I have received your favor of the 31st ultimo, directed to me as the Hon. James Buchanan, and not ex-President Buchanan, which I was glad to observe. In compliance with its request, I enclose you a check......

There are things in Mr. Seward’s letter to Lord Lyons which will furnish the British Government with a pretext to take offence, if they so desire. When we determined to swallow the bitter pill,[[178]] which I think was right, we ought to have done it gracefully and without pettifogging.

No notice seems to have been taken of the publication of Mr. Seward’s letter to Mr. Adams, of the 30th November. It may have been well to write this letter, but to publish it under the authority of the Government was unwise. It states: “I have never for a moment believed that such a recognition [of the Confederate States] could take place without producing immediately a war between the United States and all the recognizing powers. I have not supposed it possible that the British government could fail to see this,” etc., etc. This will be treated as an impotent threat, by that malignant anti-American journal, the Times, and possibly by a portion of the British people.

You may tell Judge Roosevelt that I have been no little astonished to find in the excellent Journal of Commerce articles to prove that the Federal Government possesses, under the Constitution, the power to issue a paper currency and to make it a legal tender; and this upon the principle that it has not been expressly prohibited. They seem to have lost sight of the great principle that Congress has no power except what is expressly granted or necessarily implied.[[179]] Mr. Webster did once darkly intimate on the floor of the Senate that Congress might authorize the issue of a paper currency, and whilst it was opposed by the entire Democratic party, it met no favor with the Whig party. Mr. Clay’s most strongly urged argument against the Independent Treasury was, that it might lead to a Government paper currency. I do not recollect that in my day it was ever claimed, even by the most violent consolidationist, that a creditor could be forced to take either the paper of the Bank of the United States or the Government, in payment of a debt. If the Judge has it convenient, I wish he would look at my speech in favor of the Independent Treasury, delivered in the Senate on 29th September, 1837......

Yours affectionately,

James Buchanan.

[MR. BUCHANAN TO JUDGE WOODWARD.]

Wheatland, September 5th, 1863.

Dear Sir:—

Until I received your note this morning, the fact that I had written to you in July last had not for weeks recurred to my memory. I expected no answer. I probably ought not to have written at all on the subject of the Conscription Law. Had I reflected for a moment that you were a Judge of the Supreme Court, as well as the Democratic candidate for Governor, I should have refrained. My abhorrence throughout life has been the mixing up of party politics with the administration of justice. I perceived that in New York the party were fast making the unconstitutionality of the Conscription Law the leading and prominent point in the canvass, and I wrote (I believe with good effect) to an able and influential friend, guarding him against it, and referring to Mr. Monroe’s opinion. At the same time it occurred to me that a word of caution to you confidentially, as a candidate, not as a Judge, might not be inappropriate.