Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume 2

by Michael Burlingame

  To others, Lincoln expressed a stoic willingness to be passed over. On the eve of the party’s national convention, he said “that he was not at all anxious about the result; that he wanted the people to be satisfied, but as he now has his hand in, he should like to keep his place and finish up the war; and yet, if the people wished a change in the presidency, he had no complaint to make.”253 To a friend, he called himself “only the people’s attorney in this great affair.” He was trying to do his best for them, but if they “desire to change their attorney, it is not for me to resist or complain. Nevertheless, between you and me, I think the change would be impolitic, whoever might be substituted for the present counsel.”254

  After Chase’s withdrawal from the race, the most serious potential threat to Lincoln’s renomination was posed by General Grant, whose popularity after the victories at Vicksburg and Chattanooga was a source of concern. In the fall of 1863, the New York Herald began championing the general for president, and the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Central Committee told Grant that the party wanted him for their standard-bearer. In Pennsylvania, Alexander K. McClure, fearing that Lincoln might be unelectable, hinted that the Republicans would be wise to nominate Grant lest the Democrats did so. Elihu B. Washburne, the general’s chief sponsor in Congress, warned Grant that some of his most vociferous promoters had earlier been his most caustic detractors. The Illinois congressman urged him not to challenge Lincoln, who, he said, had been exceptionally supportive of the general: “No man can feel more kindly and more grateful to you than the President. I have never asked anything in regard to you, but what he has most promptly and cheerfully granted.” Recalling Lincoln’s support of the general after the battle of Shiloh, Washburne said Lincoln would “have my ever lasting gratitude.”255 (Lincoln told Jesse K. Dubois, “do you know that at one time I stood solitary and alone here in favor of General Grant.”)256

  In December 1863, Washburne introduced a bill reestablishing the rank of lieutenant general, which only George Washington and Winfield Scott had previously held. Grant’s close friend and investment counselor, J. Russell Jones, told the Illinois congressman that Lincoln would promote Grant to that exalted rank if the general would back the president for reelection. Washburne replied, “that is the programme I desire. Lincoln will then go in easy, and Grant must be made Lieut Genl.”257 Jones assured Grant that he could gain the Democratic presidential nomination but that he could not defeat Lincoln.

  Grant discouraged talk of his candidacy, declaring that the only office he wanted was the mayoralty of his hometown so that he could have a sidewalk laid from his house to the train station. Lincoln allegedly shrugged off the possibility of a Grant challenge, saying that if he “could be more useful than I in putting down the rebellion, I would be quite content. He is fully committed to the policy of emancipation and employing negro soldiers; and with this policy faithfully carried out, it will not make much difference who is President.”258 In fact, however, Lincoln was anxious about the general’s intentions. Desiring reassurance from him, Lincoln, at the suggestion of Washburne asked Jones about his friend’s views on the presidency. When Jones, showed him a letter from Grant denying any political aspirations and voicing strong support for Lincoln, the president replied: “you will never know how gratifying that is to me. No man knows, when that presidential grub gets to gnawing at him, just how deep it will get until he has tried it; and I didn’t know but what there was one gnawing at Grant.”259 Lincoln also asked Frank Blair to sound out Grant. The congressman obliged by writing to the general, who replied that he had “no political aspirations either now or for the future” and enjoined Blair to share his letter with nobody except the president.260

  Grant did not publicly announce his unwillingness to run because, as his chief aide, John Rawlins, explained in March, if the general published a statement forswearing presidential ambition, it “would place him much in the position of the old maid who had never had an offer declaring she ‘would never marry;’ besides it would be by many construed into a modest way of getting his name before the country in connection with the office.”261 Grant did, however, write a private letter to the Ohio Democrats emphatically rejecting their appeal for him to act as their standard-bearer.

  Convinced that he would not have Grant as a rival, Lincoln threw his support behind the bill reviving the lieutenant-general post, which passed Congress in late February. Soon after signing the legislation, he nominated Grant for that honor. In July 1863, he had told General Sickles that he appreciated Grant’s uncomplaining nature: “He doesn’t worry and bother me. He isn’t shrieking for reinforcements all the time. He takes what troops we can safely give him … and does the best he can with what he has got, and doesn’t grumble and scold all the while.”262

  Although he admired Grant, Lincoln did find it necessary to overrule an infamous order the general had issued as commander of the Department of the Tennessee. Like many of his countrymen, Grant was a mild nativist, feeling antipathy for Catholics, Mexicans, Jews, and immigrants. The most blatant manifestation of his anti-Semitism was his December 1862 order stipulating that the “Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department.” The “Jews seem to be a privileged class,” he told the War Department.263 He hoped to discourage cotton traders, some of them Jewish, who frequently violated the complicated rules promulgated in Washington. Over two dozen Jews were abruptly expelled from Paducah, Kentucky.

  Democrats condemned the “detestable” order. “A whole class of people are brought to mortification by a military decree, which, if it had any justification at all, should have been made to apply to individuals alone,” declared the Cincinnati Enquirer.264 On January 3, when a Jewish delegation from the Queen City called at the White House to protest, Lincoln averred that neither he nor Halleck could believe that Grant had issued such a document. When he was shown a copy of the general’s order, he asked rhetorically: “And so the children of Israel were driven from the happy land of Canaan?”

  “Yes, and that is why we have come unto Father Abraham’s bosom, asking protection,” replied the group’s leader.

  “And this protection they shall have at once,” said the president, who promptly instructed Halleck to countermand Grant’s order.265

  On January 7, Lincoln had an amicable interview with another Jewish delegation, led by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati, who called to thank him for revoking Grant’s order. Addressing them like an ordinary, candid fellow citizen, the president voiced “surprise that Gen. Grant should have issued so ridiculous an order.” He remarked that “to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad. I do not like to hear a class or nationality condemned on account of a few sinners.” The rabbi reported that Lincoln “fully illustrated to us and convinced us that he knows of no distinction between Jew and Gentile, that he feels no prejudice against any nationality, and that he by no means will allow that a citizen in any wise be wronged on account of his place of birth or religious confession.” Wise added that the president “manifested a peculiar attachment” to Jews and “tried in various forms to convince us of the sincerity of his words in this matter.”266

  Later, Halleck told Grant that Lincoln “has no objection to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers, which, I suppose, was the object of your order; but, as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks, the President deemed it necessary to revoke it.”267

  Grant’s blunder did not significantly affect Lincoln’s opinion of the general, whom he summoned to Washington to receive his promotion and to consult about military strategy. On March 8, Grant arrived and called that evening at the White House, where a public reception was being held. Noah Brooks described him on that occasion as “rather slightly built,” with “stooping shoulders, mild blue eyes and light brown hair and whiskers, with a foxy tinge to his mustache. He has a frank, manly bea
ring, wears an ordinary-looking military suit, and doesn’t put on any airs whatever.” When Lincoln heard the crowd buzz, he knew Grant was on the premises and hurried to welcome him, warmly shaking his hand.

  The two men, who had not met before, greeted each other cordially, but, as Nicolay recorded, “with that modest deference—felt rather than expressed by word or action—so appropriate to both.” Lincoln dispatched Nicolay to notify Stanton, and asked Seward to introduce the honored guest to Mrs. Lincoln.268 In the East Room, the general was cheered lustily. “There has never been such a coat-tearing, button-bursting jam in the White House,” one journalist reported, while another wrote that the “crowd at the levee was immense, and for once the interest was temporarily transferred from the President to the newcomer. The mass of people thronged about him wherever he moved, everybody being anxious to get at least a glimpse of his face. The women were caught up and whirled into the torrent which swept through the great East room; laces were torn, crinoline mashed, and things were generally much mixed. People mounted sofas and table to get out of harm’s way or to take observations, and for a time the commotion was almost like a Parisian emeute [riot].”269 Blushing, Grant stood on a couch so that all could see him. But the crowd was not content with a mere glimpse of the general; they had to shake his hand, which they did for the remaining hour of the reception.

  Grant, sweating from such an unaccustomed ordeal, afterward returned to the Blue Room, where Lincoln discussed with him the ceremony to be held next day. “Tomorrow at such time as you may arrange with the Sec[retary] of War, I desire to make to you a formal presentation of your commission as Lieut. Genl.” With characteristic consideration, the president tried to make the occasion as easy as possible for the rather shy Grant: “I shall then make a very short speech to you, to which I desire you to reply, for an object; and that you may be properly prepared to do so I have written what I shall say—only four sentences in all—which I will read from my MSS. as an example which you may follow and also read your reply, as you are perhaps not as much accustomed to speaking as I myself—and I therefore give you what I shall say that you may consider it and form your reply.” In that reply, Lincoln asked the general to incorporate two points: “1st To say something which shall prevent or obviate any jealousy of you from any of the other generals in the service, and secondly, something which shall put you on as good terms as possible with this Army of the Potomac. Now consider whether this may not be said to make it of some advantage; and if you see any objection whatever to doing it be under no restraint whatever in expressing that objection to the Secretary of War who will talk further with you about it.”270 Upon leaving, the general told Lincoln: “This is a warmer campaign than I have witnessed during the war.”271

  At the ceremony the following day, Lincoln addressed the general formally: “The nation’s appreciation of what you have done, and it’s reliance upon you for what remains to do, in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant General in the Army of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon you also, a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add that with what I here speak for the nation goes my own hearty personal concurrence.”272

  Grant replied: “Mr. President, I accept this commission with gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, and I know that if they be met, it will be due to those armies, and, above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men.”273 Grant had so hastily scribbled down his remarks that he could barely read them. Manifestly embarrassed, he stumbled his way through his delivery. Despite that problem, William O. Stoddard reported that the event “was simple, manly, dignified,” worthy of the general and the president. There was no “pomp, no show, no vulgar ostentation.”274

  After a quick visit to the Army of the Potomac, Grant returned to Washington briefly. When the president invited him to dinner, he declined, saying “a dinner to me means a million dollars a day lost to the country.”275 He added: “I have become very tired of this show business.” This response pleased Lincoln, who had encountered few officers willing to pass up such “show business” or who appreciated that the financial cost of the war must be taken into consideration. He told the general that “he did not pretend to know anything about the art of war, and it was with the greatest reluctance that he ever interfered with the movements of army commanders, but he did know that celerity was absolutely necessary, that while armies were sitting down, waiting for opportunities which might perhaps be more favorable from a military point of view, the government was spending millions of dollars every day, that there was a limit to the sinews of war, and there would come a time when the spirits and the resources of the people would become exhausted.”276

  With Chase and Grant both out of the presidential race, Lincoln still faced potential challenges from Benjamin Butler and John C. Frémont, both darlings of the German Radicals. When Missouri Germans attacked Lincoln publicly in May 1863, he said “there was evidently a serious misunderstanding springing up between him and the Germans of St. Louis, which he would like to see removed.” In responding to charges that they made in formal resolutions, he told their emissary, James Taussig, that the shelved generals whom they so much admired—Frémont, Butler, and Sigel—were not “systematically kept out of command.” Those men “by their own action” had “placed themselves in the positions which they occupied,” and “he was not only willing but anxious to place them again in command as soon as he could find spheres of action for them, without doing injustice to others,” but at that time “he had more pegs than holes to put them in.”277

  Both Butler and Frémont were angling for the presidential nomination. The publicity-savvy Butler had managed to endear himself to Radicals despite his lack of military talent. His policy of dealing with refugee slaves as “contrabands” in 1861 won Radical approval, as did his no-nonsense treatment of defiant New Orleans residents the following year.

  (When women in the Crescent City insulted Union soldiers, he famously ordered that any such female “shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her profession.” Confederates and Europeans misinterpreted this as a license for occupation troops to treat refined ladies as prostitutes, but many Northerners understood that Butler was merely trying to shame the contemptuous natives into behaving civilly. He also won plaudits for summarily executing a man who hauled down the American flag, tore it, and trampled on it.)

  When Lincoln recalled Butler from Louisiana in December 1862, the general was lionized throughout the North and spent eleven months at his Massachusetts home before receiving a new command (at Fort Monroe).

  One of Butler’s champions, the abolitionist Charles Grandison Finney of Oberlin College, told Gerrit Smith in January 1864: “We need a more radical man [than Lincoln] to finish up this war. I hope the radicals, in and out of Congress, will make their influence so felt in respect to the coming nomination that Mr. L. will see that there is no hope of his nomination and election unless he takes and keeps more radical ground. The people are prepared to elect the most radical abolitionist there is if he can get a nomination.” Finney feared “that the radicals will so easily acquiesce in the nomination of Mr. Lincoln that he will get the impression that we are satisfied with his views and action.”278 Two months later, William P. Fessenden expressed a preference for Butler because “he seems to have exhibited from the start more proper sense of the crisis, more genius, more energetic ability, and more determination than any one.”279

  Lincoln worried about Butler’s potential candidacy. In November 1863, Horace White observed that the president “has got his head full of the idea that the recent ‘Missouri delegation’ was a corrupt caucus to m
ake Gen Butler the next President—a point on which he is very sensitive.”280 In the spring of 1864, Lincoln asked Thomas H. Ford, former lieutenant governor of Ohio, to sound out Butler. After making inquiries, Ford reported that a delegation from Senator Pomeroy’s Republican National Executive Committee, headed by the Rev. Mr. Robert McMurdy, had called on the general at Fort Monroe. To Lincoln’s relief, Butler “declined to enter into a combination with other candidates against the President,” though he would not “decline the use of his name for the office.”281 Soon afterward, Lincoln expressed interest in accepting Butler’s invitation to visit Fort Monroe, but nothing came of it. In May, when John Hay opined that “Butler was the only man in the army in whom power would be dangerous,” the president replied: “Yes, he is like Jim Jett’s brother[.] Jim used to say that his brother was the dam[n]dest scoundrel that ever lived but in the infinite mercy of Providence he was also the dam[n]dest fool.”282 (Many years later, Butler claimed that Lincoln offered to make him his running mate, but his account is highly suspect.)

  With Butler’s declination, Radicals turned to Frémont, who deeply resented the treatment he had received at the hands of the administration. In 1862, the abolitionist Moncure Conway proposed that Frémont replace Lincoln on the 1864 Republican ticket. In the spring of the following year, the general let it be known that he was interested in the presidential nomination. He also purchased a summer home in Massachusetts, where he and his extremely ambitious wife cultivated Radicals. One of them, Karl Heinzen, seconded Conway’s proposal in the columns of his newspaper, Der Pionier. Frémont had “saved the honor of the Republic” with his emancipation order, Heinzen declared. Lincoln, on the other hand, was merely a “weak person, of average ability” who was “controlled by events which he did not foresee.”283 Another Frémont enthusiast expressed reluctance “to trust the issues of the next four years to the namby-pamby weakness and negative conservatism of Mr Lincoln and his present advisers. I want to see a positive man in the White House, a Radical.”284 That fall, a convention of anti-administration, pro-Frémont Germans met in Cleveland and adopted a platform endorsing the complete abolition of slavery, unconditional surrender of the Confederacy, treatment of the South as conquered territories, redistribution of slaveowners’ property to the slaves, support for European revolutionaries, and strict adherence to the Monroe Doctrine. In February 1864, ex-Congressman George Ashmun of Massachusetts noted that the “friends of Fremont seem determined to run him at all events.”285