MY DEAR SIR: FROM JUDGE BLACK.' YORK, Saturday evening, [Oct. 5, 1861]. Your letter to Chester Co. which I have just seen surprises me a little." Those are no doubt your true sentiments, and you had a right to express them. But your endorsement of Lincoln's policy will be a very serious drawback upon the defence of your own. It is in vain to think that the two administrations can be made consistent. The fire upon the Star of the West was as bad as the fire on Fort Sumter; and the taking of Moultrie & Pinckney was worse than either. You know what I thought of these events at the time they occurred. If this war is right and politic and wise and constitutional, I cannot but think you ought to have made it. I am willing to vindicate the last administration to the best of my ability, and I will do it; but I can't do it on the ground which you now occupy, and therefore I cannot conscientiously ask you to pay anything for the work. My affection for you has moulted no feather. No difference of opinion shall diminish our friendship if I can help it. It is simply a consideration of duty to you as well as myself which obliges me to decline receiving anything from you. When you come over here on Thursday I will show you my manuscript; from which, slovenly as it is, you will see the radical difference of our views, and understand how wrong it would be to make you in any manner responsible either in pocket or in character for what I may write on that theme. I am as ever your devoted friend, HON. JAS. BUCHANAN. J. S. BLACK. TO MR. HENRY.3 MY DEAR JAMES/ WHEATLAND 21 October '61. I have mislaid your last letter, & have not answered it sooner, awaiting information that my account had been settled & the balance struck in the Chemical Bank. I think there would be no risk, & if so, no danger, in sending a Bank Book or the Certificate of Loan by Mail. I believe that New York Loan 1 Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 2 Letter to a committee of citizens of Chester and Lancaster counties, Sept. 28, 1861, supra. 3 Buchanan Papers. Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Buchanan, II. 566. Curtis's is registered & without Coupons;-but there is no hurry in either case. I am determined to sell all my seceded State Bonds this Fall for what they will bring. North Carolinas will probably command $60, & I would sell at that price to-morrow, but dislike to send the Certificates by Mail. These Loans may rise or sink in the market as the Bulls or the Bears may prevail; but after the war is over, let it terminate as it may, these States will be so exhausted as not to be able to pay, be they never so willing. As you sometimes deal in Stocks, I give you this confidentially as my opinion. We have never heard a word from or of our good friend Schell since he left us. How is he? or what has become of him? I think it is now time that I should not merely defend but triumphantly vindicate myself, or cause myself to be vindicated before the Public; though my friends still urge me to wait. I believe it is universally believed that Floyd stole guns & sent them to the South. There is not a word of truth in it, as is proved by a Report of the Committee on Military Affairs to the House of Representatives on the 18 February last, Mr. Stanton, a Black Republican, being Chairman. It is true that at a late period of the administration Floyd made the attempt to send a considerable number of Columbiads and thirty-two pounders to Ship Island & Galveston; but I arrested the order, through the Secretary of War, before a single gun was sent. We are expecting Mrs. Roosevelt, & I shall be delighted to see her, though we shall not be able to entertain her as I could. desire. I have never at any period since I commenced housekeeping been able to get a good cook, or even a tolerably good one, except at Washington; & we now have one of the worst. We shall, however, give her a hearty welcome. Yours affectionately J. BUCHANAN HENRY, ESQ. JAMES BUCHANAN. P. S. For what price can New York Loan be obtained in the Market? Have the Messrs. O'Brien my Virginia certificate in their possession? The Confederates have not confiscated State Loans in their infamous Act, & I presume there would be no difficulty in assigning it. VOL. XI-15 TO MISS LANE.1 WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, 6 Nov: 1861. MY DEAR HARRIET/ Judge Black came here yesterday about nightfall. Judge Leiper was here. He, Judge B., sat up last night after we went to bed, stating he wanted to write to you. This morning after breakfast he went away, very much to my surprise & regret, having procured a man to come for him from Lancaster on his arrival there from York.-I presume the Biography is all over. I shall now depend upon myself with God's assistance. He told me just before he left that he had had an interview with your brother James yesterday afternoon, but not what the purport of it was. The extremely rainy & stormy day yesterday prevented my company from coming. We are all well & Judge Leiper as merry as a cricket, regretting yr. absence. In haste Yours affectionately MISS HARRIET R. LANE. JAMES BUCHANAN. P. S. I enclose a circular which Mr. Huber, the assessor of Lancaster Township, left with me for you. Please fill it up, sign & return it. Your $7000 Penna. R. R. Bonds are not taxable & need not be returned. If you choose, you can sign the return, leaving it in blank for me to fill up from your papers in Bank. TO MR. KING." WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, November 12, 1861. MY DEAR SIR: You will confer a great favor upon me if you can obtain a half-dozen of copies of Mr. Stanton's report from the Committee on Military Affairs, made on the 18th February, 1861 (No. 85), relative to the arms alleged to have been stolen and sent to the South by Floyd. This report, with the remarks of Mr. Stanton when presenting it, ought to have put this matter at rest, and it did so, I believe, so far as Congress was concerned. It has, however, been recently repeated by Cameron, Reverdy Johnson, and others, and I desire these copies to send to different parts of the Union, so that the falsehood may be refuted by the record. I am no further interested in the matter than, if the charge were true, it might argue a want of vigilance on my part. I perceive that Mr. Holt has got a . . . from the Secretary of War, and I learn from those who read Forney's Press that Stanton is the counsel and friend of McClellan, who is, I trust and hope," the coming man.” By the bye, it is difficult to imagine how it was possible to mystify so plain a subject, under the laws of war, as an exchange of prisoners with the rebels, so as to make it mean a recognition in any form, however remote, of their Confederacy. It admits nothing but that your enemy, whether pirate, rebel, Algerine, or regular government, has got your soldiers in his possession, and you have his soldiers in your possession. The exchange means nothing beyond. The laws of humanity are not confined to any other limit. The more barbarous and cruel the enemy, the greater is the necessity for an exchange; because the greater is the danger that they will shed the blood of your soldiers. I do not apply this remark to the Confederate States, and only use it by way of illustration. I believe they have not treated their prisoners cruelly. They do not seem to understand at Washington another plain principle of the law of nations, and that is, that whilst the capture and confiscation of private property at sea is still permissible, this is not the case on land. Such are all the authorities. The Treaty of Ghent recognized slaves as private property, and therefore they were to be restored; and we paid for all our army consumed in Mexico. The rebels have violated this law in the most reckless manner. But why am I writing so? I have materials put together which will constitute, unless I am greatly mistaken, not merely a good defence, but a triumphant vindication of my administration. You must not be astonished some day to find in print portraits drawn by myself of all those who ever served in my cabinet. I think I know them all perfectly, unless it may be Stanton. I hope Miss King has entirely recovered. Please present me to her very kindly, as well as to Mrs. King. I am now alone, Miss Lane being in New York; but thank God! I am tranquil and contented, sound, or nearly so, in body, and I trust sound in mind, and ever true to my friends. From your friend, very respectfully, HON. HORATIO KING. JAMES BUCHANAN. MY DEAR HARRIET/ TO MISS LANE.1 WHEATLAND, 13 November, 1861. I have received your letter of the 11th Instant with Judge Black's opinion & am glad that you have at length decided. I enclose a letter directed to you. The Misses Johnston will not leave until next week. By them I shall send the package for Mrs. Stevens & another package, I presume from the convent at Georgetown, which Father Keenan gave me a few days ago. Father Balf his associate brought it from Reading where it had been carried by a Mrs. McManus. It must have been on the way for some time. I shall go to the Bank & make out your list of taxable property including your horse & your gold watch. I know not how I omitted to enclose you the circular. Horses and watches are included in it. Please to remember me very kindly to Mr. Royal Phelps & tell Mr. Schell I heartily sympathize with him in the loss of his election. It is a consolation to know that the people of his District will be the greatest sufferers by his defeat. My health & strength, I thank God, appear to be daily improving; & we get along in great tranquillity & peace. 1 Miss 1 Buchanan Papers, private collection. Inaccurately printed in Curtis's Buchanan, II. 597, under date of 1863. |