CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
“new wine could not be put in old bottles”: CG 40: 1, March 4, 1867, p. 4.
The only real objection: see John Sherman to WTS, March 7, 1867, The Sherman Letters, ed. Thorndike, p. 289.
“lunatic”: see “Reconstruction,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, March 2, 1867, p. 2.
“We are still warred”: Absalom Chappel to August Belmont, May 13, 1867, Butler, CU.
“furious dogs,” “Revolutionists”: see Francis P. Blair, Sr. to AJ, Feb. 24, 1867, PAJ 12: 59; see also Montgomery Blair to AJ, PAJ 12: 67.
“gives universal suffrage to the ignorant blacks”: “Interview with Charles Halpine,” Feb. 21, 1867, PAJ 12: 51.
“sever my right arm from my body,”: Feb. 18, 1867, Colonel W. G. Moore diary, LC.
Told again and again: see for instance George P. Este to AJ, Feb. 27, 1867, PAJ 12: 70
“with only one idea”: and summaries: see Charles Nordhoff to William C. Bryant, Feb. 27, 1867, NYPL.
“Whatever else you lose,”: Fernando Wood to AJ, Feb. 21, 1867, PAJ 12: 52.
“the southerners pat the President on the back, hobnob with him & keep him vetoing everything that is presented to him,”: Charlotte Cushman, notes, p. 532, LC.
“The President was raining vetoes”: see Bigelow, Retrospections, vol. 4, p. 48; see also “The Reconstruction Veto,” Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1867, p. 2.
“He is of no account”: John Bigelow diary, March 2, 1867, NYPL.
“He is a nullity”: John Bigelow diary, March 2, 1867, NYPL.
“Radicalism desires”: Jan. 12, 1867, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, pp. 17–18.
“The President got very angry”: Browning, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, vol. 2, p. 135.
“The slime of the serpent is over them all,”: March 13, 1867, Welles, Diary, vol. 2, p. 65.
“Our President is a bad man”: CG 40: 1, March 23, 1867, p. 307.
“military despotism,”: see for instance May 21, 1867, Browning, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, vol. 2, p. 145.
“marked characteristics”: Reed, ed. The Bench and Bar of Ohio, vol. 1, pp. 86–87.
Per Johnson’s instructions, Stanbery announced: for Stanbery’s opinion, see Stanbery, Opinion of Attorney General Stanbery.
“Mr. Stanbery cuts the heart out of the military bill”: “Mr. Stanbery’s Opinion,” New-York Tribune, June 17, 1867, p. 4.
“It is quite astonishing”: WPF to Edwin Morgan, June 27, 1867, New York State Library.
“a broad macadamized”: see Philip Sheridan to Edwin Stanton, June 3, 1867, as quoted in Sheridan, Memoirs, vol. 2, pp. 266–67.
“Field Marshal of the Radicals”: Bowers, The Tragic Era, p. 193
“Game was scarce down that way”: quoted in Boyd, Gallant Trooper, p. 223.
“there are more casualties from outrages”: quoted in Smallwood, inter alia., Murder and Mayhem, p. 43.
“All’s well that ends Wells”: see Hollandsworth, An Absolute Massacre, p. 152
Even Johnson’s friend General James Steedman: see Steedman to AJ, June 1, 1867, PAJ 12: 348.
“Philip has a strong hold”: Joseph Sumner to William Gorham Sumner, June 22, 1867, Yale.
“The people would throw”: “The Progress of Reconstruction,” The Independent, April 11, 1867, p. 4.
“You hear nothing”: Mary H. Henderson from Mollie N. Cochran, Aug. 7, 1867, Chapel Hill, UNC.
“Some of them probably”: Orville Babcock to Elihu Washburne, Aug. 13, 1867, LC.
Journalist Emily Briggs: summarized from Briggs, The Olivia Letters, p. 24.
“The cool way in which the beaten side”: Charlotte Cushman, notes pp. 510, 533, LC.
“Church congregations”: “Letter from Washington,” April 16, 1867, Alta California, quoted in Fulton, The Reconstruction of Mark Twain, p. 122
“The idea that we cannot get…better days.”: Orville Babcock to Elihu Washburne, Aug. 13, 1867, LC.
“appropriate,”: see April 6, 1866, Welles, Diary, vol. 2, p. 477.
“lasting disgrace”: USG to Stanton, July 7, 1866, PUSG 16: 234.
“Many of our friends…counteracted”: [John] DeFrees to Elihu Washburne, Aug. 23, 1866, LC.
“If Grant will throw himself away”: Horace White to Elihu Washburne, Sept. 16, 1866, LC.
“His reticence had led”: John A. Clark to Elihu Washburne, Oct. 11, 1866, LC.
“Send me a list of authenticated”: USG to OOH, Jan. 18, 1867, PUSG 17: 50.
“The General is getting more and more Radical,”: March 1, 1867, Cyrus Comstock diary, LC.
“I can’t spare this man”: quoted in Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Fehrenbacher, p. 315.
“might pass well enough”: quoted in A Cycle of Adams Letters, ed. Ford, vol. 2, pp. 133–34.
“a nightmare of humanity”: McFeely, Grant, p. 165.
“It is difficult to comprehend”: Boutwell, The Lawyer, the Statesman, the Soldier, p. 170.
an “acceptor of things”: quoted in Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, vol. 2, p. 539.
“meekness and grimness meet”: Melville, “The Armies of the Wilderness,” Battle-Pieces, p. 9.
In Washington when Charles Sumner’s private secretary: see Moorfield Storey to his mother, Nov. 25, 1867, quoted in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 43.
“I know of only two tunes”: Childs, Recollections of General Grant, p. 40.
“but suppose the people”: quoted in Chicago Republican, “Foreign News,” Nov. 9, 1866, p. 2, and “General Grant and the Presidency,” New Hampshire Sentinel, Nov. 15, 1867, p. 2.
Radical Republicans wrung their hands: see “The New Presidency,” The Independent, May 30, 1866, p. 4.
Without federal troops: see USG to Charles Nordhoff, Feb. 21, 1867, NYPL.
“The General is getting more and more Radical,”: March 1, 1867, Cyrus Comstock diary, LC.
“Enforce your own construction”: USG to John Pope, June 28, 1867, PUSG 17: 192.
“The situation was approaching”: Badeau, Grant in Peace, p. 72.
“he had already given the opinion”: Cabinet meeting notes, June 20 1867, Stanton papers, LC.
“used his position in the Cabinet”: Young, Around the World with General Grant, vol. 2, p. 358.
“I know I am right in this matter,”: USG to AJ, Aug. 1, 1867, PAJ 12: 448.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE RUBICON IS CROSSED
“Public considerations”: for correspondence between AJ and Stanton, see Aug. 5, 1867, PAJ 12: 461.
“hanging on the sharp hooks of uncertainty”: quoted in Trefousse, Andrew Johnson, p. 295.
“public considerations of high character,”: see also Colonel W. G. Moore, Aug. 1, 1867, and Aug. 11, 1867, diary, LC.
“the General commanding the Armies”: Edwin Stanton to AJ, Aug. 12, 1867, PAJ 12: 477.
“The turning point has at last come,”: “Notes of Colonel W. G. Moore,” ed. Sioussat, dated Aug. 12, 1867, p. 109.
“He is a madman,”: Carl Schurz to his wife, Aug. 27, 1867, Intimate Letters of Carl Schurz, ed. Shafer, p. 391.
Grant’s friends: see for instance, Wendell Phillips, “Johnson and Stanton,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, Aug. 17, 1867, p. 1.
“even at the risk of”: Horace White to Elihu Washburne, Aug. 13, 1867, LC.
“it’s most important”: quoted in Julia Grant, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, p. 165.
“Grant, in my opinion, made a bad mistake”: Carl Schurz to his wife, Aug. 31, 1867, Intimate Letters of Carl Schurz, ed. Shafer, p. 392.
“Make Grant s
peak”: Wendell Phillips to John Russell Young, Aug. 25, 1867, LC.
“The time is fast approaching,”: John Lothrop Motley to Mary Motley, Aug. 14, 1867, in The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley, p. 184.
“The unreconstructed element”: USG to AJ, Aug. 17, 1867, PUSG 17: 278.
“sole purpose seemed”: quoted in Aug. 22, 1867, PAJ 12: 505.
“I urge—earnestly urge”: USG to AJ, Aug. 17, 1867, in PUSG 17: 277–8.
“Every word is golden,”: “Grant Versus Johnson,” Army and Navy Journal, Aug. 31, 1867, p. 1.
“malignant guillotine of Mr. Johnson,”: J. Q. Thompson to OOH, Aug. 24, 1867, Bowdoin.
“under any obligation to keep the peace with Andrew Johnson.”: Frederick Douglass to William Slade, July 29, 1867, LC.
“The greatest black man in the nation,”: quoted in Quarles, Frederick Douglass, p. 239.
Purvis consulted: see “A Letter Addressed by Wendell Phillips to Robert Purvis,” ed. Joseph Alfred Boromé, The Journal of Negro History (Oct. 1957), pp. 292–95.
“What mischief has he prevented?”: Wendell Phillips, “Dunces,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, Sep. 7, 1867, p. 1.
“Texas is in anarchy”: Wendell Phillips, “Crime Not Statesmanship,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, Aug. 31, 1867, p. 1.
“Butler does not need any explanation. Nobody explains Sumner,”: Wendell Phillips, “The Surrender of Congress,” newspaper clipping, LC.
“all that is fishy and mercenary”: Horace Greeley to Zachariah Chandler, Aug. 25, 1867, LC.
The admirers of Chief Justice Salmon Chase: see for example, A. Watson to Elihu Washburne, Jan. 19, 1868, LC.
And Ben Butler presumably: see Orville Babcock to Elihu Washburne, Aug. 13, 1867, LC.
“Grant is true,”: L. H. Caldwell to Elihu Washburne, Dec. 18, 1867, LC.
“palpably unconstitutional…?”: Aug. 13, 1867, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, p. 169.
“crude opinions upon all subjects, and especially upon legal questions”: Browning, Aug. 15, 1867, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, p. 158.
“tampered with, and I believe seduced”: Aug. 26, 1867, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, p. 185.
“If forced to choose between the penitentiary”: WTS to Henry Halleck, Sept. 1864, quoted in O’Connell, Fierce Patriot, p. 322.
“I am afraid his doings”: Peleg Chandler to Charles Sumner, Aug. 15, 1867, Houghton.
Was it true: see for instance, “Impeachment and the Rumors of Executive Resistance,” New York Times, Oct. 1, 1867, p. 4; “The Public Situation,” The Independent, Sept. 19, 1867, p. 4.
“People say that Johnson’s more intimate pals”: Sept. 13, 1867, Strong, The Diary of George Templeton Strong, vol. 4, p. 150.
“It is not impossible”: Carl Schurz to his wife, Aug. 31, 1867, Schurz, Intimate Letters, ed. Shafer, p. 393.
“There have been so many idle threats that both parties are scared,”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Oct. 11, 1867, Notre Dame.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
“Ours is a funny Government in some respects,”: Mark Twain, “Public Stealing, Jan. 10, 1868,” Territorial Enterprise, Jan. 30, 1868, quoted in Twain, Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.
“Indian Rings, Patent Rings, Stationery Rings and Railroad Rings,”: John Russell Young to Elihu Washburne, Jan 5, 1869, LC.
Thaddeus Stevens said: the very best analysis of currency issues and their impact on Reconstruction and impeachment remains Benedict,: The Right Way, pp. 46; 389–99; 411–13.
“Public credit should be ‘like Caesar’s wife: above suspicion,’ ”: CG 20: 2, March 11, 1868, p. 1810.
“The Secretary’s ‘contraction’ system”: Mark Twain, “Public Stealing, Jan. 10, 1868,” Territorial Enterprise, Jan. 30, 1868, quoted in Twain, Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.
“Greenbacks are a debt”: quoted in McJimsey, Genteel Partisan, p. 121.
“A great many of our party here”: T. B. Shannon to Elihu Washburne, Oct. 13, 1867, LC.
“We went in on principle”: Benjamin Wade to Zachariah Chandler, Oct. 19, 1867, LC.
“the Republicans once beaten into a minority”: Thaddeus Stevens to F. A. Conkling, Jan. 6, 1868, LC.
“The negro question”: Thomas Ewing to AJ, Oct. 10, 1867, PAJ 13: 164.
“any party with an abolition head”: Ira Brown, “Pennsylvania and the Rights of the Negro,” p. 51.
“Andrew Johnson is certainly the best-hated man this side of the Atlantic,”: Strong, Sept. 13, 1867, The Diary of George Templeton Strong, vol. 4, p. 150.
“no extreme Radical”: Thomas Ewing to Hugh Ewing, Oct. 16, 1867, LC.
“Say nothing, write nothing”: Henry Raymond to USG, Oct. 1, 1867, PUSG 18: 331–32.
“Johnson is as useful to us as the devil is to orthodox theology,”: Horace Greeley to John Russell Young, Dec. 4, 1867, LC.
“a man of his temper,”: Charles Eliot Norton to E. L. Godkin, Oct. 13, 1867, Houghton.
“With a cabinet composed of his own adherents”: Wendell Phillips, “Convention of Loyal Governors,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, Sept. 14, 1867, p. 2.
“I believe the Prince of Darkness”: Twain, “Impeachment, March 20, 1868,” Territorial Enterprise, April 7, 1868, quoted in Twain, Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.
“As politics go, so goes the weather,”: Twain, “Mark Twain’s Letter from Washington, Dec. 4, 1867,” Territorial Enterprise, Dec. 22, 1867, quoted in Twain, Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.
“the negro apologized”: Twain, “Washington Crime,” Daily Alta California, February 19, 1868, quoted in Twain, Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.
“devil’s dance”: Clayton, Reminiscences of Jeremiah Sullivan Black, p. 148.
“enslaved…Africanize the half of our country”: all quotations from AJ, “Third Annual Message,” Dec. 3, 1867, PAJ 13: 280–306.
“The President’s Message,”: Ibid.
“Incendiary in its suggestions…might”: Moorfield Storey to his father, Dec. 4, 1867, quoted in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 47.
“One thing is very sure”: Twain, “Mark Twain’s Letter from Washington, Dec. 4, 1867,” Territorial Enterprise, Dec. 22, 1867, quoted in Twain, Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.
“Practically it would be found impossible”: Appendix to the CG, 40: 2, Dec. 5, 1867, p. 56. All subsequent quotations from the speech as recorded in CG, Appendix, 40: 2, Dec. 6, 1867, pp. 56–62.
“bundle of generalities”: CG, Appendix, 40: 2, Dec. 6, 1867, p. 65. Quotations from the speech as recorded in CG, Appendix, 40: 2, Dec. 6, 1867, pp. 62–65.
“I am not here to defend the President”: CG, Appendix, 40: 2, Dec. 6, 1867, p. 64.
“The impeachment ‘question’ is killed”: George Fox to Elihu Washburne, Dec. 10, 1867, LC; “the country is tired of Butler & the blacks”: R. N. Silent to Elihu Washburne, Dec. 13, 1867, LC.
“I fear there will be sad calamities…not”: John Pope to USG, Dec. 31, 1867, PUSG 18: 95.
“the black population have a gloomy prospect before them”: Edward O. C. Ord to USG, [nd] PUSG 18:6.
And on December 12, Johnson sent: see Dec. 12, 1868, PAJ 13: 328–41.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: A BLUNDERING, ROARING LEAR
Johnson offered to pay: see Badeau, Grant in Peace, p. 110.
No one really knows: Chernow, Grant, p. 602.
“No direct vote will be taken on Stanton”: Thomas Ewing, Sr., to AJ, [Jan. 12, 1868] PAJ 13: 465.
“Well I have done my duty”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 13, 1868, Notre Dame.
“But he & the President both”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 13, 1868, Notre Dame.
“I am to be found over at my office”: Townsend, Anecdotes of Civil War, p.
124.
“This was not the first time Grant had deceived him,”: see Moore, “Notes of Colonel W. G. Moore,” p. 115.
Asthmatic and stressed: see “The Stanton Affair,” National Intelligencer, Jan. 15, 1868, p. 2.
“Don’t give up the Ship! Keep on, and 500,000 Blues will sustain you”: General W. G. Mark to Edwin Stanton, Jan. 16, 1868, LC.
“Johnson is now a full-blown rebel,”: Charles Sumner to John Bright, Jan. 18, 1868, quoted in Sumner, Selected Letters, p. 416.
Johnson had already heard rumors: see Colonel W. G. Moore, Jan. 14, 1868, small diary, LC.
“Why did you give up the keys to Mr. Stanton and leave the Department?”: Jan. 14, 1867, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, p. 260.
Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch: see Colonel W. G. Moore, diary, Feb. 4, 1868, LC.
Grant indignantly: see WTS to USG, Jan. 18, 1868, LC.
“I have done my best to cut”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 15, 1868, Notre Dame.
“I thought by his disregarding”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 18, 1868, Notre Dame.
“I’m afraid,”: WTS to USG, Jan. 18, 1868, LC.
“I feel for Mr. Johnson”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 23, 1868, Notre Dame.
“or a good administrator”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 28, 1868, Notre Dame.
more “uneasy than usual,”: WTS to Ellen Sherman, Jan. 19, 1868, Notre Dame.
“indirect and circumstantial”: William Seward to AJ, Feb. 6, 1868, PAJ 13: 533.
“a true firm honest affectionate man”: Charlotte Cushman to Wayman Crow, July 11, 1868, LC.
“the whole hemisphere from the glaciers of Greenland to the volcanoes of Tierra del Fuego.”: quoted in Stahr, Seward, p. 496.
“Seward lost his brains,”: Wendell Phillips, “After Grant—What?” Boston Advertiser, Oct. 28, 1868, p. 1.
“A man is of no count here”: quoted in Bigelow, Retrospections, vol. 4, p. 42.
“who has corrupted,”: Francis P. Blair, Jr., to Francis P. Blair, Sr., Aug. 2, 1867, Princeton.
“in favor of negro supremacy,”: James Doolittle to Manton Marble, Dec. 21, 1867, LC.