Our One Common Country (48 page)

50.
Cox and Stuart visit Lincoln: Cox,
Three Decades,
p. 310.

51.
Cox visits Seward:
Id.,
pp. 310–11.

51.
Benjamin's letter to Slidell: Richardson, vol. 2, pp. 694–97; Nicolay and Hay, vol. 10, p. 155.

51.
Europe was not interested:
Richardson, vol. 2, p. 717.

51.
“some black-hearted artillery man”: History of Thirty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers
(Boston: Mills, Knight & Co., 1884) (“
35th Massachusetts
”), p. 318.

 

CHAPTER 8

52.
Lincoln's meeting with Blair and Blair's pass to Richmond:
CW,
vol. 8, pp. 188; Nicolay and Hay, vol. 10, p. 94; Stephens,
CV
, vol. 2, p. 600; Davis,
Rise and Fall,
vol. 2, p. 613; Rice
,
pp. 250–51.

52.
The president expected little: Id
.

52.
the rest of the Cabinet was not told:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, pp. 219 and 231–32.

52.
“indefinite understanding”:
G. P. Lathrop, “The Bailing of Jefferson Davis,” 33
The Century Magazine
(February 1887) (“Lathrop”), p. 640.

52.
Private
George Deutzer: Gould, p. 282.

53.
toothache and . . . weakness; guests . . . leftovers:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 364.

53.
The Blairs had struck a bargain:
See
New York Daily Tribune,
January 4, 1865;
Richmond Dispatch,
January 13, 1865, reprinted in
New York Times,
January 16, 1865;
Richmond Examiner,
January 6, 1865, reprinted in
New York Times,
January 11, 1865; Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 364.

53.
Departure on the
Baltimore:
Id.

53.
Jamestown: Hay Diary, p. 249.

53.
City Point: Horace Porter,
Campaigning with Grant
(New York: Century Co., 1897) (“Porter,
Grant
”), pp. 212–13; 233, 329–30, 368, 377, and 425; Hay Diary, p. 250; www.nps.gov/pete/historyculture/united-states-military-railroad.htm.

53.
Grant: Modern biographies include Jean Edward Smith,
Grant
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001) (“Smith,
Grant
”); William S. McFeely,
Grant: A Biography
(New York: Norton & Company, 1981) (“McFeely”); H. W. Brands,
The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
(New York: Doubleday, 2012); Geoffrey Perret,
Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier and President
(New York: The Modern Library, 1999) (“Perret”); and Brooks D. Simpson's two treatments,
Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822–1865
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000) and
Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861–1868
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991) (“Simpson,
Grant
”). Grant's memoirs are cogent and informative. Julia Grant's are also interesting. See also Ulysses S. Grant and John Y. Simon, ed.,
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1975) (“Grant Papers”).

53–54.
Dana's impressions of Grant: Charles A. Dana,
Recollections of the Civil War
(New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1898) (“Dana,
Recollections
”), p. 61; Charles A. Dana,
The Life of Ulysses S. Grant
(Springfield, MA: Gurdon Bill & Company, 1868) (“Dana,
Grant
”),
passim.

54.
Physical description of Grant: Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
p. 104; Dana,
Grant
, p. 403.

54.
“He talks bad grammar”:
Lyman, p. 156.

54.
“carved from mahogany”:
Benjamin Perley Poore,
Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis,
2 vols. (Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1886) (“Poore”) vol. 2, p. 150.

54.
blue-gray eyes, lion's eyes:
Dana,
Grant
, p. 403.

54.
“blushed like a girl”:
Badeau, vol. 3, p. 142.

54.
“no noise or clash”:
Dana,
Grant,
pp. 403–04.

54.
Now he welcomed the Blairs; awed by the might:
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
pp. 459–60.

54.
had [the letters] sent up the James immediately:
See Davis,
Rise and Fall,
vol. 2, p. 612.

54.
The letters: Both letters are in Rowland, vol. 6, pp. 432–33.

55.
Both letters reached Davis that day: See Davis,
Rise and Fall,
vol. 2, p. 612.

55.
Davis's memoirs mischaracterize them:
Id.

55.
a blustery New Year's Eve:
35th Massachusetts,
p. 318.

55.
Seddon's letter to Blair: Blair Family Papers, Library of Congress; Crist, vol. 11, p. 320 n. 3.

55.
word got around the War Department:
Kean, pp. 185–86.

55.
Late on New Year's Day:
Howard C. Westwood, “Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference,” 81
Lincoln Herald
(Winter 1979) (“Westwood, ‘Hampton Roads Conference' ”), p. 244; Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 221.

55.
Preston had left for home:
Grant Papers, vol. 13, pp. 209–10;
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
p. 459.

55.
“very pleasant trip”; “in the finest spirits possible”: Id.

56.
“Affairs are gloomy enough”:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 373.

56.
rumors of Blair's journey were afoot:
Cox,
Three Decades,
p. 330; Kean, pp. 185–86;
New York Daily Tribune,
February 2, 1865.

56.
“without the knowledge of high officials”: New York Times,
January 2, 1865.

56.
“Old Mr. Blair” sitting in an adjoining room:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 219.

56.
His appointment with the President was canceled
:
Davis,
Rise and Fall,
p. 613; Crist, vol. 11, pp. 316 and 320 n. 3.

56.
Blair had already briefed Horace Greeley:
See
New York Daily Tribune,
January 4, 1865, and
Congressional Globe,
January 5, p. 125.

56.
Suspicion of Stanton: See
Id.

56.
Montgomery's review of Stanton: Hendrick,
Lincoln's War Cabinet,
pp. 259–60.

56.
others had come to his attention:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 158 n. 1; Dana,
Recollections,
pp. 231–32.

56.
Article in the
Tribune: New York Daily Tribune,
January 4, 1865, quoted in
Congressional Globe,
January 5, 1865, p. 125.

56.
By the time the story ran:
Grant's Papers, vol. 13, p. 209;
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
p. 460 n. 3, Davis,
Rise and Fall,
vol. 2, p. 612.

56.
Greeley duly ate crow in the
Tribune:
New York Daily Tribune
,
January 7, 1865.

57.
“Father sets out tomorrow”:
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
p. 460, n. 3.

57.
Fox's wire to Grant:
OR
ser. 1, vol. 46, part 2, p. 29.

57.
Fox had arranged to send: Id.,
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 221.

57.
“a diligent search” had found him: OR
ser. 1, vol. 46, part 2, p. 30; John L. Johnson,
The University Memorial
(Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, 1871), pp. 673–75.

58.
“propagators of the truth”: New York Times,
January 5, 1865.

58.
galleries were filled:
Brooks,
Washington in Lincoln's Time,
pp. 204–12.

58.
“devoid of music”:
Schurz, vol. 3, p. 214.

58.
“the ablest man”:
Brooks,
Washington in Lincoln's Time,
p. 17.

58.
Stevens as demonic: George M. Drake, July 24, 1867, editorial in Alabama's
Union Springs Times,
quoted in Brodie,
Thaddeus Stevens,
p. 18.

58.
Greeley and Blair admitted to the floor
:
Congressional Globe,
January 5, 1865, p. 125.

58.
“as though each one weighed a ton”:
Brooks,
Washington in Lincoln's Time
, p. 17.

58.
Stevens's speech:
Congressional Globe
, January 5, 1865, p. 124.

59–60.
Stevens's exchange with Cox:
Id.,
pp. 124–25.

 

CHAPTER 9

This chapter and much else in this book rely heavily on the most recent and best biography of Alexander Stephens, Thomas E. Schott's
Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987) (“Schott”). Also helpful is Rudolph R. Von Abele's
Alexander H. Stephens: A Biography
(New York: Knopf, 1946) (“Von Abele”). Stephens writes about his life and career in Stephens,
CV,
and in Myrta Lockett Avary,
Recollections of Alexander Stephens
(New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1910) (“Avary,
Recollections
”). Stephens's contemporary biographers were reverential friends, but they provide informative letters, speeches, and insights: Richard M. Johnston and William H. Browne,
Life of Alexander Stephens
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1884) (“Johnston and Browne”); and Henry Cleveland,
Alexander Stephens, in Public and Private, with Letters and Speeches, before, during, and since the War
(Philadelphia: National Publishing Co., 1866) (“Cleveland”). Useful articles include John R. Brumgardt, “The Confederate Career of Alexander H. Stephens: The Case Reopened,” 27
Civil War History
(March 1981), pp. 64–81, and James Z. Rabun, “Alexander H. Stephens and Jefferson Davis,” 58
The American Historical Review
(January 1953) (“Rabun”), pp. 290–321. Stephens's papers are in the Library of Congress, and in the libraries of Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart (“Manhattanville Library”), Emory University, Duke University, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

61.
Lincoln's letter to his partner: William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik,
Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life
(New York: D. Appleton, 1917) (“Herndon and Weik”), p. 268.

61.
Lincoln and Stephens on the Mexican War: Dirck, pp. 103–07; Von Abele, p. 102.

61.
Young Indians:
Isaac Newton Arnold,
The Life of Abraham Lincoln
(Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co., 1885) (“Arnold”), pp. 77–78, quoting Stephens. See Donald, pp. 126–27.

62.
never weighed as much as a hundred pounds:
Schott, p. 21. See Avary,
Recollections,
p. 46.

62.
called him Little Alec:
Schott, p. 20.

62.
“refugee from a graveyard”:
Von Abele, p. 203.

62.
Ailments and afflictions: Schott, pp. 20–21; Von Abele, pp. 66, 69–70, 77, 120, and 136.

62.
“two weeks' purchase on life”:
Robert Toombs, quoted in Avary,
Recollections,
p. 46.

62.
may have been an alcoholic:
Schott,
Stephens,
p. 21.

62.
“shrill but musical”: Id.,
p. 88.

62.
“cease to be annoyed”:
Quoted in Cleveland, p. 102.

63.
“only feel that he is right”: Id.,
p. 32.

63.
The Senate's great men: Id.,
p. 103.

63.
“anterior to the war”:
Stephens,
CV,
vol. 2, p. 266.

63.
“suffered from a look”:
Quoted in Von Abele, p. 135.

63.
If Rembrandt could only paint him:
Quoted in Cleveland, p. 112.

63.
a well-preserved mummy:
Schott, p. 213.

63.
“lizards and watches”:
Avary,
Recollections,
pp. 232–33.

63.
lonely, self-pitying man:
Von Abele, pp. 76, 120, and 135–36.

63.
“I have borne it all my life”:
Hendrick,
Statesmen of the Lost Cause,
p. 60.

63.
“half-finished thing”:
Schott, p. 20.

63.
taking comfort in his rectitude: Id.,
p. 134.

64.
“political filth”:
Von Abele, p. 89.

64.
“proud, independent, unyielding”:
Id.,
p. 73.

64.
Encounter with Judge Cone:
Id.,
pp. 110–15; Cleveland, pp. 88–90; and Schott, pp. 91–93.