My health is in a great degree restored, but I recover strength slowly. My letter is so long that I shall not advert to the disastrous condition of our public affairs. Miss Lane unites with myself in cordial wishes for your health and prosperity, and with kindest regards to Mrs. Toucey.
Ever your friend,
James Buchanan.
[MR. TOUCEY TO MR. BUCHANAN.]
Hartford, July 31, 1861.
My Dear Sir:—
I have received your favor of the 20th. Senator Thomson took offence last winter because I refused to give his brother a command out of course in preference to his seniors, and although I think, from his more recent intercourse, that it has passed away, yet I am unwilling to make a request of him. The records of the Navy Department will show, that on the 24th of December, 1860, the sloop of war St. Louis, carrying twenty guns, was ordered from Vera Cruz to Pensacola; that on the 5th of January, 1861, the sloop of war Macedonia, carrying twenty-two guns, then at Portsmouth (N. H.), ready for sea, was ordered by telegraph to proceed to Pensacola; that on the 9th of January, 1861, the frigate Sabine, carrying fifty guns, was ordered from Vera Cruz to Pensacola; that the steam sloop of war Brooklyn, carrying twenty-five guns, was ordered to Pensacola with two companies of regular troops and a supply of military stores for Fort Pickens, and arrived there early in February; that the U. S. steamer Wyandotte, carrying five guns, was there doing effective service; that the armed storeship Relief was there doing good service, and was ordered to remain there; that the U. S. steamer Crusader, carrying eight guns, having gone from her cruising ground, on the coast of Cuba, to Pensacola for repairs, was ordered to proceed to Tortugas, and on the arrival of the troops sent there, to return immediately to Pensacola, and it being reported by the newspapers that she had arrived at New Orleans, she was, on the 10th of January, by telegraph to New Orleans, ordered to return immediately to Pensacola, where she would find her orders. The Relief left Pensacola with prisoners and the families of officers for New York in violation of her orders, for which her commander was tried and condemned by courtmartial. The Crusader missed her orders. When the Brooklyn, the Sabine, the Macedonian, the St. Louis, and the Wyandotte were lying before Pensacola, the force being larger than was necessary, the St. Louis, her term of service having expired, was ordered to New York. Whether her orders had reached her before the 4th of March, I am not able to say. At this time the home squadron consisted of the Powhatan, Sabine, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Pocahontas, Pawnee, Mohawk, Waterwitch, Wyandotte, Crusader, Cumberland, Macedonian and Relief. The sloop of war Plymouth, the practice ship, was at Norfolk in good condition. The U. S. steamer Anacosta was in commission at Washington. The frigate Constitution, having been thoroughly repaired, was anchored at Annapolis, in aid of the Naval Academy. The great steam-ships Colorado, Minnesota and Mississippi, at Boston, and the Wabash at New York, had been thoroughly repaired, and could put to sea in two weeks; the Merrimac, at Norfolk, in three weeks; the Roanoke, in dock at New York, in six weeks. Of the above vessels, fourteen are steamers, eight ships of the line; the Alabama, Virginia, Vermont, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Columbus and Pennsylvania, lying at the navy yards, had been, on the 1st of December last, recommended by the Department, in pursuance of the report of a board of naval officers, to be converted into steam frigates, but Congress did not make the necessary appropriation. The frigates Brandywine, Potomac, St. Lawrence, Columbia and Raritan were at the navy yards, and the same board of officers had recommended that when repaired they should be razeed and converted into sloops. The sloops of war Perry, Dale, Preble, Vincennes, Jamestown and Germantown had, within a few months, returned from their regular cruises on the coasts of Africa and South America and the East and West Indies, and were at the navy yards awaiting repairs. Congress had twice cut down the estimates of the Department for repairs a million dollars. Of the thirty-seven steam vessels in the navy, twenty had been added to it while I was at the head of the Department. While we had this force at home, the Mediterranean squadron consisted of but three vessels, the Susquehanna, Richmond and Iroquois; the Brazil squadron, of the Congress, Seminole and Pulaski; the East India squadron, of the Hartford, Saginaw, Dacotah and John Adams; the Pacific squadron, of the Lancaster, Cyane, St. Mary’s, Wyoming and Narragansett; the African squadron, of the San Jacinto, Constellation, Portsmouth, Mohican, Saratoga, Sumter and Mystic. The Niagara was on her way to carry home the Japanese ambassadors; the Vandalia to relieve the John Adams. I make this detailed statement that you may see that there is not the slightest ground for anxiety as to the course of your administration in reference to the naval force at Fort Pickens, in the home squadron, or in the foreign squadrons. I concur with Judge Black and others, that a publication at this time is not expedient, because it would provoke attack; because it would not be heard; because the best time for it is at the moment when the tide of public sentiment begins to ebb and to set in the opposite direction, which will inevitably soon take place. The public cannot fail to see that affairs have taken a downward direction with fatal velocity since the 4th of March, and that a series of measures could not have been devised more exactly adapted to divide the country and break the Government to pieces, than that which has been pursued by your successor.
Mrs. Toucey unites with me in presenting to yourself and to Miss Lane our most respectful regards.
Ever faithfully your friend,
I. Toucey.