1861.
JOURNEY FROM WASHINGTON TO WHEATLAND—WELCOME FROM FRIENDS AND
NEIGHBORS—THE RANCOR OF THE TIMES MAKES REFUTATION A DUTY OF THE
AUTHOR—THE STORY OF THE “CABINET SCENE”—MR. SEWARD'S CHARGE
AGAINST THE LATE ADMINISTRATION—PICTURES AND CURIOSITIES SAID TO
HAVE BEEN CARRIED AWAY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE—MISS LANE AND THE
ALMANACH DE GOTHA—PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS AT WHEATLAND INVENTED
AND PUT INTO THE MOUTH OF MR. BUCHANAN AND HIS GUESTS.
At my request, a citizen of Lancaster, Mr. W. U. Hensel, has
furnished for this work the following account of Mr. Buchanan’s
journey from Washington to Wheatland:
Local pride and personal admiration for Mr. Buchanan had always
contributed to his strength at home in popular contests. In the
County of Lancaster, which to this day remains one of the
strongholds of the anti-Democratic party, Mr. Buchanan received
8731 votes to 6608 for Fremont and 3615 for Fillmore. In the city
the utmost hopes of his friends were more than realized by a
plurality of 1196, about four times the usual Democratic majority,
and a majority over Fillmore and Fremont of 864. In the little
township of Lancaster, on the outskirts of the city, in which Mr.
Buchanan’s suburban home was situated, and which the _New York
Herald_ called “The Wheatland district,” the average opposition
majority of sixty was reduced to four. The interest and affection
with which he was regarded at home was testified by the escort of
an immense body of citizens of all parties which accompanied him
from his house to the railroad station, when he left for
Washington on March 2, 1857. The whole population of the city and
vicinity seemed to have turned out upon the occasion, and the
severity of the weather did not chill their enthusiasm. His
immediate escort to the capital consisted of the local military
company, the Fencibles, committees of council, representatives of
Franklin and Marshall College, of the board of trustees of which
institution he was president, and a number of personal friends.
On his expected return to Wheatland, after the close of his term,
a citizens’ meeting appointed a committee of his neighbors and
friends to escort him on his way. When those gentlemen arrived in
Washington and, through their chairman, Hon. H. M. North,
acquainted the President with their mission, he was deeply moved
by the manifestation of good feeling toward him. A small military
escort accompanied him and his friends to the railroad station in
Washington, en route for Lancaster. They stopped over in
Baltimore, and during the evening the ex-President received a
large number of its citizens. In response to a serenade given him
about eleven o’clock in the evening, at Barnum’s Hotel, he spoke
as follows:
“MY FRIENDS:—
“I thank you most cordially for this honor, and a long period of
time must elapse before memory shall fail to record it. The music
is admirable indeed, and the delicious strains cannot fail to
gratify the taste of any person whose genius or talents lead him
to such a high accomplishment. But the music is nothing at all
compared to the motives and feelings which prompted the
compliment. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind
sentiments therein expressed.
“There are some who are ever ready to pay homage to those who are
about entering upon the cares of office, influenced doubtless by a
principle of self-aggrandizement; but you pay your attentions to
an old man going out of office, and now on his way to a retired
and peaceful home. For many years I have experienced a deep regard
for the interests of Baltimore, have rejoiced in her prosperity,
and sympathized in her temporary misfortunes; and now one of the
strongest feelings of my heart is, that she may continue an
extension of her limits, enjoy an increase of trade and an
abundance of labor for her deserving laboring classes.
“I must ask you to excuse this brief speech. I could say much
more, but the night is advancing, and I forbear to detain you. My
public history is before the people of this country, and whilst it
does not behoove me to speak of it, I assure you of my willingness
that they shall judge me by my kind regard for all the citizens of
Baltimore; and that God may prosper and bless them all is the
sincere prayer of an honest heart.”
The Battalion and Baltimore City Guards having been added to his
escort, the homeward journey was resumed on the next morning, and
at York and other points on the road there were demonstrations of
popular welcome. At Columbia, Pa., a town on the Susquehanna
River, on the west border of Lancaster County, he was welcomed at
the gates of his own county by a committee of about one hundred
and fifty citizens of Lancaster, and delegates from Columbia and
surrounding towns and villages, who had gathered there to receive
him when his foot first fell upon the soil of the district which
claimed him as peculiarly its own. As the train which carried him
and his friends and the popular escort, now swelled to many
hundreds, neared the city, there was firing of cannon, pealing of
bells, and the formation of a procession to escort the party
through the streets of the city. The cars were stopped at the city
limits, and Mr. Buchanan was conducted into an open barouche,
drawn by four gray horses, and with a great civic and military
display he entered the city, and passing through its principal
streets, was taken to the public square. The procession halted and
broke ranks, and an immense citizens’ meeting was organized, in
the presence of which Wm. J. Preston, Esq., on behalf of the
Baltimore City Guards, addressed Mayor Sanderson, consigning the
ex-President to his old friends and neighbors. After the band had
played “Home Again,” the Mayor, addressing Mr. Preston, returned
the thanks of the citizens to his company for their courtesy to
Mr. Buchanan, and then, turning to the guest of the occasion,
welcomed him back to his home. Mr. Buchanan, in responding to this
speech, said:
“MR. MAYOR, MY OLD NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:—
“I have not language to express the feelings which swell in my
heart on this occasion: but I do most cordially thank you for this
demonstration of your personal kindness to an old man, who comes
back to you ere long to go to his final rest. And here let me say
that, having visited many foreign climes, my heart has ever turned
to Lancaster as the spot where I would wish to live and die. When
yet a young man, in far remote Russia, my heart was still with
friends and neighbors in good old Lancaster. [Applause.]
“Although I have always been true to you, I have not been so true
to you as you have been to me. Your fathers took me up when a
young man, fostered and cherished me through many long years. All
of them have passed away, and I stand before you to-day in the
midst of a new generation. [A voice in the crowd—“I saw you mount
your horse when you marched to Baltimore in the War of 1812.”] The
friendship of the fathers for myself has descended on their
children. Generations of mortal men rise, and sink, and are
forgotten, but the kindness of the past generation to me, now so
conspicuous in the present, can never be forgotten.
“I have come to lay my bones among you, and during the brief,
intermediate period which Heaven may allot me, I shall endeavor to
perform the duties of a good citizen, and a kind friend and
neighbor. My advice shall be cheerfully extended to all who may
seek it, and my sympathy and support shall never be withheld from
the widow and the orphan. [Loud applause.] All political
aspirations have departed. What I have done, during a somewhat
protracted public life, has passed into history. If, at any time,
I have done aught to offend a single citizen, I now sincerely ask
his pardon, while from my heart I declare that I have no feeling
but that of kindness to any individual in this county.
“I came to this city in 1809, more than half a century ago, and
am, therefore, I may say, among your oldest citizens. When I
parted from President Lincoln, on introducing him to the Executive
Mansion, according to custom, I said to him: “If you are as happy,
my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and
returning home, you are the happiest man in this country!” I was
then thinking of the comforts and tranquillity of home, as
contrasted with the troubles, perplexities, and difficulties
inseparable from the Presidential office. Since leaving
Washington, I have briefly addressed my friends on two or three
occasions, but have purposely avoided all allusions to party
politics, and I shall do so here.
“There is one aspiration, however, which is never absent from my
mind for a single moment, and which will meet with a unanimous
response from every individual here present, and that is, may God
preserve the Constitution and the Union, and in His good
providence dispel the shadows, clouds, and darkness which have now
cast a gloom over the land! Under that benign influence we have
advanced more rapidly in prosperity, greatness and glory than any
other nation in the tide of time. Indeed, we had become either the
envy or admiration of the whole world. May all our troubles end in
a peaceful solution, and may the good old times return to bless us
and our posterity! [Loud and prolonged applause.]”
At the conclusion of his remarks, he seated himself in his
carriage, and was escorted out through the main street leading
westward to Wheatland, on the way passing under an arch spanning
the street, and with other signs of popular enthusiasm attending
the occasion. When the procession reached Wheatland, the city
guards were drawn up in front of the house, and to the music of
“Home, Sweet Home,” he ascended the portico and re-entered upon
the scenes of that tranquillity in which it was his desire to
spend the rest of his days. Briefly addressing the military
company drawn up in review before him he said, that he regarded
that day as one of the proudest of his life. He thanked the
officers and members for their handsome escort, so freely tendered
him, and held it especially significant, as he was now a private
citizen only. He regretted that having just reached his home, he
was not prepared to entertain them. The doors of his house had
been always open, the latch-string was out. At any other time when
they felt disposed to call, either as a company or individuals,
they should receive a very cordial welcome. On behalf of the
guards, Mr. Preston responded at length, expressing their
gratification at having the privilege of attending the President,
and witnessing the cordiality and universal honor with which he
had been received here. Late at night Mr. Buchanan was serenaded
by the musical bodies of Lancaster.
And now that he had reached his home among those who best knew and
who venerated him, and had sate himself down for whatever enjoyment
of private life remained to him, it would seem that at least the
respect and the forbearance of all his countrymen, if not their
gratitude and applause, would have followed him in his retreat. He
had been “so clear in his great office;” he had so wisely and
conscientiously discharged its most important trusts; he had been so
free from the corruption that assails the supreme dispenser of
patronage and power; he had so well expounded the fundamental law
that must govern the course of public affairs in the perilous
condition that awaited them; he had done so much to secure for his
successor a safe path in which to walk; he had left to that
successor so little that could embarrass and so much that could
guide him, that it would seem as if his errors would have been
outweighed by the good that he had tried to do, as if all the
virtuous and noble of the land would have interposed to shield him
from censure. Nay, it would seem that he had accumulated a claim for
tender consideration, large beyond the ordinary measure of such a
fund. He had sacrificed on the altar of his country friendships of
long years of mutual confidence and service; of that confidence and
service which unite, in the strong bond of such a connection, the
lofty spirits who lead together the political parties of a great and
free country. In the discharge of his public duty, he had wounded
and alienated hearts in which he had ever been held, and hoped
always to be held, in affection and honor. To a man in the decline
of life, such losses are serious things; and this man had more of
them, far more, than usually falls to the lot of a statesman, even
in the changing fortunes of the longest public life. His countrymen
in general knew little of what his Presidency had cost him, or, if
they knew anything of the rupture of such ties, they gave him no
credit for the sacrifice.
Human nature, at its best, has enormous weaknesses, even if it has
also great strength. Those who succeeded to the control of the
Federal Government could not resist the temptation to assail their
predecessors; as if the shortcomings of predecessors could excuse
their own mistakes; as if crimination of those who had laid down
responsibility could help those who had taken it up. But such is the
natural, perhaps the inevitable course of things in free governments
when a change of parties takes place, and especially in times of
extreme public danger. Mr. Buchanan was pursued in his retirement
with more than usual ferocity. The example that was set in high
places infected those of low degree. Men said that he was a
secessionist. He was a traitor. He had given away the authority of
the Government. He had been weak and vacillating. He had shut his
eyes when men about him, the very ministers of his cabinet, were
plotting the destruction of the Union. He was old and timid. He
might have crushed an incipient rebellion, and he had encouraged it.
He had been bullied at his own council board by a courageous
minister who had rebuked his policy and stayed him from a pernicious
step. He had carried off from the official palace of the Republic
ornaments that belonged to the nation. He had foolishly endeavored
to have a member of his family catalogued among the royal families
of the world.
Some of these slanders were low enough in their origin, but not too
low to be echoed by a careless or a shameless press. Some of them
began in high quarters, and spread through all ranks of society.
Some would have been of moment, if they had been true; some had only
their own frivolity and falsehood to give them currency; but when do
frivolity and falsehood arrest the currency of a lie?
The reader who has followed me through the foregoing pages, has been
enabled to pass judgment upon some of the most serious of the
reproaches with which this statesman was visited. But there are
other specific charges which remain to be noticed: and if, in this
final refutation, I begin with an accusation that borrowed some
dignity from its source, and then have to descend to things that no
origin and no authority could dignify, I must plead the simple
nature of my duty as the excuse. If I seem to the reader to pile
Pelion upon Ossa, he must not forget the sources from which have
been derived the erroneous popular impressions which have so long
prevailed concerning these affairs.
When Mr. Seward became Secretary of State under President Lincoln,
he thought it proper to signalize his official correspondence with
some of our representatives abroad, with many discursive views and
statements about our internal affairs. However necessary it may have
been to possess our ministers at the courts of Europe with the
policy which the new administration intended to pursue in regard to
the threatened revolution, in order that they might enlighten the
statesmen of Europe on the subject, it was hardly to have been
expected that an American Secretary of State would, in his official
correspondence, inculpate a preceding administration of his own
government, even if it had not been one of his own party. But in the
letter addressed by Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, on the 10th of April,
1861, from which I have already had occasion to quote, speaking of
what was the state of things when he came into office, he said:
The Federal marine seemed to have been scattered everywhere except
where its presence was necessary, and such of the military forces
as were not in the remote States and Territories were held back
from activity by vague and mysterious armistices, which had been
informally contracted by the late President, or under his
authority, with a view to postpone conflict until impracticable
concessions to disunion should be made by Congress, or at least
until the waning term of his administration should reach its
appointed end.[166]
Footnote 166:
This despatch became public soon after the commencement of the
session of Congress which began in December, 1861.
It is unnecessary for me to add anything to what has already been
said concerning the situation of the military forces at the time
when the secession movement began, or concerning the facts or
reasons for the only armistice, or understanding in the nature of an
armistice, “contracted by the late President,” (in regard to
Pensacola,) or the temporary truce of arms entered into by Major
Anderson in the harbor of Charleston. There was nothing “mysterious”
about either of these arrangements; nothing that could not be
plainly read on the records of the War and Navy Departments. And in
regard to the position of every vessel of the Navy, the records of
that Department, if Mr. Seward had taken the trouble to examine them
before he penned the charge that “the Federal marine seemed to have
been scattered everywhere except where its presence was necessary,”
he would have been able to say something more than was intended to
be conveyed by the word “seemed,” whatever that may have been, for
he would have had before him the facts. With respect, too, to
“impracticable concessions,” Mr. Seward might have compared his own
policy, pursued for some time after he became Secretary of State,
with that of the preceding administration. Mr. Toucey, Mr.
Buchanan’s Secretary of the Navy called on Mr. Seward at the State
Department soon after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and found
that “the tenor of his [Mr. Seward’s] language was altogether for
peace and conciliation.” “I was as strongly impressed with it,” says
Mr. Toucey, “as Judge Campbell appears to have been on another
occasion.”[167] But upon the matter of fact respecting the position
of the naval forces, the following correspondence between Mr.
Buchanan and Mr. Toucey exhibits in full detail the situation of the
whole navy in the month of December, 1860, and the following months:
[MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. TOUCEY.]
WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, July 20, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR:—
Your favor of the 5th ultimo was duly received, and should long
since have been answered, but truly I had nothing to communicate
except to reiterate my warm attachment and respect for yourself,
and I know this was not necessary.
I perceive by the papers that Mr. Grimes, of Iowa, has had a
resolution adopted by the Senate, asking the President for
information of the nature of the _quasi armistice_ at Fort
Pickens, referred to in his message, etc.
As I was able, I have written in scraps a historical review of the
last four months of my administration, not, however, intending
that it should be published in my name. I consider it a complete
vindication of our policy. This is placed in the hands of Judge
Black and Mr. Stanton, to enable them to use the facts which it
contains in case of an attack against me in Congress. They write
that it is not probable any such attack will be made; but I
received their letter the day before the motion of Mr. Grimes.
General Dix, the Judge, and Mr. Stanton unite in the opinion that
nothing in our defence should be published at present, because
they do not believe the public mind is prepared to receive it, and
this would have the effect of producing violent attacks against me
from the Republican press, whilst we have very few, if any,
journals which would be willing to answer them; ——- _sed quere de
hoc_. I send you a copy of that portion of my review relating to
Fort Pickens. It is not so precise as the rest, because I have not
the necessary official papers in my possession. I perceive from
your letter you have a distinct recollection of the whole affair.
Would it not be wise and prudent for you to write to some friend
in Washington on the subject—Mr. Thomson, of New Jersey, or some
other person....
I think you ought to pay immediate attention to this matter. It
affords a fair opportunity to relieve yourself from the false and
unfounded charge made against you that you had not vessels at hand
to meet the emergency. The first paragraph of your letter to me
presents facts which would put the charge to flight.
My health is in a great degree restored, but I recover strength
slowly. My letter is so long that I shall not advert to the
disastrous condition of our public affairs. Miss Lane unites with
myself in cordial wishes for your health and prosperity, and with
kindest regards to Mrs. Toucey.
Ever your friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
Footnote 167:
MS. letter from Mr. Toucey to Mr. Buchanan, June 5, 1861.
[MR. TOUCEY TO MR. BUCHANAN.]
HARTFORD, July 31, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR:—
I have received your favor of the 20th. Senator Thomson took
offence last winter because I refused to give his brother a
command out of course in preference to his seniors, and although I
think, from his more recent intercourse, that it has passed away,
yet I am unwilling to make a request of him. The records of the
Navy Department will show, that on the 24th of December, 1860, the
sloop of war St. Louis, carrying twenty guns, was ordered from
Vera Cruz to Pensacola; that on the 5th of January, 1861, the
sloop of war Macedonia, carrying twenty-two guns, then at
Portsmouth (N. H.), ready for sea, was ordered by telegraph to
proceed to Pensacola; that on the 9th of January, 1861, the
frigate Sabine, carrying fifty guns, was ordered from Vera Cruz to
Pensacola; that the steam sloop of war Brooklyn, carrying
twenty-five guns, was ordered to Pensacola with two companies of
regular troops and a supply of military stores for Fort Pickens,
and arrived there early in February; that the U. S. steamer
Wyandotte, carrying five guns, was there doing effective service;
that the armed storeship Relief was there doing good service, and
was ordered to remain there; that the U. S. steamer Crusader,
carrying eight guns, having gone from her cruising ground, on the
coast of Cuba, to Pensacola for repairs, was ordered to proceed to
Tortugas, and on the arrival of the troops sent there, to return
immediately to Pensacola, and it being reported by the newspapers
that she had arrived at New Orleans, she was, on the 10th of
January, by telegraph to New Orleans, ordered to return
immediately to Pensacola, where she would find her orders. The
Relief left Pensacola with prisoners and the families of officers
for New York in violation of her orders, for which her commander
was tried and condemned by courtmartial. The Crusader missed her
orders. When the Brooklyn, the Sabine, the Macedonian, the St.
Louis, and the Wyandotte were lying before Pensacola, the force
being larger than was necessary, the St. Louis, her term of
service having expired, was ordered to New York. Whether her
orders had reached her before the 4th of March, I am not able to
say. At this time the home squadron consisted of the Powhatan,
Sabine, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Pocahontas, Pawnee, Mohawk,
Waterwitch, Wyandotte, Crusader, Cumberland, Macedonian and
Relief. The sloop of war Plymouth, the practice ship, was at
Norfolk in good condition. The U. S. steamer Anacosta was in
commission at Washington. The frigate Constitution, having been
thoroughly repaired, was anchored at Annapolis, in aid of the
Naval Academy. The great steam-ships Colorado, Minnesota and
Mississippi, at Boston, and the Wabash at New York, had been
thoroughly repaired, and could put to sea in two weeks; the
Merrimac, at Norfolk, in three weeks; the Roanoke, in dock at New
York, in six weeks. Of the above vessels, fourteen are steamers,
eight ships of the line; the Alabama, Virginia, Vermont, Ohio,
North Carolina, New York, Columbus and Pennsylvania, lying at the
navy yards, had been, on the 1st of December last, recommended by
the Department, in pursuance of the report of a board of naval
officers, to be converted into steam frigates, but Congress did
not make the necessary appropriation. The frigates Brandywine,
Potomac, St. Lawrence, Columbia and Raritan were at the navy
yards, and the same board of officers had recommended that when
repaired they should be razeed and converted into sloops. The
sloops of war Perry, Dale, Preble, Vincennes, Jamestown and
Germantown had, within a few months, returned from their regular
cruises on the coasts of Africa and South America and the East and
West Indies, and were at the navy yards awaiting repairs. Congress
had twice cut down the estimates of the Department for repairs a
million dollars. Of the thirty-seven steam vessels in the navy,
twenty had been added to it while I was at the head of the
Department. While we had this force at home, the Mediterranean
squadron consisted of but three vessels, the Susquehanna, Richmond
and Iroquois; the Brazil squadron, of the Congress, Seminole and
Pulaski; the East India squadron, of the Hartford, Saginaw,
Dacotah and John Adams; the Pacific squadron, of the Lancaster,
Cyane, St. Mary’s, Wyoming and Narragansett; the African squadron,
of the San Jacinto, Constellation, Portsmouth, Mohican, Saratoga,
Sumter and Mystic. The Niagara was on her way to carry home the
Japanese ambassadors; the Vandalia to relieve the John Adams. I
make this detailed statement that you may see that there is not
the slightest ground for anxiety as to the course of your
administration in reference to the naval force at Fort Pickens, in
the home squadron, or in the foreign squadrons. I concur with
Judge Black and others, that a publication at this time is not
expedient, because it would provoke attack; because it would not
be heard; because the best time for it is at the moment when the
tide of public sentiment begins to ebb and to set in the opposite
direction, which will inevitably soon take place. The public
cannot fail to see that affairs have taken a downward direction
with fatal velocity since the 4th of March, and that a series of
measures could not have been devised more exactly adapted to
divide the country and break the Government to pieces, than that
which has been pursued by your successor.
Mrs. Toucey unites with me in presenting to yourself and to Miss
Lane our most respectful regards.
Ever faithfully your friend,
I. TOUCEY.
There was a peculiar, not to say a most offensive injustice, in
representing Mr. Buchanan’s policy as having for its object “to
postpone conflict until impracticable concessions to disunion should
be made by Congress, or at least until the waning term of his
administration should reach its appointed end.” There was nothing
impracticable in what Mr. Buchanan urged Congress to do, nor was
there any “concession to disunion” in his recommendations. Moreover,
he used his utmost exertions to strengthen the hands of his
successor, as well as his own, so that the Executive might be able
to meet any conflict that might arise. There now lie before me four
printed bills, three of which show what President Buchanan
endeavored to make Congress do. One of them is a bill introduced
into the Senate by Mr. Bigler, on the 14th of January, 1861, “to
provide for taking the sense of the people of the several States on
certain proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United
States.”
This bill went rather beyond any “concessions” or proposed
recommendations made by the President. It was read twice and ordered
to be printed, but was never acted upon. The other three bills
embodied measures urgently asked for by the administration, and they
underwent the personal revision of the President, as appears from
his MSS. notes on the copies furnished to him, which are now in my
possession. The first was a bill reported on the 30th of January,
1861, from the select committee on the President’s message of
January 8th, and was entitled, “a bill further to provide for
calling forth the militia of the United States in certain cases.” It
would, if enacted, have enabled the President to accept the services
of volunteers to protect the forts and other public property of the
United States, and to recover their possession if it had been lost.
The second was a bill reported in the House by the same committee on
the 30th of January, 1861, “further to provide for the collection of
duties on imports.” This bill was drawn with a special view to the
condition of things in the port of Charleston. The third of these
bills, for giving the President powers which the exigency demanded,
was reported by the Committee on Military Affairs, in the House, and
was, on the 20th of February, 1861, ordered to be printed, pending
its second reading. It was “a bill supplementary to the several acts
now in force to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.” The
laws then in force provided for calling forth the militia only when
the State authorities asked for protection against insurrections
aimed at the State governments, or in cases of foreign invasion. The
new bill was designed to provide against insurrections aimed at the
authority of the United States. Not one of these bills was ever
acted upon by that Congress; so that when “the waning term” of Mr.
Buchanan’s administration expired, the Executive was without the
appropriate means to collect the revenue outside of custom-houses,
or to call out the militia to suppress insurrections against the
United States, or to call for volunteers, and had but a mere handful
of regular troops within reach, even to guard the city of Washington
on the day of Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration, or to execute any law of
the United States that might meet with resistance.[168]
Footnote 168:
See Senate Bill, No. 537, 36th Congress, 2d session; House Bills,
Nos. 968, 969, 1003, same Congress, same session.
For a long time after the month of February, 1862, there was current
a story about a “cabinet scene,” said to have occurred in Mr.
Buchanan’s cabinet in February, 1861, in which Mr. Stanton, then
Attorney General, had, by a threat of resignation, backed by a
similar threat by other ministers present, compelled the President
to recede from something that he proposed to do. This story first
became public in an English newspaper, on the 9th of February, 1862,
and was immediately copied and extensively circulated in this
country. The following correspondence discloses the public origin of
this story, and gives it its appropriate refutation:
[THE HON. AUGUSTUS SCHELL TO THE HON. J. S. BLACK.]
NEW YORK, July 28th, 1863.
DEAR SIR:—
You will find below an extract from a letter published in the
London _Observer_ on the 9th of February, 1862, subscribed with
initials T. W. The signature is known to be that of Mr. Thurlow
Weed, of Albany, who was at the time in London.
“In February, Major Anderson, commanding Fort Moultrie, Charleston
harbor, finding his position endangered, passed his garrison by a
prompt and brilliant movement over to the stronger Fortress of
Sumter. Whereupon Mr. Floyd, Secretary of war, much excited,
called upon the President to say that Major Anderson had violated
express orders and thereby seriously compromised him (Floyd), and
that unless the Major was immediately remanded to Fort Moultrie,
he should resign the War Office.
“The cabinet was assembled directly. Mr. Buchanan, explaining the
embarrassment of the Secretary of War, remarked that the act of
Major Anderson would occasion exasperation at the South; he had
told Mr. Floyd that, as the Government was strong, forbearance
toward erring brethren might win them back to their allegiance,
and that that officer might be ordered back.
“After an ominous silence, the President inquired how the
suggestion struck his cabinet.
“Mr. Stanton, just now called to the War Office [under President
Lincoln], but then Attorney General, answered: ‘That course, Mr.
President, ought certainly to be regarded as most liberal towards
“erring brethren,” but while one member of your cabinet has
fraudulent acceptances for millions of dollars afloat, and while
the confidential clerk of another—himself in Carolina teaching
rebellion—has just stolen $900,000 from the Indian Trust Fund, the
experiment of ordering Major Anderson back to Fort Moultrie would
be dangerous. But if you intend to try it, before it is done I beg
that you will accept my resignation.’ ‘And mine,’ added the
Secretary of State, Mr. Black. ‘And mine, also,’ said the
Postmaster General, Mr. Holt. ‘And mine, too,’ followed the
Secretary of the Treasury, General Dix.
“This of course opened the bleared eyes of the President, and the
meeting resulted in the acceptance of Mr. Floyd’s resignation.”
Inasmuch as you were a member of Mr. Buchanan’s cabinet, and one
of the persons alluded to among the members of his cabinet who
dissented from the proposition alleged to have been made by Mr.
Floyd, I have thought it not improper to call upon you to state
whether the subject matter of Mr. Weed’s communication is or is
not true.
As for myself, I do not believe it to be true, and regard it as
one of the numerous slanders which have been disseminated to
reflect discredit upon the late excellent President of the United
States. I shall esteem it a favor if you will inform me, by
letter, of the precise circumstances attending the action of Mr.
Buchanan’s cabinet, at the time of the transaction referred to, if
any such took place, to the end that the public may be truthfully
informed of the actual occurrence.
I have written this letter without the knowledge of Mr. Buchanan,
solely for the purpose that the public record of Mr. Buchanan’s
administration may be vindicated from a charge which those who
know him, as you and I do, can not but feel has originated from
personal or political malice.
Yours very respectfully,
AUGUSTUS SCHELL.
[JUDGE BLACK TO MR. SCHELL.]
YORK, August 6, 1863.
MY DEAR SIR:—
Your letter of July 28th, which I have but just now received,
calls my attention to a statement published in the London
_Observer_, over the signature of T. W. I am asked if the
occurrence, there said to have taken place at a cabinet council in
February, 1861, is true or not, and you desire me to inform you of
the precise circumstances attending the action of Mr. Buchanan’s
cabinet at the time of the transaction referred to.
The latter part of this request is more than I can comply with at
present. All the circumstances set out with precision would, I
suppose, fill a moderate sized volume; and anything short of a
full account would probably do wrong to the subject. Besides, I am
not convinced that the truth would be received now with public
favor, or even with toleration. The time when justice shall be
done draws near, but is not yet.
But the story you transcribe from the London paper is wholly
fictitious. Major Anderson passed his garrison to Fort Sumter,
not in February, 1861, but in December, 1860. General Dix was
not then a member of the cabinet...... The real cause of Floyd’s
retirement from office had no connection with that affair.[169]
Mr. Stanton made no such speech as that put into his mouth by T.
W., or any other speech inconsistent with the most perfect
respect for all his colleagues and for the President. Neither
Mr. Stanton nor Mr. Holt ever spoke to the President about
resigning, upon any contingency whatever, before the incoming of
the new administration.
I am, with great respect, yours,
J. S. BLACK.
Footnote 169:
Ordering Anderson back to Fort Moultrie.
For many years, the source from which Mr. Weed received any part
whatever of this story, remained shrouded in mystery. Judge Black at
one time had traced it to Colonel George W. McCook, of Ohio; and he
received from that gentleman a qualified promise to make known, at a
future period, the source from which he (Colonel McCook) derived his
information. But Colonel McCook was, at the time he gave this
promise, about to become a Republican candidate for the office of
Governor of Ohio. He lost the election, and died soon after. It was
not until I began to write the present work that I learned, from a
gentleman now residing in Philadelphia, Mr. George Plumer Smith, who
Mr. Weed’s informant was, and how Mr. Weed became possessed of a
story which he repeated in print, with some variation and a great
deal of inaccuracy. Mr. Smith furnished to me in February, 1882, the
following statement, and authorized me to make use of it:
STATEMENT.
In October, 1861, while at Willard’s Hotel, in Washington, I met
an old friend, Colonel George W. McCook, of Steubenville, Ohio,
where I had known him as partner in law practice with Mr. Edwin M.
Stanton, whom, also, I knew while in Ohio, and afterwards in
Pittsburgh, where I was a merchant.
Colonel McCook and I had many conversations about the outlook then
of affairs, and we agreed that history might yet with us repeat
itself, and possible catastrophes make demand for a leader who, by
the will of the loyal people, would be called to assume powers
outside the Constitution. And we both agreed that, in such dire
contingency, Mr. Stanton would be the man.
The Colonel then, with the dramatic gesture and forcible language
which his surviving friends would recall, told me of the scene in
the cabinet when Governor Floyd overshot himself in his demands on
Mr. Buchanan, etc., and of Mr. Stanton’s lead in demanding
Secretary Floyd’s dismissal, etc., etc., which account I readily
believed authentic, and treasured it in my memory.
I was at that time detained in Washington to decide whether I
would go abroad to make purchases of certain supplies for the
Quartermaster’s Department, and sailed a few days after the last
conversation with Colonel McCook.
I made contracts in Paris, and, about the middle of November, I
went down to Havre to expedite my first shipment, and there met
with Mr. Thurlow Weed and his party, just arrived. I had some
previous acquaintance with him, and during my stay abroad had
frequent occasion to see him.
I closed up my business in Paris on the 28th January, 1862, on
which day it was telegraphed from Ireland that “_Frederick P.
Stanton_” was appointed to the War Department in Washington.
Going over to London the next day, I called on Mr. Weed, then
there, and the mails not yet to hand. He was under the impression
the new Secretary was the former Governor of Kansas. But when it
was corrected I called again, and found him very desirous of
information about Mr. Edwin M. Stanton’s previous life and
character, which I gave him, including, of course, the cabinet
scene, as told me by Colonel McCook, then fresh in my
recollection. But Mr. Weed did not speak of writing it out for
publication, and I really regretted to find it, in his own
practical adaptation for the newspaper, in the _Observer_, on the
Sunday morning following. I took care to address copies to Mr.
Stanton, Colonel McCook, General Meigs, and others.
Early in March following, I was in Washington, settling my
accounts, and, by Mr. Stanton’s invitation, called at his house.
After tea, he led me into his library, when at once he asked: “Who
furnished Thurlow Weed with the statements in the _Observer_ which
you sent me?”
I then fully detailed how it all came about, and of Colonel
McCook’s being in Washington when I left, and giving me the
particulars of the cabinet scene, etc. Mr. Stanton reflected for
some minutes, when he said: “McCook should not have talked of such
matters; and, in his way, he has exaggerated what did occur; but”
pausing again, he continued, “I have not time now to be watching
and correcting what may be told of last winter’s troubles in Mr.
Buchanan’s cabinet, in which I was an unwilling member; besides,
many of my old Democratic friends now turn the cold shoulder to me
in the changed relations which duty to my country has laid upon
me.”
I was, indeed, glad that the statement seemed to have attracted
but little attention, and hoped it would pass out of remembrance.
But when Vice President Wilson reproduced it in the _Atlantic
Monthly_, and was answered by Judge Black, I thought it my duty to
write to Colonel McCook, reminding him of the occasion on which he
told me of the cabinet affair, as I told its outlines to Mr. Weed,
etc., and asking his (Colonel McCook’s) permission to correct much
which had been added to his original narrative; but I had no reply
from him; and not long after he died—suddenly, poor fellow.
I had not then personal acquaintance with Judge J. S. Black, but
had opportunity to explain to a friend in York what I knew of the
matter, and he mentioned what I had told him to the Judge.
I met the latter at Cape May, in 1876, and had a long conversation
about the reported scene, which, he said, would be fully explained
in, I understood him, a publication he had in preparation.
I can only add my often and sincere regret that I should have been
concerned, in any way, in doing injustice to Mr. Buchanan, in the
trying scenes he had to encounter.
GEO. PLUMER SMITH.
PHILADELPHIA, February 8, 1882.
The reader should now peruse an extract from a private letter,
written by Mr. Buchanan to his niece, Miss Lane, immediately after
he had heard that Mr. Stanton had been appointed by President
Lincoln Secretary of War. It shows, in addition to the internal
evidence which the story of the “cabinet scene” carried within
itself for its own refutation, that Mr. Stanton was a very unlikely
person to have played the part imputed to him in that account.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO MISS LANE.]
WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, January 16, 1862.
MY DEAR HARRIET:—
...... Well, our friend Stanton has been appointed Secretary of
War. I presume, without knowing, that this has been done by the
influence of General McClellan. I have reason to believe they are
very intimate. What are Mr. Stanton’s qualifications for that, the
greatest and most responsible office in the world, I cannot judge.
I appointed him Attorney General when Judge Black was raised to
the State Department, because his professional business and that
of the Judge, especially in California cases, were so intimately
connected that he could proceed in the Supreme Court without
delay. He is a sound, clear-headed, persevering and practical
lawyer, and is quite eminent, especially in patent cases. He is
not well versed in public, commercial or constitutional law,
because his professional duties as a country lawyer never led him
to make these his study. I believe him to be a perfectly honest
man, and in that respect he differs from ——. He never took much
part in cabinet councils, because his office did not require it.
He was always on my side, and flattered me _ad nauseam_.[170]
Footnote 170:
It will be noted from the date of this letter that it was written
before the story of the “cabinet scene” became current, and
therefore Mr. Buchanan could not have been led by that story to
give to a member of his family this description of Mr. Stanton’s
demeanor towards himself. See also the letters of Mr. Stanton to
Mr. Buchanan, quoted _post_.
In the confidential letters of Mr. Buchanan, hereafter to be quoted,
his feelings about this story will be fully disclosed. The story
carried within itself a plain implication that he had been grossly
insulted by four members of his cabinet, an insult, which if it had
ever occurred, would have been instantly followed by their dismissal
from office. He was not a man to brook such an indignity, nor was
there a man among all those who were falsely said to have offered
it, who would have dared to be guilty of it. The contradiction given
to it by Judge Black, in his letter to Mr. Schell, was not
immediately published.
How Mr. Stanton came to leave this falsehood without contradiction,
and what he said about it after he had assumed new political
relations, and after he learned the source from which Mr. Weed
received it, the reader has seen from the statement of the gentleman
who communicated it to Mr. Weed, and who received it from Col.
McCook.
I must now descend to slanders of a nature almost too contemptible
for notice, but as they gave Mr. Buchanan much annoyance, I do not
think it fit to withhold all exhibition of his feelings about them.
His own letters explain what they were:
[DR. BLAKE TO MR. BUCHANAN.]
WASHINGTON CITY, December 19, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR:—
A friend has called my attention to a description of the
President’s levee on the first page of the New York —— of
yesterday’s date, from which I make the following extract: “Next
we come to the Red Room. This is properly Mrs. Lincoln’s reception
room. Everything in it is new except the splendid old painting of
Washington. The fine pictures of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
and other members of the royal family, presented to the President
of the United States for the President’s mansion by the Prince of
Wales, that hung upon the walls of this room, are missing. I learn
that they were removed to Wheatland with Mr. Buchanan. He also
took away from the White House a large number of the Chinese or
Japanese curiosities, intended, upon presentation, for the
mansion. All these are missing.” According to my recollection, the
Prince of Wales presented to Miss Lane three engravings, one of
his mother, another of his father, and the third of himself. They
were hung in the Red Room. Whether Miss Lane took them with her to
Wheatland I cannot say, but presume she did, as _they_ were _her
property_. There were no Chinese curiosities presented during your
administration. The Japanese curiosities presented, I believe,
through the late Commodore Perry to ex-President Pierce, remained
in the house when I ceased to be Commissioner of Public Buildings.
The presents made to you by the Japanese embassy were, by _your
directions_, deposited by me in the Patent Office, with _the
original list_ of the articles. I took a receipt for them from the
proper officer, which I delivered to you, and doubt not you still
have it in your possession. My first impulse on reading the base
insinuation of the _——’s_ correspondent, was to publish
immediately a flat and indignant contradiction of it; but on
consultation with a friend, who seemed to consider it unworthy of
notice, I concluded I had better write to you and learn from you
whether silent contempt, or a publication stamping it with
falsehood, would be the most proper method of treating the
slanderous imputation.
Very truly yours,
JNO. B. BLAKE.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO DR. BLAKE.]
WHEATLAND, December 19, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR:—
In looking over the New York —— of yesterday, I observe that his
Washington correspondent states that I took away from the White
House the pictures of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and other
members of the royal family, presented to me for the Presidential
mansion by the Prince of Wales. I trust that neither the President
nor Mrs. Lincoln had any connection with this statement.
Likenesses of the Queen and Prince, with four of the children of
the royal family, were sent to Miss Lane in loose sheets, with
many kind messages, by the Prince of Wales, immediately before he
left for England. I think they were borne by Lord Lyons. Miss Lane
had them plainly framed at her own expense, and hung them up in
the Red Room until she should return to Wheatland. I am also
charged with having taken away from the White House a large number
of Chinese and Japanese curiosities intended upon presentation for
the mansion. You are aware that after the Japanese embassadors
left, I sent everything that had been presented by them to me to
the Patent Office. There were at the time two young ladies staying
at the White House, and before the embassadors left they presented
Miss Lane and each of them some trifling Japanese curiosities.
What they received I do not know, but since the receipt of the ——
I have inquired of Miss Hetty, and I certainly would not give
twenty dollars for the whole lot. Miss Lane is absent in New York,
and I cannot find her keys......
I send you the enclosed as something like what might be published.
If you would call on Lord Lyons, to whom I enclose a letter, and
say you called at my request, he would tell you all about the
pictures of the Queen and Prince Albert, and their children......
Thank God! my health I may say is entirely restored. How glad I
should be to see you! Miss Lane has been absent in New York for
some time, and I do not expect her home until after New Year.
From your friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[TO DR. BLAKE.]
LANCASTER, December 20, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR:—
I have this moment received your favor of yesterday. I wrote to
you yesterday on the subject of your letter, and suggested a mode
of contradiction. I now find that you took the precaution of
having a list made of the Japanese articles, and obtaining a
receipt from the Patent Office. The statement may, therefore, be
made still stronger.[171]
The friend who advised you not to publish a contradiction
committed a great mistake. The charge is mean and contemptible, as
well as false, and if it were true, it would make me a mean and
contemptible fellow. It is just the thing to circulate freely. I
have no doubt Lord Lyons will give you a statement in writing
concerning the pictures.
Wishing you many a merry Christmas, and many a happy New Year, I
remain always your friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
Footnote 171:
The Patent Office receipts are now before me. The work entitled
“Ladies of the White House,” contains a letter from Lord Lyons
about the trifling presents made by the Prince of Wales to Miss
Lane.
One other charge of a similar nature must now be intruded upon the
notice of the reader. The following contradiction of it was drawn up
by Mr. Buchanan himself for publication, but I do not know whether
it was in fact published.
EX-PRESIDENT BUCHANAN.
There has recently been published in the New York _Tribune_ a
letter dated at Gotha on the 12th August, and purporting to have
been written by Bayard Taylor, which contains the following: “In
this place is published the _Almanach de Gotha_, the most
aristocratic calendar in the world, containing the only reliable
pedigrees and portraits of the crowned heads. Well, last summer
the publisher was surprised by the reception of a portrait of Miss
Harriet Lane, forwarded by her uncle, with a request that it be
engraved for next year’s _Almanach_, as our Republican rulers had
a right to appear in the company of the reigning families.”
We are authorized to say that this statement in regard to
Ex-President Buchanan is without the least shadow of foundation.
He never forwarded such a portrait to the publisher of the Gotha
_Almanach_; never made such a request, and never had any
correspondence of any kind, directly or indirectly, with that
gentleman. He was, therefore, surprised when this absurd charge
was a few days ago brought to his notice by a friend.
I might multiply these misrepresentations of Mr. Buchanan’s acts,
his sentiments and opinions, into a catalogue that would only
disgust the reader. The sanctity of his domestic circle at
Wheatland, after his retirement from the Presidency, and during the
early stages of the civil war, was invaded by pretended accounts of
his conversation, which were circulated in the issues of newspapers
that were unfriendly to him, and which fed a diseased appetite for
scandal that could only have existed in a state of unexampled
excitement produced by the varying fortunes of the Federal arms. It
was indeed a wild and phrensied credulity that could give currency
to such falsehoods as were told of him, falsehoods that had no
excuse for their origin, or for the credence which they received. It
was a state of things which those who are too young to remember it
can scarcely conceive, and which those who lived through it must now
look back upon with horror.
How he bore himself through all this flood of detraction and abuse;
how he never wavered amid disaster or victory, in his firm
determination to uphold with all his influence the just authority of
the Federal Government; how he prayed for the restoration of the
Union and the preservation of the Constitution; how he opened his
purse to relieve the suffering and cheer the hearts of the brave men
who were fighting the battles of their country, his private
correspondence abundantly proves.
In the seven years which intervened between the end of his
Presidency and his death, he had, besides the occupation of
preparing the defence of his administration, and of entertaining
friends, the occupation of writing letters. He was not one of those
statesmen who, after a long life of great activity in the
excitements of politics and the business of office, cannot be happy
in retirement. He had many resources, and one of the chief of them
was his pen. Letter-writing was a sort of necessity of his mind, and
it is now well that he indulged it. It is in his familiar letters
during these last seven years of his life that his character comes
out most vividly and attractively, and in nothing does it appear
more winning, or more worthy of admiration than it does in the
steadfast evenness of temper with which he bore unmerited and
unprovoked calumny, and the serenity with which he looked to the
future for vindication.