border fanatic

Posted on March 12, 2014 by SUMPTER

Maryland might have been a border state, bordering on Virginia, as a matter of fact, but that didn’t mean one of its representatives in the Yankee Congress couldn’t be a Blacker Republican that President Lincoln.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch march 12, 1864:

Henry winter Davis on slavery in Maryland.

Davis, of Maryland, is considered the leading opponent to Lincoln in the Yankee Congress, and recently succeeded in carrying the Maryland election against Old Abe. His opposition is not based upon the fact that Lincoln goes too far on the slavery question, but because he does not go far enough. In a debate in Congress on the 2d inst, on the bill establishing a Bureau for Freedmen’s Affairs, we find the following:

Mr. Davis.(Md.,) in reply to Mr. Brooks, (N. Y.,) defended the validity and moral force of the late congressional and other elections in Maryland. The defeated partisans only complain in that State of the result, the Union majority being thirteen or fourteen thousand. He denied that slavery was dead. and expressed the opinion that if it should be exterminated it would again become our masters. The Convention in Maryland which recently declared for immediate emancipation gave a significant admonition worthy of the State and the people. In speaking of the sinister influence and controlling element near the President in the great cause of emancipation in Maryland, we are, Mr. Davis said, under small obligation to the President for what the latter had done in that State. The people thought it wise, while expressing their approbation of the President, to pass the resolution to which he had referred for the President’s serious consideration.

He wished to show that their devotion was not personal, but on principle — for the cause, and not for the man — and that they will support the man so long only as he supports the cause. If the opposition elect their President, slavery was as much alive as when the first gun blazed on Sumter. If we, he remarked, lose the next election slavery is as powerful as it every was. We must either go backward or go forward Slavery is not dead by the President’s proclamation. What lawyer attributes to it the least legal effect? It is now executed by the bayonet, to the attend of the duration of the war, under the law of 1862. Re-establish the old Government, and slavery will resume its ancient away. In order to the readmission of States there should be a resolute declaration, as a condition precedent, that slavery shall be prohibited, and the Constitution should guarantee the fact, and the Government should be kept under the control of those whose views, and purposes afford the assurance that the law will be executed.

In the course of his remarks, Mr. Davis referred to the exposition of the views of President Lincoln, as given by Postmaster General Blair, who he said was near the person of the President, and whose comments had never been disavowed, and for which reason they were entitled to grave and respectful consideration. These comments were in the form of attacks on radical abolitionists, and also on the necessity of the emancipation policy under the proclamation of the President. It was said by the Postmaster General that the radical abolitionists wanted to change the Constitution and elevate the negro to the equality of the white, but that the two races could not five together on terms of equality and peace, and therefore it became necessary to prevent the massacre of the negro that he be exported and colonized. Why Mr. Davis asked, must the negro be colonized if he is to be free Where in history would gentlemen find facts on which to base such conclusions?

Mr. Davis then proceeded to show the injustice and impolicy of such colonization, characterizing it as instance and unchristian philanthropy. If you mean to source the removal of the negroes, then say so. If you don’t mean to coerce them, they will remain. You cannot offer them as good hames abroad as you can at home, among the scene of their childhood. If God made there unequal, or if God stamped inferiority upon them, you cannot turn a hair white or black or add an inch to their statutes. He appealed to gentlemen not to seek to add inherent difficulties to the problem, and proceeded to speak of the progress of emanelpation in Maryland. He was a Marylander, not a Northern Abolitionist. His father was a slaveholder, and he himself had been a slaveholder.

In this connection he referred to the convention in Maryland, in 1859, called for the purpose of removing the free blacks, and mentioned the name of ex-Senator Pearce as making a report that the committee could not recommend the expulsion of such persons from the State and deprive them of the right of freedom which they had acquired or inherited.

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why they play the game

Posted on March 11, 2014 by SUMPTER

The following commentary did kind of remind me a sports radio show with the gung-ho fan calling in to support his team before the big game: there’s going to be a match up problem for the South if Bragg is supposed to contain Grant.

OK, I’ll play Monday morning quarterback – President Davis got General Bragg off the field in time for the upcoming spring campaign.

From The New-York Times March 11 1864:

BRAGG AND GRANT.

BRAXTON BRAGG has just been appointed to the highest military office under JEFF. DAVIS, and ULYSSES GRANT, by his appointment as Lieutenant-General, assumes the highest rank of any officer in the army of the Union. The respective careers and fortunes of no two military men could be more opposite in character than those of these two ranking officers of the opposing armies. BRAGG’s name is synonymous with disaster — GRANT’s with victory. The Richmond Examiner says that BRAGG’s “career has been a long, unvaried and complete failure,” — the very reverse of which statement would be nearly the truth concerning GRANT, BRAGG’s first undertaking of any importance resulted in his failure at Pensacola; GRANT’s first large action was his triumph at Donelson. BRAGG’s last battle was at Chattanooga, where his whole army was routed by GRANT. Against GRANT’s Vicksburgh we have BRAGG’s Murfreesboro; against GRANT’s Champion Hills we have BRAGG’s Perryville. GRANT flanked the rebels at Bowling Green and Columbus, and BRAGG got flanked at Tullahoma and Shelbyville. GRANT began operations at Cairo, and the sweep of his successive victories, as he marched onward, extended a thousand miles. BRAGG once had his army upon the Ohio, and his successive retreats from there covered several hundred miles. So we might go on, contrasting in still other respects the history of the two Generals who are now the ranking officers in the two armies.

I thought of a team assuming the game was won at halftime when I saw the following image in the February 6, 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South):

General-grant-columbia (Harper's Weekly 2-6-1864)

THANKS TO GRANT

The U.S. Congress had given Grant thanks and a gold medal. I don’t think General Grant let that stuff go to his head too much.

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war is krewel

Posted on March 10, 2014 by SUMPTER

Well, they say that “Writing is a form of therapy” [1]. 150 years ago today the New York 1st Veteran Cavalry’s beloved Major Jerry Sullivan was killed by John Singleton Mosby’s cavalry unit; later that very day the New York Cavalry’s SENECA correspondent wrote home about the sad events.

Col. John S. Mosby, C.S.A. (between 1860 and 1870; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-07587)

nemesis

From the First Veteran Cavalry.

CAMP SULLIVAN, March 10th, 1864
Near Harper’s Ferry, Va.

FRIEND STOWELL: – This has been a sad day in the camp of the Veterans. One of our bravest and most beloved officers has fallen. Major SULLIVAN, while gallantly leading a charge against a vastly superior force of the enemy, commanded by the notorious Moseby [sic], was shot through the body and died almost instantly.

A detachment of our regiment was out upon “picket” near Charlestown, under command of Major JERRY SULLIVAN, and at daybreak this morning Moseby, the Guerilla [sic] Chief, with one hundred and fifty of his men, surprised and captured one of the posts consisting of two Lieutenants and forty men from companies L and M. Major SULLIVAN who was at the main post, immediately mounted and with fifteen or twenty men rushed to the rescue, sending into camp for aid. Mosby at once fell back up the valley, closely pursued by our gallant Major, who overtook the rebels at a small place called Cabletown. Here the guerillas to the number of eighty made a stand, sheltered by the houses of the town. Nothing dounted, [daunted?] and thinking his reinforcements close at hand, the brave Sullivan, with Lieut. Baker of Company G, and nine valiant comrades, amid a storm of bullets, dashed in upon Moseby and his men. The conflict was short and desperate, most of the prisoners were retaken, but before aid could arrive the gallant major and three of his men were killed, Lieut. Baker and two othe[rs] severely if not mortally wounded. In a few moments our squadrons came pouring down the road, but, alas, all to [sic] late, for Sullivan was dead, and Moseby off again. – We chased the flying enemy until he crossed tne Shenandoah, and took refuge among the fastnesses of the Blue Ridge, and then returning with sad hearts escorted the remains of our beloved officer into camp.

To-morrow the body is to be embalmed and sent to Rochester, the officers of the Regiment already raised $250 dollars to defray expenses.

These guerrillas show but little mercy to our men. One poor fellow was shot dead by them as he lay wounded on the ground vainly begging for his like, and another only escaped being murdered, after he surrendered, because the pistol which was leveled at him missed fire. The villains robbed the bodies of all who fell, even tearing off Major Sullivan’s watch while he was dying on the road, and with a revolver at Lieut. Baker’s head forced him to give up whatever valuable he had as he lay beside his expiring commander.

Woe be to these miscreants if they ever fall into our hands. Over the dead bodies of their murdered comrades, the Veterans have sworn never to take another prisoner from Moseby’s command.

We now have lost five commissioned officers and about fifty men from our Regiment. The first who fell was Capt. W.L. Morgan, of Co. A, who was killed by one of Moseby’s men while scouting in the Loudon Valley about two weeks since. The next day his body was found, and excepting a little of his under clothing completely stripped. Twelve others of of companies A and F were lost at the same time. Co. D lost twenty men a few days afterward in a skirmish in Snicker’s Gap, and to-day major Sullivan is killed, Lieut. Baker of Co. G, wounded. Lieut. Brandt, Co. L., and Lieut. Herrick, Co. M, sent on to Richmond, and over twenty of their respective companies killed, wounded or missing. So we go. Thus far, Co. K has escaped – not a man lost yet, but our time may soon come.

Group portrait showing Col. John Singleton Mosby and some members of his Confederate battalion (photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed between 1880 and 1889; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-35436)

Mosby and some of his men

But you must not think the game is all on one side, for during the same two weeks we have done some pretty severe work. Riding up and down the valley of the Shenandoah again and again, and becoming well acquainted with the numerous cross roads and bye-paths with which this country is filled, fording the river, dashing through the passes of the Blue Ride [Ridge], scouting up the Loudon Valley, and having now and then a “right smart skirmish,” and keeping our account of killed, wounded and prisoners at least about square with the enemy. Of this Co. K, has done its share, I assure you, having already captured a number of Guerrillas, brought in about twenty C.S. Horses minus their riders, and “confiscated” sheep, pigs, turkeys, ducks and chickens without number, until we are now known as “Krewel K.”

Major General Sigel who has been assigned to this Department, has arrived and assumed command.

A deserter from Gilmore’s band has just come in and reports that Gilmore is preparing to make a raid upon us. Let him come. We are prepare [sic] to give him a warm reception. When he gives us a call I will tell you how he liked the entertainment.

K company goes out on picket to-night to take the place of L and M, “gobbled up” this morning. “Boots and saddles” has just been sounded so I must exchange my pen for my sword.

Yours ever,

SENECA.

You can read more about embalming at the civilwarundertaker.

Jeremiah A. Sullivan

dauntless major Sullivan

  1. [1]Graham Greene↩
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threats north and west

Posted on March 8, 2014 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today General Meade, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, was concerned about the Committee on the Conduct of the War, which was investigating his performance at and after Gettysburg. Moreover, General Grant, the new overall commander of the federal armies, was scheduled to arrive in Washington – and who knew what Grant had planned for Meade and his army? From The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade … (page 176):

To Mrs. George G. Meade:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 8, 1864.

I am curious to see how you take the explosion of the conspiracy to have me relieved, for it is nothing less than a conspiracy, in which the Committee on the Conduct of the War, with generals Doubleday and Sickles, are the agents. Grant is to be in Washington tonight, and as he is to be commander in chief and responsible for the doings of the Army of the Potomac, he may desire to have his own man in command, particularly as I understand he is indoctrinated with the notion of the superiority of the Western armies, and that the failure of the Army of the Potomac to accomplish anything is due to their commanders.

Scouts and guides, Army of the Potomac ( 1864 March; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-03656

new boss on horizon? (“Scouts and guides, Army of the Potomac” March 1864)

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two nations

Posted on March 7, 2014 by admin

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 7, 1864:

In Press, and will be out in a few days,
the two Nations: a Key to the History of the American
War. by the author of the first and second years of the War.

The publishers announce from the prolific pen of Mr. Edward A Pollard one of the most attractive political pamphlets of the times — a psychological review of the war, with a new theory of the Yankee character.

Price, one dollar.

Dealers should send in their orders at once.

The usual discount to the trade.

Ayres & Wade,
Publishers.
Richmond, Va.

The beginning of the pamphlet:

THE TWO NATIONS.

It has been a sentimental regret with certain European students of American History that the colonies of America, after acquiring their independence, did not establish a single and compact nationality. The philosophy of these optimists is that the State institutions were perpetual schools of provincialism, selfishness and discontent, and that they were constantly educating the people for the disruption of that Union which was only a partial and incomplete expression of the nationality of America. These men indulge the idea that America, as a nation, would have been colossal; that its wonderful mountains and rivers,
its vast stretch of territory, its teeming wealth, and the almost boundless military resources, which the present war has developed and proved, would then have been united in one picture of grandeur, and in a single movement of sublime, irresistible progress.

These are pretty dreams of ignorance. …

Mr. Pollard went on to give credit to John C. Calhoun for his espousal of States’ Rights, but that did not mean that there were really 35 “nations”. North and South were distinct and separate cultures that could support two united nations. As for the Yankee character, the author objected to the Lincoln administration’s apparent reversal on the question of whether the war was just to keep the states united: ‘the South could keep its slaves’. The Emancipation Proclamation changed that. Furthermore, the war encouraged the love of Union and the flag in the North, but Yankees were mostly fighting a materialistic war – as could be seen by the atrocities they committed. The Confederate government was bereft of good, new ideas, but it was early days in the revolution. The heroes of the war were the Southern privates of all white classes who were united in defending their country. The Confederate army was a socialist’s dream realized:

We have put into the field soldiers such as the world has seldom seen — men who, half-clothed and half- fed, have, against superiour numbers, won two- thirds of the battles of this war. The material of the Confederate army, in social worth, is simply superiour to all that is related in the military annals of mankind. Men of wealth, men accustomed to the fashions of polite society, men who had devoted their lives to learned professions and political studies, have not hesitated to shoulder their muskets and fight as privates in the ranks with the hard-fisted and uncouth labourer, no less a patriot than themselves. Our
army presents to the world, perhaps, the only example of theoretical socialism reduced to practice it has ever seen, and realizes, at least in respect of defensive arms, the philosopher’s dream of fraternal and sympathetic equality.

To get a little ahead of the story, as the Park Service link above points out, Mr. Pollard was captured by the Union blockade in May 1864 and spent three months in Fort Warren before being paroled.

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Ensign Arnett

Posted on March 6, 2014 by SUMPTER

A sailor from Seneca Falls had a rough fortnight to begin 1863. His ship was blown up during the Battle of Galveston on New Year’s Day; on the 11th his new ship was sunk by the CSS Alabama. Here’s some news that the young man had persevered his way to a promotion.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1864:

Promoted.

We are pleased to learn of the promotion of JOHN P. ARNETT, of this village, who entered the Naval service some two years since as Acting Master’s Mate. He is now Ensign in the service.

[Powder monkey by gun of U.S.S. New Hampshire off Charleston, S.C.] (Between 1864 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-03515)

there’s hope, boy (anonymous Powder monkey on U.S.S. New Hampshire off Charleston, S.C. c.1864)

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give greenbacks a chance

Posted on March 5, 2014 by SUMPTER
General J.B. Fry (between 1860 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpbh-03190)

James Barnet Fry, U.S. Provost Marshal General, postpones draft

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1864:

The Draft Postponed.

The action of Congress continuing the government bounties until the 1st of April, is received by the Secretary of War as an intimation from that body not to begin the draft until that date. The following is the official announcement of its postponement:

WASHINGTON, March 4, 1864.

To Major F. Townsend:

Orders requiring the Draft on the tenth instant are suspended. A subsequent day for commencing the Draft will be announced in time to make all the necessary preparations. Notify the Governor,

(Signed)           J.B. Fry.

Official: J.F. Chub, Lt. and Act’g Insp.

This would seem to be more evidence to support one of James M. McPherson’s points about the dual nature of Union recruitment:

What kind of conscription was this, in which only 7 percent of the men whose names were drawn actually served? The answer: it was not conscription at all, but a clumsy carrot and stick device to stimulate volunteering. The stick was the threat of being drafted and the carrot was a bounty for volunteering. In the end this method worked, for while only 46,000 drafted men served and another 74,000 provided substitutes, some 800,000 men enlisted or re-enlisted voluntarily during the two years after passage of the [1863] conscription act. While the social and economic cost of this process was high, Americans seemed willing to pay the price because compulsory service was contrary to the country’s values and traditions. …[1]

The volunteers in defence of the government against usurpation, 1861 (Phila. : Published by James Queen at P.S. Duval & Son's Lithographic Office, 22 & 24 Sth. 5th St., c1861; LOC: LC-DIG-pga-05796)

no stick needed? volunteers of 1861

  1. [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 605.↩
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freedom march

Posted on March 4, 2014 by SUMPTER

philanthropists wanted … now!

Last week Seven Score and Ten presented three different takes on General William T. Sherman’s Meridian Campaign. Here’s a fourth, from a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1864:

LO! THE POOR NEGRO. – A Vicksburg (Miss.) Correspondent of the Tribune, under date of March 4th. writes:

“Some 2,000 slaves of all ages and colors reached here yesterday. It was one of the saddest spectacles witnessed for a long time in Vicksburg. Women and children were almost starved and half naked. Such a terrible picture of abject want and squalid misery can neither be imagined or portrayed with pen. Many of the women and children were sick with fevers, brought on by the great fatigue and exposure of the long march from Meridian, Enterprise, Quitman and other places. Will not the friends of freedom and the humane philanthropists of the North come forward at once, and with their generous hands rescue those liberated slaves from a premature grave. Shoes and clothing for both sexes are needed immediately.”

“Liberated slaves.” Liberated, – to beg, to starve, to die.

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foreign analogies

Posted on March 3, 2014 by SUMPTER

The Richmond Dispatch often looked at different countries and different eras for examples to fire up its readership in the South’s struggle for independence. Here the editors looked across the Atlantic for commentary on who would be selected as the “Black Republican” nominee for U.S. president and what Southerners would endure before they submitted to Big Yankee.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 2, 1864:

Wednesday morning…March 2, 1864

…

Capital Mode of election.

Some philosopher having disputed the fact that everything has its use, and given as an example that unclean parasite which sometime makes its abode upon the “dome of thought, the temple of the soul,” it was replied by a controversialist on the other side that at Hardenburg, in Sweden, the pediculus held a position of some importance. When a Burgomaster had to be chosen, the eligible candidates sat with their beards upon the table, in the centre of which was placed one of those insects whose only use would seem to be the invention of fine-tooth combs, and the one in whose beard he took cover was the Magistrate for the ensuing year.

Who shall deny, after this, that everything has its uses? It is true we are not informed whether the electoral body always selected the best man, but that is a pitch of perfection which is not uniformly attained even by universal suffrage. The present Chief Magistrate of the United States, for example, might have been just as well selected after the fashion of Hardenburg as by the votes of his actual constituency. We recommend the Black Republicans to settle the claims of their various aspirants for the next Presidency by sitting with their beards upon a table and giving the virtuous and intelligent parasite a fair chance. As he generally selects the dirtiest specimen of humanity, it would be amusing to witness his perplexity between Lincoln, Fremont, and Banks. But, on the whole, we are inclined to think the choice would fall on the same head that the United States people have chosen, and which has furnished bed and board to political parasites for the last four years. …

Eating grass.

A French officer who, on one occasion, accompanied a raid against an Arab tribe in Algeria, gives an instance of the spirit of defiance which animated those haughty sons of the desert. The French commander had assembled the Arab Chiefs, and, telling them that his soldiers had filled up their wells, carried off their cattle, and burned their

dwellings, exhorted them to submission, asking them what they would do further against a country so powerful as France.–“The Arabs, as if impelled simultaneously, stooped to the earth, plucked some scant blades of grass there growing, and began chewing the same in angry silence. This was all their reply, and by it they intimated that they would eat what the earth gave, like the beasts that are upon it, rather than surrender.”

Eating grass is not very agreeable, but it is better than eating dirt. The Southern people, if subjected to such an alternative, will not show less spirit than the Arabs.

Speaking of eating grass, the same article offered a deal to Virginia farmers: send food to Richmond to feed the destitute families of soldiers in the field and you’ll get paid by the people of Richmond:

Shipments made to Wm. P. Munford, Esq., President Young Men’s Christian Association, or to J. R. Chamberlayne, Secretary to the Overseers of the Poor of the city, will be properly attended to, and settled for promptly as shippers may direct. We urge upon the citizens of the country to do what they can. Their assistance is greatly needed.

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disunion … among Republicans?

Posted on March 1, 2014 by SUMPTER

In the latter part of February 1864 the Pomeroy Circular was an effort to drum up Republican support for Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase to replace President Lincoln as the party’s presidential candidate. When the “foreign journals” with the news made their way to the Confederate capital, a Richmond editorial thought that any trouble for Mr. Lincoln might be an “indirect advantage” for the South’s cause.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 29, 1864:

Northern Lights — party movements.

The late foreign journals, from the United States, indicate that the political or party cauldron is beginning to bubble. The spirits around it are as full of diablerie as ever met in an assemblage of evil genial [genies?]. Chase, the Financial Secretary of Lincoln, leads on the black spirits in rebellion against his master. His party is organized, and have just put forth an address, signed by U. S. Senator Pomeroy, “Chairman of the National Executive Committee,” calling on their friends in the country to get ready for the campaign with all possible expedition — This artful address, worthy of the most insinuating and permeating Yankee, accuses Lincoln and his friends with endeavoring, by “party machinery and official influence,” to “forestall the political action of the people,” and thus forcing those who “conscientiously believe that the interests of the country demand a change in favor of vigor and purity and nationality” to enter the field at once, to secure “a fair discussion of free principles.”

This address assumes, 1st, That Mr. Lincoln cannot be elected against the union of forces that will oppose him. 2d. That, should he be re-elected, his temporizing and compromising policy will grow stronger during his second term, while the war will languish and the public debt become unendurable. 3. That the rapid increase and the loose dispensation of the patronage of the Government renders the “application of the one term principle absolutely essential to the safety of our (their) republican institutions.” (!) 4. That in Salmon P. Chase is embodied all the high qualities for President and for the times, and his private character is a guarantee for “economy and purity in the management of public affairs.” And, 5. That developments already made of public sentiment leave no doubt of the election of Chase, if a “systematic and faithful effort” be made by his friends. This impudent address concludes by asking the co-operation in the support of Chase of all who are in “favor of the speedy restoration of the Union upon the basis of universal freedom, and who desire an administration of the Government during the first period of its new life which shall, to the fullest extent, develop the capacity of free institutions, enlarge the resources of the country, distinguish the burdens of taxation, elevate the standard of public and private morality, vindicate the honor of the Republic before the world, and in all things make our American nationality the fairest example for imitation which human progress has ever achieved.” [See the “circular” in another column.]

Thus concludes the address of the party who condemns Lincoln for not being brutal and bloody enough in his war on the South–a party whose compeers for hypocrisy and villainy cannot be found outside of the infernal regions.

Where Seward, the arch fiend, is to range himself in the grand combat of the angels, is not exactly settled. He will likely stand by Abe, if some new phase of the campaign should not open a door to him which does not now excite his hope.

Fremont is, of course, a candidate of the German radicals, the bran bread and socialist color — fraternizing politicians, male and female. He has written a letter assailing Lincoln for injustice to himself and for bad management of the war.

Bennett calls all these parties, including old Abe’s, as “factions!” in its financial article, it gives Chase a side wind by denouncing his financiers, complaining that he has endeavored to sustain the credit of the Government by borrowing and by paper issues, until he is “likely to bring ruin on the country” by the weight of the public debt. It says that this is attracting attention and exciting complaints even among “Republican journals.” It calls for a heavy direct tax as the only thing to save the country from the ruin Chase has nearly brought upon it.

The Herald is of opinion that the only salvation of the country from a “demoralizing, dangerous, and revolutionary scrub race” is for the people to unite upon Grant for President and Dix for Vice President, with Gen. McClellan identified with them as the General-in-Chief of the Federal army! There will be great manÅuvring now for the nomination of the Republican National Convention. Chase has the bulk of the Federal Congress, no doubt, on his side. What effect his new attitude is to have on his relations in the Cabinet and on the movements in Congress, remains to be seen. That it will have its disturbing influences, there can be little doubt.

For the present, the bold and unequivocal position of hostility to Lincoln assumed by Chase and his followers is an interesting feature of the war of the immaculate politicians of Washington. It will lead to other moves on the chess board, and the fight will become exciting. Lincoln has, however, the disadvantage of being encumbered with the war and the administration of affairs while he has a traitor in his Cabinet. Every victory of the rebels, whether under Caesar Finnegan or Gen. Lee, will be a blow to Lincoln in the political campaign at the North. He becomes, indeed, such an object of attack that his whole patronage can hardly strengthen him sufficiently against his foes. The time is too short. Office seekers will look for the most available man, and palter with Lincoln in a double sense. Mr. Lincoln’s troubles are just beginning. Let us hope that the councils of the virtuous Northern Government may not be a little embarrassed by the corrupt intrigues for the Presidency, and that some indirect advantage may ensue to us thereby.

You can read the circular and a “foreign” (The New-York Times) opinion of it at Seven Score and Ten.

As you can read about at Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, on February 29, 1864 President Lincoln rejected Secretary Chase’s offer to resign.

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