Diary of Gideon Welles: [April 15,] 1865

A door which opened upon a porch or gallery, and also the windows, were kept open for fresh air. The night was dark, cloudy, and damp, and about six it began to rain. I remained in the room until then without sitting or leaving it, when, there being a vacant chair which some one left at the foot of the bed, I occupied it for nearly two hours, listening to the heavy groans, and witnessing the wasting life of the good and great man who was expiring before me.

About 6 A.M. I experienced a feeling of faintness and for the first time after entering the room, a little past eleven, I left it and the house, and took a short walk in the open air. It was a dark and gloomy morning, and rain set in before I returned to the house, some fifteen minutes [later]. Large groups of people were gathered every few rods, all anxious and solicitous. Some one or more from each group stepped forward as I passed, to inquire into the condition of the President, and to ask if there was no hope. Intense grief was on every countenance when I replied that the President could survive but a short time. The colored people especially - and there were at this time more of them, perhaps, than of whites' — were overwhelmed with grief.

Returning to the house, I seated myself in the back parlor, where the Attorney-General and others had been engaged in taking evidence concerning the assassination. Stanton, and Speed, and Usher were there, the latter asleep on the bed. There were three or four others also in the room. While I did not feel inclined to sleep, as many did, I was somewhat indisposed. I had been so for several days. The excitement and bad atmosphere from the crowded rooms oppressed me physically.

A little before seven, I went into the room where the dying President was rapidly drawing near the closing moments. His wife soon after made her last visit to him. The death-struggle had begun. Robert, his son, stood with several others at the head of the bed. He bore himself well, but on two occasions gave way to overpowering grief and sobbed aloud, turning his head and leaning on the shoulder of Senator Sumner. The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals, and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven.

A prayer followed from Dr. Gurley; and the Cabinet, with the exception of Mr. Seward and Mr. McCulloch, immediately thereafter assembled in the back parlor, from which all other persons were excluded, and there signed a letter which was prepared by Attorney-General Speed to the Vice-President, informing him of the event, and that the government devolved upon him.

Mr. Stanton proposed that Mr. Speed, as the law officer, should communicate the letter to Mr. Johnson with some other member of the Cabinet. Mr. Dennison named me. I saw that, though all assented, it disconcerted Stanton, who had expected and intended to be the man and to have Speed associated with him. I was disinclined personally to disturb an obvious arrangement, and therefore named Mr. McCulloch as the first in order after the Secretary of State.

I arranged with Speed, with whom I rode home, for a Cabinet-meeting at twelve meridian at the room of the Secretary of the Treasury, in order that the government should experience no detriment, and that prompt and necessary action might be taken to assist the new Chief Magistrate in preserving and promoting the public tranquillity. We accordingly met at noon. Mr. Speed reported that the President had taken the oath, which was administered by the Chief Justice, and had expressed a desire that the affairs of the government should proceed without interruption. Some discussion took place as to the propriety of an inaugural address, but the general impression was that it would be inexpedient. I was most decidedly of that opinion.

President Johnson, who was invited to be present, deported himself admirably, and on the subject of an inaugural said his acts would best disclose his policy. In all essentials it would, he said, be the same as that of the late President. He desired the members of the Cabinet to go forward with their duties without any change. Mr. Hunter, Chief Clerk of the State Department, was designated to act ad interim as Secretary of State. I suggested Mr. Speed, but I saw it was not acceptable in certain quarters. Stanton especially expressed a hope that Hunter should be assigned to the duty.

A room for the President as an office was proposed until he could occupy the Executive Mansion, and Mr. McCulloch offered the room adjoining his own in the Treasury Building. I named the State Department as appropriate and proper, at least until the Secretary of State recovered, or so long as the President wished, but objections arose at once. The papers of Mr. Seward would, Stanton said, be disturbed; it would be better he should be here, etc., etc. Stanton, I saw, had a purpose; among other things, feared papers would fall under Mr. Johnson's eye which he did not wish to be seen.

On returning to my house this morning, Saturday, I found Mrs. Welles, who had been ill and confined to the house from indisposition for a week, had been twice sent for by Mrs. Lincoln to come to her at Peterson's. The housekeeper, knowing the state of Mrs. W.'s health, had without consultation turned away the messenger, Major French, but Mrs. Welles, on learning the facts when he came the second time, had yielded, and imprudently gone, although the weather was inclement. She remained at the Executive Mansion through the day. For myself, wearied, shocked, exhausted, but not inclined to sleep, the day, when not actually and officially engaged, passed off strangely.

I went after breakfast to the Executive Mansion. There was a cheerless cold rain and everything seemed gloomy. On the Avenue in front of the White House were several hundred colored people, mostly women and children, weeping and wailing their loss. This crowd did not appear to diminish through the whole of that cold, wet day; they seemed not to know what was to be their fate since their great benefactor was dead, and their hopeless grief affected me more than almost anything else, though strong and brave men wept when I met them.

At the White House all was silent and sad. Mrs. W. was with Mrs. L. and came to meet me in the library. Speed came in, and we soon left together. As we were descending the stairs, “Tad," who was looking from the window at the foot, turned and, seeing us, cried aloud in his tears, “Oh, Mr. Welles, who killed my father?” Neither Speed nor myself could restrain our tears, nor give the poor boy any satisfactory answer.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 287-90

Concerning The President Personally.

Some one was smoking in the presence of the President and complimented him on having new vices, neither drinking nor smoking.  “That is a doubtful compliment,” answered the President; “I recollect once being outside a stage in Illinois and a man sitting by me offered me a segar.  I told him I had no vices.  He said nothing, smoked for some time, and then grunted out, “It’s my experience that folks who have no vices have plagued few virtues.”

The President is rather fain of his height, but one day a young man called on him who was certainly three inches taller than the former; he was like the mathematical definition of the straight line—length without breadth.  “Really,” said Mr. Lincoln, “I must look up to you, if you ever get in a deep place you ought to be able to wade out.”  That reminds us of the story told of Mr. Lincoln somewhere when a crowd called him out.  He came out with his wife on the balcony (who is somewhat below medium height) and made the following “brief remarks:”—“Here I am and here is Mrs. Lincoln.  That’s the long and short of it.”

SOURCE: New York Daily Herald, New York, New York, Friday, February 19, 1864, p. 5, and copied from the New York Evening Post, New York, New York, Wednesday, February 17, 1864.

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, April 29, 1864

Usher relates to me to-day some damaging stories concerning the Treasury. I cannot but think them exaggerations. I know, from some reliable and unmistakable sources, that there have been improprieties among the subordinates of a licentious character, and that Chase is cognizant of the facts. It has surprised me that, knowing the facts, he should have permitted the person most implicated to retain a position of great trust. Only great weakness, or implication in error would give a solution. I do not for a moment entertain the latter, and the former is not a trait in his character.

These matters cannot be suppressed. Blair says Chase will not assent to a committee. He cannot avoid it, and since Frank Blair has left, I think he will not attempt it. Colfax, the Speaker, will give him pretty much such a committee as he wishes. The majority will be friends of Chase, as they should be, and none probably will be unfair opponents.

The President to-day related to two or three of us the circumstances connected with his giving a pass to the half-sister of his wife, Mrs. White. He gave the details with frankness, and without disguise. I will not go into them all, though they do him credit on a subject of scandal and abuse. The papers have assailed him for giving a pass to Mrs. White to carry merchandise. Briefly, Mrs. W. called at the White House and sent in her card to Mrs. Lincoln, her sister, who declined to receive or see her. Mrs. W. two or three times repeated these applications to Mrs. L. and the President, with the same result. The President sent a pass, such as in some cases he has given, for her to proceed South. She sent it back with a request that she might take trunks without being examined. The President refused. She then showed her pass and talked “secesh” at the hotel, and made application through Mallory first and then Brutus Clay. The President refused the former and told Brutus that if Mrs. W. did not leave forthwith she might expect to find herself within twenty-four hours in the Old Capitol Prison.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 20-1

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 15, 1863

After a fine rain all night, it cleared away beautifully this morning, cool, but not unseasonable. There is no news of importance. The Governor of Georgia recommends, in his message, that the Legislature instruct their representatives in Congress to vote for a repeal of the law allowing substitutes, and also to put the enrolling officers in the ranks, leaving the States to send conscripts to the army. The Georgia Legislature have passed a resolution, unanimously, asking the Secretary of War to revoke the appointments of all impressing agents in that State, and appoint none but civilians and citizens. I hope the Secretary will act upon this hint. But will he?

The papers contain the following:

“Arrived in Richmond, — Mrs. Todd, of Kentucky, the mother of Mrs. Lincoln, arrived in this city on the steamer Schultz, Thursday night, having come to City Point on a flag of truce boat. She goes South to visit her daughter, Mrs. Helm, widow of Surgeon-General Helm, who fell at Chickamauga. Mrs. Todd is about to take up her residence in the South, all her daughters being here, except the wife of Lincoln, who is in Washington, and Mrs. Kellogg, who is at present in Paris.”

“To The Poor. — C, Baumhard, 259 Main Street, between Seventh and Eighth, has received a large quantity of freshly-ground corn-meal, which he will sell to poor families at the following rates: one bushel, $16; half bushel, $8; one peck, $4; half peck, $2."

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 98-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, March 9, 1864

Went last evening to the Presidential reception. Quite a gathering; very many that are not usually seen at receptions were attracted thither, I presume, from the fact that General Grant was expected to be there. He came about half-past nine. I was near the centre of the reception room, when a stir and buzz attracted attention, and it was whispered that General Grant had arrived. The room was not full, the crowd having passed through to the East Room. I saw some men in uniform standing at the entrance, and one of them, a short, brown, dark-haired man, was talking with the President. There was hesitation, a degree of awkwardness in the General, and embarrassment in that part of the room, and a check or suspension of the moving column. Soon word was passed around for “Mr. Seward.” “General Grant is here,” and Seward, who was just behind me, hurried and took the General by the hand and led him to Mrs. Lincoln, near whom I was standing. The crowd gathered around the circle rapidly, and, it being intimated that it would be necessary the throng should pass on, Seward took the General's arm and went with him to the East Room. There was clapping of hands in the next room as he passed through, and all in the East Room joined in it as he entered. A cheer or two followed. All of which seemed rowdy and unseemly. An hour later the General and Mr. Seward and Stanton returned. Seward beckoned me and introduced me and my two nieces.

To-day I received a note from the Secretary of State to be at the Executive Mansion quarter before 1 P.M. The Cabinet was all there, and General Grant and his staff with the Secretary of War and General Halleck entered. The President met him and presented to the General his commission¹ with remarks, to which the latter responded. Both read their remarks. General Grant was somewhat embarrassed.

A conversation of half an hour followed on various subjects, but chiefly the war and the operations of Sherman.

_______________

¹ As Lieutenant-General of the United States Army.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 538-9

Gustavus V. Fox to Virginia Woodbury Fox, March 27, 1861

Washington D.C.

Mch. 27 ’61

D. V

“Circumlocution” and delay prevents me going today so I write and will not telegraph. There being a Dr Fox in the navy I am not supposed to be the visitor by any of my friends here, though as I told you Nell smoked me out. The Tribune of yesterday has my name in full but in an out of the way place, whilst Dr. Fox of the navy is conspicuous. I hope your Ma got all our things which were lying about every where, slippers under the bureau &c. &c. In the stand of your bureau were bills, receipts &c which ought to be secured. I asked Lowery to give you money to settle up with.

Blair is nearly run to death with office seekers. They left him at 2 this morning and commenced at 8 this morning. The Prest is equally beset. I have seen Abe often, also Mrs. L. She is Lady Like, converses easily, dresses well and has the Kentucky pronunciation like old Mrs. Blair. Higbee is appointed a marine officer. Morse is to have the P.O. at Ports^h and Tallock, Gov. Goodwin's Secy, is to be Collector. Nell is mighty indignant that Spalding and Laighton are out. Probably something else will be offered them, though I don't know.

SOURCES: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright, Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 11

Edwin M. Stanton to Abraham Lincoln, March 23, 1865 – 8:45 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

Washington City, March 23, 1865—8.45 p.m.

President LINCOLN,

Fort Monroe:

(Care of General Barnes, Point Lookout.)

I reached the arsenal with Mrs. Stanton to see you depart a few minutes after you had got under way. I hope you have reached Point Lookout safely, notwithstanding the furious gale that came on soon after you started. It did a great deal of damage here, blowing up trees, unroofing houses; wrecked a vessel at the wharf; killed a hackman and his team in the street, upon whom a roof fell. No news from any quarter has come in to day, except a report of Hancock showing much more force in his department laying around loose than was before known. This will be sent to General Grant. Please let me hear from you at Point Lookout and how you and Mrs. Lincoln stand the voyage.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 86-7

Edwin M. Stanton to Abraham Lincoln, March 24, 1865 – 4:30 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

Washington City, March 24, 1865—4.30 p.m.

The PRESIDENT,

City Point:

I was glad to hear your safe arrival at Fortress Monroe, and hope that by this time you and Mrs. Lincoln have reached General Grant's headquarters in health and comfort. Nothing new has transpired here. Your tormentors have taken wings and departed. Mr. Whiting, solicitor of the Department, has tendered his resignation, which, with your permission, I will accept. From absence and ill-health he has been of no service for many months. What does General Grant say about Mr. Yeatman? The weather here is cold, windy, and very disagreeable, so that I think you went to the Sunny South in good time. I would be glad to receive a telegram from you dated at Richmond before your return. Compliments to Mrs. Lincoln.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 96-7

Edwin M. Stanton to Abraham Lincoln, April 5, 1865 – 6 p.m.

OFFICE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH.

Cipher

Headquarters Armies of the US

The following Telegram received City Point Apr 5 1865

From Washington 6 P.M. 5th 1865

About two hours ago Mr Seward was thrown from his carriage his shoulder bone at the head of the joint broken off, his head and face much bruised and he is in my opinion dangerously injured. I think your presence here is needed. Mrs Lincoln with a party of friends left here this morning in the Monohanset for City Point. Please let me know when you may be expected

E.M. Stanton

Secy of War

SOURCE: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General John A. Dix, April 15, 1865 – 1:30 a.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

April 15, 1865 — 1.30 a.m. (Sent 2.15 a.m.)

Major-General DIX,

New York:

Last evening, about 10.30 p.m., at Ford's Theater, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Rathbone, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President. The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theater. The pistol-ball entered the back of the President's head, and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal. The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now dying. About the same hour an assassin (whether the same or another) entered Mr. Seward's home, and, under pretense of having a prescription, was shown to the Secretary's sick chamber. The Secretary was in bed, a nurse and Miss Seward with him. The assassin immediately rushed to the bed, inflicted two or three stabs on the throat and two on the face. It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal; my apprehension is that they will prove fatal: the noise alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, who was in an adjoining room, and hastened to the door of his father's room, where he met the assassin, who inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of Frederick Seward is doubtful. It is not probable that the President will live through the night. General Grant and wife were advertised to be at the theater this evening, but he started to Burlington at 6 o'clock this evening. At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, at which General Grant was present, the subject of the state of the country and the prospects of speedy peace was discussed. The President was very cheerful and hopeful; spoke very kindly of General Lee and others of the Confederacy, and the establishment of government in Virginia. All the members of the Cabinet except Mr. Seward are now in attendance upon the President. I have seen Mr. Seward, but he and Frederick were both unconscious.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 780

Simon Cameron to Abraham Lincoln, June 26, 1862

St Petersburg

June 26, 1862.

My dear Sir,

I must begin this my first letter from Russia, by thanking you for your message to Congress, in relation to the N. York agencies. It was a good act, bravely done. Right, in itself, as it was, very many men, in your situation, would have permitted an innocent man to suffer rather than incur responsibility. I am glad to see that the leading presses of Europe speak of it, in high terms, as an act of “nobleness”; and if I can believe what I hear from home, you will lose nothing there. At all events, I can assure you, that I will never cease to be grateful for it.

Yesterday, I had the honor of being introduced to the Emperor, of which I shall send an official account to-day to the State Dept. The interview was a long one, and his majesty was more than cordial. He asked me many questions shewing his interest in our affairs, and when I thanked him, in your name, for his prompt sympathy in our cause, the expression of his eyes, and his subsequent remarks, shewed me very clearly that he was particularly well pleased for he soon after turned the conversation to England.

The whole Court is at present out of the city, and all the high officials will remain absent, for some months. The Emperor came to town only to receive me. There is never much to be done here by an American Minister, and now there is really nothing for me to do. I more than ever regret that Mr Seward did not give me authority to travel, as you said I might have.

Feeling sure that no harm can come to the Government, by the absence of its minister at this time, I am induced now to ask you for a forlough to go home, as was given I think to Mr. Schurze, to look after my private affairs I make this request with more confidence in the assurance that the Legation will be well conducted, during my absence by Mr Taylor. I certainly would not have left home when the attack was made on me in the House of Reps strengthened as I was by your repeated assurances that I might take my own time for leaving, only that all my arrangements had been made for sailing, my passage taken and paid for, to which I had been urged by the belief that wrong was being done to Mr Clay by my delay, = but when I came here I found he was entirely content, and would have been satisfied if my arrival had been still later.

I should like to leave here by the middle of September, as then the lease of the house which I took from Mr. Clay to relieve him, will expire. The rent is a heavy item in the expenditures of a Minister, being over $3000 & more than one fourth of his yearly pay. Going at that time too, will enable me to reach home in time before the Pennsa. election to be of some service to my country, for I think your troubles will soon be removed from the Army to Congress. I shall make this application to the State Department officially – but I ask it now, from your friendship

I have been gratified all over Europe to find the high reputation you are making, and from home, too, there are indications of a growing belief that you will have to be your own successor. While it is, in my judgment, the last place to find happiness, I think you will have to make up your mind to endure it.

This is a great city and Russia is a mighty nation, and I have many things to say of them, which will be deferred till we meet. The climate I regret to say does not suit the health of my family, and they wish to leave it.

Please give to Mrs. Lincoln, the kindest regards of my wife, and believe me

Your friend Truly

Simon Cameron

Hon. A. Lincoln

Your prompt reply to my request, will especially oblige me.

SOURCE: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Diary of Captain John A. Dahlgren: May 22, 1862

1 received a telegram from Secretary of War for a boat in the evening. So about nine came a carriage with Stanton and, to my surprise, the President, bound on a quiet trip to Acquia. He left so privately that Mrs. Lincoln alone knew of it. I told them there was nothing to eat in the steamboat. I had eatables, bedding, &c., tumbled in, and we left at ten P. M., after supper. The President read aloud to us from Halleck's poems,¹ and then we went to impromptu beds.

_______________

¹ President Lincoln had real dramatic power as a reader, and recited poetic passages with pathos. The copy of Halleck from which the President read on this occasion, now belongs to us, and “Marco Bozzaris” is marked as the piece read aloud to Secretary Stanton and Admiral Dahlgren. What a mournful and prophetic suggestiveness there was in the selection! How truly may it now be said of Lincoln,

"For them art Freedom's now, and Fame's;

One of the few, the immortal names,

That were not horn to die.”

SOURCE: Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, Memoir of John A. Dahlgren, Rear-admiral United States Navy, p. 368

Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General John A. Dix, 1:30 a.m., April 15, 1865

[OFFICIAL.]

WAR DEPARTMENT,

WASHINGTON, April 15 — 1:30 A.M.

Maj.-Gen. Dix:

This evening at about 9:30 P.M., at Ford's Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. LINCOLN, Mrs. HARRIS, and Major RATHBURN, was shot by as assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President.

The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre.

The pistol ball entered the back of the President's head and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal. The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now dying.

About the same hour an assassin, whether the same or not, entered Mr. SEWARD's apartments, and under the pretence of having a prescription, was shown to the Secretary's sick chamber. The assassin immediately rushed to the bed, and inflicted two or three stabs on the throat and two on the face. It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal. My apprehension is that they will prove fatal.

The nurse alarmed Mr. FREDERICK SEWARD, who was in an adjoining room, and hastened to the door of his father's room, when he met the assasin, who inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of FREDERICK SEWARD is doubtful.

It is not probable that the President will live throughout the night.

Gen. GRANT and wife were advertised to be at the theatre this evening, but he started to Burlington at 6 o'clock this evening.

At a Cabinet meeting at which Gen. GRANT was present, the subject of the state of the country and the prospect of a speedy peace was discussed. The President was very cheerful and hopeful, and spoke very kindly of Gen. LEE and others of the Confederacy, and of the establishment of government in Virginia.

All the members of the Cabinet except Mr. SEWARD, are now in attendance upon the President.

I have seen Mr. SEWARD, but he and FREDERICK were both unconscious.

EDWlN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

— The New York Times, New York, New York, April 15, 1865, p. 1

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: June 3, 1863

Gen. Lee communicates to the department to-day his views of the Montgomery letter to Gen. Forrest, a copy of which was sent him by Governor Vance. He terms it “diabolical.” It seems to have been an official letter, superscribed by “C. Marshall, Major and A. A. G.” Gen. Lee suggests that it be not published, but that copies be sent to all our generals.

Hon. R. M. T. Hunter urges the Secretary, in a lengthy letter, to send a cavalry brigade into Essex and the adjacent counties, to protect the inhabitants from the incursions of the “Yankees.” He says a government agent has established a commissary department within six miles of his house, and it will be sure to be destroyed if no force be sent there adequate to its defense. He says, moreover, if our troops are to operate only in the great armies facing the enemy, a few hostile regiments of horse may easily devastate the country without molestation.

Gov. Vance writes a most indignant reply to a letter which, it seems, had been addressed to him by the Assistant Secretary of War, Judge Campbell, in which there was an intimation that the judicial department of the State government “lent itself” to the work of protecting deserters, etc. This the Governor repels as untrue, and says the judges shall have his protection. That North Carolina has been wronged by calumnious imputations, and many in the army and elsewhere made to believe she .was not putting forth all her energies in the work of independence. He declares that North Carolina furnished more than half the killed and wounded in the two great battles on the Rappahannock, in December and May last.

By the Northern papers we see the President of the United States, his wife, and his cabinet are amusing themselves at the White House with Spiritualism.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 339-40

Diary of John Hay: November 8, 1864

The house has been still and almost deserted to-day. Everybody in Washington, not at home voting, seems ashamed of it and stays away from the President.

I was talking with him to-day. He said:— “It is a little singular that I, who am not a vindictive man, should have always been before the people for election in canvasses marked for their bitterness:— always but once. When I came to Congress it was a quiet time. But always besides that, the contests in which I have been prominent have been marked with great rancor. . . . .”

During the afternoon few despatches were received. At night, at seven o'clock, we started over to the War Department to spend the evening. Just as we started we received the first gun from Indianapolis showing a majority of 8,000 there, a gain of 1,500 over McClellan’s vote. The vote itself seemed an enormous one for a town of that size, and can only be accounted for by considering the great influx, since the war, of voting men from the country into the State centres where a great deal of army business is done. There was less significance in this vote on account of the October victory which had disheartened the enemy and destroyed their incentive to work.

The night was rainy, steamy and dark. We splashed through the grounds to the side door where a soaked and smoking sentinel was standing in his own vapor with his huddled-up frame covered with a rubber cloak. Inside, a half-dozen idle orderlies; up-stairs the clerks of the telegraph. As the President entered, they handed him a despatch from Forney claiming ten thousand Union majority in Pennsylvania. “Forney is a little excitable.” Another comes from Felton, Baltimore, giving 15,000 in the city, 5,000 in the State. “All Hail, Free Maryland. That is superb!” A message from Rice to Fox, followed instantly by one from Sumner to Lincoln, claiming Boston by 5,000, and Rice’s and Hooper’s elections by majorities of 4,000 apiece. A magnificent advance on the chilly dozens of 1862.

Eckert came in, shaking the rain from his cloak, with trousers very disreputably muddy. We sternly demanded an explanation. He had done it watching a fellow-being ahead, and chuckling at his uncertain footing. Which reminded the Tycoon of course. The President said:— “For such an awkward fellow, I am pretty surefooted. It used to take a pretty dexterous man to throw me. I remember, the evening of the day in 1858, that decided the contest for the Senate between Mr. Douglas and myself, was something like this, dark, rainy and gloomy. I had been reading the returns and had ascertained that we had lost the legislature, and started to go home. The path had been worn hog-backed, and was slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other one out of the way, but I recovered myself and lit square; and I said to myself: ‘It's a slip and not a fall?’”

The President sent over the first fruits to Mrs. Lincoln. He said, “She is more anxious than I.”

We went into the Secretary's room. Mr. Welles and Fox soon came in. They were especially happy over the election of Rice , regarding it as a great triumph for the Navy Department. Says Fox, “There are two fellows that have been specially malignant to us. Hale and Winter Davis, and retribution has come over them both.” “You have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I,” said Lincoln. “Perhaps I may have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him. It has seemed to me recently that Winter Davis was growing more sensible to his own true interests, and has ceased wasting his time by attacking me. I hope, for his own good, he has. He has been very malicious against me, but has only injured himself by it. His conduct has been very strange to me. I came here his friend, wishing to continue so. I had heard nothing but good of him; he was the cousin of my intimate friend Judge Davis. But he had scarcely been elected when I began to learn of his attacking me on all possible occasions. It is very much the same with Hickman. I was much disappointed that he failed to be my friend. But my greatest disappointment of all has been with Grimes. Before I came here I certainly expected to rely upon Grimes more than any other one man in the Senate. I like him very much. He is a great strong fellow. He is a valuable friend, a dangerous enemy. He carries too many guns not to be respected on any point of view. But he got wrong against me, I do not clearly know how, and has always been cool and almost hostile to me. I am glad he has always been the friend of the Navy, and generally of the Administration.”

. . . Towards midnight we had supper. The President went awkwardly and hospitably to work shovelling out the fried oysters. He was most agreeable and genial all the evening, in fact. . . . Capt. Thomas came up with a band about half past two, and made some music. The President answered from the window with rather unusual dignity and effect, and we came home.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 238-42; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 243-6

John Hay to John G. Nicolay, June 20, 1864

Washington, D. C.

June 20, 1864.

MY DEAR NICOLAY:

I went blundering through the country after leaving you, missing my connections and buying tickets until I landed in Baltimore without a cent; had to borrow money of the Eutaw to pay for my dinner and hack. Got home tired, dusty and disgusted.

The Tycoon thinks small beer of Rosey's mare's nest. Too small, I rather think. But let 'em work! Val[landigham] 's sudden Avatar rather startles the Cop[perhead]s here away. Billy Morrison asks me how much we gave Fernandiwud for importing him.

Society is nil here. The Lorings go to-morrow — last lingerers. We mingle our tears and exchange locks of hair to-night in Corcoran's Row, —some half hundred of us.

I went last night to a Sacred Concert of profane music at Ford's. Young Kretchmar and old Kretchpar were running it. — Hermanns and Habelman both sang;—and they kin if anybody kin. The Tycoon and I occupied private box, and both of us carried on a hefty flirtation with the Monk Girls in the flies.

Madame is in the North. The President has gone to-day to visit Grant. I am all alone in the White pest-house. The ghosts of twenty thousand drowned cats come in nights through the south windows. I shall shake my buttons off with the ague before you get back. . . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 198-9; see Michael Burlingame, Editor, At Lincoln’s side: John Hay’s Civil War Correspondence and Selected Writings, p. 85 for the complete letter.

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, June 8, 1863

Wrote Secretary of State on the subject of the complaints of the Danish Government against Wilkes, who is charged with abusing hospitality at St. Thomas. Made the best statement I could without censuring Wilkes, who is coming home, partly from these causes.

Have a letter from Foote, who is not ready to relieve Du Pont. Speaks of bad health and disability. It must be real, for whatever his regard for, or tenderness to D., Foote promptly obeys orders.

Spoke to the President regarding weekly performances of the Marine Band. It has been customary for them to play in the public grounds south of the Mansion once a week in summer, for many years. Last year it was intermitted, because Mrs. Lincoln objected in consequence of the death of her son. There was grumbling and discontent, and there will be more this year if the public are denied the privilege for private reasons. The public will not sympathize in sorrows which are obtrusive and assigned as a reason for depriving them of enjoyments to which they have been accustomed, and it is a mistake to persist in it. When I introduced the subject to-day, the President said Mrs. L. would not consent, certainly not until after the 4th of July. I stated the case pretty frankly, although the subject is delicate, and suggested that the band could play in Lafayette Square. Seward and Usher, who were present, advised that course. The President told me to do what I thought best.

Count Adam Gurowski, who is splenetic and querulous, a strange mixture of good and evil, always growling and discontented, who loves to say harsh things and speak good of but few, seldom makes right estimates and correct discrimination of character, but means to be truthful if not just, tells me my selection for the Cabinet was acquiesced in by the radical circle to which he belongs because they felt confident my influence with the President would be good, and that I would be a safeguard against the scheming and plotting of Weed and Seward, whose intrigues they understood and watched. When I came here, just preceding the inauguration in 1861, I first met this Polish exile, and was amused and interested in him, though I could not be intimate with one of his rough, coarse, ardent, and violent partisan temperament. His associates were then Greeley, D. D. Field, Opdyke, and men of that phase of party. I have no doubt that what he says is true of his associates, colored to some extent by his intense prejudices. He was for a year or two in the State Department as a clerk under Seward, and does not conceal that he was really a spy upon him, or, as he says, watched him. He says that when Seward became aware that the radicals relied upon me as a friend to check the loose notions and ultraism of the State Department, he (S.) went to work with the President to destroy my influence; that by persisting he so far succeeded as to induce the President to go against me on some important measures, where his opinion leaned to mine; that in this way, Seward had intrenched himself. There is doubtless some truth — probably some error — in the Count's story. I give the outlines. Eames, with whom he is intimate, has told me these things before. The Count makes him his confidant.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 325-6

Abraham Lincoln to Caleb B. Smith, May 31, 1861

When I was a member of Congress a dozen years ago, I boarded with the lady who writes the within letter.¹ She is a most worthy and deserving lady; and if what she desires can be consistently done, I shall be much obliged I say this sincerely and earnestly—

May 31, 1861

A. Lincoln

[Endorsement:]

Hon Mr Smith:

We boarded some months, with Mrs. Sprigg, & found her a most estimable lady & would esteem it a personal favor, if her request, could be granted.

Mrs. A. Lincoln

_______________

¹ While a member of the United States House of Representatives Abraham Lincoln boarded in 1848 and 1849 at Mrs. Ann G. (Thornton) Sprigg’s boarding house on First Street between A Street and East Capitol Street. Mrs. Sprigg’s letter to Lincoln has been lost, and exactly what she was requesting remains unknown.

SOURCE: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

Diary of John Hay: October 30, 1863

. . . The President and Mrs. Lincoln went to see “Fanchon.” About midnight, the President came in. I told him about Dennison’s note and asked if D. had not always been a Chase man. He said: — “Yes, until recently, but he seems now anxious for my reelection.”

I said Opdyke was expected here to-day, and told the President the story of Palmer and Opdyke. He went on and gave me the whole history of the visit they made to Springfield, — Barney, Opdyke, and Hopboon, — of the appointment of Barney, — of the way Opdyke rode him — of his final protest, and the break.

I said “Opdyke now was determined to have the Custom House cleaned out.”

“He will have a good time doing it.”

He went on telling the history of the Senate raid on Seward, — how he had and could have no adviser on that subject, and must work it out by himself, — how he thought deeply on the matter, — and it occurred to him that the way to settle it was to force certain men to say to the Senators here what they would not say elsewhere. He confronted the Senate and the Cabinet. He gave the whole history of the affairs of Seward and his conduct, and the assembled Cabinet listened and confirmed all he said.

“I do not now see how it could have been done better. I am sure it was right. If I had yielded to that storm and dismissed Seward, the thing would all have slumped over one way, and we should have been left with a scanty handful of supporters. When Chase sent in his resignation I saw that the game was in my own hands, and I put it through. When I had settled this important business at last with much labor and to my entire satisfaction, into my room one day walked D. D. Field and George Opdyke, and began a new attack upon me to remove Seward. For once in my life I rather gave my temper the rein, and I talked to those men pretty damned plainly. Opdyke may be right in being cool to me. I may have given him reason this morning.

"I wish they would stop thrusting that subject of the Presidency into my face. I don't want to hear anything about it. The Republican of to-day has an offensive paragraph in regard to an alleged nomination of me by the mass-meeting in New York last night.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 113-5; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 111-2.

John Hay to John G. Nicolay, August 7, 1863

Executive Mansion,

Washington, August 7, 1863.

MY DEAR NICO:

. . . . Bob and his mother have gone to the white mountains. (I don't take any special stock in the matter, and write the locality in small letters.) Bob was so shattered by the wedding of the idol of all of us, the bright particular Teutonne, that he rushed madly off to sympathise with nature in her sternest aspects. They will be gone some time. The newspapers say the Tycoon will join them after a while. If so, he does not know it. He may possibly go for a few days to Cape May, where Hill Lamon is now staying, though that is not certain.

This town is as dismal now as a defaced tombstone. Everybody has gone. I am getting apathetic and write blackguardly articles for the Chronicle from which West extracts the dirt and fun, and publishes the dreary remains. The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him more serene and busy. He is managing this war, the draft, foreign relations, and planning a reconstruction of the Union, all at once. I never knew with what tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet till now. The most important things he decides, and there is no cavil. I am growing more and more firmly convinced that the good of the country absolutely demands that he should be kept where he is till this thing is over. There is no man in the country so wise, so gentle and so firm. I believe the hand of God placed him where he is.

They are all working against him like braves though, — Hale and that crowd — but don't seem to make anything by it. I believe the people know what they want, and unless politics have gained in power and lost in principle, they will have it

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 89-91; For the whole letter see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 75-6 and Michael Burlingame, Editor, Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 48-9.