p. 334. work in it. I am not insensible to its honors or advan- states the strongest assurances that no aggressions upon tages, but in my judgment, they are more than counter- their rights or real interests were meditated, but I was balanced by its responsibilities and its discomforts. But not at all willing to disguise from them the fact that I won't bore you with this, but, finding myself at the the further extension of slavery could not be allowed.bottom of the second page, bid you farewell.- Warden, Warden, pp. 364, 365. To his sister, Mrs. Hunt, living at New Letter to Lincoln after his nomination in 1860: Orleans, Chase writes, November 30, 1860: My Dear Sir:- I congratulate you, most heartily, on I abhor the very idea of a dissolution of the Union. If ġour nomination; and shall support you, in 1860, as I were President I would, indeed, exhaust every expedient cordially and earnestly as I did in 1858. of forbearance, consistent with safety. But, at all hazards, The excellent platform adopted, and the selection of and against all opposition, the laws of the Union should that true and able man, Hannibal Hamlin, as your as be enforced, through the judiciary whenever practicable, sociate on the ticket, completes my satisfaction with but against rebellion by all necessary means. The ques the results of the convention. They will prove, I am tion of slavery should not be permitted to influence my acconfident, as auspicious to the country as they are hon tion, one way or the other. orable to the nominees. But, while I would thus act when circumstances Mr. Seward has much reason to be gratified by the should demand action, I would not shut my eyes to the large and cordial support which he received, and espe- fact, manifest to everybody, that it is from the slavery cially by the generous, unanimous, and constant ad question that our chief dangers arise, and I should dihesion, without regard to personal preferences, of the rect whatever influence I might possess to an adjustentire delegation from his own great state. Doubtless, ment of it, not by any new compromise-for new comthe similar adhesion of the Illinois delegation affords a promises only breed new dangers—but honest provision higher gratification to you than the nomination itself. for the honest fulfillment of all constitutional obligaThe only regret I feel connected with the convention tions connected with it. Nothing seems to me clearer is excited by the failure of the delegation from Ohio to than that, under the constitution (Slavery is a) State evince the same generous spirit. In this regret I am institution, and that much embarrassment would have quite sure you must participate; for I err greatly in my been avoided had this principle never been lost [sight estimate of your magnanimity if you do not condemn, of). It would have assured peace to the states in which as I do, the conduct of delegates from whatever state, slavery exists, by uniting nearly all men of all opinions who disregard, while acting as such, the clearly ex against any aggression upon them. Let this principle pressed preferences of their own state convention. be now once more fully recognized and it will redress Warden, p. 363. much of our trouble. The slave states can lose nothChase writes to Trowbridge concerning his ing, for few of their statesmen expect any farther exrelations to Lincoln, and to the conference of tension of slavery. Disunion certainly is not extension. Disunion rather is abolition, and abolition through states in 1861, in these words: civil and servile war-which God forbid! It is preAfter his election, he invited me to Springfield to cisely because they anticipate abolition as the result confer with me as to the selection of his Cabinet. He that the Garrison abolitionists desired digunion.. said that he had felt bound to offer the position of Sec- Besides this question of extension there seems to be retary of State to Mr. Seward as the generally recog- but cno other which need occasion any anxiety. I renized leader of the Republican party, intending, if he fer of course to the extradition of escaping slaves. I should decline it, to offer it to me. He did not wish have no doubt that the Constitution stipulates for such that Mr. Seward should decline it and was glad that he extradition; but I can not help seeing the natural had accepted, and now desired to have me take the sentiment and conscientious convictions make the exeplace of Secretary of the Treasury. .. I replied cution of this stipulation everywhere difficult and, in that I did not wish and was not prepared to say that I the free States, well nigh impracticable; and I would would accept that place if offered. In Febru- not delude, or attempt to delude, anybody with the ary, Virginia invited a conference of the States at notion of its execution under what some people call a Washington, and appointed commissioners on her part. "fair law," for all such propositions mean evasion, This conference, doubtless, was intended as a means of and I would evade nothing. It is high time to have extorting new concessions to the slave interest from done with evasions. Let us recognize facts as they are, Congress. To prevent injurious results, it seemed nec- frankly and boldly, and not try to creep away from essary that there should be a general representation them. In this spirit I would recognize the fact of the from all the states, from free as well as from the slave constitutional obligation and the fact that it cannot be states which had become involved in secession. I was fulfilled with any thing like completeness; and then I one of the commissioners selected by the governor to would see what could be done instead of literal fulfillrepresent Ohio. Unfortunately I was the only one who ment. It seems to me that compensation and provision was prepared to resist the purchase of peace by undue for sending the fugitives out of the country would be concessions. I was quite willing to give to the slave better than any thing else that is practicable. It . would be better for the Slave states, because the return of the fugitives is not in itself a desirable thing either from the individual from whom or the State from which he flies. It would be better for the free States, because it would involve nothing repugnant to the sentiments and convictions of the people. It would be better, infinitely better, for all than disunion. With these questions thus adjusted, peace would return, and harmony, and prosperity. Is there any better way? I see none. It is useless to attempt impossibilities. Warden, pp. 366, 367. A letter to General Scott, December 29, 1860: Imbecility, or treason, or both, mark all the action of the existing administration. Yesterday, while the armed bands of a State in open hostility against the National Government, were sizing Federal forts at Charleston, the so-called President and his Cabinet were in shameful conference with the commissioners of rebellion. And rebellion is treason until successful-which God forbid! for successful rebellion must needs be followed, and followed with swift steps, by civil and servile war. Take, then, the responsibility. In virtue of a commission which no other American, save Washington, ever held, you command the army of the United States. Preserve the Union which he established. In a few weeks, Mr. Lincoln, in obedience to the will of the country, will organize a new administration of the General Government, faithful to every constitutional obligation and just to every State. Then, we may hope, disunion will hide its hateful head. Warden, pp. 367, 368. A letter to A. Taft, April 28, 1861: As a positive policy, two alternatives were plainly before us. (1) That of enforcing the laws by its whole power and through its whole extent; or (2) that of recognizing the organization of actual government by the seven seceded States as an accomplished revolutionaccomplished through the complicity of the late administration, and letting that Confederacy try its experiment of separation; but maintaining the authority of the Union and treating secession as treason everywhere else. Knowing that the former of these alternatives involved destructive war, and vast expenditure, and oppressive debt, and thinking it possible, that through the latter these great evils might be avoided, the Union of the other States preserved unbroken, the return even of the seceded States, after an unsatisfactory experiment of separation, secured, and the great cause of freedom and constitutional government peacefully vindicated-thinking, I say, these things possible, I preferred the latter alternative. The attack on Fort Sumter, however, and the precipitation of Virginia into hostility to the National Gov. ernment, made this latter alternative impracticable, and I had then no hesitation about recurring to the former.- Warden, p. 371. The following extracts are taken from the Appeal of the Independent Democrats, of January 23, 1854: We arraign this bill (Kansas-Nebraska) as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own states, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves.' Take your maps, fellow-citizens, we entreat you, and see what country it is which this bill gratuitiously and recklessly proposes to open to slavery. This immense region, occupying the very heart of the North American Continent, and larger, by thirty-three thousand square miles, than all the existing free states -including California; this immense region, well watered and fertile, and now for more than thirty years regarded by the common consent of the American people as consecrated to freedom by statute and by compact-this immense region the bill now be. fore the Senate, without reason and without, excuse, but in flagrant disregard of sound policy and sacred faith, purposes to open to slavery. We confess our total inability properly to delineate the character or describe the consequences of this measure. Language fails to express sentiments of indignation and abhorrence which it inspires; and no vision less penetrating and comprehensive than that of the All-Seeing can reach its evil issues. We appeal to the people. We warn you that the dearest interests of freedom and the Union are in imminent peril. Demagogues may tell you that the Union can be maintained only by submitting to the demands of slavery. We tell you that the Union can only be maintained by the full recognition of the just claims of freedom and man. The Union was formed to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty. When it fails to accomplish these ends it will be worthless, and when it becomes worthless it cannot long endure. We entreat you to be mindful of that fundamental maxim of Democracy-Equal Rights and Exact Justice for all Men. Do not submit to become agents in extending legalized oppression and systematized injustice over a vast territory yet exempt from these terrible evils... Whatever apologies may be offered for the toleration of slavery in the States, none can be offered for its extension into Territories where it does not exist. For ourselves, we shall resist it by speech and vote, and with all the abilities which God has given us. Even if overcome in the impending struggle, we shall not submit. We shall go home to our constituents, erect anew the standard of freedom, and call on the people to come to the rescue of the country from the domination of slavery. We will not despair; for the cause of human freedom is the cause of God Schucker's Life of Chase, pp. 141, 142, 146, 147. Con toward, January 11, 1861: among political friends, I have eve size 1 s 2 *y ** » You are to be horretary of State. The right man in the right place. without m e y a my niet and you will have the post. My to personal consequences to myself 0 DET W e wth yon Perunit me a few words about as much as any man to faror DTSOK. IT Marit BMW We have a darp common interest. have never thought it right to apom amit * Myinthere that you are to speak on Satur- merely because he was such, without E ZE A TAM *2you to ve countenance to no scheme sideration of his qualifications for that Tae marine My Limon will be inaugurated in a ever held my country as my best friend and I *W * '1 .Was kapublicans will be charged with friends most who serve her most farthfuls 2 U KAS SIMO A Muinistration. Then, too, they anything blameworthy in all this... V a n ranch of the Government. You know my views-the public firs, tra 14 A & war il-Innpurtant that no compromise be next. So far as preferences can be legitimiszer W www , w Am ion involving any murrender so as to aid those who, at considerable sucrit yr a , tnt that the people of the Minvo States, labor, and money, are engaged in arboling te M UM *, plainly told that the Republi- ciples we all deem vitally important to the water A T HAN w grantim to make at present; that when the country, I think it a clear political dut this Cu toate that we they will be ready to offer an ad- should be given. But no public interesi si S o t, I bential to all sections of the rificed, no public duty should be neglected for r expiry , Mchukurs, p. 80%. personal or party consideration. -Sciroze L ja m vomunication to the Committee of 875. Wuy w Menn, we find this langunge: To Wm. P. Mellen, March 26, 1862 ... I am not fond of political metaphysis h uwin making the United States notes n legal article in the Evening Post, which you send me suna uw hua n a baan well considered by the com me well enough. While I think that the GOTETESI. wink,w their o w n needs no mupport from any in suppression of the rebellion, and in view of them okrynen Amium. I think it my duty to may, how. struction by suicide of the rebel State governGLIE *, that in report vo this provision my reflections with the actual or strongly implied consent of a mijlp wawe mwWw w the anime emelnsions they have ve ity of their citizens, may regard those States as DETTE Foto 16 # wa ukwwwn to them that I have felt, so far forfeited their rights that they may jus word I wish on that I now feel, a great aver treated as Territories, I have never proposed to LIKER kun to making anything but coin legal tender in pay. this opinion the basis of political measures. I want man of data. It has mani my anxious wish to avoid prefer to regard each State as still existing intact. BTC the na koncity h legislation. It is at present, im. to be subject to no change of boundaries Entert sunt ble, however, in comsequence of the large expendi as may be freely consented to by its people. I WENT * arom entailed by the war and the suspension of the keep all the stars, and all the stripes; and to be Imnka, bo proumre sufficient coin for current dimburse the States with their old names and ensigns Suun mnent, and it has therefore became indispensably neo Carolina should be South Carolina still; but reforme muary that we would remart to the issue of United I hope. I would preserve, not destroy, and I prete Hata nota, The making them a legal tonder might civil provisional government, authorized by Congress euill be woided if the willingnene manifonted by the to military government instituted by the President. perpla generally, by railroad companies and by many Schuckers, p. 564. of the banking institutions, to receive and pay them as To B. R. Wood, Copenhagen, Denmarž. momey in all transactions were absolutely or practically universal,,,, Mchucker', p. en. April 2, 1862: From llopburn vs. Griswold, 1868, There have been other occasions in the course of the struggle in which it seemed to me that a different IV. There is in the Constitution no exprons grant of course from that actually adopted would have been legislative power to make any description of credit cur better. This is especially true in relation to slavery. rency a legal tonder in payment of debtu. VII. The It has seemed to me from the early days of the conflict making of notes or bills of credit a legal tonder in pay. that it was bad policy as well as bad principle to give ment of pre-existing debts is not a means appropriate, any support to the institution. .. plainly adapted, or really calculated to carry into effect My idea was -not to declare emancipation-but simany express power vested in Congress; is inconsistent ply to treat the population just as we found it, loyal with the spirit of the Constitution; and is prohibited or disloyal; and the black loyalist better than a white by the Constitution.-Schucker's, p. 260. rebel, and the same as a white loyalist. And I could A letter to John Roberts, May 21, 1861: gee no valid objection to enlisting acclimated blacks, In making appointments, my rule always has been to loyal and willing to serve, any more than enlisting vive the preference to political friends, except in cases white ones. But I have not been able to make our where peculiar fitness and talents made the preference friends in the administration see as I have seen; and I political opponent a public duty. In selecting certainly do not claim to be more wise than they. When, therefore, I am overruled, I have quietly submitted, doing all I could to carry forward the cause and the work, if not in my preferred way, yet in the best way possible for me.-Schuckers, p. 366. June 24, 1862, to Major General Butler, New Orleans: ... In my judgment, it is indispensable to fix upon some principle of action and abide by it. Until long after the fall of Sumter, I clung to my old ideas of non-interference with Slavery within State limits by the Federal Government. It was my hope and belief that the rebellion might be suppressed, and slavery left to the free disposition of the States within which the institution existed. By them, I thought it certain that the removal of the institution would be gradually effected without shock or disturbance or injury, but peaceably and beneficially. But the war has been protracted far beyond my anticipations, and with the postponement of decisive results came increased bitterness and intensified alienation of nearly the entire white population of the slave States. With this state of facts came the conviction to my mind that the reg. toration of the old Union with slavery untouched ex cept by the mere weakening effects of the war, was impossible. Looking attentively at the new state of things, I became satisfied that a great majority of the people of the United States had made up their minds that the constitutional supremacy of the national Government should be vindicated, and the territorial integrity of the country maintained, come or go what might. I became satisfied also that to secure the accomplishment of these great objects, slavery must go. of the world, common-sense, and common justice, demand it. The sooner we respect the demand, the better for us and for our cause. -Schuckers, pp. 378, 379. To Senator John Sherman, September 20, 1862: Since General Halleck has been here the conduct of the war has been abandoned to him by the President almost absolutely. We who are called members of the Cabinet, but are in reality only separate heads of Dee partments, meeting now and then for talk on whatever happens to come uppermost- not for grave consultation on matters concerning the salvation of the country- we have as little to do with it as if we were heads of factories supplying shoes or clothing. No regular and systematic reports of what is done are made, I believe, even to the President; certainly none are made to the Cabinet. -Schuckers, p. 379. To Horace Greeley, January 28, 1863: ... Why don't you - who can so well point out the path which others ought to walk-do your part toward the great and indispensable work of establishing a uniform national currency. . . . But this is apart from the great question, which is not second to any connected with the war itself at this time. What financial measures can take us back to the firm ground from which the legislation of last session freed us? . . . The main point is the banking bill. A circulation issued directly by the Government cannot be made a good currency. The difficulty is partly in the nature of the thing and partly in the nature of men. The total difficulty is unsurmountable, and so says all experience.-Schuckers, pp. 386, 387. Concerning the arrest of Vallandigham, he writes, June 15, 1863: ... If Vallandigham violated any law, he should have been arrested, tried, and convicted.... I have never myself been much afraid of words; and when men (Vallandigham among them) have sought to cripple the financial administration by misrepresen. tation and villification, I have preferred to reply by augmented efforts in the service of the country rather than by arrest and imprisonment.-Schuckers, p. 391. To Ex-Governor William Sprague, November 26, 1863; to Jacob Heaton, January 28, 1864; and to Seward, May 30, 1864: ... If I were controlled by merely personal sentiments, I should prefer the reelection of Mr. Lincoln to that of any other man. But I doubt the expediency of re-electing anybody, and I think a man of different qualities from those the President has will be needed for the next four years. I am not anxious to be regarded as that man; and I am quite willing to leave that question to the decision of those who agree in thinking that some such man should be chosen. ... I can never permit myself to be driven into any hog. tile or unfriendly position as to Mr. Lincoln. His course toward me has always been so fair and kind; his progress toward entire agreement with me on the I begin with the proposition that we must either abandon the attempt to retain the Gulf States, or that we must give freedom to every slave within their limits. We cannot maintain the contest with the disadvantages of unacclimated troops and distant supplies against an enemy able to bring one-half the population under arms, with the other half held to labor, at no cost except that of bare subsistence, for the armed moiety. . . . As to the border states, even including Arkansas, a different rule may be adopted. In these states the President's plan of compensated emancipation may be adequate to a solution of the slavery question; though I confess my apprehensions that the slaveholders of these States will delay acceptance of the proposition until it will become impossible to induce Congress to vote the compensation. · · Schuckers, pp. 375, 377. To Major General John Pope, August 1, 1862: Allow me to express a hope that you will deal generously and kindly with the blacks, who are almost all loyal. They have rendered great services in many cases, and have then been given up to slavery. This is too bad. If I were in the field, I would let every man anderstand that no man loyal to the Union can be a slave. We must come to this. The public sentiment |
