“I was disappointed in Mr. Bennett’s fulfilment of his promise to speak in Mr. Clay’s behalf in the Herald,” ran a second letter from our friend. “A few incidental expressions of opinion and a communication published did not come up to my expectations. If you feel disposed to write, Mrs. Bennett is the channel by which to reach him. She told me she sympathised with the South in her feelings, and admired Southerners.... In failing to deal with the case as you present it, the President must be very feeble in the article of nerve, touching his War Secretary and other Radical adversaries. Yet the widow prevailed with the unjust Judge, and I trust your importunity may weary the cautious Tennesseean into decided steps for Mr. Clay’s release!
“Yours, etc.,
“R. Barnwell Rhett.”
Early in the month of February two important letters reached me through Mr. R. J. Haldeman. They were addressed to the President, and bore the signature of Thaddeus Stevens and R. J. Walker, respectively. Since my letter addressed to him in May, 1865, Mr. Haldeman’s efforts had been unremitting to interest in my husband’s behalf those whose recommendations were likely to have most weight with the President and his advisers. He now wrote me as follows:
“Mrs. C. C. Clay, Jr.
“My Dear Madam: I inclose you a very handsome letter from the Honourable R. J. Walker to the President. I also sent you the letter of Mr. Stevens, which has become of some importance in view of Mr. Stevens’s recent utterances. Mr. Walker considers it of the highest importance, and wonders how I obtained it.
“After seeing you, I called on Mr. S—— in reference to the proposed visit (to you), but found him brooding over the violent speech which he has since made. I did not therefore deem it prudent to insist upon the performance of his promise, and am confirmed in my judgment by events.
“During the day I heard something which convinced me the President would not then act. This I could not bring myself to tell you, and therefore obeyed a hasty summons to New York by an unceremonious departure from Washington. As the future unfolds, I hope to be again at Washington, and at the propitious moment. I hope you will keep up your good spirits, for, upon the faith of a somewhat phlegmatic and never over-sanguine Dutchman, I think the period of Mr. Clay’s release approaches rapidly.... Mr. Walker, however, desires me to say to you that ‘as we must all go to Clay at last, why not go at once?’ I think this pointed witticism would bear repetition to the President. I am, very respectfully, Madam,
Yours,
“February 3, 1866.
“R. J. Haldeman.”
As I had done in the case of General Grant’s letter, I now hastened to send to the President the letters from Thaddeus Stevens and Judge Walker, both of whom recommended the prompt release of Mr. Clay. The letter from R. J. Walker was what might have been expected from an old friend of Mr. Clay’s; that from Mr. Stevens, the most radical of Radicals, was a source of some astonishment. It was not the only surprise of those weeks, however.
“I have had strange visitors lately,” I wrote to father. “Some extremists of the Radical party have called upon me to assure me of their belief in my husband’s innocence!” And in my diary of the 14th of that fateful February, I find entered: “When will wonders cease? Who but the Honourable Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, has called, and voluntarily, to say he will do anything in his power for me or Mr. Clay; knows he is innocent; believes Mr. Davis to be also innocent! It is the goodness of God!”
The circumstances of Mr. Wilson’s unexpected visit were altogether dramatic. I was seated at the dinner-table with the family of Mrs. Parker, when, it being still early in the evening, a visitor was announced who declined to give his name or the purpose for which he had called.
“Tell Mrs. Clay that a friend wishes to see her,” was his message. A sudden remembrance flashed over me, and, indeed, over the friends around me, of the secret warning I had received just after my arrival in Washington, viz.: that I must be on my guard against strange visitors. After a few moments’ consultation with the family, I decided to see the stranger. Doctor Maury, Mrs. Parker’s son-in-law (who had been Chief of Staff on General Longstreet’s medical staff, and was a brave and charming man), accompanied me to the drawing-room door, encouraging me by telling me to have no fear, as he would remain near by. As I entered the room the Doctor drew back into the hall. He was prepared, he assured me, for any emergency.
Great, indeed, was my astonishment upon entering, to see, rising to meet me, Senator Wilson, Vice-President of the United States! To that moment I had had no acquaintance with the Massachusetts Senator, though I had seen him often on the floor of the Senate. Though seized with an inward panic of apprehension that he was the bearer of some dreadful tidings, I took the proffered hand of my strange visitor, obeying mechanically an instinct of responsive courtesy. For a moment, however, fear made me speechless. At last, Mr. Wilson broke the painful silence.