Your letter of July 28th, which I have but just now received, calls my attention to a statement published in the London Observer, over the signature of T. W. I am asked if the occurrence, there said to have taken place at a cabinet council in February, 1861, is true or not, and you desire me to inform you of the precise circumstances attending the action of Mr. Buchanan’s cabinet at the time of the transaction referred to.

The latter part of this request is more than I can comply with at present. All the circumstances set out with precision would, I suppose, fill a moderate sized volume; and anything short of a full account would probably do wrong to the subject. Besides, I am not convinced that the truth would be received now with public favor, or even with toleration. The time when justice shall be done draws near, but is not yet.

But the story you transcribe from the London paper is wholly fictitious. Major Anderson passed his garrison to Fort Sumter, not in February, 1861, but in December, 1860. General Dix was not then a member of the cabinet...... The real cause of Floyd’s retirement from office had no connection with that affair.[[169]] Mr. Stanton made no such speech as that put into his mouth by T. W., or any other speech inconsistent with the most perfect respect for all his colleagues and for the President. Neither Mr. Stanton nor Mr. Holt ever spoke to the President about resigning, upon any contingency whatever, before the incoming of the new administration.

I am, with great respect, yours,

J. S. Black.

For many years, the source from which Mr. Weed received any part whatever of this story, remained shrouded in mystery. Judge Black at one time had traced it to Colonel George W. McCook, of Ohio; and he received from that gentleman a qualified promise to make known, at a future period, the source from which he (Colonel McCook) derived his information. But Colonel McCook was, at the time he gave this promise, about to become a Republican candidate for the office of Governor of Ohio. He lost the election, and died soon after. It was not until I began to write the present work that I learned, from a gentleman now residing in Philadelphia, Mr. George Plumer Smith, who Mr. Weed’s informant was, and how Mr. Weed became possessed of a story which he repeated in print, with some variation and a great deal of inaccuracy. Mr. Smith furnished to me in February, 1882, the following statement, and authorized me to make use of it:

STATEMENT.

In October, 1861, while at Willard’s Hotel, in Washington, I met an old friend, Colonel George W. McCook, of Steubenville, Ohio, where I had known him as partner in law practice with Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, whom, also, I knew while in Ohio, and afterwards in Pittsburgh, where I was a merchant.

Colonel McCook and I had many conversations about the outlook then of affairs, and we agreed that history might yet with us repeat itself, and possible catastrophes make demand for a leader who, by the will of the loyal people, would be called to assume powers outside the Constitution. And we both agreed that, in such dire contingency, Mr. Stanton would be the man.

The Colonel then, with the dramatic gesture and forcible language which his surviving friends would recall, told me of the scene in the cabinet when Governor Floyd overshot himself in his demands on Mr. Buchanan, etc., and of Mr. Stanton’s lead in demanding Secretary Floyd’s dismissal, etc., etc., which account I readily believed authentic, and treasured it in my memory.