467 “practical statesmanship”: Hay, Diary, p. 73.
468 “vast absorbent powers”: Ibid., p. 134.
468 “be carried out on a chip”: John G. Nicolay, Diary, Dec. 6, 1863. Nicolay MSS, LC.
468 “not trustworthy”: Welles, Diary, 1:481.
469 “government in the war”: CW, 6:555.
469 Radicals and Conservatives: Hay, Diary, pp. 123–124, 131.
470 “whites, and freedmen”: Charles Sumner, Works (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1880), 7:493–546, esp. 541.
470 “policy of the President”: Montgomery Blair, Speech... on the Revolutionary Schemes of the Ultra Abolitionists (Oct. 3, 1863).
470 “feel the public pulse”: T. J. Barnett to S. L. M. Barlow, Oct. 6, 1863, Barlow MSS, HEH.
470 “Sumner’s heresies”: James Dixon to Montgomery Blair, Oct. 7, 1863, Lincoln MSS, LC.
470 “a Copperhead orator”: Thaddeus Stevens to S. P. Chase, Oct. 8, 1863, Chase MSS.
471 “the loyal minority”: Hay, Diary, pp. 112–113.
471 “a new life”: CW, 7:40.
471 “retreated from it”: Chicago Tribune, Jan. 17, 1864; Christopher N. Breiseth, “Lincoln and Frederick Douglass,” JISHS 68 (Feb. 1975): 9–26; Dorothy Wickenden, “Lincoln and Douglass: Dismantling the Peculiar Institution,” Wilson Quarterly 14 (Autumn 1990): 102–112.
471 “as to slaves”: CW, 7:53–56.
472 “in any other way”: CW, 7:50–52.
472 “revolutionary struggle”: CW, 5:49.
472 “we are now passing”: CW, 6:411.
472 something for everybody: Belz, Reconstructing the Union, pp. 155–165, offers an able analysis of the message.
473 “the Supreme Court”: CW, 7:54, 56.
473 “factions of the Republican party”: New York World, Dec. 11, 1863.
473 “millennium had come”: Hay, Diary, pp. 131–132.
473 “his country’s shame”: Jonathan T. Dorris, Pardon and Amnesty Under Lincoln and Johnson (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1953), p. 43.
474 “of Senator Sumner”: New York Tribune, Dec. 10,1863; New York Herald, Dec. 11,1863.
474 “territorial project”: John Hay, Diary, Dec. 10,1863, photostat, Massachusetts Historical Society; Virginia Jeans Laas, ed., Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), p. 325.
474 “at the right time”: E. Delafield Smith to AL, Dec. 10,1863; Thad S. Seybold to AL, Dec. 10,1863; R. H. McCurdy to AL, Dec. 10, 1863; William Dennison to AL, Dec. 10,1863—all in Lincoln MSS, LC.
474 “[Republican] convention meets”: Chicago Tribune, Dec. 14, 1863; Medill to Joseph K. C. Forrest, Dec. 17, 1863, Lincoln MSS, LC.
474 “anything about it”: Hay, Diary, p. 112.
474 “schooled to the task”: CW, 8:326.
475 “decline, if tendered”: CW, 6:540.
475 “desire—of course”: George T. Brown to Lyman Trumbull, Nov. 12, 1863, Trumbull MSS, LC.
475 “in the matter”: Katherine Helm, The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928), pp. 230–231.
475 “I can’t give him!”: Chicago Tribune, Jan. 9, 1864; San Francisco Daily Alta California, Jan. 3, 1864; Agnes Macdonnell, “America Then and Now: Recollections of Lincoln,” Contemporary Review 3 (1917): 567–568; William A. Croffut, “Lincoln’s Washington,” Atlantic Monthly 145 (Jan. 1930): 63.
476 “devil of stubbornness”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1949), pp. 191–192.
476 “my other friends”: Donald, Sumner, pp. 167–169.
476 “shielded the rebels”: Reasons Against the Re-Nomination of Abraham Lincoln. Adopted February 15, 1864, by a Republican Meeting at Davenport, Iowa, pamphlet, HEH.
477 “of the nation”: Arthur C. Cole, “President Lincoln and the Illinois Radical Republicans,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 4 (Mar. 1918): 432.
477 “friend to you”: Zornow, p. 19.
478 “reelection of Mr. Lincoln”: Hay, Diary, p. 99.
478 “affections of the masses”: Chicago Tribune, Dec. 30, 1863.
478 “should you desire it”: Albert Smith to AL, Dec. 12, 1863, Lincoln MSS, LC.
478 “to the Presidential chair”: James Clay Rice to Henry Wilson, Nov. 11, 1863, Lincoln MSS, LC.
478 “[Republican]National Convention”: George Bergner to AL, Jan. 14, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC
478 “a ratification meeting”: Zornow, p. 46.
478 “to its purpose”: Hay, Diary, p. 152. John Niven, Salmon P. Chase: A Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), is a richly detailed life. Donnal V. Smith, Chase and Civil War Politics (Columbus, Ohio: F. J. Heer Printing Co, 1931), is indispensable.
479 “forever of slavery”: Welles, Diary, 1:410.
479 of “colored loyalists”: Chase to Thomas J. Durant, Nov. 19, 1863, Chase MSS; Chase to AL, Apr. 12, 1865, Lincoln MSS, LC.
480 “head of the Treasury Department”: Hay, Diary, p. 101.
480 “spot he can find”: Ibid., p. 110.
480 “upon the Government”: Leon Burr Richardson, William E. Chandler: Republican (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1940), pp. 43–44; Harry J. Carman and Reinhard H. Luthin, Lincoln and the Patronage (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), p. 235.
480 “kept my promise”: Erwin S. Bradley, Simon Cameron: Lincoln’s Secretary of War (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966), pp. 237–238; Hay, Diary, pp. 152–153.
481 “not a party”: Philadelphia Union League, Abraham Lincoln, [1864], pamphlet, Widener Library, Harvard University.
481 “his pre-eminent fitness”: For this statement, and for other resolutions by Union Leagues, I am indebted to a careful memorandum prepared by Gerald Prokopowicz.
481 urging Lincoln’s reelection: New England Loyal Publication Society, Broadside No. 158.
481 “spirit of the age”: For the text of this pamphlet and astute commentary on the Chase campaign, see Charles R. Wilson, “The Original Chase Organization Meeting and The Next Presidential Election,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 23 (June 1936): 61–79.
481 “and abusive pamphlet”: Lamon to AL, Feb. 6,1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.
482 “had better quit”: Wilson, “Original Chase Organization Meeting,” pp. 64–65.
482 “other available candidate”: S. C. Pomeroy, printed circular letter, Washington, D.C., Feb. 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.
482 “your entire confidence”: CW, 7:200–201.
482 the “treasury rats”: John G. Nicolay to John Hay, Feb. 17, 1864, Nicolay MSS, LC.
482 “inquire for more”: CW, 7:212–213.
482 “wish to hear”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, pp. 188–189.
483 Indiana Republican convention: John D. Defrees to WHH, Aug. 21, 1866, HWC.
483 “every honorable mind”: Congressional Globe, 38 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, p. 51.
483 “be safely landed”: New York Herald, Mar. 12, 1864.
483 “present Chase again”: Willard L. King, Lincoln’s Manager: David Davis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960), pp. 215–216.
484 “citizens of New York”: New York World, Dec. 11, 1863.
484 Kentucky, and Wisconsin: Hesseltine, Lincoln’s Plan of Reconstruction, p. 99.
484 “fix the rest”: CW, 7:155.
484 “some worthy gentlemen”: CW, 7:126.
485 “right side up”: CW, 5:345.
485 “the people possible”: CW, 5:505, 462.
485 “disgusting and outrageous”: CW, 5:504.
485 “of the matter”: CW, 6:364–365.
486 “you are master”: CW, 7:89–90.
486 “the eastern States”: Banks to AL, Dec. 6, 1863, Lincoln MSS, LC.
486 “inoperative and void”: Banks to AL, Dec. 30, 1863, Lincoln MSS, LC.
486 “or against it”: Ibid.
487 “has ever seen”: Banks to AL, Feb. 25, 18
64, Lincoln MSS, LC.
487 “only [as] a suggestion “: CW, 7:243.
487 “a military officer”: Belz, Reconstructing the Union, p. 192.
488 “cannot stand Radicalism”: Cuthbert Bullitt to O. H. Browning, Feb. 25, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.
488 “Secretary of the Treasury”: Belz, Reconstructing the Union, pp. 195–196, 199.
489 his “leg cases”: Richard N. Current, The Lincoln Nobody Knows (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1958), pp. 165–166.
489 throughout the country: Chase, Diary, pp. 192–196.
489 “on the public works”: CW, 6:357.
489 “or hang them”: Mary Mann to E. A. Hitchcock, Nov. 18, 1863, Hitchcock MSS, LC.
489 “act for revenge”: J. G. Randall, Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln (rev. ed.; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1951), pp. xvi-xvii.
489 raid against Richmond: James Rodney Wood, Civil War Memoir, Maud Wood Park MSS, LC; Joseph George, Jr., “‘Black Flag Warfare’: Lincoln and the Raids Against Richmond and Jefferson Davis,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 115 (July 1991): 292–318; William A. Tidwell et al., Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988), pp. 242–247. For the orders allegedly found on Dahlgren’s body, see Frank Moore, The Rebellion Record (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1865), 8:387–388.
490 Army of the Potomac: Allan Nevins, ed., A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, 1861–1865 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962), p. 308.
490 “if he fails”: CW, 6:518.
490 “are pressing him”: CW, 6:354.
490 “it’s objective point”: CW, 6:467.
490 “would catch him?”: John G. Nicolay, Diary, Dec. 7, 1863, Nicolay MSS, LC.
491 “gnawing at Grant”: Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1909), 2:187–189. For a thorough evaluation of Grant’s position on the nomination, see John Y. Simon, ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982), 9:541–544.
491 of George Washington: Winfield Scott had held the rank of brevet lieutenant general.
491 return to the President: Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1969), pp. 124–126; Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, pp. 194–196; New York Herald, Mar. 12, 1864.
491 “will sustain you”: CW, 7:234.
492 “for the succession”: Dennison to AL, Mar. 12, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: IT WAS NOT BEST TO SWAP HORSES
William F. Zornow, Lincoln and the Party Divided (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954), has long been the standard account of the political campaign of 1864. David E. Long, The Jewel of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln’s Re-Election and the End of Slavery (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1994), appeared too late for me to consult it in writing this chapter. T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and His Generals (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952), is excellent on Lincoln’s relations with Grant. Why the South Lost the Civil War, by Richard E. Beringer et al. (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1986), offers a fresh view of Grant’s strategy. On Lincoln’s growing conflict with Congress over reconstruction, Herman Belz, Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Practice During the Civil War (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969), is indispensable. I have greatly profited by the opportunity to read draft chapters of Michael Vorenberg’s dissertation on “The Thirteenth Amendment and the Politics of Emancipation,” which is being prepared at Harvard University.
493 “the re-election of Mr. Lincoln”: Zornow, p. 55.
493 “foregone conclusion”: James G. Blaine to Hannibal Hamlin, Mar. 8, 1864, Hamlin MSS, microfilm, Columbia University.
493 “people overwhelmingly”: Thompson Campbell to E. B. Washburne, Mar. 8, 1864, Washburne MSS, LC.
494 “on the surface”: Lyman Trumbull to H. G. McPike, Feb. 6,1864, Trumbull MSS, LC.
494 “goes for Lincoln”: A. Denny to John Sherman, Mar. 16, 1864, Sherman MSS, LC; E. F. Drake to John Sherman, Mar. 17, 1864, Sherman MSS, LC.
494 “to change them”: “National Convention—Postponement Requested,” broadside, Mar. 25,1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.
494 “traits of character”: Joseph Medill to E. B. Washburne, Apr. 12,1864, Washburne MSS, LC.
494 “for the office”: E. D. Webster to W. H. Seward, Mar. 14, 1864, Seward MSS, UR.
494 “Mr. C’s claim”: R. M. W. Taylor to John Sherman, Mar. 18,1864, Sherman MSS, LC.
494 “to the Other”: J. V. Denny to John Sherman, Mar. 20, 1864, Sherman MSS, LC.
494 meeting in Baltimore: The best biography, Allan Nevins, Frémont: Pathmarker of the West (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1955), stresses that Frémont himself was “sincerely indifferent to any movement” to nominate him (p. 568). See also Andrew Rolle’s interesting psychological portrait, John Charles Fremont: Character as Destiny (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).
495 “months after his inauguration”: Louis T. Merrill, “General Benjamin F. Butler in the Presidential Campaign of 1864,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 33 (Mar. 1947): 550. It cannot be shown that Lincoln authorized Cameron to approach Butler, but there is ample evidence that Cameron did so and that he reported Butler’s response to the President.
495 “tipping him out”: Benjamin F. Butler, Butler’s Book (Boston: A. M. Thayer & Co., 1892), p. 635.
495 Lincoln backed down: James N. Adams, “Lincoln and Hiram Barney,” JISHS 50 (Winter 1957): 370–373.
495 “will be questioned”: Thurlow Weed to David Davis, Mar. 24, 1864, Davis MSS, ISHL.
495 “to say no”: E. D. Morgan to Thurlow Weed, Mar. 27, 1864, Weed MSS, UR.
495 “for my opinions”: Thurlow Weed to David Davis, Mar. 29, 1864, Davis MSS, ISHL.
496 “disheartened and disappointed”: John G. Nicolay to AL, Mar. 30, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.
496 “Blood and Treasure”: Glyndon G. Van Deusen, Thurlow Weed: Wizard of the Lobby (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1947), p. 307.
496 “opposed to Lincoln”: Francis P. Blair, Jr., to Montgomery Blair, Apr. 26,1864, Blair MSS, LC.
496 “a compromise candidate”: Congressional Globe, 38 Cong, 1 sess. (Apr. 23,1864), p. 1832.
496 “return to the field”: CW, 7:319–320.
496 “be set right”: Segal, Conversations, pp. 310–316.
497 “men and dogs”: Albert G. Riddle, Recollections of War Times (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895), p. 266.
497 “or telegrapher”: CW, 6:350.
497 “he has got”: Williams, Lincoln and His Generals, p. 272.
497 “as he pleases”: Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1969), pp. 138–139.
498 “rendering such assistance”: Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs (New York: Charles L. Webster & Co, 1886), 2:122.
498 “restraints upon you”: CW, 7:324.
498 “ground of either”: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ser. 1, vol. 34, p. 19.
498 “lines to Richmond”: Ibid., vol. 33, p. 394.
499 “of East Tennessee”: Ibid., p. 395.
499 “superiority in numbers”: Hay, Diary, p. 178.
499 “somebody else does”: Grant, Memoirs, 2:142–143.
499 in Grant’s campaign: Ludwell H. Johnson, Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1958), offers a devastating account of Banks’s expedition.
Lincoln Page 110