_Thousands lost--here one or two preserv'd_
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, _Washington, Aug. 22, 1865_.--As I write
this, about noon, the suite of rooms here is fill'd with Southerners,
standing in squads, or streaming in and out, some talking with
the Pardon Clerk, some waiting to see the Attorney General, others
discussing in low tones among themselves. All are mainly anxious about
their pardons. The famous 13th exception of the President's Amnesty
Proclamation of ----, makes it necessary that every secessionist, whose
property is worth $20,000 or over, shall get a special pardon, before he
can transact any legal purchase, sale, &c. So hundreds and thousands of
such property owners have either sent up here, for the last two months,
or have been, or are now coming personally here, to get their pardons.
They are from Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North and South
Carolina, and every Southern State. Some of their written petitions are
very abject. Secession officers of the rank of Brigadier General, or
higher, also need these special pardons. They also come here. I see
streams of the $20,000 men, (and some women,) every day. I talk now and
then with them, and learn much that is interesting and significant. All
the southern women that come (some splendid specimens, mothers, &c.) are
dress'd in deep black.
Immense numbers (several thousands) of these pardons have been pass'd
upon favorably; the Pardon Warrants (like great deeds) have been issued
from the State Department, on the requisition of this office. But for
some reason or other, they nearly all yet lie awaiting the President's
signature. He seems to be in no hurry about it, but lets them wait.
The crowds that come here make a curious study for me. I get along, very
sociably, with any of them--as I let them do all the talking; only now
and then I have a long confab, or ask a suggestive question or two.
If the thing continues as at present, the property and wealth of the
Southern States is going to legally rest, for the future, on these
pardons. Every single one is made out with the condition that the
grantee shall respect the abolition of slavery, and never make an
attempt to restore it.
_Washington, Sept. 8, 9, &c., 1865_.--The arrivals, swarms, &c., of the
$20,000 men seeking pardons, still continue with increas'd numbers and
pertinacity. I yesterday (I am a clerk in the U. S. Attorney General's
office here) made out a long list from Alabama, nearly 200, recommended
for pardon by the Provisional Governor. This list, in the shape of a
requisition from the Attorney General, goes to the State Department.
There the Pardon Warrants are made out, brought back here, and then sent
to the President, where they await his signature. He is signing them
very freely of late.
The President, indeed, as at present appears, has fix'd his mind on a
very generous and forgiving course toward the return'd secessionists.
He will not countenance at all the demand of the extreme Philo-African
element of the North, to make the right of negro voting at elections a
condition and sine qua non of the reconstruction of the United States
south, and of their resumption of co-equality in the Union.
A GLINT INSIDE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CABINET APPOINTMENTS. ONE ITEM OF
MANY.
While it was hanging in suspense who should be appointed Secretary of
the Interior, (to take the place of Caleb Smith,) the choice was very
close between Mr. Harlan and Col. Jesse K. Dubois, of Illinois. The
latter had many friends. He was competent, he was honest, and he was a
man. Mr. Harlan, in the race, finally gain'd the Methodist interest, and
got himself to be consider'd as identified with it; and his appointment
was apparently ask'd for by that powerful body. Bishop Simpson, of
Philadephia, came on and spoke for the selection. The President was
much perplex'd. The reasons for appointing Col. Dubois were very strong,
almost insuperable--yet the argument for Mr. Harlan, under the adroit
position he had plac'd himself, was heavy. Those who press'd him adduc'd
the magnitude of the Methodists as a body, their loyalty, more general
and genuine than any other sect--that they represented the West, and
had a right to be heard--that all or nearly all the other great
denominations had their representatives in the heads of the
government--that they as a body and the great sectarian power of the
West, formally ask'd Mr. Harlan's appointment--that he was of them,
having been a Methodist minister--that it would not do to offend them,
but was highly necessary to propitiate them.
Mr. Lincoln thought deeply over the whole matter. He was in more than
usual tribulation on the subject. Let it be enough to say that though
Mr. Harlan finally receiv'd the Secretaryship, Col. Dubois came as near
being appointed as a man could, and not be. The decision was finally
made one night about 10 o'clock. Bishop Simpson and other clergymen
and leading persons in Mr. Harlan's behalf, had been talking long and
vehemently with the President. A member of Congress who was pressing
Col. Dubois's claims, was in waiting. The President had told the Bishop
that he would make a decision that evening, and that he thought it
unnecessary to be press'd any more on the subject. That night he call'd
in the M.C. above alluded to, and said to him: "Tell Uncle Jesse that
I want to give him this appointment, and yet I cannot. I will do almost
anything else in the world for him I am able. I have thought the matter
all over, and under the circumstances think the Methodists too good and
too great a body to be slighted. They have stood by the government, and
help'd us their very best. I have had no better friends; and as the case
stands, I have decided to appoint Mr. Harlan."