Our One Common Country (47 page)

34.
McClellan had carried three; incoming Congress:
Goodwin, pp. 665–66; Donald, p. 544.

34.
the crowd cheered for minutes: The
Daily National Republican,
November 11, 1864.

34.
Lincoln's speech:
CW
, vol. 8, pp. 100–01.

34.
high-pitched Western twang . . . carrying over the crowd:
See Waldo W. Braden,
Abraham Lincoln, Public Speaker
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988) (“Braden”), pp. 97–101.

34.
“Not very graceful”:
Hay Diary, p. 248.

34.
Seward's speech and revelers:
Daily National Republican,
November 11, 1864;
New York Times
, November 10, 1864; Seward,
Seward at Washington,
pp. 249–50.

35.
Rome, Georgia, was lit by arson: OR,
ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 1, p. 771.

35.
Sherman's march: Fellman,
Sherman,
pp. 186–89.

35.
“I am going into the very bowels”: Id.,
p. 188.

35.
James W. Singleton:
Hay Diary, pp. 279–80 n. 71; Crist,
Davis Papers,
vol. 11, p. 387 n. 5 and p. 480 n. 9; Ludwell H. Johnson, “Beverley Tucker's Canadian Mission, 1864–1865,” 29
The Journal of Southern History
(February 1963) (“Johnson, ‘Mission' ”), pp. 88–99; Burlingame, vol. 2, pp. 754–55.

35.
the idol of his friends:
Hay Diary, p. 279 n. 71.

35.
“a miracle of meanness”: Id.,
p. 19.

36.
it was nothing personal: Id.,
p. 279 n. 71.

36.
Singleton on Clay, Tucker, and peace: Orville Hickman Browning, Theodore C. Pease, and James G. Randall, eds.,
The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning,
2 vols. (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1925–1933) (“Browning”), vol. 1, p. 694.

36.
If anyone could influence “those people”:
Burlingame, vol. 2, p. 755.

36.
“heavy on his mind”:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 179.

37.
“the responsibility all rested upon him”:
Rice, p. 96.

37.
“who will he treat with”:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 179.

37.
“but the States are entities and may be . . . treated with”: Id.

37.
The president should invite the rebellious states”: Id.,
p. 190.

37.
Lincoln sometimes called him Mars:
David Homer Bates,
Lincoln in the Telegraph Office
(New York: Century Co., 1907) (“Bates,”), p. 400.

37.
Davis called him venomous:
Davis,
Rise and Fall,
vol. 2, p. 689. See Crook, “Lincoln As I Knew Him,” p. 110. Stanton was “a great man” but “a martinet . . . a very bitter cruel man.”

37.
Stanton on peace overtures: Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 179.

38.
But how was he to know; Governor Francis Pierpont:
Ambler, pp. 257–58.

38.
In an effort to reach them, Southern papers ran notices:
Bill, p. 245; e.g.,
Richmond Enquirer, passim.

38–39.
Lincoln's annual message:
CW
, vol. 8, pp. 136–53.

40.
Thaddeus Stevens: The definitive biography is Brodie,
Thaddeus Stevens.
See Schurz, vol. 3, p. 214, for a tart recollection of Stevens.

40.
“Glad to hear it”:
James M. Scoville, “Thaddeus Stevens,” 61
Lippincott's Magazine,
(April 1898), p. 549.

40.
Stevens on Lincoln's annual message:
Congressional Globe,
January 5, 1865, p. 124.

40.
a priority that Lincoln embraced but had always ranked second:
E.g., Escott, pp. 54–55 and
passim.

 

CHAPTER 7

Much of the discussion of John A. Campbell in this chapter is drawn from Robert Saunders Jr.,
John Archibald Campbell, Southern Moderate, 1811
–
1889
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1999) (“Saunders”); and Henry G. Connor,
John Archibald Campbell
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920) (“Connor”)
.
A chronology of Campbell's life is in Wiggins, pp. 262–63. The Campbell family papers are at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Southern Historical Collection. See also John A. Campbell, “Open Letters: A View of the Confederacy from the Inside,” 38
The Century
Magazine
(October 1889) (“Campbell, ‘Open Letters' ”), pp. 950–54.

41.
“You have Mr. Lincoln's ear”:
Greeley to Blair, December 1, 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress; Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 363.

41.
A friend of Seward's: Stahr, p. 172.

41.
Efforts of Campbell, Nelson, and Seward to avert the war:
Id.,
pp. 120–47. Campbell's account is in “Reply of Judge Campbell,” 7
The Southern Magazine
(February 1874) (“Campbell, ‘Reply' ”), pp. 22–28. See Alexander Stephens,
A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States,
2 vols.
(Philadelphia: National Publishing Co., 1870) (“Stephens,
CV
”), vol. 2, pp. 346–51.

42.
“unworthy of a practical man”;
“
At times he is pleasant”:
Connor, pp. 9–10.

42.
Supreme Court appointment: Strode, p. 468.

42.
Support of the
New York Times: Quoted in
Connor,
p. 17.

42.
argued controversially:
John A. Campbell, “Slavery in the United States,” 12
Southern Quarterly Review
(July 1847), pp. 91–134.

42.
illegal African slave trade:
Connor, pp. 103–4.

42.
He owned house slaves and laborers:
Saunders, pp. 66–68.

42.
infamous
Dred Scott v. Sandford
decision:
19 Howard 393, 15 L. Ed. 691 (1857); see E. I. McCormac, “Justice Campbell and the
Dred Scott
Decision,” 19
The Mississippi Valley Historical Review
(March 1933), pp. 565–71.

42.
against his stern advice:
Campbell, “Reply,” p. 27.

42.
Seward, Campbell, and Davis's peace envoys: Rowland, vol. 5, pp. 98–99; Saunders, pp. 147–52; Connor, pp. 129–48.

42.
an opinion he would later change:
Campbell, “Reply,” p. 28.

43.
“to follow the fortunes of my people”:
Connor, p. 112.

43.
“His is one of the hardest cases”:
Chesnut, p. 77.

43.
a subordinate role:
Campbell to Nathan Clifford, August 1, 1865, Andrew Johnson Papers, Library of Congress; Campbell, “Open Letters,” pp. 950–51; Kean, pp. 162–63; Connor, pp. 159–60.

43.
Judge Campbell, as everyone called him:
e.g.,
Id.,
pp. 195–97; Jones, vol. 2, p. 410; Robert M. T. Hunter, “R. M. T. Hunter, The Peace Commission of 1865,” 3
Southern Historical Society Papers
(April 1877), pp. 168–76 (“Hunter ‘Peace Commission' ”), p. 172.

43.
Hunter of Virginia had suggested it:
Kean, p. 182.

43.
Kean thought the letter too formal: Id.

43.
Letter shown to Hunter, then Seddon: Crist, vol. 11, p. 322 n. 20; Connor, p. 164.

43.
James Seddon: Roy W. Curry, “James A. Seddon: A Southern Prototype,” 63
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
(April 1955); Burton J. Hendrick,
Statesmen of the Lost Cause: Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1939) (“Hendrick,
Statesmen of the Lost Cause
”), pp. 326–27; Ernest B. Furgurson,
Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War
(New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1996) (“Furgurson”), p. 88.

43.
Yankees had burned Seddon's rural Virginia home:
Smith,
Blair Family
, vol. 2, p. 275.

44.
in his grave a full month:
Jones, vol. 1, p. 312.

44.
Davis, who let the attempt be made:
Connor, p. 164; Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 951.

44.
Campbell's letter to Justice Nelson:
The letter is in Connor, pp. 161–63.

44.
Campbell had no illusions:
Kean, p. 182.

44.
Grant's conversation with the Bishop of Arkansas:
Id.,
pp. 180 and 186.

45.
Confederate signal service sent Campbell's letter:
Connor, p. 163.

45.
[Campbell] never got an answer:
Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 951.

45.
“In lieu of this . . . there came [Blair]”: Id.

45.
Greeley's December 15 letter: Greeley's letter, in the Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, is in Smith,
Blair Family,
vol. 2, pp. 301–02.

45.
McMullen's resolution:
New York Times,
January 12, 1865.

45.
Grant's wire to Sherman: Adam Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant
(New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1885) (“Badeau”), vol. 3, p. 357.

45.
Blair's letter to Greeley: Horace Greeley Papers, New York Public Library. The letter is in Smith,
Blair Family,
vol. 2, p. 302.

45.
Blair's relationship with Davis: Davis,
Rise and Fall,
vol. 2, p. 616; Crist, vol. 11, p. 319 n. 1; Smith,
Blair Family,
vol. 2, p. 323; Elizabeth Blair Lee, pp. 9, 14, 15 n. 3, 18, 47, 110, 459, and 460 n. 2.

46.
“our Oakland cronies”: Id.,
pp. 459 and 460 n. 2.

46.
“That's the Blairs' carriage”:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 258.

46.
“my heart aches for them”:
Elizabeth Blair Lee, p. 9.

46.
Mrs. Davis had sent a baby's dress:
Chesnut, p. 68.

46.
Baby clothes for Francis Preston Blair Lee: Crist,
Davis Papers,
vol. 11, p. 320 n. 3.

47.
Jeff [Davis] wrote his mother:
Strode, p. 103.

47.
One of the greatest who ever lived:
John Bigelow,
Retrospections of an Active Life,
5 vols. (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1909–13) (“Bigelow”), vol. 4, p. 50.

47.
Lincoln's office
and its view: Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
pp. 84–85; Goodwin, plates 38 and 41; Crook, “Lincoln As I Knew Him,” p. 112.

47.
“I might do something towards peace”:
Crist, vol. 11, p. 315.

47.
“Come to me after Savannah falls”:
Nicolay and Hay, vol. 10, p. 94.

47.
that took two days to reach him:
William T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
2 vols. (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1891) (“Sherman”), vol. 2, p. 231.

48.
a captured Savannah mansion:
Fellman, p. 192.

48.
He sent a wire to the War Department: OR,
ser. 1, vol. 44, pp. 798–99.

48.
leaving Sherman an open path:
Grimsley and Simpson, pp. 43–44.

48.
Browning's meeting with Lincoln: Browning, vol. 1, p. 699; Johnson,
Mission,
p. 95; Charles B. Flood,
1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009) (“Flood”), pp. 412–15.

48.
Christmas and the Episcopalian orphanage: Varina Davis, “Christmas in the Confederate White House,”
New York World,
December 13, 1896 (“Davis, ‘Christmas' ”), p. 26.

49.
“Great commotion”:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 364.

49.
counted vacant chairs:
Brock, p. 341.

49.
equal to the holiday wardrobes:
Pollard, p. 488.

49.
“The truth is we are prostrated”:
Kean, p. 181.

49.
precious sweet potatoes:
Davis, “Christmas,” p. 26.

49.
Lincoln sent [Sherman] a wire: CW
, vol. 8, pp. 181–82.

49.
thousands of columns of smoke:
Fellman, p. 225.

50.
“people whined like curs”: Id.,
p. 231.

50.
Sunset Cox: Davis Lindsey,
Sunset Cox: Irrepressible Democrat
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1959); Samuel Sullivan Cox,
Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 1855 to 1885
(San Francisco: Occidental Publishing Col, 1885) (“Cox,
Three Decades
”); Samuel Sullivan Cox,
Eight Years in Congress, from 1857 to 1865
(New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1865) (“Cox,
Eight Years
”).

50.
“miscegenation plot”:
Sidney Kaplan, “The Miscegenation Issue in the Election of 1864,” 34
Journal of Negro History
(July 1949), pp. 274–343.