(Confidential.)
Washington, May 24, 1861.
My Dear Sir:—
I had the pleasure of receiving yours of the 21st inst. from the hands of Mr. Magraw. I had previously observed with pain notices in the public papers of your illness, and it is therefore with great gratification that I learn you are convalescing, though still confined to your room. I thank you sincerely for your kind invitation to visit Wheatland, and regret much that it is not in my power at once to do so. My engagements, however, are such that I cannot leave Washington for the present, though I hope to be able to see you in the course of the summer.
I would gladly give you any assistance in my power in the preparation of the paper to which you refer, but fear any aid I could render would be of little avail to you. I have preserved no memoranda of the transactions you propose to treat, and although my memory might be trusted as to their substance, it would in all probability be at fault in regard to their details. In reference to the latter, I would rather defer to your own recollection, or to that of other members of the cabinet. As a historical document, I concur with you that the preparation of such a document is a “necessity;” but I cannot perceive that there is any reason for haste in its completion, or any expediency in its early publication. The country is so completely occupied by the fearful and absorbing events occurring and impending, that you could not hope at present to engage its attention. Besides, from what I have observed in the public papers, I cannot discover that your administration is being so assailed upon the points alluded to as to require any elaborate vindication at your hands...... I suppose you have seen the prominent Southern papers—including Governor Floyd’s organ at Richmond—in which is set forth as his especial glory the aid given to the revolution by the War Department during the year 1860.
You have, I believe, copies of all of Major Anderson’s letters, and it may be copies, also, of a part of those received from Fort Pickens. As the fate of the latter fortress is still undetermined, I doubt if the Government would give copies of any correspondence in regard to it. Colonel Anderson’s letters and those to him from the Government, during my brief connection with the War Department, formed, I think, a sufficient defence of the policy pursued during that time.
...... I have had two brief but satisfactory interviews with Colonel Anderson. He is thoroughly loyal, and if he ever had any sympathy with the revolutionists, which I am now far from believing, I think the ferocious spirit in which the siege and cannonade of Sumter were conducted crushed it out of him. We did not discuss at all the policy of your administration in regard to Sumter, but he said in general terms that he was satisfied all that had occurred was providential—that the course pursued had been the means of fixing the eyes of the nation on Sumter, and of awakening to the last degree its anxieties for its fate: so that when it fell its fall proved the instrumentality of arousing the national enthusiasm and loyalty, as we now see them displayed in the eager rush to maintain the honor of the flag. The approval of his course, of which you speak, relates, I presume, to his defence of Sumter. I have not heard that the administration has expressed any formal censure of your policy.
Now that the South has begun an unprovoked and malignant war upon the United States, accompanied by an insolent threat of the capture of Washington, and with an open avowal that the only Southern right now insisted on is the right of dismembering the Republic, I am decidedly in favor of prosecuting the struggle until the citizens of the seceded States shall be made to obey the laws as we obey them. I believe it can be done. It will cost much blood and many millions of treasure, but, if it cost billions, the preservation of such a government would be well worth the expenditure.
With kind remembrances to Miss Lane, I am
Very sincerely your friend,