man rather than yield to the secessionists. I regret the treatment he has received from Mr. Seward & the Post. Nothing new has transpired here since my last letter. I am perfectly convinced that an attack will be made and a battle fought for this city before long. I am still confined to my room and for the most part to my bed. I believe I am convalescent but am extremely weak, and think I gain strength very slowly, and almost imperceptibly. me. The time has certainly arrived when in justice to myself and to the members of my Cabinet I must prepare, or have prepared under my immediate direction, an authentic statement of the events of the Administration from the 6th of November, the day on which Mr. Lincoln was elected, until the 4th of March last. Such a statement will be a perfect justification of my course and will relieve me from the imputations that are made against From the time you became acting Secretary of War until the end of my Administration, you acted a most important part in the administration of the Government. It would be almost impossible to prepare a statement with a sufficient degree of accuracy without your presence. You made much character during this period which ought not to be lost. If Providence were to call me away from this world before such a statement, the truth in its full extent might never be known. I therefore earnestly invite you to pay me a visit as soon as you can conveniently. It would be the most natural thing in the world for a member of my Cabinet, with whom my relations had always been so intimate, to pay me a visit in my sickness. I shall 1Holt Papers, Library of Congress. specially want copies of the papers on files of the War and Navy Departments relative to Fort Pickens, and also a statement of the preparations made for the reinforcement and supply of Fort Sumter at the time we received last despatches from Maj. Anderson. By the by, have you seen and conversed with Maj. Anderson? What is the meaning of the approval of all his conduct at Fort Sumter by the Administration? I have no doubt this was dictated by the most laudable desire to avoid collision and spare the effusion of human blood, but why should Maj. Anderson's conduct be approved and ours condemned by the Administration? We were ready and willing to send him reinforcements whenever he applied for them. We have not a gay household, but we will give you a cheerful welcome. I should press Mr. Stanton to accompany you, but he has a wife and family in Washington, which of course he would be very unwilling to leave at the present crisis. From your friend very respectfully HON. J. HOLT. JAMES BUCHANAN. P. S. The time of publication of such a statement would be a matter of future consideration-its preparation is a necessity. J. B. (Confidential.) MY DEAR SIR: FROM MR. HOLT.' WASHINGTON, May 24th, 1861. I had the pleasure of receiving yours of the 21st inst. from the hands of Mr. Magraw. I had previously observed with pain notices in the public papers of your illness, & it is therefore with great gratification that I learn you are convalescing though still confined to your room. I thank you sincerely for your kind invitation to visit Wheatland, & regret much that it is not in my power at once to do so. My engagements, however, are such that I cannot leave Washington for the present, though I hope to be able to see you in the course of the summer. 1 Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Curtis's Buchanan, II. 550. I would gladly give you any assistance in my power in the preparation of the paper to which you refer, but fear any aid I could render would be of little avail to you. I have preserved no memoranda of the transactions you propose to treat, & although my memory might be trusted as to their substance, it would in all probability be at fault in regard to their details. In reference to the latter, I would rather defer to your own recollection, or to that of other members of the cabinet. As a historical document, I concur with you that the preparation of such a document is a "necessity," but I cannot perceive that there is any reason for haste in its completion, or any expediency in its early publication. The country is so completely occupied by the fearful & absorbing events occurring & impending, that you could not hope at present to engage its attention. Besides, from what I have observed in the public papers, I cannot discover that your administration is being so assailed upon the points alluded to as to require any elaborate vindication at your hands. In the composition of this paper, I think a great embarrassment will be encountered in assigning a proper position to those members of your cabinet now engaged in the prosecution of active hostilities against the govt. of the U. States. With the lights now before the public, they have pronounced a judgment upon these men as members of your administration, with a unanimity altogether unparallelled. Any vindication you might present which should either ignore or seek to controvert this judgment would receive no favor & probably but little credit with the country. I suppose you have seen the prominent Southern papers-including Gov. Floyd's organ at Richmond-in which is set forth as his especial glory the aid given to the revolution by the War Dept. during the year 1860. You have, I believe, copies of all Anderson's letters, & it may be copies also of a part of those recd. from Fort Pickens. As the fate of the latter fortress is still undetermined, I doubt if the govt. would give copies of any correspondence in regard to it. Col. Anderson's letters & those to him from the govt. during my brief connection with the War Dept., furnish, I think, a sufficient defence of the policy pursued during that time. I cannot say the same in reference to an antecedent period. You no doubt remember the character of Col. A.'s letters before he was forced to abandon Moultriealso your extreme solicitude on the subject, & the disposition made of the question of reinforcement by Gov. Floyd. While the country will accord to you a high patriotic purpose in the forbearing course you pursued, it has also, I am satisfied, arrived at the conclusion, from current events, that the policy was a mistaken one. The counsels under which you acted were sincerely confided in by yourself, but it is now shown that they were given by traitors, who in all they did & said acted in the interest of those who had resolved upon the overthrow of the govt. I am myself satisfied that had the same bold step been taken at Charleston in Nov. that has been recently taken at St. Louis, the revolution would ere this have been dead as any antediluvian. I have had two brief but satisfactory interviews with Col. Anderson. He is thoroughly loyal, & if he ever had any sympathy with the revolutionists —which I am now far from believing-I think the ferocious spirit in which the siege & cannonade of Sumter were conducted crushed it out of him. We did not discuss at all the policy of your administration in regard to Sumter, but he said in general terms that he was satisfied all that had occurred was providential—that the course pursued had been the means of fixing the eyes of the nation on Sumter & of awakening to the last degree its anxieties for its fate, so that when it fell its fall proved the instrumentality of arousing the national enthusiasm & loyalty, as we now see them displayed in the eager rush made to maintain the honor of the flag. The approval of his course, of which you speak, relates, I presume, to his defence of Sumter. I have not heard that the administration has expressed any formal censure of your policy. Now that the South has begun an unprovoked & malignant war upon the U. States, accompanied by an insolent threat of the capture of Washington, & with an open avowal that the only Southern right now insisted on is the right of dismembering the republic, I am decidedly in favor of prosecuting the struggle until the citizens of the seceded States shall be made to obey the laws as we obey them. I believe it can be done. It will cost much blood & many millions of treasure, but if it cost billions, the preservation of such a government would be well worth the expenditure. With kind remembrances to Miss Lane, I am very sincerely your friend, HIS EXCLLY. JAMES BUCHANAN. J. HOLT. MY DEAR SIR: FROM GENERAL DIX.1 NEW YORK, May 28th, 1861. Ever since I wrote you last I have been busy night and day, and am a good deal worn down by my labors on the Union Defence Committee, and by superintending the organization and equipment of nine regiments, six of which I have sent to the field, leaving three to go to-morrow and the day after. The post of Major General of Volunteers was tendered to me by Governor Morgan, and I could not decline without subjecting myself to the imputation of hauling down my flag, a thing altogether inadmissible. So I am in harness for the war, though the administration take it easy, for I have not yet been accepted, and there are rumors that there are too many Democratic epaulettes in the field. There seems to be no fear at Washington that there are too many Democratic knapsacks. New York has about 15,000 men at the seat of war, without a general except Sanford, who has gone on temporarily. How is it, my dear sir, that New York is always overlooked (or nearly always) except when there are burdens to be borne? As to this 'Curtis's Buchanan, II. 551. Generalship, it was unsought, and I am indifferent about it entirely. I am willing to give my strength and my life, if need be, to uphold the Government against treason and rebellion. But if the administration prefers some one else to command New York troops, no one will acquiesce half so cheerfully as myself. I should be very glad if I could look in upon you, though it were but for a moment; but if I am ordered South, I suppose I shall be needed at once. My whole division will be in the field by Sunday next. Miss Lane has not made her promised visit. I will merely suggest the inviolability of promises by keeping my own. I engaged to send her a photograph for her second album, and beg to give her, through you, the choice of a variety. I beg also to be most cordially remembered to her. Our excellent friend, Mr. —, wanted a note or letter of Major Anderson's, written at Fort Sumter, and I take the liberty, not knowing his address, to send it to you. I fear the impatience of the country may interfere with General Scott's plan of getting a large force on foot, disciplining it thoroughly until October, and then embodying it, and marching through the Southern country in such numbers as to render resistance vain. Partisan movements without any definite result only serve to irritate and excite to new effort. I am, my dear sir, with best wishes, in which my wife unites, FROM JUDGE BLACK.' JOHN A. DIX. SOMERSET, June, 1861. MY DEAR SIR: I have thought carefully over the matter of which we spoke at Wheatland when I was there; namely, the preparation of a true and fair historical account of your public life and especially that part of it which you spent in the great office of President. I think you owe it to your friends and to your country to give them a full and clear vindication of your conduct & character. If this be not done, you will continue to be slandered for half a century to come. In the mean time nothing is easier than a perfect defence of every important measure which you ever adopted or carried out-nothing plainer than the task of putting the responsibility where it properly belongs for every misfortune which the country had fallen into. Nevertheless, it will be a work of much labor and time—that is, if it be done well, as it ought 1 Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Extracts printed in Henry's Messages of Buchanan, 299. In the date, the day of the month is not given. |