the hour named. There was one condition —the bonds must be regularly and laAvfully issued, with nothing on their face toi indicate that the issue was not made in the regular course of business. 196 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN By the act of Congress which authorized the issue of these bonds it was declared that they should be signed by the register. The construction given to the act in the de partment was that the register must sign them in person, and that he could not delegate his authority. Any number of clerks could be employed in their preparation and entry, but the point of difficulty was whether the register could sign them within the time. There Avere seventy hours be tween the time of tbe discussion and the hour when the securities must be on board the special train that Avould carry them to the steamer. The time Avas long enough. Ten thousand signatures and a greater number could be made in seventy hours, with proper seasons of rest and sleep. But could the physical strength of one man hold out to the end of such a dreary, monotonous work with out sleep or rest ? The question Avas one of physical en durance, only to be determined by a trial. But a feAv moments could be spared for discussion. It Avas speed ily settled that the register Avould set about the task at once ; that he would sign until his strength gave out. He would then resign his office ; the President Avould appoint another register, who would complete the issue. This Avould lead to complications, and Avas otherwise objectionable ; but the faith of the government was in volved ; the emergency justified extreme measures. The immediate occasion of this sudden determination to issue these securities Avas a despatch just received by Mr. Seward, by special messenger, from Mr. Charles Francis Adams, our minister to the court of St. James. As already intimated, the cable Avas not in Avorkino- order, and no suggestion of the facts had been made to the State Department previous to the arrival of the mes senger. Its importance was obvious to the tAvo secreta ries, but Avill not be understood by the reader Avithout AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 197 an explanation covering a considerable period of time and events which are now for the first time made public. Mr. Adams had for several weeks been aware, and had communicated the fact to his government, that the Messrs. Laird, extensive ship-builders, were building at their yards in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, two armored vessels for the Confederate government. They were to be furnished with powerful engines, and capable of great speed. When completed, they Avere to proceed to a smaU, unfrequented British island in the West Indies, Avhere they were to be delivered to the agents of the Confed eracy. They Avere then to receive their armament, pre viously sent thither, take their crews on board, and then set forth on their piratical cruises, after the example of the Alabama. After sweeping our remaining commerce from the seas, by burning and sinking every merchant- ship bearing our flag, they were to come upon our own coast, Scatter our blockading fleet, and open all the South ern ports to British commerce, which Avould no longer be required to take the great risk of breaking the block ade. This feat was to be accomplished by vessels which had never entered a Confederate port, nor, indeed, any harbor which was not covered by the British or some other flag which protected the iron-clads against pursuit or capture by vessels of the United States navy. Greater danger than these vessels never threatened the safety of the Union. In tonnage, armament, and speed they were intended to be superior to the Kearsarge and every vessel of our navy. Their armor was supposed to render them invulnerable. If the blockade was not maintained, an immediate recognition of the belligerent character of the rebels by Great Britain was anticipated. Even if that did not take place, all the cotton gathered in Confederate ports would be released and find a prof- 198 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN itable market ; while the old wooden vessels, now prin cipally constituting the blockading fleet, would not resist one of these iron-clad vessels long enough for a second broadside. The impending danger was fully appreciated by Mr. Adams. With his accustomed energy, notwithstanding the secrecy in which all the Confederate movements in Great Britain were shrouded, he had collected and laid be fore the English authorities clear proofs of the rebel own ership and intended unlaAvful purpose of these vessels. He had even procured copies of the contracts under Avhich the Messrs. Laird were building them, and had ascertained the fact that payments on their account had been made from proceeds of cotton owned by the Confederacy. He had represented that the evidence furnished by him, ver ified by the oaths of credible witnesses, was sufficient not only to justify their seizure, but to secure their con demnation in the courts, and he had insisted, Avith a force apparently unanswerable, that it Avas the duty of Great Britain to prevent the vessels from leaving the Mersey, and setting forth upon their piratical career. But, unfortunately, the sympathies of the party in power in England Avere not Avith the Union cause. It suited the view of the laAV-officers of the crown not to interfere, and to excuse their inaction by raising objec tions to the legal sufficiency of the evidence. The situ ation Avas perfectly comprehended by the President and his Cabinet, but remonstrance appeared to be unavaifing, and the departure of the vessels Avas expected at an early day. Hopeless as the task appeared to be, neither Mr. Ad ams nor his active agents relaxed their efforts for a mo ment. Their recent investigations had been prosecuted with such energy that the minister had finally been able AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 199 to furnish the British premier Avith the sworn affidavits of some of the officers and men actually enlisted in Liv erpool and other English cities for service on these ves sels ; that the advance payments to these men had been made by Confederate agents ; that the ships Avere to leave the Mersey at an early appointed date for an island near Bermuda ; that their guns and ammunition had already been sent thither. Mr. Adams had also secured the names of several of the ship's officers, with copies of their commissions, bearing the signature of President Davis and the seal of the Confederacy. The last instalment of affidavits forwarded by our minister proved to be more than the croAvn lawyers could digest. They covered every defect named in their former objections ; they could not be answered even by a special demurrer. They were reinforced by the caus tic pen of Mr. Adams, whose argument so clearly point ed out the duty of the English government in the prem ises that it would obviously be regarded as conclusive by every one but these lawyers, who possessed the exclusive poAver to move the sIoav authorities of the customs to action. The croAvn lawyers finally decided that the de mand of Mr. Adams must be complied with, and that an order must issue, prohibiting the departure of these ves sels from the Mersey, until the charges of the American minister had been judicially investigated. There were, however, some incidents attending this most important decision which prevented its communi cation from giving to Mr. Adams a satisfaction wholly unaUoyed. The decision had been withheld until the vessels were on the very eve of departure. The order must be immediately served, and possession taken by the customs authorities, or the vessels would escape. The crown laAvyers, properly enough, observed that the 200 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN affidavits furnished by Mr. Adams were ex parte — the witnesses had not been cross-examined. If Mr. Adams should fail to prove his charges by evidence which would satisfy the judicial mind, and the vessels be released, the damages caused by arresting them might be very heavy. It Avas a settled rule of procedure in the courts in such cases to secure the payment of such damages beyond any peradventure. The restraining order Avould, there fore, be issued, but it Avould not be enforced against the vessels until these damages had been secured by a de posit of £1,000,000 sterling in gold coin. The situation was Avell knoAvn to be critical. Within three days the vessels Avere to sail for their destination ; if necessary, they might sail forthwith. The cable Avas useless — broken or disabled — and Mr. Adams could not communicate with his OAvn government. Without such communication he had no authority to bind his govern ment as an indemnitor, or to repay the money if he could borrow it. Even if he had the fullest authority, Avhere Avas the patriotic Briton who would furnish a million pounds on the spur of the moment to a government which was believed by the party in power in Great Britain to be in articulo mortis? Unless, therefore, the croAvn lawyers supposed our minister to have anticipated their decision by providing himself Avith this money, they must have known that this condition could not be com plied Avith, and that they might just as well have de clined to interfere. If they had intended that these ships should not be prevented from making their intend ed crusade against our commerce and our cause, no bet ter arrangement could possibly have been devised. It is not to be denied that suspicions existed that such Avas their purpose. But the unexpected sometimes happens. The event AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 201 which prevented these floating engines of destruction from entering upon their intended Avork was as unan ticipated as a miracle. It constituted, possibly, the most signal service ever rendered by a citizen of one country to the government of another. It Avas all the more no ble because it was intended to be anonymous. The em inently unselfish man who performed it made a positive condition that it should not be made public ; that not so much as his name should be disclosed, except to the officers of our government, whose co-operation was re quired, in order to transact the business in a proper man ner and upon correct principles. So earnest Avas his in junction of secrecy that his identity will not even now be disclosed, although he has long since gone to his re ward. Within the hour after the crown lawyers' decision, with its conditions, had been made known to Mr. Adams, and when he had given up aU hope of arresting these vessels, a quiet gentleman caUed upon him and asked if he might be favored with the opportunity of making the deposit of coin required by the order ? He observed " that it had occurred to him that, if the United States had that amount to its credit in London, some question of authority might arise, or Mr. Adams might otherwise be embarrassed in complying with the condition, espe- ciaUy as communication with his government might involve delay ; so that the shortest way to avoid all diffi culty would be for him to deposite the coin, which he was quite prepared to do." Had a messenger descended from the skies in a chariot of fire, with $5,000,000 in gold in his hands, and offered to leave it at the embassy without any security, Mr. Adams could not have been more profoundly surprised. He had accepted the condition as fatal to his efforts; 202 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN he had concluded that nothing short of a miracle could prevent the departure of the vessels ; and hero, if not a miracle, was something much like one. He made no secret of the pleasure Avith which he accepted the mu nificent offer, provided some method of securing the liberal Englishman could be found. The latter seemed indisposed to make any suggestions on the subject. " It might be proper," he said, " that some obligation should be entered into, showing that the American government recognized the deposit as made on its account ; beyond that he should leave the matter wholly in the hands of Mr. Adams." The existing premium on gold was then about sixty per cent, in the United States. It Avould have been largely increased by the departure of these iron-clads. The "five-twenties" or "sixes" of 1861, as they were popularly called, were then being issued, and were the only securities upon "long time" then authorized by Congress. The best arrangement that occurred to Mr. Adams, and Avhich he then proposed, Avas that $10,000,000, or £2,000,000, in these bonds, to be held as collateral se curity for the loan of £1,000,000 in gold, should be de livered to the lender, to be returned Avhen the loan Avas paid, or the order itself was discharged and the coin re turned to the depositor. The proposition of Mr. Adams Avas satisfactory to the gentleman, but he said that to prevent the disclosure of his name the. deposit should be made in coupon and not in registered bonds. The cou pons Avere payable to bearer; the registered were re quired to be inscribed on the books of the Treasury in the OAvner's name. Mr. Adams then volunteered the as surance that these bonds, to the amount of $10,000,000, should be transmitted to London by the first steamer which left NeAV York after his despatch concerning the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 203 transaction was received in the State Department at Washington. It Avas this assurance of Mr. Adams which the Presi dent and both of the secretaries desired should be made good. They regarded the faith of the government as pledged for its performance, and that faith they pro posed should not be violated. All the details of this transaction were not then dis closed. They reached the government in private, con fidential despatches from Mr. Adams, some of them long afterwards. The despatch in question Avas understood to be confidential; certainly that part of it which re lated to the deposit and security proposed. It was necessarily brief, for in order to reach the steamer the special messenger had to leave London Avithin a very feAv hours after the proposition of the deposit Avas made. There Avas enough in it to shoAv that an inestimable service had been rendered to the country by some one to whom Mr. Adams had pledged the faith of the nation for the transmission of these bonds by the next steamer which left NeAV York. There Avas no dissent from the conclusion that the pledge of Mr. Adams, if it Avere in the poAver of the government, must be performed. The transmission of the securities of the United States to London, in large amounts, would be a very different problem now, after the subsequent experience of the Treasury in such transactions. Now, the blank bonds Avould be taken on board an ocean steamer in the cus tody of officers authorized to prepare, sign, and issue them, and the entire labor could be performed on the voyage. In 1862, the Treasury had had no such experi ence, and in the brief time spared for consultation there was no Avay of meeting the emergency suggested, ex cept the regular process of filling up, signing, and seal- 204 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ing the bonds within the Treasury, entering them upon the proper books, and delivering them as perfected ob ligations of the United States. No time was wasted in discussion. It was suggested as a precautionary measure that a request to delay the sailing of the steamer should be made, and the consulta tion ended. It may as Avell be mentioned here that the effort to secure delay Avas unsuccessful. It could not be complied Avith except with the consent of the officers of the company in Liverpool, and they could not be reached by cable. The steamer Avould sail at tAvelve o'clock on Monday. It Avas next ascertained that only $7,500,000 in coupon bonds of the denomination of $1000 had been printed. The remaining $'2,500,000 must be made up from de nominations of $500. This involved an increase of tAvo thousand five hundred, making an aggregate of twelve thousand five hundred bonds to be signed between twelve o'clock on Friday and four o'clock a.m. on Monday. The theory of the statute which required a bond to be signed by the head of the bureau from which it issued originally Avas that the signature Avas some safeguard against forgery, was an evidence of authenticity, and a check against unauthorized issues. In issues of so large amounts as Avere made during the Avar, it Avas found to have a trifling if any value. But the labor imposed Avas continuous and severe ; in the present instance it became dangerous to health and life ; for there is no muscular exertion more severe, certainly none so inexpressibly dreary, as that of writing one's oavii name hour after hour, day after day, over and over again. Such, hoAV- ever, was the law ; it was necessary to the legality of the issue that all the requirements of the laAV should be complied with. It will bo seen in this instance at what AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 205 cost obedience to this provision of the statute was se cured. When the bond issues of the Treasury required an average of tAvo or three thousand signatures daily, every means of doing the work rapidly was necessarily em ployed. The signature itself was changed. If each in itial letter had been written separately, in the ordinary way, the daj^ was not long enough to finish the task. The whole name was then written at a single movement, without raising the pen from the paper, or once arrest ing its motion. The bonds were laid before the officer in pdes ; the instant the pen was raised at the end of the name, an experienced messenger remoA^ed the bond, leav ing another exposed for signature. In this way it Avas possible to write ten signatures in a minute. If any one is inclined to doubt the rapidity or the exertion involved in doing this, he is advised to try the experiment. In the present instance the register knew from ex perience that serious work was before him, which would affect his health, and might endanger his life. He en deavored to set about it with judgment and discretion. He caUed in an experienced army surgeon, informed him that he intended to continue to sign his name for just as many consecutive hours as his strength would permit ; that he was desired to remain in constant attendance, administering such food aud stimulants as would secure endurance for the longest possible time. The necessary supphes were procured, the arrangements perfected, and the register was ready to begin his Avork at tAvelve o'clock on Friday. The first seven hours passed without any unusual sensations. He had signed for that length of time so frequently that it had become a custom to which the muscles had adapted themselves, so that they worked 206 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN uncomplainingly. In these first seven hours three thou sand seven hundred signatures were made. But within the first half of the eighth hour there Avere evidences of great muscular discontent, which soon threatened to break out into open rebellion. As the time sloAvly wore on, in the forenoon of Saturday, every muscle on the right side connected with the movement of the hand and arm became inflamed, and the pain was almost be yond endurance. It Avas necessary to continue the work, for if it should be suspended for any considerable length of time the inflammation might become so great that control over the motion of the arm and its further use would become impossible. In the slight pauses which were made, rubbing, the application of hot water, and other remedies were resorted to, in order to alleviate the pain and reduce the inflammation. They Avere com paratively ineffectual, and the hours dragged on without bringing much relief. During the course of Saturday afternoon the acute- ness of the pain sensibly diminished. The muscles, find ing that resistance was unavailing, had to give up the contest. A series of sensations folloAved which, though less difficult to endure, Avere still more alarming. A feeling of numbness commenced in the hand, and slowly crept up the arm to the shoulder, producing an effect as if the hand and arm were dead. With this came a dis tortion of the fingers, so that the pen, instead of being held in the usual manner, Avas placed betAveen the first finger and the thumb. It might have been expected that this condition of the muscles would have changed the form of the signature. It did not to any great ex tent. The constant repetition of the same movements seemed to result in their continuance, independently of the wiU. The signature was still a fair one. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 207 It is unnecessary to describe all the details of the de vices and means resorted to to prevent sleep and to con tinue the work. Changes of position, violent exercise, going out into the open air and walking rapidly for ten minutes, concentrated extracts, prepared food, stimulants more in kind and number than can noAv be recalled — every imaginable means Avas employed during the night of Saturday. NotAvithstanding their use Avith a liberal hand, it became evident that weakness was gradually asserting itself, and that the time Avas approaching Avhen the Avork must cease from pure exhaustion. The surgeon decided that within two or three hours at the latest the strength would give out, and that the time had come Avhen the officer should resign, and another register be appointed. It is quite probable that the long-continued exertion had to some extent influenced the mind of the register, and that his objections to the change proposed were more imaginary than real. The names of two registers appearing on the same issue of bonds was an apparent irregularity Avhich might require explanations and in volve delay. Calling on the President to appoint an other register on Sunday Avas, to say the least, an im propriety Avhich would excite public comment, even if the act itself Avere legal, of which some doubt Avas enter tained. It Avas four o'clock on Sunday morning; only a few more than two thousand signatures would com plete the labor. The register determined he would finish the task, although the surgeon earnestly ad\Tised him that it Avould involve a considerable danger to his life. I have not had at any time since a very accurate memory of the events of that Sunday morning. That I could not remain in the same position for more than a 208 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN few moments, that the bonds wefe carried from desk to table and from place to place to enable me to make ten signatures at a time, that my fingers and hand Avere twisted and draAvii out of their natural shape — these and other facts are faintly remembered. The memory is more distinct that at about tAvelve o'clock, noon, the last bond Avas reached and signed, and the work was finished, the last hundred bonds requiring more time than the first thousand. One fact I have special cause to remember. This abuse of muscular energy eventu ally caused my resignation from the Treasury, and cost me several years of physical pain. After the bonds were signed I suffered more than at any other time during the process. My nervous system Avas so thoroughl3r shattered that during the night of Sunday sleep Avas impossible. On Monday night, after three full days and nights during Avhich I had not lost consciousness for a moment, I fell asleep from pure ex haustion. My subsequent experience can only be in teresting to myself ; certainly not to the general reader. The bonds reached the steamer in time, and the promise of our minister Avas faithfully kept. But in the meantime Mr. Adams had given notice to the au thorities of his readiness to make the deposit, and then some disposition of the matter was made, Avhich avoided the necessity of making it. What this disposition Avas, I do not know ; but it Avas understood at the time, by Secretary Chase, to have been made Avithout the knowl edge or privity of our minister. From the published statements at the time it appeared that no effort to de liver the vessels Avas made after the objections of the government Avere made knoAvn. In fact the iron-clads Avere shortly after sold to one of the Eastern poAvers, and their field of operations Avas the Mediterranean instead AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 209 of the American coasts. The ability of Mr. Adams to comply with the condition and furnish the security was accepted as the end of the controversy. It is known that a few months later $6,000,000 of the $10,000,000 of the bonds issued Avere returned to the Treasur}7 in the original packages, with the seals of the Treasury un broken. The remaining $4,000,000 Avere aftenvards sold for tho benefit of the Treasury. Many years elapsed before the register atoned for this violation of natural laws, which never fail to punish those who break them. While he remained in office there was no day in which he /was not reminded by a sharp rheumatic twinge of the events of that Sunday morning. After he had left the Treasury there Avere five long years in Avhich he could never promise that he could perform any professional labor at any fixed date in the future. The issue of these bonds afforded an opportunity for some measurements, shoAving the great bulk of paper used in the Avhole issue of $513,000,000. I did not leave the Treasury that Sunday morning until I had seen these measurements made. The denominations of the coupon "five -twenties" were "fifties," "one hundreds," "five hundreds," and " one thousands." Of the registered the denominations were the same, with the addition of " five thousands " and " ten thousands." Only a small fraction of the issue Avas registered, and the certificates used Avere ordinarily " one thousand " and under. The twelve thou sand five hundred bonds, representing $10,000,000 of the present issue, were a reasonably accurate average of the Avhole issue. These $10,000,000 were made into pack ages of $1,000,000 each, of the same length and breadth of the bonds themselves, one bond being laid, without folding, upon another. Each package was covered with 14 210 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN one thickness of wrapping-paper, and then bound as close ly as possible Avith strong cord, rendering each package as thin as it could be made. The ten packages were then laid in a single pile, one above the other. They measured six feet four inches in height. From these data each one can compute for himself the height of the pile of paper used in an issue of $513,000,000. Since the publication of the foregoing facts in Harper's Magazine for May, 1890, I have been solicited by many correspondents to give the name of the gentleman who offered tp perform such a signal service to our country. It must be obvious that nothing could give me greater pleasure than to publish his name, and to secure for him the enduring gratitude of the American people. I have, hoAvever, a special reason for my present determination not to disclose it, nor to permit myself to speculate upon the consequences of the disclosure. When Ave Avere in formed that the emergency had passed, it became neces sary to make a change in the entries of this large amount upon the books of the register. This was found to be a difficult matter, unless a plain statement of the issue, to the gentleman in question, and its purpose, Avas made with its subsequent cancellation. This course I proposed to Secretary Chase. He was decided in his opinion that the value of the service Avould not have been enhanced if an actual deposit of the money had been required, and that, as the gentleman himself had imposed the obligation, he Avas the only authority Avho could possibly release it. While I regarded his conclu sion as incontrovertible, I did suggest that our first duty was the official one, to our own obligation to conceal nothing, and to make our official records strictly conform to the fact. " We should have thought of that at the time," said AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 211 the secretary. "We might have declined his offer, coupled as it was with the obligation to conceal his name. But I do not remember that Ave considered that question. Do you ?" " No," I said. " Nothing Avas discussed in my pres ence except the possibility of compliance with his con ditions, to the letter." " Then, I think, Ave must continue to keep his secret, whatever the consequences may be, until he releases us from the obligation," Avas the final conclusion of the secretary. I am, I believe, the only survivor of those to whom this gentleman's name was known. I have hitherto de clined to discuss the question of his name or its dis closure. I depart from my practice far enough to say that I do not beheve he Avas interested in the price of cotton, or that he was moved in the slightest degree by pecuniary motives, in making his offer. More than this, at present, I do not think I have the moral right to say. If I should at any time hereafter see my way clear to a different conclusion, I shall leave his name to be com municated to the Secretary of the Treasury, who will determine for himself the propriety of its disclosure. 212 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. XXVI. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CONNECTION WITH THE ORIGIN OF AR MORED VESSELS.— HIS FAITH IN IRON-CLADS.— THE INFLU ENCE OF ASSISTANT-SECRETARY FOX.— HIS INTERVIEW AVITH THE PRESIDENT ON THE 7TH OF MARCH, 1862. So many of the facts involved in the origin of armored or iron-clad vessels are in controversy, that it is a delicate matter now to meddle with the subject. But President Lincoln Avas a factor in this, as he Avas in all the great improvements made in the naval and military service during his administration. To understand how far he promoted the introduction of iron-clad vessels, it is nec essary to give some facts as they were understood and acted upon by the President and others at the time, with out much regard to their bearing upon other interests or questions. Suggestions of the necessity of armored vessels for harbor defence Avere strongly pressed by Major Robert Anderson, very soon after he arrived in Washington from Fort Sumter. He reported that one of the Confederate batteries in Charleston harbor was covered with bars of railroad iron, in such a way that the guns of the fort made no impression npon it. Having learned from ex perience that a battery so protected was impregnable, and there being no reason Avhy like armor could not be applied to a floating as well as to a land battery, Major Anderson argued that the Confederates Avould almost certainly undertake the construction of iron-clad ves sels, and if we Avere not provided with similar vessels AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 213 to resist them, they would take and hold possession of our navigable rivers and harbors, and so inflict an irre mediable injury on our seaport cities and their commerce. The action of the Confederate Congress in May. in ap pointing a commission to adopt plans for raising the Merrimac, then sunk in Norfolk harbor, and her con version into an armored vessel, added force to the views of Major Anderson, and produced a strong impression upon Mr. Welles, our Secretary of the Navy, and one at least of his most competent subordinates. Gustavus V. Fox was one of the President's favorites. He had ac quired Mr. Lincoln's confidence by his inteUigent views relating to the proposed reinforcement of Fort Sumter, immediately after the inauguration, and had accepted the office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy at his spe cial request. He was an experienced retired naval offi cer, he possessed attractive personal qualities, his judg ment was conservative, and he was always a welcome guest at the Executive Mansion. I was so fortunate as to have secured his friendship, and I have made several visits to the President in his company. On one of these visits, in May, I heard the President ask Mr. Fox his opinion of armored vessels, and of Major Anderson's suggestion. Mr. Fox replied, in substance, that the sub ject was under active consideration in the Navy Depart ment, but that it Was novel ; it was very important, and though generaUy impressed with the practicability of such vessels, he Avas not yet prepared to commit him self to any fixed opinion. The President, somewhat ear nestly, observed that " we must not let the rebels get ahead of us in such an important matter," and asked what Mr. Fox regarded as the principal difficulty in the wav of their use. Mr. Fox replied that naval officers doubted their stability, and feared that an armor heavy 214 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN enough to make them effective, would sink them as soon as they Avere launched. " But is not that a sum in arith metic ?" quickly asked the President. " On our Western rivers Ave can figure just how many tons will sink a flat- boat. Can't your clerks do the same for an armored vessel ?" "I suppose they can," replied Mr. Fox. "But there are other difficulties. With such a Aveight, a single shot, piercing the armor, would sink the vessel so quickly that no one could escape." " Noav, as the very object of the armor is to get some thing that the best projectile cannot pierce, that objec tion does not appear to be sound," said the President. Mr. Fox again observed that the subject Avas under active examination, and he hoped soon to be able to con sider it intelligently, and the conversation turned upon other matters. When Ave left the White House, Mr. Fox observed that the President appeared to be deeply interested in the subject of iron-clads ; that it was most important, but it Avas new, and would encounter all the prejudices of the naval service. But its importance was such that its investigation would be pressed as fast as possible, with a vieAV of at least trying the experiment. Within a few days there Avas a rumor that the Bureau of Construction in the Navy Department, through the influence of Mr. Fox, was engaged upon plans for an iron-clad vessel. As soon as Congress met, on the 4th of July, a bill was introduced Avhich authorized the Sec retary of the Navy to appoint a Board of Construction of three naval officers, to whom the plans for an iron clad vessel were to be submitted, and, if the board ap proved them, the secretary was authorized to contract for its construction. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 215 It was a matter of common knowledge that Cornelius S. Bushnell, of Connecticut, a friend of the secretary's, was the promoter of the biU, and that through his act ive labors the biU passed Congress and became a law in the early days of August. The board was immediately appointed. It consisted of Commodore Paulding, Admi ral Smith, and Captain Davis. The board approved the plans ; the contract was given to Mr. BushneU for the first iron-clad built on the Western Continent. She was to be built at Mystic, Connecticut, and to be completed as speedily as possible. She was to be caned the Galena, and as many workmen as could find room were at work upon her hull before the ink of the signatures to the con tract was fairly dry. In the autumn there was a great newspaper outcry over the Galena. The Department, the contractor, ev erybody concerned, was charged with peculation and fraud. It was asserted that the Galena would do every thing a good ship ought not, and nothing that such a vessel ought to do ; that she had no stability, that she Avould not stand up, that she Avould not answer her rud der, that she would not resist even grape-shot, that she would sink like a bar of lead the moment she was launched. The President and Secretary Fox were the only officers of the government who would speak a good word for the Galena. Even the contractor was despondent, and almost lost faith in the vessel. It was at this time that the name of Captain Ericsson was first heard in connection with an iron-clad vessel. The rumor was that he had pronounced in favor of the Galena's plans, her stability, and her ability to resist a six-pound shot, etc., and had furnished contractor Bush neU with plans for a vessel which would resist the im pact of any projectUe which could be thrown by any 216 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN gun then invented. It was called a floating battery. Mr. Bushnell had presented these plans to the Board of Construction, and the board had rejected them. He had then carried them to the President, whose decision upon them Avas expressed in a very pointed story, many times since repeated, but almost invariably Avith the point omitted. What the President said, after the plans were exhibited and explained to him, was, "As the darkey said, in putting on his boot, into which some one had put a Canada thistle, ' I guess dar's something in it.' " There is no doubt that, after Captain Ericsson's plans had been submitted to the Board of Construction, and the captain had been induced to visit Washington and explain them, that the President became the warm ad vocate of the construction of his proposed battery, as it was then called. Captain Fox Avas the adviser upon Avhom he principally relied. There Avere several ses sions of the Board of Construction ; Captain Davis, who had strongly opposed the project, finally gave Avay, mak ing the board unanimous, and the contract was aAvarded to Mr. Bushnell, and Messrs. Corning, Winslow, & Gris- Avold, his associates. It is only just to Mr. Bushnell to say that, in all the preliminary Avork of clearing aAvay the obstructions, securing the co-operation of the President, and Overcoming the objections of the board, he alone was knoAvn, and that Avhen the contract Avas awarded it was understood in Washington to have been secured through the labor and energy of Mr. Bushnell. The contract required the greatest practicable expedition in completing the vessel, and the contractors pushed the work Avith great energy. The Monitor, with her en gines on board, Avas launched on the 30th of January, and, to the great disappointment of those who had op posed the experiment, instead of sinking, as they had AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 217 predicted, she drew less Avater by some inches than Cap tain Ericsson had calculated. Her battery Avas put on board, and she was fitted for sea with the greatest possible expedition. Captain Fox had daily reliable reports from Norfolk. The Merrimac Avas also rapidly approaching completion, and Avhen she Avas reported to be ready for use the Monitor Avas still in the Avaters of Neve York harbor. It was not until the 27th of February that she put to sea, in an unfin ished state, Avithout having made the usual trips, for some unknoAvn destination. Early on Friday morning, March 7th, Secretary Fox invited me to accompany him in a call he Avas about to make, by appointment, upon President Lincoln. Captain Fox was an officer of infinite coolness and self-command. lie did not exhibit the slightest evidence of emotion or apprehension while unfolding to me a story which gave me great uneasiness during the next three days. No one else was present at our inter\-ieAV Avith the President, and I cannot now undertake to give the precise Avords used, but the substance of the conversation I shall prob ably never forget. It was obvious that the President had received a recent communication from Captain Fox, and had been informed of the object of his visit. The latter observed that, from his latest information, which he believed Avas reliable, he did not expect that the Mer rimac Avould make her appearance before Sunday, the 9th of March. She might, hoAvever, come out at any time, for her engines appeared to be Avorking Avell at the dock, and, so far as his agent could discover, her armor Avas completed, and the Avork still going on was not con nected Avith her motive-power or Avith her batteries. He said that he intended to leave the city immediately, for he wanted to be there when she made her attack. He 218 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN asked the President whether he had any further sugges tions or instructions, and received a negative reply. Af ter some general conversation, in Avhich the President said but few Avords, Captain Fox, quite in his ordinary tone, observed that he supposed that the President Avas prepared for very disastrous results from the expected encounter. "No," said Mr. Lincoln; "Avhy should I be ? AVe have three of our most effective Avar-vessels in Hampton Roads, and any number of small craft that Avill hang on to the stern of the Merrimac like small dogs on the haunches of a bear. They may not be able to tear her down, but they will interfere with the com fort of her voyage. Her trial-trip wiU not be a pleasure- trip, I am certain." " I think you do not take into account all the possi bilities of the Merrimac," said Captain Fox. " True, she may break doAvn, she may accomplish nothing, she may not be shot-proof, but she will be commanded by a skilled naval officer. The engineers Avho have had charge of her construction are as competent as any in their pro fession. If they risk her in action, you may be sure she will do good work." " Suppose she does. Have we not three good ships against her ?" " But if she proves invulnerable ?" persisted the cap tain. "Suppose our heaviest shot and shell rebound from her armor as harmless as rubber balls ? Suppose she strikes our ships, one after the other, with her ram, and opens a hole in them as large as a barn-door or a turnpike gate ? Suppose they are poAverless to resist her, and she sinks them all in a half-hour ?" "You are looking for great disasters, captain," said the President, Avith a smile. " We have had a big share of bad luck already, but I do not believe the future AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 219 has any such misfortunes in store for us as you antici pate." " I anticipate nothing Avhich may not happen from the coming encounter," said Captain Fox, "nor have I mentioned the worst possibilities. If the Merrimac proves invulnerable, if she meets the expectations of her officers, although she may not be able to go outside the capes, she can do an immense damage without going to sea. If she sinks our ships, Avho is to prevent her drop ping her anchor in the Potomac,where that steamer lies," pointing to a steamer at anchor beloAV the long bridge, " and throwing her hundred-pound shells into this room, or battering doAvn the Avails of the Capitol ?" " The Almighty, captain," ansAvered the President, decidedly, but without the -least affectation. " I expect set-backs, defeats ; Ave have had them, and shall have them. They "are common to all Avars. But I have not the slightest fear of any result Avhich shall fatally impair our military and naval strength, or give other poAvers any right to interfere in our quarrel. The destruction of the Capitol Avould do both. I do not fear it, for this is God's fight, and he Avill Avin it in his own good time. He Avill take care that our enemies do not push us too far." " I do most sincerely hope you are right, Mr. Presi dent," said Captain Fox, " but it is ray duty, as one of your officers, to use to the best advantage my own judg ment as Avell as the materials Avhich the country places in our hands. The iron-clad is a new element in naval warfare. We know neither its poAver nor its effective ness. It is prudent to fear what Ave do not understand. It is perfectly natural for naval officers to distrust the iron-clad. Frankly, we cannot even guess what the Merrimac wiU do." 220 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " Speaking of iron-clads, you do not seem to take our little Monitor into the account," said the President. " I believe in the Monitor, and her commander. If Captain Worden does not give a good account of the Monitor and of himself, I shall have made a mistake in folloAving my judgment for the first time since I have been here, captain. I have not made a mistake in fol lowing my clear judgment of men since this war began. I folloAved that judgment Avhen I gave Worden the com mand of the Monitor. I Avould make the appointment over again to-day. The Monitor should be in Hampton Roads now. She left New York eight days ago." " It is not prudent to place any reliance on the Moni tor" responded the captain; " she is an experiment, Avholly untried. She may be already at the bottom of the ocean. She may be at anchor somewhere, disabled. We know nothing about her. She may not have stood heavy weather at all, and we have had strong gales since she sailed. She is very liable to break doAvn ; she Avent to sea Avithout one thorough trial-trip, Avhen she should have had several. We ought not to be disappointed if she does not reach the mouth of the James. If she ar rives, she may break down with the firing of her first gun, or be sunk or disabled by the first gun from the enemy. The clear dictate of prudence is to place no reliance on her, and if she proves of service, give the credit to our good fortune." " No, no, captain," said the President, Avith more em phasis than he had previously used; "I respect your judgment, as you have good reason to knoAV, but this time you are all wrong. The Monitor Avas one of my inspirations ; I believed in her firmly when that ener getic contractor first showed me Ericsson's plans. Cap tain Ericsson's plain but rather enthusiastic demonstra- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 221 tion made my conversion permanent. It was called a floating battery then ; I called it a raft. I caught some of the inventor's enthusiasm, and it has been groAving upon me. I thought then, and I am confident noAv, it is just Avhat Ave Avant. I am sure that the Monitor is still afloat, and that she will yet give a good account of herself. Sometimes I think she may be the veritable sling Avith a stone that shall yet smite the Merrimac Philistine in the forehead." There was more of the conversation, but I do not know that it Avould further illustrate the attitude or the confidence of the President. We took our leave, and Avalked to the Avest entrance of the Treasury slowly and in silence. At the door the assistant secretary said, " Is not our Lincoln the truest man, an example of the most genuine manhood, you haAre ever seen — of Avhom you have ever read ? How sincere he is ! He seems to have imparted some of his faith to me. I have avoided reliance upon the Monitor. Perhaps she may yet prove the good angel Avho AviU take us out of the Slough of Despond." We separated ; I to the labors of forty-eight slow and anxious hours, he to witness the battle which changed all the conditions of naval warfare. 222 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXVII. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CONFIDENCE IN ARMORED VESSELS CON TINUED.— THE MONITOR AND HER BATTLE AVITH THE MER RIMAC DESCRIBED BY CAPTAIN AVORDEN. Saturday, March 8th, Avas a day of calamities. The news came over the wires that the Merrimac had come out of Norfolk, attended by a numerous body-guard of smaller vessels, and at one o'clock Avas leisurely entering upon her brief career of destruction. Within tAvo hours Ave knew that projectiles from our heaviest guns had re alized the apprehensions of Captain Fox, by rebounding from her uninjured side like rubber balls ; that she had sent the fine sloop-of-Avar, the Cumberland, to the bot tom of the James River ; that she had torn the frigate Congress in pieces Avith her shot and shell, and left her a grounded Avreck on the shore ; that tAvo brave ships' companies had been immolated to the demon of rebel lion, and that the iron-clad destroyer, satisfied Avith her labors for that afternoon, had retired into the harbor of Norfolk, leaving our third and most valuable frigate, the Minnesota, aground and ready for the next morning's sacrifice. There had been no former day of such disas ter. As I left the Treasury I involuntarily walked in the direction of the War Department, Avhere I supposed the President would be found. At the door I met him returning to the Executive Mansion. He Avas as cheerful as he had been on the morning of the previous day. The battle Avas over for the day, he said, and the Merrimac had gone into port, probably to AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 223 repair some temporary damages. Nothing had been heard from Captain Fox or the Monitor. He regretted deeply the loss of so many brave men ; our first lesson in the value of iron-clads for fighting purposes had been costly, but the Almighty ruled, and it Avould all come right somehow. I remember most distinctly, for it made a deep impression at the time, that he said that Ave should probably find that the Merrimac Avas at the end of her destructive mission, and would not sink another vessel. AAvare that it Avould be useless to expect sleep that night, and anxious for neAvs from Captain Fox, I returned late in the evening to the Navy Department. It was nearly midnight before his despatch came. It was in cipher, and, being translated, informed us that he reached NeAvport News about nine o'clock, and Avent immediately on board the Minnesota. Every one on the vessel was demoralized. She had been stripped; it had been de cided to burn her, and in a few moments more the torch would have been applied. Captain Fox's arrival had saved the vessel. His inquiry whether it would not be Aviser to wait until it wTas seen Avhether the Merrimac came out of Norfolk again before setting on fire the finest ship in the navy, and destroying property to the value of a mill ion and a half of dollars, recalled the officers to their senses, and the conclusion to defer the application of the torch Avas speedily reached. I remained at the Depart ment until after two o'clock, Avhen, receiving no news from the Monitor nor any further despatches from Cap tain Fox, all left the Naval Office for their respective homes. The next Sunday forenoon was as gloomy as any that Washington had experienced since the beginning of the Avar. There was no excitement, but all seemed to be overwhelmed with despondency and vague apprehen- 224 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN sion. I went to Dr. Gurley's church, Avhere his audience was made still more uncomfortable by a very gloomy sermon. After service I called upon Secretary Chase. He had no neAvs, and could give me no comfort. Since the President seemed to be the only officer of the gov ernment Avho could see any hope in the future, I went to the War Office, Avhere he Avas usually to be found Avhen any serious fighting was going on. There I found him Avith quite a large party, including two members of his Cabinet. It was evident, from the general excitement, that news had been received from the James River. As I entered the room some one Avas saying, " Would it not be for tunate if the Monitor should sink her?" " It Avould be nothing more than I have expected," calmly observed President Lincoln. "If she does not, something else will. Many providential things are happening in this Avar, and this may be one of them. The loss of two good ships is an expensive lesson, but it will teach us all the value of iron-clads. I have not believed at any time during the last twenty-four hours that the Merrimac would go right on destroying right and left without any obstruction. Since we kneAV that the Monitor had got tliere, I have felt that she was the vessel Ave Avanted." I then learned that the Monitor had arrived at Fortress Monroe on Saturday evening; Avithout waiting for any preparation, she had steamed up to NeAvport NeAvs, and laid herself alongside the grounded Minnesota. The Merrimae had made her appearance shortly after day light ; Captain Worden had promptly advanced to make her acquaintance, and had ever since been sticking to her closer than a brother. It Avas also reported that the tAvo fighters had eATer since been pounding each other terrific ally, and that the Monitor as yet shoAved no signs of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 225 weakness. Time passes quickly in such an excitement. Very soon came a message that evoked cheers from everybody. Its substance Avas that the Merrimac had AvithdraAvn, and Avas again steaming for Norfolk. Even this news, Avhich stirred the enthusiasm of every one else, so that all burst into a long -continued volley of applause, did not seem to elate the President. " I am glad the Monitor has done herself credit for Worden's sake — for all our sakes," Avas all he said. He then Avalked sloAvly to the White House. When Captain Fox returned, his graphic account of the battle Avas given to the press, and seemed to settle the* poUcy of the country in relation to armored vessels. He gave the highest credit to Captain Worden and his second in command, Lieutenant Green. The fearlessness with which they advanced the Monitor to the attack, the persist ence Avith which she clung to her enemy during all that long forenoon, turning awray from her in a circuit only just large enough to give time to load her guns, he said Avas a grand exhibition of judgment, courage, and seamanship, beautifully responded to by the vessel in the ease Avith Avhich she ansAvered her helm, and the even, regular movement of her poAver. He had ordered the Monitor to Washington for repairs, he said, and convenience of inspection, for henceforth the energies of the Navy De partment Avould be largely devoted to the building and equipment of monitors. Some Aveeks later Ave Avere the witnesses of a dramatic scene at tho Navy Yard, on board the Monitor. The vessel came to Washington unchanged, in the same con dition as Avhen she discharged her parting shot at the Merrimac. There she lay until her heroic commander had so far recovered from his injuries as to be able to re join his vessel. All leaves of absence had been revoked, 15 226 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the absentees had returned, and Avere ready to Avelcome their captain. The President, Captain Fox, and a limited number of Captain Worden's personal friends had been in vited to his informal reception. Lieutenant Green received the President and the guests. He was a boy in years, not too young to volunteer, however, Avhen volunteers were scarce, and to fight the Merrimac during the last half of the battle, after the captain Avas disabled. Then, when the success and safety of the Monitor Avere both proved, an officer Avas promoted over his head, on the ground that he was too young to bear so great a re sponsibility. This was a most unjust act, for Avhich the Navy Department was never forgiven by the American people. The President and the other guests stood on the deck, near the turret. Tho men Avere formed in lines, with their officers a little in advance, Avhen Captain Worden ascended the gangway. The heavy guns in the Navy Yard began firing the customary salute Avhen he stepped upon the deck. One side of his face Avas permanently blackened by the powder shot into it from the muzzle of a cannon carrying a shell of one hundred pounds' Aveight, discharged less than twenty yards away. The President advanced to Avelcome him, introduced him to the few strangers present, the' officers and men passed in revieAV and Avere dismissed. Then there Avas a scone Avorth Avit- nessing. The old tars swarmed around their loved cap tain, they grasped his hand, crowded to touch him, thanked God for his recovery and return, and invoked blessings upon his head in the name of all the saints in tho calendar. lie called them by their names, had a pleasant Avord for each of them, and for a feAv moments Ave looked upon an exhibition of a species of affection that could only have been the product of a common danger. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 227 When order was restored, the President gave a brief sketch of Captain Worden's career. Commodore Paul ding had been the first, Captain Worden the second offi cer of the navy, he said, to give an unqualified opinion in favor of armored vessels. Their opinions had been influential Avith him and Avith the Board of Construc tion. Captain Worden had volunteered to take the command of the Monitor, at the risk of his life and reputation, before her keel was laid. He had watched her construction, and his energy had made it possible to send her to sea in time to arrest the destructive opera tions of the Merrimac. What he had done Avith a neAV crew, and a vessel of novel construction, we all knew. He, the President, cordially acknowledged his indebted ness to Captain Worden, and he hoped the whole country Avould unite in the feeling-of obligation. The debt was a heavy one, and would not be repudiated Avhen its nat ure Avas understood. The details of the first battle be tween iron-clads would interest every one. At the request of Captain Fox, Captain Worden had consented to give an account of his voyage from New York to Hampton Roads, and of Avhat had afterwards happened there on board the Monitor. In an easy conversational manner, Avithout any effort at display, Captain Worden told the story, of which the following is the substance : " I suppose," he began, " that every one knows that we left NeAV York Harbor in some haste. We had in formation that the Merrimac Avas nearly completed, and if we Avere to fight her on her first appearance, we must be on the ground. The Monitor had been hurried from the laying of her keel. Her engines were new, and her machinery did not move smoothly. Never was a vessel launched that so much needed trial trips, some of them 228 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN to sea, to test her machinery, and get her crew accus tomed to their novel duties. We Avent to sea practically without them. No part of the vessel Avas finished ; there was one omission that was serious, and came very near causing her failure and the loss of many lives. In heavy weather it was intended that her hatches and all her openings should be closed and battened down. In that case all the men Avould be beloAV, and Avould have to depend upon artificial ventilation. Our machinery for that purpose proved wholly inadequate. " We Avere in a heavy gale of Avind as soon as we passed Sandy Hook. The vessel behaved splendidly. The seas rolled over her, and we found her the most comfortable vessel we had ever seen, except for the ven tilation, which gave us more trouble than I have time to tell you about. We had to run into port and anchor on account of the weather, and, as you knoAV, it was tAvo o'clock in the morning of Sunday before we Avere along side the Minnesota. Captain Van Brunt gave us an ac count of Saturday's experience. He Avas very glad to make our acquaintance, and notified us that Ave must be prepared to receive the Merrimac at daylight. We had had a very hard trip down the coast, and officers and men Avere weary and sleepy. But when informed that our fight would probably open at daylight, and that the Monitor must be put in order, every man Avent to his post Avith a cheer. That night there Avas no sleep on board the Monitor. " In the gray of the early morning we saAv a vessel approaching, Avhichour friends on the Minnesota said Avas the Merrimac. Our fastenings Avere cast off, our machinery started, and Ave moved out to meet her half way. We had come a long Avay to fight her, and did not intend to lose our opportunity. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. t 229 " Before shoAving you over the vessel, let me say that there were three possible points of weakness in the Monitor, two of Avhich might have been guarded against in her construction, if there had been more time to per fect her plans. One of them was in the turret, Avhich, as you see, is constructed of eight plates of inch iron — on the side of the ports, nine — set on end so as to break joints, and firmly bolted together, making a IioIIoav cyl inder eight inches thick. It rests on a metal ring on a vertical shaft, Avhich is revolved by power from the boil ers. If a projectile struck the turret at an acute angle, it was expected to glance off Avithout doing damage. But Avhat Avould happen if it Avas fired in a straight line to the centre of the turret, which in that case Avould receive the whole force of the blow ? It might break off the bolt-heads on the interior, which, flying across, would kill the men at the guns ; it might disarrange the revolving mechanism, and then we Avould be wholly disabled. " I laid the Monitor close alongside the Merrimac, and gave her a shot. She returned our compliment by a shell, Aveighing one hundred and fifty pounds, fired when Ave were close together, Avhich struck the turret so square ly that it received the whole force. Here you see the scar, two and a half inches deep in the wrought hon, a perfect mould of the shell. If anything could test the turret, it was that shot. It did not start a rivet-head or a nut ! It stunned the two men who were nearest where the ball struck, and that was all. I touched the lever — the turret revolved as smoothly as before. The turret had stood the test ; I could mark that point of weakness off my list forever. " You notice that the deck is joined to the side of the hull by a right angle, at Avhat sailors call the ' plank- 230 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN shear.' If a projectile struck that angle, what would happen ? It Avould not be deflected ; its Avhole force would be expended there. It might open a seam in the huU below the water-line, or pierce the wooden hull, and sink us. Here was our second point of weak ness. " I had decided how I would fight her in advance. I would keep the Monitor moving in a circle, just large enough to give time for loading the guns. At the point where the circle impinged upon the Merrimac our guns should be fired, and loaded while we Avere moving around the circuit. Evidently the Merrimac Avould re turn the compliment every time. At our second ex change of shots, she returning six or eight to our two, another of her large sheUs struck our ' plank-shear ' at its angle, and tore up one of the deck-plates, as you see. The shell had struck what I believed to be the Aveakest point in the Monitor. We had already learned that the Merrimac sAvarmed Avith sharp-shooters, for their buUets were constantly spattering against our turret and our deck. If a man showed himself on deck he Avould draw their fire. But I did not much consider the sharp-shoot ers. It was my duty to -investigate the effects of that shot. I ordered one of the pendulums to be hauled aside, and, craAvling out of the port, Avalked to the side, laid doAvn upon my chest, and examined it thoroughly. The hull was uninjured, except for a few splinters in the Avood. I walked back and craAvled into the turret — the bullets were falling on the iron deck all about me as thick as hail-stones in a storm. None struck me, I sup pose because the vessel Avas moving, and at the angle lying on the deck, my body made a small mark difficult to hit. We gave them two more guns, and then I told the men what Avas true, that the Merrimac could not AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 231 sink us if we let her pound us for a month. The men cheered ; the knowledge put new life into all. "We had more exchanges, and then the Merrimac tried new tactics. She endeavored to ram us, to run us doAvn. Once she struck us about amidships with her iron ram. Here you see its mark. It gave us a shock, pushed us around, and that Avas all the harm. But the movement placed our sides together. I gave her tAvo guns, which I think lodged in her side, for, from my look out crack, I could not see that either shot rebounded. Ours being the smaller vessel, and more easily handled, I had no difficulty in avoiding her ram. I ran around her several times, planting our shot in Avhat seemed to be the most vulnerable places. In this Avay, reserving my fire until I got the range and the mark, I planted two more shots almost in the very spot I had hit when she tried to ram us. Those shots must have been effect ive, for they were foUowed by a shoAver of bars of iron. " The third Aveak spot Avas our pilot-house. You see tha,t it is built a little more than three feet above the deck, of bars of iron, ten by twelve inches square, built up like a log-house, bolted Avith very large bolts at the corners where the bars interlock. The pilot stands upon a platform below, his head and shoulders in the pilot-' house. The upper tier of bars is separated from the sec ond by an open space of an inch, through which the pilot may look out at every point of the compass. The pilot-house, as you see, is a four-square mass of iron, pro vided with no means of deflecting a ball. I expected trouble from it, and I was not disappointed. Until my accident happened, as Ave approached the enemy I stood in the pilot-house and gave the signals. Lieutenant Greene fired the guns, and Engineer Stimers, here, revolved the turret. 232 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " I Avas below the depk Avhen the corner of the pilot house was first struck by a shot or a shell. It either burst or Avas broken, and no harm was done. A short time after I had given the signal, and with my eye close against the lookout crack, Avas Avatching the effect of our shot, when something happened to me ; — my part in the fight was ended. Lieutenant Green, Avho fought the Merrimac until she had no longer stomach for fighting, Avill tell you the rest of the story." Can it be possible that this beardless boy fought one of the historic battles of the Avorld? Avas the thought of eveiy one, as the modest, diffident young Green Avas half pushed forward into the circle. "I cannot add much to the captain's story," he began. " He had cut out the work for us, and we had only to folloAv his pat tern. I kept the Monitor either moving around the cir cle or around the enemy, and endeavored to place our shots as near her amidships as possible, Avhere Captain Worden believed he had already broken through her armor. We knew that she could not sink us, and, I thought I Avould keep right on pounding her as long as she Avould stand it. There is really nothing neAV to be added to Captain Worden's account. We could strike her wherever Ave chose ; weary as they must have been, our men were full of enthusiasm, and I do not think Ave wasted a shot. Once Ave ran out of the circle for a mo ment to adjust a piece of machinery, and I learn that some of our friends feared that we Avere drawing out of the fight. The Merrimac took the opportunity to start for Norfolk. As soon as our machinery was adjusted Ave folloAved her, and got near enough to give her a part ing shot. But I Avas not familiar Avith the locality ; there might be torpedoes planted in the channel, and I did not Avish to take any risk of losing our vessel, so I came back AND DIS ADMINISTRATION. 233 to the company of our friends. But except that we were, all of us, tired and hungry when Ave came back to the Minnesota at half-past tAvelve p. si., the Monitor was just as well prepared to fight as she Avas at eight o'clock in the morning Avhen she fired her first gun." We were then shoAvn the injury to tho pilot-house. The mark of the ball was plain upon the two upper bars, the principal impact being upon the lower of the two. This huge bar was broken in the middle, but held firmly at either end. The further it was pressed in, the stronger Avas the resistance on the exterior. On the inside the fracture in the bar was half an inch wide. Captain Wor den's eye Avas very near to the lookout crack, so that when the gun Avas discharged the shock of the ball knocked him senseless, Avhile the mass of flame fiUed one side of his face with coarse grains of powder. He remained insensible for some hours. " Have you heard what Captain Worden's first inquiry was when he recovered his senses after the general shock to his system?" asked Captain Fox of the President. " I think I have," replied Mr. Lincoln, " but it is worth relating to these gentlemen." "His question Avas," said Captain Fox, " 'Have I saved the Minnesota ? '" "Yes, and whipped the Merrimac!" some one an swered. "Then," said Captain Worden, "I don't care what be comes of me." Captain Worden apologized for liis inability to provide for the President and his guests the usual refreshments of a vessel of the navy. The haste of departure from her port had led to the omission of everything that did not improve the fighting qualities of his vessel. " Some uncharitable people say that old Bourbon is an 234 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN indispensable element in the fighting qualities of some of our generals in the field," smilingly responded the President. " But, captain, after the account that we have heard to-day, no one will say that any Dutch cour age is needed on board the Monitor." " It never has been, sir," modestly observed the cap tain. " Mr. President," said Captain Fox, " not much of the history to which Ave have listened is new to me. I saw this battle from eight o'clock until midday. There Avas one marvel in it Avhich has not been mentioned — the splendid handling of the Monitor throughout the battle. The first bold advance of this diminutive vessel against a giant like the Merrimac was superlatively grand. She seemed inspired by Nelson's order at Trafalgar: 'He Avill make no mistake who lays his vessel alongside the enemy.' One Avould have thought the Monitor a living thing. No man was visible. You saw her moving around that circle, delivering her fire invariably at the point of contact, and heard the crash of the missile against her enemy's armor above the thunder of her guns, on the bank where Ave stood. It Avas indescribably grand !" " Noav," he continued, " standing here on the deck of this battle-scarred vessel, the first genuine iron-clad — the victor in the first fight of iron-clads— let me make a con fession, and perform an act of simple justice. I never fully believed in armored vessels until I saw this battle. I knoAV all the facts which united to give us the Monitor. I withhold no credit from Captain Ericsson, her invent or, but I knoAV that the country is principally indebted for the construction of this vessel to President Lincoln, and for the success of her trial to Captain Worden, her commander." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 235 XXVIII. JOSEPH HENRY AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN. In the spring of 1862, I had an opportunity of com paring and contrasting two striking characters ; one, a philosopher, trained in the schools, matured by a life of study and original investigation which would have made him the equal of Plato and Aristotle had he been their contemporary ; the other, the product of Nature, with his strong common-sense developed by the experiences of human life under hard and trying conditions. Professor Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, called at the office of the register on business connected with the Light-House Board, of Avhich he was the official head. He would have taken high rank in any circle of learned men, from the Stoics to the scien tists of his own time. He was an eminent physicist be fore he Avas called to his present position. His original investigations, especially in light and electricity, Avere of great value, and but for his inborn modesty would have credited him Avith the invention of the art of telegraphy. After he Avas placed in charge of Smithson's great trust, he devoted himself to its care and development, and to the advancement of the interests of the republic whose servant he had become. With what fidelity he pre served the principal of that trust, and with its interest built up an institution for scientific work on a scale of magnitude of Avhich Smithson never dreamed, is known to his country and the Avorld. The value to the republic of his researches into the science of illumination had al- 236 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ready been very great and was increasing with every passing year. To these good works, add an unassuming modesty, complete unselfishness, and an unvarying pur pose to make every one the better and happier for his acquaintance, and it becomes apparent that Joseph Henry was a great man Avith a very beautiful character. " Do you often see the President ?" asked Dr. Henry, when his business Avas completed. "Occasionally," I answered. "He sometimes visits this office, as I presume he does many others. He is ahvays welcome here, but his visits are by no means as frequent as I Avould make them if I could." " I have only recently come to know the President, except from a passing introduction," he said. " I have lately met him five or six times. He is producing a powerful impression upon me, more poAverful than any one I can now recall. It increases with every interview. I think it my duty to take philosophic views of men and things, but the President upsets me. If I did not resist the inclination, I might even fall in love Avith him." It Avas my opportunity to lure him on. Any views of his about President Lincoln could not fail to be of in terest. "Yes?" I said. "Possibly you do not differ from the rest of us. I knoAV of nobody in this depart ment Avho knows the President Avho fails to respect and admire him. What do you find in him so attractive ?" " I have not yet arranged my thoughts about him in a form to warrant their expression," he replied. " But I can say so much as this : President Lincoln impresses me as a man Avhose honesty of purpose is transparent, Avho has no mental reservations, Avho may bo said to wear his heart upon his sleeve. He has been called coarse. In my interviews Avith him he converses Avith apparent freedom, and Avithout a trace of coarseness. He AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 237 has been called ignorant. He has shoAvn a comprehen sive grasp of every subject on Avhich he has conversed Avith me. His views of the present situation are some what novel, but seem to me unanswerable. He has read many books and remembers their contents better than I do. He is associated Avith men Avho I know are great. He impresses me as their equal, if not their su perior. I desired to induce him to understand, and look favorably upon, a change which I Avish to make in the policy of the Light-House Board in a matter requiring sohie scientific knoAvledge. He professed his ignorance, or, rather, he ridiculed his knowledge of it, and yet he discussed it as intelligently — " " The President 1" here interrupted a messenger, open ing the door to admit President Lincoln. " You have interrupted an interesting commentary," I began, laughingly, as I rose to welcome him. " Do not ! You will not say another Avord !" ex claimed the doctor, blushing like a school-girl. " You will mortify me excessively if you do." I saAV that he took the matter seriously, and hastened to change the conversation. These two great Americans seated themselves side by side. They had a long conversation. I took no part in the conversation, and shall not attempt to recall it. It began Avith the subject of the destruction by the Con federates of all the lights, buoys, and signal stations along their coast ; their purpose in such acts, and hoAv our own Aressels could best dispense Avith these aids to navigation. It diverged to the subject of iUuminating oils of different kinds. I inferred that the professor Avas experimenting with lard oils, with a view to their intro duction on account of the saving of expense in their use. I could not discover that the President was at a loss for 238 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN a moment, and that he conversed in any particular less intelligently than the professor. The latter looked at his Avatch, apologized for keeping Mr. Lincoln so long, and with the air of having done something very repre hensible, abruptly took his leave. "Do you often see Professor Henry?" inquired the President, as soon as the door had closed. I smded, for it Avas the identical question which the professor had asked me about the President. " My visits to the Smithsonian, to Dr. Henry, and his able lieutenant, Professor Baird, are the chief recrea tions of my life," I said. " These men are missionaries to excite scientific research and promote scientific knowl edge. The country has no more faithful servants, though it may have to wait another century to appreciate the value of their labors." "I had an impression," said Mr. Lincoln, "that the Smithsonian was printing a great amount of useless in formation. Professor Henry has convinced me of my error. It must be a grand school if it produces such thinkers as he is. He is one of the pleasantest men I have ever met; so unassuming, simple, and sincere. I wish we had a few thousand more such men !" It Avas not strange that these two great men Avere at tracted toAvards each other. In their natural qualities of sterling honesty, simplicity, and unselfishness, they were much alike. It Avas in their acquisitions that they differed, and these did not constitute the foundations of their characters. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 239 XXIX. INTER ARMA, SCIENTIA.— THE POTOMAC NATURALISTS' CLUB. The Smithsonian recalls almost the only recreation which we permitted ourselves to enjoy. After the first Bull Run, there was no time Avhen some of our friends Avere not suffering from wounds or sickness, in the hos pitals or in our own households. Victories were infre quent ; there was a strange incongruity between so much suffering and pleasure of any description. In the early autumn of 1861, Professor Baird sug gested that Ave should resist the general tendency to de pression, by occasional meetings of the resident natural ists of Washington. Out of this suggestion grew the Potomac Club, with its fortnightly meetings at the homes of members, and its memories are still fresh and delightful after thirty years. Time has dealt hardly with its members : only three or four of them survive. I cannot forego this opportunity for a brief notice of some of the most conspicuous, to whom we were in debted for many pleasant hours, in what would other wise have been a dark and depressing period of Wash ington life. First, and by our unanimous opinion, facile princeps, was Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smith sonian Institute, our president. A greater number of talents were delivered to him than to any other member, but he was at aU times ready to be reckoned with con cerning them. The science of the world Avas his witness how fruitful he had made them. From boyhood he was 240 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the friend of every living creature. At the age of forty- five he had Avritten and published a description of the form, habits, and specific characters of every known American mammal, bird, fish, reptile, and many of the moUusks and insects. He had taught his countrymen the useful lesson that a bountiful Creator had given these creatures life for some good purpose. He had brought together that gigantic collection in the Smith sonian, and distributed specimens by the hundred thou sand to the museums of the Avorld. He had trained a multitude of useful Avorkers in science all over the coun try, who, but for him, would have been ignorant of its uses and its pleasures. lie had created the Fish Com mission, with an army of unpaid assistants, noAAT by pre cept and now by example, restoring to our coasts and inland waters the great fish families almost extermi nated by the reckless improvidence of man. With the resources of Smithson's legacy at his command, he Avas as poor as Avhen he left his Pennsylvania home. He had certainly buried none of his talents in the earth ; I think he had done more scientific work than an}-- natur alist who had preceded him. It Avas not strange that Professor Baird and Professor Henry had labored so long and so cordially together, for the former was just as delightful as, and possibly more genial than, his superior officer. The Baird evenings of our club, when Ave met at his residence, were the most memorable in its history. I open the pages of a dilapidated photograph-album of the period. Who is this, shod Avith moccasins, clad in furs, with knitted pointed cap, a blanket over his shoulders, and a dog Avhip Avith its trailing lash in his right hand ? It is Robert Kennicott, just returned from his three years' exploration of the great marshes of the Yucon, the Arctic coasts reached by the Coppermine AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 241 River, and the regions round about Fort Mackenzie. He has brought back with him from their breeding- grounds, before unknown, the eggs of the canvas-back and red-head duck, and of many other birds new to sci ence. He has increased the coUection in the museum by many neAV specimens, and added many new facts to scientific lore. He insists that at Fort Churchill, where he acquired celebrity as a great medicine man, human beings hibernate as truly as the plantigrades. During his three years' absence he Avas cut off from home as effectually as if he had been in another planet. Kennicott was born on an Illinois prairie. How en ergetic and black-eyed and queer he Avas 1 The play mates of his childhood belonged to the Crotalus family. No rattlesnake, he said, had any venom for him. He coUected them in a bag, and handled them as if they were eels. None ever struck or attempted to strike at him. He was a favorite student of Professor Baird, and the very life of our social meetings. His early death Avas a loss to science and a personal grief to all who knew him. William Simpson was another of our members — one of the most promising young naturalists of his time. He had labored diligently in the field. Chicago, charmed by his enthusiasm, had made him her pet. The citizens built a fine edifice for his collection, put him in charge of it with a liberal salary, and it was growing marvel lously, when in an hour the fire-fiend touched it with the finger of annihilation. He had inherited tubercular dis- ease, against which he had fought Avith the courage of a soldier. But this collection was the treasure of his heart, the jewel of his eye. When he lost it he withered and died, and science lost a votary and a martyr. Count Pourtalis was another interesting member of 16 242 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the club. He belonged to the French nobility. He dif fered in opinion Avith his family, and they cut him off because he insisted upon marrying the portionless girl whom he loved, and devoting himself to the study of the physical sciences. He wedded his love, both came to the United States, and he presented himself, Avith an empty purse and a heart devoted to science, to his massive- brained countryman, Agassiz. Through him the count obtained a position in the Coast Survey. There he proved a most useful Avorker, Avas promoted according to his merit, and Avas then living modestly and happily with his wife and boys in Washington. A few years later, the noble Pourtalis family were glad enough to invite him to return with his Avife and children, and a national reputation as a scientist, to his paternal halls. The subject is very tempting, but must not be further pursued in detail. Yet I cannot Avholly pass over Baron Osten-Sacken, of the Russian Legation. The Diptera, or Cuvier's twelfth order of insects, was his forte. Very- learned he Avas too, and, if I am not mistaken, his mono graph on the Diptera, a large quarto, Avas printed by the Smithsonian as one of its contributions to science. He Avas a genial, kind-hearted, unassuming student of nature. The club had not a more popular member ; but owing to his diminutive size, he acquired a name which clung to him ever afterwards. " Pray, what are the Diptera ?" asked a member, Avhose studies had not been entomological, of another member, when Osten-Sacken was mentioned. " Diptera ? Well, I suppose a Culex belongs to the Diptera." " What is a Culex, then ?" pursued his questioner. "A Culex!" Avas the reply. "A Culex is an insect Avith a double pair of wings, abounding in moist locali- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 243 ties, which, thirsting for human gore, invades the habita tions of man Avith an irritating buzzing sound, pierces the cuticle Avith his lancet-shaped proboscis, and discharges into tho wound a poisonous fluid." " Confound the man ! He means a mosquito !" ex claimed an irreverent auditor. " Osten-Sacken Avould naturally Avrite about the species. Don't you see the family resemblance ?" This was sufficient to fasten an undeserved nick-name upon the good-natured little entomologist. I can only mention the names of others. Jillson and Peale, from the Art Departments ; Shaeffer, the Libra rian of the Patent Office. Peale Avas the brother of Rem brandt Peale, the artist, Avith many of his accomplish ments ; Shaeffer was one of the most learned of Germans. Then there Avas Hayden, Avho led an exploring -party every spring beyond the one hundredth meridian, and returned in the autumn laden with fossils and other specimens, to Avorry Congress into granting his appro priation for the coming year. He must have understood the business, for he never failed. Another of our mem bers was A. B. Meek, the most conscientious geologist who ever described a fossil, whose mind was as clean and pure as that of an infant, whom Ave all loved and honored, but who was so intensely mortified by his deaf ness that he could be drawn but seldom to our meetings. Theodore Gill Avas our ichthyologist. He was charged with creating more new species than ever scientific en thusiast Avas responsible for before. S. M. Clarke, then of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the Treas ury, whose microscope, with its collection of lenses, was our envy, and who was an accomplished manipulator of the instrument, and Schott, the mathematician of the Coast Survey, eminent in his work, and the owner of a 244 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN breed of Pomeranian dogs of pure blood, close the list of our regular members. Among our occasional visitors Avas Cope, who had not then commenced his Avarfare upon Marsh, and Dr. New berry, who has since done such magnificent Avork for the spread of scientific instruction, and Avho was then not only a director, but a hard Avorker of the Sanitary Com mission. Those Avere sessions of great interest, Avhen, just returning from some field of bloody conflict, he told us of the lives and the pain and suffering saved by the judicious administration of that, the noblest of all the charities of the war. O. C. Marsh Avas ahvays a Avelcome guest, able to contribute his full share to the science or pleasure of the evening. It is fit that this notice of the members and visitors of our club should close Avith the name of Alexander Agassiz. Three nights he was Avith us. Those Avere evenings Avhen we wanted to omit refreshments, because they interrupted Agassiz, so eager were Ave to listen to the words of this giant of science. His facility of ex pression Avould have been considered remarkable in his native tongue — in English, a foreign language to him, it Avas marvellous. He Avas as willing to converse as we were to listen. And hoAv perfectly unassuming he was ! He pretended to nothing that he did not know. I had long desired to ascertain his vieAvs on one subject. One evening I had my opportunity. " Professor Agassiz," I said, "you have studied the Ice Period more exhaustive ly than any other physicist. Tell us what it was that changed the temperature so as to permit the ice-sheet to cover so large a part of our continent." He answered, without the slightest hesitation : " I do not believe that the science of to-day can give a satisfac tory answer to that question, simply because we know AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 245 of no conditions Avhich could vaporize as large a quantity of Avater as Avas necessary to form the ice-sheet. Its an swer may be found in the great Rocky and Sierra Ne vada ranges, or in the basin betAveen, but it has not yet been discovered." I have addressed this inquiry to many other physicists. They have almost invariably attempted some unsatisfac tory reply. Professor Agassiz Avas great enough to say that he did not knoAV. 246 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXX. A NIGHT WITH THE POTOMAC NATURALISTS' CLUB.— THE GIANT OCTOPUS. The slogan " On to Richmond !" was no longer heard in our land. Its latest notes had receded into silence over the field of Bull Run. The dispirited men who, in broken ranks, straggled into Washington, had heard enough of it. The}r would be contented now to wait for disciphne and preparation before that or any other note of inex perience was raised again. Now it was that the anaconda was taken as the pop ular model for the coming campaign. AVith a firm at tachment to AVashington as its base, it was to encircle the whole Confederate army, and when the time for muscular tension came, not a single soldier of the enemy was to escape from the deadly constriction of its folds. The anaconda contrivance appeared to be safe, simple, and very popular. At one of our club-meetings a member incidentally referred to the anaconda model suggested by our young and popular military chieftain. It Avas criticised as an unfortunate suggestion. These boas were a sluggish, cowardly race, said the member. They lurked in foul recesses ; they struck from behind. It was essential to capture that the quarry should be standing quiet at the moment of attack. The rebels Avere a restless race, con tinually moving about, and could not be counted on to stand still long enough for the process of constriction. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 247 The rattlesnake Avas a better model. He Avas a fighter ab ovo. He gave notice before he struck, and rather pre ferred to hit his enemy in the face. " AVhy Avould not the giant octopus answer for a mil itary model ?" said another member. " He has claims that are not to be overlooked — that is, if his existence is not Avholly fabulous." " I believe in the giant octopus," said Count Pourtalis. " I have had occasion recently to investigate his history, and there is very satisfactory evidence of his existence.- I cannot discuss him as a military model, but as an ex isting species he is a fact Avhich I am prepared to prove." The count Avas the expert of the Coast Survey in deep- sea soundings. His reputation as an investigator Avas established. He readily acceded to the universal demand of the members, that he should give them the latest facts about, as well as the natural history of, the giant octopus. " Gentlemen," he began, " I think I shall be able to show you that the cuttle-fish is not to be ridiculed. He belongs to the squid family, and has a lot of names. He is called a cephalopod, an octopus, a loligo, a teuthis, as AveU as a cuttle-fish and a squid. He cuts an important figure in the early literature of natural science. In the ' Historia? Naturalis,' of Dr. Johannes Jonstonus, pub lished, in two huge folios, at Amsterdam, in 1657, you Avill find him figured in five gigantic forms. The learned doctor has collected all that the naturalists have written on the subject from Aristotle and Elian, Plutarch and Hippocrates, to the Avriters of his own time. Pliny de scribes one captured at Carteia, the dried remains of which weighed seven hundred pounds. Its arms were thirty feet long, Avith sucker's as big as an urn. All the writers agree on its enormous size and its destructive- ness to man. But it is in the Arctic seas that it is largest 248 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN and most ferocious. Olaus Magnus figures one in the act of taking a sailor from the deck of a vessel. Mont- fort represented one pulling a three-masted ship under the waves. It remained for the pious old Bishop Pon- toppidan, as recently as the last half of the seventeenth century, to describe it as ' the largest of all living creat ures.' ' He never shoAVS his whole body out of the wa ter, but shows a portion about an English mile and a half in circumference.' ' If this creature's arms Avere to lay hold of the largest man-of-Avar, he would drag it down to the bottom.' 'When he sinks, he creates a Avhirl- pool Avhich draAVS everything doAvn with it.' Perhaps," continued the count, " this is enough to show you that the old naturalists thought him an animal of some mag nitude." To which the club readily assented. " Then," he resumed, " we will take some more recent evidence. In a late number of the Comptes Pendus of the French Academy is an account of a battle between the crew of a French man-of-Avar and a huge loligo, which occurred in the Indian Ocean less than two years ago. This battle is authenticated by the oaths of the officers. It continued for more than four hours. The squid escaped, for their harpoons and hooks dreAV out of its soft body. But they cut off some of its arms, over thirty feet in length, exclusive of the paddle, which measured ten feet more. Travellers in Japan report paintings of the squid, tearing fishermen from their boats, and on the coast of NeAvfoundland huge masses of one Avhich had been killed Avere found, with the ten tacles attached, over forty feet in length. Upon this evidence, I am a believer in tho existence of the giant cuttle-fish." The count having concluded, Professor Baird took up the discussion. " Suppose, now, that, in the Avords of Mrs. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 249 Partington, we ' cease to refrain from odorous compari sons,' and look the octopus squarely in the face. His eyes are like saucers, but as he is not provided Avith eye lids, he carries them under his arms. He is Avell fixed in the matter of arms, having anyAvhere from eight to twenty, Avhich, for convenience in feeding, are arranged in a circle around his mouth, Avhich is directly on top of his head. His jaws are horny and triangular, and work up and down hke the knife of a guillotine. Hav ing such a supply of arms, he dispenses with legs alto gether, and Avalks on his head, tail upwards. Along these tentacles, forty or fifty feet in length, are arranged rows of cup-shaped suckers. AVhen they grasp their prey, a single muscular contraction creates a vacuum in these suckers, and every cup is made as fast as a limpet to a rock, so that it is easier to tear off than to detach the arm. They have a fair brain, in a AveU-protected skull, a fine sense of hearing, and they handle their arms Avith the quickness of a monkey. They move sideAvays by means of their arms, or backAvards by squirting the water in advance. They are provided with supplies of paint in cells under the skin, and by pressing these cells they can paint themselves in other colors. Like an army correspondent, they always carry their ink-bag, and, whenever they Avish to retire from the publio or any other view, a gentle pressure upon the ink-bag surrounds them with a black curtain which no vision can penetrate, and they can then make their retreat invisible to an en emy. Obviously such invisibility Avould be of great ad vantage to a retreating army." The subject was then open for general discussion, which was continued on a scientific basis, but in a sim ilar temper. AVe decided that the squid was a fact, if not a factor, and that he Avas well arranged for a preda- 250 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN tory life at the expense of the enemy. After a sarcastic notice of this discussion by the press nothing more was heard of the anaconda as a model for our army. To these notes I may add -an incident in my own experience. Years after the close of the Avar, I was one day walking along the Pacific coast of the Mexi can territory of Lower California, near Magdalena Bay. The tide Avas low, and in a cavity of the rock I saAv what I supposed to be a star-fish or a holothurian, and carelessly thrust the long staff I was using as a walking-stick into it. Like a flash the tentacles of the animal grasped it, reaching nearly to my hand. My companion, an intelligent Ecuadorian, AveU acquainted with that coast, shrieked to me to let the creature alone. I pulled it out, as it adhered to the staff, and found it to be a squid, weighing thirty or forty pounds. I had to kill the animal before he Avould leave the staff. My companion then gave me the following account, as of a fact which occurred Avithin his OAvn knowledge. The Chinese from San Francisco were accustomed to visit that coast to collect a bivalve mollusk, which they dried and used for food. One day a man belonging to one of their schooners disappeared," and Avas not to be found. He Avas finally discovered adhering, apparently, to the face of a perpendicular rock, two or three fathoms above the surface of the water. He was quite dead, in the grasp of a squid, Avhich Avas already feasting on his body. The squid occupied a cavity in the rock, and had seized the Chinaman in his tentacles, drawn him to the mouth of his den, and there crushed him. That animal Avas supposed to weigh about four hundred pounds. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 251 XXXI. HOSPITAL NOTES.— THE WOUNDED FROM TIIE WILDERNESS.— CHARITIES OF THE COLORED POOR.— SISTERS OF CHARITY- ANAESTHETICS. Was the Avhole of Grant's army being sent back wounded to Washington ? It appeared so, in those early days of May, 1864. Ample hospitals had been provided for the Avounded and disabled from a great battle. Many swift steamers were constantly plying between Aquia Creek and Washington. Mattresses spread side by side covered the decks and the cabin floor, on each of which, at the beginning of the voyage, lay a wounded man. As they neared its end, and came to the Sixth Street Land ing, some of these were vacant. Their tenants lay in the bow of the steamer ; their faces were covered, and they Avere very still. Attendants moved gently among them, for they Avere asleep. Many in that short voyage had fallen into the sleep that knoAvs no Avaking. At the landing the survivors were placed by careful hands in ambulances, which took their places in a pro cession constantly moving on one line out to the hospi tals on the hills back of the city, and then returning by another route to the Sixth Street Landing. This pro cession of laden ambulances Avas more than three miles long, and the vehicles ran quite near each other; the re turn route Avas someAvhat longer. For three days and as many nights the procession had been moving up and doAvn its course, never ceasing its progress, save when the breaking of a carriage caused a 252 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN temporary delay. AVas it never to stop ? AYas the en tire army to be returned in this disabled condition 3 The silent patience Avith Avhich these soldiers endured tlieir sufferings Avas most impressive. AYounded as many were unto death, tortured by the agony of thirst which ahvays follows the loss of blood in gun-shot Avounds, some Avith limbs amputated on the field, and tho severed stumps still undressed, scarcely a sigh or a groan escaped their parched lips. It Avas discovered b}r those Avho lived along the route that Avater, or any liquid Avhich Avould quench thirst, Avas the most grateful relief that could bo afforded them. The colored people Avere the first to make the discovery. They built little stands by the roadside, and from these, little darkies, Avith vessels of every form and dimension, trotted along by the ambu lances, and served out the contents to the suffering men. Soon tables Avere set out before many of the dwellings, and coffee, tea, and light eatables Avere given to all soldiers who Avould accept them. Almost every residence became a house of refreshments, managed by patriotic Avomen. The gratitude which some could express only by a look Avas the only compensation demanded. After midnight on May 10th, there suddenly gathered over the cit}' one of those heavy rain clouds not uncom mon in that locality. This cloud appeared to embrace the earth, the darkness Avas oomploto ; its density was almost palpable to the sense of feeling. AVhon the con densation began, tho rain fell in torrents, like Avater from a cascade, bringing Avith it thunder, and lightning in flashes so frequent as to seem almost continuous. All objects Avere sharply illuminated and brought into bold relief. The thunder came in crashes rather than in re verberations. Tho procession of the ambulances could not move in AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 253 that storm and darkness, and had come to a halt. Look ing down Eleventh from M Street to Pennsylvania Ave nue, one could see by the lightning flashes for a distance of half a mile. There Avas presented a singular and un usual spectacle. Around every vehicle was a fringe of white bbjects, projecting outward. They were of irreg ular forms and sizes, and it puzzled the observer to knoAV what they were. They proved to be the limbs and por tions of the bodies of the wounded — their legs, arms, shoulders, faces, heads, necks, every part Avhich it was possible to expose to the falling shoAver of rain. It Avas a weird and curious picture, another of the myriad forms in Avhich are exhibited the pains and miseries of war. The Avar had its full complement of miseries ; its scenes of suffering were very numerous, ahd painful beyond de scription. On the other hand, it developed some of the finer qualities of our humanity in a remarkable degree, from unexpected sources. There were occasions Avhen everybody, the poor equally with the rich, seemed to be moved by a common impulse to Avorks of benevolence and charity. This statement is especially true of the colored race, of which some proofs will be elsewhere given. Bull Run, the first great battle of the war, had proved the miserable inadequacy of the hospital accommodations of the army. The churches, all the public buildings Avhich could possibly be vacated, Avere filled with sick and wounded men. Citizens received their Avounded friends into their OAvn homes ; tents were pitched upon the va cant squares, and yet there were hundreds who, for a day or two, lay upon the streets, exposed to the sun, the rain, the heat, the insects, and all the inconveniences of an unsheltered situation. Even when a great enlarge ment of hospital accommodations was undertaken, so 254 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN little attention was paid to sanitary conditions that the hospitals were built wherever there was a vacant square. One of the largest Avas located near the Smithsonian In stitution, along the border of the old canal, which, re ceiving the surface drainage of half the city, in the heat of summer became eventually little less than a noisome cesspool. It seems incredible that such negligence should have been permitted. The inevitable result, as any one could have foreseen, was that this hospital be came the slaughter-house of the soldier. Death from blood-poisoning became so certain that the simplest in cised Avounds, and even scratches, Avere fatal, if the suf ferer was sent to that hospital. Experience and the neAvspapers soon brought about a reform. The Sanitary Commission made its voice heard and its influence felt. Instead of erecting hospitals in the heart of the city, the authorities began to locate them upon the- hills surrounding it, Avhere there Avas pure air and abundant room for the tents, which were more healthy than enclosed structures. Upon these hiUs were the forts which defended the capital. By the autumn of 1864 there Avas a succession of hospitals in a circle just outside the city limits, Avith large accommodations, and a greater number of tenants than were comprised in all these forts and their outworks. Our Sunday afternoons were generally devoted to visiting these hospitals. The occasions were infrequent when there were not sufferers from the green hills of Vermont in some of them, to whom the sight of a friendly face seemed to be the best of medicines. The grateful looks of these Avounded boys always Avell repaid the trouble of a visit. We often found the poor fellows craving, or rather intensely suffering, for the want of something which the service did not furnish, but which a AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 255 few cents and a friendly hand could supply. The gift of diamonds and sapphires Avould not have elicited the grat itude I have seen drawn out by the contents of a hand- basket. AVe saw much suffering in these visits, but Ave also saAV much that illustrated the better side of human nature. On one occasion I Avas visiting a Vermont cavalry man, who lay in a large hospital near Columbia College, on the continuation of Fourteenth Street. He had a splendid record for bravery in the field, and now in the hospital he was fighting death with equal courage and fortitude. He was in a Avard filled Avith the wounded from a battle in the valley some weeks before. Only those whose wounds were particularly severe had been brought there, and at the time of my visit most of those who remained had been there some three or four Aveeks, slowly recovering from what seemed to me terrible in juries. I Avas writing at the dictation of the Vermonter a let ter to his Avife, Avhen, from my camp-stool at his bedside, I saw a colored woman enter the ward. She Avas old, decrepit, and poorly clad, so lame that she could scarcely walk, but managed to hobble along by the aid of a staff. Except a basket, covered by a clean white cloth, which hung upon her arm, everything about her indicated ex treme poverty. The entrance of this unattractive person produced a commotion. A dozen men, my cavalry-man included, shouted their welcome, and even the faces of those too weak to raise their heads from their pillow were lighted up with joy. "Here's mammy!" "Come here first, mammy!" "Don't forget me, mammy !"— these and similar expressions came from all parts of the ward. I have seen the wife of a President enter a ward without exciting any such expressions of interest. 256 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " Yes ! ole mammy's heah, chilluns, jes' as I tole you. She's got two apiece for ebery one of ye ! I had to borry some from a fren'. It's been offul dry, an' de new vines ha' n't come on like as I 'spected. But dey's doin' well now. Nex' Sunday I 'spect I'll have three apiece, an' a big one for doctor. Now you all jes' be quiet ; I won't forgit one of ye !" She hobbled up to a bed. It was vacant. " Why, where 's Mass' Frank? " she exclaimed, with unmistaka ble surprise. " Why don't you tell me ? Where's Mass' Frank, I say?" " Poor Frank has gone home, mamnw ! He got his discharge yesterday," said one who lay near by, in a voice which trembled a little in spite of himself. " I Avas afeerd on't ! I was afeerd on't. He tole me he was goin' away !" And the poor old creature sobbed as if she had a heart as tender as one of Avhiter skin. " Poor Mass' Frank ! I reckon he's better now. He read me his mammy's letter. Poor mammy ! She's done got a heap o' trouble. She lose her boy. Poor mammy 1 Poor Mass' Frank ! He was a brave one ! His hurt was offul ! Seemed like you could jes' see his heart in dat great red hole !" She dried her tears, took up her basket, and went from cot to cot, making her distribution of its contents. The weakest of the wounded boys put out his thin hand eagerly, as if what she gave was A'ery precious. The very last was my cavalryman, Avho Avas just as eager as the rest. And then I saw that she had been distribut ing small cucumbers pickled in vinegar ! " Dafs all to-day, my chilluns ! Nex' Lord's-day I'll be here, shore! De Aveather's done been good, and I 'spect I'll have more an' bigger uns. Yes, I'll come, shore !" AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 257 " Bring your basket here, mammy," said one, " I have something that the boys want to put into it, which you must not look at nor open until you get home. AViU you promise ?" " No, Mass' George ! You can't fool ole mammy dat way. I can't make dat promise. I know yo' tricks. Dat's money, dat is. Mass' George, I'm ole, an' aU broke up wid rheumatiz, workin' in de rice-field. I've got jes' one boy left. He takes good care o' his ole mammy. All de rest is sold — aU gone Souf to de cane-fields or de cotton-fields ! I 'spect I shaU never see 'em again. But, Mass' George" (here a joyful light flashed over her Avrinkled face), "I'se free now, bress de Lord an' Mass' Linkum ! I reckon all I'se good for is to raise pickles for de boys. But I can't sell 'em for money ! No, no !" She shook her head in the most decided manner and Avent out of the ward, foUowed by shouts of " Good-bye, mammy !" " God bless you !" " Come again !" The cavalryman informed me, and the statement has since been confirmed by surgeons, that there was noth ing so much craved by the wounded, especiaUy those who had lost much blood, as sharp, pickled cucumbers. He had seen the time when his longing for them was intolerable, when he Avould have given a month's pay for even one small pickle. I have no idea why more of them were not provided, when such complete provision was made for all hospital supplies. My informant said that one of the highest ladies in the land had visited that ward, and asked what the boys most wanted. The ansAver Avas, pickled cucumbers. She immediately told them that she would supply that want, and would order a whole barrel of the coveted delicacies from a whole sale grocery-house. The pickles never came, and the boys were crueUy disappointed. The lady probably f or- 17 - 258 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN got her promise, or found it inconvenient to keep it. " Old mammy isn't much on promises," said the cavalry man, " but she always fetches the pickles !" Of all the forms of charity and benevolence seen in the crowded wards of the hospitals, those of some Cath olic sisters were among the most efficient. I never knew Avhence they came, or what was the name of their order. They Avore the ordinary plain black dress of some wors ted stuff, but not the white band about the forehead. One ¦ instance illustrates the value of these volunteer nurses. In one of the Avards was a gigantic soldier, severely Avounded in the head. He had suddenly become deliri ous, and Avas raging up and down the ward, furious against those who had robbed him, of Avhat I could not make out. He cast off the attendants who attempt ed to seize him as if they had been children. The surgeon was called in, and with several officers was consulting hoAv they should seize and bind him, when a small figure in black entered the room. With a shout of joyous recognition the soldier rushed to his cot, and drew the blanket over him, as if ashamed of his half-dressed ap pearance. The sister seated herself at his bedside, and placed her Avhite hand upon the soldier's heated brow. His chest Avas heaving with excitement, but the sight of her face had restored his reason. " I must have dreamed it," he said, " but it was so real ! I thought they had taken you away, and said I should never see you again. Oh, I could have killed them all !" " You must sleep now," she said, very gently. " I shall stay if you are good, and you have been so ex cited—" " Yes," he murmured, " I will sleep. I will do any thing for you if they will not take you away. I could not bear that, you knoAv." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 259 He closed his eyes, holding one of her hands clasped in both of his, and, Avhile we Avere looking on, slept as peacefully as a child. Late in that terrible battle summer, when Grant Avas forcing his resistless march towards Richmond, the hos pitals Avere not only overcrowded, but for a time there Avas no proper separation of the wounded from those sick from other causes. In a single Avard wTere men Avith ¦freshly amputated limbs, and gunshot Avounds of every kind, and men burning Avith many fevers. Erysipelas was silently sapping the vital forces of one, consumption undermining the lungs of another,. an angry cutaneous disease absorbing the surface moisture of a third — all stretched upon cots so close together that there was scarcely room to pass between them. AVhat seemed especially horrible to me Avere the surgical operations carried on in the wards, because the operating-rooms Avere so constantly in use. For these suffering men, in addition to their oavh ills, to see one of their number stretched upon a table, where the surgeon's knife severed the living muscle and the resisting bone, Avith a display of all the suggestive machinery of the surgeon's profes sion, seemed too much for Aveak humanity to endure. These scenes, altogether the most painful I have ever Avitnessed, have nevertheless in my memory a beautiful side. More lovely than anything I have ever seen in art, so long devoted to illustrations of love, mercy, and charity, are the pictures that remain of those modest sisters going on their errands of mercy among the suf fering and the dying. Gentle and Avomanly, yet with the courage of soldiers leading a forlorn hope, to sustain them in contact with such horrors. As they Avent from cot to cot, distributing the medicines prescribed, or ad ministering the cooling, strengthening draughts as di- 260 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN rected, they were veritable angels of mercy. Their words were suited to every sufferer. One they incited and encouraged, another they calmed and soothed. With every soldier they conversed about his home, his wife, his chUdren, aU the loved ones he was soon to see again if he was obedient and patient. How many times have I seen them exorcise pain by their presence or their words ! How often has the h6t forehead of the soldier grown cool as one of these sisters bathed it 1 How often has he been refreshed, encouraged, and as sisted along the road to convalescence, Avhen he would otherwise have faUen by the way, by the home memo ries with which these unpaid nurses filled his heart ! " Are there any means by which I can overcome the unpleasant sensations which I always feel on my visits to your hospital-wards ?" I asked of an experienced sur geon. " It is a duty to make them, as long as I can be of any use to the boys, but I am made sick every time. I have a feehng of nausea which continues for hours." " It is the effect of your imagination," he responded. "You are unused to wounds. You exaggerate their symptoms. These men do not suffer as you imagine ; if they did, we should relieve them. Wounded men en dure great suffering on the field, and on their way to the hospital, but very little after they come under our hands. They suffer more from thirst than any other cause. Loss of blood makes the whole machinery of life dry and thirsty. After they reach the hospital, relief is speedy." "Yes, it must be," I said, ironically. "ReUef by be ing hacked and cut and saAvn in sections must be pain less !" "You should see an operation," said the surgeon. " It Avould cure your nausea, and correct some of your AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 261 erroneous ideas. I am perfectly serious. I am to do rather a difficult piece of Avork now, as soon as tho op erating-room is put in order. Come and see it, and judge for yourself." " I know it will irritate every nerve in my body, like a shock of electricity! But it Avould bo cowardly to decline. Surely, if the poor soldier can endure it, I ought to be able to stand the sight of it. Yes, 1 will come," I said. 1 Avas sliown into a small room adjoining tho Avard, Avith Avindows opening on tAvo sides, through Avhich the green fields and peach orchards, laden Avith young fruit, wore visible. Tho room had just been scoured, and Avas fresh and odorless. On one side of tho apartment Avere washing conveniences Avith a stream of running Avater. A plain, heavy tablo stood in the centre, covered bv a rubber cloth which extended nearly to the floor on its four sides. The only suspicious objects visible Avere several large mahogany boxes, standing upon shelves in one corner, but these wore closed. If tho removal of the cover had disclosed a proper table, the room might have been as Avell suited to billiards as to surgical opera tions. Four strong men noAv brought in a stretcher, on Avhich Avas a bed Avith Avhite linen sheets, containing a wounded soldier. The stretcher Avas laid upon the table. An at tendant quickly applied a sponge, Avhich ho pressed to tho mouth of tho patient. I detected tho odor of ether, and in less time than it has taken to Avrite the account tho soldier lay quietly unconscious and passive. His clothing, tho bod, and everything under him Avas then quickly removed, so that his naked chest Avas in contact with tho rubber covering. His torso Avas as splendidly muscular as that of a gladiator. He Avas a Dane, appa- 262 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN rently about twenty-five years of age, a blond, with blue eyes, fair hair, and a transparent skin, under Avhich the strong muscles of his chest and right arm Avere plain ly visible. The upper portion of his left arm and the entire left shoulder Avere of a deep purple color, angry and dark by contrast. Marching Avith his regiment through a rocky dell, far down the valley, below Luray, he had been shot by a bushAvhacker ambushed in the rocks above him. A minie bullet had crashed through his shoulder at the joint, shattering the humerus to the elbow. He Avas far aAvay from any hospital. Lying on the straAV in an army Avagon, he had been carted over the stony roads more than sixty miles to Harper's Yerry, Avhere he had been placed Avith other wounded in a box freight-car on the railroad, and so had reached Wash ington and been carried to the hospital. It was now several days since he received his Avound. The shoulder and arm Avere swollen, an angry circle of dark purple surrounding the opening Avhere the ball had entered. It Avas a terrible Avound, rendered fatal, to all appearance, by the long fatigue, neglect, and exposure. The surgeon, Avith a small-bladed knife, laid open the arm from the shoulder to the elboAv-joint, and began to separate the muscle from the shattered bone. Piece after piece of bone Avas taken out until the entire length, in six fragments, lay upon the table. The muscle was then turned out like the finger of a glove, exposing the shoulder-joint, also badly fractured. The pieces Avere removed, and the projecting points cut off. The whole mass of muscle Avas then cleansed from blood, washed Avith some lotion of an antiseptic nature, and the entire cut, from elbow to shoulder, carefully stitched together. The remains of the arm Avere then laid along the side of the chest, and firmly fastened to it Avith bandages. The AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 263 operation occupied nearly an hour. All the bones and blood Avere removed, the table again Avashed, and clean linen placed upon the soldier. He Avas laid betAveen the clean Avhite sheets, the ether Avas taken away, and he was restored to consciousness. During all this horrible operation the patient ap peared to be living in a pleasant dream of the farm in loAva, where he had made his home. He was driving his oxen at the plough, reproving the aAvkwardness of his farm hands, playing with his children, and consult ing with his Avife about their schools, and other domes tic matters. He talked and laughed and sang. He had been mercifully spared all pain and suffering, so that when he recovered consciousness it Avas a considerable time before he could be convinced that he had been sub jected to any surgical operation. He Avas removed to his cot. I gave him my address, and asked him to Avrite to me if he Avanted anything which the hospital could not provide. We subsequently furnished him Avith a feAv delicacies ; new cases engrossed our attention, and the Dane Avas forgotten. Four or five months later, a stout, rugged man, in the uniform of a soldier, called at my office in the Treasury. I did not recognize him, though his face impressed me as one that I had seen somewhere. " I am B , from the 4th Iowa, to whom your lady Avas so kind in the hos pital," he said. " I have just got my discharge, and am on my Avay home." Upon my inquiry Avhether his arm was at all useful to him, he took hold of a large scuttle filled with coal, and carried it across the room. He made a fair signature with a pen, and showed that he could make good use of his arm, except that he could not raise it above the level of his shoulder. I have since heard of him as a respected farmer in easy circumstances in IoAva. 264 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN The pain and suffering spared to the soldier by the intelligent use of anaesthetics during the Avar Avas beyond measure. Although the history belongs to the profes sion of those Avho used them, I saAv so much of their blessed influence that I could not forbear giving this testimony to their value. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 265 XXXII. PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND THE SLEEPING SENTINEL— ERRONE OUS VERSIONS OF THE STORY.— WILLIAM SCOTT, A MEMBER OF TIIE THIRD VERMONT, SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SLEEP ING ON HIS POST.— HE IS PARDONED BY THE PRESIDENT.— HIS LAST MESSAGE TO TIIE PRESIDENT.— HIS DEATH AT THE BATTLE OF LEE'S MILLS. The story of the President and the sleeping senti nel has been so many times sung in song and described in story that its repetition may seem like the relation of a thrice-told tale. The substantial facts are common to all its versions. A soldier named Scott, condemned to be shot for the crime of sleeping on his post, Avas pardoned by President Lincoln, only to be killed after wards at the battle of Lee's Mills, on the Peninsula. The incidental facts are varied according to the taste, the fancy, or the imagination of the Avriter of each ver sion. The number of persons Avho claim to have pro cured the intervention of the President to save the life of the soldier nearly equals that of the different ver sions. As these persons worked independently of each other, and one did not knoAV what another had done, it is not improbable that several of them are entitled to some measure of credit, of which I should be most un willing to deprive them. The truth is ahvays and everywhere attractive. The child loves, and never outgroAVS its love, for a real true story. The story of this young soldier, as it was pre sented to me, so touchingly reveals some of the kindlier 266 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN qualities of the President's character that it seldom fails to charm those to Avhom it is related. I shall give its facts as I understood them, and I think I can guarantee their general accuracy. On a dark September morning, in 1861, when I reached my office, I found Avaiting there a party of soldiers, none of Avhom I personally knew. They were greatly excited, all speaking at the same time, and consequently unintel ligible. One of them Avore the bars of a captain. I said to them, pleasantly, "Boys, I cannot understand you. Pray, let your captain say Avhat you want, and Avhat I can do for you." They complied, and the captain put me in possession of the following facts : They belonged to the Third Vermont Regiment, raised, with the exception of one company, on the eastern slope of the Green Mountains, and mustered into service Avhile the battle of Bull Run was progressing. They Avere im mediately sent to Washington, and since their arriA'al, during the last days of July, had been stationed at the Chain Bridge, some three miles above Georgetown. Company K, to which most of them belonged, Avas largely made up of farmer-boys, many of them still in their minority. The sterile flanks of the mountains of Vermont have, to some extent, been abandoned for the more fertile re gions of the West, and are now open to immigration from the more barren soils of Scandinavia and the Alps. Fifty years' ago these Vermont mountains reared men who haA'e since left their impress upon the enterprise of the Avorld. The hard conditions of life in these moun tains then required the most unbroken regularity in the continuous struggle for existence. To rise and retire Avith the sun, working through all tho hours of daylight, sleeping through all the hours of night, was the univer- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 267 sal rule. Such industry, practised from childhood, united to a thrift and economy no longer known in the republic, enabled the Vermonter to pay his taxes and train up his family in obedience to the laAvs of God and his country. NoAvhere under the. sun were charity, benevolence, mu tual help, and similar virtues more finely developed or universally practised than among these hard-handed, kind-hearted mountaineers. The story which I extracted from the " boys " was, in substance, this : AVilliam Scott, one of these mountain- boys, just of age, had enlisted in Company K. Accus tomed to his regular sound and healthy sleep, not yet inured to the life of the camp, he had A'olunteered to take the place of a sick comrade Avho had been detailed for picket duty, and had passed the night as a sentinel on guard. The next day he was himself detailed for the same duty, and undertook its performance. But he found it impossible to keep awake for two nights in suc cession, and had been found by the rehef sound asleep on his post. For this offence he had been tried by a court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot within tAventy-four hours after his trial, and on the sec ond morning after his offence was committed. Scott's comrades had set about saving him in a char acteristic Avay. They had called a meeting, appointed a committee, with power to use all the resources of the regiment in his behalf. Strangers in AVashington, the committee had resolved to call on me for advice, because I was a Vermonter, and they had already marched from the camp to my office since daylight that morning. The captain took all the blame from Scott upon himself. Scott's mother opposed his enlistment on the ground of his inexperience, and had only consented on the captain's promise to look after him as if he were his own son. This 268 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN he had wholly failed to do. He must have been asleep or stupid himself, he said, Avhen he paid no attention to the boy's statement that he had fallen asleep during the day, and feared he could not keep awake the second night on picket. Instead of sending some one, or going himself in Scott's place, as he should, he had let him go to his death. He alone was guilty — " if any one ought to be shot, I am the fellow, and everybody at home would have the right to say so." " There must be some way to save him, judge !" (They all called me judge.) " He is as good a boy as there is in the army, and he ain't to blame. You will help us, now, Avon't you ?" he said, almost with tears. The other members of the committee had a definite, if not a practicable, plan. They insisted that Scott had not been tried, and gave this account of the proceeding. He was asked what he had to say to the charge, and said he Avould tell them just how it all happened. Ho had never been up all night that he remembered. He Avas "all beat out" by the night before, and kneAV he should have a hard fight to keep awake ; he thought of hiring one of the boys to go in his place, but they might think he was afraid to do his duty, and he decided to " chance it." Twice he went to sleep and Avoke himself while he was marching, and then — he could not tell any thing about it — all he kneAV was that he was sound asleep Avhen the guard came. It was very wrong, he knew. He wanted to be a good soldier, and do aU his duty. What else did he enlist for? They could shoot him, and perhaps they ought to, but he could not have tried harder ; and if he was in the same place again, he could no more help going to sleep than he could fly. One must have been made of sterner stuff than I Avas not to be touched by the earnest manner with which AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 269 these men offered to devote even their farms to the aid of their comrade. The captain and the others had no need of Avords to express their emotions. I saAv that the situation was surrounded by difficulties of Avhich they kneAV nothing. They had subscribed a sum of money to pay counsel, and offered to pledge their credit to any amount necessary to secure him a fair trial. " Put up your money," I said. " It will be long after this when one of my name takes money for helping a Vermont soldier. I know facts which touch this case of Avhich you know nothing. I fear that nothing effect ual can be done for your comrade. The courts and law yers can do nothing. I fear that we can do no more ; but Ave can try." I must digress here to say that the Chain Bridge across the Potomac Avas one of the positions upon which the safety of Washington depended. The Confederates had fortified the approach to it on the Virginia side, and the Federals on the hills of Maryland opposite. Here, for months, the opposing forces had confronted each other. There had been no fighting ; the men, and even the offi cers, had gradually contracted an intimacy, and, having nothing better to do, had SAvapped stories and other prop erty until they had come to live upon the footing of good neighbors rather than mortal enemies. This rela tion Avas equally inconsistent with the safety of AVash- ington and the stern discipline of war. Its discovery had excited alarm, and immediate measures were taken to break it up. General W. F. Smith, better known as " Baldy " Smith, had been appointed colonel of the Third Vermont Regiment, placed in command of the post, and undertook to correct the irregularity. General Smith, a Vermonter by birth, a AVest-Pointer by education, was a soldier from spur to crown. Possi- 270 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN « bly he had natural sympathies, but they were so subor dinated to the demands of his profession that they might as well not have existed. He regarded a soldier as so much valuable material, to be used Avith economy, like powder and lead, to the best advantage. The soldier was not Avorth much to him until his individuality Avas suppressed and converted into the unit of an army. He must be taught obedience ; discipline must never be re laxed. In the demoralization which existed at the Chain Bridge, in his opinion, the occasional execution of a sol dier Avould tend to enforce discipline, and in the end promote economy of life. He had issued orders de claring the penalty of death for military offences, among others that of a sentinel sleeping upon his post. His orders were made to be obeyed. Scott Avas, appa rently, their first victim. It Avent Avithout saying that any appeal in his behalf to General Smith would lead to nothing but loss of time. The more I reflected upon Avhat I was to do, the more hopeless the case appeared. Thought Avas useless. I must act upon impulse, or I should not act at all. " Come," I said, " there is only one man on earth Avho can save your comrade. Fortunately, he is the best man on the continent. AVe Avill go to President Lincoln." I Avent swiftly out of the Treasury over to the AVhite House, and up the stairway to the little office Avhere the President. was Avriting. The boys followed in a proces sion. I did not give the thought time to get any hold on me that I, an officer of the government, Avas commit ting an impropriety in thus rushing a matter upon the President's attention. The President Avas the first to speak. "AVhat is this?" he asked. "An expedition to kid nap somebody, or to get another brigadier appointed, or AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 271 for a furlough to go home to vote? I cannot do it, gentlemen. Brigadiers are thicker than drum-majors, and I couldn't get a furlough for myself if I asked it from the AVar Department." There Was hope in. the tone in Avhich he spoke. I Avent straight to my point. "Mr. President," I said, "these men Avant nothing for themselves. They are Green Mountain boys of the Third Vermont, avIio have come to stay as long as you need good soldiers. They don't want promotion until they earn it. But they do want something that you alone can give them — the life of a comrade." " AVhat has he done ?" asked the President. " You Vermonters are not a bad lot, generally. Has he com mitted murder or mutiny, or Avhat other felony ?" " Tell him," I whispered to the captain. " I cannot ! I cannot ! I should stammer like a fool I You can do it better !" " Captain," I said, pushing him forward, " Scott's life depends on you. You must tell the President the story. I only knoAv it from hearsay." He commenced like the man by the Sea of Galilee, who had an impediment in his speech ; but very soon the string of his tongue Avas loosened, and he spoke plain. He began to word-paint a picture with the hand of a master. As the Avords burst from his lips they stirred my own blood. He gave a graphic account of the whole story, and ended by saying, " He is as brave a boy as there is in your army, sir. Scott is no coAvard. Our mountains breed no cowards. They are the homes of thirty thousand men who voted for Abraham Lincoln. They will not be able to see that the best thing to be done with William Scott wiU be to shoot him like a trai tor and bury him like a dog ! Oh, Mr. Lincoln, can you ?" 272 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " No, I can't !" exclaimed the President. It was one of the moments when his countenance became such a remarkable study. It had become very earnest as the captain rose with his subject ; then it took on that mel ancholy expression which, later in his life, became so in finitely touching. I thought I could detect a mist in the deep cavities of his eyes. Then, in a flash, there Avas a total change. He smiled, and finally broke into a hearty laugh, as he asked me, " Do your Green Mountain boys fight as well as they talk? If they do, I don't Avonder at the legends about Ethan Allen." Then his face softened as he said, " But Avhat can I do ? What do you expect me to do ? As you knoAV, I have not much influence with the depart ments ?" " I have not thought the matter out," I said. " I feel a deep interest in saving young Scott's life. I think I knew the boy's father. It is useless to apply to Gen eral Smith. An application to Secretary Stanton Avould only be referred to General Smith. The only thing to be done Avas to apply to you. It seems to me that, if you would sign an order suspending Scott's execution until his friends can have his case examined, I might carry it to the War Department, and so insure the de livery of the order to General Smith to-day, through the regular channels of the War Office." " No ! I do not think that course would be safe. You do not knoAV these officers of the regular army. They are a laAV unto themselves. They sincerely think that it is good policy occasionally to shoot a soldier. I can see it, Avhere a soldier deserts or commits a crime, but I cannot in such a case as Scott's. They say that I am ahvays interfering Avith the discipline of the army, and being cruel to the soldiers. Well, I can't help it, so I AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 273 shaU have to go right on doing wrong. I do not think an honest, brave soldier, conscious of no crime but sleep ing Avhen he Avas Aveary, ought to be shot or hung. The country has better uses for him." , " Captain," continued the President, " your boy shaU not be shot — that is, not to-morrow, nor until I know more about his case." To me he said, " I AviU have to attend to this matter myself. I have for some time in tended to go up to the Chaui Bridge. I AviU do so to day. I shall then knoAv that there is no mistake in sus pending the execution." I remarked that he Avas undertaking a burden which Ave had no right to impose ; that it was asking too much of the President in behalf of a private soldier. " Scott's life is as \-aluable to him as that of any per son in the land," he said. " You remember the remark of a Scotchman about the head of a nobleman who was decapitated. ' It was a small matter of a head, but it Avas valuable to him, poor fellow, for it was the only one he had.' " I saAv that remonstrance was \Tain. I suppressed the rising gratitude of the soldiers, and Ave took our leave. Two members of "the committee" remained to watch events in the city, Avhile the others returned to carry the neAvs of their success to Scott and to the camp. Later in the day the two members reported that the President had started in the direction of the camp ; that their work here was ended, and they proposed to return to their quarters. Within a day or two the newspapers reported that a soldier, sentenced to be shot for sleeping on his post, had been pardoned by the President and returned to his reg iment. Other duties pressed me, and it was December before I heard anything further from Scott. Then an- 18 274 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN other elderly soldier of the same company, Avhose health had failed, and Avho was arranging for liis own discharge, called upon me, and I made inquiry about Scott. The soldier gave an enthusiastic account of him. He was in splendid health, was very athletic, popular Avith every body, and had the reputation of being the best all-around soldier in the company, if not in the regiment, liis mate Avas the elderly soldier who had visited me Avith the party in September, Avho would be able to tell me aU about him. To him I sent a message, asking him to see me Avhen he was next in the city. His name Avas Ellis or Evans. Not long afterwards he called at my office, and, as his leave permitted, I kept him overnight at my house, and gathered from him the following facts about Scott. He said that, as Ave supposed, the President Avent to the camp, had a long conversation Avith Scott, at the end of Avhich he Avas sent back to his company a free man. The President had given him a paper, which he preserved very carefully, Avhich was supposed to be his discharge from the sentence. A regular order for his pardon had been read in the presence of the regiment, signed by General McClellan, but every one knew that his life had been saved by the President. From that day Scott Avas the most industrious man in the company. He was always at work, generally help ing some other soldier. His arms and his dress Avere neat and cleanly ; he took charge of policing the com pany's quarters ; Avas never absent at roll-call, unless he Avas sent aAvay, and ahvays on hand if there Avas any Avork to be done. He Avas very strong, and practised feats of strength until he could pick up a man lying on the ground and carry him aAvay on his shoulders. He was of great use in the hospital, and in all the serious AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 275 cases sought employment as a nurse, because it trained him in night -Avork and keeping awake at night. He soon attracted attention. He Avas offered promotion, which, for some reason, he declined. It was a long time before he Avould speak of his inter view with Mr. Lincoln. One • night, Avhen he had re ceived a long letter from home, Scott opened his heart, and told Evans the story. Scott said : " The President Avas the kindest man I had ever seen ; I kneAV him at once, by a Lincoln medal I had long worn. I was scared at first, for I had never before talked with a great man. But Mr. Lincoln was so easy with me, so gentle, that I soon forgot my fright. He asked me all about the people at home, the neigh bors, the farm, and where I went to school, and Avho my schoolmates were. Then he asked me about mother, and how she looked, and I was glad I could take her photograph from my bosom and show it to him. He said how thankful I ought to be that my mother stUl lived, and how, if he was in my place, he would try to make her a proud mother, and never cause her a sorrow or a tear. I cannot remember it aU, but every word was so kind. " He had said nothing yet about that dreadful next morning. I thought it must be that he was so kind- hearted that he didn't like to speak of it. But why did he say so much about my mother, and my not causing her a sorrow or a tear when I knew that I must die the next morning ? But I supposed that was something that would have to go unexplained, and so I determined to brace up, and tell him that I did not feel a bit guilty, and ask him wouldn't he fix it so that the firing-party would not be from our regiment ! That was going to be the hardest of all— to die by the hands of my com- 276 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN rades. Just as I was going to ask him this favor, he stood up, and he says to me, ' My boy, stand up here and look me in the face.' I did as he bade me. ' My boy,' he said, ' you are not going to be shot to-morrow. I believe you Avhen you tell me that you could not keep awake. I am going to trust you, and send you back to your regiment. But I have been put to a good deal of trouble on your account. I have had to come up here from Washington Avhen I have got a great deal to do ; and Avhat I Avant to knoAV is, hoAV you are going to pay my bill ?' There was a big lump in my throat ; I could scarcely speak. I had expected to die, you see, and had kind of got used to thinking that way. To have it all changed in a minute ! But I got it crowded doAvn, and managed to say, I am grateful, Mr. Lincoln ! I hope I am as grateful as ever a man can be to you for saving my life. But it comes upon me sudden and unexpected like. I didn't lay out for it at all. But there is some Avay to pay you, and I will find it after a little. There is the bounty in the savings-bank. I guess Ave could bor- roAv some money on the mortgage of the farm. There was my pay AA'as something, and if he would wait until pay-day I Avas sure the boys Avould help, so I thought we could make it up, if it Avasn't more than five or six hundred dollars. ' But it is a great deal more than that,' he said. Then I said I didn't just see how, but I was sure I Avould find some Avay — if I lived. " Then Mr. Lincoln put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my face as if he Avas sorry, and said, ' My boy, my bill is a very large one. Your friends cannot pay it, nor your bounty, nor the farm, nor all your com rades ! There is only one man in all the Avorld Avho can pay it, and his name is William Scott ! If from this day AVilliam Scott does his duty, so that, if I was there when AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 277 he comes to die, he can look me in the face as he does now, and say, I have kept my promise, and I have done my duty as a soldier, then my debt will be paid. WiU you make that promise and try to keep it ?' " I said I Avould make the promise, and, with God's help, I Avould keep it. I could not say any more. I wanted to teU him how hard I would try to do all he wanted ; but the words would not come, so I had to let it all go unsaid. He went away, out of my sight for ever. I know I shall never see him again ; but may God forget me if I ever forget his kind words or my promise." This was the end of the story of Evans, who got his discharge, and went home at the close of the year. I heard from Scott occasionaUy afterwards. He Avas gain ing a wonderful reputation as an athlete. He was the strongest man in the regiment. The regiment was en gaged in two or three reconnoissances in force, in which he performed the most exposed service Avith singular bravery. If any man was in trouble, Scott was his good Samaritan ; if any soldier was sick, Scott was his nurse. He was ready to volunteer for any extra service or labor — he had done some difficult and useful scouting. He stiU refused promotion, saying that he had done nothing worthy of it. The final result Avas that he was the gen eral favorite of all his comrades, the most popular man in the regiment, and modest, unassuming, and unspohed by his success. The next scene in this drama opens on the Peninsula, between the York and the James rivers, in March, 1862. The sluggish Wanvick River runs from its source, near Yorktown, across the Peninsula to its discharge. It formed at that time a Une of defence, which had been fortified by General Magruder, and was held by him with 278 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN a force of some twelve thousand Confederates. York- town Avas an important position to the Confederates. On the 15th of April the division of General Smith was ordered to stop the enemy's Avork on the entrench ments at Lee's Mills, the strongest position on the War wick River. Jlis force consisted of the Vermont brigade of five regiments, and three batteries of artillery. After a lively skirmish, which occupied the greater part of the forenoon, this order was executed, and should have ended the movement. But about noon General McClellan with his staff, in cluding the French princes, came upon the scene, and ordered General Smith to assault and capture the rebel works on the opposite bank. Some discretion was given to General Smith, avIio Avas directed not to bring on a general engagement, but to AvithdraAV his men if he found the defence too strong to be overcome. This dis cretion cost many lives Avhen the moment came for its exercise. General Smith disposed his forces for the assault, which was made by Companies D, E, F, and K of the Third Vermont Regiment, covered by the artillery, with the Vermont brigade in reserve. About four o'clock in the afternoon the charge was ordered. Unclasping their belts, and holding their guns and cartridge-boxes above their heads, the Vermonters dashed into and across the stream at Dam Number One, the strongest position in the Confederate line, and cleared out the rifle-pits. But the earthworks were held by an overAvhelming force of reb els, and proved impregnable. After a dashing attack upon them the Vermonters Avere repulsed, and Avere or dered to retire across the river. They retreated under a heavy fire, leaving nearly half their number dead or wounded in the rher and on the opposite shore. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 279 Every member of these four companies -was a brave man. But all the eye-witnesses agreed that among those Avho in this, their first hard battle, faced death without blenching, there Avas none braver or more effi cient than William Scott, of Company K, debtor for his OAvn life to President Lincoln. He Avas almost the first to reach the south bank of the river, the first in the rifle- pits, and the last to retreat. He recrossed the river Avith a wounded officer on his back — he carried him to a place of safety, and returned to assist his comrades, Avho did not agree on the number of Avounded men saved by him from drowning or capture, but all agreed that he had carried the last wounded man from the south bank, and Avas nearly across the stream, when the fire of the rebels was concentrated upon him ; he staggered with his liv ing burden to the shore and fell. An account of the closing scene in the life of William Scott Avas given me by a Avounded comrade, as he lay upon his cot in a hospital tent, near Columbia College, in AVashington, after the retreat of the army from the Peninsula. " He Avas shot all to pieces," said private H. " We carried him back, out of the line of fire, and laid him on the grass to die. His body was shot through and through, and the blood Avas pouring from his many Avounds. But his strength Avas great, and such a power ful man was hard to kill. The surgeons checked the flow of blood — they said he had rallied from the shock; avo laid him on a cot in a hospital tent, and the boys crowded around him, until the doctors said they must leave if he was to have any chance at all. We all kneAV he must die. We dropped on to the ground wherever we could, and fell into a broken slumber— wounded and Avell side by side. Just at daylight the word was passed that Scott wanted to see us all. We Avent into his tent 280 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN and stood around his cot. His face was bright and his voice cheerful. ' Boys,' he said, ' I shaU never see another battle. I supposed this would be my last. I haven't much to say. You all know Avhat you can tell them at home about me. I have tried to do the right thing ! I am almost certain you will all say that? Then while his strength was failing, his life ebbing aAvay, and Ave looked to see his voice sink into a whisper, his face lighted up and his voice came out natural and clear as he said : 'If any of you ever have the chance, I Avish you Avould tell Presi dent Lincoln that I have never forgotten the kindAVords he said to me at the Chain Bridge — that I have tried to be a good soldier and true to the flag — that I should have paid my whole debt to him if I had lived ; and that now, Avhen I know that I am dying, I think of his kind face and thank him again, because he gave me the chance to fall like a soldier in battle, and not like a coward by the hands of my comrades.' " His face, as he uttered these Avords, was that of a happy man. Not a groan or an expression of pain, not a word of complaint or regret came from his lips. ' Good bye, boys,' he said, cheerily. Then he closed his OAvn eyes, crossed his hands on his breast, and — and — that was all. His face was at rest, and Ave ah said it was beautiful. Strong men stood around his bed ; they had seen their comrades fall, and had been very near to death themselves : such men are accustomed to control their feelings ; but now they wept like children. One only spoke, as if to himself, ' Thank God, I know uoav how a brave man dies.' " Scott would have been satisfied to rest in the same grave Avith his comrades," the Avounded soldier con tinued. " But we wanted to know Avhere he lay. Tliere was a smaU grove of cherry-trees just in the rear of the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 281 camp, Avith a noble oak in its centre. At the foot of this oak we dug his grave. There Ave laid him, Avith his empty rifle and accoutrements by his side. Deep into the oak we cut the initials, W. S., and under it the words, 'A brave soldier.' Our chaplain said a short prayer. AVe fired a volley over his grave. Will you carry his last message to the President ?" I answered, " Yes." Some days passed before I again met the President. When I saw him I asked if he remembered William Scott ? " Of Company K, Third Vermont Volunteers ?" he answered. "Certainly I do. He was the boy that Baldy Smith Avanted to shoot at the Chain Bridge. What about AVilliam Scott ?" " He is dead. He was killed on the Peninsula," I an swered. " I have a message from him for you, which I have promised one of his comrades to deliver." A look of tenderness SAvept over his face as he ex claimed, " Poor boy ! Poor boy ! And so he is dead. And he sent me a message 1 Well, I think I will not have it now. I will come and see you." He kept his promise. Before many days he made one of his Avelcome visits to my office. He said he had come to hear Scott's message. I gave it as nearly as possible in Scott's own words. Mr. Lincoln had perfect control of his own countenance : when he chose, he could make it a blank ; Avhen he did not care to control it, his Avas the most readable of speaking human faces. He drew out from me aU I kneAV about Scott and about the people among whom he lived. When I spoke of the intensity of their sympathies, especially in sorrow and trouble, as a charac teristic trait of mountaineers, he interrupted me and said, "It is equally common on the prairies. It is the 282 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN privilege of the poor. I knoAv all about it from experi ence, and I hope I have my full share of it. Yes, I can sympathize Avith sorrow." " Mr. President," I said, " I luwe neA'er ceased to re proach myself for thrusting Scott's case so unceremo niously before you — for causing you to take so much trouble for a private soldier. But I gave Avay to an im pulse — I could not endure the thought that Scott should be shot. He was a felloAV- Vermonter — and I kneAV there Avas no other Avay to save his life." " I advise you always to yield to such impulses," he said. " You did me as great a favor as the boy. It Avas a new experience for me — a study that was interest ing, though I have had more to do Avith people of his class than any other. Did you knoAV that Scott and I had a long visit ? I Avas much interested in the boy. I am truly sorry that he is dead, for he Avas a good boy — too good a boy to be shot for obeying nature. I am glad I interfered." "Mr. Lincoln, I wish your treatment of this matter could be Avritten into history." " Tut ! Tut !" he broke in ; " none of that. By the way, do you remember Avhat Jeanie Deans said to Queen Caroline Avhen the Duke of Argyle procured her an op portunity to beg for her sister's life ?" " I remember the incident Avell, but not the language." " I remember both. This is the paragraph in point : ' It is not Avhen Ave sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other people's sufferings. Our hearts are Avaxed light within us then, and Ave are for righting our ain Avrangs and fighting our ain battles. But when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or to the body — and Avhen the hour of death comes, that comes to high and Ioav — oh, then it isna what Ave hae dune for our- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 283 sells, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly. And the thoughts that ye hae inter vened to spare the puir thing's life will be sweeter in that hour, come Avhen it may, than if a Avord of your mouth could hang the whole Porteous mob at the tail of ae tow." 284 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXXIII. TREASURY NOTES AND NOTES ON THE TREASURY. No nation has a better Treasury system than the United States. When its regulations are enforced, it practically guarantees the government against loss by error or fraud. It involves the division of the department into bureaus, each directly responsible to the secretary, having little connection with each other, and at least three of which must approve a claim before it can be paid, each thus acting as a check upon the other. It recognizes the fact that the subordinates in a bureau, subject to removal by its chief, will obey the orders of that chief, although they may involve a violation of laAV, so that checks Avithin a bureau are unreliable. But if the payment of a claim requires an examination by three persons in as many bureaus, and the approval of the heads of each, a con spiracy to defraud becomes difficult and practically im possible. Frauds upon the Treasury proper have been extremely rare. The Assistant Treasuries are abnormal growths, not subject to these checks, and frauds upon them, involving large losses, have consequently been per petrated. The manufacture and issue of the postal and fractional currency Avas another excrescence permitted to attach itself to the system, and the account of that issue cannot be verified. It was the only issue of the Avar about which there existed any doubt. The account may be correct, but it is possible that some millions of dol lars of that currency more than the amount shoAvn by the books of the Treasurer were put in circulation. It might AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 285 have been done without detection, for the white paper Avas turned into money, ready for issue by a single de partment, under a single head, without supervision or the co-operation of any other department or person. Originally adapted to an expenditure of $25,000,000 per annum, tho Treasury system had the capacity of in definite expansion Avithout impairing its security. In March, 1861, it regulated an expenditure averaging about $8,000,000 per month. AVithin sixty days it in creased to more than $2,000,000 per day, and ultimately to more than $1,000,000,000 per annum. Yet the sys tem required no change except an increase of clerical force. Thus it happened that during four years of war more than $3,000,000,000 was received and covered into the Treasury, and an equal value of securities issued and delivered to those who were entitled to receive them, without the loss of one dollar by error or fraud. This statement rests upon absolute demonstration, and not upon evidence alone. The amount is as far as infinity beyond ordinary human comprehension. The statement and the system which verifies it are wonders of finance in a country convulsed by civil Avar. The Treasury was the creation of Alexander Hamil ton. It will live as long as the nation exists, and ever}' one Avho comprehends it wUl accept it as a monument of the financial ability of its author. It may be criticised by those who do not understand it as an institution of red tape, but no experienced Treasury officer ever ad vised the removal of one of its checks, or the relaxation of one of its stringent provisions. There were three frauds attempted during the secre taryship of Mr. Chase. Two of them came as near success as the Treasury system would permit, and per haps their frustration must in some degree be attrib- 286 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN uted to the merits of the system, united Avith good fortune. T Among the inheritances from the administration of Mr. Buchanan was an application for the reissue of a lot of coupon bonds alleged to have been destroyed. The claimants proved the facts as clearly as human testimony could — that these bonds, each with six coupons attached, were deposited in a locked mail-bag in Frankfort, trans ported to Liverpool, and there delivered into the hands of an agent of the post-office on board a steamship which was Avrecked by collision, and went, Avith all its mails, and all but two or three of those on board, to the bot tom of the sea. The completeness of the evidence Avas itself a source of suspicion, and, much to the chagrin of the claimants, Secretary Chase affirmed the decision of a bureau officer, that the duplicates should not be issued except by the direction of Congress. On the application of the claimants at the next session, Congress passed an act directing the issue of the duplicates. The claim was again presented with the act, and the duplicates were demanded. The same bureau officer again represented his suspicions to the secretary, and, Avith the sanction of the latter, the present regulation Avas adopted, interpos ing a delay of tAvelve months after proof of the claim before the actual issue. This rule Avas vehemently as sailed by the claimants through the press ; they even charged the officer with intentionally nullifying the au thority of Congress. At this, time the coupons of bonds redeemed were in packages in the Register's file-room. There was little need of their examination, and no attempt had been made to arrange them in consecutive order. Books were now made with one page appropriated to each bond, and a space for each coupon, Avhile a force of clerks was de- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 287 tailed to place each redeemed coupon in its appropriate space. • At the expiration of the year the claimants came for their duplicates. They were assured that they would now be issued unless some satisfactory reason could be shown for further delay. The books Avere sent for, and in their proper spaces ivere found all the coupons which had been proved to have sunk to the bottom of the sea ! A few months later the bonds themselves were presented for redemption, and, no adverse claims being made, they were paid. What Avas the explanation of this mystery ? I do not knoAV. The pressure of official duties, and the anxieties of war which occupied us so incessantly, prevented any further investigation, and the inquiry AviU probably never be answered. The next fraud which I recall was a success as far as the department was concerned. The loss of the money Avas prevented by an accident. The course of proceeding for the collection of a claim for army supplies Avas usually this : The contractor made his collections through his banker. His monthly account was made up in conformity Avith all the rules of the War Office, and transmitted to that office with a letter of di rections where the draft should be sent. The War Office approved the claim if correct, and transmitted the ac count, the letter, and the action of theAVar Department to the Secretary of the Treasury, by whom it was sent to the proper auditor, whose duty it was to audit the claim. If he decided that the claim Avas a proper one, it was sent to the comptroller, who revised the action of the auditor, and, if correct, approved it, sending the account with the accompanying documents to the secretary, Avho issued the warrant for its payment. This warrant was counter- 288 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN signed by the comptroller, and entered on the books of the Register; the treasurer then dreAV his draft upon one of the depositories for its payment, and the draft Avas sent by mail, according to the original letter of in struction, which constituted one of the file papers. The file Avas then sent to the Register's file-room, and there remained. It comprised all the papers, showing a com plete history of the transaction. On the occasion in question the cashier of one of the Washington banks came to the office of the Register Avith a draft just issued for more than $80,000, payable to a Avell-known Massachusetts contractor, and regularly endorsed. It had been presented by the head porter of AVillard's Hotel, a reliable man, Avho said that the payee was ill and unable to leave his room. He had therefore requested him to collect the draft in notes, if possible, of $1000 each. Without any apparent reason the cashier said his suspicions Avere excited, and he went with the porter to the hotel to see the payee, and be sure that the transaction Avas all right. But the sick gentleman had disappeared. He had probably Avatched the porter, and, finding that there Avas delay in the payment, had vanished. The file Avas sent for, and the letter found, directing that the draft be sent to the contractor at Willard's Hotel. He was communicated Avith by telegraph, and said that the letter Avas a forgery. He had given the same directions in this case as in his former collections. This fraud was consummated by an outsider Avith the assistance of a clerk in the Treasury. No outsider could have obtained access to the files in order to remove the true letter and substitute the forgery. Such a fraud could not be pre\rented by any system. Fortunately the suspicions or the prudence of the cashier prevented any loss. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 289 In another instance the fraud was successful, but its fruits were Avholly recovered and returned to the Treas ury. It had some interesting features. One of the most difficult subjects Avhich engaged our attention was the complete destruction of the Treasury notes Avithdrawn from circulation, or so Avorn or mutilated that they were unfit to be reissued. The bulk of these issues was very great. The first so Avithdrawn were called the " demand notes." They Avere issued under a special act, and, being receivable for duties, bore a premium nearly equal to gold. There Avere sixty million dollars of them in small denominations, and their issue involved the use of many cords of paper. After the financial system authorized by the act of February 25, 1862, had been instituted, this issue Avas redeemed, and the notes corded up in the treas urer's vaults. The problem Avas to count these notes, de stroy them beyond the possibility of a reissue, and give the treasurer credit for them without any opportunity for reissue or fraud. After much deliberation the foUowing plan was de vised: The notes Avere separated into denominations, and made into packages uniform in amount, and each package was cut into halves, lengthwise. The upper halves Avere delivered to the superintendent of a force of counters in the office of the treasurer ; the lower halves to the head of a like force in the office of the register. These two forces had no communication with- each other. Each counted their respective packages, and made a rec ord of each one. The records were compared in another office, and, if they agreed, the count was supposed to be correct. The counted packages Avere then delivered to a committee of citizens, and by them placed in a furnace in the basement of the Treasury, which had been heated to a white heat ; the door Avas locked, and the combus- 19 290 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN tion watched by the committee through openings, until they were entirely consumed. The committee then veri fied the facts by affidavit, upon which a warrant was is sued to the treasurer to credit his account Avith the notes so destroyed. Receipts Avere given Avhenever the pack ages changed hands. The process Avas expensive, com plex, and supposed to be reliable. The burning of a cord or less of notes daily Avas a sub ject of general curiosity. Applications to Avitness it be came so frequent that an iron railing Avas built around the furnace, within which no one Avas admitted except the committee of citizens. A colored messenger one day applied for a permit for his boy of ten years to see the process. On the f olloAving day the messenger told me that his boy had asked him a singular question : " Whether it Avas right for Mr. Cormvel], when throwing the packages into the furnace, to drop one of them in the side pocket of his overcoat ?" CornAvell Avas a clerk in the bureau of General Spin ner, the treasurer, whose duty it Avas to see the pack ages cut in halves by the machine, and deliver them to the chiefs of the two divisions of counters. He had no right to touch them afterAvards. His assisting in the work of the citizens' committee Avas an impertinent inter ference with their duties which destroyed the value of the system, and Avas probably tolerated because of his official connection with theAvork of the treasurer's bureau, Avhere he Avas a trusted clerk, I believe of the third class. The messenger Avas directed to go to his home and bring his son to the register's office. He proved to be a modest, intelligent lad, and greatly alarmed at the con sequences of his question. " He Avas not certain," he said, " that he saAv anything. But Mr. CornAvell worked very hard, and threAV more packages into the furnace AND 1I1H ADMINISTRATION. 291 than all tho other gonflemon. Ho Avoro an overcoat Avith a side pocket having a largo opening, and onco, as ho Avas quickly passing his hand with tho package from tho basket toward tho furnace door, ho thought ho saw ono package drop into tho largo open pocket. IIo Avas not curtain of this, howovor, and might bo mistaken." Tho boy avus sent home in charge of his father, who Avas told to keep him indoors, and not permit him to communicate with or see any other person. Without attempting lo ascertain how any use could bo mado of these packages of half-notes, I directed tho heads of the counting divisions not to pormif any of their counters to leave tho room, but to Bond for mo avIioii tlieir day's Avork Avas" finished. About, four o'clock tho accounts of the day Avere nuulo up, and tho aggregates appeared to agroo. I then directed tho counters in tho two divisions to bring their packages together info ono room, and placo each package of upper Avith the corresponding package of lower halves. If there Avas no irregularity, as tho day's Avork commenced with packages of entire bills, a package of lower should bo found for ovory package of upper halves. Uuf Avhon tho last two packages Avoro reached, to tho amazement and alarm of every counter, they would not match at all. Every counter knoAV that some thing wns wrong, and each avus in terror lest ho or she should bo the ono suspected. Somo of tho young Avomen Avoro in tears, and ono or two gave indications of hyster ics. They were dismissed Avith tho assurance that no suspicion rested upon fhoni, and that they Avould have no trouble if thoy kept tho facts to themselves for tho next twenty-four hours. Tho next morning Oormvoll Avas called into tho private room of tho register and shoAvn to a chair directly in front of that officer, who, Avithout noticing him, Avont on 292 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN with his regular work. Cornwell soon became nervous, and in an excited manner asked what was Avanted of him. I replied that I had an impression that there Avas some thing which he ought to disclose to me, and that I wanted him to consider thoroughly, without interruption. He in sisted that he must return to his duties. I said that I had had him excused for the day, in order that he might as sist me in the investigation of an irregularity.. He soon became excited, and as he appeared to be summoning his fortitude to meet an emergency, I suddenly said to him, " Cornwell, you have been stealing, and your thefts have been detected !" I should fail if I attempted to describe the effect of these feAv words. His emotion Avas pitiable. A deathly pallor covered his face, and he seemed to be trying to swallow something which he could not. As commonly happens, Satan deserted his victim, and his first words were a fatal confession. After a supreme effort at self- control he said : " How did you find it out ?" "That is of no importance," I said. "What I want of you is to tell me how much you have taken, and where it is." He made no effort or struggle, but gave up at once. He took from his pocket a small blank-book, in which he had entered, from day to day, in regular order, the amount of his stealings. The following had been his method of procedure : He received from the treasurer daily, for example, $100,000, in ten packages of $10,000 each, and became accountable for them. After seeing the Avhole bills divided in the machine," it Avas his duty to deliver and take a receipt for an equal number of pack ages of upper halves from one division and of lower AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 293 halves from the other division of the counters, so that the same number of packages of divided bills should be sent to the counting divisions Avhich he had received in entire bills from the treasurer. Having abstracted a package of upper halves at one time and of lower halves at another Avhile tho bills, after having been counted, Avere being throAvn into the furnace, he could then take a package of Avhole bUls from those he received from the treasurer, and by substituting the packages of stolen halves for them in the delivery to the counters, his ac count Avould appear to be correct. He would deliver to the counters just as many divided packages as he had re ceived Avhole ones. But the two stolen packages would not fit or match together, as had been shown in the in vestigation of the preceding day. I called a carriage; he entered it with me, and we drove to his house in GeorgetoAvn. On one of the upper floors he unlocked a small room, in which there was a neAV safe with a combination lock. This he' also opened, took from it and delivered to me one package of $100,000 in coupon 5-20 bonds, into which he had converted a por tion of his booty through a firm of brokers in New York ; $50,000 in whole demand notes ; and packages of halves representing $20,000 more, making in the aggregate $170,000. Except a difference of a few dollars, caused by converting the demand notes at a premium into I bonds, this aggregate agreed with the account of his abstractions, entered from day to day as they were made, upon his account-book. He strenuously insisted that this amount comprised every dollar of his thefts, and we never had the slightest reason to doubt his statement. He was indicted, and, upon his own confession, sen tenced to ten years in the penitentiary, where I lost sight of him, and have no knowledge of his subsequent 294 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN career. He maintained to the last that he never intended to Avrong the United States. These notes, he said, had been issued at par, the government having received 100 cents for each dollar of them. If they Avere redeemed at the same rate, the government Avas no loser. They happened to be Avorth a premium of sixty per cent. ; he thought he had as good a right to make that premium as the government. He had ahvays intended to restore the par of these note's to the Treasury. To that end he had converted enough of them to purchase $100,000 in coupon bonds, Avhich he intended to place to the credit of the Treasury conscience fund. His appropriation of the sixty per cent, premium, he insisted, Avas no crime, and he thought it was not even prohibited by the Treas ury regulations. It is scarcely necessary to say that this reasoning neither satisfied the Treasury officers nor did it save him from the penitentiary. No loss to the Treasury could possibly havo occurred in two of the* instances above mentioned. After the close of the war there were many members of Congress and others Avho did not believe it possible that so large an amount of money as $3,000,000,000 could possibly have been received into the Treasury, securities issued for it, and placed in the hands of the large num ber of persons entitled to them, Avithout error or fraud, or any loss to the government. It Avas even suspected that the officers connected Avith the issue of these securi ties must in some manner have profited thereb}'. Accord ingly one of the first acts of each of the two or three succeeding Congresses was to raise a special committee to investigate the Treasury. The Treasury officers Avell kneAV that no fraud or irregularity could have occurred Avithout immediate detection in the Treasury. They therefore regarded the proceedings of the committees AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 295 with quiet unconcern. In the early days of the investi gation cases Avere found AvhichAvere supposed to invohe the integrity of some of these officers, and they were notified that their immediate appearance before the com mittee was necessary to their reputations. They did not appear, however, and in every case the committee found the explanation. These investigations' were, as they should have been, thorough and exhaustive. But neither committee discovered any error, fraud; or loss to the gov ernment in the department of the Treasury proper. No credit belongs to or was ever claimed by the officers of the Treasury for this result ; but it should at least be re garded as most satisfactory evidence of the perfection of the Treasury system. 296 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXXIV. NEW MONEYS OF LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION.— DEMAND NOTES. —SEVEN-THIRTIES.— POSTAGE CURRENCY.— FRACTIONAL CUR RENCY— LEGAL-TENDER NOTES, OR " GREENBACKS."— THEIR ORIGIN, GROAVTH, AND VALUE. The generation which elected President Lincoln had knoAvn only two kinds of money — the notes of the state banks and the coins authorized by Congress. There were many varieties of the state bank-notes, variable in appearance as in value. The policy of Secretary Chase destroyed the circulation of the state bank-notes, and substituted for them the notes of the national banks, under which the holder was absolutely secured against loss. The necessities of war created several new kinds of paper money, and in some cases invented new names for them, such as "demand notes," "seven-thirties," "post age currency," " fractional currency," and finally " legal tenders," popularly known as " greenbacks." The " Treasury notes," authorized by statutes in force on the 4th of March, 1861, did not circulate as money. They bore interest at the rate of six per cent., Avere pay able one year after date, and issued in denominations of not less than fifty dollars. Before the extra session of Congress on July 4, 1861, the secretary had contrived to sell six and a half million dollars in these notes at par by offering with them a like amount in bonds on tAventy years' time at six per cent, interest, at rates varying from 85 to 92 per cent, of their par value. These amounts reheved the wants of the Treasury in a very slight de- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 297 greo, and mado no impression upon the circulation of the country. As tho 4th of July approached it became apparent that some provision for tho pay of the army and navy and other pressing demands must bo made Avithout wait ing for tho negotiation of a loan. Tho secretary accord ingly recommended in his first report, and Congress by the act of July 17th authorized, tho immediate issue of Treasury notes to the amount of fifty, afterwards in creased to sixty million dollars, in denominations of not less than ten dollars, payable on demand Avithout inter est. On tho 5th of August a supplemental act Avas passed, authorizing tho issue in denominations as low as live dol lars, and making these notes receivable for public dues. They Avere required to bo signed by the treasurer and the register, or by somo persons authorized by tho sec retary to sign for each of said officers. As soon as tho plates could be engraved and the notes printed, a force of clerks Avas detailed to sign them, and tlieir issue commenced. They Avere receivable for du ties, and therefore almost equivalent in value to gold; they Avere used in payment of the army and the navy, and of other pressing obligations; they relieved the Avants of tho secretary for October and November as fully as the same amount in coin; and they added so much to the circulating money of the country. They Avere of tho same Bize, and in appearance closely resem bled bank-notes. The passage of the legal-tender act of February 25, 1862, Avhich required the payment of duties in coin, in order to provide the gold for tho payment of the inter est upon tho funded debt, made it necessary to redeem and cancel tho notes so issued, because as long as they were outstanding they Avould take the place of an equal 298 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN amount in gold. This act provided for their immediate redemption and cancellation. The issue began in Oc tober; their redemption commenced in the foUowing March ; after which they were not reissued, but can celled and destroyed as fast as they floAved into the Treasury. The Avhole amount authorized, $60,000,000, was issued, and after twenty -eight years, on the 31st of May, 1890, there Avere still outstanding, unre deemed, of these notes, $56,445.00, or about one tenth of one per cent, of the issue. These notes acquired the name of, and have ahvays been known as, the " demand notes." An incident occurred during the brief period of their circulation Avhich, for a few hours, occasioned no little anxiety in the offices of the treasurer and the register. A small package of these notes, less than $100 in value, which Avere apparently unsigned, Avas presented for re demption. They were not of consecutive numbers, but from several different sheets. If any Avere issued un signed, it indicated an irregularity, and possibly a loss, the amount of Avhich could not be ascertained. I was not wiUing to concede the fact Avithout further investi gation. The two names of the clerks Avho Avere deputed to sign for the treasurer and register were the only words Avritten on the face of the notes. Upon examin ing them with a powerful glass, I could trace on the sur face the Avhole signatures, although every particle of the ink had disappeared. Fortunately, the person who pre sented them for payment Avas known. He was sent for, and proved to be a soldier Avho had received the notes from the paymaster. I asked him Avhether he had sub mitted them to any manipulation. He replied that he had carried them in a money-belt upon his person through a campaign through the swamps of Carolina. They had AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 299 been saturated with perspiration, with rain, fogs, and other moisture many times, and this usage had obliter ated the signatures. This discovery did more than re lieve our anxiety. It effectually disposed of the claim that the written signature Avas any check against fraud or forgery, so that Avhen the legal-tender notes were un der consideration it Avas decided that all the signatures should be engraved. The same act of July, 1861, authorized the issue of Treasury notes bearing interest at the rate of seven and three tenths per cent, per annum, payable three years from their date. The rate of interest, equal to one cent on $50 for every day, would, it was hoped, from its con venience of computation, give these notes some circula tion as currency. This hope Avas not realized, and these notes belong to the investment rather than the currency issues of the Treasury. They were known by the name of " seA'en-thirties " from their rate of interest. The suspension of specie payment by the banks in December, 1861, caused a disappearance of the gold and silver coins from circulation with marvellous celerity. They seemed to vanish in a day ; probably into the pri vate hoards of the people, since the specie of the banks failed to show any considerable increase. War existed, no one could predict the future, the thrift and caution of the people led thenl to lay something aside which could not lose its purchasing power. They hastened to lay hold of these coins, and secrete them where they could be found when other means of subsistence failed. The scarcity of these coins produced great inconven ience in business. It became almost impossible to make change in the ordinary purchases from dealers and mer chants. Shinplasters began to make their appearance to supply the deficiency. In the rebeUious states these 300 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN were not only issued by individuals and private corpora tions, but by states, counties, cities, toAvns, and all other municipal corporations. A collection of these rebel shin- plasters, upon all kinds of paper, from white writing to broAvn wrapping, Avould noAv be an interesting memento of the war, but in a pecuniary sense absolutely worth less. The credit of devising a laAvful and adequate remedy for this inconvenience belongs to General Francis E. Spin ner, Treasurer of the United States. He found it impos sible to facilitate, as he desired to do, the payment of the soldiers and sailors, and to conduct the business of the Treasury with the small coins at his command. He therefore arranged with the Post-office Department to redeem in unused stamps such postage-stamps as might be used for currency. In a short time his department manufactured and introduced a neAV issue. All the de nominations were of uniform size. A piece of paper, with one stamp pasted on it, was five cents ; one Avith two stamps, ten cents ; five stamps, twenty -five cents ; and ten stamps, fifty cents. In this way, at the cost of a little labor, a considerable amount of small change was manufactured. This currency became so popular that, instead of using stamps, plates were engraved for each denomination, in imitation of the manufactured notes, the impressions from which had "the same legal qualities and Avere used for the same purposes. These impressions Avere called the "postage currency." They were after wards authorized by the act of July 17, 1862, Avhich di rected the secretary to furnish to the assistant treasu rers " the postage and other stamps of the United States, to be exchanged by them on application for United States notes." These stamps Avere receivable in payment of all dues to the United States of less than five dollars, and AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. gQl could be exchanged for United States notes when pre sented in sums of not less than fh'e dollars. The same act put an end to the further issue of shinplasters, by making the issue or circulation, by private persons or corporations, of notes or tokens for less than one dollar, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Although it did not come under my notice at the time, it appears from articles by Mr. C. Gregory, in the Phi latelic Journal, in the year 1888, that there was prepared, and there have been recently submitted to me, specimens of an ingenious device for utilizing postage stamps as currency. It Avas invented by Mr. J. Gault, of New York city, and was patented in August, 1862. It consisted in encasing the stamp, with a thin sheet of mica covering its face, in a sheet of copper, neatly turned over its edges, and the mica cover, in the form of a circular plaque, having the dimensions of the ordinary tAventy-five-cent piece. To hold the stamp more firmly in place, side-pieces of cop per Avere added, which were turned over a small portion of the face in such a manner as not to interfere Avith its legibility, the denomination being plainly visible. The stamp thus encased could be carried in the pocket, and had all the conveniences, and almost the durability, of a copper coin. Trading and business firms were quick to appreciate its advantages. By stamping their busi ness card, or any other legend of the firm, in the copper which covered the reverse of the stamp, it was made to serve as an advertisement. Its value as an advertise ment was sufficient to pay the considerable expense of encasing the stamp. But for the act pf March 3, 1863, which prohibited the use of these and all similar devices, the encased stamp must have had a considerable circulation. According to Mr. Gregory, Mr. Gault received so many orders for 302 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN them that he could not supply the demand, although his shop Avas in operation night and day. He encased the eight denominations, from one cent to ninety cents each. It is of some interest, as showing the actual demands of commerce for fractional coins, to know that more of the one-cent value were ordered than of all the others ; the three cent came next ; those of five cents and ten cents taking third and fourth places. Thirty cents Avas the highest denomination ordered, and these only by one firm. A \rery smaU number of the denomination of ninety cents were made, and sold as specimens, Avhich are now extremely rare. These stamps were ordered by firms in the retail dry- goods, grocery, jewellery, and other trades, insurance companies, owners of hotels, wine-stores, restaurants, and proprietary articles, more in number being required for the latter than for all the other trades combined. They Avere ordered by one firm of private bankers located in Montreal. They appear to have been circulated in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, and several smaller Northern cities. It is also of interest that the limited use of this device should be known and preserved. I therefore describe the specimen now before me, for Avhich I am indebted to Mr. Charles Gregory. It is the form in which, I think, stamps will be used as currency, if the restrictive act should be repealed and the necessity hereafter arise. The stamp is the blue one-cent stamp of the time, with the engraved head of Franklin, over Avhich are the words " U. S. Postage," under it the words " One Cent." Over the face is a thin sheet of colorless mica, so transparent that its presence is not apparent to the eye. The cop per covering, or frame, covers the reA'erse, the circular periphery, a space a sixty-fourth of an inch wide, around AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 303 tho faco, with tAvo oval sido-piecos extending a fourth of an inch towards tho contro. Stamped in tho reverse of tho copper fnu no is the advortisoinont of a proprietary article, and under that tho words "Pat. Aug. 12, 1862. J. Cault." Tho convenience of the postage currency Avas great, and tho amount called for incroasod to an extent Avhich became froublosomo to tho Post-office Department, and tho secretary docidod to tako it into tho Treasury, Avhoro it legitimately belonged. Accordingly an act Avas passed which susponded its further issue, and substituted in its placo ourronoy of another description. Tho aot of March 8, 1863, authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue " fractional notes," in such form as ho doomed expedient, in lieu of postage and revonue stamps and of the fractional notes oommonly called postage currenoy, and to provide for tho engraving, preparation, and issue thereof in tho Treasury Depart ment building. Such notes Avoro oxchangoablo for Treas ury notes iri sums of not loss than three dollars, Avoro re ceivable for postage and revonuo stamps and in payment of any duos to tho United States less than livo dollars, and Avoro rcdoomablo at the Treasury under regulations to bo established by tho seoretary. Tho amount of tho issue, inoluding postage and revenue stamps issued as ourrenoy, was limited to $50,000,000. No currenoy issuo of tho government has ever accom plished so much publio convenience in proportion to its amount as the fractional ourronoy. Its uso Avas uninter rupted until May 16, 18G6, when the coining of five-cent pieoos of copper and nickel Avas authorized, the further issuo of fractional notes or a loss denomination than ten cents Avas prohibited, aud tho five-cont notes outstanding wore directed to be redeemed and oanoelled. The aot of 304 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the 14th of January, 1875, authorized the coinage of sil ver coins of the value of ten, twenty-five, and fifty cents, to be issued in redemption of the fractional currency until the Avhole of it Avas redeemed. The Avhole amount issued, including the reissues in the place of Avorn and mutilated notes, has reached the enormous aggregate of $368,724,079.45. In other words, the amount author ized of $50,000,000 has been reissued more than seven times. The act of June 21, 1879, provided for the re demption of the fractional currency then outstanding with any money in the Treasury, and for its destruc tion. Under this act there Avas carried into the state ment of the public debt, as fractional currency lost or destroyed, $8,375,934. This amount has proved far be low the actual loss or destruction. On the 31st of May, 1890, after making this deduction, the amount still out standing Avas $6,912,010.97. Of this amount it is safe to assume that seventy per cent., or $4,838,407, has been so far lost that it will not be presented for redemption. There is thus shown a clear profit to the United States on the issue of the fractional currency of more than $13,000,000, or more than tAventy-six per cent, of the $50,000,000 to which the issue at any one time Avas lim ited. AVhy has this large proportion failed to be returned for redemption ? The answer is necessarily speculative. Collectors of stamps and other memorabilia of the epoch have absorbed some of it. But it has happened, in the experience of many, that each has become possessed -of a fractional note so Avorn or mutilated that it Avas de clined by the person to Avhom he offered it. The name of the person from whom he received it Avas forgotten, the amount was too small to pay for the trouble of sending it to Washington for redemption; he laid it AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 305 aside in some corner of his pocket-book, where it re mained to be further worn, until, tired of seeing it, he at length threw it away. Such has been my own expe rience. It has been multiplied by that of others, possi bly in instances numerous enough to account for the loss. If the public convenience Avere alone in question, there Avould bo a reissue of the fractional currency. . It Avas, and Avould still be, universaUy preferred to smaU silver coins. So long as it could be had in a cleanly condition, institutions Avere Avilling to incur expense to obtain it, especially for their lady customers. If the silver, instead of being coined, could be deposited in some out-of-the-way place in bars too heavy for asportation, and the cost of coinage applied to the cost of issuing fractional currency, the public Avould be better accommodated, and the silver bars could rest undisturbed until some convulsion should subvert aU existing financial conditions. There Avas much complaint at the time, and the repu tation of the secretary suffered, from his persistence in aUoAving the engraving, printing, and complete manu facture of the Avhite paper into the money of the frac tional currency, ready for issue, to be done in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Avithout any oversight or su pervision. The bureau itself had grown from nothing to very large proportions, as an annex or convenience to the office of the secretary. It was subject to none of the checks Avhich the Treasury system imposed upon other bureaus, and an unauthorized issue of currency Avas quite possible, which might never be detected if it Avere not greater than the percentage of notes not returned for redemption. There Avas so much criticism of the secre tary's action that he appointed a commission, which re ported the danger, and earnestly recommended that the 20 306 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN bureau should be brought under the general Treasury regulations. But no change was made by Secretary Chase. His view of the matter Avas, that naked steal ing could not be prevented by checks ; that confidence must be reposed in somebody; and it was safer to trust one man than a great number. One of the first acts of his successor, Mr. Fessenden, Avas to comply Avith the recommendations of the commission. Since that time checks have been added Avhich noAv make the bu reau safe, and render any fraud as nearly impossible as it can be under human management. Justice to all at any time concerned in the manage ment of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing requires the statement that neither investigation, lapse of time, nor the subsequent redemption of its issues has produced any evidence Avhatever of fraud or wrong in that bureau doAvn to the close of the Avar. On the contrary, the very large amount noAv outstanding indicates that there has been no unauthorized issue. Such, I am glad to knoAV, is the opinion of experienced officers still remaining in the department. There is an act of Congress Avhich prohibits the en graving upon any of the Treasury issues of any portrait the original of which is living. It originated in the fact that the head of the Bureau of Engraving, in 1864, placed his OAvn portrait upon the plate of the five-cent note. It Avas a presumptuous act, so fiercely denounced by tho press that only a single issue from the plate Avas made. To prevent its repetition, the act Avas afterwards passed. This five-cent note is much sought after by collectors, and is much the scarcest of the Treasury issues during the war. The fight of legal tender had been Avon, and won on the ground stated by Thaddeus SteA'ens in the opening AND II1S ADMINISTRATION. 3Q7 sentence of his speech : " This bill is a measure of neces sity, not of choice." The act had boon passed and ap proved. AVo could issuo $150,000,000 in. currency at onoo, $60,000,000 Avould pay tho demand notes, leaving $00,000,000 to pay our soldiers and carry on tho. Avar for sonic months to come. AVo had also gained our first military success. Grant had captured forts Henry and Donolson, and Avas push ing for Nnshvillo. Tho clouds seemed to bo breaking away, and tho future to look more hopeful. I avivs therefore surprised avIiou one afternoon, late in February, 18(12, President Lincoln entered tho register's room -with as sad a look as 1 ovor sawupon his careworn face. Uo droppod wearily into a seat he had previously chosen, and after a short silence exclaimed : "AVhat have you to say about this legal-tender aot? Hero is a committee of great financiers from the great cities Avho say that, by approving this aot, I have wrecked tho country. Thoy know all about it — or thoy aro mis taken." " You have dono nothing of tho kind," I said. " Tho time for argument has passed. Legal tender is inevita ble. Tho gentlemen you mention havo made it a neces sity. The peoplo avouUI take our nofes Avithout the legal -fonder clause. Tho banks and tho copperheads Avill not. AVe cannot risk tho country in their hands. You havo followed your oavd good judgment in signing tho act. Tho people Avill sustain you and Secretary Chase and Congress." "I do not seo that 1 am exclusively responsible," ho continued. " I say to those gentlemen, ' Go fo Secretary Chase; ho is managing tho finances.' Thoy persist, and havo argued mo almost, blind. I am Avorso off than Saint Paul. Ho Avas in a strait betwixt two. I am in 308 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN i a strait betAvixt twenty, and they are bankers and financiers." "You are right in signing the act," I said; "that point has passed debate." "Now that is just Avhere my mind is troubled," he continued. " We owe a lot of money which we cannot pay ; Ave have got to run in debt still deeper. Our cred itors think we are honest, and will pay in the future. They will take our notes, but they want small notes which they can use among themselves. So far I see no objection, but I do not like to say to a creditor you shall accept in payment of your debt something that was not money when it was contracted. That doesn't seem honest, and I do not believe the Constitution sanc tions dishonesty." "No more do I," I replied. "I do not claim that legal tender can be upheld as an abstract right under the Constitution. But self-preservation is a right higher than the Constitution. We are Avarranted in making any sacrifice of property or political right to save the Union. Gold and silver are beyond our reach ; our sol diers must be paid and fed and clothed. AVe can issue Treasury notes, and circulate them as currency. It is right and honest that we should give them the quality of legal tender, provided Ave return to specie as soon as the necessity has passed. I have watched the debates in Congress. I have read the opinion of your attorney- general. There are those who hint and suggest that legal tender is provided for in the Constitution. I have read no speech in which that right is broadly asserted. I believe it safer to defend our position on the ground of necessity." " I understand that is Chase's ground, though he does not put it so strongly. We shall see. We wUl AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 309 wait to hear from the country districts, from the peo ple." He again relapsed into silence, which I did not inter rupt. Then he said, " When the old monks had tired themselves out in fighting the devil, did they not have places to Avhich they retired for rest, Avhich Avere caUed retreats ?" " They did," I answered ; " though I understand they Avere for spiritual rather than bodily recuperation." " I think of making this office one of my retreats" he said. " It is so quiet and restful here. Do you never get discouraged ?" " I shall be delighted to have you," I said, ignoring his question. " I only wish I could say of it, as Father Prout sang of the Groves of Blarney, " ' There's gravel-walks there for speculation, And conversation in sweet solitude.' " " Tell me more of that ballad," he exclaimed, cheer ily. " I like its jingle. What an Irish conceit that is — ' conversation in sweet solitude.'' " " I fear I cannot. I must send you the book. I only remember, " ' There's statues gracing this noble place in, All heathen goddesses so fair, Bold Neptune, Plutarch, and Nicodaymus, A-standing naked in the open air.' " " I must have that book to-night," he said. " A good Irish buil is medicine for the blues." He left the office actually to the sound of his own musical laugh. He sent for the book— a copy of Crof- ton Croker's " Popular Songs of Ireland." It is before me now ; priceless almost, when I remember that it once gave Abraham Lincoln some pleasure, some respite from his cares. 310 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I have several reasons for this prelude to a sketch of the greenback. It suggests what every American ought to know — that it was resorted to in a very dark period of the war ; that it Avas accepted by the President on his faith in the financial policy of Secretary Chase, who advocated it not as a constitutional right per se, but as a righ't, like the proclamation of freedom to the slaves, founded upon military necessity. The story may possi bly be regarded as trivial, but it tends to show Avith Avhat intense earnestness the President bore his grave responsibilities, and that he seized upon an amusing story or volume because it diverted him for the mo ment, and strengthened rather than weakened his ca pacity for his graver duties. I think it tends also to illustrate the simple honesty of his mind. Had Mr. Lincoln been preserved to the republic, I do not believe that the question of legal tender Avould have been car ried into the Supreme Court of the United States. The weight of his influence, never so powerful as on the day of his death, Avould have been thrown in favor of com mencing the retirement of the legal-tender notes at the close of the war, and the return to a specie basis at the earliest date consistent Avith prudence and discretion. A "greenback" is a statement engraved and printed in the similitude of a bank-note that " the United States will pay to the bearer dollars." It bears on its face the engraved signatures of the register and treasurer of the United States ; a memorandum that it is issued under the act of March 3, 1863 ; and that it is a legal tender for • dollars. A fac-simile of the Treasury seal is printed upon it in red ink and by a separate im pression. In an open space on the back is a statement that " this note is a legal tender at its face A'alue for all debts, public or private, except duties on imports and AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 3^ interest on the public debt," with a note of the punish ment denounced against its counterfeiting or alteration. Originally it bore a certificate of its right to be convert ed into bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum. This right was withdrawn by the act of March 3, 1803, as to all notes not presented for exchange before the 1st day of July in that year. The greenback, then, is the naked promise of the United States to pay the bearer a certain number of dollars, unsecured except by the national credit, without date or time of payment, Avhich, for all ordinary purposes, is money, equal to the gold and silver coins authorized by law. The alteration and counterfeiting of bank-notes, crimes almost unknown to the present generation, were common when the state-bank issues existed. The bank-note com panies OAvned a patented green ink, which they claimed Avas a protection against photography, that it was diffi cult to erase, the composition of which was a secret un known to the criminal classes. Secretary Chase decided that the backs of the legal-tender notes should be print ed Avith this patented green ink, giving to such notes literally green backs. The soldiers, quick to seize upon an appropriate name, on the first visit of the paymaster with these notes, gave them the name of " greenbacks." This name was universaUy adopted, and became as per manent as the notes themselves. The authority for the issue of greenbacks was con ferred by three acts of Congress, passed respectively on February 25 and July 11, 1862, and March 3, 1863. The first act authorized the issue of $150,000,000 ; but $60,000,000 of these were to be in lieu of the $60,000,000 of demand notes authorized by the act of July 17, 1861. 312 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Each of the other acts authorized the issue of $150,000,- 000, making the whole amount authorized $450,000,000. The largest amount of greenbacks outstanding at one time was on the 3d of February, 1864, less than one year after the passage of the last act. The aggregate then reached was $449,479,222, or within a little more than half a million dollars of the full amount authorized. The act of June 30, 1865, restricted the amounts of greenbacks issued and to be issued to $400,000,000, and " such additional sum, not exceeding $50,000,000, as may be temporarily required for the redemption of temporary loan" (sic). The aggregate in circulation on the 31st of August, 1865, Avhich may be taken as the close of the Avar, Avas $432,553,912, and on the 1st day of January, 1866, $425,839,313. This large amount, however, was not an addition of so much money to the circulation of the country. Had it been, the inflation of prices and the activity of specula tion Avould have been greater. The net increase of the circulating money at any time during the war Avould re quire a computation more complicated than is suited to this sketch. It may be mentioned, hoAvever, that the circulation of the state banks, estimated in the loyal states at $150,000,000, had been AvithdraAvn, and that issued to national banks Avas not large enough to take its place. The difference between these tAvo amounts, with the Avhole amount of coin, had disappeared. The outstanding fractional currency must be added to the greenbacks, and the loss of state bank circulation and coin deducted, in order to ascertain the net increase. It affected values, no doubt, but probably not so much, as the value of greenbacks was diminished by depriving them of the right of exchange into interest - bearing bonds under the act of March, 1863. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 313 At the close of the war there was a Avorthy successor of Secretary Chase at the head of the Treasury. Ke- publics are fortunate which in periods of financial diffi culty are able to secure the services of such men as Sal mon P. Chase and Hugh McCuUoch. We had, by the bullet of the assassin, lost the potential personality of Abraham Lincoln. His secretary, McCuUoch, in the true spirit of the legal-tender legislation, as soon as the necessity had passed, turned his energies towards a re turn to a sound specie basis, and to the retirement of the greenbacks as the first and proper step towards that de sirable goal. The national debt had then reached the gigantic amount of more than $2,800,000,000. To form an accurate judgment of the progress of which the re public was capable when it was relieved of the incubus of slavery and permitted to expand under the influences of peace ; to preserve the national credit ; to provide for and pay the debt due to the soldiers and saUors who had crushed the rebeUion ; and promptly, without delay, to lay out and enter upon the shortest safe road to specie payment, required not only a man able to comprehend the financial situation, but Avho had the boldness and courage to act upon his convictions. They have an ex pression on the Pacific coast which conveys a world of meaning. They say of a man who has shoAvn great abUi- ties wherever he has been placed that he is a "scopy" man. Secretary McCuUoch was evidently a "scopy" man. In his first report to Congress after the close of the war, on the 4th of December, 1865, he declared in plain terms that the legal-tender acts were Avar measures passed in a great emergency, that they should be regard ed only as temporary, that they ought not to remain in force a day longer than Avould be necessary to enable the people to prepare for a return to the gold standard, and 314 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LLNCOLN that the Avork of retiring the greenbacks which had been issued should be commenced Avithout delay, and carefully and persistently continued until all were retired. Such words were powerful because of their sense and justice. By the act of April 12, 1866, Congress authorized the secretary to commence the withdrawal of the green backs from circulation, to retire $10,000,000 Avithin six months from the passage of the act, and thereafter to continue the process at the rate of $4,000,000 per month. The unanimity Avith which the secretary's policy Avas supported was shown by the vote in the House of Eep- resentatives on the passage of this act. There Avere 144 votes in the affirmative, and only 6 in the opposition. Secretary McCuUoch immediately instituted the proc ess of retirement, and conducted it with quiet and em inent discretion. By the end of the year 1866 he had reduced the greenbacks outstanding from $425,000,000 to $380,000,000, and Avas proceeding quietly to continue the process at the rate of $4,000,000 per month. But suddenly there was a change in the political at mosphere. A multitude of impecunious patriots, scat tered over the North and West, discovered that they Avere being oppressed and afflicted beyond endurance by the contraction of the currency. They made the coun try resound with their moanings of distress. The specu lators of the " bull " party joined in the cry. Together they organized a political party called the Greenback Party. It attracted the same class of recruits that Avent doAvn to David in the cave of Adullam. Every one that was in distress and every one that Avas in debt and every one that Avas discontented joined the party, and began to cry out Avith a loud voice against contraction, against the dreadful tyranny of Secretary McCuUoch. Then it was that the republic wanted Abraham Lincoln. Had AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 315 he been alive to support his secretary, there would have been no such weak yielding to noisy clamor as then oc curred. That tower and stronghold no longer existed. The secretary continued his Avork until he had reduced the volume of the greenbacks to $356,000,000, when, on the 4th of February, 1868, Congress suspended further reduction. The amount in circulation has since been subjected to some variation, in 1875 rising as high as $382,000,000, and in 1879 being reduced below $347,000,- 000. But it is accurate enough for all practical purposes to say that since the suspension in 1868, a term of more than tAventy-tAvo years of profound peace, the amount of legal-tender notes in circulation has been $356,000,000. If the republic shall again be involved in war there are many facts in the history of the currency issues here briefly described which wiU be useful to its financial minister. Secretary Chase had no experience of the past for his guide. The Continental currency of the Bevolution was made a legal tender by state laws only. His judgment devised, Congress authorized, and the peo ple loyally accepted the novelties in currency to Avhich this chapter refers. In his financial pohcy he had the confidence and the support of President Lincoln. His policy Avas criticised ; in one or two respects it may have been erroneous. But he was a statesman and a great financier. He Avas stationed at the weakest point in the national defences, Avhere defeat or retreat would have been ruin. He preserved the credit of the republic ; he was supported by a patriotic people ; and by his admin istration of the Treasury he fairly earned the gratitude of posterity. 316 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXXV. GRANT AND McCLELLAN. One morning, in the summer of 1862, there Avas a pro cession in the streets of Washington. It passed along Fifteenth Street in front of the Treasury, doAvn the avenue, turned to the right, and, moving over the long bridge across the Potomac, disappeared among the hills of Virginia. It was led by four bay horses ; they were fine animals, matched and spirited. Their harnesses and trappings were new and glossy, but plain, and furnished Avith dark trimmings. They were driven by a colored man in blue livery. On the seat Avith him was another man of color, wearing a similar livery. The horses Avere harnessed to a four-wheeled vehicle called a box-Avagon ; *. e., a Avagon the body of Avhich was an oblong box about six feet Avide and high, and eight or nine feet in length. The running-gear and box Avere painted a dark- brown color, and varnished so that they shone in the rays of the morning sun. Twenty-four other Avagons fol lowed, each a duplicate of the first. Each had its col ored driver and attendant in uniform, and each was drawn by four matched, spirited bay horses. On the sides of each box, in large gold letters, Avas the inscription in three lines : "Baggage. Headquarters Army of the Potomac." These one hundred matched horses, fifty attendants, and twenty-five Avagons constituted the train provided AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 317 to transport the baggage of General George B. McClel lan, -Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Potomac, and his staff. It was said at the time that this army was perfect in its organization. This train for use at headquarters Avas the only part of it I, personaUy, saw. If the army was as well provided for as its general, this statement Avas incontrovertible. I remember another morning in AVashington. It was in the early days of spring, and I was living at Willard's. The outlook Avas discouraging, and occurrences in the Treasury 'had been very depressing to friends of the Union. I had risen early, had left my room before dawn, and, seated by a window Avhich overlooked the avenue, in the main office, I began to read the morning paper. The passengers from the Western trains had not yet arrived. The gas-lights Avere turned doAvn, and that potentate, the hotel-clerk, who had not yet put on his daily air of omnipotence, Avas peacefully sleeping in his cushioned arm-chair. Two omnibuses Avere driven to the enti'ance on Fourteenth Street, Avith the railroad passengers from tho West. The croAvd made the usual rush for the register; the clerk condescended to open his eyes and assign them rooms on the upper floor (there Avas no eleA'ator), as though he felt an acute pleasure in compelling them to make the ascent, and for a few mo ments there was bustle and confusion. It was soon over ; the clerk resumed his arm-chair, closed his eyes, and his weary soul appeared to be at rest. There were two passengers Avho did not appear to be in such frantic haste. One Avas a sunburned man of middle age, Avho wore an army hat and a linen duster, below which, where a small section of his trousers Avere visible, I caught a glimpse of the narrow stripe of the army uniform. He held the younger traA'eUer, a lad 318 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN of ten years, by the hand, and carried a small leather bag. As they modestly approached the counter, the tem porary lord of that part of creation, Avithout deigning to rise from his chair, gave the register a practised Avhirl, so that the open page Avas presented to the elder travel ler, observing as he did so, " I suppose you will want a room together." He named a room with a high number, gave the usual call "Front!" while the guest proceeded to write his name without making any observation. The clerk re moved the pen from behind his ear ; gave another Avhirl to the register, and was about to enter the number of the room, when — he Avas suddenly transfixed as Avith a bolt of lightning ! His imperial majesty became a ser vile menial, thoroughly aAvake, and ready to grovel be fore the stranger. He boAved, scraped, tAvisted, wriggled. " He begged a thousand pardons ; the traveller's arrival had been expected — parlor A, on the shady side of the house, the very best apartment in the hotel, had been prepared for his reception — it was on the first floor, only one flight of stairs ! Might he be allowed to relieve him of his travelling convenience ?" and the lordly creature actually disappeared up the stairway, like Judas, carry ing the bag. My curiosity was excited to ascertain Avho it was that had wrought such a sudden transformation. I walked to the counter, and there read the last entry on the reg ister. It Avas " U. S. Grant and son, Galena, 111." It Avas the name of the General of the AVestern Army, Avho, after the capture of Vicksburg and the other mighty victories in the division of the Mississippi, had been called to the capital, to receive his commission of lieutenant- general, and to become commander-in-chief of all the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 319 armies of the republic. He was on his first visit to AVashington, for Avhat purpose I did not then knoAV ; but I have ever since been glad that I Avitnessed the simple and unostentatious manner in Avhich the commander of tAvo hundred thousand men indicated his arrival at the capital. I depart from my purpose of writing only conversa tions with the President when I Avas present, to mention an intervieAv betAveen General Grant and the President, which preceded the advance of the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1864. The account Avas given to me on the day, or day but one, after the conversation took place, by a senator of the United States, Avho Avas present at the interview, and whose veracity is beyond question. The senator Avas with the President Avhen General Grant was announced. After a few observations upon general subjects, he said that as that Avas his last day in Washington for the time, he Avas unAvilling to leave the city until he had thanked the President for his compli ance with every Avish he had expressed. He said the President had given hirii all that he had asked for, and consequently if the campaign should not prove a suc cessful one, its failure could not be charged to any neg lect or omission of President Lincoln's. He added that he Avas satisfied Avith the army, its discipline, and its officers, and that he did not believe a better army was ever organized. The President was pleased by the general's remarks, and cordially thanked him for his thoughtfulness in making his parting call. " I have thought much," he said, " about this army. I ahvays do think much about every army, particularly when it is about tb open a campaign. I look upon this campaign as of great importance, and hope it may prove 320 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN decisive. I have, therefore, tried to think of all the wants of this army, and, as far as it is in my power, to cause them to be provided for. I can only act through others, with some of Avhom, it is charged, I have not much influence. It pleases me to know that in this in stance my directions appear to have been carried out." " Now, there is one subject," continued the President, " which I ought to mention to you. Heretofore we have always had to provide a large amount of transportation on the river, in connection with the advance of this army — enough in the event of defeat to transfer the whole army to the north bank of the Potomac. This time I have heard nothing said about transportation. Have you provided it ? and have you a sufficient num ber of vessels ?" "I think so," answered the general. "We have a good many vessels — more, I think, than will be needed if the army is compeUed to cross the river. I do not intend any reflection upon the past,," he continued, " either upon the army or its generals, but I have an impression that the Army of the Potomac has never been fought up to its capacity — until its military effect iveness Avas exhausted. This time it will be ; and if it is defeated, its numbers will be so reduced that it AviU not need a large amount of transportation." The senator declared that it Avas quite impossible to describe the quiet firmness and resolute determination with which these sentences Avere uttered. The President congratulated the general upon his firmness of purpose, and said that it promised as great victories in the East as had been gained in the West. " The country should be cautioned," said General Grant, " against hoping for great successes. The loyal and the rebel armies, East and West, are made up of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 321 men of the same races. They have had about the same experience in Avar. Neither can justly claim any great superiority over the other in endurance, courage, or dis cipline. One may be more skilfully handled than the other; accidents have sometimes won victories and caused defeats. But Avhere two such armies meet on common ground, about equal in numbers, and equaUy Avell handled, I do not knoAV Avhy any better result should be expected from one than from the other. In the coming campaign, in one respect, the rebels have the advantage. AVe shall be in their territory, with which they are perfectly familiar, and Ave shaU be upon strange ground. Their arms are equal to ours, they claim su perior discipline and greater endurance. WhUe I hope and expect to defeat them, I do not knoAV why this war should not end as wars generaUy do, by the exhaustion of the strength and resources Of the weaker party." I cannot tell how this conversation may impress others. At the time, it gave me entirely new views of the character of General Grant, and greater confidence in his ability as a military leader. Its influence was the same upon the limited circle to which it was communi cated after its occurrence. Had he not touched the very point and centre of the subject ? Was it not true that Lee and the rebels would fight, as Montcalm and the French did, until the resources of the country Avere com pletely exhausted ? If so, it was almost idle to hope for a great and conclusive victory. The chances of such a result Avere not as good as they Avere at Gettysburg and Antietam, where the rebel army Avas in peril of destruc tion until it had reached the south bank of the Potomac. In this campaign General Lee's army would not be ex posed to any such risk or danger. When, a few days later, battle was joined in the Wilderness, and so many 21 322 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN of the vessels on the river began to be employed in transporting the Avounded to Washington ; Avhen for a week there Avere no despatches from General Grant ; when only one fact seemed assured — that instead of re tiring," as it always had before, the army Avas all the time advancing, it Avas a great comfort to loyal men to recall this conversation, and to feel that General Grant had measured the Avork in advance, and Avas en gaged in its performance with the resolute purpose in dicated by the interview. His despatch to the Secretary of War, of the 11th of May, in the light of that conver sation, seemed to be the fulfilment of prophecy — " We have now ended the sixth day of very heavy fighting. The result to this time is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy as Avell as those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be greater. ... I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 323 XXXVI. THE CONFEDERATES EXCHANGE A PARTY OF THEIR PRISON ERS OF AVAR. I am about to describe a visit to a hospital, which many will say might better have been omitted. All Avho make any public reference to such scenes are charged Avith intensifying and perpetuating sectional differences Avhich ought to have ended with the Avar, and which must be buried out of memory if Ave are to have a coun try thoroughly reunited. But does not the truth of his tory require that some account be preserved of those melancholy events Avhich are facts as essential to a cor rect record of the war as its less repulsive features ? On the evening of the 3d of May, 1864, the President said to me, " Can you leave your office for to-morrow, and go over to Annapolis?" " Certainly," I replied, " with the permission of Secre tary Chase." " I Avill obtain that permission," said the President, " or, if there is any difficulty, I will inform you so that you may return immediately. A party of about four hundred officers and men out of rebel prisons arrived there yesterday. Their condition will be investigated by Congress ; but that will take time. An intelligent lady, whom you know, has given me such an account of their sad state that I should like to knoAV the truth at once from one who will neither exaggerate nor suppress any of the facts. Will you go and see them and bring me back your report ?" 324 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I promised to do so. He seemed unwiUing to state what had been the report of the lady he had mentioned, for he appeared to think that her sympathies might have influenced her judgment. StiU, he seemed much disturbed, and some expressions fell from him which in dicated that his own sympathies had been thoroughly aroused. I remarked that this lady had a clear head, sound judgment, and much experience in the hospitals, and that it Avas very improbable that she should be de ceived or overcome by any sentiment. " I know it," he said. " I know of few men who are more reliable. Yet she was so completely overwhelmed that she had great diffi culty in telling ber story. There must be some mistake about it ! It is too horrible ! too horrible ! Yet Stanton had the same story, and believes every word of it." I went to Annapolis that evening, and saw in the hos pitals a memorable spectacle of aU that remained of a party of over three hundred enlisted men. They were men no longer — they were skeletons ! With few exceptions they were Americans, representing almost every one of the loyal states. Their minds had gone with their strength. It Avas almost impossible to get an intelligent answer to a question from one of them. I asked one his name. With a A'acant, Avandering expression in his eyes he an swered, " I guess it is Mason !" The rags in which they had arrived three days before had been taken from their bodies and burned. The hair had been shaved from their heads, and kind hands were Avashing the grime from the spaces between their festering sores. Many had only stumps Avhere their fingers and toes had been frozen off. All that could converse told the same story. They had been robbed of their blankets, clothes, and money, and then left on Belle Isle in the winter storms to starve and die. Their destruction Avas weU- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 325 nigh completed. Eight died on the voyage. The sur geons were of opinion that at least thirty-three per cent. of them had no chance of life, and that the recovery of others would be sIoav and painful. I will not distress myself nor the reader by a further description. Those who doubt the facts may consult Ke- port 67 of the first session of the Thirty -eighth Congress. It is the report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Avritten by Mr. Gooch, of Massachusetts, a clear-headed, conservative man. Portraits of the pa tients, the testimony given by them, and scores of other reliable witnesses, seem to point to the correctness of the conclusion drawn by that committee, that exposure and starvation, and the inhuman practices so indicated, " were the result of a determination by the rebel author ities to reduce our soldiers in their power to such a condition that those who survive shall never recover so as to be able to render any effectual service in the field." The horrors of Anderson viUe and Salisbury came later. They were farther aAvaj', and the proof is not so overwhelming. The proportion chargeable to Wirz and Winder, and that for which the Confederate authorities were responsible, may not in this world be known. The conduct of these wretches, repeatedly denounced to their superiors by the more humane officers of the Confeder acy, upon official examination, is probably not to be charged to any direct orders from the rebel authorities. In the case of the poor victims at Annapolis, there is less excuse. They were robbed and frozen and starved in the city of Richmond, in the capital of the Confed eracy, under the very windows of the Executive Man sion, under the eye of Jefferson Davis and the rebel congress. Scarcity of food, fuel, and clothing never ex- 326 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN isted in Richmond ; they Avere abundant at the collapse of the Confederacy almost a year later. It is difficult to find excuse or apology for the treatment of the prison ers at Belle Isle, and I doubt if such wiU ever be at tempted. The evidence need not be strained in order to extend the responsibility for these atrocities to others than the notoriously guilty. His admirers claim that no part of it rests upon General Lee, and as we have no record that any Avord or remonstrance dr objection ever came from him, it is to be fervently hoped that he was ignorant of the whole damning story. It Avas a Boston Avoman of Avealth and culture Avho went with me from cot to cot during the visit of that evening. In the preceding forty-eight hours every com fort Avhich her Avealth and energy could procure had been provided for these poor sufferers' with a bountiful hand. Even their dull minds seemed to recognize in her the instrument of a kind Providence, and I could not de termine Avhether their tears of gratitude or hers of pity were the more abundant. I did not see them at their worst, but even at the time of my -visit the scene trans cended description. It sickened me ; and the recollec tion of its sad and tragic features served to keep sleep from my eyes during the greater part of the ensuing night. At early dawn I hurried back to the hospital to con vince myself that my imagination had exaggerated the horrors of my previous visit. But no such result ensued. Attendants Avere removing those who during the night watches had forgotten their pains and should remember their miseries no more. Death had harvested seventeen victims. t I returned to Washington by the earliest train. It AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 327 Avas scarcely seven o'clock when I reached the Executive Mansion. I was not kept Avaiting. " Well ?" said the President, as he entered the weU- known room, with a Avorld of interrogation in his face. "Mr. President," I responded, "all the way from Annapolis I have been studying the formula for an an swer to your question. It is useless I You Avould like to know Avhat I have seen ? I cannot tell you. Imagine, if you can, a body of stalwart, strong men, such as you may see in any of our camps, robbed of their money, blankets, overcoats, boots and clothing, covered with rags, driven like foxes into holes on an island, exposed there to frost and cold until their frozen extremities drop from their bleeding stumps ; fed upon husks, such as the swine in the parable Avould have rejected, until, by exhaustion, their manhood is crushed out, their minds destroyed, and their bodies, foul with filth and disease, are brought to the very borders of the grave, which will close upon more than half of them, and you may get some faint conception of Avhat may be seen at Annapolis. But it will be very faint. The picture can not be comprehended even when it is seen !" " Can such things be possible ?" he exclaimed, " and you are the fourth Avho has given me the same account ! I cannot believe it ! There must be some explanation for it. The Richmond people are Americans — of the same race as ourselves. It is incredible 1" " No, no !" I exclaimed, " I saw these poor unfortu nates last evening. I went again this morning to find something Avhich would relieve the horror of the first impression. . I did not find it. I have conversed with men Avho know that they are dying, and that they have been brought to the very edge' of their open graA'es by neglect. They all teU the same story, and but one con- 328 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN elusion is possible. A frightful weight of responsibility and guilt rests upon the authorities at Richmond for these crimes against humanity !" " I feel all your sympathy," he said ; " nothing has occurred in the Avar which causes me to suffer like this. I know it seems impossible to account for the treatment of these poor fellows, except on the theory that somebody is guilty. But the world will be slow to believe that the Confederate authorities intend to destroy their prisoners by starvation. We should be sIoav to believe it our selves. It must be that they have some claim of excuse ! Why, the Indians torture their prisoners, but I never heard that they froze them or starved them !" "It seems to me," I said, "that a parallel to these cruelties would be hard to find even in the conduct of the Spaniards towards the Indians of Central and South America, Avhich Las Casas so graphically sets before us." "And yet Ave may not know aU the facts, the whole inside history. They may have excuses of which we knoAV nothing," said the President. "Make the case your own," I persisted. "Washing ton is larger than Richmond ; your duties are quite as absorbing as those of Mr. Jefferson Davis. Could Con federate prisoners of Avar be dying by hundreds of ex posure and starvation on an island in the Potomac, be tAveen this city and Alexandria, and you not know it? Why, the neAvsboys in the streets would publish it, and the authorities could not remain ignorant of it if they Avere deaf and dumb." "Well, Avell!" he said, "you have the best of the ar gument, I admit. But do me a favor. Retain your opin ions, if you must, but say nothing about them at present, until Ave are compelled to* make the charge, until there is no alternative, and the Avorld is forced to think as we do." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 329 " I will do as you request," I responded, " but Ave can not control our judgments. It is plain where the re sponsibility of these enormities should rest, and condem nation of those Avho permitted them must follow from any right-minded and humane person." The President's face Avore that sad expression which I have so often referred to, as he said, " Let us hope for the best ! We shall have enough to answer for if Ave survive this Avar. Let us hope, at least, that the crime of murdering prisoners by exposure and starvation may not be fastened on any of our people." 330 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XXXVII. , PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S STORY OF DANIEL WEBSTER. The story of Daniel Webster's school-days, as related by Mr. Lincoln, Avas imperfectly given by Mr. B. F. Carpenter, the artist, in his anecdotes and reminiscences appended to Raymond's " Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln," published soon after his assassina tion. The value of the story as an interesting illustra tion of certain qualities in the President's character depends, in a great degree, upon the circumstances under which it was told. These are in part omitted, and in part misdescribed, in the published account. The fol- loAving is a correct version, as I can affirm from personal knowledge : The colored people, from the hour of his inauguration, regarded Mr. Lincoln as the promised saviour of their race. Their faith in his wisdom and power was un bounded. It Avas most fully expressed in their churches and religious services by a singular combination of rev erence and trust. They had no doubt Avhatever of his ability to set them free, and that he would do so Avhen ever it Avas to their advantage that the blessing of free dom should be bestoAved. They were content to Avait until that time arrived. Their duty, as impressed by their ministers, was to prepare themselves for the great impending change in their condition, by learning to read and Avrite, and by leading good and honest lives. AVhen- ever Mr. Lincoln's name was mentioned, or Avhen they AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 331 saw him or heard him speak, they exhibited much the same reverence as we may imagine was shown by sin cere believers at the sight of the Saviour of men. In May, 1862, there was a Sunday-school celebration of the colored chUdren of Washington. The bright contrasts of striking colors of which the race is so fond, with their genius for display, enabled the parents to dress and arrange their chUdren in a procession of a memorable character at a small expense. The young, black, merry faces, the simple dresses of white with a red shawl or sash worn over them with native grace, the girls carrying bouquets of crimson roses, and the boys waAdng colored banners, arranged in a procession, with their teachers and parents walking solemnly by their side, aU occupied in a vain effort to suppress their enthusiasm, was a pleasant picture to behold. The procession Avas a long one, and must have comprised most of the colored children in the city. It was the season of flowers, and the large bunches carried by the girls lent an added brightness to the scene. The route of the procession brought it in front of the Executive Mansion about ten o'clock on a bright May morning. President Lincoln stood at one of the win dows on the second floor, and the procession passed within a few yards, so that every chUd in it had a fuU view of his person. At the head of the column were fortv or fifty colored ministers and teachers, who set an exceUent example of sober dignity to their young fol lowers. Their injunctions of sUence to the chUdren were emphatic and often repeated. But it would have been no more difficult to suppress so many explosions of powder with the match applied than to queU the involuntary outburst of enthusiasm which came from every chUd in that long procession as 332 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN he or she recognized the well-known face and figure of Abraham Lincoln. It Avould be useless to attempt to repeat their exclamations. From the boys there Avere shouts of enthusiastic delight ; from the girls a more suppressed form of reverential wonder. Boys and girls alike Avanted the fact to be knoAvn that they had seen the President. " I seen him !" " I seen him my own self!" " Dat's Massa Linkum !" " Look at him ! Look at him !" " Oh, don't he look just the same as the Lord !" EA'ery boy Avould swing his flag, and shout his hurrahs as he came near the President, and each was frantic Avith joy Avhen, as often happened, he appeared to notice him. The girls, not so demonstrative, clasped their hands and blessed " Massa Linkum " in every imaginable form of expression. Scores of them tossed their bunches of roses into the Mansion, so that the floor Avas carpeted with them. For a full hour the President stood at the Avindow, giving the last child as good an opportunity to see him as the first. There is not much of the pathetic in the account, but there was something very touching in this universal reverence for Abraham Lincoln. It did not fail to affect every spectator, the President, apparently, most of all. His sad, melancholy face could not have been more expressive if he had felt a sense of personal responsibility for every human being in that numerous croAvd. The scene was so touching that there were some eyes Avhich Avere not entirely dry, and I thought, at the time, that the President's Avere among the number. AVhen the procession had passed, and the last of the innumerable " God bless him's" had died aAvay, without breaking the silence Avhich he had maintained for an hour, Mr. Lincoln turned from the Avindow and Avalked sloAvly back toAvards the Avell-knoAvn little room in which AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 333 he had received so many visitors, followed by those Avho had Avith him Avitnessed the exhibition. When the President entered the room, his face Avore that look of melancholy so habitual to it ; so different from that of any other human being. Suddenly he stopped and turned about. In an instant the whole aspect of the man had changed ; the melan choly look had disappeared, and his sad eyes sparkled with humor. Without addressing any one in particular, he exclaimed : " Did you ever hear the story of Daniel Webster and the school-master?" No one ansAvered. " Well," he said, " this is the story : Daniel was a very careless, some caUed him a dirty boy. His teacher had many times reproved him for not Avashing his hands. He had coaxed and scolded him, but it Avas useless ; Daniel would come to school Avith dirty hands. Out of all patience with him, one day he called Daniel to his desk, made him hold up his hands in the presence of the whole school, and solemnly Avarned him that if he ever came to school again with his hands in that condition he would give him a fer- ruling which he Avould long remember. " Daniel promised better behavior, and for two or three days there Avas great improvement in his appearance. His hands looked as if they Avere washed daily. But the reformation Avas not permanent. In a feAv days his hands were as dirty as ever. The teacher's sharp eyes detected them, and, as soon as school had opened for the day, with a stern voice he said, ' Daniel, come here !' the guilty culprit kneAV Avhat Avas coming. His palms began to tingle in anticipation. He stealthily brought the palm of his right hand into contact with his tongue, and, as he walked slowly toAvards the mas- 334 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ter's desk, rubbed the same upon his pantaloons, in the effort to remove some of the dirt. ' Hold out your hand, sir 1' said the master. Daniel extended his right hand palm upAvard. ' Do you call that a clean hand ?' de manded the teacher. ' Not very, sir,' modestly replied the offender. 'I should think not very P said the master. ' I promised you a ferruling ; but if you will show a dirtier hand in this school-room, I will let you off for this time.' ' There it is, sir !' exclaimed Daniel, quickly extending his left hand, Avhich had not under gone the summary cleansing of the right." Mr. Lincoln seldom laughed at his oavu stories, but usually left his auditors, for whose benefit they Avere told, to enjoy them. But the quickness vvith which the school-boy had seized upon the weak point in the mas ter's offer seemed to touch his keen sense of humor, and at the conclusion of the story he laughed as heartily as any one present. The story was a good one, but what there had been in the procession just witnessed to bring it to the President's mind Avas difficult to discover. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 335 XXXVIII. PRESIDENT LINCOLN THE UNAPPRECIATED FRIEND OF THE SOUTH.— HIS OFFER OF COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION.— HE MEETS A VERMONT CONTRACTOR.— THEIR IMPRESSIONS OF EACH OTHER. To those who Avere in almost daily intercourse with President Lincoln, Avho knew his inmost thoughts, it Avas surprising that the slaveholders could not see that he wanted to be their friend. AVhen the war was fairly be gun, I believe he gave up all thought that slavery could be saved. I knoAV that he began to formulate plans to se cure to the slaveholders payment for their slaves, and if the Border states had' come to his assistance there Avas a time Avhen they could have secured it. As early as Sep tember, 1861, 1 heard him discuss the subject frequently. He spoke of the poverty and distress which emancipation would bring upon the slaveholders. He hoped that Con gress would propose some plan of co-operation Avith the Border states in abolishing slavery. Immediately after our first military successes in the winter of 1862, and early in March, he sent a special message to Congress, proposing a joint resolution offering such co-operation, and that Congress should offer at least partial payment. In July he transmitted a biU to Congress, which provided that bonds of the United States at a fixed rate per head, according to the census of 1860, should be issued to anj' state that abolished slavery. This liberal proposal received considerable support at the North. Mr. Greely advocated it in the Tribune, and 336 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the leading Republican papers followed his lead. Mr. Lincoln personally invited his friends to interest them selves in the subject. But the proposition met with no support in the Border states, where it ought to have been received Avith enthu siasm, and in the seceded states it Avas ridiculed. The London Times scoffed at it, and in all England only the Daily News gave it a cold support. Mr. Lincoln quite took its failure to heart, and declared that it still re mained true that, Avhom the gods Avished to destroy they first made mad. He became discouraged almost to the point of abandoning the project, Avhen a suggestion Avas made which attracted some attention, and promised to acquire some strength in the Border states. The propo sition was not only to pay for the slaves, but to remove them bodily to some territory which should be Avholly given up to them, and where they should try the experi ment of self-government. Unfortunately the source of this suggestion gave it httle political strength. The fact that Mr. Lincoln consented to entertain and consider it at all shoAved how far he Avas Avilling to go for the protection of the slave owners, and how unwilling he was to give up all hope of success. The proposition seemed to his friends absurd and impos sible. If it were not, it Avas hopeless ; for no Northern state Avould consent to pay for the slave property, incur the expense of removing it, and also become responsible for its future management. The author of the scheme Avas ex-Senator Pomeroy, and its promoters Avere specu lators rather than statesmen. It Avas very close to the neAV year of 1863 that the suggestion Avas tentatively given to the newspapers, in the form of a rumor that parties Avere ready to under take the removal of the slaves to Western Texas. It at- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 337 tracted but little attention, and it became evident that some other impulse must be given to it if it was to suc ceed. During one of his weloome visits to my office, the President appeared to be buried in thought over some subject of great interest. After long reflection he ab ruptly exclaimed that he wanted to ask me a ques tion. " Do you know any energetic contractor ?" he inquired. " One Avho would be Avilling to take a large contract, attended Avith some risk ?" " I knoAV New England contractors," I replied, " Avho Avould not be frightened by the magnitude or risk of any contract. The element of prospective profit is the only one Avhich would interest them. If there Avas a fair prospect of profit, they would not hesitate to contract to suppress the rebellion within ninety days !" " There Avill be profit and reputation in the contract I may propose," he said. " It is to remove the Avhole col ored race of the slave states into Texas. If you have any acquaintance who would take tbat contract, I Avould like to see him." " I know a man Avho would take that contract and perform it. I Avould be Avilling to put him into commu nication with you, so that you might form your own opinion about him. He is so connected Avith my family that I would not endorse him further than to say that he has energy enough to remove a nation." By the President's direction I requested John Brad ley, a Avell-knoAvn Vermonter, then temporarily in New York, to come to Washington. He Avas at my office when the Treasury opened, the morning after I sent the telegram. I declined to give him any hint of the pur pose of his invitation, but took him directly to the Pres- 22 338 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ident. When I presented him, I said : " Here, Mr. Pres ident, is the contractor whom I named to you yester day. Please understand that if I endorse him it must be ' without recourse.' You must take him upon your OAvn judgment, if at aU. His plans are too comprehen sive for me to make good if he should fail." I left them together. Two hours later Mr. Bradley returned to the Register's Office, overfloAving Avith admi ration for the President and enthusiasm for his proposed work. "The proposition is," he said, "to remove theAvhole colored race into Texas, there to establish a republic of their own. The subject has political bearings, of which I am no judge, and upon Avhich the President has not yet made up his mind. But I have shown him that it is practicable. I will undertake to remove them all within a year." " What do you think of the President ?" I asked. " I think he is the greatest man of the century !" he answered. " He has the intellect of Webster and the hard common-sense of Silas Wright. I can understand noAv his poAver over other men. He is thoroughly honest and unselfish. He has sound judgment ; he can com mand all my resources for anything he wishes to do. He is greater than Washington, and the Avorld will eventu ally so decide." " But is not this project for the deportation of the ne groes rather impracticable ? Is it not an act of rashness to favor it ?" " He has not decided to favor it. It is the project of Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, and a few others. The President has it under examination. I do not under stand the political questions involved in it, and I think it is very doubtful whether President Lincoln approves it. But if he does, it will be a success, and I shall do all in AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 339 my power to favor it. Mr. Lincoln is great, because he is honest. The people must follow such a leader ! They cannot do otherwise. I cannot do otherwise. If he de cides upon this wholesale transfer of the colored race, they will be in Texas Avithin a year. I would like to take the contract for their removal. All the assistance I want is the approAral of President Lincoln." "What is your opinion of Mr. Bradley?" I asked the President at my next opportunity. " He is equal to any enterprise, even the removal of a race from one continent to another," the President an swered. " He poured a flood of information over the entire subject. He had built a railroad through the state of Texas ; he knew all about the soil, the climate, all the conditions Avhich control the problem. He was a verita ble mine of information. He Avas even ready to take the contract for the deportation of the negroes at so much a head. But he also had powerful reasons against the project. If it is undertaken, he will have a hand in it. Have you many such men in Vermont ? Why would they not make great soldiers ? A dozen such men com bined ought to control the resources of the state." "There is one defect in Mr. Bradley's character," I said. " He will carry any enterprise through its diffi culties, but Avhen these are overcome, the project ceases to have any attraction for him." " I think I understand you. As they say in the hay- field, he requires a good man to 'rake after him.' I asked him if he had had any military experience. He said that he had not, but that he could learn mUitary science in two months. On my Avord, I believe he could." "If such men Avere in command, there would be a movement at the front," he continued. " I can find men enough who can rake after ; but the men with long arms 340 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN and broad shoulders, who SAving a scythe in long sweeps, cutting a smooth swath ten feet wide, are much more difficult to find." The project for the removal of the colored race was soon after abandoned. I doubt whether it was ever seriously entertained by the President. The plan Avas favorably considered by others, and his rejection of it serves to illustrate the practical judgment by which the President decided every question presented for his con sideration. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 341 XXXIX. THE PROFESSIONAL DETECTIVE.— HIS EMPLOYMENT BY THE UNITED STATES AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE PEOPLE. War is a crime against humanity. Criminals Avho transgress lavvs made by man sometimes escape the penalty; those who break the laws ordained of God, never. Whether nation or individual, their punishment is inevitable.After the AVar of the Rebellion was over, and the great Avrong of slavery had been expiated in blood, there were those Avho hoped that the nation might be restored to the soundness of ante-bellum days, and escape the de moralizing results which have followed all wars from that one waged in heaven by the first rebel against his omnipotent Master. It was a thrice -vain hope. We who lived before the Avar are able to compare the tone of legislation, the purity of the judiciary, the integrity of public officers, and the conscience Avhich regulated the intercourse of men in those peaceful days, Avith the insane speculations, the monopolies, the thirst for office and the greed of riches of the present day, and require no other proofs of the extent of the national demoraliza tion. It is not an agreeable picture. More closely than anything in history, it tends toAvard the condition of the empire Avhen Rome, by her conquests, had accumu lated, in the Eternal City, the corruptions as Avell as the riches of the world. Much of this degradation of the public morals was the inevitable result of war. It arose from causes prob- 342 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ably beyond human control, under the Avisest of govern ments. Upon these causes it is useless to enter. But there Avere others Avhich might have been prevented or suppressed. Their evils were anticipated and discussed ; there Avas opportunity to employ or reject them. I AviU give a short sketch of one of them, and some of the in cidents of its operation. Secretary Chase Avas opposed upon principle to any system of direct taxation Avhich required a force of revenue officers for its collection. His chief objection Avas, that it would create an inquisition into the private affairs of the people to Avhich they were unused, and Avhich could not fail to become disagreeable and offen sive. To the cases cited of Great Britain and other poAvers, Avhere a large revenue was collected under such a system, he replied that the revenue was obtained from but few articles or sources ; that this kind of taxation had been so long in use that its evils had been re formed; the people had become accustomed to it and its burdens Avere light. Whereas here, the whole sub ject Avas novel, and tho tax would necessarily be laid upon a much larger number of articles. But Secretary Chase had constantly before him one controlling fact, to which the general public gave but little attention. The Treasury Avas the Aveakest point in the national defences and the constant source of im pending peril. The national credit Avas as necessary to a restoration of the Union as oxygen to life. If that became bankrupt, a divided union and a confederacy founded upon negro slavery Avere as inevitable as death. The battle of Bull Run, however, settled several open questions. One of them Avas, that every practicable means of supplying the Treasury Avith money must be employed Avithout longer delay. Customs duties must AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 343 be increased to an extent Avhich made illicit importa tions immensely profitable, and all manufactured prod ucts, the professions, and the incomes of the people must be taxed to an extent before uncontemplated. An in ternal revenue system, reaching into every village and hamlet of the loyal states, had become an immediate necessity. The secretary invited suggestions from a number of gentlemen for the structure of the Internal Revenue Statutes. These suggestions arranged themselves in two classes. One class proceeded upon the assumption that men were naturally dishonest, and that they Avould re gard a fraud upon the United States as an evidence of shrewdness rather than a crime, as a credit rather than a stigma. The other insisted that the nation was now experiencing a grand and most creditable development of patriotism, Avhich led it to regard the payment of necessary taxes as a duty, and which Avould no more tolerate frauds upon the Treasury than it Avould any other form of treason. The first of these classes consequently proposed an in ternal revenue system which should enforce the collec tion of taxes by heavy fines, penalties, and forfeitures, which should be divided with informers and spies. As these informers would require instruction in their labors, in order to become experts, they proposed a bureau of detectives in the Treasury, presided over by a cliief, Avith such a number of subordinates as should be found neces sary, all to be salaried officers of the United States. The general plan of the .second class proposed con siderable revvards for prompt returns and payments, in deductions from the amount of the tax. Their prin cipal reliance, however, Avas upon the honesty of a pa triotic people, Avho, if properly encouraged by the Treas- 344 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ury, Avould constitute a great army of unpaid agents for the collection of the taxes, besides paying their own, since no man who bore his OAvn share of the burdens of Avar Avould permit his neighbor to escape from the same burdens by fraud or dishonesty. This plan Avholly dis pensed with detectives and paid informers. I took a someAvhat active part in the discussion of the subject, and, at the request of the secretary, prepared a Avritten argument, in Avhich it was claimed that the em ployment of an army of detectives Avas inconsistent Avith the dignity of the government, and would exert a cor rupting influence upon the people. I also stated that in my experience as a laAvyer I could not remember that I had ever met with a professional detective Avho could be trusted ; that the reason was probably to be found in the fact that a man who used deception and falsehood as the tools of his. trade became incapable of distinguish ing them from truth, so that he Avould use either, as at the moment seemed most expedient. Such a man's mind Avas not likely to be controlled by conscience, nor were perfect candor and sincerity toAvards an employer to be expected from one whose ordinary line of action in the pursuit of a criminal must necessarily involve a constant exercise of the opposite qualities. It was also stated that the people, knoAving that such agents were employed by the Treasury, would infer that honesty and integrity Avere no longer appreciated, and would lose all interest in the honest execution of the laAvs, concluding that, as they got no credit for fair payment of their taxes, they might just as Avell evade them Avhenever they could. The results Avould necessarily be a general demoraliza tion of the public service and a thorough corruption of the public mind. The advice of the class first mentioned finally pre- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 345 vailed. After long hesitation the secretary decided upon the employment of detectives, and the first internal rev enue act of 1862 was framed upon the theory that the taxpayers were the natural enemies of the government, Avho would avail themselves of every opportunity to de fraud it, and evade the payment of their taxes. The laws for the collection of duties upon imports were amended so as to conform to the same theory. Heavy penalties were imposed by the internal revenue and the tariff laws, which Avere to be enforced by the official power of the United States, but the penalties, Avhen col lected, Avere to be divided between the government and the informers. Statutes were enacted which gave to irresponsible detectives powers of visitation and inquisi tion into the business of the citizen which Avere intolera ble enough to have provoked a revolution if the country had not been already involved in war. The Detective Bureau was established as one of the regular bureaus, not under the control of the commis sioner of internal revenue, or the commissioner of the customs, as it should have been, if permitted to exist, but as an annex to the office of the secretary. One L. C. Baker, who had acquired some notoriety as a detec tive, was appointed its chief. By some means, never clearly understood, his jurisdiction was extended to the army, and he exercised his authority in all the depart ments and throughout the United States. Baker Avore the uniform, and probably had authority to assume the rank, of a colonel in the army. He took into his service, from all parts of the country, men who claimed to have any aptitude for detective work, with out recommendation, investigation, or any inquiry, be yond his own inspection, Avhich he claimed immediately disclosed to him the character and abilities of the ap- 346 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN plicant. How large his regiment ultimately grew is uncertain, but at one time he asserted that it exceeded two thousand men. With this force at his command, protected against interference from the judicial authorities, Baker became a law unto himself. He instituted a veritable Reign of Terror. He dealt Avith every accused person in the same manner ; with a reputable citizen as with a de serter or petty thief. He did not require the formality of a written charge ; it was quite sufficient for any per son to suggest to Baker that a citizen might be doing something that Avas against laAV. He was immediately arrested, handcuffed, and brought to Baker's office, at that time in the basement of the Treasurj'. There he was subjected to a brow-beating examination, in which Baker Avas said to rival in impudence some heads of the criminal bar. This examination was repeated as often as he chose. Men Avere kept in his rooms for weeks, without warrant, affidavit, or other semblance of authority. If the accused took any measures for his own protection, he was hurried into the Old Capitol Prison, where he was beyond the reach of the civil authorities. Baker's subordinates in other cities emu lated and often surpassed the example of their chief. Powers such as they exercised Avere never similarly con ferred by law under any government claiming to be enlightened. Corruption spread like a contagious disease, Avherever the operations of these detectives extended. It soon became known that impunity for frauds against the government could be procured for money. Men who, but for the detective system, would never have thought of such enterprises, Avent into the regular business of illicit distilling, bounty -jumping, smuggling, defraud- AND MS ADMINISTRATION. 347 ing the customs, and other similar practices. Honest manufacturers and dealers, who paid their taxes, were pursued without mercy for the most technical breaches of the laAv, and Avere quickly driven out of business. The dishonest rapidly accumulated wealth, which they could well afford to share with their protectors. Good citizens became discouraged, and ceased to take any in terest in the administration of justice, or the suppression of fraud. The worst predictions of the opponents of the detective system were speedily verified. The methods of Chief Baker were shoAvn by actual oc currences, one of which I will relate. It became evident that certain contractors were receiving preferences in the payment of their claims, in violation of an impera tive rule of the department. Evidence of repeated in fractions of this rule was produced. Brokers in New York would, for a commission, not only undertake to secure payment of claims by certain dates, but Avould inform claimants, in advance, of the date on which they would receive their money. This favoritism could only be accompUshed in one of two Avays ; either by changing the order of issuing the Avarrants for the payment of settled claims, or by changing the Avarrants on their Avay through the Treasury. If the first Avas the case, the fraud was in the secretary's office ; if the second, it was probably in the office of the register. I Avas satisfied that the warrant clerk in the office of the secretary was the guilty party, but he had the secretary's confidence, and regarded his position as impregnable. Baker undertook the investigation of this fraud with great enthusiasm. He announced that he should report to me twice every day ; that my suspicions had fallen upon the right person, but that he was operating with another clerk, and that the two were criminals of such 348 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN experience and skill that nothing short of the machinery of his office Avould suffice for their detection. His re ports Avere made with great detail, and finally announced • that the guilty parties had become alarmed, and Avere on the point of taking flight Avith their plunder. The secretary, hoAvever, Avould not authorize their arrest, un less I Avould certify that a prima facie case against them Avas made out. I declined to make this certificate. Baker's next re port was, that the tAvo clerks had become so suspicious that they did not speak to each other, nor correspond through the post-office ; that each sent his letters to a hollow tree in Georgetown, where they were deposited ; that he had already opened and read two of their let ters and replaced them, and that, very soon, he expected to have proof of their criminality under their own hands. One day, Avhile I was reading one of his rambling re ports, Baker, on the opposite side of the table, was print ing words Avith a pen on a loose sheet of paper, and had nearly covered a half -sheet Avith his own name, and other words, in imitation of printed capitals. This sheet he left on the table, and I, without any purpose in my mind, sAvept it into a drawer. Shortly aftenvards, he came to inform me that the suspected persons were about to attempt a flight to Havana, and that one of them had written to the other, fixing upon the train by which they were to abscond, and asking for an an swer, which answer he expected every moment to re ceive from one of his men who was on the watch at the hollow tree. While he was giving me this account, he was called out of the office in an excited manner by one of his men. He soon returned, and, Avith an air of mystery, threw a letter on the table, observing that, " If Ave could see the AND HIS ADMLNISTRATION. 349 inside of that, I would probably be willing to consent to the arrest, for we should have the scoundrels, sure !" My eye had caught the direction. I took up the let ter and began deliberately to open it. "Hold! hold!" he exclaimed. "Don't you know that it is a felony to open a letter addressed to another without his authority ?" " I think I Avill take the risk," I said. I opened and read from it a long farrago about steamers from Cuba, the register's suspicions, Baker's unrelenting pursuit and Avatchfulness, the writer's danger, etc. " Are you not willing to give the order for their ar rest upon that evidence?" he asked. I smoothed the letter upon the table, and laid by its side his own scribbled sheet, taken from my draAver, and asked somewhat sternly, " Colonel Baker, do you not think both these docu ments were Avritten by the same hand ?" Perfectly unabashed, Avithout a blush, the fellow smiled as he looked me in the face and said, " That game didn't work, did it ? It Avas a good one, but the best plans will sometimes fail. If I could have got your consent to an arrest, I would have had their confessions before morning. We must now try another plan." " No," I said. " I suspected you were a fraud, and now I know it ! You are of the same pattern with al most every detective I ever knew. You were wiUing to involve me in your scheme of deceit, in order to get an opportunity of frightening these men into confession. You may have the poor excuse of having practised false hood so long that you have forgotten how to be honest. However that may be, I shall end aU communication with you by reporting you to the secretary. 350 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I knew he was armed, but I was very sure that he was a coward, and would not resent a kick, if I chose to administer it. He took no offence Avhatever. " I ahvays did like a frank man," he observed. " I think we noAv understand each other, and shall get along admirably. You will like me when you know me better." I satisfied him that the conversation could not be pro tracted. But from this time forward he ahvays insisted that we were the best of friends. An accident soon af terwards led to the exposure of the guilty clerk. I never did understand under what authority Baker exercised his unendurable tyranny. He never hesitated to arrest men of good position, put them in irons, and keep them imprisoned for Aveeks. He seemed to control the Old Capitol Prison, and one of his deputies was its keeper. He ahvays lived at the first hotels, had an abundance of money, and I am sure did more to disgust good citizens and bring the government into disrepute than the strongest opponents of the system had ever predicted. He opened an office in the Astor House in New York, formed a partnership with a notorious per son called "The. Allen," who enlisted twelve hundred vagrants and tramps, promising them an opportunity to desert. Instead of being permitted to desert, the re cruits were hurried to the front. They Avere Avorth- less as soldiers, having been enlisted by deception, and the whole scheme was a detestable fraud. This was Baker's method of breaking up "bounty-jumping," and may be taken as an average illustration of his practices. He managed to appropriate the credit due to a party of cavalrymen in the pursuit and capture of the assassins of the President, and maintained his rank and office to the end of the war. It is probably too late now to dispense Avith the de- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 351 tective system. The system itself created a class of criminals Avho now require its continuance. Training and attention have developed a better class of officers for the secret service of the Treasury. Here and there a few men of ability have taken up the detection of crime as a science, and among them the Pinkertons, and Inspector Byrnes, of Nevv York city, may be recognized as useful officers of great ability. But they are con spicuous exceptions to a very general rule, and do not affect the estimate of conservative men with old ideas of integrity and principle in regard to the system as a Avhole. Such men will not approve the use of such means, although the multitude may cry out, "Let us do evil, that good may come !" The guilty clerk Avhom Baker was pursuing was not long in exposing his methods. His New York asso ciates noAv openly offered their facilities for securing prompt payment of claims, for a commission, to con tractors. The suspected clerk set up his carriage, be came a patron of coryphees of the ballet, and indulged in other luxuries quite inconsistent Avith his salary of $1600 per year. I carried the next warrant, marked " special," that was presented for signature to the secre tary. As I suspected, he kneAV nothing about it. In as fevv Avords as possible I pointed out the circumstances, and the secretary instantly sent for the Avarrant clerk. It Avas too late. He must have seen me enter the secre tary's office with the Avarrant in my hand — he had taken the alarm and fled. He was not arrested. For such a piece of work as the arrest of a real criminal Baker was Avorthless. The practice, hoAvever, was broken up. Some years afterwards, in my office in New York, I was told that a person Avished to see me Avho bore every 352 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN appearance of a " tramp." In the outer office I found a poor palsied, ragged creature, having every mark of poverty and destitution. He extended his hand in a furtive manner, then Avithdrew it, and in a broken voice said, " You don't remember me. I am II , once war rant clerk in the Treasury. I was discharged from the hospital yesterday. I have eaten nothing since. I am Aveak and hungry. Will you not lend me two shillings to get a breakfast ?" It was the man Avho once kept his carriage, and was the confidential clerk of the Secretary of the Treasury. " Hoav much money wiU take you to your home and your friends?" I asked. "I have no home and no friends," he said, despairingly. I relieved his necessities ; he went from my office and I saAv him no more. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 353 XL. PUBLIC MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE VALUE OF SALARIED OF FICES.— GENERAL STANNARD. If civil offices were estimated at their actual instead of their imaginary value, those Avho dispense them would not be troubled by the pertinacity of the office-seeker. Civil officers of the United States of all grades, Avith few exceptions, are underpaid. The amount and character of the service required, given to almost any of the pur suits of private life, Avould be much better rewarded. Why, then, do so many good citizens enter this mad race for office at every opportunity ? It is a race in Avhich scores are beaten and endure the shame and mortifica tion of defeat Avhere one succeeds ; in which the winner is in the end the loser, and deserves commiseration rather than congratulations for his success. There is a certain glamour over public office which is extremely deceptive. This is particularly the case with offices which have to do with the receipt and disburse ment of money. Many times I have pointed out to ap plicants for these offices the inadequacy of their salaries, and the impossibility of increasing their income in any honest Avay. They see, but will not be convinced. They are certain that handling so much money must be profit able. If they can once get the place, they are sure that they can find a way to make it lucrative. From the days when Hamilton was the Secretary of the Treasury to the present time, the ingenuity of finan cial officers and members of Congress has been taxed to 23 354 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN render impossible the very results for which the office- seeker is hoping. They have so surrounded official life Avith checks, guards, and penalties that it may now be stated as an axiom that, except by stealing, there is no Avay known among men of making an office profitable beyond its appointed salary. Errors in judgment in this respect have been the ruin of many Avorthy men. The subject is important. An actual occurrence, which fell under my own observation, AviU serve as an illustration. The AVar of the Rebellion created or developed many brave and brilliant soldiers. None of them had a better record than Major-General George J. Stannard. On the 15th of April, 1861, he Avas the superintendent of an iron foundry in St. Albans, Vermont, and an officer of a com pany of uniformed militia.in that town. He entered the service as a colonel, and Avas rapidly promoted through all the grades to the rank of a major-general. He never failed in his duty, and seldom omitted to distinguish himself in battle. He was several times wounded, and finaUy lost an arm. He appeared to be destitute of fear, and was at once the pride and admiration of his men. An account of the battle of Gettysburg will never be read which does not contain a conspicuous notice of General Stannard. It Avas his brigade which held the front line on the left centre of the Union forces, on Avhich General Lee, for more than tAvo hours, concen trated the fire of 140 pieces of artillery, and against which the famous charge of Pickett's division Avas di rected. It Avas his inspiration that caught the instant when that mad rush of a charging army Avas defeated to order out upon its flank tAvo regiments which, at the distance of a pistol-shot, poured their deadly volleys into the mass of Confederates, Avhich so demoralized them that AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 355 they never halted until three or four thousand of them passed to the rear as prisoners of Avar. It Avas conceded by military critics to have been one of the most brilliant military acts of the Avar — to have been almost without a parallel in its history. In the final campaign he com manded a division of the Eighteenth Corps, which capt ured and held Fort Harrison, and it was in defending it against an attempt made by ten brigades to recapture it that he lost his arm. When General Grant was elected President, General Stannard became a candidate for the office of collector of the district of Vermont. He asked me to sign his recommendations. I declined, on the ground that I es teemed him too highly to promote his ruin. I argued Avith him, I pointed him to the statute Avhich limited the annual pay of the office to $2500. I showed him that it might not amount to half that sum, and that none but a close business man, who would rigidly obey the laAV, and touch no dollar of the government money, could take the office without peril to himself and to the friends who became his sureties. I failed to make the slightest impression upon him. Somebody had told him that a former incumbent had cleared annually $10,000 from the office ; that what had been done could be done. He Avent away offended, and for some months treated me as his personal enemy. He obtained the appointment. His intimate friends became his sureties, and for something like a year he was a most popular collector. To the rigid rules of the Treasury he paid not much attention. As the receipts of the office floAA'ed in, they were deposited in the Treas ury, or in the pocket of the collector, as happened at the time to be most convenient. Money Avas abundant with him, and, with the open hand of a soldier, when he had 356 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN a dollar he gave half of it to any friend who had none. In short, he administered the office under a code of rules of his OAvn invention. Everybody Avas deUghted. He was the friend of everybody, and he naturally had a larger circle of friends than any of his predecessors in the office. Very gentle is the first letter of the first auditor to a collector when his quarterly accounts show a balance on the Avrong side. The error is attributed to accident, to inadvertence, of course. The collector is referred to certain rules, which he will observe in future ; one of these is that every dollar received be deposited in the Treasury. But under its most courteous concluding words the collector wiU discover, upon close examina tion, a most positive direction to deposit the balance im mediately ! Woe to the collector if, instead of acting upon the hint, he lays the letter aside to be attended to at some more convenient season, until perhaps some friend pays his loan, or money flows in from some other quarter. He may have a short grace of a few days at first, but ne\'er aftenvards. These letters require attention. No doubt there is a " First Auditor's Complete Letter AVrit- er," Avith progressive examples, each sharper and more pointed than the last, to enforce upon the delinquent the conviction that he is the servant of a department Avhich has rules that must be obeyed and enforced. These re minders become so frequent that the sight of an official envelope gives him a chill. Then for a feAv days the correspondence ceases. The officer flatters himself that his case has been laid aside, and he breathes more freely. Some morning (they always appear early in the day) a stranger enters the office of the collector, and delivers to him another official envelope. It contains his sus- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 357 pension from office, and an order to turn over to the bearer the entire contents of the office, the duties of Avhich will be discharged by Special Agent Roe or Doe, pending an investigation. From that day the groAvth of the delinquent's troubles begins, and proceeds beyond anything he ever imagined. With the sharpness of an expert the agent finds every dollar of the money of the United States, and follows it to its illegitimate disposal. Higher and higher mounts the balance, until it reaches a sum which the officer might as well undertake to dis charge the national debt as to pay. The climax of mis ery is reached Avhen the agent points the collector to the statute which declares the misappropriation of each of these dollars a felony, punishable by imprisonment at hard labor. All this happened to General Stannard in an incredibly short space of time. He was really guilt}' of no crime but negligence. He had not squandered the money among evil companions, nor in riotous living, nor in the payment of his own debts. In fact, he could not tell why or whither the money had gone. But it had taken to itself wings, it had departed, it was not where it should have been, in the Treasury, and he was a de faulter, a ruined bankrupt, a disgraced man. It Avas even doubtful whether his sureties could make up the loss. Some of them were certainly ruined. His reputa tion as a citizen Avas gone forever, and even his hard- earned fame as a soldier was stained and tarnished. Those who visited the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Representatives in Washington during the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses may have noticed, seated at the door, a silent, sad-faced man who had lost an arm. He was attentive to his duties, very courteous to every visitor. But he did not often speak to any one, and a smile seldom dispelled the sadness of his face. There 358 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN he remained until he died. No one asked for his place or sought his removal. Even the fiercest of the appli cants for office appeared to concede his right to retain this one until he surrendered it of his own will. AVhen I first recognized him there, it was a long time before I could break through his reserve and engage him in conversation. At last it gave way. " If I had fol lowed your advice," he said, " I might have remained poor, but I should at least have preserved my own self- respect, and the respect of my friends and bondsmen. I must have been insane Avhen I treated you as my enemy !" There is no reason for giving further details. This poor, discouraged, ruined man, a doorkeeper in one of the legislative branches of the republic, Avas all that re mained of a gallant general of division, who had led armies over the Avails of forts, against thrice their num ber, to victory. He it was who many times had wrested triumph out of the iron jaws of defeat. It was his flash ing eye which had faced the rush of an army as it hurled itself upon the Union forces ; and, seizing the critical moment, it was his hand that delivered the decisive blow in the greatest battle of the century, his genius that won the A'ictory which restored a divided union and made ours the greatest republic of the world. I hope, and I believe it is true, that under the opera tion of the civil-service system, the rush after clerical positions under the government has been checked, if not wholly arrested. Thousands, who might have been ac tive and useful citizens in private life, have condemned themselves to lives of anxiety and misery by their suc cess in securing one of these positions. A man is buried in them. His duties become routine, he is soon inca pable of doing anything better ; in an incredibly short AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 359 time he has lost all connection with the Avorld, he is in peril of removal Avith every change of administration, and as he has forgotten how to do anything else, re moval is his ruin. No men better deserve the atten tion of philanthropists than the clerks in the government service. In the few salaried offices not subject to the civil-ser vice system, the situation is no better. These necessa rily change with the administration. The term of service is so brief, the demands upon the incumbent are so numer ous, that no active man can afford to accept one of them, unless for a brief honor he is Avilling to pay a large price. It wiU be a fortunate day for the country when the civil- service system is extended to all the government offices, except the Cabinet and those immediately connected with Congress. While a few have managed to keep their heads above Avater, how many of my contemporaries have gone down beneath the waves of government service ! Some, sent to Washington as members of Congress, have degenerat ed into claim agents, and thence into the depths of politi cal pauperism. Some, appointed to small offices, have bartered their independence for insignificant salaries, and have become the hacks of either party which will give them employment. Others, losing their offices, have sunk into poverty, a few, alas ! into crime. I am unable to recall an instance where one of my friends, ha\'ing be come dependent on a small office for a livelihood, proved afterwards of any considerable value to his country or mankind. 360 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN t XLI. WAS GENERAL THOMAS LOYAL? General Geoege H. Thomas is dead. Since his death, and that of nearly all his Avitnesses, it has been alleged that he was disloyal. Some Southern historical society claims to have discovered proofs that he at first decided to cast his lot Avith his own people ; in other Avords, to folloAv the example of other officers of Southern origin. Colonel Henry Stone, of the Army of the Cumberland, has recently, in a vigorous article, published in the New York Tribune of June 7th, 1890, given this unfounded statement its quietus. General Thomas Avas sIoav to an ger, but if anything would cause him, " in complete steel," to revisit "the glimpses of the moon," and blast the slanderer with a look, it would be such a charge as this against his memory. I am able to contribute one or two facts on this sub ject. Even before the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, Gen eral Scott Avas very anxious about the safety of the pub lic property of large value in Texas, which was under the control of General Twiggs. The Second U. S. Cavalry, of Avhich Thomas Avas major, Avas stationed there, and it Avas upon information communicated by him that General Scott insisted upon the transfer of General TAviggs to another post. But Twiggs Avas a favorite of President Buchanan. General Scott's Avishes Avere disregarded, and on the 23d of February Twiggs delivered himself, as many regular soldiers as he could AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 3(51 control, and public property valued at one million tAvo hundred and nine thousand five hundred dollars, to the state of Texas. After the horse Avas stolen the stable was locked. On the first day of March, Secretary Holt issued an order dismissing Twiggs from the army " for his treachery to the flag of his country." Early in April the men who declined to be surrendered by TAviggs began to arrive in New York. Thomas, though on sick leave, received and disposed of them, and from that time Avas one of the most active and reliable assistants of General Scott. April 21st Avas a lively day in Washington. Lee sent to General Scott a notice of his resignation. The Baltimore committee were in Wash ington, protesting that no more Northern regiments should be permitted to pass through Maryland. They brought information that the authorities of Maryland had ordered the railroad bridges to be burned and all the railroads broken up. General Scott undertook to restore and maintain railroad communication with the North. He did not hesitate for a moment. He ordered a detachment, which he could scarcely afford to spare from the few regulars in the city, to disperse the Plug- Uglies who were threatening the destruction of the railroad between Baltimore and Harrisburg, and Major Thomas was the officer selected by him to command the detachment. All this occurred on Sunday. There Avere loyal men from Baltimore in active communication with the Presi dent, and it was at their suggestion that the force Avas ordered to protect the Northern railroad. They objected to intrusting so important a matter to Major Thomas, and insisted upon the appointment of Colonel Mansfield. The President referred them to General Scott. "Why do you object to Major Thomas? What do you 362 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN know to the prejudice of Major Thomas ?" demanded the old chieftain. They had nothing against Major Thomas, except that he was a Virginian. All the Virginians Avere resigning ; even Colonel Lee had gone over to the rebels. They feared that Major Thomas would folloAv his example. ' " I am more fortunate than you are. I know Major Thomas ; he is incapable of disloyalty. I would intrust him Avith what is to me the most precious thing on earth — my country's flag ! I knoAV that some Virginians have deserted it. But there are Virginians whom I am not afraid to trust, for I also am a Virginian !" said the old hero, proudly. I never heard the loyalty of General Thomas ques tioned after this endorsement. He was understood to be a worker, one of the most efficient organizers of his time. He was more quiet and unassuming than Colonel Mansfield, but equally reliable and true. He had a peculiar mental organization. He was cautious and deliberate; he would not fight until he Avas prepared. His military career was an unbroken success. From Mill Springs, before the capture of Fort Henry, to the crush ing defeat Avhich he administered to Hood before Nash ville, I do not remember that he lost a battle. His tenacity Avas unyielding. " You must hold Chattanoo ga !" General Grant had telegraphed to him, when Long- street held him at bay. " We will hold the toAvn until Ave starve !" Avas his reply. And his animals did starve, and his men came very near doing likewise before his communications could be opened. But he gave no sign of surrender. In all his campaigns he never moved fast enough to satisfy Grant. When the " March to the Sea " Avas decided upon, Grant and Sherman Avere both of the opinion that Hood Avould move northward to recover AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 353 Tennessee and Kentucky. They left him to the care of Thomas, intending to reinforce his small army, so as to enable him to cope with Hood and all the rebel force north of Atlanta. It Avas a perilous movement on the part of Sherman. If Hood was not arrested before he took Nashville, the result might be fatal. Sherman must have had great confidence in Thomas, since the success of the whole campaign would depend upon the result of a single battle, Avhich Thomas was to win against a vet eran army larger than his OAvn. Sherman left Atlanta on the 15th of November. Thomas abandoned all the intervening positions, and Hood apparently forced him back, step by step, into the defences of Nashville, which he reached on the 3d of December. Hood attacked Scofield at Franklin, but was compelled to draw off after an indecisive battle. Thomas sent no reinforcements to Scofield, rightly judging that the lat ter would be able to hold his own, and also because he preferred to choose his own ground for the decisive struggle. General Grant misunderstood the deliberation of Gen eral Thomas's policy, and, from the day Sherman left Atlanta, pressed him to attack the enemy. As Thomas made no answer, but continued to retire, Grant became more emphatic, and finally, when the former was appar ently forced back to Nashville, the orders to attack be came peremptory. As Thomas gave no sign in reply, Grant became anxious, and, being satisfied that further delay would be fatal, directed Logan to relieve Thomas, and take the command of his army. His solicitude in creasing, he left his camp before Richmond and started for Nashville. He reached Washington on the day Avhen Logan arrived at Cincinnati. 364 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I give these facts upon the authority of Captain Fox, whose relations Avith the President Avere at that time of the most intimate character. He related the incident immediately after its occurrence, as a strong proof of the accuracy of the President's judgment, and as show ing how confidently he relied upon it in dealing with men. He said that General Grant informed the Presi dent of his anxiety about General Thomas, and of his purpose to relieve him and place General Logan in his command. The President suggested that, as General Thomas was one of the most cautious and prudent of the generals, Avhether it might not be that his judgment on the ground was better than that of others Avho' wore five hundred miles aAvay ; and that it might be better to Avait for more evidence that it was erroneous before re moving him. General Grant observed that that might be, if the consequences of his defeat Avould not be so se rious — that he Avas a very competent officer, but habit ually slow, and this time he had been slower than ever. " But has he not ahvays ' got there * in time ?" said the President. " Some generals have been in such haste that they have had to move in the wrong direction." How ever, the President declined to interfere or to influence the judgment of General Grant any further than to say, that " General Thomas acquired my confidence in April, 1861, and he has eA'er since retained it." Fortunately, General Grant remained in Washington until the evening train for the West. Before he left, de spatches were received from General Thomas, stating that he Avas ready, and proposed to attack Hood the next morning. General Grant decided to Avait for results. Possibly the finest trait in the character of General Grant was the freedom with Avhich he admitted his own errors, and especially his misjudgment of others. His AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 3(55 despatches to Thomas implied censure, and had culmi nated in an order relieA'ing him from his command. We may noAv leave General Grant himself to describe the sequel. In his Memoirs, Grant says, in substance, that he had directed Logan not to take the command if he found Thomas ready to fight— that Thomas did fight and "was successful from the start ; and that he assailed the ene my in their intrenchments, and, after a desperate resist ance, they fled in disorder, abandoning everything. In order to use his entire strength, Thomas had dismounted his cavalry, and fought them as infantry. This fact and some accidents prevented his effective pursuit of Hood. But the morale of the latter's army was destroyed, its fighting strength annihilated, so that it Avas rendered in capable of inflicting further injury to the Union cause." The battle of Nashville crushed the Confederacy in the West, and made Sherman's " march to the sea " mem orable in the annals of military science. The result Avas foreseen by Thomas, Avho pursued his plans with a de liberation Avhich nothing could disturb, from the time he parted company with Sherman until, having collected and marshalled his forces for the final act, he dealt his annihilating blow to the rebellion before Nashville. Such a general could not fail to gain the complete confidence of his men. AVell might General Grant send him from Washington his congratulations on "the splendid success of to-day." We who Avatched his career from that anx ious Sunday in April, 1861, to its culmination before Nashville in December, 1864, should at least defend his memory, and see to it that, while we live, no spot or blemish shall stain the record of this modest, great soldier. 366 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XLII. THE IMPARTIAL JUDGMENT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.— THE RES IGNATION OF SECRETARY CHASE.— ITS CAUSES AND CONSE QUENCES. The endeavor now to write anything novel about President Lincoln is like gleaning in an exhausted field. While he has been gradually rising to the position he now holds in the Avorld's esteem, it is not strange that those who had any acquaintance with him should each wish to contribute his mite to the aggregate of material concerning a man of such distinguished abilities. No American, possibly no public man anyAvhere, has had so many biographers ; no biographers have ever written Avith a more imperfect knowledge of their subject than some of the authors of the so-called lives of Lincoln. Some of these Avriters have private griefs to ventilate, and, not courageous enough to oppose the general opin ion of his sterling worth, have descended in a shame faced way to make public assumed defects in his char acter ; and others, claiming to be his old associates and friends, have hinted at scandals connected with his ori gin and early life which had no foundation, and which would never have been heard of but for their officious- ness. Their poor excuse is a desire to exhibit Mr. Lin coln as he was, and not as the world would have him to be. There have been in the lives of all great men oc currences upon Avhich friendship lays the seal of silence, and it would have been more to the credit of these writers if they had emulated the dignified silence Avith which Mr. Lincoln treated unfortunate circumstances AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 367 Avhich he could neither prevent nor control. Examples of both these classes will be found in any collection of the lives of Mr. Lincoln, and conspicuously in one col lection claimed to have been written by the " distin guished men of his time." One consequence of the cacmihes scribendi about Mr. Lincoln is that all the events of his life, the incidents of his professional career, the apt stories attributed to him, many of which he never heard, have been rewritten so many times, with such variations as the peculiar views of the writer at the moment suggested, that the points of some of the best have been lost and others" so muti lated that they are no longer recognizable. The resig nation of the Treasury by Mr. Chase in June, 1864, has not escaped the general mutilation. It was an impor tant event ; its incidents throw a flood of Ught over the characters of both the principals. As it has been some times described, it is a quarrel between two politicians, of little consequence to them, of none to anybody else. Some of the accounts begin with the nomination of Governor Tod, and omit the important events by which it was preceded. Except that of Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, all the accounts that I have seen attribute the resignation to Mr. Chase's desire for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1864, when, in fact, he had given up aU hope of it for 1864, more than six months previously. This aftermath of Lincoln material seems to increase as the living witnesses disappear. Soon its inventors will be able to exclaim, with a distinguished fabricator of his tory, " Who is there to dispute what I say ?" What, then, is the earnest student to do ? Hoav is he to distinguish between the false and the true — the wheat of fact and the chaff of fiction ? There can be but one answer to the inquiry. He will do it just as the works of great mas- 368 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ters have always been distinguished from their counter feits. There is a flavor about a genuine Lincoln sen tence or story which is unmistakable — as different as possible from those of any other man. As the connois seur in art identifies a Rembrandt or a Diirer at a glance, as the teller in the Federal Treasury casts out the de fective coin by a touch, so will the earnest student be come an expert in Lincolniana, in the sentences he has Avritten, in all the events of his life. A single glance at a neAV fact or story will decide whether it has the ring of the true metal or the leaden sound of the counter feit. By such experts must future lives and anecdotes be judged; to their judgment I submit the folloAving version of one of the most important and striking events of his public career. One of these old friends and associates declares that Mr. Lincoln had no faith. If Paul understood the sub ject, and faith is " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," then no man ever had a faith more perfect and sincere than Mr. Lincoln. Once, during a half-soliloquy in the Register's Office, while the register and his messenger were engaged in their Avork, and, as he liked them to be, paying no attention to him, he broke into a magnificent outburst— a word- painting of Avhat the South Avould be when the Avar Avas over, slavery destroyed, and she had had an oppor tunity to develop her resources under the benignant in fluence of peace. Twenty years and more afterwards this scene flashed upon my memory with the vividness of an electric light as I recognized the word-picture of Mr. Lincoln in the folloAving Avords of welcome by an eloquent Southerner to a Northern delegation : " You are standing," he said, " at this moment in the' gateway that leads to the South. The Avealth that is there, no AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 369 longer hidden from human eyes, flashes in your very faces. You can smell the roses of a new hope that fill the air. You can hear the heart-beats of progress that come as upon the wings of heaven. You can reach forth your hands and almost clutch the gold that the sun rains down with his beams, as he takes his daily journey be tween the coal-mine and the cotton-field ; the highlands of wood and iron, of marble and granite ; the lowlands of tobacco, of sugar and rice, of corn and kine, of Avine, milk, and honey." Such was the picture of the South presented to the eye of- Mr. Lincoln's faith, and very similar Avere the words in which that picture was repre sented. I have written the following account largely from personal knowledge, from what I myself saw and heard. The principal incidents were written in my journal about the time they occurred. It has been the regret of my subsequent life that I did not at the time know how great a man Mr. Lincoln was ; that I did not at the time Avrite out and preserve an account of many other things said and done by him. This occurrence was an exception. I felt at the time that Mr. Lincoln was re- veaUng himself to me in a neAV and elevated character, and I undertook to record the words in which that rev elation was made. The resignation by Secretary Chase of his position as the chief financial officer of the United States closed his prospects as a Presidental candidate with the Republi can, and did not improve them with the Democratic party. It was an act which was calculated to embarrass the President, for which there was no good excuse. He inferred from past events that his resignation would not be accepted; he hoped that it would demonstrate to the country that he had become a necessity of the financial 24 370 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN situation, and thereby secure to him its more perfect control. A question of forgery had arisen in the Assistant Treas ury in New York. The auditor who signed checks for the payment of money pronounced two checks returned to him as paid, amounting to nearly $10,000, to be for geries. The responsibility for the money lay between Mr. Cisco and the auditor. If the checks were genuine, the auditor — if they were forged, Mr. Cisco, must bear the loss. Mr. Cisco claimed to know that the checks bore the genuine signature of the auditor. He so testified in an examination which took place before a commissioner of the United States. He declined to admit a possibility that he could be mistaken. His experience, he said, en abled him to identify a genuine, or detect a forged sig nature with unerring certainty. No one could imitate his signature so as to cause him to hesitate. He was as certain that the disputed signatures were genuine as though he had seen them written. Friends of the auditor, who were confident of his in tegrity, finding that the mind of Mr. Cisco was closed to aU the presumptions arising from the long service and the unblemished character of the accused, availed them selves of the assistance of experts and of photography. An expert Avrote an imitation of the assistant treas urer's name, which that officer testified Avas his OAvn genuine signature. He was as certain of it as he was of the genuineness of the disputed checks ! The evi dence of the expert Avho wrote the imitation, and an enlarged photograph of tho signatures to the checks, made their traced, painted, false, and spurious character so apparent that the auditor was at once exonerated, notwithstanding the positive evidence of his chief. The AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 371 result so intensely mortified him that he promptly re signed his office of assistant treasurer, declaring that nothing should induce him to withdraw his resigna tion. Secretary Chase was fond of those who recognized his eminence, and were ready to serve him as their acknowl edged superior. Those especially Avho were Avatchful of his convenience and of opportunities to contribute to his personal comforts secured a strong position in his es teem. Maunsel B. Field, an attache in the office of the assistant treasurer of New York, was conspicuously a person of this class. From the first visit of the secre tary to New York after he took office, Mr. Field had at tached himself to his personal service. His devotion to that service Avas perfect ; so that af terAvards, as the vis its of the secretary increased in frequency, Mr. Field at tended to his social engagements, and became the authorized agent for communication with him. Mr. Field was a person of polished manners, Avho had the entree into society. He was also a writer for the news papers and a Democrat, without much position or fol lowing in his party. His service was so attentive that the secretary came to regard him as a kind of personal society representative. The office of Third Assistant Secretary of the Treasury was created for him. He was appointed to it, and removed to Washington, where lie Avas afterwards employed in a confidential relation near the secretary's person. There were facts, of which it is impossible that the secretary long remained ignorant, which, though not reflecting upon his personal integrity, it was represented necessarily disqualified him for any position of trust or pecuniary responsibilty. From time to time he absented himself from the Treasury, some times for weeks together. No one seemed to know 372 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN whither he retired, or to have any knowledge of the cause of his absence. Mr. Cisco had filled his important office of assistant treasurer with great fidelity to the country and credit to himself. The fact that he was a member of the Democratic party, most earnest in his co-operation with the administration in all its measures for the suppression of the rebellion, had enabled him to contribute to the success of Mr. Chase's financial measures more power- fuUy, probably, than any Republican could have done in the same position, Avhile his personal influence upon members of his OAvn party had been strong, and always exerted to promote the cause of the Union. Very strong Republican influences Avere therefore brought forward to induce Mr. Cisco to reconsider his resignation, but he had apparently determined to return to private life, and peremptorily insisted upon its acceptance. Always having great responsibihty from the amount of public treasure intrusted to his care, the assistant treasurer at NeAV York Avas at that time the most im portant civil officer in the republic, next after the members of the cabinet. The bank presidents of NeAV York city, Boston, and Philadelphia then represented the money of the nation, and, acting together, as they usually did, they could promote the early success of or delay and obstruct the financial measures of the govern ment. That they had ahvays hitherto supported the secretary, and co-operated in the execution of his plans, had been largely due to the influence of Mr. Cisco. There had been occasions when these bank officers had attempted to defeat some of these plans, or, at least, to limit their success. But the strength of the secretary was re-enforced by the persistent influence of Mr. Cisco, always discreetly but constantly operating, so that when AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 373 Mr. Chase met these gentlemen in the assistant treas urer's office, as he so frequently did, his personal mag netism usually brought them to his support. It was, therefore, most desirable that Mr. Cisco's succcessor should, so far as practicable, possess his qualities, sustain his relations to the banks, and continue to exercise his good judgment. Such a man was not readily found. Ex-Governor Morgan, then a senator from NeAV York, a financier of wide experience, and intimately acquaint ed with aU the conditions whioh controlled financial movements in that city, took an active interest in the NeAV York appointments. He was one of the most in fluential Republicans in Congress, who Avas upon every ground entitled to be consulted in regard to this ap pointment. He suggested Mr. John A. Stewart, the president of the oldest and wealthiest trust company in the city, an able financier of ripe experience, a pure and patriotic man, as Mr. Cisco's successor. Secretary Chase approved it, and the suggestion met with universal favor. But Mr. Stewart would not accept the appointment. He was unwiUing to sacrifice his permanent position for one the tenure of Avhich was uncertain, and this consid eration was found to be controlling with other eminent financial men possessed of similar qualifications. While it was generally understood that the Republi can congressmen of New York Avere looking for a suit able successor to Mr. Cisco, they were amazed by the discovery that Secretary Chase had sent the name of Maunsel B. Field to the President for appointment to that responsible office. The fact became public through Mr. Field himself, Avho disclosed it to Republicans to whom he applied for recommendations. It produced something like an explosion of indignant opposition. It seemed impossible to account for this nomination 374 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN upon the ordinary motives which control human action. It was one Avhich Secretary Chase should havo known was unwise to be made. The nominee had not one of the qualities which had made Mr. Cisco strong, or which had led to the selection of Mr. Stewart. He had no financial or political standing, and his natural abilities were of a literary rather than an executive character. It Avas not surprising, therefore, that Senator Morgan and other Republicans hurried to the President and indignantly protested against Mr. Field's nomination. They did not measure their Avords. They claimed that such an appointment would be an insult to the Union men of New York ; that it would injure the party and disgrace the administration ; and, finally, they offered to procure a written protest against the nomination, to be signed by every Republican senator and member of the House in the present Congress. From the time the opposition to him was made public, the nomination of Mr. Field became impossible. The natural course obviously Avas for the President to as sume that Secretary Chase had suggested him in igno rance of the objections now urged against him ; to re quest the secretary to withdraw Mr. Field and make an other nomination. But there had already been friction* betAveen the President and the secretary on the subject of nominations ; the latter insisting that as he was held responsible for the administration of the Treasury, he should hold the unrestricted power of appointment and removal. The President conceded his claim, but main tained that it should be reasonably exercised, and that he should not be requested to make an appointment to an office in a state the Avhole congressional delegation of which opposed it, which Avould prove injurious to the party, or Avhich Avas contrary to the traditions of the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 375 administration. In other instances the secretary had shown himself unwilling to admit even these restric tions, and in the case of one appointment made against the Avishes of the Republicans of a state, and rejected by the Senate, he threatened to resign his office unless the President renominated the rejected candidate a second time. Although the difficulty in the case re ferred to was compromised, the President anticipated that Secretary Chase would insist upon Mr. Field's ap pointment, notwithstanding all the objections — an opin ion in which he was confirmed by the fact that the secretary neither called upon nor communicated with him after some of the New York Republicans had re monstrated against the nomination to Mr. Chase in person. After tAventy-four hours' delay the President, Avaiving aU ceremony, sent a polite note to the Treasury asking his Secretary to oblige him by sending him the nomina tion of some one who was not objectionable to the sen ators from New York. Instead of withdrawing Mr. Field's name, Secretary Chase replied by note, asking for an interview. When two parties are seated actually in sight of, and begin to Avrite formal notes to each other, they are neither very likely nor very desirous to agree. The President declined the intervieAV, on the ground that the difference between them did not lie Avithin the range of«a conversation. In the meantime the inge nuity of Mr. Field himself devised a way out of the diffi culty. Finding that he would lose the appointment, he brought certain Democratic influences to bear to induce Mr. Cisco temporarily to Avithdraw his resignation, so that he (Field) might take a place in the New York office, nominally under Mr. Cisco, but really to prepare the way for his own appointment after the adjournment 376 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN of Congress, and when the defeat of Mr. Lincoln should have been indicated by the early fall elections. Mr. Cisco unexpectedly complied, and the subject of conten tion was for the moment apparently removed. Secretary Chase had many subordinates who regarded it as their duty to magnify his office and exalt his name. He Avas firmly of opinion that no one but himself could maintain the national credit ; these subordinates assured him that such Avas the prevailing opinion, and it had be come an article of faith in the department. He had no doubt whatever that the President had embraced it. He believed that his offer of resignation Avould create a general public demand that he should continue at the head of the Treasury, and upon a recent occasion the President had confirmed his belief in that respect by urgently requesting him to change his purpose to re sign. Although there was no adequate occasion for it, he thought the present an excellent opportunity to re peat both the resignation and his former experience. He, therefore, again tendered his resignation, accompany ing it with an intimation that the failure to nominate Mr. Field had rendered his position one of embarrass ment, difficulty, and painful responsibility. The resignation was written and forwarded on the 29th of June. It was not unexpected to President Lin coln, and he dealt with it with Avise deliberation. Dur ing the day he requested me to call at the White House at the close of business. I found him undisturbed, and apparently in a happy frame of mind. " I have sent for you," he said, " to ask you a ques tion. How long can the Treasury be 'run' under an acting appointment ? Whom can I appoint who will not take the opportunity to run the -engine off the track, or do any other damage ?" AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 377 I was too much troubled and surprised to answer him directly. "Mr. President," I exclaimed, "you Avill not let so small a matter as this New York appointment separate yourself and Governor Chase ? Do not, I beg of you ! Tell me where the trouble lies, and let me see if I cannot arrange it." " No ; it is past arrangement,^ he said. " I feel re lieved since I have settled the question. I Avould not restore what they call the status quo if I could." "But," I continued, "think of the country, of the Treasury, of the consequences ! I do not for a moment excuse the secretary. His nomination of Field was most unaccountable to me. But Secretary Chase, Avith all his faults, is a great financier. His administration of the Treasury has been a financial Avonder. AVho can fill his place ? There is not a man in the Union who can do it. If the national credit goes under, the Union goes with it. I repeat it — Secretary Chase is to-day a national necessity." " How mistaken you are 1" he quietly observed. " Yet it is not strange ; I used to have similar notions. No ! If we should all be turned out to-morroAV, and could come back here in a week, we should find our places filled by a lot of fellows doing just as well as we did, and in many instances better. As the Irishman said, ' In this country one man is as good as another ; and, for the matter of that, very often a great deal better.' No ; this government does not depend upon the life of any man" he said, impressively. " But you have not answered my question. There" — pointing to the table — "is Chase's resignation. I shall write its acceptance as soon as you have told me hoAv much time I can take to hunt up an other secretary." " The Treasury can be run under an acting appointment 378 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN two or three days," I answered. " It ought not to be run for a day. There is an umvritten law of the depart ment that an acting secretary should do nothing but cur rent business. No one whom you Avould be likely to appoint Avould consciously violate it." " AVhom shall I appoint acting secretary ?" he asked. " I have thought it would be scarcely proper to name one of the assistant secretaries after their chief is out." " If you ask my opinion," I replied, " I should advise the appointment of the first assistant. I fear the effect of this resignation upon the country, and it Avould be unAvise to increase its evils by departing from the usual course. An intimation from you that nothing but cur rent business should be transacted AviU certainly be re spected." " That seems sensible ; I thank you for the sugges tion," he said. " But I shall have to put on my think ing-cap at once, and find a successor to Chase." " Where is the man ?" I exclaimed. " Mr. President, this is worse than another Bull Run defeat. Pray, let me go to Secretary Chase and see if I cannot induce him to Avithdraw his resignation. Its acceptance noAv might cause a financial panic." I shall carry the memory of his next words as long as I live. Every time I think of them Mr. Lincoln will seem to groAV greater as a man — to be the greatest Amer ican Avho ever lived. Consider the circumstances. The country Avas in the fiercest throes of civil Avar ; the Pres ident Avas Aveighted with the heaviest responsibilities ; his Secretary of the Treasury Avas tendering his resigna tion when there Avas no good excuse for the act, mani festly to embarrass him and to increase his difficulties. Then Aveigh these Avords : " I AviU tell you," he said, leaning back in his chair, AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 379 and carelessly throwing one of his long legs over the other, " how it is with Chase. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to fall into a bad habit. Chase has fallen into two bad habits. One is that to Avhich I have often referred. He thinks he has become indispensable to the country ; that his intimate friends know it, and he cannot comprehend why the country does not under stand it. He also thinks he ought to be President ; he has no doubt whatever about that. It is inconceivable to him Avhy people have not found it out; Avhy they don't, as one man, rise up and say so. He is, as you say, an able financier ; as you think, without say ing so, he is a great statesman, and, at the bottom, a patriot. Ordinarily he discharges a public trust, the duties of a public office, with great ability — with greater ability than any man I know. Mind, I say ordinarily, for these bad habits seem to have spoiled him. They have made him irritable, uncomfortable, so that he is never perfectly happy unless he is thoroughly miserable, and able to make everybody else just as uncomfortable as he is himself. He knows that the nomination of Field would displease the Unionists of NeAV York, would delight our enemies, and injure our friends. He knows that I could not make it without seriously offending the strongest supporters of the government in New York, and that tho nomination would not strengthen him any where or with anybody. Yet he resigns because I wiU not make it. He is either determined to annoy me, or that I shaU pat him on the shoulder and coax him to- stay. I don't think I ought to do it. I will not do it. I will take him at his word." Here he made a long pause. His mobile face wore a speaking expression, and indicated that he was thinking earnestly ; but, with perfect coolness, he continued : " And 380 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN yet there is not a man in the Union who Avould make as good a chief justice as Chase." There was another pause ; his plain, homely face was illuminated as he added," And, if I have the opportunity, I will make him Chief Justice of the United States." I thought at the time, and I have never since changed the opinion, that a man Avho could form such a just esti mate and avow such a purpose in relation to another who had just performed a gratuitous act of personal an noyance intended to add to his responsibilities — already the greatest Avhich any American had ever undertaken — who seemed wholly incapable of any thought of pun ishment or even reproof, must move upon a higher plane and be influenced by loftier motives -than any man I had before met Avith. In the entire intcrvieAV there was not an indication of passion or prejudice ; there was a com plete elimination of himself from the situation. There was nothing but the impartiality of a "just judge, the dis interestedness of a patriot, the stoicism of a philosopher. I Avas silenced, and about to take my leave, when he said : "Well, then, I understand I can take three days of grace. In that time I shall find somebody who AviU fit the notch and satisfy the nation. Perhaps I shall find him to-night. My best thoughts always come in the night. As soon as I find him, you shall know. I must first Avrite my acceptance of Chase's resignation." On the following day, June 30th, the President sent the nomination of ex-Governor Tod, of Ohio, as Secre tary of the Treasury to the Senate for confirmation. There is no occasion hoav to inquire after his motives. Undoubtedly, his first thought was of an Ohio man, his opinion being settled that it Avas better not to select a secretary from any of the Atlantic states. The nomina tion was not Avell received, and it Avas a relief to his AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 331 friends when, during the evening, Mr. Tod, by telegraph, peremptorily declined it. Before sunrise the next day I was again sent for. I rode to the AVhite House in the dawning light of an early summer morning, and found the President in his waist coat, trousers, and slippers. He had evidently just left his bed, and had not taken time to dress himself. As I entered the familiar room, he said, in a cheerful, satisfied voice : " I have sent for you to let you know that we have got a Secretary of the Treasury. If your sleep has been disturbed, you have time for a morning nap. You will like to meet him when the department opens." " I am, indeed, glad to hear it," I said. " But who is he?" " Oh, you will like the appointment, so wUl the coun try, so will everybody. It is the best appointment pos sible. Strange that I should have had any doubt about it. What have you to say to Mr. Fessenden ?" " He would be an eminently proper appointment," I answered. " The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance ; perfectly famUiar with all our financial legis lation, a strong, able man, and a true friend of the Union. He is also next in the direct line of promotion. But he Avill not accept. His health is frail, and his present po sition suits him. There is not one chance in a thousand of his acceptance." "He will accept; have no fear on that account. I have just notified him of his appointment, and I expect him every moment." At this moment the door suddenly opened, and Mr. Fessenden almost burst into the room, without being announced. His thin face was colorless ; there was in tense excitement in his voice and movements. 382 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " I cannot 1 I will not 1 I should be a dead man in a week. I am a sick man now. I cannot accept this ap pointment, for which I have no qualifications. You, Mr. President, ought not to ask me to do it. Pray re lieve me by saying that you will withdraw it. I repeat, I cannot and will not accept it." The President rose from his chair, approached Mr. Fessenden, and threAV his arm around his neck. It may seem ludicrous, but, as I saAv that long and apparently unstiffened limb winding like a cable about the smaU neck of the senator from Maine, I wondered how many times the arm would encircle it. His voice was serious and emphatic, but without any assumption of solemnity, as he said : "Fessenden, since I have occupied this place, ev ery appointment I have made upon my OAvn judgment has proved to be a good one. I do not say the best that could have been made, but good enough to ansAver the purpose. All the mistakes I have made have been in cases where I have permitted my OAvn judgment to be overruled by that of others. Last night I saw my way clear to appoint you Secretary of the Treasury. I do not think you have any right to tell me you will not accept the place. I believe that the suppression of the rebellion has been decreed by a higher poAver than any represented by us, and that the Almighty is using his own means to that end. You are one of them. It is as much your duty to accept as it is mine to appoint. Your nomination is noAv on the way from the State Depart ment, and in a few minutes it will be here. It AviU be in the Senate at noon, you will be immediately and unan imously confirmed, and by one o'clock to-day you must be signing warrants in the Treasury." Mr. Fessenden was intellectually a strong man, one of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. ' 333 the last men to surrender his own judgment to the wUl of another, but he made no effort to resist the Presi dent's appeal. He cast his eyes upon the floor, and mur mured, " AVell, perhaps I ought to think about it," and turned to leave the room. " No," said the President, " this matter is settled here and noAv. I am told that it is very necessary that a sec retary should act to-day. You must enter upon your duties to-day. I Avill assure you that, if a change be comes desirable hereafter, I will be ready and willing to make it. But, unless I misunderstand the temper of the public, your appointment will be so satisfactory that we shall have no occasion to deal Avith any question of change for some time to come." At this point the conversation terminated, and all the persons present separated. The result is Avell known. Mr. Fessenden's appointment was entirely satisfactory, and the affairs of the Treasury went on so smoothly that no change in the financial policy of Secretary Chase was attempted ; and from this time until the resignation of Mr. Fessenden there was no further friction betAveen the Treasury Department and the Executive. Chief Justice Taney died in the following October. The friends of Secretary Chase immediately put forth the strongest effort possible to secure for him an appoint ment to the vacancy. They were assured that no such effort was necessary ; that he Avould receive the appoint ment Avithout asking for it. They would not, and could not, accept the assurance. They said that Mr. Chase had made some very harsh observations about Mr. Lin coln, which must have come to his knowledge ; that nothing would induce him to overlook those remarks, unless there was practically a united demand from all the leaders of the Republican party for the appointment. 384 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN I am sincerely grateful that I had at that time so true an appreciation of Mr. Lincoln's character that I knew that such remarks would make no impression Avhatever upon his mind. I Avas confirmed in my opinion by the information I received of the experience of the friend of another candidate who attempted to improve his chanoes by repeating to the President some of these remarks of his former secretary. The President at first replied that the secretary was probably justified in his observations, but Avhen the advocate pressed the point more earnestly, he received a reproof from the President which perma nently suppressed further effort in that direction. The appointment was made in November, as speedily as Avas appropriate after the vacancy occurred. The only direction of the President I ever consciously violated was Avhen, after the appointment, I had the satisfaction of informing the chief justice that his appointment had been decided upon on the 30th of the previous June, after which the President had never contemplated any other. Not many days aftenvards I Avas shown a copy of a letter to the President, Avritten by Mr. Chase, in Avhich he expressed his gratitude for the appointment, which, he said, he desired more than any other. Thus Avas the entente cordiale restored betAveen these two em inent Americans, never again to be broken or interrupt ed. Among the sorrowing hearts around the dying bed of the republic's greatest President, there was none more affectionate than that of his chief justice and his first Secretary of the Treasury. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 385 XLIII. THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST WASHINGTON IN 1864.— THE BATTLE OF MONOCACY. The demonstration against the city of Washington by a Confederate army under General Early in July, 1864, Avas one of the important events of the war. It has originated so many issues of fact that the search for its true history has become obstructed by serious difficul ties. There were reasons at the time why the Federal authorities did not Avish to magnify the danger Avith which it threatened the capital, and after the retreat of his army General Early seems to have been in fluenced by motives acting in the same direction. Since the close of the war, the event has caused an extended discussion. On one side, the tendency has been to treat the fights on the Monocacy and before Washington as lively skirmishes rather than real battles, while General Early has persistently denied that the capture of Wash ington formed any part of the plan of his campaign. I was in the Treasury of the United States and had a lively interest in the movements of General Early. I saw as much as any civilian of the movements of our own forces. I witnessed the fighting in front of Fort Stevens, and I knoAV whether the terror and consternation existed which General Early supposes his so-called feint to have created. I think I am able to give pertinent evidence upon sev eral issues which the Confederates have raised. In June, 1864, aU the available troops in the vicinity of Washington had been sent to General Grant, who 25 386 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN was pressing Richmond by the slow and sure processes of a siege. A mixed collection of home-guards, conva lescents, and department employes, with a very small number of veterans, Avas left in the defences of Wash ington and Baltimore, Avhich was intended to hold them until reinforced from the Army of the Potomac, in case either city should be threatened by a Confederate army. At Point Lookout, below the capital, on the Maryland bank of the river, was a camp of about tAventy thousand rebel prisoners, all veterans made vigorous by rest and Federal rations, who were much wanted by General Lee to recruit his army. The signal service between the Confederates within the city of AVashington and their friends outside the defences was perfect. Flags by day, lights and rock ets by night, kept General Lee fully advised of every thing important for him to know. He was as thor oughly informed of the defences of Washington, and the number and effectiveness of the forces by which they were garrisoned, as General Grant or any officer of the Federal army. Grant having undertaken a regular siege of Richmond which would occupy much time, General Lee represented to President Davis " the great benefit that might be draAvn from the release of these (rebel) prisoners," and his ability to "devote to this purpose the whole of the Maryland troops." " I think I can maintain our lines against General Grant," he had writ ten, " but I am at a loss where to find a proper leader." " Of those connected with this army, I think Colonel Bradley Johnson the most suitable." Colonel Johnson was a native of Maryland, perfectly familiar with the country between the lines of the Baltimore and Ohio, and Northern railroads, with Point Lookout, and in fact with the entire topography of Maryland. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 387 It was supposed at the time that General Lee, having a full knowledge of the details of the situation, devised from his point of view an effective campaign, and that he determined to send a third of his army, under GenT eral Early, doAvn the Shenandoah Valley by forced marches, across the Potomac, into Maryland. There a division of cavalry, under Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, would press on to Point Lookout and release the pris oners, guarded by a few colored soldiers, destroying the Baltimore and Ohio and the Northern railroads on his way. Early with his army Avould swoop down upon and capture Washington before any troops from the Army of the Potomac could reach it. He Avould clothe and arm the prisoners from his captured plunder, and with his army thus raised to over forty thousand veter ans inside the defences, he could compel Grant to raise the siege of Richmond, and would be able to hold AVash ington against the Avhole Army of the Potomac. We also supposed that this campaign only failed of success by a narrow margin. It was thought that of his three corps of infantry, General Lee sent the second, or StonewaU Jackson's veterans, Avith forty field-guns, a large body of cavalry, and Breckinridge's division of infantry, in all not less than tAventy-five thousand men, under General Early, on the mission. That the latter, moving doAvn the valley without resistance or delay, crossed the Potomac into Maryland, and on the 7th of July was within forty-five miles of Washington ; that up to this point all went well with the Confederate army. We believed that Early then sent Bradley T. Johnson, from his left wing, on the mission to Point Lookout ; but the stubborn resistance of General Lew. WaUace, and less than six thousand men at the Monoc acy River, cost General Early a loss of over tAvo thou- 388 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN sand men, and, what was of infinitely greater consequence to him, the loss of two days, the 8th and 9th of July; after which, abandoning his Avounded on the morning of the 10th, he moved to RockviUe, where he halted within a few miles of the defences of Washington. But instead of assaulting them on the morning of the 11th, he postponed the attack until daylight of the 12th, Avhen, finding the veterans of the Sixth Corps in the trenches, he abandoned the campaign, recalled Johnson on his way to Point Lookout, and lost no time in AvithdraAV- ing his invading army to the south side of the Potomac. It was not until some years after the close of the war that the Confederate leaders undertook to correct what had been up to that time the general conclusion of students of our Avar history. In 1877, General Long, Early's chief of artillery, and later the biographer of General Lee, published his account of Early's campaign, from Avhich we learn that the capture of AVashington and the release of the prisoners at Point Lookout Avere not its objectives. " Its object Avas simply a diversion in favor of General Lee's operations about Richmond," and " General Early Avas too prudent and sagacious to attempt an enterprise Avith a force of eight thousand men which, if successful, Avould be of temporary bene fit." The account also informs us that, " after spread ing dismay for miles in every direction, . . . Early proceeded to within cannon-shot of Washington, re mained in observation long enough to give his move ment full time to produce its greatest effect, and then withdreAV in the face of a large army and recrossed the Potomac," thus ending "a. campaign remarkable for having accomplished more in proportion to the force employed, and for having given less public satisfaction, than any other campaign of the war." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 389 Sixteen years after the war. General Early made pub- Uc his "version of the facts" of this campaign. His article of fifteen printed octavo pages does not once mention the prisoners at Point Lookout, and is largely devoted to an effort to show that his army was so very small, and the Union force opposed to him so very large, that, using his words, "an attempt to capture Washing ton at any time after my arrival was simply prepos terous. If I had been able to reach Washington sooner, Grant would have sent troops to its rescue sooner, and hence there was never any prospect of my capturing that city. It was not General Lee's orders or expecta tion that I should take AVashington. His order was that I should threaten the city, and when I suggested to him the probability of my being able to capture it, he said that it would be impossible." There are several other statements in General Early's article which we shall hereafter compare with undis puted facts, and leave others to form their own conclu sions. Enough has been quoted from it to present the principal issue. Was the real object of this campaign tho release of the Confederate prisoners and the capture of Washington, or Avas it merely a scare, a diversion in favor of General Lee, restricted both in plan and execu tion to a mere threat against the capital ? The strongest witness against the General Early of IS 81 is General Early in 1SC>4. On the 14th of July, only two days after his retreat from the defences of Washington, General Early, at Leesburg, made his first report to General Lee. It was before any question had arisen, when aU the facts were fresh in his mind. In it. after giving his reasons for retreating, he says: "He (Johnson) was on his way to Point Lookout, when my determination to retire made 390 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN his recall necessary. . . . I am sorry L did not succeed in capturing Washington and releasing our prisoners at Point Lookout, but the latter Avas impracticable after I determined to retire from Washington." After this statement, it seems a Avaste of Avords for General Early to deny that the capture of AVashington and the release of the prisoners Avere seriously intended, and that they were the substantial objects of the campaign. The importance of a battle is determined by its ulti mate consequences rather than its immediate results. If that fought on the Monocacy did delay General Early, so as to save the capital from his assault and probable capture, it was one of the decisive battles of the world, and, with the events Avhich immediately followed it, de serves a more complete account than it has hitherto re ceived. In his " Personal Memoirs," referring to Early's retreat, General Grant says : " There is no telling how much this result was contributed to by General Lew. Wallace's leading what might Avell be considered almost a forlorn hope. If Early had been but one day earlier, he might have entered the capital before the arrival of the reinforcements I had sent. Whether the delay caused by the battle amounted! to a day or not, General Wal lace contributed on this occasion, by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory." It is singular that the numerical strength of General Early's army has never been given. General Early must know what it was. He argues at great length to show that it Avas very small ; why does he not give the fig ures ? It Avas an army of veterans, trained by Stonewall Jackson ; it was opposed by raw and undisciplined forces, with the single exception of the Sixth Corps. In such a AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 391 case numbers are a secondary consideration. General Geary joined Sherman in Tennessee leading a division 12,000 strong. On the " march to the sea " its numbers Avere only 3300, and yet in General Geary's opinion the effective strength of his division was never greater than when it marched into the city of Savannah. As the Con federate leaders, in speaking of the strength of Early's army, deal only in the most general statements, and Ave are never to know from them Avhat it was, we are com pelled to rely upon estimates and secondary evidence. Where numbers- are given on all occasions previous to 1864, the Second Corps was the largest of the three com prising the Army of Northern Virginia. With its high reputation there is no reason for supposing that its strength was relatively reduced. In addition to the Sec ond Corps, General Early had Breckinridge's division of infantry, forty pieces of artillery, and a body of cavalry large enough to serve the purposes of his army, after he had detached Johnson with a force deemed sufficient to release the prisoners at Point Lookout. The information received from General Sigel by Gen eral Wallace Avas that Early was advancing with an army of 30,000 men. After fighting him the whole day of the 9th,. in part for the purpose of developing his force, General Wallace was of opinion that it numbered over 18,000, exclusive of Breckinridge's infantry and the entire force of artillery and cavalry. Medical In spector Johnson, Avho was within the Confederate lines at Monocacy during the 9th and 10th of July, reported that they estimated their strength at 25,000, exclusive of a cavalry force of 5000 to 6000. Until the Confeder ate officers, Avho knoAV, give the details of their own forces, no injustice will be done by placing the strength of this invading army at 25,000 men. 392 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT IJNCOLN The Monocacy is a crooked river, Avhich runs in a southerly direction into the Potomac. About three miles Avest of it is the city of Frederick, and three or four miles farther Avest is a range of hills extending from the Potomac in a northerly direction, called the Catoctin Mountains. The Washington Pike crossed the river by a Avooden bridge, and the Baltimore Pike by what was called the " stone bridge." The railroad crossed Avithin a quarter of a mile of the loAver of these tAvo bridges, which were about tAvo and a half miles from each other. As soon as Wallace learned that a Confederate army had entered Maryland, and that its cavalry was approach ing Frederick, he removed his little force so as to delay the Confederate advance. He knew that every hour of such delay was an hour gained for reinforcements to reach AVashington from the Arnvy of the Potomac. Ac cordingly, on the 5th of July, he pushed his 2600 men out of Baltimore by railroad to the east bank of the Monocacy, hoping to hold the bridges against any at tack of cavalry. On the 5th of July, General Grant had sent the Third Division of the Sixth Corps, under General Ricketts, to reinforce General Wallace at Baltimore. When this di vision reached the place of embarkation, on. the James, Quartermaster General Pitkin, as a favor to his friend and fellow- Vermonter, Colonel Henry, of the Tenth Ver mont, gave his detachment, Avhich also comprised the One Hundred and Sixth New York, the fastest steamer, a favor which also secured to the tAvo regiments severe service and hard fighting. The detachment reached Bal timore in advance of the rest of the division, and hurried on board a train of freight cars, Avhich arrived at Fred erick at daybreak on the morning of the 8th. General AVallace informed Colonel Henry that the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 393 Confederate signal officers were watching from the Ca- toctin hills, behind which Early Avas gathering his forces for an advance, and that his object being delay, he de sired to make a show of as strong a force as possible. Colonel Henry, therefore, advanced beyond Frederick to the foot of the mountain, where he marched and counter marched from hill to hill, threw up mock breastworks, AvithdreAV his men under cover, and marched them to other positions, showing his regiment in different places until his men, Avho Avere not in the secret, thought he must have become insane. About six o'clock General Wallace Avas informed that a heavy body of infantry Avas moving in a direction to obtain control of the Washing ton Pike and endanger his lines of retreat. He accord ingly withdrew from Frederick to the line of the Monoc acy River. Before the TenthVermont could be withdrawn the Confederate cavalry had possession of the pike be tween Frederick and the river, only three miles distant, and Colonel Henry was compelled to make a long cir cuit until he reached the stone bridge, and then march down the river to the wooden bridge, where he was or dered to report. This march of twelve miles in the night so delayed him that it was daybreak before he reached his position. The second detachment of the Sixth Corps had, in the meantime, arrived. The cowardly desertion of the rail road agent and the telegraph operator left the rest of the division at Monrovia, eight miles aAvay, Avhere orders could not reach them, and they were thus prevented" from participating in the battle. At early dawn General Wallace made his dispositions for battle. His right formed an extended line, two miles long, from the railroad bridge to the stone bridge, and was placed under the command of General Tyler. Colonel 394 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Brown, with his command of ten companies from the One Hundred and Forty-ninth and One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Ohio, and the company of mounted infantry under Captain Lieb, Avas posted at the stone bridge, with orders to hold it ; for upon the holding of that bridge depended the security of the right flank and the line of retreat to Baltimore. The remaining portions of General Wallace's original force Avere posted along the river above the railroad. On the left, where the principal attack Avould proba bly be made, were placed the 3350 veterans under Gen eral Ricketts, in a line which reached from the railroad to a point below the wooden bridge. The end of the line Avas held by the Tenth Vermont, under Colonel Henry, and next to it Avas its companion regiment on many bloody fields, the One Hundred and Sixth New York, under Colonel SeAvard. Colonel Clendenin's cav alry were still farther down the river to Avatch the ford. A line of skirmishers, seventy-five men of the Tenth Vermont, under Captain Davis, and two hundred men of the Potomac Home Brigade, under Captain Brown, ex tended in a semicircle on the Avest side of the river, be- Ioav the Avooden to a point above the railroad bridge. It should have been under the command of a lieutenant- colonel, whose name is not mentioned by Vermonters, because on that day he kept aAvay from his command. Captain BroAvn and his men Avere wholly inexperienced ; he surrendered the command to Captain Davis, whose men held the centre of the line where it crossed a hill, from which the field on the left Avas in full view. The battle opened early. At half-past eight a body of Confederates came down the pike, directly upon the Federal skirmish line. Captain Davis and his men AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 395 opened upon them as soon as they came within range, and the enemy Avere handsomely repulsed. The Confederates noAv brought up their artillery, and firing and sharp skirmishing began all along the line. About half-past ten the first charge of the enemy was made. A body of Confederates moved around the left flank of the Northern army, forded the river, and ad vanced up the eastern bank, appearing from the Avoods in line of battle. General Ricketts Avas compelled to change front to the left, with his right resting on the river, thus bringing his hue under an enfilading fire from the enemy's artillery. Although he formed his whole force into a single line, that of the enemy Avas so long that it overlapped it. Every man on the left was thus put into the fight, not one being held in reserve. The enemy's first line was met with a heavy fire from the Tenth Vermont and the One Hundred and Sixth New York. Several times the line Avas broken, and their colors fell. The efforts of the Confederates to rally and re-form their line were ineffectual, and they were compelled to retreat into the woods, defeated. Within an hour the enemy advanced his second line, stronger and more numerous than the first, and with the steady step and firm bearing of veterans. But they could not move the veterans of the Sixth Corps. Par tially protected by the Thomas house and the cut through which the road passed, they poured a fire into the Con federate line Avhich nothing human could withstand. For a half-hour the line held its position until the ground was covered with the fallen, and then again retreated. General Wallace and his staff Avitnessed the battle from a hill in the rear of the line opposite the railroad. He knew that he was blocking the way of an army which must push him aside at any cost, and that the next ad- 396 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN vance Avould be in force large enough to be irresistible. But he Avas there to stay, to obstruct the Confederate advance as long as he possibly could, and the conduct of Ricketts's veterans showed him that all that could be done by three thousand men they Avould do. His order to retire was not given. There was now the hour or two of sharp skirmishing and artillery fire which usually precedes a charge. Gen eral Gordon, with his entire division, had crossed at the ford, and moved up the river, bringing Avith him the shattered remains of the defeated brigades. About three o'clock they again began to emerge from the Avoods. First came a heavy line of skirmishers, folloAved by a first, and shortly by a second, line of battle. For a full hour the fight went on, over one of the bloodiest fields of the war. The Confederate loss Avas by far (he heav ier, for they were on the open field, Avhile the Sixth Corps veterans were in part protected. As the first and sec ond were successively repulsed after stoutly maintaining the fierce contest, the third and heaviest Confederate line came out of the woods doAvn the hill behind which they made their formation. General Wallace saAv that it Avas time to go. He gave the order to retire on the Baltimore Pike, and the greater portion of his left wing sloAvly obeyed the command. But the Tenth Vermont and One Hundred and Sixth New York, on the extreme left of the line, Avere shut off from WaUace's view by an intervening hill, and the order did not reach them. Several men Avere sent to them Avith orders, but were aU shot down by the fire which swept the entire distance to be crossed. The regiments were out of ammunition, except as they borroAved it from the boxes of the fallen, and there Avas no ammunition train from which they could be supplied. But they AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 397 stood their ground, fighting and checking the advance of the enemy, until their fire slackened, and the advanc ing line had almost encircled them. At last a mounted orderly dashed over the hiU in their rear, galloped Avithin speaking distance of Colonel Henry, and shouted, " General Wallace says, ' For God's sake, bring your regiment out, if you can, to the Baltimore Pike.' " It Avas a difficult order to obey. In their rear was a high board fence, at the foot of a steep hiU cov ered by a corn-field. On all the other sides were lines of advancing Confederates. The Vermonters scale the fence and ascend the hill, swept by screaming shells and shoAvers of buUets. Near the top the color-sergeant gives out, and declares that he can go no farther. Strong arms seize both sergeant and colors, and bear them onward. The Confederates, yelling to the Vermonters to halt and surrender, follow them half-way up the ascent, but they cannot stand the pace, and give up the pursuit. Colonel Henry re-forms the remnant of his regiment, safe for the time, outside the line of fire. Their comrades of the One Hundred and Sixth NeAV York, placed in the line on their right, pass around the hill through a tempest of missiles hurled upon them from three sides, and those who do not faU escape to the rear, where for the time we leave them, and turn to the right of the Federal line. When the order to retreat is given, the stone bridge on the Baltimore Pike becomes all-important, for its loss is the loss of Wallace's line of retreat. A large body of Confederates are charging down the Pike from the west, to hurl themselves against Colonel Brown and his ten Ohio companies. General Tyler, Avithout waiting for or ders, gathers up a few men along the river, and rushes to Brown's support. The Confederates halt and recoil before the hot and heavy fire. General WaUace gaUops 398 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN up, and shouts to Colonel Brown, through the roar of musketry, that the bridge " must be held until his last regiment has cleared the country road by which the army is retreating, and has passed doAvn the Pike tow ards Newmarket and Baltimore." Brown and Tyler, with their men, keep the bridge until five o'clock, when the rear of the last retiring regiment is well on its Avay down the Pike to Newmarket. By this time the Con federates have surrounded them. By the ordinary rules of fighting, they are captured. But the men keep their ranks, and, with Colonel BroAvn, fight their Avay through the encircling line. Then Tyler and his staff dash into the woods and escape. The army has noAv all retreated, except the skirmish- line on the west bank of the river. These skirmishers have had a lively day. Their line of retreat Avas by the Avooden bridge, but this Avas burned about half-past ten, and, before it Avas fired, such of Captain BroAvn's men as were on the left crossed to the east bank. During the long day of fighting, nearly all of Captain Brown's command on the right of the line quietly passed over the railroad bridge Avithout Avaiting for orders, leaving a feAv of their comrades with Captain BroAvn and Cap tain Davis, with his seventy -five Vermonters, to hold the Pike and do the fighting. Captain Davis, in the centre of his line, occupies the crest of a hill, from which he sees all the fighting on Ricketts's left. During the skirmish which precedes the last attack, he sends a sol dier to his lieutenant -colonel, Avho should be present for orders. The soldier finds him far in the rear, and returns with the inspiring message that that officer " supposed Captain Davis got off before the bridge Avas burned." Earlier in the day an incident has happened here which had a share in the safety of the capital. When General AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 399 Ricketts changed front on the left, to meet the first Con federate charge, he opened a gap in the fine of defence opposite the railroad bridge. Wallace has no force Avhich he can send to fill it. About eleven o'clock General Wal lace, from the hill on Avhich he overlooks the field, dis covers a body of Confederates stealing down the river under cover of the bushes toAvards the railroad bridge. It is a very exciting time. He has no men to despatch to the bridge — in a few minutes a stream of the enemy will be pouring over the bridge through the gap, which wUl cut his line in the middle, and inevitably cause his defeat. The Confederates are perfectly concealed from the skirmish-line, and are within a hundred yards of the bridge. They are about to make the rush, when a vol ley of musketry seems to rise out of the ground, and is poured into their very faces. Many of them fall, others reel and hesitate ; another volley is fired into them ; they turn and rush to the rear. Davis has had his eye on the bridge, for he may have occasion to use it. He has anticipated this movement, and sent a small detachment from his little force to lie concealed in the bushes and watch it. They have watched it to a purpose. Late in the afternoon the position of Captain Davis becomes (to use his own expression) "peculiar." He has seen the colors of his OAvn regiment borne up the hill and over it to the rear, followed by the regiment and a crowd of pursuing Confederates. As far as he can see, the entire Federal line has retired. He Avas ordered to hold the position where he was placed ; it is not the custom of his men to change position Avithout orders. But the enemy is pouring doAvn the railroad, and in a few moments will SAveep him into the river. No man of his seventy-five will move without an order. The mo ment has come when he has no alternative. He gives 400 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the order, his men form, and march on the double-quick to the railroad bridge, Avhich has no floor, and across which they step from tie to tie. The pursuing Confed erates press after with shouts of " Halt and surrender !" They pour their volleys into the backs of the Vermont ers from a distance of fifty yards. The dead and wound ed fall into the Avater forty feet beloAV, one of the latter to survive the battle and the war. The Confederates over take, and actually seize and capture four or five of the little company. The survivors reach the eastern bank and rush into the bushes. But they keep together, and follow the retreating army, leaving more than a third of their number upon the bloody field. Davis, Avho is a man of slight physique, has used up all his strength, and is marched to the bivouac of his regiment, sound asleep, betAveen two stronger soldiers. Twelve miles from the field all the detachments of the army have come together. They wheel into a con venient field and encamp for the night. Wallace lies down upon Henry's blanket, and before both fall asleep finds time to tell him that he is " as cool and brave a man as ever stood on a battle-field." There Avere no prisoners in this battle except such as were captured by the actual laying on of Confederate hands. But Wallace left fully one third of his entire force on the field, and the thirty-three hundred and fifty veterans lost sixteen hundred of their number. Early reported a Confederate loss of only six or seven hundred. But there is strong circumstantial evidence that it was much heavier. In all the fighting the Union veterans were protected by natural defences, while the attacking Confederates had to advance for seven hundred yards over the open field. More than four hundred, so se verely wounded that Early could not move, but left AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 401 them behind in Frederick, indicate a greater loss ; and a Virginian, with whom Early made his headquarters at Leesburgh, declared that the Confederate general told him that his loss exceeded three thousand. Perhaps no Southern leader could better judge of the severity of a battle from personal experience than Gen eral Gordon. In his report, made Avithin tAvo weeks after the battle, he said : " I desire to state a fact of Avhich I Avas an' eye-witness, and Avhich, for its rare occurrence and the evidence it affords of the sanguinary character of this struggle, I consider Avorthy of official mention. One portion of the enemy's second (?) line extended along a branch, from Avhich he Avas driven, leaving many dead and wounded in the Avater and upon the banks. This position Avas in turn occupied by a portion of Evans's brigade in the attack upon the enemy's third (?) line. So profuse was the flow of blood from the killed and wound ed of both these forces that it reddened the stream for more than one hundred yards below.'" Although General Early had a heavy force of cavalry, he made no attempt to pursue the retreating army of General Wallace. His objective point was Washington. The fighting had occupied the day. In his report from Leesburgh, he wrote that he was " compelled to leave about four hundred wounded men in Frederick because they could not be transported." He had no lack of trans portation at this time, for he had captured horses and wagons enough to supply his army. He left these four hundred because they were too severely Avounded to en dure transportation, and took with him such as could bear the journey. There was no force now to obstruct his march. The Washington Pike Avas open— a good road through a country teeming Avith abundance. He compelled the small city of Frederick, under threat of 26 402 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN the torch, to pay him two hundred thousand dollars in good " Northern Federal mone}T," and " brought off over one thousand horses." "On the morning of the 10th [we use General Early's Avords], I moved towards Wash ington, taking the route by RockviUe, and then turning to the left, to get on the Seventh Street Pike. The day Avas very hot, and the roads exceedingly dusty, but we marched thirty miles," which must have brought, him, on the night of Sunday, the 10th of July, within sight of the defences of the capital. " On'the morning of the 11th Ave continued the march, but the day Avas so exces sively hot, even at a very earlyhour in the morning, and the dust so dense, that many of the men fell by the Avay, and it became necessary to slacken our pace ; neverthe less, when we reached the right of the enemy's fortifica tions, the men were almost completely exhausted, and not in condition to make the attack. Skirmishers Avere thrown out, and moved up to the vicinity of the fortifi cations." Here we leave him saj'ing, "I determined at first to make an assault " — to observe that there were good grounds for the general conclusion from his forced marches, hot haste, and other indications, that General Early Avas not engaged in a mere theatrical display, but that he did seriously intend to attack Washington, and that the men who barred his advance for forty -eight hours performed a signal service, and earned the en during gratitude of their countrymen, although they fought a losing battle on the Monocacy. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 4Q3 XLIV. EARLY BEFORE WASHINGTON IN 1864.— BATTLE OF FORT STEVENS. During Saturday and Sunday, July 9th and 10th, the Confederate sympathizers in Washington were anxiously listening for the sound of Early's guns. They knew his purpose, his strength, and the weakness of the city, of which he was expected to take possession Avithout much resistance. The War Office certainly had all the infor mation that Wallace could give them. It was a part of that information that about 25,000 veteran Confederate soldiers had passed the Monocacy on the pike leading to Washington, that they were marching rapidly in the direction of, and on Saturday evening were Avithin thirty- five miles of, the capital. Of all this the loyal citizens kneAV nothing. The Aveek closed on Saturday without their imagining that the city was in any danger, or that any thought for their personal safety was necessary. The story of Early's further movements will be given as its Washington aspect Avas presented. It is true that for some days the summer atmosphere had been f uU of rumors of Confederate invasion. Every few hours a newspaper " extra " Avas announced. One had certain information that the Confederates had en tered Maryland in force — that Washington and Balti more were to be cut off from the North and captured— that the capital would be attacked within twelve hours. The next issue declared the rumor to be an idle scare, and that the only Confederates north of the Potomac 404 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN were a few cavalrymen on a raid. It was the general opinion that the authorities would not expose the city to any danger, and that any considerable portion of the array of Northern Virginia would not be detached and sent on an expedition northward without the knoAvledge of General Grant. If he knew that such an expedition had been undertaken, he could certainly have sent a force to protect the capital against it. It was the third year of the war. In 1861 such reports would have disturbed us. Now, citizens had become in a measure rumor-proof, and went about their business as coolly as if there had not been a Confederate within a week's march of the city. I had closed my house, and my family were living with me at Willard's for a few days before sending them to NeAV England to pass the season of oppressive heat. On the morning of Monday, the 11th of July, Ave were taking a late breakfast. The morning papers had ac counts of a skirmish, tAvo days before, on the Monocacy, above Baltimore. They all agreed that it Avas only a skirmish, with no very important consequences. But the details appeared to indicate that several thousand men had been engaged, and that General Wallace had been severely handled. Three army officers breakfasted with us ; tAvo of them were on their Avay to the front. They ridiculed the sug gestion that any considerable force had been detached from Lee's army and sent northward without the knoAvl- edge of General Grant. If he knew it, he had acted ac cordingly. The rebels had quite enough to do in the vicinity of Richmond. Washington, they said, was in no more danger than Boston. I was inclined to the same opinion. So much had been said about the im portance of protecting Washington, so many veteran AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 405 regiments had been detained there when they were needed in the field, that it seemed impossible that the city should now be exposed to danger. The third officer was the brigadier in command of the Invalid Corps, who had taken but little part in the con versation, and expressed no opinion. As Ave Avere about to separate, he observed to me that he was going to visit the outposts, that the morning was pleasant, and if I had nothing better to do, perhaps I would like to join his party. If so, he would have a horse ready for me at his quarters on Fifteenth Street opposite the Treasury at ten o'clock, at which hour he intended to start. I cor dially accepted his invitation, and reported at his quar ters at the appointed time. The first part of this excursion was delightful. Mounted on spirited animals, preceded by a small es cort of cavalry, we took the road towards GeorgetoAvn. The air Avas fresh and cool, the roses and flowering plants loaded the reviving breeze with their perfume, and the birds were singing in the trees which shaded the broad avenue, which was as quiet as I had ever seen it on the Sabbath. Bright-eyed children at play, ladies taking their morning walk, and aU the other indications of summer life in the city, suggested thoughts of rest ful peace, which for the moment divested the mind of aU remembrance of the miseries and anxieties of war. We rode over the venerable pavements of George town to its outskirts, now ascending a slight hill, now going down into a wooded vaUey, bathing our horses feet in the clear brooks which we forded. We passed through Tenallytown and out a short distance on the road beyond. On the summit of the highest ridge there abouts we Avere halted by a picket-guard of a dozen men. The necessary words and salutes passed, the offi- 406 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN cer in command appeared and entered into conversation with our brigadier. To the latter's question whether this was the last picket, the officer gave an affirmative reply. Sweeping the northern horizon, my eyes rested on the broad cleared hillside across the valley. It appeared to be the camp of an army. There Avere army-wagons, pieces of artillery, caissons, unharnessed horses, tethered near by, a few shelter tents, and all the paraphernalia of a camp in which the men were at rest. I could not clearly make out any of the flags. Very little calcula tion Avas necessary to shoAV that the men numbered some thousands. " Whose corps is that, general ?" I asked, pointing in the direction of the camp. " We think it is Early's, but do not certainly know. It may be Breckinridge's," he answered. " Great heavens !" I exclaimed. " Do you mean to say that those are Confederates !" " There is no possible doubt of that," he replied. " If you doubt it, you can satisfy yourself by riding down to their picket at the bottom of the valley. I am not sure that you will be permitted to return. I am going to show you another and a larger camp, if we can get with in sight of the Blair mansion at Silver Springs." " Thanks," I said, " I am not at all curious. General, I must ask you to excuse me for leaving you so uncere moniously. It has just occurred to me that I have a most important engagement at Willard's at this hour. I must keep it. I do not care to take a look at Silver Springs. Yonder vieAV satisfies me, fully." " I thought it would," he observed. " I saw that you did not comprehend the situation, and therefore invited you to ride out here and judge for yourself. I would AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 407 like to have you make the circuit on the north side of the city. But that will take time, and I shall very prob ably find some of the roads obstructed. I can guess your appointment at Willard's. This may yet be a good day to send your family north — if they can get there ? Yesterday Avould have been better." " They Avould have gone three days ago if I had had any suspicion of that," I said, indicating the Confederate camp. " But tell me, Avhat is your estimate of the Con federate force now before the city ?" "For some reason the AVar Office does not care to have that subject discussed. At daylight this morning I had reports from three independent sources. They agree substantiaUy that Early has Ewell's old corps entire, and a part of another, numbering over 20,000 infantry, and forty guns, with about 6000 cavalry. The infantry and guns were counted by a scout b,efore they left Maryland Heights. Wallace developed their force at Monocacy. He estimated it at over 20,000, be sides the cavalry. One squadron under Bradley T, John son has gone around Baltimore to strike the railroads on the north. McCausland's and Rosser's cavalry are roaming over the country between this city and Baltimore. They can take the railroad any time they choose." " Then the city is in great danger!" I said. "AVhat good can come of concealing it ?" " There is but one way that it can be saved," he re sponded. " Grant must have sent men by steamer. The only question is whether they will arrive in time. I supposed Early Avould have attacked this morning. He is at Silver Springs noAv. We think he must have had a hard battle with Wallace day before yesterday, and is giving his men a rest; He will certainly attack to-night or to-morrow morning." 408 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN It Avas time for me to leave ; I stood not on the order of my going. I did not draw rein until I reached the Treasury, Avhence I returned the tired horse to its quar ters by a messenger. The report at the close of business on Saturday lay on my office table. A glance at it showed me that every note and bond in the office had been sent to its destina tion by the mail of : Saturday evening. I closed the door of my room again and started to leave the building. On my way out I called at the treasurer's office, which a man Avas just entering Avith a package of empty canvas mail-sacks. I found General Spinner, the treasurer, Mr. Tuttle, his cashier, and three or four of his principal clerks, engaged in filling mail sacks Avith Treasury notes and other securities. All Avere working with great ear nestness and expedition. " You are busy, general !" I observed. " I have just seen Avhat convinces me that you are not Avasting your time, that you are engaged in a Avork of necessity." " I have not time to be angry !" he exclaimed. " Did the authorities give you any notice of our danger?" "None whatever," I answered. "I have only this moment discovered it for myself." " Nor did they to me. I have a small steamboat — no matter where. I can take any bonds or money you may have. I think it better to move in light-marching or der, and to carry nothing but money or securities — if we decide to. move !" " Thank you, I have nothing of that description. I shall try and move my household by rail. I shall stay myself, and take whatever comes." At the hotel our effects Avere literally dumped into our trunks by my direction, and my family prepared for in stant movement. At the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 409 station, I learned that a train, just arrived, reported the road uninterrupted. Another train would leave for Philadelphia within an hour. AVithin less than two hours from my first vieAV of the Confederate forbe we Avere all, together with tAvo friends to whom I offered the opportunity, speeding northward at the rate of forty miles an hour. At Baltimore I left the rest of the party, having first Avritten a despatch in cipher, Avhich they were to send me if they reached Philadelphia. In due time I received it at the Fountain Hotel and knew they were out of harm's Avay. This Avas the last train that passed over the railroad northward until the burned bridges were rebuilt after Early's retreat. The next train that left Washington was looted by Harry Gilmor's detachment of Johnson's cavalry. He had been a conductor on the railroad, and kneAV where to strike it. Upon this train were General Franklin, General D. W. 0. Clarke, Executive Secretary of the Senate, with his family, and other prominent per sons. Their trunks were rifled, and everything of value taken or destroyed. General Franklin adroitly escaped from the Confederates the same day of his capture. During that evening I learned more about the fight on the Monocacy. There were wounded men at the station, and among them I found some Vermonters. They said that their regiment (the Tenth Vermont) had had some heavy fighting — had been compeUed to re treat by sheer force of numbers, and was then at the Relay House, on the road to AVashington. They could form no idea of the enemy's force except that it was very large, and as they were not pursued and the princi pal fight Avas in defence of the pike to Washington, they inferred that the Confederates were on the road to that city. 410 RECOLLECTIONS CH? PRESIDENT LINCOLN I called upon some acquaintances and spent the even ing in walking about the city. I saw no evidences of "dismay or consternation." No one was fleeing north ward. The train on which my family went received no rush of passengers, as Avould have been quite natural. But I did see many evidences of preparation and stern determination to fight and defend the city. The street windows of stores and dwellings Avere barred and being made secure. It was reported that General Wallace had returned to the city, that he was organizing and arm ing the volunteers for its defence, who Avere presenting themselves in great numbers. Towards midnight I went to the Fountain Hotel, but not to sleep. The danger to the capital of the nation was too imminent ; and at dawn I arose, went to the crowded station-, and took the first train for Washing ton. I was the only passenger. At the way stations and road crossings the mounted Confederates Avere numerous, but as Ave were running into the city, Avhich they regarded as already virtually in their hands, we Avere not molested. At the depot in Washington a surprise awaited me. From the direction of the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street came the sound of enthu siastic cheering. I should not have been more surprised by an outburst of cheers from a funeral procession. "AVhat does this cheering mean?" I asked of the first colored cab driver I encountered. " I reckon it's Gen'l Sedgwick's ole army, massa !" he replied. " Dey'se goin' out to hab a little talk Avith Gen'l Early dis mo'nin'. I reckon Gen'l Early can't wait for 'em. He's done gone souf, I reckon." I made my Avay to Seventh Street and partially through the crowd. There Avas no mistake. Those AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 41 1 sturdy veterans were marching with furled banners, to the beat of a single drum at the head of each regiment. Standing on the top of my carriage, I not only recog nized the cross of the Sixth Corps, but also the faces of a lot of Vermonters. It Avas gratifying to see the citi zens rushing into the ranks, as they rested on their arms, with baskets of eatables, buckets of water, and a hearty Avelcome to their dehverers. A Vermonter assured me that a large portion of the Sixth Corps was already at the front, and a part of the Nineteenth Corps, just returned from NeAV Orleans, Avas to follow them. They marched vvith swinging stride out on Seventh Street, and with a lighter heart I made my way to the Treasury. The arrival of the Sixth Corps remoA'ed our anxiety for the safety of the capital. Even the Confederates regarded these redoubtable veterans as invincible. Still, I hoped that Early Avould not retire without a battle, Avhich, if possible, I intended to see. Directing the clerks in my office to make everything snug, I gave them the rest of the day for a vacation, and ordered my horses and light wagon to be at the Treasury promptly at one o'clock. I sent to Secretary Stanton for a pass to the front, which he accorded me, Avith, however, an earnest warning not to use it, as a heaA'y battle now seemed imminent on the north side of the city. As I hope to give not only the first, but an accurate account of the battle of Fort Stevens, a sketch of the topography of the locality seems necessary. The ex tensions of Seventh Street and Fourteenth Street united in a single highway about three miles north of the city limits, which, after crossing two ranges of hills, extended still northward, passing the residence of the elder Blair at Silver Springs. On the crest of the first of these ranges, about one hundred yards west of the road, was 412 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Fort Stevens, with Fort Reno about the same distance east of the highway. There Avere other forts in close proximity. Beyond these forts the road descended into a valley, where, about a third of a mile from the forts, were farm-houses with their outbuildings, around Avhich the land was under cultivation. Passing these, the road ascended the opposite slope for a half-mile or more, and then crossed the second range of hills. This slope for about a mile on either side of the highway had been cleared, but was now covered Avith a thick growth of bushes. Farther on the right and left of the road the hillside and valley Avere broken by wooded ravines. The tAvo forts had just been connected by a trench, the earth from Avhich had been throAvn up on the outside into a breastwork, which crossed and effectually obstructed the highway. I imTited Edward Jordan, Solicitor of the Treasury, and H. C. Fahnestock, of the banking-house of Jay Cooke & Co., to drive out to the front with me. The road was croAvded with soldiers. They had passed scores of rum-shops, but not a man was intoxicated, and they made way for us to pass, with some good-natured badi nage about " home-guards," and going into battle Avith a " pair of horses and a Concord wagon." On the last rise to the forts, the road Avas unobstructed, and the horses carried our light wagon up to the trench at a lively pace. The trench was Avell filled with men of the Sixth Corps, most of them lying down and taking mat ters very coolly. A tall, angular captain came out as Ave approached, slowly walked around and surveyed my team, then placing one foot on the hub of the fore wheel of the wagon, in the broadest Yankee dialect observed, " Got a good pair of hosses there, judge. Them's AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 413 Morgan hosses. You don't often see 'em gray. They are most always bay." "I do think they are a pretty good team," I said, pleased with his commendation. " Naow, I Avouldn't wonder if them hosses might be wuth a couple of hundred apiece — that is, if they was sound and kind, and hadn't no tricks about 'em." " They cost more than that — I consider them Avorth three or four times the sum you name," I said. " No ? Yew don't say so !" he exclaimed. " AVall ! I don't know but they be. Hosses — that is, good hosses— well-matched and good steppers, is hard to git." He seemed to be pondering the subject, again walked around them, looked them over, and continued with the same deliberation : " Judge, if I owned a good pair of gray Morgan hosses, sound and kind and good steppers, Avuth, say, twelve or fifteen hundred dollars, I Avouldn't let 'em stand right there, not very long ! Because a hoss was shot plumb dead right there not a half-hour ago." To turn the team around and move from that exposed elevation was the work of a moment. I had not the slightest idea that we were under fire. The captain had been so entertaining that I had not looked over the earthwork. Now, looking down into the valley, though not a rebel Avas visible, I saw from the bushes and behind the logs frequent little jets of Avhite smoke spurt out in a vicious manner ; and in spite of the opposing wind I could now hear the crack of rifles, and the buzzing sound over our heads, dying away in the distance, I knew Avas the ping of minie bullets. The captain fol lowed us. He caUed a colored man out of the ditch, told him to take my team to a place he indicated, and look after them until I returned, and he, possibly, might 414 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN « earn a quarter. Upon my expressing some surprise, he said: " Oh, I knoAV them hosses, judge. You bought 'em of AViUiam Drew, at the Burlington Fair ! And I know you too, judge. I've heerd you in the old Court House in Middlebury, lots of times. Don't you remember the ' Cornwall Finish ' Merino Case ? I Avas on that jury. I am , of Starksboro'. That darkey is all right. He has froze to me. He'll take good care of the team." " But you may be caUed into action !" I said. " No such luck as that !" he replied. " Early is pull ing foot for Virginia. These feUoAvs are his rear guard. He didn't count on meeting the Old Sixth. He found we had come, and soon after he left. I wish Wright would let us go in. We'd get a sight of his coat-tails, if we didn't overhaul him." I recognized the captain as an Addison County farmer. My friends left me here, and it was hours before I saw them again. The darkey drove my wagon into a ravine in the rear of a building used as a hospital, and I re turned to the ditch. I was crawling up to look over the earthwork, when the captain called me down. " That won't do !" he said. " There's too much lead up there ! You'd better watch the boys, and do as they do." He took me to a place where a large stick of square timber lay on top of the earth-work, raised a little above it, thus leaving a space through Avhich the whole region beyond was visible. " You'll be safe there, if you don't forget and raise your head too high," he said ; then left me and returned to his company. I lay there and Avatched the movements of the Con federates for half an hour. They were all under cover, and nothing could be seen of them but the smoke from their guns. In the early morning, when they had in- AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 415 tended to storm the forts, they had occupied the oppo site hill, and had fiUed the clusters of buildings of which I have spoken. There had been a sharp-shooter behind every stump and log and boulder, up to Avithin a hun dred yards of our lines. From all these places they Avere firing at every man exposed on our side. The captain said that before the Sixth Corps came their fire had been effective, and the loss on our side heaA'y. I was interested in Avatching our OAvn men. Only a few of them were firing, and after each shot they dropped back into the ditch to reload their rifles. One of them had a target-rifle Avhich Avould weigh thirty pounds, and a field-glass. How he contrived to bring such a piece of heavy artillery into action, I do not knoAv. He was as deliberate as if firing at a mark. After one discharge he continued looking through his glass for a long time. He then dropped back into the ditch and quietly remarked, " I winged him that time !" He pointed to a fallen tree, behind which, he said, a particularly dexterous sharp-shooter had been firing all the morning, killing two men and wounding others. He had borroAved the target-rifle to stop him, and thought he had done it, " for he didn't show up any more !" Leaving the ditch, my pass carried me into the fort, where, to my surprise, I found the President, Secretary Stanton, and other civilians. A young colonel of artU lery, who appeared to be the officer of the day, was in great distress because the President would expose him self, and paid little attention to his warnings. He was satisfied the Confederates had recognized him, for they Avere firing at him very hotly, and a soldier near him had just fallen Avith a broken thigh. He asked my ad vice, for he said the President was in great danger. "What would you do with me under Uke circum stances ?" I asked. 416 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN " I would civiUy ask you to take a position where you were not exposed." " And if I refused to obey ?" " I would send a sergeant and a file of men, and make you obey." " Then treat the President just as you would me or any civilian." " I dare not. He is my superior officer ; I have taken an oath to obey his orders." "He has given you no orders. Follow my advice, and you will not regret it." " I will," he said. " I may as Avell die for one thing as another. If he were shot, I should hold myself re sponsible." He walked to where the President Avas looking over the parapet. " Mr. President," he said, " you are stand ing Avithin range of five hundred rebel rifles. Please come doAvn to a safer place. If you do not, it will be my duty to call a file of men, and make you." " And you would do quite right, my boy !" said the President, coming down at once. " You are in command of this fort. I should be the last man to set an example of disobedience !" He was shown to a place where the view was less extended, but where there was almost no exposure. It was three o'clock. General D. D. Bidwell's brig ade of five veteran regiments now marched through Fort Stevens out upon the open space in front, where they were extended into two lines, threw out skirmishers, and then all lay flat upon the ground. The Confederate fire was so hot that in the little time required for this ma noeuvre one third of the men of this brigade were killed or wounded. I had supposed that a battle field was filled with the shrieks and groans of the AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 417 wounded and the dying. There was nothing of the kind, scarcely a spasmodic action, and in the majority of cases those Avho had been struck by the enemy's balls seemed rather to be lying quietly down. These veterans, under this heavy fire, went about their work as coolly as though on parade. There was a flag raised, and thirty guns from four forts opened fire at the same instant. Six guns from Fort Stevens simultaneously hurled their shells against the clusters of buildings in the valley. We heard the shells strike, and saw them explode, throwing up a mass of dust and lime. A body of Sixth Corps men came out from the rear of the fort and poured their fire at short range into the crowd of rebels that rushed from the buildings like bees from a hive, across the open space to the bushes. In less time than is required to write the fact, there was a winrow of fallen men heaped en tirely across this space. Now thick and fast the shells dropped into the bushes on the hillside. Hurrying crowds of Confederates rushed from either side into the highway and packed it full. Into these living masses the artiUerymen now directed their gaUing fire. They had just returned into a fort which they had pre viously garrisoned for a year, and knew the range of every tree and object. One could follow the course of the shells by their burning fuses. They rose in long, graceful curves, screaming like demons of the pit, then descending with like curves into the crowds of running men, they appeared to explode as they touched the ground. The men swayed outward with the explosion, but many fell, and did not rise again. After the retreat of the last Confederates, the bodies lay so near each other that they almost touched. It was beautiful artU lery work, but its results were horrible. 27 418 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN The shelling ceased. Instantly, the brigade lying on the ground was up and away. Over fences and other obstructions, dashing through the bushes, here and there halting a moment to re-form their broken lines, they Avent over the hillside, clearing away every Confederate, until they reached the summit of the ridge, where were buildings in which many of the enemy were captured. They then halted and formed in line of bat tle at right angles to the higlnvay. Every Confederate not captured, killed, or wounded, had now retreated over the hill, out of our view. I sup posed the battle was over, when one of the officers stand ing near me exclaimed, "There they come!" and a squadron of cavalry, appearing over the crest of the hill, charged upon what seemed to be our doomed line of battle. They were dashing onward to the sound of the famous rebel yell. It looked as though that rushing mass of men and horses Avould brush away that thinned line of men like the dew. But now the jets of smoke darted from them in rapid succession, and riderless horses dashed out from the cavalry. Slower and sloAver still became its advance, more frequent were the jets of smoke from the line of infantry, until the horsemen came to an actual halt, seemed to quiver for a moment, then wheeled and disappeared over the hill to be seen no more. Again had a charge of cavalry been resisted and defeated by infantry in line of battle, and the last armed rebel Avho Avas ever to look upon the figure of liberty on the dome of the Capitol had disappeared forever. The fighting was over, but the experiences of the day were not yet ended. I went back to my horses, found them well cared for, and then went on to the field of bat tle. Men Avith stretchers Avere already carrying off the wounded and coUecting the dead. A feAv yards beyond AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 419 our works I met two men. One, tall and powerful, Avas leaning heavily upon the other, a boy who Avas car rying the guns of both. The former asked me if I knew Avhere the field-hospital was? After directing him to it I inquired where he was hurt. He replied by open ing his shirt and exposing the path of a minie-bullet directly through his chest. I took his name, and after wards traced him, found that he recovered, and was, when last heard from, a healthy man. His surgeon said that the wound was received during the exhalation of the air from his lungs. Had the ball entered the lungs during inhalation, the wound must have been fatal. The buildings in the vaUey, which had been fifed by the shells, burned very slowly, and were only now fully aflame. On all the floors, on the roofs, in the yards, within reach of the heat, were many bodies of the dead or dying, who could not move, and had been left behind by their comrades. The odor of burning flesh filled the air ; it was a sickening spectacle ! Near a large faUen tree lay one in the uniform of an officer. His sword was by his side, but his hand grasped a rifle. What could have sent an officer here to act as a sharp-shooter ? I placed my hand on his chest to de tect any sign of life. It encountered a metallic sub stance. I opened his clothing, and took from beneath it a shield of boiler-iron, moulded to fit the anterior por tion of his body, and fastened at the back by straps and buckles. Trusting to this protection, he had gone out that morning gunning for Yankees. In the language of a quaint epitaph in Vernon, Vt., upon one who died from vaccination, " The means employed his life to save, Hurried him headlong to the grave I" Directly over his heart, through the shield and through 420 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN his body, Avas a hole large enough to permit the escape of a score of human lives. I had not forgotten the sharp-shooter "Avinged" by the target-rifle. There, behind the log, he lay, on his back, his open eyes gazing upwards, Avith a peaceful ex pression on his rugged face. In the middle of his fore head Avas the small Avound Avhich had ended his career. A single crimson line led from it, along his face, to Avhere the blood dropped upon the ground. A minie-rifie, dis charged, Avas grasped in his right hand ; a box, with a single remaining cartridge, Avas fast to his side. The rifle and cartridge-box Avere of English make, and the only things about him Avhich did not indicate extreme destitution. His feet, Avrapped in rags, had coarse shoes upon them, so worn and full of holes that they Avere only held together by many pieces of thick twine. Ragged trousers, a jacket, and a shirt of Avhat used to be called " toAV-cloth," a straw hat, which had lost a large portion of both crown and rim, completed his attire. His hair was a mat of dust and grime ; his face and body Avere thickly coated Avith dust and dirt, which gave him the color of the red Virginia clay. A haversack hung from his shoulder. Its contents were a jack-knife, a plug of tAvisted tobacco, a tin cup, and about, two quarts of coarsely cracked corn, with, perhaps, an ounce of salt, tied in a rag. My notes, made the next clay, say that this corn had been ground upon the cob, making the provender Avhich the Western farmer feeds to his cattle. This was a complete inventory of the belongings of one Confederate soldier. How long he had been defending Richmond I do not know. But it was apparent that he, Avith Early's army, during the past six Aveeks had entered the valley at Staunton, and had marched more than three hundred AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 40^ mUes, ready to fight every day, until now, when in the front, he was acting as a sharp-shooter before Washing ton. He was evidently from the poorest class of South ern whites. I detached his haversack and its contents from his body and carried them a wav. I noticed many of the Confederate dead Avho were clothed in blue, and had it not been for the hats, which were of many shapes and sizes, they Avould have closely resembled our own men. AVhere the brigade had formed which afterwards charged the Confederates and drove them over the hiU, there were many Federal dead. It was subsequently reported that our loss here exceeded two hundred and fifty. The time could not have been longer than ten minutes before they were all lying flat on the ground. It was after nightfall when we started to return to the city. The soldiers on their way to the front, having been notified that the fight was ended, had bivouacked in the fields, and left the road clear, so that we made rapid progress. On our left., a single heavy gun from a fort at intervals sent a shell with a screaming rush, in the direction of the retreating Confederates, like some wild animal growling his anger at the escape of his prey. It was the last gun of the attack upon Washing ton. We carried the news of the retreat of the Confed erates to the city, and. that night, its inhabitants slept soundly, free from alarm or anxiety. In order to show the disparity between his own and the Union forces on the 12th of July, General Early has made a singular combination of figures. It is said that figures never lie, but sometimes thev come closer to a false impression than the Confederate general did to the capture of Washington. Although such was not the fact, let it be assumed, as he claims, that within the cir- 422 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN cle of the defences of the capital there were about 20,000 men — quartermasters ; laborers, who had never had a gun in their hands; district militia, of doubtful alle giance ; department clerks, and soldiers only half cured of their wounds. No one then familiar with the state of affairs in Washington will doubt that the condition and forces of the defences were accurately knoAvn to General Lee. It was upon that knoAvledge that Early's campaign was projected and executed; that he came before the city ; that he had disposed his forces ; that he had ordered the assault at daAvn on Tuesday morn ing. We must believe this, for General Early so Avrote doAvn the facts only two days afterwards. Of what avail, then, to take the census of males in the city? General Early intended to strike the capital before Grant could reinforce it, and to that end he had made a march of almost incredible swiftness and severity. AVhen he ordered the assault, he believed he had reached Washington with its situation unchanged, and so had accomplished his object. Such facts cannot be refuted. They establish the ultimate fact by circumstantial proof, which is declared by the common law to be more satis factory than the positive evidence of witnesses, Avho may be mistaken, while circumstances are always consistent with each other. It must therefore be accepted as a fact of history that. the capture of AVashington and the re lease of the Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout Avere the objectives of Early's campaign. Nor is the exact hour of his arrival before Washington any more important. At Frederick he was only thirty- five miles from the capital. In his report of July 14th he says, " On the morning of the 10th, I moved towards Washington, taking the route via RockviUe, and then turning to the left to get on the Seventh Street Pike. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 423 The day was very hot, and the roads exceedingly dusty, but we marched thirty miles." He passed the night of the 10th within five miles of Washington. Presump tively, he could have attacked next morning, when a considerable portion of his force Avas at Silver Spring and above Georgetown, within tAvo miles of the defences. His own statement of tho positions of his force on the 11th is very indefinite. The first detachment of the Sixth Corps did not reach the defences until after four in the afternoon. Had he made the attack on the morning of the 11th, he would have found the city in the condition supposed by General Lee when the campaign was pro jected. The Confederate army would have met Avith no resistance except from raAV and undisciplined forces, which, in the opinion of General Grant, and it Avas sup posed of General Lee also, would have been altogether inadequate to its defence. Its capture and possession for a day would have been disastrous to the cause of the Union. Early would have seized the money in the Treasury, the archives of the departments, the immense supplies of clothing, arms, and ammunition in store ; he would have compelled General Grant to raise the siege of Richmond ; he would have destroyed uncounted mill ions in value of property, and he would have had the same opportunity to retreat of which he availed himself next day. But with his veterans behind the defences, he would have had no occasion to retreat. The released prisoners at Point Lookout in two days would have added 20,000 to the strength of his army. The Confederates of Mary land would have swarmed to his assistance, and he could certainly have held the capital long enough to give Great Britain the excuse she so much desired, to recognize the Confederacy and break the blockade. After the danger 424 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LLNCOLN had passed, when its magnitude became apparent, there was but one opinion among the friends of the Union. It was that we had escaped a loss of prestige and prop erty, compared with which previous disasters would have been trifling, and probably a blow fataUy destructive to the Union cause. And there is another record which will be held in honor so long as and Avherever courage is held to be a virtue among men. It is the page which is filled with the story of Monocacy, where the streams ran blood, in experienced men fought like veterans, and veterans like the legionaries of Caesar. When the children of the re public are asked what it was that brought Early's cam paign to naught and saved the capital, let them be taught to answer, " General Wallace and his command at the battle of Monocacy, and the arrival of the Sixth Corps Avithin the defences of the capital." As promised, I proceed to compare other statements of General Early Avith facts which no one has ever ques tioned. Possibly they may have a bearing upon the credibility of other statements of his which are contro verted. In his report of July 14th, after stating that he had " moved his force up to the vicinity of the fortifica tions" (of the capital), he says : " Late in the afternoon of the 12th, the enemy advanced in line of battle against my skirmishers (of Rode's division), and the latter being reinforced, repulsed the enemy three times." No other account of the proceedings of that day makes any mention of any repulse of Federal troops, nor of any advance by them " in line of battle." In his article pub lished long after the Avar, General Early referred to this advance as an affair which occurred late in the after noon of the 12th, betAveen some troops sent out from the works and " a portion of the troops in my front line." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 425 General Long has omitted all mention of such an event. The account which I have given of the fighting before the Avorks on that afternoon could be confirmed by two thousand Avitnesses. The only line of battle that after noon was formed by Bidwell's brigade, after they had charged over the valley and up to the crest of the hill, opposite the fort, and driven every Confederate over the hill and out of sight of Washington. And this brigade was not repulsed ; on the contrary, it went up the hill at a speed scarcely outstripped by the pursued Confederates. On the top of the hill these veterans did form in line of battle, and Avere charged upon by the Confederate cavalry. But it was the cavalry, and not the Union force, which was repulsed and retreated. If the subject were open to argument, it might be asked for Avhat possible purpose a force, attacked when it was behind breastworks, went out to form a Une of battle in front of them ! No, this is a statement that cannot possibly be true. General Early frankly confesses that some of his men who were captured before Washington " did some very tall talking about my (his) strength and purposes." He says that he himself told a "sympathizer" that he " would not mind so small a force as 20,000 in the earth works of Washington." Such observations are so very difficult to explain, that we may leave them with the comment that they do not increase our confidence in the evidence of the witness who made them. Both General Early and General Long have asserted frequently, and with great apparent satisfaction, that the Confederate advance " threw the authorities, civil and military, at the Federal capital, as well as the Avhole pop ulation of Washington, into a wild state of alarm and consternation." Similar statements have been so fre quently made that they have been countenanced by some 426 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Union writers since the war, Avho have no personal knowl edge on the subject. General Early even claims that the universal " wild dismay " so upset the Northern judg ment as to disqualify it from forming any reliable con clusions, and that it led to the most exaggerated esti mates of the Confederate forces. These statements are destitute of the least shadoAV of foundation, for a reason which is conclusive. The Union men in AVashington had not the slightest knoAvledge of the existence of the danger. No confidence was placed in the press, Avhich as often contradicted as it asserted the fact of Early's advance, and all its statements Avere upon rumor. It may be assumed that those Avho had the cus tody of the money and securities Avould have been in formed as early as others, but until the Sixth Corps was in sight of the capital on Monday, neither the" treasurer nor the register had any knowledge on the' subject. Had I supposed there was even danger of possible delay on the railroads, I should have sent away my family, who were staying Avith me at a hotel. When they finally left the city on Monday, I offered to a party of acquaint ances the opportunity of going by the same train, and told them what I had seen above Georgetown. But they were so confident that only cavalry raiders were around the city that they declined, and consequently Major Gil- mor relieved them of their luggage at the GunpoAvder River the next morning. There was indignation in Washington when the facts were knoAvn, but there was no scare and no fear. And the indignation was directed against our OAvn authori ties, and not against the Confederates, the former beino- charged with the defence of the city. It was claimed that they should not have permitted its exposure to any danger. Even now, when we learn from the Memoirs AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 427 of General Lee that, Avithin four hours after the de spatch of the Sixth Corps by General Grant to the de fence of AVashington, a courier was on his way from General Lee to General Early with a letter giving its numbers and destination, Ave may consider it someAvhat remarkable that one third of Lee's army could have been detached on the 13th of June, and marched over two hundred miles into Maryland, and no knoAvledge of the movement have reached Grant until the 5th of July, Avhen he sent the first reinforcement of a part of the Sixth Corps to Baltimore. The effect produced by the mere presence of this corps was a grand tribute to the reputation of its soldiers. No one asked Avhat its numbers were. They had come, and the capital was saved. The friends of the Union at once assumed that the city must have been in danger, or Gen eral Grant Avould not have sent the Sixth Corps to its defence. The inhabitants resumed their ordinary avoca tions : one went to his field, another to his merchandise, with perfect confidence that the Sixth Corps Avould take care of AVashington ; and from his instant and precipitate retreat the belief was universal that General Early was of the same opinion. 428 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN XLV. THE JUDGMENT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.— HIS COOLNESS IN TIMES OF EXCITEMENT. — HIS FAITH THAT TnE UNION CAUSE AVOULD BE PROTECTED AGAINST SERIOUS DISAS TER.— FOUR OF HIS LETTERS NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. Those Avho Avere with the President upon the three occasions when the capital Avas supposed to be in danger of capture know that in neither of them did he exhibit any evidence of excitement or apprehension. The loss of the capital he regarded as a disaster that would prob ably be fatal, because it Avould give Great Britain a pre text for intervening in our affairs, of which she Avould certainly a\Tail herself. For that reason he did not be lieve it Avould happen. He made no parade of his faith, but upon proper occasions he spoke of our ultimate suc cess as one of the designs of the Almighty, and that he Avould protect the country against any disaster from Avhich it could not recover. He kept General McClellan in command in the campaign Avhich ended at Antietam, because, as he said, he clearly saAv that that was the surest Avay to insure the defeat of General Lee. The despatch, Avhich first announced the victory at Gettys- burgh did not produce in him the slightest emotion. . He read it, passed it to a civil officer, and directed him to read it to those who stood around him, with the quiet observa tion, " It is no more than I expected." The folloAving letters will shoAV the state of his mind during Early's invasion, and I submit them Avithout further comment. . On the 10th of July, at 9.20 a.m., after he had received AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 429 General Wallace's telegraphic report, which stated his defeat, and his losses much heavier than they proved afterAvards to be, for he then supposed that the Tenth Vermont and the One Hundred and Sixth New York were captured, the President wrote to ex-Governor Swann, at Baltimore, as foUoAvs : "Yours of last night is received. I have not a single soldier who is not disposed of by the military for the best protection of all. By latest accounts the enemy is moving on Washington. They cannot fly to either place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither Baltimore nor Washington will be sacked. A. Lincoln." At tAvo o'clock p.m. on the same 10th of July he wrote to General Grant, at City Point, as follows : " Your despatch to General Halleck, referring to what I may think in the present emergency, is shown me. General Halleck says we havo absolutely no force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with the hundred-day men and invalids we have here we can defend "Washington, and scarcely Baltimore. Besides these, there are about eight thousand, not very reliable, under at Harper's Ferry, with Hunter approaching that point very slowly, with what number I suppose you know better than I. " Wallace with some odds and ends, and part of what came up with Ricketts, was so badly beaten yesterday at Monocacy that what is left can attempt no more than to defend Baltimore. What we shall get in from Pennsylvania and New York will scarcely be worth counting, I fear. "Now what I think is, that you should provide to retain your hold where you are, certainly, and bring the rest with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to destroy the enemy's force in this vicinity. I think there is really a fair chance to do this if the movement is prompt. This is what I think upon your suggestion, and is not an order. A. Lincoln." There are some important interlineations in this letter. Speaking of HaUeck's opinion, he first wrote that the hundred-day men and the invalids " may possibly but not certainly defend Washington," and then erased these 430 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN words and interlined, " can defend Washington." As the letter Avas finally sent it expressed his opinion that both cities could be defended with their then present forces, and that Early's army could be captured by a prompt movement of General Grant. It contained no expression of fear. The President's next letter is dated July 11th, and is to General Grant: " Yours of 10.30 yesterday is received, and very satisfactory. The enemy will learn of Wright's arrival, and then the difficulty will be to unite Wright and Hunter, south of the enemy, before he will re- cross the Potomac. Some firing between RockviUe aud here now. "A. Lincoln." General Wright with the advance of the Sixth Corps began to arrive in the afternoon of the 11th, and the last detachment Avent to the front on the morning of the 12th. President Lincoln was in Fort Stevens at tAvo o'clock p.m., and remained there until the fighting Avas over. At 11.30 a.m. of the 12th he wrote to General Grant : " Vague rumors have been reaching us for two or three days that Longstreet's corps is also on its way to this vicinity. Look out for its absence from your front. A. Lincoln." These letters shoAv that while the situation was per fectly comprehended by the President, it did not disturb the serenity of his mind nor excite his apprehension. Neither on this occasion nor upon either of the Con federate campaigns north of the Potomac, did he have the slightest fear of the capture of Washington. AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 431 CHAPTER XLVI. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.— A SKETCH OF SOME EVENTS IN HIS LIFE. I cannot conclude this volume of disconnected sketches more appropriately than by a brief account of some events Avhich exerted a powerful influence upon Mr. Lincoln's character, and indirectly upon the fortunes of tho republic. I shall attempt no connected biography, but confine myself strictly to an account of the events to Avhich I have referred. On the 12th day of February, 1809, were born tAvo men Avho each exerted a more poAverful and permanent influence upon mankind than any of their contempora ries. The name of one Avas Charles Robert Darwin. He came of an old English family, renowned for its con tributions to physical science, which Avas able to give to its young representative aU the advantages of Avealth and position. From the university, young Danvin went as naturalist on board the British ship Beagle, engaged in explorations in the Southern Ocean. Returning from this voyage in the year 1845, he published the scientific results of his labors, in a large iUustrated volume, and also that charming book, " The Voyage of a Naturalist," so well knoAvn to students of physical science. Then for many years he was engaged in his private investiga tions, and cut no figure in scientific literature. But in the year 1858 (and synonymously with the "divided- house" speech of Mr. Lincoln) he convulsed the world of science by the pubheation of his " Origin of Species." 432 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN For this publication Mr. Darwin Avas denounced by the whole Christian Avorld. He was called a heretic, a pagan, a scoffer at the Bible, a knave or a fool, Avho had invented a theory Avhich led straight to atheism. But Mr. Darwin lived to see his theory adopted by the leading Christian thinkers of his time, as not irrecon cilable Avith the Bible, and when he died, " by the AviU of the intelligence of the nation," he Avas buried in AVcst- minster Abbey, "the fitting resting-place," said Dean Stanley, " and the monument of the heroes of England." On the same 12th day of February, 1809, in one of the new settlements of Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln was born. With none of the advantages of Avealth, educa tion, and position, which assisted the eminent English man, the young Kentuckian rose to greater eminence, and exerted a more powerful influence upon his country and his race, than his English contemporary. The object of this sketch will be fully accomplished if it shall direct the student of American history to the events and pro cesses by which such an extraordinary result was at tained. Mr. Lincoln once wrote his own biography in these words : " Born, February 13th, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. " Education defective. " Profession, a lawyer. " Have been a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk War. " Postmaster at a very small office ; four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and was a member of .the lower House .of Con gress." If he had not survived the year 1857, he would not have required a more extended biography. It is a singu lar but impressive fact that all the events Avhich have given him such an honorable place in American history AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 433 were comprised within the last seven years of his life. In his youth and early manhood there was nothing very different from the common experiences of young men of poor parents and his position in life. He had served through four sessions of the state legislature of HUnois, without any taint upon his reputation — he had an aver age position as a member of Congress in his second term ; he may have ranked as the leading lawyer of his county, and, what is perhaps more to his credit, he had acquired among those Avho kneAV him most thoroughly, the name of " Honest Abraham Lincoln." But he had done noth ing to distinguish himself above many of his contempo raries, or to give his name a place in history. Had his Ufe ended before the new year of 1858, he would have left to his chUdren a fair reputation as a lawyer, a good name as a citizen, a small estate, and the credit of no re markable achievement. But in that year, when he was already past middle Ufe, he suddenly appeared above the political horizon, and so strikingly challenged the public attention that he was taken out of private life, and, without any inter vening step, placed in the presidential chair. This was an extraordinary occurrence. It had not happened be fore, to a really able man, since the adoption of the Con stitution. There must exist a reason for it in some act of his own or with which he was prominently associated. An act which produced such a result should assist us in the interpretation of his character, and ought to be dis covered without great difficulty. The inquiry for it in volves some recapitulation. It appears from the story of Mr. Lincoln's youth that his early education comprised less than a year of very ordinary school instruction, and that the only books ac cessible to him were the Bible, " The Pilgrim's Prog- 28 434 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ress," " Burns's Poems," and Weems's " Life of Washing ton." His study of these books Avas A'ery thorough, for they were in large part committed to memory. The mental exercise involved taught him hoAv to think. During his public life, all his great ideas, his sentences that will outlive the spoken language, have been wrought out of his own brain with few or no adventitious aids. Thus, his first inaugural address is said by those who knoAV to have been composed Avith no assistance but the Federal Constitution and one of Henry Clay's speeches. But his entire public life testifies how thoroughly he had learned the power of thought, a lesson which feAv men completely master. Judged by their relations, some of his most matured mental conclusions must be referred to those years of quiet home life which inter vened between his retirement from Congress, in 1849, and his nomination to the Senate of the United States in the summer of 1858. The decade which ended in the year last named cov ered the aggressive campaign of slavery. The original slave states had been content to abide by the Missouri compromise line, and made no attempt to carry their domestic institution beyond it. But their representa tives in Congress, aided by Northern votes, secured the passage of the act for the return of fugitive slaves ; and encouraged by that act, and their short-liA'ed victory in the Kansas controversy, they broadly claimed the right to carry their slave property into free territory. The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Dred Scott, very nearly confirmed their claim, and Avell-nigh broke down the last geographical barrier between freedom and slavery. The friends of human freedom had never asserted any right to legislate touching slavery in the slave states or AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 435 south of the compromise line. Within those Umits slav ery was conceded to be a continuing evil, entrenched in the Constitution. The most ultra-aboUtionists had restricted their labors to the attempted abolition of sla very in the District of Columbia and its exclusion from the territories'. No public man had proposed to attack slavery Avithin its consecrated limits. Had the advo cates of the institution abided by the line to Avhich they had for a good consideration agreed, there is no reason to believe that it would have ever been disturbed except by themselves. But they would not abide by it. They charged the North with an agitation for which they alone were responsible. They made every success the pretext for some new aggression, until the halls of Con gress became the theatre of a conflict which was re newed with every session Avith increasing intensity. In the quiet of private hfe Mr. Lincoln was a thought ful observer of this controversy. He had taken note of the aggressions of the slave power, and he reached the conclusion that they would continue until they became intolerable. In the Kansas outrages they had almost reached that point, and when the point was passed he beheved that the fate of slavery would be determined. He hated slavery, because it Avas oppressive and cruel — he loved freedom, because it was the natural right of all men, ordained by the Almighty. Freedom had been fighting a losing battle, but it would triumph in God's own good time. He saw where his own party had erred, and he worked out in his own mind the lines upon which the next battle — the fight for freedom, could be won. Mr. Lincoln's mind Avas not secretive, but it was his habit not to disclose the problems upon which it was en gaged until all his own doubts were removed and his conclusions settled. This peculiar quaUty noAv received 436 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN a marked illustration. On the 17th of June, 1858, the Republicans of Illinois, at their state convention, in Springfield, nominated him as their candidate for the Senate of the United States. He anticipated the nom ination, 'and had written out his speech upon its accept ance. This speech seems to have been the most effective of his life, and as momentous as Avas ever delivered in this republic. Its theme Avas the insatiable demands of the slave power. Upon the incontestable authority of the Saviour of men, that " if a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand," he avoAved his own faith in these Avords : "I believe this government cannot per manently endure, half slave and half free." It is now more than a quarter of a century since Mr. Lincoln himself gave an unpretending account of the oc casion and circumstances of this speech. He spoke of it as an example of the thoroughness of his OAvn convic tions. It Avrought upon his hearers a conviction equally thorough, that for the first time it put the issue between freedom and slavery upon its true ground. We knoAV now that it made Mr. Lincoln President and drove the bolt of death straight to the life of human slavery. The announcement of this bold prediction almost pro duced a convulsion among the Republicans. It came upon them like a burst of thunder from a cloudless sky. His friends were shocked — his party leaders were ap palled. They declared that it destroyed his chances of an election ; that unless he retracted or modified it, his defeat Avas inevitable. The issue, as he proposed it, they said, involved the destruction of slavery or the govern ment. It was a declaration of open Avar. " I cannot change the fact, nor can I escape the conclusions of my own judgment," said Mr. Lincoln. " The statement is a truth confirmed by all human experience. It has been AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 437 true for more than six thousand years— it is still indis putably true. I cannot retract it without resorting to subterfuge, and that I Avill not do. I Avould rather be defeated, with this expression held up and discussed be fore the people, than to exclude it from my speech and be victorious." And so the message went forth. It was the result of his calm deliberation— by it he would stand or fall ! Judge Douglas Avas already his opposing candidate. He seized upon Avhat he believed to be his opportunity to destroy Mr. Lincoln. In his reply to the prediction, he assumed an air of lofty superiority— and scornfully declared that Mr. Lincoln's speech had been "prepared for the occasion." " I admit the charge," said Mr. Lin coln. " I have not a fine education hke Judge Douglas, and I cannot discourse on dialectics as he can, but I can be honest with the people, and tell them what I believe." Then he challenged Judge Douglas to a public discus sion; the challenge was accepted; the debate followed, Avhich is now historical. Instead of destroying the Re publican party, it drew to it a majority of the voters of Illinois, and left its candidate, although defeated by the legislature, the most conspicuous of its leaders. The influence of this debate has not yet passed away. Men still remember and refer, as an epoch in their lives, to tho first discussion of tho new issue by these two can didates, in the city of Chicago, on the 9th and 10th of July, 1858. Mr. Lincoln Avas an auditor when Judge Douglas, on the 9th, delivered a speech of such power that his admirers believed it unanswerable. But on the following evening Mr. Lincoln made an answer, in which he established a national reputation as an orator, and the " little giant of the West " found his peer as a logician and his master in eloquence. 438 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN What Avas it which drew such crowds of plain men to every one of the seven meetings for this debate ? Neither speaker indulged in oratorio flights or descended to the common level of the hustings. Mr. Lincoln even dis dained his ordinary anecdote and humor. Both sought to address the sound reason of their auditors by fair argument alone. Yet the public interest in the debate increased as it proceeded, and Avas never greater than on the evening when it closed. Mr. Douglas had not been an ultra pro-slavery man — he had opposed his own party in the trick by which it sought to force the Lecompton Constitution upon the people of Kansas ; he now took very high ground. He claimed that he was the cham pion of constitutional rights. He declared that he Avould maintain and enforce these rights for all the people, and when these rights were recognized he said he " did not care whether slavery Avas voted up or voted down." In his reply Mr. Lincoln spurned all half-way meas ures and men. AVas slavery right? If it was, then Judge Douglas ought to be sustained. If it Avas wrong, then Judge Douglas and his party had no claim to the support of good men. But slavery was not right. Sla very Avas degrading — it was cruel, brutal — it Avas unjust and wicked. Therefore it was Avrong, and Judge Doug las and his party ought to care, and ought to Vote, to put it doAvn. Freedom was the opposite of slavery. It was noble, just, godlike — and it was right. It was the gift of the Almighty to all men. He Avould seo that his children were not robbed of their birthright. Free dom Avas truth, it " was mighty, and Avould prevail !" To this plain issue of the Avrong or right of slavery Lincoln held his adversary Avith an inflexible hand. Douglas plied him \vith questions — he answered them fully, always coming back to the wrong of slavery. He AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 439 put questions in return, Avhich his opponent answered evasively, and then strove to retreat under cover of the evasion. Lincoln was the victor in every encounter. Finally, he drove his adversary into the corner, where there Avas no escape, and where he extorted from him the admission that his party was committed to the doc trine that slavery Avas right. Then, with the earnestness of Paul, he demanded, What true man Avould uphold slavery and wrong against freedom and the right and justice ? The great contest was half won when it was to be fought to its termination in the light of day on its real issue. Slavery had declared the Avar. It was not in its nature to recede or to lay down its arms until it Avas victorious or defeated. It was Lincoln who had forced the fighting to its true issue, and he, therefore, became the natural leader of the party of freedom. In the new departure of the " divided-house " speech, and in his powerful demonstration of the inexcusable wrong of slavery, lay the secret of Mr. Lincoln's power. He was at once in great demand as a poUtical speaker. In the Ohio campaign of 1859 — in the Cooper Institute in New York — in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and in Kansas — everywhere he went, he drew large audiences. His style of speaking was changed. He no longer told witty stories ; his speeches Avere so solidly argumentative that a feAAr said they were dry, and the same critics decided that their length made them tiresome. But the great audiences heard them delight ed, and complained only of their brevity. No theme had ever made so many permanent converts to his party faith as his, touching the wrong of slavery — no speaker had laid it bare with the strong sense of Abraham Lin coln. 440 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN As the day appointed for the national nominating conA'ention for the presidency approached, the name of Mr. Lincoln Avas mentioned as one of the candidates of the great West. But he was not regarded as a strong candidate in comparison Avith Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, Mr. Cameron, or Judge Bates, of Missouri. The Repub lican party was under a great obligation to Mr. SeAvard. His ability Avas conceded ; his long and brilliant services deserved recognition. It Avas supposed by his friends that he Avould poU the largest vote on the first, and be nominated on the second ballot. But the convention witnessed a demonstration in favor of Mr. Lincoln which left no doubt of the place he had secured in the hearts of the people. At the right moment the enthusiasm for him Avas lighted, and it ran over the convention like a prairie fire. It not only gave him the nomination, but it secured a solid, hearty union of all the members in his support. The presidential canvass of the year 1860 Avas unique in our political experience. It required none of the acces sories of the "log-cabin" campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." The pseudonym of " Railsplitter " was the gift of his enemies. The name of Abraham Lincoln was an inspiration. Enthusiasm for his election pervaded the country like an electric influence. It was every where the same. In the crowded city or at the country cross-roads ; up in the mountain hamlets, or out on the Western prairies ; among the fishermen of the Atlantic, and the miners of the Pacific coast, the political orator Avas heard Avith quiet consideration until he spoke the name of Lincoln. At that name, cheers such as never welcomed king or conqueror supplied his peroration. That Avas the only campaign in which every voter Avho deliberated voted for the same candidate, in which every AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 441 highest estimate for the successful candidate was ex ceeded by the counted vote. From his nomination to his election Mr. Lincoln calm ly awaited events. He came and went among his neigh bors, received delegations and dismissed them delighted, but ignorant of his intentions. He seemed to be less interested in the result than his supporters— he received the neAvs of his election Avithout exultation. He had promised no reAvards, made no pledges, and was free to follow whither his judgment pointed the way. From October, when his election was assured, until the end of February, the mind of Mr. Lincoln was de voted to his coming work. He laid it out with the care of an architect planning a building. He studied the situ ation. He determined the general policy of his admin istration with the greatest care. He prepared his in augural address — he decided upon the tenor of his speeches to be made on his journey to Washington— he well considered the temper of mind in which he should first meet the supporters of slavery. Nothing was left to accident which he could possibly foresee. His first public address was his farewell to his Spring field friends on his departure for the capital. That ad dress was the microcosm of his future. It was an avowal of his own undoubting faith in, and purpose to be guided by, the Avisdom of the Almighty. That faith and purpose he repeated upon every proper occa sion as long as he lived. In conformity with it, in all the addresses he made upon his journey, there was no threat, no harsh word, nothing but kindness for the Avhole people. To the friends of the South he extended the hand of affection. His inaugural address was full of peace, kindness, and good will. On one point only he was inflexible. He would perform his duty, enforce 442 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN obedience to the laws, and keep his oath to support the Constitution. The advent of the war Avas no surprise to him. He knew that slavery was so woven into the national life that it could not be Avrenched out of it Avithout violence and blood — as he said afterwards, that " every drop of blood drawn by the lash must be repaid by another draAvn by the sword." But in all the pressure of public duty and excitement of warlike preparation his mind was engaged upon measures, not to punish, but to pro tect those who had brought Avar upon the country as the consequence of their OAvn reckless acts. Slavery, which had taken the SAvord, must perish by the SAVord — it Avas the cause of the Avar, and war Avould only cease with its destruction. Yet he advocated payment by the nation of the full value of the slaves, and Avould even have removed the slaves into a far country at the na tional expense. It Avas not until his kindly proposals had been rejected by those whom they Avould have re lieved, with curses, that he ceased to make them, and the patience of the loyal North had been twice ex hausted when he issued the decree of emancipation. He came to his great office inexperienced in govern ment — no modern ruler was ever surrounded by so many difficulties. Yet he brought the nation through them all into the harbor of permanent peace ; and, looking back over his term, it is very difficult to say AYhere he took a wrong course or committed an error. Finally, when he was strongest in the love of a loyal people, had won the friendship of his former enemies, and had gained the respect of mankind, he sealed his faithful service with his blood, and was slain by an insane assassin. Nor was the intellectual groAvth of Mr. Lincoln any less remarkable. AVe have seen that his education AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 443 scarcely deserved the name. His course of reading was restricted to a feAv good books, but his thoroughness of study more than compensated for their lack of num bers, if any such existed ; for he has written many para graphs Avhich, in force, elegance, and beauty, are not surpassed in our language. Except Shakespeare, no writer of English has produced so many that will out live the spoken tongue. His fareAvell to his Spring field neighbors — the closing paragraph of his first, and the last third of his second inaugural address — the last sentence of his message to the third session of the Thirtj'- seventh Congress — his Gettysburg speech of Nov. 19, 1863, are examples from his pen which will not suffer by comparison Avith anything written by Addison or Irving, Daniel AVebster, or that scholarly master of Eng lish composition, George P. Marsh. And where in our language is a finer antithesis than this, thrown off, calamo currents, in the middle of a letter in answer to strictures on the conduct of the war? — " AVhen peace with victory comes, there will be some black men who Avill remember that with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped on mankind to this great consummation ; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to for get that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder and prevent it." A collection of his public addresses and letters, commencing Avith his farewell to Springfield in February, 1861, and ending with the last made by him on April 11, 1865, wiU be read hereafter with an interest as absorbing as any vol ume in the literature of the rebellion. Some of his written compositions may be classed as literary curiosities. In August, 1862, Mr. Horace Greeley had written to him an impatient and dictatorial letter, 444 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN charging him with culpable delay in the emancipation of the slaves, and their employment in suppressing the rebellion. Mr. Lincoln knew the force of short words and crisp sentences — he never used those of many syl lables or pretentious sound. His answer Avas all the more effective in that it took no note of Mr. Greeley's temper — Avhile its conclusive statements were embodied in four hundred and thirteen words, of which three hun dred and two, or more than seventy-four per cent., were words of a single syllable. In the campaign of 1864, the friends of General Mc Clellan, in Tennessee, presented to him a protest against the oath of loyalty prescribed by Governor Johnson, to be taken by the voters. It was an adroit political attempt to connect the President Avith a subject over which he had no authority, which he detected at first sight. They Avanted an ansAver. " I expect to let the friends of George B. McClellan manage their side of this contest in their own way, and I will manage my side of it in my way," he said. They were not satisfied, and Avanted an answer in Avriting. A few days later he sent them his written reply. It occupied one and a half printed octavo pages ; in fifteen paragraphs, none of them more than three lines. But every paragraph Avas an ansAver which struck the protest like a rock from a catapult. He never hesitated to sacrifice euphony to strength. "This finishes the job," he said, when Hlinois had voted, making the number of states requisite to ratify the amend ment of the Constitution abolishing slavery. Cuthbert Bullitt and other citizens of Louisiana had written to him, protesting against the severity Avith which the Avar was Avaged. " AVould you prosecute the Avar Avith elder- stalk squirts charged Avith rose-Avater, if you Avere in my position ?" he demanded, and there was no reply. In his AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 445 message to ihe extra session of Congress of Julv ±, 1S01, he wrote of Southern pohtical leaders, that, "with re belhon thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Mr. Defrees, the public printer, advised the omission of the compound word, on the ground that it was not dig nified. "Let it stand !" said the President; '•' I was not attempting to be dignified, but plain. There is not a voter in the U/nion who wiU not know what sugar-coated means." His heart was as tender as ever beat in a human breast. Those who saw him standing by the coffins of young Ellsworth and the eloquent Baker knew how he loved his friends — how he sorrowed over their loss. In his companionship with his boys, and particularly with the younger, there was a most touching picture of pa rental affection; in his emotion when he lost them, a grief too sacred to be further exposed. " He could not deny a pardon or a respite to a soldier condemned to die for a crime which did not involve depravity, if he were to try,"' said an old army officer. He shrank from the con firmation of a sentence of death in such a case, as if it were a minder by his hand. " They say that I destroy all disciphne and am cruel to the army, when I wiU not let them shoot a soldier now and then," he said. "But I cannot see it It God wanted me to see it, he would let me know it. and until he does. I shall go on pardon ing and being cruel to the end." An old friend caUed bv appointment, and found him with a pile of records of courts-martial before him. for approval. " Go away. Swett !"' he exclaimed, with intense impatience — " to morrow is butchering day. and I will not be interrupted until I have found excuses for saving the hves of these poor fellows 1" Many pages might be fiUed with an- 446 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN thentic illustrations of his tenderness and mercy, for they Avere prominent in his official life. Three times I assisted in procuring their exercise, each to the saving of a soldier, and each time he shared our own delight over our success, though he kneAV not hoAv his face shone when he felt that he had spared a human life. In the presidential campaign of 1864 there were sul len Avhisperings that Mr. Lincoln had no religious opin ions nor any interest in churches or Christian institu tions. They faded aAvay with other libels, never to be renewed until after his death. One of his biographers, who calls himself the " friend and partner for twenty years " of the deceased President, has since published what he calls a history of his life, in Avhich he revives the worst of these rumors, with additions Avhich, if true, would destroy much of the world's respect for Mr. Lin coln. He asserts that his " friend and partner " Avas " an infidel verging towards atheism." Others have dissem inated these charges in lectures and fugitive sketches so industriously that they have produced upon strangers some impression of their truth. The excuse alleged is, their desire to present Mr. Lincoln to the Avorld "just as he Avas." Their real purpose is to present him just as they Avould have him to be, as much as possible like themselves. It is a trait of the infidel to parade his unbelief before the public, and he thinks something gained to himself when he can show that others are equally deficient in moral qualities. But these writers have attempted too much. Their principal charge of infidelity, tinged Avith atheism, is so completely at variance Avith all our knoAvl- edge of his opinions that its origin must be attributed to malice or to a defective mental constitution. His sincerity and candor Avere conspicuous qualities of AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 447 Mr. Lincoln's mind. Deception was a vice in which he had neither experience nor skill. All who were admit ted to his intimacy will agree that he was incapable of professing opinions Avhich he did not entertain. When Ave find him at the moment of leaving his home for AVashington, surrounded by his neighbors of a quarter of a century, taking Washington for his exemplar, whose success he ascribed " to the aid of that Divine Provi dence upon Avhich he at all times relied," and publicly declaring that he, himself, " placed his Avhole trust in the same Almighty Being, and the prayers of Christian men and women ;" Avhen, not once or twice, but on all prop er, and more than a score of subsequent occasions, he avowed his faith in an Omnipotent Ruler, who will judge the Avorld in righteousness — in the Bible as the inspired record of his history and his law; Avhen Avith equal constancy he thanked Almighty God for, and declared his interest in, Christian institutions and influences as the appointed means for his effective service, we may as sert that we know that he was neither an atheist nor an infidel, but, on the contrary, a sincere believer in the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. In fact, he believed so confidently that the Almighty was mak ing use of the war, of himself, and other instrumentalities in working out some great design for the benefit of hu manity, and his belief that he himself Avas directed by the same Omniscient Power was expressed with such frankness and frequency, that it attracted attention, and Avas criticised by some as verging towards superstition. His public life Avas a continuous service of God and his felloAv-man, controlled and guided by the golden rule, in which there Avas no hiatus of unbelief or incredulity. Here I might well stop, and submit that these charges do not deserve any further consideration. But I know 448 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN how false they are, and I may be excused if I record one of my sources of knowledge. The emphatic statement made by the President to Mr. Fessenden, that he Avas called to the Treasury by a PoAver higher than human authority, I have already mentioned. His calm serenity at times when others were so anxious, his confidence that his own judgment was directed by the Almighty, so impressed me that, when I next had the opportunity, at some risk of giving offence, I ventured to ask him directly how far he be lieved the Almighty actually directed our national affairs. There Avas a considerable pause before he spoke, and Avhen he did speak, Avhat he said Avas moro in the nature of a monologue than an ansAver to my in quiry : "That the Almighty does make use of human agencies, and directly intervenes in human affairs, is," he said, "one of the plainest statements of the Bible. I have had so many evidences of his direction, so many in stances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above. I frequently see my way clear to a decision Avhen I am conscious that I have no sufficient facts upon Avhich to found it. But I cannot re call one instance in Avhich I have followed my OAvn judg ment, founded upon such a decision, Avhere the results were unsatisfactory ; Avhereas, in almost every instance where I have yielded to the views of others, I have had occasion to regret it. I am satisfied that Avhen the Al mighty wants me to do or not to do a particular thino-, he finds a way of letting me know it. I am confident that it is his design to restore the Union. He will do it in his own good time. We should obey and not op pose his will." AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 449 "You speak Avith such confidence," I said, "that I would like to knoAV how your knoAvledge that God acts directly upon human affairs compares in certainty Avith your knowledge of a fact apparent to the senses— for example, the fact that we are at this moment here in this room." " One is as certain as the other," he ansAvered, " al though the conclusions are reached by different proc esses. I know by my senses that the movements of the world are those of an infinitely powerful machine, which runs for ages Avithout a variation. A man Avho can put two ideas together knows that such a machine requires an infinitely poAverf ul maker and governor : man's nature is such that he cannot take in the machine and keep out the maker. This maker is God — infinite in Avisdom as well as in power. Would we be any more certain if we saw him ?" " I am not controverting your position," I said. " Your confidence interests me beyond expression. I Avish I knew hoAv to acquire it. Even noAv, must it not all de pend on our faith in the Bible?" " No. There is the element of personal experience," he said. " If it did, the character of the Bible is easily established, at least to my satisfaction. We have to be lieve many things which Ave do not comprehend. The Bible is the only one that claims to be God's Book — to comprise his law — his history. It contains an im mense amount of evidence of its own authenticity. It describes a governor omnipotent enough to operate this great machine, and declares that he made it. It states other facts which Ave do not fully comprehend, but which Ave cannot account for. AVhat shaU we do with them? " Now let us treat the Bible fairly. If we had a wit- 29 450 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ness on the stand Avhose general story we knew Avas true, Ave Avould believe him Avhen he asserted facts of which we had no other evidence. We ought to treat the Bible with equal fairness. I decided a long time ago that it Avas less difficult to believe that the Bible was what it claimed to be than to disbelieve it. It is a good book for us to obey — it contains the ten commandments, the golden rule, and many other rules which ought to be followed. No man Avas ever the Avorse for living ac cording to the directions of the Bible." " If your views are correct, the Almighty is on our side, and Ave ought to Avin without so many losses — " He promptly interrupted me and said, " We have no right to criticise or complain. He is on our side, and so is the Bible, and so are churches and Christian societies and organizations— aU of them, so far as I know, al most Avithout an exception. It makes roe stronger and more confident to know that all the Christians in the loyal states are praying for our success, that all their influences are working to the same end. Thousands of them are fighting for us, and no one will say that an officer or a private is less brave because he is a praying soldier. At first, when Ave had such long spells of bad luck, I used to lose heart sometimes. Now I seem to know that Providence has protected and Avill protect us against any fatal defeat. All Ave have to do is to trust the Almighty and keep right on obeying his orders and executing his will." I could not press inquiry further. I knew that Mr. Lincoln Avas no hypocrite. There Avas an air of such sincerity in his manner of speaking, and especially in his references to the Almighty, that no one could have doubted his faith unless the doubter believed him dis honest. It scarcely needed his repeated statements that AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 451 " whatever shall appear to be God's Avill, that I will do," his special gratitude to God for victories, or his numer ous expressions of his firm faith that God willed our final triumph, to convince the American people that he was not and could not be an atheist or an infidel. He has written of the Bible, that "this great Book of God is the best gift Avhich God has ever given to man," and that " all things desirable for man to know are contained in it." His singular familiarity Avith its contents is even stronger evidence of the high place it held in his judgment. His second inaugural address shows hoAv sensibly he appreciated the force and beauty of its passages, and constitutes an admirable application of its truths, only possible as the result of familiar use and thorough study. Further comment cannot .be necessary. Abraham Lincoln accepted the Bible as the inspired word of God ¦ — he believed and faithfully endeavored to live according to the fundamental principles and doctrines of the Chris tian faith. To doubt either proposition is to be untrue to his memory, a disloyalty of Avhich no American should be guilty. There are a few persons Avhose perverted minds ex perience a satisfaction in imputing to Mr. Lincoln a love for coarse, erotic stories and a habit of repeating them, which, if he had, would indicate a vulgar stratum in his mental structure. If these persons Avere conscious of the contempt with which those Avho really knew him listen to their statements that they have heard Mr. Lin coln relate these stories, they would never repeat them. No occupant of the Executive chair knew better the ex altation of his office or hoAv to maintain its dignity. If he had been inclined to such practices, this knowledge 452 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN would have effectually restrained him from their indul gence. But there is not a shadow of truth in these im putations. Major Hay and Mr. Nicolay, his secretaries, were members of his household during a largo portion of his official term — Mr. Carpenter, the artist, lived in the White House during six months — Professor Henry sought every opportunity to be with him, and these four witnesses, who saw him in his unconstrained private life, agree that neither of them heard from Mr. Lincoln's lips any sentence or Avord which might not have been re peated in the presence of ladies. The subject is one upon which I can and must give evidence. It Avas a great pleasure to me to listen to him, and I have several times sought to excite his propensity for anecdote with success. In my OAvn office, Avhere no one but a mes senger Avas present, he was under no restraint. Yet I never heard him relate a story or utter a sentence which I could not have repeated to my Avifo and daughters. Tho story of young AVebster and the schoolmaster, related elseAvhere, was the least refined ever told in my presence. AVhat may have been his habit, in this respect, before his election, and his coming to Washington, is unimpor tant. It is of his public life of Avhich I am speaking. A vulgar story in the mouth of the President of the United States Avould havo been offensive — to none more so than to Mr. Lincoln. It is time that the statements in question should cease. They originate in the prurient imaginations of their authors. The friends of Abraham Lincoln, who revere his memory, should protect his repu tation. They should resent such imputations in a man ner Avhich AviU impress his calumniators if it docs not re form them. I am asked, and more frequently as time moves on, AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. 453 which is the best biography of Abraham Lincoln? Where is the most reliable account of his life and ser vices to be found ? I am able to ansAver these inquiries Avithout hesitation. In my opinion, the noble Avork of Messrs. Nicolay and Hay must ahvays be the standard life of Lincoln. Their opportunities for obsenration and the collection of authentic facts Avere exceptionally good —their labors have been diligent and faithful. Their volumes constitute a great storehouse of facts Avell ar ranged and digested. It Avould be faint praise to say that their history is a Avork of rare merit. For those Avho deem the Avork of these authors too comprehensive, and wish to know what can be com prised in a single volume, his life by Mr. Arnold AviU have no competitor. Mr. Arnold Avas Mr. Lincoln's asso ciate at the bar, and his friend of many years. The two friends were unlike each other, and yet I think Mr. Ar nold possessed many of the qualities Avhich made Mr. Lincoln so attractive. His book Avas a labor of love, and is everywhere Avorthy of its subject and its author. Al though Mr. Arnold did not survive to witness its publi cation, and it lacks the final polish of his hand, it is one of the most reliable of American biographies. My pen lingers over this paragraph, the last I may ever Avrite about a good man Avhom I honored, respected, loved. I do not hope to make it Avorthy of its theme — or to employ it to better adA'antage than to commend the history of Abraham Lincoln to the careful study of all my countrymen. He came to his great office inex perienced and almost unknown — his responsibilities were heavier, his difficulties greater than Avere ever encoun tered by the head of any civil government — he Avas the object of the unrelenting hostility of his enemies, of the fiercest criticism of many of his former friends. 454 RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. His final triumph was not long delayed. An hour came of universal victory, Avhen the nation Avas swelling Avith a mighty joy over peace restored to a reunited nation. It Avas the last hour of his noble life. In the very climax of his career, Avhen his mind Avas filled with sympathy for the vanquished and Avith plans for their relief, when those who had borne arms against him had been overcome by his noble generosity, Avhen he had not a personal enemy in all the republic, he~Avas stricken doAvn. It is an honor and a consolation to his country men, South as Avell as North, that he fell by the hand of a crazed assassin. I venture the hope that Avhat I have written in this volume AviU tend to suppress the aspersions of a very smaU number of writers upon Mr. Lincoln, and increase the interest of his countrymen in the study of his life and character. The time has not yet come to measure his services, or to compare him with other public men. We must leave that duty to those who come after us, when Abraham Lincoln shall have ceased to grow in the Avorld's esteem, and we, Avho saw his face and heard his voice, and felt the warm grasp of his kindly hand, have passed aAvay. For the present, Ave may say of him as his biographer Avrote of Cicero, that, " though violent, his death Avas not untimely," for, like another noble man and martyr, he Avas ready to be offered, he had fought a good fight, he had finished his course, and he had kept the faith. Until we shall follow him where he shall re ceive his crown, let our hearts be his shrine, and our prayer Avithout ceasing be, " Lord, keep his memory green !" INDEX. Adams, Charles Francis, American minister in London, his efforts to prevent sailing of Confederate iron clads, 198 ; his confidential de spatches, 199; liis agreement to indemnify the liberal Englishman, 202 ; prevents the sailing of the iron-clads ; value of the service, 210,211. Anderson, Major Robert, favors ar mored vessels, from experience with armored battery at siege of Fort Sumter, 212. Armored vessels: Messrs. Laird con tract to build two for the Con federates, 197; their destination and intended use, 198 ; how their delivery was prevented by noble act of an Englishman, 198-211; they are sold to Eastern powers, 208, 209 ; iron-clads first suggested by Major Anderson after fall of Sumter, 213 ; their use opposed by naval officers, 214. Assassination conspiracy : Republi cans refuse to believe in its exist ence ; two members of Conference secretly visit Baltimore, February 17th, 58 ; Baltimore Republicans give details of the plot, 60 ; cool statements of an Italian, who had betrayed his associates, 61 ; con spiracy at first believed to be con fined to the criminal classes ; meet ings of its members ; who provided the money ? an actor connected with it, CO-63 ; police in sympathy with the plot, 63 ; the schooner and tug purchased, 61-63 ; Mr. Lincoln declines to pass through Baltimore except in open dav, 63 ; the facts communicated to E. B. Washburn, who replied that Mr. Lincoln had finally put himself in the hands of his friends, who would insure his safety, 64. Baird, Professor Spencer F., secretary of the Smithsonian, 238 ; suggests the Potomac Club, 239 ; his energy and scientific work, 240 ; discusses the octopus, 249. Baker, L. C., made chief of the detec tive service, 345; his lawless pro ceedings, 346 ; one of his illustra tive methods, 347-349 ; his method of dealing with " bounty-jumpers," 350. Baltimore city: obstructs passage of Northern forces ; public meet ings to prevent passage of troops, 120; authorities favor secession, 121; the " Plug-Uglics," 125-130. Bates, Edward, nominated for attor ney-general, 104. Baxter, General H. H., with ex-Gov. Ililand Hall, Levi Underwood, B. D. Harris, and the author, delegates from Vermont to Peace Conference, 19. Bellows, Rev. Dr. H W., principal or ganizer of the Sanitary Commission ; tenders its services to the Surgeon- General, who rejects them, 155; his indignation ; fortunate results of his appeal to the President, 166, 157. Belgian muskets condemned, pur chased by AVar Department at a low cost to arm the first-volunteers, 150. Benjamin, Judah P., a Secession leader, meets other leaders at house of Davis, Jan. 5, where final plans were agreed upon, 29. Bidwell, General D. D., charge of his brigade at battle of Fort Stevens, 416. 456 INDEX Black, Judge, transferred from at torney-general to State Department on resignation of General Cass, 28 ; his opinion that Congress had no power to make war upon a state, 179. Blair, Montgomery, nominated post master-general, 104. Blair, Colonel Frank, his services in the Lincoln campaign of 1860,9; prefers charges against General Fremont, 174. Blatchford, It. M., with General Dix and George Opdyke, authorized to expend $2,000,000 for public de fence in April, 1861, 177. Bonds of the United States : how $10,000,000 were issued, 194; ne cessity for their issue in seventy hours, 195, 196 ; Mr. C. F. Adams's agreement to deposit them as se curity for the noble act of an Eng lishman, 201 ; severe labor of their issue within the time required, 204; success of the undertaking, 208 ; statistics of the magnitude of Treas ury issues, 209 ; more than half of this issue returned to the Treasury in original packages, 209. Bradley, John, a Vermont contractor, offers to remove the colored race to Texas, 337 ; his opinion of the President, 338. Breckinridge, Vice-President, prom ises co-operation with General Scott to secure count of electoral vote and declaration of President Lincoln's election, 38; his dignity and firm ness, 43 ; declares the election of Lincoln and Hamlin, 44 ; his fidel ity until the end of his official term, 46 ; his division forms part of Gen eral Early's army, in the campaign against AVashington, in July, 1864, 391. Breech-loading guns: none in use at commencement of the war, except Colt's revolvers for the cavalry, 150. Bright, John, one of the few friends of the United States in Great Biit- ain, 134. Buchanan, President: determination of Secessionists to drive out loyal men and control his Cabinet, 28; receives the Peace Conference, 32 ; his intense anxiety; urges mem bers to make great concessions to the South, 33 ; does not refer to in coming administration, 34 ; his re turn to private life, with less credit than he deserved, 91. Bushnell, Cornelius S., presses passage of bill authorizing iron-clads, and builds the Galena, 215 ; shows Cap tain Ericsson's plans to the Presi dent, 215 ; the President favors and the Board of Construction consents to their adoption, 216 ; secures the contract for the Monitor, which i3 built principally through his energy, with Messrs. AVinslow, Corning, and Griswold his associates in the con tract, 216; energy of her construc tion, 217. Butler, Benjamin F., Colonel of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment; on steam - ferry Maryland, from Havre-de-Grace to Annapolis, 125 ; saves the Constitution by towing her out of Annapolis ; awaits a rebel attack at Annapolis Junction, 126-128. Cabinet officers: principle of tlieir selection by President Lincoln, 104. Call for men : first call for 75,000, April 15, 107. Campbell, Hugh, appointed on com mission in Department of the AVest, 173. Cameron, Senator Simon, announced as a prospective member of- Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, 81 ; nominated as Secretary of AVar, 104 ; applied to for .rifles for First A'ermont, 151 ; his resignation as Secretary of AVar, 168; success as a manager of cor porations, 169; reasons for his res ignation; retains the confidence of the President, 176 ; House of Rep resentatives censure him by resolu tion; his prompt vindication by the President, 177. Campaign, political, of 1 860: a glimpse of, 8 ; A'ermont first pronounces for Lincoln, in September, 8 ; speech- making in Pennsylvania with Col onel Blair, 11 ; the "AVide-awake?," a meeting in Southeastern New Jer- INDEX. 457 eoy, 1 2 ; excitement over tho election returns from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and other states, 13 ; elec tion of Mr. Lincoln practically de cided In October, 14 ; Republican gains; election <,r Judge. Kelley; counting iu a candidate, in, 10. Cass, General, to be forced out of Bu chanan's Cabinet by Secessionists, 29-34. Chaso, Salmon P., ti ; selected by Mr. Lincoln for Secretary of tho Treas ury; approves the Republican cau cus of members of Peace Confer ence, 104; 1mm opinion that civil war was inevitable; appoints a col lector of customs for Vermont; of fers tho author a bureau in the Treasury, 105; wishes to havo loyal inou about him, 109; orders tho Treasury to ho defonded, 112; chair man of Republican caucus of mem bers of Conference, 35 ; announced as a prospective member of Mr, Lincoln's Cabinet, 81 ; directs issue of $10,000,000 in coupon bonds to comply with a pledgo of Minister Adams, 1 95 ; decides that tho scorct of tho English friend of tho United States must not be disclosed except by his authority, 210; frauds under his administration and their detec tion, 286 ; opposed to internal-rov- onuo system until compelled to adopt it, 342; decides in favor of employing detectives in tho intcrnal- rovenuo and customs service, 314 ; evil conHe(|iienees of his decision, 346; his resignatlpn ns Secretary of the Treasury ; its inadequate causos; his nomination of M. Ii. Field, 870 rterq. ; Mr. Lincoln's just estimate of him, 377 et aeq. ; Mr. Lincoln makes him chief justice, 3R3 ; his gratitude and subsequent affection for President Lincoln, 3HI. Cisco, John J., resigns as assistant treasurer of New York, 370; his fidelity and valuo, 372 ; withdraws his resignation, 370. Clarke, General I). AV. C, Exeoutlvo Clerk of tho Senate, capturod, with his family, and robbed by Harry Gilmor, on the Bnltimore and Ohio Railroad, July 12, 1804,409. Clay, CaBsius M., forms n company for defence of tho AVhito House, 115. Clay, .lames II., member of Conference from Kentucky, 31 ; his cordial re ception by Mr. Lincoln, who ex presses his admiration for Hcnrv Clay, 72. Cobb, Secretary Howell : premature nets of, and thoso of Secretary Floyd, postpone proposed seizure of Washington, 28 ; assists in driv ing General Cass from the Cabinet, and destroys the public credit, 179. Colored race, the: their strong desiro to learn to read ; a colored preacher, 161 ; his discussion of the superior ity of the white race and confidence iu the President, 162-166; four gray-haired colored scholars taught by a boy, 160; sources of early news of the colored people, 167; procession of tlieir children from Sunday -school reviewed by tho President, 331 ; enthusiasm of the colored children for him, 332. Congress : extra session called for July 4, 1801, 107; passes tho net for Board of Construction, and au thorizes armored vessels, 214. dimming, Alexander, with Governor Morgan, authorized to transport troops and provide for public de fence, in April, 1861 ; defended by tho President, 177. Curtin, Androw (}., Republican candi date for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1801; his canvass and election, 9-14. Darwin, Professor Charles, born on the snmo dny with Mr. Lincoln; their advantages and personal in fluence compared, 431 et set}. Davis, Captain, with Admiral Smith and Commodore Paulding, formed the Board of Construction, and approved armored vessels for the navy, 216. Davis, captain of Tenth' Vermont, holds the skirmish lino at Monoc acy nil day with sovonty-Ilvo men, 304 H acq. ; defeats attempt of Confederates to cross tho railroad bridgo and break AVallace's line, 398 et. urn. ; narrow esenpo and cour- ago of his men, 399. 458 INDEX. Davis, David : his appointment on commission in the Department of the West, 173. Davis, Jefferson, to be president, of Confederacy to seize the govern ment, Feb. 13th, 28 ; head of new plot to seize AVashington, March 4th; meeting at his house, Jan. 6th, 29 ; his long enmity to General Scott, 94-96; opposes conferring upon General Scott the rank aud pay of lieutenant-general, 96 ; opin ion of General Taylor, his father-in- law, of Mr. Davis, 95 ; commissions officers of armored vessels to be built in England, 199. "Demand notes," their redemption and destruction, 289 ; their origin and issue, 297 ; extraction of writ ten signatures upon, 298. Department of the AVest : excessive claims upon the Treasury in ; tlieir disposition, 175; Secretary Stanton refuses to approve them, 187 ; ef forts to influence him to allow them, 188 ; how they were paid, 189; claimants accept payment of allowance by commission, and then bring suit, 189 ; they fail to recover, 190. Detectives, professional : arguments for and against their use in the Treasury, 342-344; Secretary Chase decides to employ them, 344 ; evil consequences of their employment, 346 ; necessity of continuing their use, 347-351. Dix, General John A., brought into the Cabinet by misdeeds of Secre tary Cobb, 28 ; his despatch to Hemphill Jones, 34 ; his influence in the Cabinet, 79, 80 ; on the quiet of the inauguration, 91; with George Opdyke and R. M. Blatchford author ized to expend $2,000,000 for arms and supplies, in April, 1861, 177. Dodge, AVilliam E., member of the Conference from New York, presses Mr. Lincoln to yield to the demands of the South, and not go to war on account of slavery, and so prevent the grass from growing in the streets of Northern cities, 74 ; Mr. Lincoln's expressive reply, 75; its influence upon the audience, 76. Douglas Democrats praise the inaugu ral, 103. Douglas, Stephen A., moves omission of formal parts of certificates dur ing count of electoral vote, 44 ; his debate with Mr. Lincoln in 1858, 437 et scq. Early, General Jubal A., denies his in tention to attack AVashington in 1864, 385; his supposed force and intentions, 387 et act], ; his denial that he intended to attack Wash ington, and his report of July 14th, 1864, 388 et aeq. ; declines to give his numerical force, 390 et aeq. ; presses for AVashington after the battle of Monocacy, 401 et aeq.; is before Washington with his army on the morning of July 11th, 405 etaeq.; his retreat, 408 etaeq.; leaves four hundred of his wounded at Frederick, 400 et aeq. ; confesses a loss of three thousand at the Monoc acy, 401 ; before AVashington, 403 ; he does not give the strength of his force, 421 ; denies that he expected to capture AVashington ; his state ments about the battle in front of Fort Stevens, 424; the statements of himself and his men, 425; his statements that "dismay and con sternation prevailed in AVashing ton," 426 et aeq. English citizen, an : his great service to our government; offers to pro vide £1,000,000 sterling as security for an order to arrest Confederate iron-clads; his secret; obligation to keep it, 194-210. Ericsson, Captain John, approves plans of the Galena, and furnishes C. S. Bushnell with plans for an invulner able armored vessel, 215 ; his plans rejected by Board of Construction ; visits AVashington; the President favors his floating-battery, and the board reverses its decision, 216; Monitor built on his plans, and her draught less than he calculated, 217; Captain Fox calls him the in ventor of the Monitor, 234. Fairbanks, Governor Eras tus, appoints delegates to Peace Conference, 19 ; INDEX. 450 offers First Vermont Regiment, April UUh, 107 ; applies (or Enfield rillos for First Vermont Regiment, and oilers to purchase! their guns in preference to arming them with llclglan muskets, 161. KosHcndon, Senator, Is appointed See rclaiy of the Treasury, 381 ; dc- eliues I he appointment, but yields to the Influence of President Lin coin, '.Wij't aeq. Field, DuviiT Dudley, meinber of Con ferenee from New York; (Inal vote of New York on resolutions of the Oonl'oroneo by unfair advantage taken of his absence, 82. Field, Maunsel II. . Ids relations to .Secretary Chiise; Is made Assistant Secretary of tho Treasury, 371 ; is named lo I'resldont Lincoln by Sec retary Chuse for assistant treasurer of Now A'orU ; opposition to his nomination, 373 ft aeq. Floyd, Secretary J. 11. ; his disloyally In President Buchanan's Cabinet; leaves tho Cabinat charged with crime, 180. Foot, Senator, of Vermont: esteem of Verntonters for him ; he regards the Con ferenee as a trick ; his bold denunciations of Secessionists, 20 ; suggests to delegates to arm aud defend themselves, 21. Fox, Guslavu.s V., a favorite of Pres ident Lincoln; Assistant Secretary of the Navy ; liis impressions about armored vessels, 213 ; favors build ing tho (VhiVhit, 216, and the Mon itor, 210; watches progress of the Atfrrimne and predicts her success, 217; warns the rresident that she may prove elTeclive, 2IS; despatch from, after first battle with Ihe iter- rinuu; 223 ; his pralso of Captain AVordeu for his handling of the Monitor; attributes tho Monitor to President Lincoln, 2,'U. Fractional currency : Its origin and utility, 303; large amounts Issued mid redeemed ; profit of the United Slates upon, 301 ; wholly mado In ono Treasury bureau, 306. Franklin, Captain AV. 11., appointed to organize and drill the Treasury reg iment, 113; captured by Gilmor's cnvalry, July 12th, 1801 ; his escape on tho day of Ills oaplure, 409. Frederick, city of, oompollod by Gen eral Marly to pay $200,000 In Fed eral money, 401. Fremont, General, appointed to com mand tho Department of the West; his extraordinary powers, 171 ; his want or business ability, 172; ho inanunills slaves of relied owners, and the President reverses his order, 173; his susceptibility to praise; gives contracts to all ; General Blnlr's chnrges against him, 171; Ills removal by tho President, and Ids loyal action thoreupon, 174. Galena, the, first armored vessel, built at Mystic, Conn. ; doubts of her suc cess ; her plans approved by Cap tain Kriesson; public outcry against her; tho President and Captain Fox lior friends, 215. Gault, J., Invents encased postago stamp; extent of Its uso as ourrou ey, 30 1 -303. Gooch, Hon. I). W., of Massachusetts: his report to 38th Congress on con dition of exchanged Union prison ers at Annapolis, 326 ; says the prisoners wore intentionally starvod by the rebel Authorities, 326. Grant, General U.S. : simplicity of his first visit to Washington, 317; his cull ou the rresident heforo ad vance of tho Army of the Potomac, 319; his views of tho Union and Confedornto armies, 321 ; his cele brated telegram of May 1 lt.li, I SOI, 322 ; decides to removo General Thomas from command of the army operating against Hood, 303 ; waits, and Thomas defeats Hood, 301 ; finally does Thomas justice in his "Personal Memoirs," 306 ; his osti- mnto of tho battlo on the Monoc acy , 3110; sends part of Sixth Corps to Wallnco In Baltimore, 392; in tended to reinforce Washington if attacked, 407. Great Hritain favorable to the North at beginning of the war, 132; be comes hostile — reasons therefor, 133; contemptuous treatment of tho American minister, 134 ; do- 460 INDEX. mands surrender of Mason and Sli dell, and prepares for war, 137 ; re pudiates her former claims, 139; attributes the surrender to coward ice, 146; unfriendliness of crown officers to the United States, 198 ; demands security in £1,000,000 for preventing departure of iron-clads, 199; waives the demand on notice that Mr. Adams would give the se curity, 208. " Greenback :" army name for legal- tender notes; its origin, 311. See Legal-tender. Greene, Lieutenant, fired the guns dur ing first part of the battle with the Merrimac, 231 ; his youth and mod esty ; takes command of the Mon itor when Captain Worden was disabled, 226 ; his modest account of the last part of the fight, 232. Gregory, C, describes encased postage- stamp in Philatelic Journal, 301. Griswold, John A., Corning, & AVins- low, co-contraetors with C. S. Bush nell to build the Monitor, 216. Gurowski, Adam : his sources of in formation of events; his origin un known, 26 ; his address to Northern members ; details alleged conspiracy to seize the government, 26 - 30 ; urges members to go home and or ganize regiments, 27 ; declares that Lincoln's election determined the South on war, 29 ; seizure of Wash ington on February 13th prevented by indiscretions of Cobb and Floyd, 28 ; postponement of seizure to March 4th ; new conspiracy confined to loaders ; to be managed by Jef ferson Davis, 30 ; Peace Conference a part of the plot, 30 ; declares his personal knowledge of the plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln, 58. Hall, Hiland, ex-Governor of Vermont, delegate to Peace Conference, 19 ; surprised by conversation with Sen ator Foot, 20 ; shocked at sugges tion of carrying arms, 22 ; his reply to a Kentuckian on the subject of the courage of New England men, 56. Hamilton, Alexander : his creation of the Treasury system of the United States, 4 ; no account of the Treas ury to be found in his writings or elsewhere in print, 4, 5 ; his checks against frauds, 285. Harrington, George, First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, 109 ; in vites heads of bureaus to meeting for defence of the Treasury, 112; announces that Captains Shiras and Franklin will drill the Treasury reg iment, 113. Henry, Colonel William W., commands Tenth Vermont, which is sent, under General Ricketts, to reinforce Gen eral AVallace at Baltimore, 392 et aeq. ; gets fastest steamboat, reaches Baltimore, hurries to the front, where he arrives on July 8th, 392 ; deceives the Confederates, and reaches the Monocacy on morning of July 9th, 393 ; receives General Wallace's order to retreat, 397; brings off his regiment, 397 ; General Wallace's opinion of him, 400 ; his regiment at the Relay House, 409. Henry, Dr. Joseph, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ; liis char acter; his esteem for President Lin coln, 285 ; his conversation with the President, 237. Herald, Neio York, compelled by the people to display the "Stars and Stripes," 107. nicks, Governor of Maryland, elected as a Union candidate; opposes pas sage of regiments through Balti more, 121; his interview with the President, April 20th, 1861, 122; the President's answer to him, 123. Histories of the war, their inaccuracies, 3. Holt, Judge, of Kentucky, a loyal mem ber of Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet; his influence, 79, 80; assists in the or der of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, 91 ; appointed on commission in Department of the AVest; his jus tice and equity, 173 ; his fidelity and loyalty in President Buchanan's Cabinet, 181. Hospital notes: the wounded from the Wilderness; tlieir sufferings and exposure, 251 ; charities of the colored people ; " mammy " and her pickles, 255 ; the Catholic sisters, INDEX. 461 258; anaesthetics and their merci ful effects, 201; the wounded Dane, 263. Inauguration of President Lincoln, March 4 th ; u. bright day, the city orderly, soldiers not visible, 84; pro cession starts from Executive Man sion, with President Buchanan in an open carriage ; takes up Mr. Lincoln at Willard's, and moves through a great multitude of spec tators to the Capitol, 85, 86 ; strong contrast of the two presidents, 86 ; Senator Baker introduces Mr. Lin coln, 87 ; his voice distinctly heard ; its opening received in silence ; his declaration that the laws should be executed in all the states excites great applause, 89 ; beauty of his peroration ; impressive dignity of his oath to defend the Constitution, 90, 91 ; return to the Executive Man sion without disorder or disturb ance; departure of ex -President Buchanan to private life; the un disturbed dignity of the impressive ceremony due to the influence of Mr. Buchanan, Secretaries Dix, Holt, and Stanton, and General Scott, 91, 92. Johnson, Colonel Bradley T., selected by General Lee to command expe dition to release Confederate pris oners at Point Lookout, 386 ; com mands division of cavalry in Early's campaign in July, 1864, 387; moves against railroads and for Point Lookout, 389; is recalled by Gen eral Early, 390. Johnson, AValdo P., member of the Conference, afterwards a Confed erate brigadier, wants to know how Mr. Lincoln got through Baltimore ; Mr. Seddon's reply, 66. Kelley, William D. : first meeting with him at the Astor House, in Septem ber, 1861, 8 ; his first canvass and election to Congress, 8-15, 16. Laird, Messrs., ship-builders, contract with Confederates to build, two iron clad vessels at Birkenhead, 197; how their departure was prevented by Minister Adams, 198-203. Lamon, Ward H., Mr. Lincoln's friend and prospective Marshal of the Dis trict, not present when he received the Conference ; a member supplies his place, 71. Lane, Colonel, of Kansas, forms a com pany to defend the Wliite House, in April, 1861, 115. Lee, General Robert E., a colonel in 1861 ; arrived in AVashington from Texas about March 1st; General Scott's high estimate of, 97 ; con demns secession iu a letter to his son, January 23d, 1861, in very strong terms, 98 ; rumor early in April that General Seott would re sign and Colonel Lee be appointed to command, 99 ; resignation of members of his family; resigns his own commission, April 20th, 99 ; his only reason that he did not de sire to draw his sword against Vir ginia; was this reason adequate? 100; influence of his family; its probable effect if exerted in behalf of the Union, 101 ; his splendid genius, military abilities, high char acter, and otherwise stainless life admitted, but his claimed justifica tion for taking up arms against his country and his flag denied, 99-102; he is informed of all events in AVash ington, 3S6; plans the movement against AVashington in 1864, 387 ; statements of Colonel Long, his biographer, 388. Lefferts, Marshal, colonel of the Sev enth New York Regiment, 125, 128, 131. Legal -tender notes: their origin a necessity, 306 ; President Lincoln's opinions of their legality, 307; de scription of, 310; amounts issued and outstanding, 311; amount re duced by Secretary McCuUoch, 313 ; Congress prohibits further reduc tion, 314; opinion of Secretary Chase on their constitutionality, 315 ; portraits of living men upon, prohibited, 306. Lewis, AValker, a colored man ; his experiences as a slave ; his appoint ment as a messenger; his fidelity, 462 INDEX. 159 ; rules for his own observation, 161 ; his industry and success, 160. Lincoln, Abraham : decease of his financial officers, 2 ; his charity, 7 ; the campaign of 1860, 8; his elec tion assured in October, 14; elec toral vote counted, and declared elected, 40 ; his peaceable election, and its announcement secured by General Scott and Vice-President Breckinridge, 46 ; threats against his life by Southern newspapers, 48 ; conspiracy for his assassina tion in Baltimore in February, 58 ; consents to follow advice of his friends on his journey through Bal timore, 64 ; arrival in Washington, and his alleged disguise, 65 ; disap pointment caused by his arrival to Southerners, 66 ; coutempt of Seces sionists for ids supposed coarseness and vulgarity, 67 ; receives mem bers of Peace Conference on the evening of his arrival, 68; desires acquaintance with Southern mem bers, 69 ; his frankness with them, 71 ; his reception of Mr. Rives, James B. Clay, George AV. Sum mers, and others, 72 ; his answers to Mr. Seddon, 74 ; to AVilliam E. Dodge, 75 ; his determination to enforce the provisions of the Con stitution, 73 ; declines to discuss the slavery question, 76 ; opinions of Mr. Rives, Judge Ruffin, and oth er Southerners of Mr. Lincoln, 77; influence of his arrival in AVashing ton in checking growth of secession, 80; his procession to the Capitoi on March 4th ; his introduction to the audience by Senator Baker, of Oregon, 87 ; his opening address received in silence, 88 ; effect of his announcement that he would use the National powers to recover the forts and property of the nation, 89 ; subsequent enthusiasm of the audience; his oath to support the Constitution, 90 ; his return to the Executive Mansion, 91 ; hated by the Secessionists, 93 ; his novel se lection of his Cabinet officers, 104; his first call for seventy-five thou sand men on the fall of Fort Sum ter, 106 ; popular enthusiasm for him, 107 ; his interview with Dr. Wyune, 118; the governor of Mary- laud and mayor of Baltimore solicit an order that no more Northern regiments be permitted to pass through Maryland, 122; his answer to them, 123 ; his reception of the New York Seventh and Eighth Massachusetts regiments, 129 ; his prompt decision that Mason and Slidell, captured on the British steamer Trent, must be surren dered; his reasons therefor, 147; his influence iu overcoming preju dices of the War and Navy depart ments against the volunteer service, 149 et aeq.; orders the surgeon- general to co-operate with the San itary Commission, 155 ; confidence of the colored people in him as their chosen emancipator, 1 63 ; ap points Davis Commission on claims in the Department of the AVest, and removes General Fremont, 173 ; his confidence in Secretary Cameron, 176; overlooks Mr. Stanton's dis courtesy and appoints him Secre tary of War, 185; his attachment to Secretary Stanton, 186 ; his reply to resolution censuring Mr. Came ron, 177 ; his trust in Secretary Stanton, 192; consultation with him about issuing bonds on pledge of Minister Adams, 195 ; early opin ions in favor of armored vessels, 213; favors construction of the Galena, 215 ; approves Captain Ericsson's plans for the Monitor, 216 ; his confidence that the Mer rimac would not prove irresistible, and his faith in the favor of the Almighty, 219; his confidence in Captain Worden and the Monitor, 220; his cheerfulness over news of the Merrimac's first victories, 222 ; receives news of the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, 224 ; not elated by the Monitor's victory, 225 ; hears Captain AVorden de scribe the fight on the deck of the Monitor, 227 ; Captain Fox attrib utes the adoption of armored ves sels to President Lincoln, 234; his interviews with, and high opinion of, Professor Henry, 236 ; the par- INDEX. 463 don of the sleeping sentinel, 265 ; Scott's death at Lee's Mills; his message to the President, 280 ; his opinions of the constitutionality of legal - tender notes, 307, 310; ' his love for ballad poetry, 309 ; his in terest in returned prisoners at An napolis, 323; his sympathy for them, 827 ; unwilling to believe they were intentionally starved by the rebels, 328 ; his review of the colored chil dren, 332; his story of Daniel Web ster and the school-master, 333; favors paying for slaves, 335; his interview with a Vermont contrac tor, who would remove the slaves to Texas, 337 ; advises General Grant not to relieve General Thomas and give his command to General Logan before the battle of Nash ville, 364; his faith, 368; he accepts Mr. Chase's resignation ; his just estimate of Secretary Chase ; he ap points him chief justice, 371 et acq. ; his opinion that the republic did not depend on the life of any one man, 377; nominates Mr. Fessenden as Secretary of the Treasury, who declines and finally accepts the ap pointment, 381 ; his influence upon Mr. Fessenden, 382 ; witnesses bat tle at Fort Stevens, 416; his calm ness in times of excitement, and confidence that Washington would not be captured, 428 ; letters of, to Governor Swann and General Grant now first published, 429,430; sketch of some events in his life, 436 et acq.; writes his own biography, 432; his power of thought, 434; origin and powerful influence of his " di vided-house" speech, 435 etaeq.; his debate with Senator Douglas and Chicago speech of July 10th, 1858,436; his nomination and elec tion, 440 et aeq.; his faith in the Bible, 447 et acq.; the best histories of his life, 453. Logan, General John A., ordered by General Grant to supersede Thomas in command of the army against Hood ; waits at Cincinnati until Thomas defeats Hood, when the order is rescinded, 363 el aeq. Logan, Stephen T., member from Illi nois, moves that the members of tlie Conference call in a body on the President-elect; motion carried by the influence of President Tyler, 67. London Times, the, opposes secession before the commencement of the war, 132; favors secession and dis union, 133; statement of practice of Great Britain in eases like that of the Trent, 138; attributes sur render of Mason and Slidell to American cowardice, 110. Long, General : his account of Early's campaign against AVashington, 388. Lowndes, Francis, a cleric in the Reg ister's office, seventy-five years old, the firBt to sign a pledge to defend the Treasury, 114. Lyons, Lord, British minister, friendly to the North ; his person and char acter, 140; his interview with Sec retary Seward, 141 ; indifferentwhen MaBon and Slidell are surrendered, 141 ; sends a steamer to Province- town, 146. Maryland: Governor Hieks and au thorities oppose passage of troops; public meetings in, 120, 121. Mason and Slidell, captured on British steamer Trent by Captain AVilkes, of the San Jacinto, 134; their de livery demanded by Great Britain, 137 ; Mr. Seward agrees to surren der them, 140 ; they are Bent from Fort AVarren to Provincetown, Cape Cod, and delivered to a British steamer, 146 ; their mission a fail ure, 147 ; their complaints of accom modations, 147. Mason, J. M., and John Slidell, Seces sion leaders, present at meeting at Davis's house, January 5th, 29 ; Mason to arrange for Peace Con ference; Slidell and Mallory to call convention at Montgomery, 29. Massachusetts Sixth Regiment fights its way through Baltimore ; its dead and wounded, 116; its gallantry, 117. McClellan, General George B. : bag gage train for his headquarters de scribed, 317. McClure, Colonel Alexander, conducts 464 INDEX. the Republican campaign in Penn sylvania in 1860, 9 ; his efficiency, 9-13. Merrimac, the : Confederate Congress plans her conversion into an ar mored vessel in May, 213 ; Captain Fox reports her completion and pre dicts her success, 217; sinks the Congreaa and the Cumberland, 222 ; her light with the Monitor reported, 224 ; described by Captain Worden, 228. Minneaota, the, runs aground in Hamp ton Roads when the Merrimac first came out of Norfolk, 222 ; it is de cided to burn her.and she is stripped for that purpose ; timely arrival of Captain Fox saves her, 223 ; tho Monitor arrives and is laid along side, 224. Monitor, the : Captain Ericsson's plans for, favored by the President, 215 ; contract for, awarded ; energy of her contractors, 216 ; sent to sea before she was completed, 217 ; the President's confidence in her before the battle, 220 ; Captain Fox tele graphs her arrival at Newport News, 223 ; his account of the battle on his return to AVashington, 225 ; she comes to Washington, 225 ; Captain Worden describes her fight with the Merrimac, standing on her deck, 227 ; her success, 234. Monocacy, the battle of: its impor tance underrated by Union author ities and by General Early, 385; bat tle of, described, 391 et aeq.; its incidents, importance, and results, 391 et aeq. ; General Grant's opin ion of its importance, 390; General Gordon's opinion of its sanguinary character,401; TenthVermont Reg iment, its account of, 409 ; its place in history; it saved AVashington from capture, 424. Morning Chronicle, the, declares that Congress must "eat the leek bran dished in British faces," 137. Morrill, Lot M. : his altercation with Commodore Stockton in the Con ference; his character; his coolness under excitement, 52-65; impresses Southern members with a better opinion of Northern courage, 56. New York city: excitement in, over the fall of Fort Sumter, 106. New York Seventh Regiment reported cut to pieces in Baltimore, 116. Nixon, John T., appointed judge of the Federal Circuit Court in New Jersey, 8; his election to Congress in October, 1861; his canvass, 12, 13. Noyes, William Curtis, states deter mination to protect rights of mem bers of Conference, 25. Office-seeking, its discouragements, 18; it has no possible profits; its evils and dangers, 353 et seq.; its influ ence upon men of ability, 369. O'Neill, Charles, his report on a monu ment to Secretary Stanton, 191. Opdyke, George, with General Dix and R. M. Blatehford, authorized to expend $2,000,000 for public de fence in April, 1861 ; accounts for whole amount, 177. Paulding, Commodore, reports govern ment property at Norfolk safely protected on the 18th of April, 114; chairman of Board of Construction, favors construction of iron -clad vessels, 215. Peace Conference, the : delegates from Vermont, appointed to, 19; meets at AVillard's Hall, 23 ; a device to keep the North quiet, 29 ; members witness count of electoral vote, 41 ; altercation between Senator Morrill and Commodore Stockton; its sup pression by President Tyler, 52-66; Mr. Seddon's opening speech, 51 ; change of Southern opinions of courage of Northern men, 56 ; re port of Committee on Resolutions a complete surrender by the North to slavery, 50-66 ; influence on mem bers of Mr. Lincoln's arrival in AVashington, 66 ; motion that the Conference call on Mr. Lincoln op posed by the Secessionists ; Pres ident Tyler declares it eminently proper; it passes, and the president is to ascertain when Mr. Lincoln will receive the Conference, 67; adjourns February 27th ; its res olutions adopted by a majority of INDEX 465 one state, secured by refusing to accept the vote of New York, as agreed by a majority of its dele gates, by the unfair ruling of Pres ident Tyler, 81 ; its resolutions not considered in Congress, except by way of amendment to those of Mr. Crittenden ; its results, except to unite the Republicans and loyal Democrats, nil, 82. Pennsylvania: six hundred men, the first troops under the call, arrive in Washington, April 18th, 114. Phelps, J. AV., colonel First Vermont, declines discarded Belgian muskets 'and wants Enfield rifles for his reg iment, 151 ; his recognition by Gen eral Scott, who sends his regiment where active service was expected, 154. Pitkin, Parley P., Grant's quarter master on the James, favors Col onel Henry with fastest steamer for Baltimore, 392. "Plug-Uglies," the, of Baltimore: their character ; their connection with the plot to assassinate Presi dent Lincoln, 63; attack on the Sixth Massachusetts in Baltimore, 125; burn the bridges and destroy the railroads, 127; prepare to at tack the Northern forces at Annap olis Junction, 128; their final de parture from Washington, 129. Postage-stamps : first used as currency by General Spinner, treasurer, 300; are encased in copper and used as coins, 301 ; extent of their use, 301. Potomac Naturalists' Club, the: its origin, meetings, and membership, 239, 246 ; Robert Kennicott, Will iam Simpson, Count Pourtalis, Baron Osten-Sacken, Theodore Gill, Dr. Newberry, Agassiz, and other mem bers and guests, 240-245 ; discus sion of the giant octopus, 246-250. Prisoners, Confederate: General Lee proposes to President Davis to send Colonel Bradley T. Johnson to re lease twenty thousand at Point Lookout, 386; General Early's re port concerning, 389. Prisoners, Union : exchanged at An napolis, 323 ; their horrible treat- 30 ment and desperate condition, 326 ; its effect upon their minds, 327 ; sympathy of the President and a lady of Boston for them, 324, 328. Public men, to be estimated by final results, and not by single errors, 5. Register's office: cringing address of employes corrected, 110; in excel lent working order in April, 1861, 111 ; issues $10,000,000 in coupon bonds between Friday and Monday, 195; necessity for it and how it was done, 203-211; severe conse quences to the register, 205,210; process of signingand issuing bonds, 205 ; entries of the $10,000,000 on the register's books, 211. Register of the Treasury : proposes to pay balances to resigning army offi cers by checks on Richmond, 98 ; excitement resulting therefrom, 99; takes the oath of office, 109 ; de clines to pay deserters from the Treasury for fractions of the month, 111; invites his clerks to promise to defend the Treasury; their ex cuses, 113. Regular service, war and naval: an tipathy of, to volunteers ; heads of bureaus old men, 149 ; Cliief of Bureau of Ordnance, his anger at a proposal to change his order, 162; declares the old Springfield musket best for volunteers, 153; his rea sons, 154 ; regular officers oppose the Sanitary Commission, 155 ; re quired by the President to give rea sons, 156, overruled by the Presi dent, 157. Republican members of Peace Con ference : decide to take action, 24 ; alarmed and united by call on Pres ident Buchanan, 34 ; resolve to invite loyal Democrats to a caucus, then subsequently form union, 35. Ricketts, General, sent by General Grant with Third Division of Sixth Corps to defence of Baltimore in July, 1864, 392 ; his defence of the left at the battle of Monocacy, 394. Rives, William C. : Mr. Lincoln desires to meet him, 69 ; his high character and courtly bearing ; Mr. Lincoln's cordial reception, 72 ; the convcrsa- 466 INDEX. tion between them, 73 ; Mr. Rives a close observer of the conduct and conversation of Mr. Lincoln, 76; his declaration that Mr. Lincoln had been misjudged by the South, that he would be the head of his admin istration, and that much fault could not be found with the opinions he had expressed, 77. Ruffin, Judge Thomas, of North Caro lina, n member of the Conference whom Mr. Lincoln wished to meet, 69; his conversation with Mr. Lin coln, 76 ; regrets Mr. Lincoln's pro nounced opinions against slavery, but otherwise could not find much fault with his views, 76, 77. Sanitary Commission tendered to Sur geon-General, and rejected, 165; just indignation of its officers, who appeal to the President, 166; Sur geon-General called to account, and ordered to accept and co-operate with Commission, 156; inestimable value of the Sanitary Commission to the soldiers, 157. Saturday Review, the : opposes seces sion before the war ; declares con quest of the South a hopeless task, 133 ; charges the North with cow ardice, 146. Scott, Colonel Thomas A., Assistant Secretary of AVar, requires applica tion for rifles of First Vermont to be made to Bureau of Ordnance, 151 ; but on refusal of that bureau overrules it, 154; reasons for his selection as Assistant Secretary,169 ; his efforts to reform the manage ment of the War Office, 170 ; his ill success ; reasons for his return to private life, 171. Scott, General Winfield: opposes and breaks up first conspiracy to seize AVashington ; collects regulars there in January, 28 ; facility of access to him in February; his opinion of Vermonters, 37 ; his declaration that the electoral vote should be counted, and that tliere should be no revolution in Washington, 88; Vice-President Breckinridge prom ises to co-operate with him, 39; his numerous visitors, 89 ; his precau tions on February 13th, 41; excites anger of Secessionists, 43; peace able declaration of Mr. Lincoln's election due to him and to Mr. Breckinridge, 46 ; his reply to Wig- fall, 46 ; refuses to temporize with secession, 79 ; secures a dignified and orderly inauguration, 92 ; hated by Secessionists ; urges President Buchanan to reinforce Southern forts in December ; proposes to send two hundred and fifty men, with supplies, to Fort Sumter with out informing Secretary Floyd, 93 ; his stern reply to u senator who urged his desertion; enmity of Jef ferson Davis, 94 ; its origin ; his severe expressions against Davis, 96 ; declares that no cause can prosper of which Davis is a leader, 95; opposed to the Abolitionists; hopes of a great Union party on the basis of the Crittenden Resolutions ; declares that the North was the stronger in resources, the equal of the South iu courage, but could not subjugate the South with less than three hundred thousand men, 96 ; declared in favor of young generals — that he was too old and worn-out for the command ; his high estimate of Colonel Robert E. Lee — that he was, and would remain, loyal to the Union — that he was equal to the command of the army, 97 ; grounds of his faith in Colonel Lee, 98 ; di rects that Northern regiments must pass through Baltimore, 119-121, 122; orders First Vermont Regi ment to Fortress Monroe, 161. Scott, AVilliam, a private of Company K, Third Vermont, condemned to be shot for sleeping on his post, 271 ; interest of his comrades, 272; par doned by the President, 276 ; his death at Lee's Mills and message to the President, 280, 282. Secession: blindness of the North to its progress ; transfer of money and supplies to the South ; South Caro lina first secedes, 18; leaders as sume control of Peace Conference, appoint its officers, and exclude the press, 23, 24 ; refuse to have a re cording secretary, 26 ; oppose any INDEX. 467 record of proceedings, 25 ; conven tion to form confederacy to be held at Montgomery, Ala., by February 14th, 29 ; rumors of revolution be fore counting of electoral vote, 36 ; AVashington crowded with disorder ly Secessionists, 86 ; leaders hope for a disturbance during count of electoral vote, 42 ; their angry de nunciations of General Seott for his preventive measures, 43 - 46 ; de pressing influence upon Southern members of Peace Con f erence of Mr. Lincoln's opinions at his reception, 77 ; ripens during the last week but . one of the old administration ; six states secede, 79 ; growth of, in the Border states, 80; suddenly checked by Mr. Lincoln's arrival, 80; effect of influx of young Republicans to see their President inaugurated, 81 ; they fill AVashington and overflow to neighboring cities; a paralysis for the time falls upon secession, 82 ; it condemns inaugural address as fatal to the Union, 103 ; opens fire upon Fort Sumter, April 14th, 106 ; an angry AVashington judge, 109 ; he leaves for the South, 109 ; clerks in register's office infected with, 111; Secessionists threaten Har per's Ferry in April, 116; prema ture rejoicings over destruction of New York Seventh and Eighth Mas sachusetts regiments, 128. Seddon, James A., Southern manager of Peace Conference, 24; opposes making proceedings public, 26 ; leader of Southern members; his opinions, ability, and resemblance to John Randolph, 51,52; his ser vant gives him a note of Mr. Lin coln's arrival, which he hands to Johnson, of Missouri ; his contempt for the unguarded inquiry of that gentleman, 66; his charges against the North, and Mr. Lincoln's digni fied answers at the reception of the Conference, 73. "Seven -thirty" notes: their issue; they did not circulate as currency, 298. Seward, William H., with Mr. Wash burn, takes charge of Mr. Lincoln's journey through Baltimore, and es corts him safely to his hotel, 65 ; announced as a prospective member of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, 81 ; his speech to a body of his constituents whichdisclosed none of Mr. Lincoln's purposes, 83; selected by President Lincoln for State Department, 104 ; his negotiations with Lord Lyons for surrender of Mason and Slidell, 140; his masterly reply to Lord Russell, 142; approved by the Amer ican people, 145 ; consultation with the President and Secretary Chase on the necessity of keeping the faith of Minister Adams to a noble Eng lishman, 195. Shiras, Captain, appointed to organize and drill the Treasury regiment, 113. Sigel, General F., informs General Wal lace of General Early's advance, with thirty thousand men, past Maryland Heights, 391. Silver coins, fractional : their sudden disappearance from circulation, 299 ; necessity of a substitute for them, 300. Sixth Corps : Third Division, under General Ricketts, sent to reinforce General Wallace at Baltimore, 392 ; its position on the Monocacy, 394 ; its bravery and desperate fighting there, 396 ; its heavy losses there, 400 ; the remaining divisions reach AVashington, July 11th and 12th, 410; its part in the battle of Fort Stevens, 416; Early's sudden re treat upon its arrival, 427. Smalley, Judge D. A., of Vermont, de fines the crime of treason in his charge to a grand jury in New York, 47 ; declines to interfere with seiz ure of arms about to be shipped to Charleston, 49. Smith, Admiral, member of Board of Construction with Commodore Pauld ing aDd Captain Davis, 215; approves construction of the Monitor, 216. Smith, Caleb B., nominated Secretary of the Interior, 104. Spinner, General Francis E. : his fidel ity as a Treasury officer; his suffer ing from disease, borne heroically; his death, 3 ; suggests payments to resigning officers by drafts on South- 468 INDEX. ern assistant-treasuries, 98 ; prefers to take his secession from the out side of the Treasury ; proposes vig orous defence of the Treasury, 112; Cornwell, a clerk iu his office, ab stracts "demand notes;" his de tection and punishment, 290-295; uses postage -stamps in place of small coins, 300; collects money and securities of the Treasury, and prepares for leaving AVashington when it was threatened by General Early in 1864, 408. Stannard, General George J. : his brill iant record in the war, 354 ; he is appointed collector of the district of Vermont, 355 ; he is ruined by it, with some of his sureties, 357 ; he becomes a door-keeper in the gallery of the House of Representa tives, 357. Stanton, Secretary Edwin M. : enters President Buchanan's Cabinet, 28 ; his influence there, 79 ; declares that the surrender of the forts in Charleston harbor would be crim inal, 80 ; promotes the quiet of the inauguration, 91 ; public opinion of him less favorable than it should be, 168; his character and quali ties, 178; his physical and mental vigor in 1861, 178 ; his first act in President Buchanan's Cabinet ; de clares surrender of Fort Sumter a crime, 181 ; his hatred of cant and hypocrisy, and of speculative pa triots, 183 ; his strong prejudices and caustic criticism, 186; his love for, and eulogy of, President Lin coln, 186 ; his appointment as Sec retary of AVar, 187; his refusal to sanction improper claims ; his firm ness, 188; his patriotic character, 190; report of Charles O'Neill's committee to House of Representa tives on appropriation for a monu ment to Mr. Stanton, 192; present at battle of Fort Stevens, 415. Stars and Stripes: enthusiasm for, April 15th, 105; love for it abides forever, 108 ; affection for, of an old Carolinian, 114. Stevens, Fort, location of, 411 ; battle of July 12th, 1864, 412 el seq. Stewart, John A., is proposed by Sen ator Morgan as assistant-treasurer of New York ; he declines the ap pointment, 873. Stimers, Alban C, chief -engineer of the J/omfor,managed the turret dur- ingthe fight with tiie Merrimac, 231. Stockton, Commodore : his character ; his interruption of Senator Morrili in the Conference ; vigorous action of a Northern delegate, 63-56. Summers, George W., member of Con ference from Virginia, 31 ; his cor dial reception by Mr. Lincoln, 71 ; his approval of Mr. Lincoln's state ment that he would obey and en force the Constitution and the laws, 73. Sumter, Fort, fall of ; its effect on the North, April 14th, 106. Taney, Chief Justice, death of, Octo ber, 1864, 384. Thomas, George H. : his loyalty ques tioned and defended, 360 ; he assists General Scott in April, 1861, and protects the railroads to AVashing ton, 361; he "will hold Chatta nooga until we starve," 362; moves against Hood; his slowness; Gen eral Grant proposes to remove him and give his command to Logan; he waits under the President's ad vice; Thomas fights and defeats Hood's army ; Grant's justice to him, 362 et seq. ; his unflinching loyalty, 365. Tod, ex-Governor, of Ohio, nominated for Secretary of the Treasury, and declines, 380. Treasury notes, did not circulate as money, 296. Treasury of the United States the creation of Mr. Hamilton ; no writ ten history of ; its expansiveness, 285 ; three frauds upon, and their detection, 287-294 ; frauds upon by the warrant clerk of the secretary, 347-351 ; the end of the dishonest clerk, 362. " Trent affair," history of, 132 ; fortu nate conclusion of, 146 ; Great Britain's action upon it, 169. Trumbull, Senator Lyman, a teller dur ing count of electoral vote in Feb ruary, 1861,43. INDEX. 469 Tyler, ex -President John, president of Peace Conference, 24 ; enforces rights of Northern members, 26; suppresses an altercation and re stores order in the excited Confer ence, 55 ; instead of calling on Mr. Lincoln, sends a note of inquiry when he would receive the Confer ence — Mr. Lincoln's prompt reply, 68. Tyler, General, commands right wing at the Monocacy, 393 ; goes to the assistance of Colonel Brown at the bridge; assists in holding it until Wallace's army has passed; is then surrounded by Confederates, but es capes, 397 et aeq. Vallandigham, Clement L., introduces resolution in House of Representa tives opposing surrender of Mason and Slidell, 138. Van Brunt, Captain, commands the Minnesota when attacked by the Merrimac, 224; his joy at the ar rival of the Monitor; informs Cap tain AVorden that the Merrimac will probably attack at daylight, 228. Vermont regiments : First Regiment, Colonel Phelps, tendered to the President, April 16th, 107; objects to Belgian discarded muskets, 151 ; applies for Enfield rifles, 152 ; how it got them, 153; its colonel com mended by General Scott, who or ders regiment to Fortress Monroe, 164. Vermont Tenth Regiment holds the left of Union line in the battle of the Monocacy; its desperate fight ing, 394 et seq. Virginia: invites a Peace Conference of the states on the 4th of Febru ary, 19; her delegates assume its control, 24; Gurowski's opinion of the mother of Presidents, 27 ; to provide forces to seize the Capitol, 36; one of her members proposes " to have some music " before count of electoral vote, 42 ; influence of Lee family in, 101; rumors that Virginia has seceded, April 18th, 114; threatens Harper's Ferry, 116. Volunteers: antagonism of regular service to, 149-157, 169-171. Wadsworth, James S., a leading Re publican, 30; his criticism ou Gu rowski's speech, 31. Wallace,General Lew.: General Grant's opinion of the battle of the Monoc acy, 390; prepares to check the Confederate advance, 391 ; is rein forced by Ricketts with a part of the Sixth Corps, 892; forms his line of battle on the Monocacy, 393 etaeq.; fights the battle, 394 etaeq.; orders retreat, 896; his opinion of Colonel Henry, of the Tenth A'er mont, 400 ; his resistance on the Monocacy saves AVashington from capture, 390 ct acq.; with tho Sixth Corps saves AVashington from cap ture, 424. Wallach, ex-Mayor, introduces AValker Lewis, a colored man, to the regis ter, 158. Washburn, Elihu B., a teller during count of electoral vote in February, 1861, 43 ; with Mr. Seward takes charge of Mr. Lincoln's journey through Baltimore to tho Capitol, 64; they attend him to Willard's Hotel on the early morning of Feb ruary 23d, 65. Washington city : isolated from the loyal states in April, 1861, 115; rumors of rebel attacks, 117; dis appearance of the "Plug-Uglies," 129; its condition and defences well known to General Lee in 1864, 386 ; Early's campaign against, in 1S64, 387 et seq.; not supposed by its citizens to/ be in danger, 404 ; saved from capture by the battle of the Monocacy and arrival of the Sixth Corps, 424 ; no dismay or consterna tion there on account of General Early, 426. Webster, Daniel : President Lincoln's story of his boyhood, 333. Welles, Gideon, nominated Secretary of the Navy, 104; congratulates Captain AVilkes on the capture of Mason and Slidell, 135 ; his report to Congress on the capture, 135 ; his claim that he favored and Sec retary Seward first opposed the sur- rer. ler, 147 ; this claim unfounded, 148 ; an early friend of armored vessels, 213. 470 INDEX. Wilkes, Captain : his capture of Mason and Slidell on the Trent, 134; se cures the thanks of the House of Representatives, 135; his capture without instructions, 136 ; Lord Rus sell demands his dismissal from the navy, 137. AVinslow, Corning, & Griswold, joint- contractors with C. S. Bushne'l to build the Monitor, 216. Wood, Fernando, mayor of New York : his distress over the charge of Judge Smalley; his apology to Senator Toombs for not interfering with the police for want of power, 48, 49. Wool, General John E., heads the call in Troy to promote enlistments, April loth, 107. A\rorden, Captain John S. : President Lincoln appoints him to command the Monitor, 220 ; the President's confidence in him, 221 ; his prompt attack on the Merrimac, 224 ; his high praise from Captain Fox, 225 ; boards the Monitor at Washington Navy-yard ; his wounds ; affection of his men, 226 ; the first naval officer to volunteer for the Mon itor ; his energy hastens her com pletion, 228 ; his description of the fight with the Merrimac; points out where the Monitor was weak, 227-231; his first inquiry when, after his injury, he recovered con sciousness, 233 ; Captain Fox as cribes the victory of the Monitor to Captain Worden, 234. Wynne, Dr. James: his escape from New York ; his exaggerated reports of the loyalty of the North, and danger to persons and property of Southerners ; escapes across the Potomac, 118. Zollicoffer, F. K., a member of the Conference from Tennessee ; cor dially received by Mr. Lincoln, 72. THE END. INTERESTING BOOKS ON UNITED STATES HISTORY. 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