Lincoln

by David Herbert Donald

  530 “wet blanket”: Daniel Devlin to S. L. M. Barlow, Sept. 1, 1864, Barlow MSS, HEH.

  530 “universally condemned”: William Gray to George B. McClellan, Sept. 1, 1864, McClellan MSS, LC.

  530 “their candiaate”: George T. Curtis to George B. McClellan, Sept. 1, 1864, McClellan MSS, LC.

  530 “had been in vain”: McPherson, Political History, p. 421.

  530 “twaddle and humbug”: T. J. Barnett to S. L. M. Barlow, n.d. [c. Oct. 1, 1864], Barlow MSS, HEH.

  530 “and fairly won”: Sherman’s telegram was sent on September 3 but was not received in Washington until the next day.

  531 “capture... of Atlanta”: CW, 7:533.

  531 “in the party”: Donald, Sumner, pp. 187–189.

  531 “run Mr. Lincoln”: Much of the correspondence leading to this meeting was published in the New York Sun, June 30, 1889. See also the full account of the discussions in Francis Lieber to Charles Sumner, Aug. 31, 1864, Lieber MSS, HEH.

  531 “remains the candidate”: Pearson, Andrew, 2:162–163.

  531 “highest degree”: Richard Yates to Horace Greeley et al., Sept. 6, 1864, Andrew MSS, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  531 “and re-elected”: James T. Lewis to Horace Greeley et al., Sept. 7, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  532 “on Monday last”: Thurlow Weed to W. H. Seward, Sept. 10, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  532 “to American history”: Theodore Tilton to John G. Nicolay, Sept. 6, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  532 Lincoln by name: L. E. Chittenden to AL, Oct. 6, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  532 “fruitful victory”: Henry J. Raymond to AL, Aug. 22, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  532 “utter ruination”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary: A Biography of John G. Nicolay (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1949), p. 212.

  532 “peaceful modes”: CW, 7:517.

  532 “in advance”: Nicolay and Hay, 9:221.

  532 “arduous duty”: John G. Nicolay to Therena Bates, Sept. 4, 1864, Nicolay MSS, LC.

  533 “nothing else”: James N. Adams, “Lincoln and Hiram Barney,” JISHS 50 (Winter 1957): 375.

  533 “departments yesterday”: Harry J. Carman and Reinhard H. Luthin, Lincoln and the Patronage (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), p. 280.

  533 Zachariah Chandler: The only biography is still the Detroit Post and Tribune’s Zachariah Chandler (Detroit: Post and Tribune Co., 1880). Chandler’s letters describing his mission are published in Winfred A. Harbison, ed., “Zachariah Chandler’s Part in the Re-election of Abraham Lincoln,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 22 (Sept. 1935): 267–276.

  533 “Traitor McLelland”: Zachariah Chandler to Letitia Chandler, Sept. 2, 1864, Chandler MSS, LC.

  533 “placed him there”: Alphonso Taft to B. F. Wade, Sept. 8, 1864, Wade MSS, LC. See also Hans L. Trefousse, Benjamin Franklin Wade: Radical Republican from Ohio (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1963), pp. 227–229.

  533 “to his prospects”: Henry Winter Davis to Samuel F. Du Pont, Sept. 28 or 29, 1864, in John D. Hayes, ed., Samuel Francis Du Pont: A Selection from His Civil War Letters (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969), 3:393–394.

  534 “have his confidence”: Harbison, “Zachariah Chandler’s Part,” p. 271.

  534 “take refuge anywhere”: Hayes, Du Pont, 3:393.

  534 “administered the Dept.”: Francis P. Blair, Sr., to Montgomery Blair, Monday [Sept. 1864], Blair MSS, LC.

  534 “false ones”: Ibid. For a sharply critical view of Blair, see Allan Nevins, The War for the Union, vol. 4, The Organized War to Victory, 1864–1865 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), pp. 94–95, 104–105.

  534 “but came”: Harbison, “Zachariah Chandler’s Part,” p. 273.

  535 from the cabinet: There has been much controversy over the alleged “bargain,” in which Lincoln agreed to dismiss Blair from the cabinet if Frémont withdrew from the presidential race. Charles R. Wilson, “New Light on the Lincoln-Blair-Frémont ‘Bargain’ of 1864,” American Historical Review 42 (Oct. 1936): 71–78, argues that there was no bargain, because Lincoln had already decided to drop Blair and Frémont withdrew because his campaign was foundering and his approach for an alliance with the Democrats was rejected. Allan Nevins, Frémont: Pathmarker of the West (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1955), p. 580, contends that Frémont “rejected a bargain as dishonorable.” Andrew Rolle, John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), p. 232, says that Frémont did not personally demand the removal of Blair and “played no central part in this procedure.” The best evidence, then, is that Lincoln did consent to a bargain, negotiated by Chandler, trading the removal of Blair for the support of Wade and Davis; that, again at Chandler’s urging, he agreed to propose a bargain to Frémont; and that Frémont did not accept it but withdrew for other reasons.

  535 “be reappointed”: Nevins, Frémont, pp. 579–580. These letters prove that Frémont did not feel “insulted” by the offer of a bargain and that he did not reject it out of hand.

  535 “in reputation”: Harold A. Schofield, “The New Nation and Its Editor,” LH 76 (Winter 1974): 206.

  535 “appear tomorrow”: Hayes, Du Pont, 3:394.

  535 “financially a failure”: McPherson, Political History, pp. 426–427.

  535 “support Lincoln”: Hayes, Du Pont, 3:394.

  535 “pure, and dignified”: David Davis to AL, Oct. 4, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  535 “dutifully and manfully”: Salmon P. Chase to Charles F. Schmidt, Aug. 12, 1864, Chase MSS.

  535 “we would wish”: Salmon P. Chase to Richard C. Parsons, Sept. 14,1864, Chase MSS.

  536 “not know him”: Chase, Diary, p. 254.

  536 “my active support”: Salmon P. Chase to George S. Denison, Sept. 20, 1864, Chase MSS.

  536 the next Chief Justice: David M. Silver, Lincoln’s Supreme Court (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956), chaps. 15–16, offers a full account of the controversies over naming Taney’s successor. See also the careful review of all the evidence in Charles Fairman, Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864–88 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1971), chap. 2.

  536 “of my life”: Edward Bates to AL, Oct. 13, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  536 “from your Cabinet”: Francis P. Blair, Sr., to AL, Oct. 20, 1864, Blair MSS, LC.

  536 “his other recommendations”: Nicolay and Hay, 9:391–392.

  536 “expect great things”: Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, Oct. 19, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  537 “of the nation”: New York Herald, Aug. 23, 1864.

  537 “judgment of history?”: Chase, Diary, p. 253.

  537 “the people’s business”: Emanuel Hertz, Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931), 2:941.

  537 “but the negro”: Frank Freidel, ed., Union Pamphlets of the Civil War, 1861–1865 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967), 2:981, 988.

  537 “on the patent”: CW, 7:508.

  537 “incompetency, and corruption”: James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1907), 4:531.

  537 in St. Louis: Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 180.

  538 “know was right”: Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865, ed. Dorothy Lamon Teillard (Washington, D.C.: 1911), pp. 145–149. For further comment on this matter, see Randall, Lincoln the President, 4:247–249.

  538 “anything to say”: CW, 7:398.

  538 “a free Government”: CW, 7:505.

  538 “any thing else”: Gil Troy, See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate (New York: Free Press, 1991), p. 69.

  538 after the election: For advice that Lincoln received on Pennsylvania politics, see Thomas Fitzgerald to AL, Sept. 28, 1864; Fitzgerald to John G. Nicolay, Sept. 29, 1864; William D. Kelley to AL, Sept. 30, 1864—all in Lincoln MSS, LC. Curtin’s words appear in Joseph C. McKibbin to Samuel L. M. Barlow, Oct. 1, 1864, Barlow MSS.

&n
bsp; 538 “than Mr. Conkling”: CW, 7:498.

  538 “he thinks fit”: CW, 7:402, 480–481.

  538 James Gordon Bennett: In addition to the specific citations that follow, see two excellent studies: David Quentin Voigt, “‘Too Pitchy to Touch’—President Lincoln and Editor Bennett,” ALQ 6 (Sept. 1950): 139–161, and John J. Turner, Jr., and Michael D’Innocenzo, “The President and the Press: Lincoln, James Gordon Bennett and the Election of 1864,” LH 76 (Summer 1974): 63–69.

  539 editor with flattery: Green Clay Smith to AL, Sept. 2, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  539 “too pitchy to touch”: Hay, Diary, p. 215.

  539 “amount to much”: CW, 7:461.

  539 “mentioning your name”: William O. Bartlett to AL, Oct. 20, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  539 “less repulsive way”: Turner and D’Innocenzo, “The President and the Press,” p. 67.

  539 “and ruined us”: CW, 8:100–101.

  539 September draft call:. Stanton did grant a four-day delay, so that some state quotas and draft districts could be rearranged. Harold M. Hyman and Benjamin P. Thomas, Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), p. 328.

  539 “you at once”: CW, 8:11.

  539 Nevada a state: In his Recollections of the Civil War (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1898), pp. 174–177, Charles A. Dana remembered that Lincoln had actively promoted the statehood of Nevada, primarily to secure additional votes in the next session of Congress for the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery and that he had liberally distributed patronage to persuade Democrats to vote for admission. But Earl S. Pomeroy, “Lincoln, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Admission of Nevada,” Pacific Historical Review 12 (1943), 362–368, points out numerous errors in Dana’s account and shows (p. 367) “there is no reason to suppose that Nevada was a favorite project of Lincoln or that he viewed it with great warmth.”

  540 “any presidential election”: CW, 8:72.

  540 “vanity, or ambition”: CW, 7:506.

  540 “to the country”: Segal, Conversations, p. 338.

  540 a Washington merchant: O. H. Browning, Diary, July 3, 1873, MS, ISHL.

  540 “will know all”: Randall, Mary Lincoln, pp. 346–347.

  540 “all future ages”: CW, 8:96.

  540 “with their own”: CW, 8:52.

  540 “this great nation”: CW, 7:506.

  541 “fickle-minded man”: C. Peter Ripley, ed., The Black Abolitionist Papers: The United States, 1859–1865 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), p. 277.

  541 “Despotism and Slavery”: Ibid., p. 306. For additional statements of African-Americans’ support for Lincoln, see James M. McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982), chap. 21.

  541 “call you blessed”: Benjamin Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 211.

  541 “advocated his cause”: Segal, Conversations, pp. 345–347.

  541 abolitionists had often: These paragraphs draw heavily from James M. McPherson’s admirable study, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964), esp. chap. 12.

  542 “to the emancipated”: William Lloyd Garrison, 1805–1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children (New York: Century Co., 1889), 4:117.

  542 “us the churches”: CW, 7:350–351.

  542 “and to liberty”: CW, 7:368.

  542 “all on one side”: James H. Moorhead, American Apocalypse: Yankee Protestants and the Civil War (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1978), pp. 156–157.

  542 women of letters: For an excellent analysis of the changing views of Northern intellectuals and literary figures, see George M. Fredrickson, The Inner Civil War: Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union (New York: Harper & Row, 1965).

  542 “never in history”: Ralph L. Rusk, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949), p. 426.

  542 “will be saved”: Samuel Longfellow, ed., Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1886), 3:47.

  542 “in a net”: Forrest Wilson, Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1941), pp. 484–485.

  542 “who could hesitate!”: John B. Pickard, ed., The Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975), 3:77.

  543 “and his God”: Paul Revere Frothingham, Edward Everett: Orator and Statesman (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1925), pp. 461–463.

  543 “a practical statesman”: James Russell Lowell, “The Next General Election,” North American Review 99 (Oct. 1864): 570; Horace E. Scudder, James Russell Lowell: A Biography (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1901), 2:56.

  543 evening of October 11: The following paragraphs draw on Hay’s very full account in Hay, Diary, pp. 227–230.

  543 “give up my office”: The Works of Charles Sumner (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1883), 15:66.

  543 to his column: CW, 8:46.

  544 “if they do”: Strong, Diary, p. 501.

  544 “greed for spoils”: John G. Nicolay to John Hay, Oct. 19, 1864, Nicolay MSS, LC.

  544 “those votes himself”: Zornow, p. 202.

  544 “half filled seats”: Henry D. Cooke to John Sherman, Nov. 8, 1864, Sherman MSS, LC.

  544 went off smoothly: Zornow, chap. 16, offers the best analysis of the voting. There is also much excellent material in William B. Hesseltine, Lincoln and the War Governors (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), chap. 17, which, however, overestimates the importance of the soldier vote.

  545 “pretty sure-footed”: Hay, Diary, pp. 233–234.

  CHAPTER TWENTY: WITH CHARITY FOR ALL

  Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988), by William A. Tidwell, James O. Hall, and David Winfred Gaddy, offers a provocative account of attempts to kidnap and kill Lincoln. Tidwell’s April ’65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995) offers further evidence of Booth’s connection with the Southern secret service. Michael Les Benedict, A Compromise of Principle: Congressional Republicans and Reconstruction, 1863–1869 (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1974), and Herman Belz, Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Policy During the Civil War (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969), provide illuminating accounts of the Thirteenth Amendment and of the failure of Ashley’s reconstruction bill. The fullest account of the Hampton Roads peace conference is in Edward C. Kirkland, The Peacemakers of 1864 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1927). Donald C. Pfanz, The Petersburg Campaign: Abraham Lincoln at City Point, March 20-April 9, 1865 (Lynchburg, Va.: H. E. Howard, 1989), gives a detailed chronology of Lincoln’s visit to Grant’s army.

  546 “the national honor”: Strong, Diary, p. 511.

  546 “in all history”: James A. Briggs to John Sherman, Nov. 12, 1864, Sherman MSS, LC.

  546 “was a possibility”: CW, 8:101.

  546 “limitations in politics”: Hay, Diary, pp. 234, 239.

  547 “any man’s bosom”: CW, 8:101.

  547 “insatiable for our blood”: Larry E. Nelson, Bullets, Ballots, and Rhetoric: Confederate Policy for the United States Presidential Contest of 1864 (University: University of Alabama Press, 1980), p. 158.

  547 “despotic Caesar himself”: Michael Davis, The Image of Lincoln in the South (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1971), p. 68.

  547 “used to things!”: Carpenter, Six Months, pp. 62–63.

  548 “of its instruments”: Ibid., pp. 65–66.

  548 “in this city”: Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865, ed. Dorothy Lamon Teillard (Washington, D.C.: 1911), p. 275.

  548 Lincolns’ private rooms: For these increasingly careful security precautions, see George S. Bryan, The Great American Myth (New York: Carrick & Evans, 1940), pp.
60–66. See also “Guarding Mr. Lincoln,” Surratt Courier 12 (Mar. 1987), pp. 1, 7.

  549 “out of the City”: Lizzie W.S. to AL, July 1, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  549 “with your help”: Seymour Ketchum to AL, Nov. 2, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.