Then the following conversation ensued:
Why not?
For many reasons. In the first place, I am satisfied where I am. I consider a seat in the Senate of the United States a position in which I can be more useful than in any other, and I believe it to be as honorable as any under the Government if its duties be efficiently and properly discharged. In the next place, I do not agree with the programme which has been marked out by those who refuse to support the candidacy of the President for reëlection. I am conscious of the need for many reforms, and I am daily striving to accomplish them. But I do not believe that a revolution of parties would be salutary. I do not believe that either the people of the North or of the South are ready to profit by such a change.
And why not?
Because the people of the South have really accepted nothing, and are not willing to coöperate with the Liberals of the North in settling the practical relations of society on a sure and generous basis. I know that the South has much to complain of. But so have the Liberal Republicans. It is not the rebel element, perhaps, but the nature of things, that the South should not realize the complete overthrow of the old order and the necessity for a complete change of the domestic policy. I believe that the defeat of General Grant would involve a reaction at the South whose consequences would be even worse than the present state of affairs.
Don't you think General Grant meditates the permanent usurpation of the Executive office?
No, I do not. My opinion is that General Grant is, in the main, a conservative man. He has made mistakes. But I cannot say they justify his removal.
What are your personal relations?
Very friendly. I have opposed some of his measures, but I have no personal feeling, and, indeed, this is one of the reasons why it is disagreeable to have my name mentioned in the connection you name.
The interview closed with the writer's assurance that the views of Senator Sumner coincided with those of Trumbull. A Washington letter in the Nation of December 28 said:
From what I see and hear, the conviction is forced upon me that there will be no lead given by men like Trumbull voluntarily. They may be forced by the Administration party into opposition, but they will go reluctantly and timidly.
Among the letters received by Trumbull at this time was the following from a man of high repute and influence in Ohio:
Columbus, December 15, 1871.
You may remember me sufficiently to know who I am and my position in Ohio. My special object in this writing is to congratulate you for your proper and patriotic position on the Retrenchment Resolution. Messrs. Morton, Sherman et al, are grievously mistaken as to the state of public sentiment in regard to the Administration and the President. I am bold to say that outside of the Grand Army of the Republic and the office-holders (an imperium in imperio), more than one half of the Republicans are intensely dissatisfied with General Grant. His indecent interference in Missouri and Louisiana, his disgusting nepotism, his indefensible course in regard to San Domingo, and his recent complimentary letter to Collector Murphy have produced the conviction that he is intellectually and morally unqualified for his present position. He will hear deep and alarming thunder before the Kalends of November, 1872.
Go forward with your associates, Schurz, Sumner, Patterson, and Tipton, in your exposure of the faults and frauds of the Administration, and the best class of Republicans will honor your magnanimity and patriotism. I know General Grant personally. I have not asked him for any favor. As Senatorial Elector I traversed the state, and advocated the Republican principles and policy, but I have the pleasant consciousness and delightful remembrance that I never eulogized General Grant nor recommended him as suitable for the place. As long as he is under the special superintendence of Morton, Chandler, and Cameron, he must necessarily deteriorate, as none of them has ever been suspected of having any profound sense of right or wrong.
Confidentially yours,
Sam'l Galloway.
Hon. Lyman Trumbull, U.S.S.