Viewing page 6 of 17
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
630 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. April 1862 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] BLAIR'S LETTER ON THE CABINET. [[short line]] A letter from Mr. Blair, Postmaster General, to Gen. Fremont, criticising members of the Administration has before now been alluded to. The following is the document.——The occassion was a letter of Fremont, stating that Cameron had complained of the price paid for his horses to one of his subordinate officers, instead of making it to him, thus injuring subordination, and thus also not giving Fremont a chance to explain. He explained the matter to Mr. Blair, who replied as follows: WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 1861. Dear General: Don't suppose that I don't attend to your matters, and do all that I can to forward them because I do not write frequently. I am to be interrupted if I take up a pen by people that have the run of my office or house, and so I keep out of both and go after your business in person, and effect it if I can. I write now, to-day, in reply to your letter about Meigs, that you must not suppose that he intended, by his telegram to Turnley, to reflect upon you. Far from it. I happened to be in his office when he opened Turnley's requisition, and remarked to me substantially what he telegraphed to Turnley. But he did not know that Turnley had any instructions from you to get horses of any superior quality. No such suggestion accompanied the requisition; and I will guarantee that if Turnley makes any explanation which put the responsibility on you, it will be satisfactory to Meigs. I say this without having seen him at all since the receipt of yours on the subject; but I think I understand him fully. I heard him say to Gen. Scott some time ago, that if he would name a day when he must have horses, they should be ready. "If next week, they would cost $150; if the week after, $125.——The price was nothing. A horse might be worth the price many times to the Government, if ready when wanted, and of course of no value if not." This is the style of man he is, and you will have, and I believe have not had any delay or difficulty from him. The trouble is elsewhere. Chase has more horror seeing Treasury notes below par than of seeing soldiers killed, and therefore has held back too much, I think. I don't believe at all in that style of managing the Treasury.——It depends on the war, and it is better to get ready and beat the enemy by selling stocks at 50 per cent. discount, than wait to negotiate and lose a battle. I have got you a splendid officer for your Department, and guns. He will be en route for you, in a day or two, when he will be posted up, and call for what you want. You will have credit at the Navy Department when you get him under you. I showed the President, Billing's letter and read him yours about Adams. He said that you were right in saying that Adams was devoted to his money bags. Schuyler had already gone to Europe about arms when I wrote and telegraphed to you, and your letter in reply was handed to Mr. Seward, to be forwarded to him. I suppose it would put him in relation with Billings, which would bring about your wishes. If I had known when you were here what you communicated to my father, I think from my knowledge of Meigs, with your indorsement, I could have turned the whole matter over to him. At the same time you must not expect too much of me in the Cabinet. I have, as you know, very little influence; and even now, when the policy I have advocated from the first is being inaugerated, it does not seem to bring me any great power over the administration. This, I can see, is partly my own fault. I have been too obstreporous, perhaps in my opposition, and men do not like those who have exposed their mistakes beforehand and taunt them with them afterwards. The main difficulty is, however, with Linoln himself. He is of the Whig school, and that brings him naturally not only to incline to the feeble policy of the Whigs, but to give his confidence to such advisers. It [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] costs me a great deal of labor to get anything done, because of the inclination of mind on the part of the President or leading members of the Cabinet, including Chase, who never voted a Democratic ticket in his life. But you have the people at your back, and I am doing all I can to cut red tape and get things done. I will be more civil and patient than heretofore, and see if that won't work. Yours truly. M. BLAIR. [[line]] SMITH O'BRIEN RIGHTED——Mr. Smith O'Brien has so many and such warm friends on this side of the Atlantic, that we have a certainty of making them rejoice at the satisfactory settlement of his property. It may be remembered that, in 1848, when about being tried on a charge of high treason, Mr. O'Brien prudently took the precaution of settling his estate upon his children, appointing his elder brother, Lord Inchiquin, and a London lawyer, as trustees. Otherwise, on conviction, his property would have been forfeited to the Queen of England. From the time of Mr. O'Brien's return from exile, under a pardon under the Great Seal, which completely rehabilitated him, he received all the rents and administered the property, just as he did before his trial. But his trustees, on the death of his wife, last summer, affected to believe that thereby the estates passed to his children, and applied to the Court of Chancery to be relieved from the trust——the children to be made a ward of Chancery, and Mr. O'Brien to become wholly dependent on their filial piety or on their charity for the means of support. The London Times, which has a special antipathy to Ireland and Irishmen, gravely congratulated its readers on the expected poverty of Smith O'Brien, which it said, would exile or silence him. Mr. Maziere Brady, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, has had Mr. O'Brien's case argued before him for two days, in open court, and has just pronounced what will probably be a final decision——though Lord Inchiquin and his friend certainly have the power of bringing it, by appeal, before the House of Lords, as an ultimate tribunal. The cost, and the risk, would probably deter them from this course. The Chancellor has dismissed the petition of the trustees, set aside the trust deeds of 1848, and confirm the deeds of 1861, by which the eldest son becomes possessed of the property, paying his father £2,000 a year during his life, as well as charges for the support of the younger children. The net value of the estates is over $5,000 a year——so that Mr. O'Brien actually loses three-fifths of his income. Still, as his eldest son must support the younger children, Mr. O'Brien will probably have, in his certain £2,000 a year, a larger sum for his personal expenditure than he ever enjoyed before. The machinations of his unfraternal Tory brother are signally defeated by the above decision.——Philadelphia Press. [[line]] OUR PRESENT DANGER. [[short line]] From The St Louis Democrat. There is a danger, insidious indeed, but for that reason requiring to be guarded against with vigilant care. Whenever plans of pacification and adjustment are proposed, we shall find an attempt to give to slavery new concessions and new guarantees. Plausible appeals will be made for the loyal States, not to press the victory or to humiliate the vanquished, but to propitiate "our misguided Southern brethren" and woo them back to loyalty and fraternal union. Something of this kind has been attempted in the conduct of the war itself. There were persons who urged that our military officers should make it their prime duty to pursue, catch and restore the slaves of rebel masters, in order, forsooth, to demonstratre that this was not an abolition war.——So, whenever the day of peace and settlement comes, the loyal people of the Union will be asked to humble themselves before the rebellious Slave Power and offer it privileges, franchises and exemptions which, with all its assurance, it did not claim before the revolt. [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] The end of the war will be the beginning of adroit diplomacy. The loyal States are too powerful for the seceding South to contend with in the field. But the latter are skillful in contests of another sort. Whether in framing party platforms or shaping measures of legislation to their own purpose, they have always been an overmatch for their slower and less cunning opponents. Add to this the advantage they possessed in having among ourselves a considerable party, who value the Union indeed and stand firmly by the Union. Their conception of both is that slavery is their sole end and object——that the Union is valuable because without it there would be no rendition of slaves and that the Constitution instead of being designed to "secure the blessing of liberty," was framed solely to insure the master against the possible loss of his slaves. In consonance with this theory, they would make any amendments which the interests of slavery might require. Now, we imagine, the American people have profited somewhat by the experience of the past year. They are not likely to rate so high the benefits which the Slave Power has conferred upon them as to be willing to offer it more political strength and resources, to be employed in another rebellion. They will be apt to desire such a settlement as may assure them that this battle between slavery and freedom is not to be fought over again by their children. [[line]] [Correspondence of the Boston Traveller.] ROANOKE ISLAND, Feb. 21, 1862. The Contraband question here, as with every other division of our army, is assuming both interest and importance. A considerable number of colored persons, some free and some slave, were found here on taking possession of the island. The former had been forced here from the main land to work upon the batteries. Most if not all of the latter were body servants of the rebel officers. But so far from having any desire to return with their masters, they have gladly embraced the opportunity to quit their service, with the hope of acquiring freedom. Some of these were at the battle of Bull Run; others have been attendants upon Wigfall, Beauregard and other rebel magnates. Contrabands are also daily arriving from the main land. Yesterday ten arrived in one squad from near Plymouth, all, I believe, belonging to one man; and early this morning, three more from Currituck, besides others of whom I hear, but have not seen. In most respects their stories concur. They are all delighted at their escape from the realm of Secessia, and their arrival in our lines. They say that the capture of Roanoke has smitten the whole coast of North Carolina with terror. The people in many places are almost beside themselves. Masters are endeavoring to send their slaves inland; while the slaves, aware that their day of redemption is drawing nigh, are refusing to go, and are fleeing to the woods for refuge, or deserting to us as fast as they can find means of transportation. Already there must be between one and two hundreds within our lines; and before the summer closes, there will doubtless be ten times that number. What shall be done with them? Return them to their masters, who have forfieted both property and life by this wicked rebellion, or make freemen of them? It is hoped that at this late day, there can be but one answer to this question, and this is not a doubtful or hesitating answer, but a confident and ready one. Let us make men of them,——if not such men as we would out of this generation, yet such as we can, assured that the next generation will be a vast improvement on this. That they are susceptible of culture, who, not insane with negrophobia doubts? Let the Christian sentiment of the country feel itself charged with their care and instruction.——Surely, no more promising field of missionary labor was ever opened. Never, I believe, was a people, as a whole, more anxious to improve. Never has one more promptly responded to any effort for its good than will the colored people of the United States. [[/column 3]]
Transcription Notes:
bold and italics references omitted per Smithsonian instructions
