speeches made in his travelling tour had not uttered one word in defence of you and your administration, and that not one of your Cabinet had published a word in your defence since you retired to private life. Stanton replied and said that Holt was a selfish man; that he should have vindicated you instead of praising Lincoln and abusing Breckinridge. You took Mr. Holt from retirement, I will not say obscurity, and he is now an aspirant for the Presidency. Mr. Dix, Mr. Stanton, and Mr. Holt have fixed their hopes upon filling the Executive Chair of the White House. Mr. J. M. Carlisle handed me Thurlow Weed's letter, clipped from the New York Herald of the 4th of March last. I said to Mr. Carlisle, I will show this to Stanton, and with your consent will say to Mr. Stanton I received this from your hands and that you requested me to invite his attention to the letter. Mr. Carlisle assented very cordially. Monday last, two weeks since, I handed the Herald slip to Mr. Stanton in his room in the War Department in open audience, as this is the only time I can see him. Stanton read the paragraph, in which he figured in your Cabinet meeting making a speech, and the remarks of the other members named. After he read it (I observed he was greatly embarrassed), he returned it and made no reply. I retired. A few days after this interview I met him near the War Department, and he said, Flinn, you don't believe all you read in the newspapers. He said he had Dr. Ives of the New York Herald arrested and sent to Fort McHenry; that Ives had written many abusive articles on you, published in the Herald; and that this is one of the reasons why he had him arrested. Mr. Carlisle expected Judge Black would have answered Weed's falsehoods before this, as he promised Mr. C. to call at his house. Fear of Lincoln's and Seward's Penitentiary, La Fayette, and Fort Warren, has greatly weakened the power of the pen, which in this country has in times past wielded more power than the sword. I showed the Weed letter to Mr. Horatio King, and asked him to submit it to the criticism of Mr. Holt. He looked scared and began to chaw, remarking I had better see him myself. I said, You are more familiar with Mr. Holt than I, and he might be more frank with you than with a partial acquaintance. Power and patronage have a wonderful and mysterious influence upon the minds of men, who should be governed by higher and nobler motives than mere self. I may the last of this or the first of next month call and see you at Wheatland. I have been painting my dining-room and bath-room. My hands were not in a writing condition, or I would have written earlier. The address of the leaders of Judge Douglas to the Democracy of the United States has created a stampede in the Republican ranks. I read the address in proof-sheet by request of Mr. Ancona of Reading, one of the signers. Mr. Leazer, the Representative from Greene and Fayette Cos., Penna., is one of your warm friends and admirers. Mrs. Flinn sends you her kindest regards. From your friend, very respy., HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. WM. FLINN, 260 F St. MY DEAR SIR/ TO MR. FLINN.1 WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, 17 May 1862. I feel much obliged to you for your kind, amusing, & interesting letter of the 14 Instant. I presume the history of free Countries presents no parallel to the neglect or refusal of those members of my Cabinet implicated to contradict the statement made by Thurlow Weed that they had insulted me outrageously in Cabinet Council. This utterly false & unfounded Statement was made by a quasi official in a foreign Newspaper & published in a foreign Country where I had been Minister, without producing a remark from any one of those confidential advisers whom I had always treated with the utmost kindness. Well, be it so, for the present. I did not suppose at the time I wrote you the letter that it would be of service to you with Mr. Stanton. You are too good a Democrat to receive employment from a Republican administration. The most agreeable part of your letter is the expression of your intention to pay me a visit the latter part of this month or the beginning of the next. The sooner the better. You shall at any time & at all times receive a cordial welcome. You may from this pass across to Reading & visit our friend Jones. You speak lightly of Horatio King. Whilst I am sorry he accepted the agency to appraise the negroes of the District, yet he has treated me with kindness & respect since I left WashingHe & his daughter have paid me a visit, & he has cheerfully & promptly attended to several matters for me. ton. Miss Lane will leave home for some weeks early next week, or I would ask you to bring Mrs. Flinn along. Please to remember me to her very kindly, & believe me always to be sincerely yr. friend WILLIAM FLINN, ESQUIRE. Come soon. JAMES BUCHANAN. 'Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. (Private.) MY DEAR SIR/ TO DR. BLAKE.1 WHEATLAND 17 May 1862. I take the chances that this acknowledgment of the receipt of your acceptable letter of the 15th may reach you before you leave for New York. I wish you would pass this way either going to or returning from that City; but this would be too much to ask. This Country is now clothed with rich & beautiful verdure. The next time you come, & I trust this may be before long, pray bring your trunk with you. I have neither seen Judge Black nor heard from him since you left us. I hope none of my friends will trouble him again about the Thurlow Weed letter. In all free Countries, fidelity to the head of the Government on the part of the members of his Cabinet whilst belonging to his political family has ever been considered both a point of honor & duty, & has rarely, if ever, been violated. Whilst at liberty to contract new political engagements, if they should betray to their new friends or the public what had transpired in the old Cabinet, without the consent of its head, they would be held justly ́infamous. If, therefore, the statement made by Weed were as true as it is infamously false, the irresistible implication would be that he had received the information from a member of the Cabinet; & thus all of those implicated would be exposed to the charge until it was brought home to the guilty individual. Thurlow Weed is understood to be an agent of the Government. To serve them he abandoned his position as head of the Lobby in the New York Legislature & went to Europe. Whilst in London he publishes a letter in a London Journal & attaches his own name to it, stating that Messrs. Stanton, Holt, Dix, & Black had grossly insulted me in Cabinet Council & had used expressions to me which if true would have caused their instant removal. Is this falsehood, proceeding from a quasi official source, contradicted by any of them? No, they all stand mute. They will not contradict Weed, who is powerful & stands high with Mr. Lincoln. They are willing to profit with their new 1 Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Partly printed in Curtis's Buchanan, II. 588. masters by the slander, rather than speak a word of truth in justice to the old President who had ever treated them with the utmost confidence & kindness. I was going to say, such is human nature; but I will not say it, because the case is without a parallel. Notwithstanding all, I except Judge Black. I believe his heart is in the right place; and his conduct has proceeded from constitutional timidity, & not from any want of regard towards myself. Miss Lane intends to leave here for New York on Thursday next, & will be at James Henry's. She would be much gratified to meet you there. I fear the carriage is a bad speculation. DR. JOHN B. BLAKE. TO MR. LEIPER.' JAMES BUCHANAN. WHEATLAND 27 May 1862. MY DEAR SIR/ I have received your favor of the 22d, & am always rejoiced to learn that you are healthy and happy. Neither of us can say : "That in our youth we never did apply though, with the blessing of Providence, we both enjoy "a green old age." If we have not been abstemious, we have been temperate, & used the blessings in our way without abusing them. Miss Lane is now absent. She left here on Thursday last on a visit to her Uncle at Oxford Church & her cousin, James B. Henry, on Staten Island. You always live in her kind memory. I feel more & more deeply every day for the sad condition 1 Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Curtis's Buchanan, II. 588. of our Country. May the Almighty Governor of the World pardon the national sins & corruptions of this people, & restore the Constitution & the Union & perpetuate our civil & religious liberties! Without His interposition, I can see no determinate end to our troubles. My health is as good as usual. Ever your friend very respectfully HON: GEORGE G. LEIPER. JAMES BUCHANAN. MY DEAR SIR/ TO MR. FLINN.' WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, 12 July 1862. I have received your favor of the 10 Instant; & you will please to accept my thanks for the two missing numbers of the Globe & the Congressional Directory. Be good enough, also, to present my acknowledgments to Mr. Shiel for the Directory & say I appreciate it highly as a token of his regard. By the same Mail, I received a copy of the Blue Book under the frank of Mr. Hunter & directed in the handwriting of good Mr. Faherty. I presume you caused this to be sent; but whether or not, you need give yourself no further trouble in this matter. Miss Lane regrets very much that she was not at home during your visit; but hopes that it will not be long until you repeat it. I am glad to learn that Miss Jones has made so good a match. I hope her father may be prosperous & happy. I have not heard from him nor of him since a few days after you left Wheatland. I wish I had some news which might interest you. The suspense was dreadful whilst the fight was proceeding near 1 Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Curtis's Buchanan, II. 591. VOL. XI-18 |