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LETTERS
AND EECOLLECTIONS

JOHN MURRAY FORBES

EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER

SARAH FORBES HUGHES

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. H.

^eJEKtergiOegre^

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

1899

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

CHAPTER XIV

MISSION TO ENGLAND

Raising negro regiments, February, 1863. — More trouble
with Great Britain. — The Laird rams. — Summoned to
New York by Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy. —
Drafts instructions to himself and W. H. Aspinwall,
signed by Secretary of the Navy. — Undertakes mission
to England, and leaves by next steamer. — Ten million
dollars in 5-20's intrusted to self and colleague. — Five
hundred thousand pounds borrowed from Barings for
account of United States government. — Friends' leaders
approached. — Difficulties in London caused by Chancel-
lorsville. — Correspondence with "Washington officials. —
Letter from Mrs. Fanny Kemble 1

CHAPTER XV

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS

Trip to the Rhine, June, 1863. — Return to London via
Paris. — Friends, acquaintances, and dinner parties in
London. — Trip to Aldershot. — Debate in the House of
Commons. — Unexpected sympathy. — Letter to Mrs.
N. J. Senior. — More correspondence with Washington
officials. — Landing in New York with six million dollars
in trunks on the eve of the draft riots. — Safe at Brevoort
House. — Letters from Mrs. Fanny Kemble, John Bright,
and Joshua Bates. — Letter to Thomas Baring. — Letter
from C. F. Adams on the rams. — Letters to Charles
Sumner and William Rathbone, Jr., on the critical situa-
tion. — Letter to Joshua Bates. — Letter from Gideon
Welles, closing mission to England 28

iv CONTENTS OF VOLUME H

CHAPTER XVI

THE COLORED TROOPS

Death of Robert Shaw. — Work in aid of enlistment of
colored men. — Letter from Secretary of War. — Mr.
Philbrick's work in education of the negroes on Sea
Islands. — Building of S. S. Meteor begun (autumn
1863). — Improvement after appointment of General
Grant. — Military affairs. — Letter to President on
" true issue of existing struggle." — Correspondence with
W. Evans on his interview with the President. — Ex-
change of prisoners ; guns. — Letters from England. —
Pay of colored troops ; letter to W. P. Fessenden, and
from C. B. Sedgwick, on subject. — Correspondence with
Sumner, Adams, and Sedgwick on the situation. —
Shakspere festival ; letter from Emerson. — Proposed
postponement of presidential campaign ; letter to G. W.
Curtis. — Prompt action after Lincoln's nomination. —
Laird rams bought by English government; letters
from W. Rathbone 67

CHAPTER XVII

THE SUMMER OP 1864

Enrolment bill, July, 1864. — Son William taken prisoner.

— War prospects brightening. — Letter to W. P. Fes-
senden on blockade. — Presidential campaign depressing ;
letters from Sedgwick and Bryant. — Niagara Falls con-
ference. — Stirring letter to Fox laid before the Presi-
dent. — Work prior to Cooper Union public meeting. —
Prospects of political campaign brightening ; letter from
Sedgwick. — Meeting at Naushon of Goldwin Smith,
Emerson, and others. — Extract from Emerson's diary.

— Letter from Adams. — Death of Charles Russell
Lowell ; his life and character. — Appointment of Bige-
low as Minister to France. — Correspondence with Fes-
senden on Secretaryship of the Treasury 96

CONTENTS OP VOLUME II v

CHAPTER XVHI

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON

Winter In Washington, 1864-65. — Dust and mud. — Story
of rebel spy. — Public finance ; letter from Thomas
Baring. — Strained relations with England ; letter from
Goldwin Smith. — Thirteenth Amendment passed. —
Advocacy of opening of Southern ports. — Correspond-
ence with Governor Andrew on his plans. — Trips down
the Potomac ; to Cuba and Fort Sumter ; raising of the
Union flag. — Death of Lincoln. — Correspondence with
Gustave de Beaumont. — Grand review. — Return to
Milton. — Correspondence with McCulloch, Secretary of
the Treasury, and with N. M. Beckwith, on public
affairs. — Letters from Gustave de Beaumont, John
Bright, and Goldwin Smith. — Fastest railroad trip on
record to date, October, 1865 125

CHAPTER XIX

AFTER THE WAR

Public work, 1865 to 1868. — Correspondence with Wen-
dell Phillips on true democracy. — Mission of Assistant
Secretary of the Navy to Russia. — Troublesome history
of the Meteor. — Death of Governor Andrew ; last
letter from him ; letter from Martin Brimmer. — Corre-
spondence with W. P. Fessenden. — Seward's retire-
ment from office, 1868. — Work on Alabama claims ;
letter to Mrs. N. J. Senior. — Trip to the Azores. — Let-
ter to Hamilton Fish on Fayal consulate. — Letters
from R. W. Emerson on trips to White Mountains and
California. — Letter from Florida. — Presidential cam-
paign of 1872. — Letter to Sumner deprecating his
support of Greeley 155

vi CONTENTS OF VOLUME H

CHAPTER XX

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS. — RAILROADS

General Grant's second term ; letter to him on collector-
ship of Boston. — Need of civil service reform. —
Opposition to Grant's third term. — Speech at Faneuil
Hall after Hayes's nomination, autumn 1876. — Pro-
gress of political corruption. — Death of European cor-
respondents. — Letter from Thomas Hughes. — Garfield
campaign, autumn 1880. — Disgust at trickery of politi-
cal managers. — Stand for proper use of campaign funds ;
paper on this subject. — State politics. — General But-
ler's election as governor of Massachusetts, 1882. —
Fight against him successful in following year. — Death
of Gustavus Fox, 1883. — Retirement from Republican
party on Blaine's nomination in 1884. — Letter to chair-
man of the Independents. — Letter from Judge Hoar.

— Railroad management. — Chairman of directors of
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad till death . . 184

CHAPTER XXI

LAST TEARS

Letter to Henry Lee. — Revived interest in ships. — In-
terest in preserving life at sea ; anecdote of his brother,
R. B. Forbes. — Advocacy of " free ships ; " letter from
William Rathbone. — Interest in Russell & Co. and
Baring Brothers. — Lessening activity in public affairs.

— " Old Scrap Book." — Letters from J. G. Whittier
and Mrs. Fanny Kemble. — Pleasant relations with
former political allies ; letters from Judge Hoar. — Tree-
planting and yacht-building ; the Wild Duck ; letter
from Mrs. Fanny Kemble. — Contrivances for horseback
riding ; active habits and continued interest in others in
old age. — Trip to Norfolk in Wild Duck. Last holiday
time at Naushon. — Increasing weakness. — Leaving the

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II vii

island for the last time. — Death in Milton, October 12,
1898 218

APPENDIX

Resolutions passed by Board of Directors of the Chicago,

Burlington and Quincy Railroad 239

Paper on Seward's policy 240

Index 245

ILLUSTRATIONS

John M. Forbes ...... Frontispiece

From a photograph by Allen and Rowell in 1881.
Fac-simile of Instructions from the Secretary of the

Navy, March, 1863 6

John M. Forbes 184

From a photograph on horseback, 1874.
Map illustrating the Beginning and Growth of the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, 1856-1898 212

LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS

JOHN MURRAY FORBES
CHAPTER XIV

MISSION TO ENGLAND

My father had now entered on the year which
was to bring to the country the high-water mark o£
the war, and to him the climax of his life as a pri-
vate citizen doing public work. On February 16,
1863, he writes to Mr. Sedgwick in Washington : —

" You have piped and I have not danced ; you
have called and I have not come, though my trunk
has been packed for ten days. Now I am busy,
besides the Second Cavalry, in raising a negro regi-
ment (see circular), also in raising a Union Club, and
in various other little ways ; but the Second Massa-
chusetts and its young captain will not get off for
some six weeks yet (probably), and if you think I
can do any good, by coming on, towards pushing
up members for any of the great measures of the
session, such as I regard the Missouri bill,1 I will

1 Abolishing slavery in Missouri and compensating loyal owners.

VOL. H.

2 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

come almost any day upon getting a telegram or
letter from you."

There is.no intimation whether or not any jour-
ney was made to Washington at this time. Such
trips were so frequent as to attract little attention ;
and all smaller affairs were thrown into the shade
by his unexpected voyage to England in the follow-
ing month.

As the letters to Mr. Senior and others will have
shown, what may be called an ugly feeling had
been growing up between England and America.
From the breaking away of the thirteen colonies, a
certain still disdain had marked the attitude of the
upper classes of the mother country for all that
could be called "Yankee." They were not pleased
at the material success of a Republic ; and, as to its
manners, writers from their class traveling in the
New World found all their prepossessions verified,
and said so in print ; to be answered, on our side,
by the jeers of angry and foolish writers, or by
things of a very different sort, such as Mr. Lowell's
delightful article, " On a Certain Condescension in
Foreigners."

On the other hand, these English travelers found
some manna in the wilderness ; e. g. in life as they
saw it in the houses of the large slave-owners of the
Southern States. These Southern men, the richer
of whom were educated abroad or at the North,
had sometimes an air of authority and a surface
of refinement which pleased their visitors. They
belonged to a ruling class here, and natural affinity

MISSION TO ENGLAND 3

drew them to the ruling class in England. They
feted the English guest ; he was passed on from one
great plantation to another, found his hosts delight-
ful, and slavery the only possible condition for the
negro; and in due course rose-colored pictures of
the planter's life appeared in the London " Times,"
and in books of travel.

Then came the rebellion of the Southern States ;
and just when the sympathy of the English people
with an anti-slavery cause might be called on to
offset the prejudices of which I have spoken, and
those of the merchant and manufacturer threatened
with a cotton famine, Mr. Seward announced, in
effect, that slavery had nothing to do with secession.

Looking back now, the wonder seems to be that
Bright, Cobden, and other liberals should have seen
clearly the real question at issue, and that the Lan-
cashire and Yorkshire mechanics, the worst suf-
ferers by the cotton famine, should have backed
them up in their stanch support of the Union cause
from beginning to end of the war.

It was no wonder that the " upper classes " in
England should have closed their eyes to the real
significance of the fact that the slave States were
ranged on one side and the free States on the other,
and should have accepted as gospel what our Secre-
tary of State gave out to the world. Nor was it
surprising that the government should have winked
at the fitting out of the Alabama from an English
port to prey upon " Yankee " commerce. But the
time had now come when this willful blindness

4 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

seemed likely to lead to an even more serious injury.
The British ministry were refusing to see what was
patent to all the rest of the world, that the two iron-
clad rams nearly completed at the Lairds' yard in
Liverpool were meant for the Confederate States,
and that if they or any similar craft were allowed
to get out and raise the blockade of the Southern
ports, it meant war between the two countries. The
gravity of the crisis, however, was fully apparent
to the government in Washington ; and so it came
about that my father, together with his old friend,
Mr. W. H. Aspinwall, who had joined him in plan-
ning the relief of Fort Sumter at the beginning of
the war, was sent to England charged with a mission,
on the careful conduct of which might depend the
preservation of peace between England and America.
It was a serious matter for him ; his whole heart was
in the strife at home, and as it turned out he must
absent himself from the first wedding among his
children.1 His first intimation of what was to come
was given in the following telegram from the Secre-
tary of the Treasury : —

New York, March 14, 1863.

To John M. Forbes, Boston, Mass. :

Oblige me by coming to New York, Fifth Avenue
Hotel, to-night. I desire to confer with you on
important business immediately. Answer.

S. P. Chase.

1 Mary Hathaway Forbes married Henry Sturgis Russell, colonel
of the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, May 6, 1863.

MISSION TO ENGLAND 5

This was received by him at Milton early on the
same (Saturday) morning. Though not well at
the time, he could not refuse such a request; he
telegraphed a simple " Yes," and the next morning
met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel Mr. Chase, Mr.
Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, who had come
up with him from Washington for the interview,
and his old friend, Mr. Aspinwall.

The Secretaries wished my father to go at once to
England, and Mr. Aspinwall to follow him with ten
millions of 5-20 government bonds, which were just
being prepared for issue to the public, so soon as
this amount of them could be countersigned. With
the proceeds they were, if possible, to stop the outfit
of Confederate cruisers, and especially of the iron-
clad rams.

They agreed to go, and were asked to draw up
their own instructions for Mr. Welles's signature,
which my father proceeded to do as follows : * —

New York, March 16, 1863.

Mem0. Instructions from the Navy Department
to Messrs. W. H. Aspinwall and J. M. Forbes.

You will receive credits from the Treasury De-
partment, which will enable you to use for the pur-
poses of these orders £1,000,000 sterling. This,
or any part of it, you will use at your discretion, to
buy any vessels, or a majority interest therein, built

1 I give a facsimile of the original document, in my father's hand-
writing, with the Secretary's signature and his own and Mr. Aspin-
wall's initials attached.

6 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

or building in England or elsewhere, for war pur-
poses. Your first object will be to secure such
vessels as are most likely to be used by the insur-
gents and to be most dangerous in their hands.
Your next object will be to get such as will be most
useful to us, whenever it becomes possible and ex-
pedient to get them to some home port or friendly
port where we can get possession of them. If in
your opinion clearly expedient, you may send such
vessels to such points, but you will endeavor to
avoid establishing a precedent that may embarrass
our minister when urging the British government to
stop the sailing of vessels belonging to the rebels.

You will note that there may be vessels building,
which, without being perfectly adapted to war pur-
poses, are still so fast and have such capacity for a
moderate armament, that they threaten to become
dangerous to our commerce. In such cases, you
must use your best judgment as to purchasing any
of them. It may in some cases be expedient to
secure a majority interest or a lien upon vessels
instead of buying the whole, provided you feel sure
that you can thus prevent their being fitted out by
the rebels.

You may also be obliged to hold your title to
all the vessels by a lien. Our main object is to
prevent the rebels using these vessels, rather than
the expectation of getting much valuable service
from the vessels at present.

You will use your discretion as to how long you
will pursue this experiment, and will relinquish it

6 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

You will use your discretion as to how long you
will pursue this experiment, and will relinquish it

[Facsimile of Instructions from the Secretary of He jVazy.]

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MISSION TO ENGLAND 7

whenever you think no further good likely to come
of it, or when directed by the Navy Department.

You will have letters of introduction to the con-
suls at Liverpool and London, and will get every
information from them, but will finally use your
own judgment upon the merits of each case.

Gideon Welles, Secretary.

J. M. F.

W. H. A.

Then, under the same date, comes a formal letter
to them, also signed by Mr. Welles, inclosing one
to Messrs. Baring Bros, from Mr. Chase, advising
them of Messrs. W. H. Aspinwall and J. M. Forbes's
authority to arrange with them for the loan of a
million sterling, on security of the ten million dol-
lars 5-20 bonds ; referring to instructions and sug-
gesting that Messrs. Aspinwall and Forbes should
confer on their arrival in England with the United
States consuls at Liverpool and London.

My father writes in his notes, " The whole thing
was so sudden that, as I find from files of that
period, I had, on the eve of my departure, to settle
by telegraph to San Francisco the details of the
shipment of Massachusetts men recruited in Cali-
fornia which I had undertaken to arrange."

He left by the next Wednesday's steamer, on
March 18, from Boston. On arrival in England,
his first visit, after that to Consul Dudley, was to
Mr. William Rathbone, then the junior of that
name, but now the senior, in a direct line of seven

8 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

William Rathbones, who have succeeded each other
as merchants and public men in that city. He
had met my father years before in America and
now received him warmly, and was found by him
" full of the soundest views as to the interest and
duty of the British government to put down the
outfitting of cruisers against us." He was also
welcomed by Mr. Dudley, whom he found to be
an abolitionist and enthusiast, and of whom he
writes, " He of course told me all he had done in
the way of espial 1 and all he wanted to do ; and
after giving him some small help for immediate use,
and discussing the plans for future operations, when
Aspinwall with his expert captain and larger funds
should arrive, I passed on to London. . . . My
first visit was to my good friend Joshua Bates,
the American partner of Baring Bros. & Co., who,
with Tom Baring, ruled the house. The primitive
methods of these elder partners were very striking.
In their inner den, at Bishopsgate Street, each
wrote and pressed his important private letters with
great care and labor. From policy I gave them (as
they wished) a very limited sketch of my plans.
They were already the financial agents of the
United States, but this limited them to small dis-
bursements, and perhaps credits and salaries of
consuls, and other such outlays; and when I sug-
gested, as a first want, that they should put at my
disposal £500,000, for which they were to have

1 Made necessary by Lord John Russell's dictum that positive
proof must be furnished before his government would interfere. — Ed.

MISSION TO ENGLAND 9

perhaps $4,000,000 of 5-20's as security, it required
some consideration. The terms and methods were
written out in private conclave by the two seniors,
and I left them to go and look up our minister,
Charles Francis Adams. . . . He wanted to know
only what was absolutely necessary of our mission,
so that he might not be mixed up with our opera-
tions, which we knew might not be exactly what a
diplomat would care to indorse. I found Mr. Adams
in much the same condition as Consul Dudley, — his
pecuniary advances stretched as far as he dared to
go j and he warmly rejoiced in having us to stand
behind the consuls in their operations. He was
very gracious and threw open his house to me on
all occasions during my stay."

Of what happened on his return to the Barings'
office my father writes : —

"Mr. Bates was the best of Americans and he
was always for the strongest measures. His con-
sultation with Mr. Baring resulted in their handing
me a bank book with £500,000 at my credit, sub-
ject to cash draft, and so when Aspinwall arrived,
a week later, our finances were all right, and he
deposited the 5-20's in Baring's vaults, part as se-
curity for the money and the rest subject to our
orders."

And the notes continue : —

" Coming off in a hurry, I had still had time
to send, through my wife and others, and get cre-
dentials to the English Quakers (more properly
' Friends '), whose May meetings were to take place

10 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

in London and whose help it was considered ne-
cessary to invoke in the interests of peace. In due
time a large batch of introductions reached me, and
I spent about a week, early in May, dancing attend-
ance upon our broad-brimmed friends."

He then tells of his having addressed the follow-
ing letter to Joseph Pease, president, and Joseph
Bevan Braithwaite and Robert Forster, members of
the Peace Society and leaders among the Friends : —

London, May 26, 1863.

Gentlemen, — My purpose in asking introduc-
tions to Friends in this country was to bring to
your attention the danger of hostile relations, and
even of war, between our two kindred nations, and
to beg you to apply your accustomed practical wis-
dom to finding means of averting the evil.

You are already aware of the serious although
smaller evil which has been made public, namely : —

Swift steamers have been fitted out in your ports,
manned by your own seamen, with a full knowledge
of the warlike objects of the voyage, but not at first
armed with cannon. Another British vessel, with
guns and ammunition, and additional men, meets
them on your coast, or in some neighboring port,
and in a few days they commence the destruction of
American ships — often laden with British property.

The Law of Nations is necessarily indefinite ; but
it is generally held, that no armed ship becomes a
legal cruiser until she has received her commission
in one of the ports of the power which authorizes

MISSION TO ENGLAND 11

her warlike proceedings ; and even then, that she
cannot condemn her prizes until each case has been
adjudicated before a court of law. Notwithstand-
ing the illegality of the proceedings of these cruis-
ers, your government has not stopped their course
of destruction, and they are afforded the hospitali-
ties of your colonial ports, without which their
career of mischief would soon terminate. Judging
of the future by the past, and also by the informa-
tion which I receive from authentic sources, there
is no doubt that other similar expeditions are in
course of preparation ; and that from time to time
the course of irritation will be continued, by which
the slaveholders and their agents hope to produce a
war between our country and yours. This is proba-
bly their object, rather than the mere destruction
of property. Thanks to Bright, and Forster, and
Cobden, and Monckton Milnes, and other noble
spirits, in Parliament and out of it, a marked im-
provement has taken place in public opinion, which
has strengthened your government in its efforts to
prevent further expeditions ; but the work is only
half done ; the danger is still great. Now we all
hope that peace may, through the efforts of good
and wise men on both sides of the water, be kept
between us, in spite of these expeditions.

Another consideration has great weight, namely,
if your government practically establish the pre-
cedent that a neutral may evade the technicalities
of a Foreign Enlistment Act, and that vessels so
evading the local law may at once become legal

12 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

cruisers, entitled to capture enemies' property and
dispose of it without adjudication, your next war
after we are at peace will probably see the ocean
covered with foreign-built cruisers, who will do, on
a larger scale, against your rich commerce exactly
what the Alabama is now doing ; and will at the
same time give an impetus to commerce, under our
neutral flag, far greater than that with which your
shipowners are now bribed. When that evil day
comes, you will go to war for the protection of your
commerce.

I have thus far only mentioned the lesser danger ;
but a far greater one threatens us.

By the inclosed copy of the intercepted corre-
spondence of the slaveholders' government,1 you
will see the statement of their so-called Secretary of
the Navy, that months ago " they had contracted
for six ironclad vessels in Great Britain."

I cannot now give you legal proof that these
ships are building here, but a very little shrewd in-
quiry will convince you of the fact ; at least two
of these ironclads are building at Liverpool, one
of which might be launched within a few weeks.
These two ships are known to be of the most for-
midable character, and equal, except in size, to the
best ironclads belonging to your government. If
they are allowed to go to sea, we might either have
our harbors obstructed, or our cities burned !

1 A letter referring to the Confederates having contracted for six
ironclad steamers in England, urging dispatch, and speaking of " the
cotton to be delivered in liquidation of these contracts." — Ed.

MISSION TO ENGLAND 13

They may not take in their guns at Liverpool ;
but, as in other cases, a British steamer can meet
them on your coast, and dispatch them fully armed
upon their errand of death ; having thus evaded the
technicalities of your law.

Now it is plain that your nation and ours can-
not live in peace if you permit such engines of de-
struction to be sent from your harbors against us.
The law of nations and the common sense of man-
kind will decide that it is your business, to see that
your local laws are made sufficient to carry out
your international obligations. We did so under
Washington without any statute law ; we afterwards
amended our law, when in your Canadian rebellion
we found it insufficient. Whatever may be thought
of the maintenance of peace, under a continuance
of the privateers outfitting against our commerce,
if the ironclads go out against our cities, peace be-
tween us is hardly possible.

You may think that the possibility of war is a
mere dream. So reasoned too many of our people,
North and South, when the causes of our war were
ripening. Wars come from passion and from want
of forecast more often than from the interests of
either party.

I have laid before you the danger ; I now en-
treat you to apply the remedy in your own good
way, but without delay.

If I have dwelt upon the material and national
consideration of the subject too much, I beg you to
believe that it is only because I feel that it would

14 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

be unnecessary to appeal to your well-known abhor-
rence of any war, and especially of a war between
the two nations of the earth who, when our country
is once freed from the stain of slavery, ought to
stand shoulder to shoulder before the world to up-
hold peace on earth and freedom to all men.
With great respect, your friend and servant,

J. M. Forbes.

The leaders then furnished him with this certifi-
cate : —

MAINTENANCE OF PEACE WITH AMERICA.

The writer of the following letter, John M.
Forbes, a well-known merchant of Boston, North
America, is fully accredited as a gentleman entitled
to all confidence and respect by letters from Samuel
Boyd Tobey, of Providence, to Joshua Forster;
Thomas Evans, of Philadelphia, to James B. Braith-
waite and Kichard Fry ; Matthew Howland, of New
Bedford, to Joshua Pease ; Thomas Kimber, Jr., to
Henry Pease, M. P. ; and Thomas Evans to Robert
Forster, etc., etc. We, the undersigned, commend
the important subjects treated upon to the serious
attention of our friends.

Robert Forster.

Robert Alsop.

George Sturge.

London, 26th of 5th Month, 1863.

Armed with this, he attended a meeting of " their
prominent members, at a lunch given at Overend

MISSION TO ENGLAND 15

& Gurney's office," and read his letter to them ;
but its argument found them so " cautious and hard
of hearing" as to leave him with the impression
that his labor was wasted.

Meanwhile the outlook in America was not cheer-
ing. It is clear from the following letter to Gov-
ernor Andrew, that he had a foreboding of the bad
news which was presently to make his work in
London doubly trying : —

J. M. FOKBES TO GOVERNOR ANDREW.

London, May 20, 1863.

My dear Governor, — I have your long and
interesting letter of Tuesday, May 5, with hopeful
views of Hooker's battle. God grant they may
have been realized, though his situation seemed
critical at last accounts. I have just had Mr. Bright
to breakfast, and have since seen Cobden. I tell
them both that either a great success or a great
disaster will stir up our people, and if they hear
to-morrow that Hooker is driven back, it will only
mean that it will bring out our people. Like the
pine-tree, it may be said of the North : —

" The firmer it roots him,
The harder it blows."

I only wish I were at home to do my share
there, if the news is black ; but my work here is
but half done, and I can only give you my good
wishes and my children.

How you would like John Bright ! He is a

16 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

man after your own pattern, — genial, warm-hearted,
frank. I am busy just now trying to see the
Quakers, and to bring them up to the mark of doing
something for peace, by petitioning for the sup-
pression of ironclads and other Confederate pirates.
Cobden is confident the ironclads will not be
allowed to go out, and they have certainly checked
up the work upon them. I think the case looks
better, but still the calm seems to me too uncertain
to trust to. I would avail of it to prepare for the
possible storm. I note what you say of guns. I
hope you observe in the prices sent you the very
extravagant ones are for all steel, which are deemed
unnecessary. The Russians take iron spindles and
steel jackets. I fear our army and navy are a little
too much governed by those most excellent riders of
their hobbies, — Rodman and Dahlgren, for whom
I have the greatest possible respect ; but you must
not forget that to pierce an ironclad you need
velocity of shot, which cannot be had with your
cast-iron guns; they will not stand the powder.
Sumter drove off our ironclads with Blakely guns
and round steel shot. Benzon and I, as I wrote you
before, have gone in for two ten-and-three-quarter,
and one nine-inch gun, cast-iron spindle, steel jacket,
which will cost £1000, £1000, and £750, more or
less. If you decide not to have them, I hope you
will say so, and we shall try to resell them here with
as little loss as possible. If only as patterns, it
seems to me you ought to have them.

Yours truly, J. M. Forbes.

MISSION TO ENGLAND 17

The bad news of Chancellorsville came surely
enough, and of what followed he writes : —

" It was necessary then to keep a stiff upper lip,
and to be, and appear to be, ready to meet whatever
might betide, for it was indeed socially a very chilly
climate that spring in London. Our best friends,
with a very small circle excepted, were only with us
in feeling, and lamented that we should approve of
continuing the bloody contest instead of letting the
i erring sisters go in peace,' 1 as many on both sides
at first wished. I especially recall one dinner party
given me by my good friend, Mr. Russell Scott, to
meet some of these sympathizing friends. Among
the guests was the Rev. James Martineau, who, with
the rest, could see no good in prolonging the ' fratri-
cidal contest.' The subject of the Chancellorsville
defeat, the news of which had just been received, of
course chiefly absorbed our attention, and led to
many chilly remarks as to the folly of protracting
the useless struggle to save the Union, all meant for
my especial benefit, and having the effect of pour-
ing very cold water upon a volcano covered with a
thin layer of snow. I listened with the cold outside
manners of good society to all the stuff, but sim-
mering internally like the aforesaid Vesuvius, until
my patience fairly gave way. In one of the pauses
which all dinner parties experience, our host ap-

1 Intended probably as a quotation of a famous expression of the
period, from a letter of General Scott to Secretary Seward, dated
3 March, 1861, " Say to the seceded States, — ' Wayward sisters,
depart in peace.' " — Ed.
vol. II.

18 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

pealed to me for information as to the truth of the
sad, heart-rending rumor that the hero, Stonewall
Jackson, had been killed by his own soldiers on the
evening of the rebel attack, and at the most critical
period of the whole battle? With a hesitating
voice, under the boiling feelings which had been
aroused by the sentimental stuff which had been
uttered, I replied, ( I don't know or care a brass far-
thing whether Jackson was killed by his own men
or ours, so long as he is thoroughly killed, and
stands no longer in the way of that success upon
which the fate of everybody and everything I care
for depends ! ' Had a naked Indian in war-paint,
with tomahawk and scalping-knife, appeared at the
dinner-table, the expression of horror and dismay at
my barbarous utterance could hardly have been
greater ; but anyhow we heard no more that even-
ing about the wisdom of concession to the e erring
sisters,' and their chivalrous heroes and lamented
leaders.

" Bright, Cobden, W. E. Forster, the Duke of
Argyle, and a few others were with us heartily, and
took bold ground in our cause ; but, generally speak-
ing, the aristocracy and the trading classes were
solid against us. Gladstone, the magnificent old
man of to-day, had not found out the merits of our
cause, and Lord John Russell, called a liberal mem-
ber of the cabinet, was with official insolence sneer-
ing even in a public speech at what he called the
1 once United ' States. Among the merchants I
only remember as unconditional friends Tom Baring

MISSION TO ENGLAND 19

and William Kathbone, Jr., William Evans,1 and
Tom Potter.2

" Among the notabilities in London society at
that time was my old friend, Nassau Senior, the
political economist, who has left behind him the
most amusing sketches of the present century, and
was then, as usual, full of gossip upon political sub-
jects. One morning, while dressing, I heard his
step in my parlor, and found he had looked in for
the morning's news. I told him it was not so very
bad, that the defeat of Chancellorsville would only
rouse up the Northern people, and that the next
thing he would hear would be of another Northern
army ; and that we had no idea of any other termi-
nation than putting down the rebellion, and should
only fight the harder for this temporary check ; so
he went off. Going presently to a breakfast party
which was given to Bright, Cobden, and others, by
Mr. Aspinwall, one of the party was called out to
interview Mr. Senior, and brought back my own
brilliant picture of Federal prospects of the early
morning, which he gave as the latest that had been
received. I recognized the source at once, and have
no doubt that it went, early as it was in the day,
just where I meant it should, — to Lord Palmerston
and his circle, where Mr. Senior moved freely. I
need hardly say that I kept my counsel as to the

1 A member of the Anti-Corn-Law-League, and a friend of Cob-
den ; interested in English and American railroads. — Ed.

2 President of " The Union and Emancipation Society," formed
in England during the war to influence public opinion in favor of
the Union cause, and largely supported by Mr. Potter himself. — Ed.

20 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

secret o£ that mysterious, underground, telegraphic
news until I had Aspinwall, Cobden, and Bright for
my only auditors."

I here give some of the official and unofficial cor-
respondence carried on by him with the Washington
officials : —

J. M. EORBES TO S. P. CHASE, SECRETARY OF THE
TREASURY.

London, March 31, 1863.

... I am glad, however, to find in some quarters
a theory, that while the government here, and their
special pleader, the Attorney-General, have so de-
fended themselves against claims for damages, and
also against criticism in the Alabama case, by all
sorts of special pleading and sophistry, they are not
going to lay themselves open to the same charge
again.

If they will only do better with the vessels now
fitting out against us, we must try to forgive their
past sins, for the time. I am trying to hunt up
some evidence that this theory is well founded, and,
if confirmed, I will write by next mail.

If we can only tide over the time until we occupy
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and the mouth of
the Rio Grande, we shall avert the complication of
another war upon our hands, — now the last hope
of the rebels. . . .

MISSION TO ENGLAND 21

TO THE SAME.

London, April 1, 1863.
My dear Sir, — ... Our consul tells me that
among the developments reached in searching evi-
dence against privateers, this one is clear, that the
robbers' object in pushing that expedient is chiefly
to get us into difficulty with England ! To this end
their efforts are directed here far more than to
the mere injury of our commerce. We must not
play their game for them by issuing letters of
marque. . . ."

J. M. FOKBES TO GIDEON WELLES, SECRETARY OF THE

NAVY.

London, April 1, 1863.

. . . The rebel loan, although much of a bubble,
got up by the foxes, already in the trap, who have
lost their tails, and want others to follow their
bright examples, is still to a certain extent a success-
ful swindle, and it gives the enemy new life. Still
I have reason to hope that it only pays off old
scores, having been negotiated at 60, by takers,
chiefly creditors, it is supposed, who are now swin-
dling the green ones in their foul bargain. This
gives the enemy £1,800,000 to square the score
and begin a new one ; but it does not prove con-
clusively that they can pay for their ironclads, espe-
cially the one at Glasgow, which we are taking
measures to investigate. . . .

It occurs to me as within the spirit of our orders,
though not the letter, in case we get a dangerous

22 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

blockade runner, to put on board cargo useful to us,
cover her up carefully, and send her under a sharp
captain to Nassau, where she might get valuable
information, and then run into the arms of our
squadron, if still outside of Charleston ; and perhaps
bring along with her some of her Confederate
friends to help her run the blockade. I throw this
out for your consideration. It may be too danger-
ous a game to play, but might, if well played,
double her value by giving us some of her infernal
Confederates ! The worst of it is, I fear, that it
requires many to be in the secret. I write Secretary
Chase upon financial matters.

G. V. FOX, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, TO
J. M. FORBES.

Navy Department, April 1, 1863.
I have your letter from near Halifax. Every
steamer we capture that will carry one gun is in-
variably taken by the department and sent to the
blockade. The Atlantic and Baltic are pretty nearly
gone, boilers entirely so. The old Cunarders have
not the speed. Earl Russell has written a letter to
our government (received yesterday) which, in plain
English, is this : " We have a right to make and
sell. We are merchants; we sell to whoever will
buy ; you can buy as well as the South. We do not
ask any questions of our purchasers. We shall not
hound down our own industry. We are not respon-
sible for anything. You can make the most of it."
We infer from this bombshell that the govern-

MISSION TO ENGLAND 23

ment would be glad to have the South get out these
ironclads, and that they will not afford us any aid.
You can act accordingly. You must stop them at
all hazards, as we have no defense against them.
Let us have them in the United States for our own
purposes, without any more nonsense, and at any
price. As to guns, we have not one in the whole
country fit to fire at an ironclad. If you dispose
of their ironclads, we will take care of the whole
Southern concern ; and it depends solely upon your
action in this matter ; and if you have the opportu-
nity to get them, I hope you will not wait for any
elaborate instructions.

It is a question of life and death. Charleston
will be attacked within ten days, and I hope we
shall strengthen you with successes in other quar-
ters. The Georgiana is disposed of.

Regards to Mr. A.

GIDEON WELLES, SECEETARY OF THE NAVY, TO
J. M. FORBES.
Navy Department, Washington, 18$ April, 1863.
Your two favors of the 27th ult. and 1st inst.
were duly received. We have been and are extra
busy in consequence of results at Charleston,1 etc.,
so that I seize a moment this Saturday evening to
acknowledge them.

I do not believe it expedient to purchase ma-

1 Probably referring to the attack on Fort Sumter, on the 7th of
April, when the Union fleet under Admiral Dupont had had to retire
discomfited. — Ed.

24 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

chinery as suggested, nor do I think it advisable to
buy either of the Cunarders.

If we can prevent the formidable craft which is
being got up for the " Emperor of China " from get-
ting into rebel hands, or get hold of any swift priva-
teers which they are constructing or fitting out, the
great purpose of your mission will have been accom-
plished. I am not over-sanguine of success in this
matter, and shall not experience deep disappoint-
ment at your failure, — assisted as I know the rebels
are by British neutrality as well as by British capital.
There may be some fortunate contingency to aid you,
but I do not rely upon it. When you left I had
strong hopes that the English government might
interfere to prevent the semi-piratical rovers from
going abroad. Beyond any government or people
on earth, it is the interest, and should be the policy,
of Great Britain to maintain the police of the seas.
She has so thought, and acted heretofore. If in
encouraging, or acquiescing in the policy of sending
abroad from her shores, these pirate steamers to
prey upon the commerce of a friendly nation, we
are to understand there is a change of policy, there
is no country that will suffer more. With her im-
mense commerce, and dependent colonies spread
over the globe, she would be ruined by retaliatory
measures. I have no doubt that it is a primary
object with the rebel agents, enemies, and sympa-
thizers, to create a misunderstanding between us and
England, and hence forbearance, to its utmost limit,
is with us a virtue.

MISSION TO ENGLAND 25

On the subject of letters of marque, our views
coincide, and I think will prevail, unless we shall
be compelled to resist other Alabamas and Floridas,
by letting loose similar vessels which may depredate
on the commerce of that country, which, under the
rebel flag-, is devastating ours.

We have an impression that but limited means
will be derived from the loan recently negotiated,
yet it may for the moment give them some credit.
The statement of Mr. Laird in Parliament that pro-
positions had been made to him to build vessels for
the United States is destitute of truth. Certainly
nothing of the kind has ever come from me, directly
or indirectly, nor from the Navy Department during
my administration of its affairs ; and there is no
other branch of the government authorized or pos-
sessed of means to make such a proposition. All
appropriations for constructing or purchasing naval
vessels are by Congress confided to the Navy De-
partment. I am therefore compelled to believe that
Mr. L. states what he knew to be false to relieve
himself in difficulty.

Perhaps it may be advisable to expose Mr. Laird,
though of that you can best judge. Ordinarily I
take little notice of false partisan statements, but an
exhibition of the low moral standard of the rebel
agents may not be without a beneficial influence on
the British mind at this moment.

I am glad you have encouraged Mr. Dudley, our
excellent and vigilant consul at Liverpool, to per-
severe in legal measures. . . .

26 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

. . . What we want is to prevent the rebels
from getting out dangerous vessels ; and if it means
a necessity to buy and leave them, so be it. We
would have neither you nor the government com-
promised by any illegal proceedings.

Our ironclad monitors proved their powers of
resistance at Charleston, and for harbor defense and
assault are a success. But we want chasers, — fast
sailers for cruising, and must and will have them.
The suggestion in regard to blockade runners, if
successful, would, like almost every success, have
great and general approval, but it would be at-
tended with many difficulties. With regards to
Mr. Aspinwall, and hoping to hear from you often,
[etc., etc.].

It was considered wisest for the secrecy of the
mission that my father should be absent from Lon-
don for a time; and he chose the Rhine for his
place of diversion. Amidst all this official corre-
spondence, it was pleasant and cheering, just before
leaving for Germany, to hear from his old friend,
Mrs. Fanny Kemble. She writes : —

I had a long talk with Lord Clarendon on Thurs-
day evening about American affairs, and found him,
I am sorry to say, much less just in his notions
upon them than that nice man, his dead brother-in-
law, Cornwall Lewis, was. I sent him (Lord Claren-
don) yesterday morning a fair and accurate account
of the whole origin of the quarrel and present state

MISSION TO ENGLAND 27

of the struggle ; but if one of our cabinet ministers
has yet to learn anything upon either subject, it

is a shame and a pity ! That fellow, , the

" Times's " worthy correspondent from the South,
who was a defaulter on the turf here, you know, is

a nephew of Lord 's, and connected with our

great people; and the wicked trumpery he writes,
both privately and in the " Times," is a fruitful
source of mischief on the subject. I am happy to
say that Lord Clarendon gave the " Times" its deserts
for the mischievous course it has pursued towards
America in its devilish "leading articles." That
paper will lose its influence, if the feeling once gains
ground that it is absolutely dishonest and unprin-
cipled, as well as the cleverest paper in the world.

Good-by. I am glad you are coming back soon ;
the sight of you carries me to Milton Hill, and
refreshes my heart and soul.

Always affectionately yours,

Fanny Kemble.

P. S. Your former friend, formerly captain, now
Admiral Charles Elliot, is brother to my friend of
the colonial office, and has just been made governor
of St. Helena.

CHAPTER XV

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS

In getting away from London at this time, my
father had real enjoyment in his first and only view
of the Rhine. He writes to his wife at Milton : —

Steamer, June 9, 1863.

At nine, through much tribulation, and feeling
like an unprotected female in the streets of London,
I reached Bingen, " sweetest flower of the Rhine."
Amid a shower of gutturals, I found myself alone
as the train moved off, and could only respond with
the sesame of " Hotel Victoria," which, after due
German delay, brought me a broad-lipped porter,
who took my bag and shawl, and marched me off to
the Victoria, dumb to all else. A supper, served by
a half -English waiter in a hall much like our White-
Mountain-tavern-dining-room, and a decent bed,
kept me till 5 a. m., and then, with a cup of coffee,
I started to return on my winding way by boat —
a wonderful cross of the Dutch galliot, the river
raft, and the steamer. I found Bingen to be the
northern extremity of the Rhine Highlands, as if
you had stopped just above Newburgh (Hudson), —
the Rhine being the Hudson, a little variegated by

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 29

robbers' castles. Now I am as if below the Pali-
sades (Hudson), in the flat country, having fed on
the picturesque mentally, and the Rhine wine and
cutlets physically, and being now at leisure from
both appetites.

One or two of the sights I have seen would pay
for the journey, for they carry one back to the
Middle Ages here, as Kenilworth or Warwick do in
England. At each bend of the river, and it bends
constantly, you find a robbers' nest commanding it,
and generally some valley leading down to it. Some
few of these are very beautiful : all are picturesque,
whether in ruins, as most of them are, or well pre-
served. The most beautiful is one on the left or
east bank, two hours by steamer below Bingen, —
an old castle, well preserved, nestled in a valley
which protects it from the east and north, hills
rising above it and falling from the base of its
towers to the river ; hills too steep for culture, so
that the castle stands embowered, perched on the
hillside, with its round, minaret-looking towers and
battlements. Its architectural beauty seems to me
exquisite, so bright and graceful ; and its surround-
ings set it off like a gem in the right place.

Then you come to little robber houses, covering
less ground than our house, that reminded one of
Christie's tower in the " Black Dwarf," a tower and
some sort of outhouse walled in. These are always
in ruins ; and you have every variation from this,
up to the grand castle of Ehrenbreitstein, opposite
Coblentz. The general style of these rascals was,

30 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

however, to seize some point commanding the river,
and a side valley leading to it. They all mark the
bird of prey, just as the claws and sharp beak do ;
no ground near them for food, no trees for shelter.
Sometimes it takes my glass to make out the ruin.
Sometimes the rock goes up to such peaks that you
need a glass to know there is not a ruined castle
there. Sometimes the castle is low down, right on
the river, with its battlemented walls cut through
now by the railroad ; more often, perched half way
up on the shoulder of a hill ; almost always a threat,
seldom a place of home-like beauty and shelter.
Rocks (limestone) often too steep for aught but the
bushes which, in living green, now cover them ; but
wherever there is a chance to terrace, you find little
nooks and vineyards.

When you come to Ehrenbreitstein, you have a
noble castle, still defensible. Now we are coming to
hills less steep and generally vine-covered, but still
terraced. None picturesque, like the pine-clad hills
of the Adirondacks. Leave out the ruins, and we
have many finer sights than the Rhine ; but with
these, and a heart in tune, I can imagine the enthu-
siasm of Byron and Bulwer. I have enjoyed it,
partly as a rest in the midst of my life of keen
anxiety, and more for not expecting any pleasure
beforehand. A couple of Germans came on board
who spoke no English or French, and who kindly
tried, in deep and frantic gutturals, to convey to me
their appreciation of the Rhine beauties. I had to
shake my head in despair, and turn to my own foun-
tains of inspiration.

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 31

He visited Amsterdam and Brussels on his way to
London, chiefly with the view of learning what pro-
spect there was of disposing of fifty millions of
5-20 bonds, which, apart from their other mission,
Mr. Chase had empowered Mr. Aspinwall and him-
self to negotiate for the United States government.
I may say, in passing, that financial opinion in Eng-
land and on the continent at that time, as to the
United States' prospects, made any such negotia-
tion out of the question during their stay. At
Paris they " had a very nice flat and entertained
their friends in a quiet way ; " and it may be guessed
that they returned to London refreshed by their
continental experiences.

To take up the story again in London, my father
writes : —

" Among my London acquaintances was Mr. Ed-
ward Ellis, a member of Parliament himself, and,
I think, with one or two sons also in that body. He
was a friend and adherent of Palmerston, and, hav-
ing a pecuniary interest in land on this side, was
supposed to be very well posted about American
affairs. It was just at the time the controversy
was going on about the letter-bag of a steamer ; it
had been seized with the vessel, carrying a cargo of
munitions of war, nominally to Mexico, but undoubt-
edly intended for the Texan rebels. The bag must
have contained proof of this, but, being under the
seals of the British post-office, was claimed by the
British minister as sacred, and the dispute was going
on as to what should be done with it ; the condem-

32 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

nation of the vessel and cargo, amounting to a very
large sum, depending a great deal upon the result.
I was dining at Mr. Ellis's, and while we were stand-
ing before the fire, waiting for dinner to be an-
nounced, two or three of the younger members of
Parliament came in and announced the i good news '
that the letter-bags had been given up without
being opened, which removed the danger of a rup-
ture in the friendly relations between the United
States and Great Britain. This was all very polite,
Mr. Adams being present, and, as usual, silent. I
could not help, however, saying a word to this
effect : ' I am very glad you like the news ; but I
hope you will remember one thing, that you are
making a precedent which, in the long future, we
intend to follow. You are now ready to introduce
all possible privileges for neutrals in the carrying*
trade, but in the long run Great Britain is at war
ten years while we are likely to be one ; and what-
ever precedent you set now, we shall hold you to.' "
On the other hand, he met, occasionally, unex-
pected sympathizers : — " Among the notable men
that I met was an Hon. Mr. Berkeley, a queer little
old man, who was known in Parliament as ' single
speech Berkeley,' and who every year brought up
some radical proposition which was good-naturedly
received and passed over, out of regard for his aris-
tocratic connections and influence. I sat next him
at a dinner given me by Captain Blakely, the gun-
maker, and, with the usual reserve which I had to
maintain in that hostile atmosphere, I said very little

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 33

except upon general subjects ; but as we were put-
ting on our coats before going off, little Mr. Berkeley
shook hands with me very warmly and said, ' I hope
you understand that I am entirely with you in your
fight to put down the slaveholders.' "

There were also other " times of refreshment " to
relieve the general tension, such as a trip he took
with General Forbes, of the Bombay army (said to
have broken a Sepoy square with his regiment of
cavalry), whom he had come to know through Mr.
Ashburner. Of this he writes : —

" General Forbes was a very good-looking, middle-
aged man at that time, and was very polite to me,
taking me down to Aldershot to see a review of
the British volunteers. We lunched with the mess,
and then went to the field, where there was a great
display of troops, and where I saw many celebrities
of the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny. The
review wound up with a sham fight, in the midst
of which I had to start by cab to catch the train
back to London to keep an engagement in the
evening. The cabman at first refused to cross the
field of battle, but under bribe or threat I man-
aged to get him down to run the gauntlet of the
advancing line, going between them and their ob-
jective point with the horse on the jump and the
whole line apparently firing at us. It had all the
effect of a real battle, — except the lead."

But these dissipations had not diverted his mind
from business ; and one plan which occurred to him
for giving an object-lesson to France and England

34 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

at the same time is remembered by him as fol-
lows : —

" One project which we thought of at this time
might have turned into great results if the Mexicans
had had any minister or recognized agent in London.
They were at open war with France, and it occurred
to us that, if they would do towards France exactly
what the rebel cruisers were doing against us, we
should bring the European powers to a realizing
sense of their misdeeds towards us. We discussed
the question, and thought of lending to Mexico a
few thousand dollars out of our resources to enable
them to fit out cruisers in English ports to go into
the Channel and destroy French ships, and to return
to British ports to coal and recruit and get ready for
other depredations ; in fact repeating what was being
done in British neutral ports against the United
States. If some morning a Mexican cruiser had
put into Plymouth after destroying a lot of French
ships, the replies of the British Foreign Secretary
to a powerful, warlike nation like France would have
been very different from what they were saying to us,
hampered as we were with our internal war ; and, if
they had treated France as they did us, war would
have been the consequence in about twenty-four
hours. But there was no Mexican minister or agent,
and we could do nothing."

At this time occurred his one and only experience
of an English funeral, an account of which he gives
as follows : —

" We were surprised at the house by being deco-

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 35

rated in most wonderful crape round our hats, and
heavy silk scarfs reaching almost to our feet, which
were put over us by one of the servants, as we were
to play the part of chief mourners. After the reli-
gious ceremonies at the house, we were ushered into
carriages decorated in the same wonderful manner,
and slowly drove through the streets, guarded by a
lot of mutes in deep black, carrying halberds or
poles behind the hearse. It looked as if they were
guarding us to prevent our escape, as they walked
along beside the carriage. After a dreary ride we
came to the suburban cemetery and then left the
carriages and surveyed the scene. The hearse was
the principal object, being drawn by black horses and
having tall, black plumes on each side. As we were
waiting for it to come up, Mr. B., who was sincerely
attached to his wife, but had a sense of humor,
could not forbear a sort of apology, saying that he
had tried to have it as private and inconspicuous as
possible, but it was impossible to get away from the
conventionality and pomp of a London funeral : he
wished that the hearse could be transported to
America and put at the head of the Union army ;
he was sure the rebels would be routed at once by
its appearance ! After a short service at the grave,
Mr. Baring and I jumped into his cab, throwing off
our insignia of mourning, which must have formed
a valuable perquisite, — there being silk enough to
make a cassock of, — and were soon driving rapidly
to London."

Of a less depressing occasion he says : —

36 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

" During our stay in London we went to hear
Mr. Cobden's great speech in the Commons. The
House of Commons is a very different affair from
our House of Representatives ; indeed, it looks, at
first sight, much more like one of our large commit-
tee rooms at the Capitol, or perhaps like the senate
chamber there. Only a few strangers are admitted
to what is called the speaker's gallery, and then
only by special ticket from the speaker. When
Cobden's speech was expected, considerable influ-
ence had to be used to get admittance. We learned
that the speaker had in this case, when applied to,
expressed fears that the two factions of Union and
rebel (unrecognized) emissaries might be placed too
near each other, and so we found much diplomacy
had been expended in arranging seats to keep our-
selves and Messrs. Mason and Slidell separated.
The occasion was certainly a very memorable one,
for Cobden's speech rang through Europe and
America, and materially influenced the action of
the English government. His manner was cold and
somewhat hesitating, but he spoke with great force
and sense, not mincing his phrases, against the back-
slidings of his countrymen ; and his speech was all
the more effective from his taking the stand for
us, not (as Bright usually did) from an American
point of view, but because he saw England's honor
and interest imperiled by the short-sighted policy of
Palmerston and Russell.

" I think it was on the same night that Roebuck
made a most malignant attack upon what he called

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 37

the barbarism of the Federals in their cruel and
atrocious proclamation of emancipation, ' stimulat-
ing the subordinate race to make war against their
superiors, and putting a premium on murder, rape,
and robbery.' Monckton Milnes, the poet, whom
I have since welcomed here as Lord Houghton,
made a very pithy and spirited rejoinder to this
diatribe, and quite won my heart."

Although, as has been shown, my father " kept a
stiff upper lip " when confronted with the news of
Chancellorsville, both he and his colleague had to
be reticent as to what they knew to be the strength
and staying powers of the North and West. As to
this he writes : —

"We had come, also, prepared to do something
in the way of enlightening the British public as to
the real strength of the North, and the certainty of
our ultimate success, but Mr. Adams thought it
doubtful whether such a course would be wise ; for
if successful in our argument it might show the
governing class in Europe that their only chance
for breaking up the Union was in active interfer-
ence ; so that he thought it safer for them to be
kept neutral by the belief that we were sure to
break up."

They now saw "no sufficient reason for staying
longer," and arranged to return home by the Great
Eastern, some time after the 20th of June. There
was, however, to be one more dinner party, at Mr.
Senior's, always remembered as an exceptionally
agreeable experience. Of this he writes : —

38 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

" I was requested to lead in to dinner his daughter-
in-law, the wife of Mr. Nassau John Senior, who was
very pleasant ; but, knowing nothing about her, I
refrained from talking upon any interesting subject,
until she happened to say that her brother had just
returned from France, and that she hoped I would
see him. I then had to ask who her brother was,
and found it was Tom Hughes. ' Why,' said I, l he
is the one man I wanted to see ; I thought he was
ill, and that I should go home without seeing him.'
I was going to start in a few days for Liverpool,
and she very warmly insisted that I should see her
brother, and accordingly asked him for an appoint-
ment. When I called at his office in Old Square^
Lincoln's Inn, I found my good friend Tom Hughes,
genial and pleasant as he is to-day. I need hardly
say that the remainder of my evening with Mrs.
Senior at the dinner party was very much more de-
lightful than at the beginning, as it was like rinding
a warm friend in the midst of an enemy's camp."

This led to his writing the following letter, which
expressed to Mrs. Senior, what he so often said at
home afterward, that no one could tell what her
kind words were to him : —

J. M. FORBES TO MRS. N. J. SENIOR.

New Lodge, Windsor Forest, 27 June, 1863.
My dear Mrs. Senior, — I cannot thank you
too much for your most welcome note, and for its
result in a line just received from your brother pro-
mising to be in on Monday, and to see me.

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 39

Your warm sympathy touches a chord that seldom
vibrates. I had thought myself proof against cold
or heat, and that I was entirely indifferent to Eng-
lish opinions and feelings, which I found so generally
against us. Like the traveler in the fable, I can
stand the pelting of the storm, but your sunshine
draws off my cloak, and makes me aware that I am
open to its cheering influence ; and I tell it you
that you may know how much good you can do to
others.

I venture to send you three cards, one of myself,
one of my daughter Mary, the wife of Lieut.-Colonel
Russell, and one of my son, W. H. F. The last
was north of Washington, on the Potomac, not far
from the crossing place where the raid we hear of
to-day occurred. If you read in the papers of some
disaster or success to the Second Massachusetts
Cavalry, you may look with more interest upon
the faces of those who have such a deep concern in
its fortunes. My only strong belief is that you
may hear of misfortune there, but not of dishonor.

I shall now hear nothing more from them for the
next two anxious weeks, and shall then, if all goes
well, try to visit the camp.

I shall keep your note to read on the sea, and to
show, perhaps, to my young soldier.
Most truly and gratefully yours,

J. M. Forbes.

So the envoys returned to America by the Great
Eastern ; but before coming to what my father tells

40 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

of his arrival in New York, I must give some more
of the letters which had been passing between them
and the heads of departments during the weeks
which they had spent in Europe : —

J. M. FORBES AND W. H. ASPINWALL TO SECRETARY
WELLES.

London, April 18, 1863.
Sir, — ... By availing of the consuls' service
we avoid drawing upon ourselves the observation
which would perhaps defeat our object, and we also
avail of the arrangements and experiments which
both these gentlemen have made. Mr. Dudley,
having a vice-consul, will be able to leave his post,
in case of need, upon this business ; and we have
assured him that you will not only make any expla-
nations regarding such absence which may hereafter
be required by the Secretary of State, but will also
fully appreciate his zeal. . . .

To offer to buy the ironclads without success,
would only be to stimulate the builders to greater
activity, and even to building new ones in the expec-
tation of finding a market for them from one party
or the other. . . . We call your attention to the
inclosed article by Professor Goldwin Smith. . . .
We understand that Professor Smith is a high au-
thority, and we presume he is writing entirely of
" his own motion," and in the interests of his own
country. Could we find a sound legal writer to lay
open to the people of England the consequences to
their own commerce hereafter, and also, though a

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 41

more delicate point, the danger to it now, through
a war with us, and to do it entirely from an Eng-
lish point of view, we think the value of the iron-
clads, the Southerner, and other dangerous vessels,
would decline rapidly. We shall carefully consider
this and other points before acting. . . .
Respectfully yours,

W. H. Aspinwall,
J. M. Forbes.

W. H. ASPINWALL AND J. M. FORBES TO SECRETARY
CHASE.

London, April 18, 1863.

Sir, — We beg leave to inform you that we have
obtained a loan of £500,000, for the period of six
months, from Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co., on
the deposit of $4,000,000 of the 5-20 bonds handed
us, and with the understanding that, in case of the
issuing of letters of marque to cruise against Brit-
ish vessels, they shall have a right to claim a prompt
reimbursement of their advance, by sale or other-
wise, as you may elect. The existing agitation of
the public mind, both in and out of Parliament,
rendered this condition a sine qua non, and we may
safely express our doubt if any other house would
have undertaken to make the loan ; certainly none
on terms so liberal. . . .

We wait impatiently the promised official state-
ment of funded and floating debt, amount of cur-
rency notes, etc., and also of revenue from imports
and from internal sources ; they are much needed

42 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

to remove the almost incredible misapprehensions
which have been produced by false or undefined
newspaper articles. . . .

Your obedient servants,

W. H. Aspinwall,
J. M. Forbes.

SECRETARY CHASE TO W. H. ASPINWALL AND J. M.
FORBES.

Treasury Department,
Washington, D. C, March 30, 1863.

. . . This letter will be delivered to you by Mr.
Walker, who will also submit to your perusal the
letter of instructions under which he will himself
act.

He is not informed as to the particulars of any
commission with which you are charged, other than
that of negotiating a loan of five millions, but you
will doubtless find it convenient and useful to con-
fer with him freely as to all the objects you have in
view. . . .

I trust your well-known sagacity and practical
experience will contribute much to the success of
the efforts of our diplomatic and consular function-
aries to arrest these practices so dangerous to peace
between the two nations. . . .

The commissioners did not avail themselves of
this permission to open their entire budget to Mr.
Walker, as the following response shows : —

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 43

W. H. ASPINWALL AND J. M. POEBE8 TO SECRETARY
CHASE.

London, 25 April, 1863.
. . We have now to acknowledge receipt of
your letter of 30 March, handed to us by the Hon.
Robert J. Walker, and to say that this gentleman
has also repeated to us the verbal explanations
which you made to him before his departure. We
have carefully considered both, and we find that
the main object of his visit to Europe is to acquaint
European capitalists with the actual circumstances
and resources of our country.1 We think it will
render great service in helping to stem the current
of ignorance and misapprehension so generally pre-
valent in Europe, and in compliance with your
suggestions we shall confer freely with him on all
occasions, when we think he can, by his advice or
his knowledge of facts, or by his political position,
aid us in carrying out the objects of our mission ;
but we do not consider ourselves called on, either
by your letters or by our own judgment of what is
expedient, to show him our instructions, although
he has exhibited to us his own ; nor do we feel
justified, under our understanding with Messrs. Bar-
ing Bros. & Co., to mention to him, or any one else
here, the particulars of our temporary loan.

. . . We have not been negligent on the last
suggestion of your letter, and are prepared to resort
to it whenever other means fail ; but the institution

1 Mr. Walker had been Secretary of the Treasury under President
Polk, 1845 to 1849. — Ed.

44 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

of criminal prosecution against Laird and other
builders by us, or any American or official party,
would be liable to raise up such an excitement as
would frustrate the object in view. The English
government must be moved to take these proceed-
ings, or, failing to do this effectually, we can count
on a local English association for action ; and
either of these must command a support we could
not rely on, and both must be exhausted before we
take the last chance. . . .

W. H. ASPLNWALL AND J. M. FOKBES TO HON. GIDEON

WELLES.

London, April 25, 1863.

. . . We find Mr. Adams extremely desirous of
avoiding any pretense for a clamor being raised by
the opposition, which would hurt his efforts to stop
the Alexandra, and still more the ironclads. With-
out embarrassing Mr. Adams by consulting him
directly, we shall take care to do nothing, in a small
way/ that would interfere with the larger interests
at stake.

We inclose you a telegram cut from the London
papers, giving the " Evening Post's " version of
Mr. Seward's threatenings and of your plans. It
is quite clear from this, that some great indiscretion
has occurred at home, which, of course, makes our
action infinitely more difficult than it would be
under ordinary circumstances.

The consuls are clearly of opinion that, since the
Confederate loan was so far successful as to give the

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 45

shipbuilders at least a part of their money, it would
be impossible to approach the builders of the iron-
clads with an offer with any chance of its acceptance
at present. We are of the same opinion, and must
therefore limit ourselves to watching the effect of
the proceedings against the Alexandra and of the
debates in Parliament, and to preparing (when the
right time comes to make an offer) to have some
negotiator step in, who will not be identified with
America. . . .

Private and Confidential. After his speech last
night, Mr. Cobden said to me in his quiet way :
" You can't conceive how Admiral Wilkes's appoint-
ment is hurting us, your best friends, on this side,
and making capital for our joint enemies ! What a
pity he cannot be nominated to some honorable
post where he would not cause irritation by all that
he does ! I would not like him disgraced, but would
like to see him promoted to some safe place." Now,
I know that Mr. Forster and others of our best
friends have the same views, and it is worth con-
sidering whether you cannot help them and us !

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Paris, May 29, 1865.

. . . We have been made aware, by the debates
in Parliament and otherwise, that there is no public
prosecutor in England, even for the most dangerous
crimes against society, and consequently no officer
whose business it is, upon reasonable suspicion, to
protect us against the infraction of their foreign
enlistment act. . . .

46 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

London, June 27, 1863.

. . . You will have seen in the papers a report
of the Alexandra trial, but as a matter of record we
have advised the consul, Mr. Dudley, to have it re-
printed in pamphlet form, and sent to every member
of the House of Commons, and to other influential
parties. The ruling of the judge caused universal
surprise, and we consider the chance good for a
reversal of the decision next fall, when the full
court meet; until which time we understand the
government intend to hold the Alexandra. We are
also advised that the consul can make out so strong
a case against the Liverpool ironclads that he counts
with great confidence upon getting them stopped
until the full court meet; we shall hope to bring
you more exact information as to the time of this
meeting.1

1 This case, The Attorney-General v. Sillem and others, is found
fully reported in parliamentary documents of 1863 and 1864 ; and
also, on appeal, in 2 Hurlstone & Coltman's Reports, 431, and 10
House of Lords Cases, 704. It was an information for an alleged
violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act, and was tried 22-25 June,
1863. Chief Baron Pollock charged the jury that it was lawful to
send armed vessels to foreign ports for sale, and that the question
was whether the Alexandra was merely in the course of building to
carry out such a contract. The act did not forbid building ships foi
a belligerent power, or selling it munitions of war. And so a belliger-
ent could employ a person here to build for them a ship, easily con-
vertible into a man-of-war. He defined the word "equip " as mean-
ing " furnishing with arms," and left to the jury the question, Was
there an intention to equip or fit out a vessel at Liverpool with the
intention that she should take part in any contest : that was unlaw-
ful. Or was the object really to build a ship on an order, leaving it

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 47

We shall also have a full consultation with our
minister and Mr. Evarts as to the best time to
strike at the ironclads, and we hope to report to
you in person very soon after you receive this letter,
as it is our purpose to leave in the Great Eastern
on Tuesday, the 30th, and we ought to reach New
York on Friday or Saturday, 10th or 11th of July.
Meantime we beg to say that the law officers of the
Crown seem entirely taken by surprise at the de-
cision of the Chief Baron, and that it is received by
the bar and the public as an evidence that, if such
be the proper construction of the law, it will be ab-
solutely necessary to the peace of nations to have a
better law made. . . . We still do not think, in the
fluctuating state of public opinion (upon which, to
a certain extent, hangs the action of the British
government), that it is safe to trust to the British
law alone for security from the ironclads. If things
look worse, in regard to the law, when we strike at
the ironclads, we think the Navy Department ought
to be prepared to put a sufficient force near each to
stop her before she can get her armament or her
full complement of men. This would be a very irri-
tating and dangerous experiment upon our friendly

to the buyers to use it as they saw fit : that would not be unlawful.
The jury found for the defendants. On a rule for a new trial, the
court was equally divided ; whereupon the junior judge withdrew
his own judgment in favor of a new trial, and it was refused. There-
upon the Crown appealed, but the appeal was dismissed on technical
grounds for lack of jurisdiction, first by the Court of Exchequer
Chamber, and finally, on April 6, 1864, by the House of Lords. The
Alexandra was not one of the rams, but only a gunboat. She seems
to have been used for a test case. — Ed.

48 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

relations with England, but it may become necessary.
We understand from the minister that, except for
repairs in case of accident, or for shelter in stress
of weather, our national ships are not admitted to
the hospitalities of British ports; but our conti-
nental friends are not so uncharitable, and we can
have vessels at various ports in the reach of tele-
graph. . . .

The two commissioners arrived in New York in
July. Here is the account, given by my father in
his notes, of the remarkable situation that awaited
them on landing : —

"We landed in New York on Sunday evening
[July 12], the day before the great draft riots
there broke out. When the pilot came on board,
the news of our military success at Gettysburg was
coming in, though we could not know at what cost
of life among our friends. There was just time for
Aspinwall to reach a train that would take him
to his home on the North River, and so he left me
with our servant John to take care of the rather
numerous trunks.

" It was after sundown that the little steamer
landed John and myself on the wharf, far down the
East River, among as bad-looking a lot of roughs
as I ever saw assembled. We did not know that
the great riot was about breaking out, nor luckily
did the gentry around us know what a prize lay
within their grasp ; but it was easy to see that the
dangerous classes were out : the police were hardly

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 49

to be seen, outside of the custom-house officers, and
these, knowing something of us, readily passed our
baggage without examination ; and I found myself
on the wharf in the increasing darkness with my
pile of trunks, which included three containing six
millions of 5-20 bonds (worth to-day [1884] about
eight millions in gold). With some difficulty I
fought off, without an absolute quarrel, the horde
of persistent hackmen who claimed me as their legiti-
mate prey ; and I was standing at bay, wondering
what to do next, when I was saluted by the mel-
lifluous Hibernian accent of a rough-looking cus-
tomer. ' Here, Mr. Forbes, take my carriage ! ' I
looked at him without much to increase my confi-
dence in his wretched trap, but asked how he knew
me. ' And was I not in the regiment at Port Royal
when you was there ? ' ' Take these three trunks,
my good fellow,' said I, pointing to the treasure-
bearers ; i and, John, you must get a cart and bring
the rest to the Brevoort.' We rattled safely over
the rough, dark streets, and I was soon glad- to
deposit my charge among the heaps in the old Bre-
voort House entry, and then to find my wife and
Alice awaiting me.

" I found also that Governor Andrew was in
town, and the intercourse with the North was al-
ready cut off by the mob. We heard that night
the most exciting stories, from callers, of what was
going on, and especially from Collector Barney of
the New York Custom - house, whose house was
threatened. The draft was made a pretext for the

50 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

mobbing of negroes, as it was reported that the
object of the draft was to free their race ; and so the
Irish were called upon to kill all Africans. It was
said that about fifteen hundred persons were killed
during the skirmishes of those two days.

"For safety we dispatched Alice early Monday
morning to Staten Island to our cousin, Frank
Shaw,1 where, as he was a well-known abolitionist,
she found herself out of the frying-pan into the
fire ; but good George Ward took her and all the
Shaws into his house, and no harm came to them.

" Captain Anthony and his family were at the
Fifth Avenue Hotel on their way to Europe, and
he saw a great deal more of actual violence than we
did. The house was threatened, and many of the
guests and servants deserted it, but the captain
stuck to his guns and helped to allay the panic.

"We discussed with Governor Andrew the ex-
pediency of bringing Colonel N. P. Hallowell's 55th
Regiment of Colored Troops, just leaving Boston
on its way South, into New York, but decided that
the experiment was too dangerous a one. The dif-
ferent method pursued in managing the riot at this
time in Boston would be a good lesson for the
future. Governor Andrew put into all the armories,
and places like the Spencer Rifle Company's factory,
where arms were made, a sufficient force to protect
them, and only one was attacked by the mob. This
was at the North End, and was garrisoned by a
company of artillerymen under Colonel Stephen

1 Francis George Shaw, the father of Col. Robert G. Shaw. — Ed.

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 51

Cabot, brought up from the fort. He loaded his
guns, and made arrangements by cutting slits in the
windows to defend them, and then tried to persuade
the mob to disperse. Brickbats drove him back
into the armory, and they then began to batter
down the doors. He waited till there was some
danger of their giving way, and then fired through
the doors with his cannon into the mob, as well as
through the windows with musketry. It is said
there were thirty men killed. However that may
be, his prompt action put an end to all further dis-
turbances, and this was the only real outbreak in
Massachusetts. These riots were no doubt insti-
gated by Southern conspirators for the purpose of
rousing up the Irish element in opposition to the
draft which was going on ; and their attacks upon
negroes were wholly in consequence of their well-
known jealousy against negro labor. With the
great foreign population of Boston once roused, the
consequences might have been quite as bad as they
were in New York."

My father went on to Washington, where he had
reports to make upon his European trip.

Soon after his return home, he received from Mrs.
Kemble, who was then in Paris, the proof-sheets of
her " Diary of Life on a Southern Plantation," which
on her behalf he had put into the Harpers' hands
here for publication. They were accompanied by a
letter, from which the following is an extract : —

" How I wonder how it fared with those you love
in all these late disasters, — with Willy, and Frank

52 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Shaw's son, and young Russell, and all the precious,
precious lives offered up for sacrifice to redeem your
land. Oh, what a country it ought to be hereafter,
ransomed at such a cost ! I leave my own folks
and friends in London immersed in their own amuse-
ments and pursuits ; and as by far the most serious
half of my thoughts and feelings are just now
dwelling all but incessantly on your side of the
Atlantic, I am not very sorry to go away from Eng-
land, where I heard constantly opinions and senti-
ments expressed about your country and its trials
that were very painful to me. Our government
and our people are, I believe, sound; that is, the
latter feel and think rightly about your war, and
the former will act rightly. But our upper classes
have shown that like will to like, and sympathize (as
was perhaps to be foreseen) with the aristocratic
element in your constitution. I knew very well that
in the abstract they were sure to do so, but the
experience of it has been bitterly painful to me."

The news of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, which
had not reached Mrs. Kemble when she wrote, must
evidently be that to which John Bright refers in the
following letter : —

JOHN BRIGHT TO J. M. FORBES.

Rochdale, July 31, 1863.

My dear Mr. Forbes, — I am glad to hear of

your safe arrival, and I rejoice that on your arrival

so much good news should await you. I have a

note from Mr. Aspinwall this morning of a very

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 53

satisfactory character ; and I only now begin to fear
that your cause may go on too fast, for I am not
sure that the North is yet resolute and unanimous
enough to be able to deal wisely with the great
slavery question. To me it seems needful to declare
the Proclamation an unalterable decree, and to re-
store no State to its ancient position in the nation
until its constitution and laws are made to harmonize
with the spirit of it. Till this is done, you will be
legally entitled to hold and govern every slave-
holding State by that military power which has
restored it to the control of the central government.

The " recognition " motion in our House of Com-
mons was a ludicrous failure, as you will have seen.
I had the opportunity of preaching some sound
doctrine to some unwilling ears. Now the press
and the friends of " Secesh " are in great confusion,
and their sayings and doings are matter of amuse-
ment to me and to many others.

. . . And now for your kind words to me, and
your hope that I may come to the States. Many
thanks for them and for your invitation. I fear I
am getting too far on in life to cross the ocean,
unless I saw some prospect of being useful, and had
some duty clearly before me. It is a subject of
constant regret that I have not paid a visit to the
States years ago. Mr. Walker and many others
alarm me by telling me I should have a reception
that would astonish me.

What they promise me would be a great affliction,
for I am not ambitious of demonstrations on my

54 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

behalf. We will hope affairs in the States will be
more settled, and passions in some degree calmed
down, before I come, if I ever come ; and then I
might spend three months pleasantly, and perhaps
usefully, in seeing your country and its people.

I have had great pleasure in making your ac-
quaintance in London, and only regret that, having
no house in town, I was not able to offer you the
hospitality I wished to have offered to you and to
others of your countrymen.

With all good wishes for you and for your country
and government,

I am with much respect, yours sincerely,

John Bright.

The following letter from Mr. Bates points clearly
enough to Mr. Roebuck's having been forewarned,
or having had a wonderful prescience, of mob rule
in New York : —

JOSHUA BATES TO J. M. FORBES.

21 Arlington Street, 22 August, 1863.

Many thanks for your letter of the 4th August.
I grieve with you for the loss of good young men in
battle ; and when taken from the families of intimate
friends or relatives, and such noble fellows as young
Shaw, it touches every heart.

Cabot did his duty well, and less blood will have
been shed by his mode of dealing with the mob than
by using blank cartridges first ; these may be fired
after the mob begins to run, not before. Governor

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 55

Seymour is a rebel, or as bad as a rebel, for he
called the mob "my friends." I hope something
may come out that will enable you to fix his treason
upon him. This outbreak at New York was ex-
pected by Roebuck here ; the defeat of Meade, the
rising in New York, and the upset of the Washing-
ton government, were mentioned by him to a friend
as certain.

The two main objects of the mission to England,
the detention of the ironclads, and the placing of
5-20 bonds there and on the continent, continued to
occupy my father's thoughts after his return. I find
him writing to Mr. Thomas Baring in London : —

J. M. FORBES TO THOMAS BARING-

Yacht Azalea, off Natjshon, September 11, 1863.

I have yours of the 19th of August. The issue
of 5-20's is not officially announced. . . .

The editorial of the " Times " on ironclads works
well; when you see that question settled, I think
you can make money by buying the bonds left with
you.

I have no fear of any early collision with your
country, if the North succeeds, without compromise,
in whipping the scoundrels. If we could ever be so
weak as to give in to them and degrade our present
government in the eyes of the people, — the slave-
holders, coming back with their power for mischief
remaining, might join the tail of the sham demo-
cracy who have always been willing to coalesce with

56 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

the sham aristocracy, and this combination might
use the joint armies and the Irish to pitch into you.
If we put the slaveholders under, as we mean to do,
with their beautiful institution destroyed, there will
be no danger of war with England until some new
irritation comes up ; we shall be sick of war. . . .

I wish you would pull up in time ! Then we
could join you in putting Napoleon out of Mexico,
and in stopping French colonization in that direc-
tion. We ought to be allies ! and Mexico gives us
another chance to become so.

With best regard to Mr. Bates, and others round
you.

N. B. My young soldier continues well, thank
you. I have just sent him his eighth horse, so you
may judge he has not been idle !

The news contained in the laconic and character-
istic postscript of the following letter must surely
have brought great relief to its recipient : —

CHAKLES FRANCIS ADAMS TO J. M. FORBES.

London, 7 September, 1863.

I have been taking a little vacation in Scotland,
which must account to you for my failure earlier to
notice yours of the 4th ulto.

We are now all in a fever about Mr. Laird's iron-
clads, one of which is on the point of departure, and
the other launched and getting ready, with double
gangs of workmen at it night and day. The ques-
tion now is, will government interfere ; and it must

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 57

be settled in a day or two at furthest. I have done
all in my power to inspire them with a just sense of
the responsibility they may incur from permitting
so gross a breach of neutrality. If, however, they
fail to act, you may perhaps soon see one of the
vessels, with your glass from Milton Hill, steaming
up to Boston, as the Richmond paper threatened.
She will stand a cannonade, unless the harbor be
obstructed. It will be for Governor Andrew to be
on the watch the moment the news of her departure
reaches America. She will be delayed a little by
the necessity of taking her armament at some other
point.

Of course, if all this takes place, I shall be pre-
pared to make my bow to our friends in London, as
soon as the papers can be made out. . . .

P. S. 9 September. Since writing this the gov-
ernment has decided to stop the vessels.

Yours truly, C. F. A.1

The day before this letter from Mr. Adams left

1 On the 5th of September Mr. Adams wrote to Lord Russell :
" At this moment, when one of the ironclad vessels is on the point
of departure from this kingdom on its hostile errand against the
United States, it would be superfluous for me to point out to your
lordship that this is war."

The answer (Sept. 8) was : " Instructions have been issued which
will prevent the departure of these two ironclad vessels from Liver-
pool."

Still the decision of the British government was but a postpone-
ment, for Mr. Adams wrote (Sept. 17) : " The departure of the rams
seems to be uncertain." This was confirmed by what he heard from
Lord Russell (Sept. 25), that " the departure of the rams is under
consideration." Draper's American Civil War, vol. iii. pp. 171, 172.

58 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

London, my father, having heard that Mr. Sumner
was to address a meeting of the " Young Men's Re-
publican Union," at the Cooper Institute, on " the
relations of France and England to this country,"
wrote to him thus : —

J. M. FORBES TO CHARLES SUMNER.

Naushon, September 8, 1863.

I hear you are to speak on foreign relations, — a
delicate subject for a man in your position.

May I give you a hint ? I hear from good au-
thority that great doubt exists whether the English
government will consider our prima facie case made
out against the ironclads, and if not they will make
no attempt to stop them.

It will not do, therefore, to say that the letting
out of these vessels means war between us and Eng-
land, for your saying so may make your prophecy
into its fulfillment !

Of course, we must tell the English people how
much the going out of these vessels will increase
the danger of war, and try to wake them up to this
danger, but we cannot afford to go to war yet, even
for this. We are in a sad state of want of prepara-
tion for a war with a naval people. We must gain
time, must wait, and even when ready must still
hope to avoid the fatal necessity.

It is a great point that the " Times " backs up
the Emancipation Society's petition ; it shows which
way Palmerston wishes the public mind turned ; but
it is not conclusive, and the whole subject needs the

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 59

greatest caution, as far from threats as from any
indication that we will submit.

Forgive me for ever seeming to preach to an
adept like yourself ; but I have been there and
know the sensitiveness of the British people (even
decent ones) to threats, and also the readiness of the
government to avail of any appearance of weakness
on our part to push us. . . .

I delight in the President's plain letter to plain
people ! *

The caution appears to have been thrown away.
Mr. Sumner made a very belligerent speech. It
drew from Mr. Rathbone, as representing our
friends in England, a protest, to which the following
is the response : —

J. M. FORBES TO WILLIAM RATHBONE, JR.,
LIVERPOOL.

Boston, 31 October, 1863.

Your note about Sumner's speech was duly re-
ceived and has been used so that it will do good.
Being marked private, I could not show it to Sumner,
but I read it to him without giving your name. I
have also sent a copy of its substance to one of our
campaign orators who was disposed to pitch into
your government and people too !

Sumner was much disturbed at it, and at other
similar letters ; but insists that he was right in tell-
ing the truth, and that he thus best served the

1 See page 73.

60 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

interests of Peace. He does not shine in the per-
ceptive faculties ; has eloquence, scholarship, high
principle, and many other good qualities, but he has
not the faculty of putting himself in the position of
an opposing party, and conceiving of how things
look from a different standpoint than his own.

Nobody can appreciate the extreme sensitiveness
of the English mind to anything which can, how-
ever remotely, be construed into a threat, unless he
has been in the little island within the past year.
When to this honest sensitiveness you add the many
causes for taking offense in the selfishness of certain
parties and the prejudice of others who wish to see
our experiment fail, there is an array of dangers
against speaking out which will deter most men
from doing so. Sumner claims to be, par excellence,
the friend of Peace and of England, and therefore
thinks he can best sound the alarm when he sees
war threatening.

He says that all the arguments you and I use
against plain speaking were used with even more
force against speaking the truth against slavery. It
would irritate the South, would hurt our friends,
would strengthen the hands of our enemies, etc., etc.,
and if he had listened then we should now be the
supporters of a mighty slave empire. There is some-
thing in this, but analogies are not conclusive, and I
shall continue to do my best to keep people's tongues
quiet ! The more I think and know of the whole
subject, however, the more sure I am that the only
safeguard against a war, if not now, certainly the

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 61

first time you get into war when we are at peace, is
your prescription, — a radical change of your and
our law. I am sure, although I cannot prove it,
that if Mr. Adams's whole correspondence were
published you would see that we accepted the pro-
posal to modify our laws (and yours) although we
had found ours sufficient to protect you up to this
time.

But the experience of the doings of the Alabama,
etc., has shown that steam changes the practical
effect of the law, and that the right to sell ships of
war, even if sent out honestly for sale, is incompat-
ible with friendly neutral relations. Moreover, the
irritation caused by your privateers will surely
change the practical mode of executing our law.

You will then go to war with us for doing pre-
cisely what your government have done, — unless
you abstain from the same motives we do, expediency.
No maritime nation will hereafter see its commerce
destroyed and its people irritated by steamers doing
such widespread mischief as any steamer can, with-
out going to war about it. Hence the need of new
treaties modifying the present construction of the
law of nations permitting outfit of vessels adapted
to war purposes, whether bona fide for sale or the
property of belligerents.

You and I know very well how easy it is to pass
over a bill of sale the moment a vessel is three miles
from the shore ; and that when the law is once
fully established that warships may legally be ex-
ported for sale, the rebels or any other belligerents

62 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

can get them delivered at convenient points without
the builders or anybody else breaking the letter of
the law.

As you told me the day I landed in Liverpool,
your law is, under your practice, radically defective.
Ours did well under our practice, but you can never
for a moment count upon our continuing the same
practice in the face of your precedents. You hit
the nail on the head when you told me that your
law was worthless for our protection. Accept my
assurance that ours will be worthless for your pro-
tection in your next war. Our mutual safety is to
change it, and that promptly, while you are strong
and can do it with a good grace, and while we are
still in danger from its defects. It is absurd to say
that your navy would have been much more effi-
cient than ours in catching the Alabama, etc. All
naval ships are loaded down with guns and stores
and trash. Our mercantile warships are better for
speed than either your or our warships.

I was only yesterday talking with one of our old
clipper captains whom I got appointed two years
ago volunteer lieutenant, and who has a merchant
steamer bought and armed by government. He
has been very successful in catching blockade run-
ners and assures me that the Clyde and other trials
of speed are perfectly illusory. He has taken sev-
eral vessels that were going sixteen knots, his ship
beating them at ten knots.

It is not the Alabama's or Honda's speed ; but
the ocean is a big place, and we shall always have

THE MISSION AND ITS RESULTS 63

numerous light-built, fast steamers that can repeat
the Alabama feats even with the whole British
navy divided between blockading ports and chasing
privateers !

Depend upon it, we can export for sale to any
belligerent as many Alabamas as he can pay for.
It is for merchants and statesmen to look ahead
and avert the mutual danger.

With best regards to your father and all your
circle.

A few days previous to this, on the 23 d of Octo-
ber, my father had also had to meet some criticisms
and doubts of his correspondent, Mr. Bates. He
evidently felt that it was a time which called for
optimism, and so, after setting forth the value of
5-20's at par, he wound up thus : —

" Rosecrans's removal is all right. Poor fellow,
his health broke down, and he came near swamp-
ing us at Chattanooga. The military situation is
all right. People must go on changing their in-
vestments into 5-20's until these go above par ; so
the financial situation is all right. The future is
bright; " and then, after giving encouraging partic-
ulars about the fresh call for volunteers and the
enlistment of men lately slaves, winds up this part
of his letter : " A John Brown abolitionist is the
United States recruiting officer for Tennessee I so
you see the world does move."1

In bringing to a close my account of the prin-

1 Major George L. Stearns, of Massachusetts. — Ed.

64 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

cipal subject of this chapter, the London mission, I
must not omit to speak of the final communications
between the Secretary of the Navy and the com-
missioners. On board the Great Eastern, on the
way home, on July 10, 1863, they wrote to the
Secretary recapitulating what they had done, and
urging that, with the evidence already collected,
Mr. Dudley and Mr. Evarts should take immediate
legal steps for the detention of the ironclads. They
wrote : —

" While failing to accomplish any great object,
we hope that we have done something to enlighten
public opinion by our constant intercourse with
leading public and literary men and others, and
also by aiding and encouraging our consuls in their
efforts to stop the outfit of pirates in what ought
to be the friendly ports of Great Britain."

To this letter there was apparently no immediate
reply. My father says in his notes : " Of course
Aspinwall and I refused to take any pay beyond
our actual expenses, and these, with some advances
to the consuls, were largely met by the return to
the United States government of half the London
banker's commission we bargained for ; so if we
did little good we certainly did no harm, and were
not a source of much expense to the government."
After they had got back this half commission from
the Barings and included it in their final account
to the Navy Department, they received from the
Secretary the following letter : —

THE MISSION AND ITS KESULTS 65

GIDEON WELLES TO W. H. ASPLNWALL AND J. M. FORBES.
Navy Department, February 9, 1864.

Gentlemen, — Your letter of the 2d of Feb-
ruary, inclosing J. M. Forbes's check for $21,241.34,
and W. H. Aspinwall's check for $559.87, making
a total of $21,801.21, arising mainly from return
commissions from amount deposited with Baring
Bros. & Co., London, and as final settlement of
your account for expenses while abroad in the ser-
vice of the government, was duly received.
The amount heretofore drawn from
the Treasury on account of the

expenses was $24,104.46

Less amount returned . . . 21,801.21

Net expenses $2,303.25

In closing this transaction, I avail myself of the
opportunity of tendering to each of you the thanks
of the department for the satisfactory execution of
the trust committed to you, and the manner in
which it has been brought to a termination.

Generously refusing all compensation for your per-
sonal services, you in a great emergency promptly,
and with much inconvenience to yourselves, entered
with alacrity upon the mission confided to you, and
the department has reason to be satisfied with the
intelligent and judicious manner in which its duties
were discharged.

Personally, as well as officially, I desire to express
my acknowledgments for the promptness with which,
when appealed to, you embarked in this work, and

VOL. II.

66 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

for the fidelity and ability exhibited, resulting most
beneficially for our country in a period of great dif-
ficulty and trial.

With my best wishes and sincere regards to each
of you,

I am respectfully, your obedient servant,

Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy.

Thus ended this episode of my father's life, of
which he wrote in 1884 : " So far as regarded any
definite results, our mission was a failure." But,
as will be seen in the next chapter, the end that he
aimed at was accomplished a little later, and his
own efforts were thought, in England, to have con-
tributed in an important degree towards bringing it
about.

CHAPTER XVI

THE COLORED TROOPS

Joy and sorrow followed each other very closely
in the war times. My father's delight at the news
of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, which met him on
his landing in New York in July, 1863, was mingled
with grief at the death of his young cousin, Robert
Shaw, who had been killed while leading his colored
regiment against Fort Wagner.

It had been largely through his influence with
Governor Andrew that the doubly dangerous post
of colonel of this regiment had been offered to
Robert Shaw, whose parents represented strongly the
anti-slavery feeling in the North, — doubly danger-
ous, for the Confederates had threatened that colored
soldiers should be enslaved and their white officers
treated as criminals. The governor had wished to
show that the best people in the Bay State were
willing to lead in the movement to arm citizens of
African descent. The young colonel was a repre-
sentative man, already distinguished in his original
regiment, and his appointment had been followed
by that of other volunteers like him, and the roll of
officers was promptly filled. Their gallantry and
that of the men they led is matter of history.

68 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

The whole episode grieved and impressed my
father very much, and made him, after the war,
president of the committee and one of the most ener-
getic workers in raising the fund for the monument
to the memory of the " fair-haired Northern hero,"
with his " guard of dusky hue," which now stands
on the edge of Boston Common, facing the State
House, at the spot where Governor Andrew had
bidden them Godspeed on their leaving for the
South, not two months before the attack on the
fort.

But in those days, when the Union was in a life
and death struggle, all private grief was merged in
public work, and his correspondence shows that he
at once took up his share with renewed energy. In
August he is writing, " in the cars," to Mr. S. G.
Ward, urging him to stir up the press, which " is
not helping as much as it might," with six cogent
reasons for "increasing our black army;" to Mr.
Chauncey Smith, strongly advising the War Depart-
ment, of which he was the solicitor, not to allow a
drafted man himself to furnish a substitute, but to
have him pay $300, and let the department find a
substitute for him ; and to the Secretary of War on
the organization required for making the system of
raising the black troops effective. To this last the
following is the reply : —

THE COLORED TROOPS 69

EDWIN M. STANTON TO J. M. FORBES.

War Department,
City of Washington, August 11, 1863.

I have your favor of the 7th instant. It is cer-
tainly true that the great instrument required for
success in the organization of black troops is some
competent, organizing mind, earnestly devoted to
the subject, and willing to spend and be spent in
the effort to accomplish it. But where is that mind
to be found ? I have been seeking for a long time,
and have as yet been unable to discover it. Gen-
eral Barlow, of Massachusetts, I had intended to
assign to that duty, but his wounds in the battle of
Gettysburg have rendered him unable to undergo
the fatigue incident to such an undertaking. No
greater favor can be rendered to the government or
to this department than for you, or any one else, to
point out to me the man or men fitted for this good
task. I am diligently employed with such material
as is at my command, and I hope with good result ;
but the man who is fitted for a leader in the work
has not yet manifested himself to me.

In respect to the suggestion of offering bounties
to the owners of slaves, it may be satisfactory to
you to know that the subject has for some time
been under consideration. The advantages are ob-
vious ; and I am in hope that the movement will
very speedily attain the point where slave-owners in
Missouri and Maryland will themselves make the
offer, and thus avoid what to some minds appears to
be an insurmountable difficulty, although it is not

70 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

regarded by me as any obstacle whatever. I shall
be glad at any time to receive any instruction or
suggestion that may occur to you as beneficial to
this branch of the service.

Acting on this letter, my father went to work
with Senator Chandler, of Michigan (afterwards
Secretary of the Interior under President Grant), to
secure " one or two very vigorous Western men,"
whom they both knew, for this service.

Then there were the affairs of the Union Club of
Boston, which had been started just before he left
for England, called derisively the " Sambo," but a
very effective organization, so long as it was needed;
the Loyal Publication Society, now in regular run-
ning order, under Mr. C. E. Norton, but always
finding work for its founder ; the Sanitary Com-
mission, for which all the home part of his family
had been hard at work during his absence ; and a
thousand other matters of public interest to be
added to that which, as will have been seen, re-
mained over from the London mission.

The education of the negroes on the Sea Islands
was one of the many side interests of this time. In
the autumn of 1862 Mr. E. S. Philbrick, a philan-
thropic man, but also a practical one, who had
settled temporarily on one of the islands, had writ-
ten to my father, urging that the negroes wanted
guidance, instruction, and encouragement during
their infancy as freemen, and that these could best
be given by at first employing them on the land and

THE COLORED TROOPS 71

then allowing them to buy it in small lots. He and
his immediate friends were able to furnish half of
the $30,000 required for buying land at the govern-
ment's war tax sale in the following April, and other
expenses ; and would Mr. Forbes help in raising
the other half? My father had at once taken up
the idea, made a rough draft of an agreement for
carrying it out, contributed himself, and asked
others to join, and had left the matter well under
way before sailing for England. The land had
been bought, as proposed, and Mr. Philbrick was
now hard at work. I may add here that the project
was carried out by this gentleman with such pru-
dence and economy that, after the object in view
had been fully attained, the capital, with interest,
was returned to the subscribers. The negroes
proved to be teachable and anxious to learn how
to save. Many of them had already some money,
which they had earned in selling eggs, chickens,
etc., to the army, so that soon they were able to
buy bits of the land, and by degrees got the title
to their own little farms. Several Northern ladies,
who had gone to the islands early in 1862, stayed
there as teachers and friends of the negroes, who,
under their influence, became a self-supporting and
self-respecting community ; so that until the great
gale and tidal wave of 1892 overwhelmed the
islands, there were only two paupers upon them,
and they had come from the mainland.

Looking back to the autumn of 1863, my father
writes in his notes : " About this time, having failed

72 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

to induce our government to order marine engines
built abroad, I had procured subscriptions enough to
build the sloop-of-war Meteor, and began to build her
engine in England. The object was to have a cruiser
that could not only outspeed the Alabama, but also
capture her. The Kearsage, under the gallant
Winslow, accomplished the object, but her success
was due to the fighting qualities of ship and crew
and not to her speed." Of the Meteor more will be
heard ; no patriotic effort ever encountered a more
decided douche of cold water.

The notes go on to say : —

"In the fall of 1863, after Gettysburg, Grant's
appointment to the chief command changed every-
thing. He had described in brief the preceding
history of the army as that of i a balky team, never
pulling long together/ and his aim was to bring
the whole body into accord. It was, of course, an
entirely different machine from the undisciplined
force with which we had begun the war, and his
chances were better than those of any previous com-
mander ; but he had two great qualities which
placed him ahead, not only of his predecessors, but
of his contemporaries, — unity and steadiness of
purpose, and, best of all, great magnanimity toward
those under him. Confident in himself, he seemed
to have no jealousies or petty faults, and he sought
to get the very best men for his subordinate com-
manders, and to award them all possible credit instead
of grasping it for himself. From his accession to
power our progress was steadily onward. Even

THE COLORED TROOPS 73

Seward's disposition to compromise, and Lincoln's
to meddle with military strategy, gave way before
Grant's steadiness."

At this period, in a letter to the President for-
warded through Senator Sumner, my father com-
municated his views on some public questions.

J. M. FORBES TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES.

Boston, September 8, 1863.

Sir, — Your letter to the Springfield Convention
has exhausted (so far as you are concerned) the ques-
tion of the negro, and will live in history side by
side with your proclamation.

It meets the fears of the timid and the doubts of
the reformer. It proves that the Proclamation and
the policy resulting from it are the most conserva-
tive, both of liberty and of our form of govern-
ment.

Will you permit a suggestion from one who has
nothing to ask for himself : one who would accept
no office, and who seeks only to do his duty in the
most private way possible ?

The negro question being settled, and the opinions
of the great body of loyal people being now right
thereupon, the next great want is to get the public
mind of the North, and of such part of the South
as you can reach, right upon the true issue of the
existing struggle. People at a distance have dis-
cerned this better than most of us who are in the
midst of it. Our friends abroad see it. John

74 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Bright and his glorious band of English republi-
cans see that we are fighting for democracy : or (to
get rid of the technical name) for liberal institu-
tions. The democrats and the liberals of the Old
World are as much and as heartily with us as any
supporters we have on this side. Our enemies, too,
see it in the same light. The aristocrats and the
despots of the Old World see that our quarrel is
that of the people against an aristocracy.

If our people of the North can be made to see
this truth, the rebellion will be crushed for want of
Northern support, which it has had from the wolves
under the sheep's garments of sham democracy,
who have misled large bodies of unthinking and
ignorant but generally honest Northern men. After
we get military successes, the mass of the Southern
people must be made to see this truth, and then
reconstruction becomes easy and permanent. How
shall we make plain people see this, North and
South, in the shortest time, so as to save the most
we can in blood and treasure? Bonaparte, when
under the republic, fighting despots of Europe, did
as much by his bulletins as he did by his bayonets :
the two went on together promising democratic in-
stitutions to the populations whose leaders he was
making war upon. You have the same opportunity,
and greater ; for you have enemies North and South,
reading our language, whom you can teach.

My suggestion, then, is that you should seize an
early opportunity and any subsequent chance, to
teach your great audience of plain people that the

THE COLORED TROOPS 75

war is not the North against the South, but the
people against the aristocrats. If you can place this
in the same strong light which you did the negro
question, you will settle it in men's minds, as you
have that.

You can, in addition, direct your generals to issue
such bulletins or general orders as will at the same
time instruct their own men and such of the rebels
as can be reached.

A Tennessee paper, never suspected of Northern
tendencies, has lately given a classification of the
population of that State. It estimates that those
who originated secession, and who cordially support
it, are one sixteenth of the people. This is a very
large estimate.

Olmsted confines the aristocratic class to those
who own twenty negroes and upwards. This class
in the rebel States numbers about 28,000 persons,
which is about the 178th part of 5,000,000.

Let the people North and South see this line
clearly defined between the people and the aristo-
crats, and the war will be over !

Fearing you will not remember me, I ask Mr.
Sumner to accredit me to you.

I am, with great respect, yours,

J. M. Forbes.

To this letter the following reply was sent : —

76 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

JOHN HAY TO J. M. FORBES.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, September 12, 1863.

My dear Sir, — The President directs me to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter transmitted
by Mr. Sumner, and to express to you his sincere
thanks for the suggestions it contains, as well as for
the kind terms in which you have spoken of him-
self. I have the honor to be very truly,
Your obedient servant,

John Hay,
Private Secretary.

In his notes, my father speaks of his visits, at this
time, to the camp of Colonel Lowell, now in com-
mand of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry near Vi-
enna, about fifteen miles from Washington, with my
brother serving under him as major. There were
races and quail shooting to pass the time, and horse
stories told by the officers of the California company
of the regiment already referred to, which appear to
have been " too big to bear recording ; " and evi-
dently their guest enjoyed himself among his
" boys," as only such a man, who had brought them
all together in such a cause, was likely to do.

In October, Mr. William Evans, one of the small
circle of radicals in England from whom he had
received comfort and encouragement there, had come
to America and was about to pay a visit to the Pre-
sident. My father appears to have missed seeing
him, for he writes to him in New York : —

THE COLORED TROOPS 77

J. M. FORBES TO WILLIAM EVANS.

Boston, October 21, 1863.

I wanted to have a long sit-down with you before
you see the President. . . .

I want you to see the President to try to present
two ideas : —

1st and foremost, that his proclamation enforced
gives him the access to the English masses and
through them to the government of Great Britain.

2d. That anxiety still exists there as to the effect
of the slave States offering to come back if they can
thus save slavery.

On this head I told him I had assured my British
friends that there were no slaves in those States ; all
had been freed by the President, who would as soon
think of importing three millions from Africa as
reenslaving them !

3d. I wish you could make him see and feel that
you and Bright and others represent the democratic
element in Great Britain, and that you look upon
him as fighting the battle of democracy for all the
world !

I wish our people understood this as well as yours
do!

Yours in great haste, J. M. Forbes.

Mr. Evans appears to have driven the ideas home,
for on his return from Washington he writes to my
father thus : —

78 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

WILLIAM EVANS TO J. M. FORBES.

11 Pine Street, New York, 3 November, 1863.

Your suggestions were duly attended to in my
recent visit to Washington, and I took advantage of
the hospitality afforded me to explain my views,
which were in accordance with your own.

So far from the Proclamation being a cause of
embarrassment to the government, it has been and
is, with regard to the feeling of Europe, the great
source of their strength : and I did not hesitate to
tell the President that had it not been for the anti-
slavery policy of his government there would have
been much greater difficulty in preventing a recog-
nition of the Southern States.

If the non-recognition be attributable to any
one cause more than another, it is to the very pro-
clamation which he seems to regard as a matter of
difficulty.

Entre nous, I was sorry to hear such views ex-
pressed, and did my part to show both to him and to
Mr. Seward the importance of taking a bold course
in this matter. . . .

It must have been about this time that my father
wrote a paper, " crude " as he calls it, but certainly
forcible, on the question of parolling and exchan-
ging prisoners, — one of vital interest then, but only
interesting now as showing that, with a son in the
army liable to be affected by it at any moment, he
treated it solely with a view to the most effective
prosecution of the war. He opposed any plan of

THE COLORED TROOPS 79

exchange at that time, on the ground of the rela-
tive advantage of an exchange to an enemy weaker
in numbers than ourselves, and of the inferior condi-
tion of the men returned by the rebels as compared
with those returned by us, and the consequent pro-
longing of the war ; and especially on account of
the refusal of the rebels to exchange colored troops
and their officers.

On the last day of the year he writes a letter to
Mr. R. Parrott, the gunmaker of West Point Foun-
dry, New York, explaining why he had bought while
in England some " Blakely " guns for Massachu-
setts, and going at length into the comparative merits
of these and the " Rodman " and " Dahlgren " and
"Parrott" (his own) guns; a letter full of public
interest then, and showing at once a thorough grasp
of the whole subject and a thirst for all available
information on it, but obsolete now, in view of the
enormous strides in the art of knocking holes in
iron plates made between 1863 and 1899.

My father writes as to the first half of the year
1864, " I find nothing among my papers or recol-
lections worthy of record." Here I ought to say
that the most important of these "papers," his press-
copying book for political letters, cannot now be
found ; it was probably destroyed or mislaid in 1890,
when a fire at his office in Boston made it necessary
to move two wagon loads of written matter. It is
evident, however, from a few drafts of his letters
which remain, and from numberless replies, that he
did not stay his hand during that period ; also that

80 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

it must have been a most trying time for all those
who were determined that the war should have such
an ending as to make the survival of slavery on any
conditions impossible. Everything seemed to drag
heavily; nothing decisive to the public mind was
being accomplished by army or navy. The escape
from Liverpool and the appearance here of the Laird
rams seemed, up to May, still possible; many people
were tired of war and its sacrifices and longing for
peace; and the weak-kneed, always a large class,
were clamoring for peace at any price.

On the other hand, the sturdier natures at home
and abroad were holding on doggedly. Consul Dud-
ley writes from Liverpool in February, 1864, after
thanking his correspondent for sending him Haw-
thorne's " Our Old Home : " —

" I am a radical and becoming more so every day,
beginning to hate everybody who does not love my
country. . . . We have got all the vessels stopped
and are now getting up the evidence to convict
them. The two ironclads built by Laird in the Mer-
sey are to be tried in May. . . . Evarts is over here
and doing us good service. The feeling of the gov-
ernment towards us is better than it was; indeed,
we stand better to-day than we have at any time
during the war."

At this time Mr. William Evans writes from
England, reviewing his American experiences, and
says : —

" When I think of your great country, and the
efforts it is making to throw off that world-wide

THE COLORED TROOPS 81

blot on its escutcheon, I declare to you I feel proud
even to know the men who are great enough to take
prominent part in its movements. No one can ap-
preciate the grandeur of the sacrifices you are making
without visiting your shores. To doubt your suc-
cess is but to question the law of gravitation. But
what wonderful resources you display !

" We have had our friend Bright up for a week
or two ; our whole talk is about you, your friends,
America, and its great career. Every mail, every
line that comes from you, we look for with thrilling
interest ; not that we attach undue importance to
success, for reverse means more satisfactory ending,
and temporary defeat is but a more abiding assur-
ance of a glorious consummation."

I find no other letter from this enthusiastic
friend, nor do I know whether he ever again visited
America.

About this time very troublesome questions had
arisen, relating to the pay of the colored troops.
The injustice of offering two prices to soldiers, the
larger to white and the smaller to black, called forth
the following letter1 to Mr. Fessenden : —

J. M. FORBES TO W. P. FESSENDEN.

Boston, February 5, 1864.

My dear Sir, — I observe that you oppose re-
trospective action in regard to pay of black troops,
but do not yet gather your reasons for it. However

1 Kindly sent me by his son, General Fessenden. — Ed.
vol. n.

82 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

sound these may be on the general question, I hope,
since you have carried your point there, that you will
also take the lead in securing an amendment which
is necessary to carry out the promises of the govern-
ment in a particular case.

The more ignorant and unprotected the sufferers,
the more just and expedient to assure them of the
good faith of the government. I refer to the case
of the 54th and 55th regiments of Massachusetts,
the first raised from colored troops by any State,
and, it may be, the only ones to whom specific pro-
mises were made, by authority of the Secretary of
War, that they should be put upon the same footing
as to pay and allowances with other Massachusetts
volunteers.

I hand you a copy of Governor Andrew's mes-
sage on the subject; of course you need no con-
firmation of the governor's statements, but it may
have some bearing, as fixing the date of the under-
standing with the Secretary of War, to say that our
committee for recruiting these regiments applied
to the governor before the first man was enlisted
or the first representation made, and received his
assurance then, as coming from the government at
Washington, that their pay allowance should be the
same with our other troops.

The conduct of the men has been beyond all
praise, brave, obedient, and soldier-like. They re-
fused to receive the part pay, which under the con-
struction of the law by the department was offered
them, of $10 per month ; so that they have received

THE COLORED TROOPS 83

no pay from the United States for about a year's
service. They also refused upon the point of honor
to receive from the State of Massachusetts the pay
and allowance which they considered due them from
their general government.

I hope you will see them paid retrospectively,
whatever you do with others who had no such pro-
mises made them. Governor Andrew is ill, or I am
sure he would state the case more forcibly than I
can do.

N. B. I hand three articles on good strong tax-
ation, cut from the " Daily Advertiser " some time
ago ; they are by our friend William Gray.

I wish Congress was as well up to a good strong
tax bill as the people and even the men of property
are. There never was such a time as to-day to pass
a tax bill adequate to the support of the credit of
government.

Mr. Sedgwick writes also to my father and adds
his word on the subject: —

" The course of Congress on the negro pay bill
is wholly inexplicable. There is not a decently fair
man in Congress who does not admit that they
should be paid the same as white soldiers. It is
just, honest, and politic ; it is absolutely essential
to the further vigorous prosecution of the war ; and
yet collectively — in their corporate capacity — Con-
gress acts like the devil about this. But the time
is coming ! I don't know but all this neglect and
delay and quarreling is wholesome. In the end I

84 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

am sure it will bring about this great result, negro
equality ; equal right in Sambo to fight with Jona-
than, vote with him, go to school with him, preach
to him, and go to Congress if he can get votes
enough.

" I go now for the largest liberty.

" I have your letter to Father Abraham. Gov-
ernor Andrew's letter, resolutions, letter to Twitch-
ell, etc., all sound and good. Keep hammering ;
it is the only way ; in the end it will be effectual ! "

At this time even Charles Sumner's undaunted
courage recognized that some military success was
needed to buoy up friends and depress enemies.
He wrote from the senate chamber March 12, 1864 :

" If we could only conquer these rebels at home
we should not have much to fear abroad, but let
the spring campaign go wrong and we shall be
threatened again."

Then there are almost daily letters from Mr. C. B.
Sedgwick showing that the passing of a recruiting
bill, which had been set going by my father, was
being pressed by him in a much crowded session of
Congress and in the teeth of government opposition.

Mr. E. B. Ward writes from Detroit (then looked
on as well out in the West) that he had "taken
the most pungent portions," of some matter which
my father had sent him, and given them to " a
person going to Washington," so that the Solons
of the capital might receive straight from the fresh
West new arguments in favor of the " African
Bureau Bill " and the " African Equalization Bill."

THE COLORED TROOPS 85

It seems, also, that he continued to be at work on
behalf of the freedmen ; for James Russell Lowell
writes to him at this time introducing a "young
friend from Philadelphia deeply interested in "
those fellow-citizens, and adding, " You can tell
him better than any one what he wants to know,
and he would be an excellent person as teacher, or
in any position which demanded character and
capacity."

But what must have most troubled a forecasting
mind during those months was the coming presi-
dential election. He, in common with the more
ardent spirits of his party, had begun to question
whether, if the apparent administrative inertia
should continue, Mr. Lincoln could be reelected,
and whether, therefore, there could not be found
for Republican nominee a man of more decision
and speedy action.

The following letter from the United States min-
ister in London was calculated to increase my fa-
ther's perplexity on this subject : —

C. F. ADAMS TO J. M. FORBES.

London, 31 March, 1864.
Yours of the 29th of February has been too long
on my table unanswered. . . .

Matters are in a very shaky state here. The
ministry stagger along without adequate support in
either house. The opposition have made up their
difference and are getting hungry for power. The
Parliament is dragging to its end. Everybody ex-

86 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

pects a dissolution, and the members who are likely
to meet opponents are becoming very chary about
committing themselves on doubtful issues. Nothing
more will be done about us until this state of things
passes away. Meanwhile we ought to be making
progress to a settlement. We all want peace and
restoration very badly. The Southern people are
thoroughly used up. The governor of North Caro-
lina openly speaks to his people " as a dying man to
dying men." The governor of Georgia tells his
that the only demand to be constantly reiterated is
for " peace, peace, peace." Such talk is not the
talk of a year ago, or even of six months since. It
is not the " last ditch " stuff.

On our side the prospect has its shadows too.
Our debt is going on at a rate which will before
long test the philosophy of the most cheerful tax-
payer. Mr. Chase is doing wonders, too, running
us into the mud. I hope he is prepared presently
to try his skill in pulling us out. If he should
retire, I pity the man who will succeed him. Our
people as yet are not quite alive to their position.
But if a prospect for restoration and reconciliation
on fair and honorable terms should chance to open,
I hope they will not be so rash as to throw it away.
Somehow or other the summer ought not to pass
without a substantial termination of the war. I say
this to you in confidence, both as it respects our
domestic and our foreign relations. I wish I were
at home that I could enforce it. . . .

I know exactly the feelings this letter must have

THE COLORED TROOPS 87

excited ; resulting in a sterner resistance to compro-
mise, and a more determined energy in helping to
carry the slave power to a death from which there
could be no resurrection.

In the midst of these anxieties, there came as a
pleasant little break a dinner given by the Saturday
Club, on the occasion of the three hundredth anni-
versary of Shakspere's birth. In view of this occa-
sion Mr. Emerson writes to my father : —

RALPH WALDO EMERSON TO J. M. FORBES.

Concord, 18 April [1864], Monday.
My dear Mr. Forbes, — I am in pain to hear
from you on the matter of our Shakspere festival
of the " Saturday Club " on the 23d instant. We
cannot do without your presence and aid on that
day. I fear that in your journeyings and patriotic
and private toils my note has never reached you.
One part on which we had relied on you was,
for the urging Whittier to come. I sent him the
formal invitation of the Club, and told him that
he would very likely hear again from you ; as I
remembered that you had expressed the confidence
that you would one day bring him. Bryant and
Richard Grant White are coming, and R. H. Dana,
Sr., and Everett, and Governor Andrew ; and Long-
fellow is coming back, and it is very desirable that
this true poet, and hid like a nightingale, should be
there. But I have heard that his sister is ill and
he not likely to come. He has not sent any reply

88 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

as yet, and I fancy that its falling on Saturday,
and his terror of being in Boston on the Sunday,
may be in the way. But if you, who are a ruler of
men, will promise to protect him and say how ex-
ceptional the occasion is, I yet hope you will bring
him with you. Ever yours,

K. W. Emerson.
The hour I named to him was six o'clock. It is
now fixed at four o'clock p. m., at the Revere House.

My father, when writing to urge Mr. Whittier
to come to the Shakspere dinner, took the oppor-
tunity of asking his opinion as to including loyal
men of all parties in the pending call to the Repub-
lican convention for nominating a candidate for the
presidency. As to this, Mr. Whittier, writing from
Amesbury on the " 20th of the 4th month," after
regretting his not being able to be present at the
dinner, says, " I quite agree with thee as to the
nominating convention. Let us have all loyal,
freedom-loving men there."

A similar suggestion seems to have been made to
George William Curtis, expressing doubts about Mr.
Lincoln as a candidate for reelection, and suggest-
ing the postponing of the presidential campaign till
that of the army should give some decisive results.
To this Mr. Curtis replies from Staten Island, on
the 27th of April, saying that " the presidential
campaign is opened. . . . You gentlemen who don't
like Mr. Lincoln now, won't like him any better if
Grant is successful." A rough draft of the first
part of my father's reply reads as follows : —

THE COLORED TROOPS 89

J. M. FORBES TO GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.

Boston, April 28, 1864.

My dear Mr. Curtis, — I have yours of 27th.
You say " you gentlemen who don't like Mr. Lin-
coln," in reference to me. Now I have too deep an
interest in this war to let likes and dislikes mingle
with my action. I neither like nor dislike Lincoln.
I like him better than Ben Butler ! would to-day,
on the whole, trust him rather than Fremont. I like
him better than Dix or John Brough ; 1 but if the
drifting system, which Seward practically advocates,
does not bring us out by the 1st of September, with
the help of God and the people, I verily believe
that the people will be so tired of it that if on that
day they find themselves fastened to Lincoln by a
previous convention they will drop their heads in
despair and let McClellan come in and make peace
for them, — perhaps after a triangular fight. On
the other hand, if on the 1st September the present
system of floating along by the impulse of the peo-
ple or the will of God brings us out anywhere near
port, or with any tolerable hope of reaching port,
we may all feel, as we do now about the first Bull
Run, that the delays and hesitations and short-
comings were providential, and we shall be content
to go along with a pilot who takes his orders from
the crew, instead of with a leader who directs our
course.

Beyond all this, if we are to have Mr. Lincoln,
whose personal honesty and whose strength with the

1 Governor of Ohio in 1864. He died in 1865. —Ed.

90 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

people certainly make him the most likely person to
be chosen —

Here ends the draft; the complete letter must
have been sent, for Mr. Curtis replies on the 8th of
May, thanking him heartily for it, but urging all
the reasons, which prevailed afterwards with the
Republican party, for nominating at once, and add-
ing, " In no conspicuous man do I see met such a
union of admirable qualities for the work in hand
as in Mr. Lincoln. He has a providential tempera-
ment for this emergency ; honesty, fidelity, sagacity,
conviction, and an infinite patience."

There is nothing to show whether my father
was converted at once to Mr. Curtis's views so ably
urged, but plenty that he threw himself heart and
soul into the campaign the moment after Mr. Lincoln
was nominated.1 Apropos of this, I have received
the following from Mr. Edward Atkinson, dated
February 15, 1899, in reply to a request that he
should give any characteristic anecdote which he
might remember of my father. He writes : —

" At his instance a meeting was called for the
purpose of raising money for the second Lincoln
campaign. It was held in a large side office, of
which I had the control. Some fifteen or twenty
men came in. After the hour had been reached,
your father suggested to me to lock the door, and
we looked around the meeting. He said, ' How
much is this meeting good for ? ' To which I re-

1 At the Chicago Convention, held early in June, 1864.

THE COLORED TROOPS 91

plied, ' About twenty thousand dollars.' c Well/
said he, ' don't unlock the door until we have got
it.' The matter was discussed, and in his usual
manner he led off with a large subscription, and
before we unlocked the door we had twenty-three
thousand dollars. He always led on any line that
he thought others should follow."

So far with regard to the spirit with which he
entered the campaign. Before it began, his mind
must have been relieved of a great weight.

Ever since his letter to Mr. Rathbone of the 31st
of October, 1863, though the Laird rams had con-
tinued to be detained by process of law, the British
government had appeared to be backing and filling
as to whether they could or would prevent their
getting out in any case. In April, 1864, my father
again wrote to this correspondent, no doubt repeat-
ing his arguments and warnings ; for Mr. Rathbone,
writing from Liverpool on the 14th of May, said :

" I send you a paper with yesterday's debate in it.
Since I received your letter I have been so busy
working at the ideas it suggested that I have been
unable to answer it.

" I sent Mr. Baring an extract, and also several of
our leading men, and I believe the arguments have
had weight. Not that people in England share
your views about the present strength of the North ;
the Federal cause is thought in great danger just
now, but that made the discussion of the question
more easy.

" We sent up a very weightily signed petition from

92 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

the Liverpool shipowners, signed by all the first men
here, the present, last, and a previous chairman of
the shipowner's association, the present and previous
chairman of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board,
etc., etc."

Twelve days later, on May 26, 1864, Mr. Rath-
bone wrote : " You will be glad to hear that Laird's
rams are at last disposed of to the English govern-
ment; and it is the opinion of the government that
they have put a stop to fitting out ships."

This was indeed good news to my father, and he
must have gone into the presidential campaign with
a mind greatly relieved, even before the tidings
came of the naval and military victories at Mobile
and Atlanta.

After my father's death, remembering a conversa-
tion which I had had with Mr. Rathbone in London,
three years before, I wrote to him, asking for the
particulars of what he had then told me. His reply,
given below, contains very interesting details as to
the events which immediately preceded the final dis-
position of the rams, and also his own estimate, that
of one very competent to judge, as to the importance
of my father's services on his mission to England
in 1863, and afterwards : —

Green Bank, Liverpool, E.,
December 16, 1898.

Dear Mrs. Hughes, — I have to thank you for
your letter of the 24th of November. I wish I
could find Mr. Forbes's letter to me, pointing out

THE COLORED TROOPS 93

that to let the " rams," building by Lairds, sail would
inevitably bring about a war between the United
States and England, but I have changed houses
twice since then, and am afraid it is quite hopeless.

What happened was this: I received letters, I
think, from your father and uncle, showing clearly
that if the " rams " sailed, the friends of peace
between the two countries would be powerless ; as
the only thing which prevented a declaration of war
by the United States, in consequence of the depreda-
tions of the Alabama, was the fear of the blockade
being raised, which might extend the civil war for
ten years longer ; and if the " rams " sailed, the
blockade would be broken by them, as none of the
American wooden ships could withstand them.

I went straight up to London, saw Mr. Thomas
Baring, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Forster, and others at a
breakfast for the purpose, at Mr. Thomas Baring's.
They realized at once the danger of the crisis, and
urged me to see Lord Palmerston. I was perfectly
astonished at the ignorance of our statesmen gen-
erally, and of Lord Palmerston in particular, as to
the inevitable effect a maritime war would have on
a commerce like ours. They forgot the effect of
the treaty of Paris, in making convoys absolutely
obsolete and useless as a protection of our ships.
They seemed unaware of the extraordinary change
which the improvements in steam had made in the
power of steamers keeping to sea, without going
into port. They were equally ignorant of how ab-
solutely useless and futile the then state of the law

94 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

was to prevent ships of war from being built in a
neutral country with perfect impunity.

I was able to meet all Lord Palmerston's remarks
and suggestions from information that had come
to my knowledge as a shipowner and a very close
student (with the best assistance) of laws bearing
upon the state of our mercantile marine. Lord
Palmerston apparently saw the full force of the
various points I was able to lay before him after the
consultation I had had with Mr. Baring, Mr. Cob-
den, and others. He said he quite realized the
importance of the facts I had laid before him, and
listened with very great patience ; and when I had
concluded, asked me whether there were any other
points which I could and wished to suggest. I said
I thought I had laid before him sufficient to show
that the sailing of the " rams " meant war with
America and the destruction of our mercantile
marine.

Three days afterwards, the " rams " were stopped,
and purchased by the government. Of course, it is
probable that he had received on some of the differ-
ent points I had urged upon him confirmatory advice
and information. He admitted the great importance
of the facts I had given him, and promised that
they should be most carefully considered by the
Cabinet; and I was under the impression that he
himself was convinced. And I have always believed
that the Messrs. Forbes's letters and Mr. John
Forbes's previous exertions in favor of peace pre-
vented a war between the two countries.

THE COLORED TROOPS 95

With all good wishes for the coming, and many
New Years,

Believe me, yours faithfully,

W. Rathbone.

Mr. Rathbone, in 1864, was a leading merchant
in Liverpool. Four years later he became a member
of Parliament.

CHAPTER XVII

THE SUMMER OF 1864

At the end of the first half of the year 1864,
McClellan had been nominated by the Democracy,
and the campaign was now in full swing. I recol-
lect a caricature suggested by my father, not well
executed, but sufficiently indicating his view of the
situation, in which the Democratic candidate was
represented as trying to stand with one foot on a
war horse and the other on a peace donkey, and
finding the team hard to drive.

Among his files I find the following letter from
Mr. Sedgwick describing the result of the vote on
the recruiting bill, a measure which my father had
much at heart.

C. B. SEDGWICK TO J. M. FORBES.

Washington, D. C, Sunday Morning,
July 3, 1864.

Governor Andrew reached here yesterday p. m.,
and spent the night at the Capitol. I saw him on
his arrival. They have finally settled the enroll-
ment bill, — not very satisfactorily, but as well as
you could expect when you consider the opposing
influences. I send you the substance of it from this

THE SUMMER OF 1864 97

morning's " Chronicle." Doubtless the governor
will telegraph you what it is. You will see that
you have no time to lose.

I shall leave for home this evening or in the
morning, pretty well used up and tired out, but not
disheartened. We have n't been thrashed quite
enough yet. We ought to be whipped into that
humble frame of mind which will make us willing
to get soldiers of any color, and enlist them without
scruple even in the enemy's country.

This enrollment bill, allowing recruiting in rebel
States for sixty days, appears to have become law
on the following day, and to have been acted on
at once by Governor Andrew and the Massachusetts
Recruiting Board, of which my father was chair-
man.

There was now to be added to this and his other
public work anxiety on account of his son, Major
Forbes, who was taken prisoner near Aldie Gap,
Virginia, on the 6th of July, by Mosby, the famous
guerrilla leader. That Major Forbes behaved gal-
lantly, his father did not need to be assured ; but it
was a pleasure to him to read what Colonel Mosby
wrote, when the war was over : —

" One of the regiments I most frequently encoun-
tered was from about Boston, the Second Massachu-
setts, Colonel Lowell. I once met a detachment of
it, under command of a Major Forbes, of Boston,
and although our encounter resulted in his over-
throw, he bore himself with conspicuous gallantry."

vol. n.

98 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

His sabre, lodged in his opponent's shoulder, had
sprung from his hand in the shock, and his horse,
shot dead by a bullet aimed at the rider by Mosby
himself, pinned him down, before he surrendered.
He was taken to various places in the South, suffer-
ing a good deal from poor sanitary conditions, but
otherwise well treated. Once he escaped with three
companions, but was recaptured ; and finally, he was
at first released on parole, and then exchanged, in
time to take part in the final cavalry dash under
Sheridan before Lee's surrender.

During the month which followed his son's cap-
ture, I find that my father, without any slackening
of his public work, was bending part of his energies
to getting money to my brother, mainly by drafts on
the Barings forwarded to Savannah to some business
friends of an old Wood's Hole neighbor, Mr. Fay ;
and sometimes by greenbacks sent in through flags
of truce. Of one of these my father says, " The
little missive failed to reach William at Macon, but
it followed him around in rebel hands until it
reached him either in Charleston, or at Columbia,
South Carolina." And he speaks gratefully of the
good faith on this and other occasions " of the Con-
federates in allowing remittances to be sent to
prisoners."

Meanwhile public affairs were beginning to look
brighter. The Alabama had at last been destroyed.
Mr. G. V. Fox writes from the Navy Department on
the 14th July, satisfied with that event, though
regretting the escape of her captain on an English
yacht. He adds : —

THE SUMMER OF 1864 99

" Has not that infernal craft taken the i bloom '
from Hatteras, Port Royal, Roanoke, Fort Donald-
son, Arkansas Post, Shiloh, the Merrimac, and
Atlanta, the blockade of 3;500 miles and the crown-
ing glory of New Orleans ? " And continuing as
to Early's raid, during which my brother had been
taken prisoner : " The rebs have just made off with
more plunder than has entered all the blockaded
ports since the war commenced. It was an attempt
with 20,000 men to break up Grant ; but he was too
calm and persistent to be caught. It is rather
humiliating, but does not affect the campaign at all,
the result of which is sure. ... I am very sorry
about the capture of your son. I doubt if anything
can be done just now. No sporadic exchanges have
been made for some time. Should anything of the
kind be likely to happen, I will do everything in my
power."

Through the kindness of General Fessenden, Mr.
W. P. Fessenden's son, I am able to give a letter
written at this time as to a serious danger relating
to the maintenance of the blockade, of which private
information had reached him. With his character-
istic vigilance and promptitude, the matter was at
once attended to : —

J. M. TORBES TO W. P. FESSENDEN.

Naushon Island, July 28, 1864.
I have, through mercantile sources, reliable infor-
mation that some plan is on foot for using private
enterprise in maintaining the blockade. If this can

100 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

be done by charter, making the vessels outright
ships of war, it may be safe to do it under very
careful orders ; but if it is contemplated to issue
letters of marque to overhaul neutral commerce, it
is full of danger, and the least that could come of it
would be a war panic that must interfere seriously
with your financial arrangements.

Under the best circumstances, the risk altogether
overbalances the advantage of it, and I feel bound
to call your attention to it as likely to cause serious
embarrassment to your department.

When I was about embarking for England in
March, 1863, a similar step was seriously contem-
plated, and it was then said had Mr. Seward's
approval. I ventured to protest against it before
sailing, and on arriving out found that the rumor
of it had caused great alarm among our friends
there, who considered it almost sure to bring on
collision. Matters there are better now, but we
cannot yet afford to quarrel with John Bull.

If you see the risk as I do, I hope you will still
be able to stop it by prompt action. It comes to me
confidentially (but surely), so I hope you will use
the information carefully. I have no right to with
hold it from you, as it seems to me to involve a
grave public danger, or at best a very hazardous
experiment, at a time when we cannot afford to run
any more risks.

The autumn began with anything but a confident
feeling on the part of my father and his chief cor-

THE SUMMER OF 1864 101

respondents. On the 5th of September Mr. Sedg-
wick writes to him from Syracuse : —

" I felt for some weeks in a despairing mood about
Lincoln : feared it would be impossible to elect him
without early and important military successes. At-
lanta has turned the tide and it is running in his
favor. No man ever was elected to an important
office who will get so many unwilling and indiffer-
ent votes as L. The cause takes the man along ;
but the unthinking multitude will be for him if he
is successful by land and sea."

Another letter from Mr. Sedgwick, after express-
ing sorrow at not being able to join his friend in
Washington, adds : " I hope you will succeed in
your most laudable purpose of getting the adminis-
tration to declare war ! "

About the same time Mr. W. C. Bryant writes
from the office of the New York " Evening Post "
as to the " Seward and Weed faction which is fill-
ing all the offices [there] with its creatures," and
further says : " I am so utterly disgusted with Lin-
coln's behavior that I cannot muster respectful terms
in which to write to him." x

My father speaks of September and October, 1864,
as " the most exciting, if not the most depressing,
period of the war ; " and so at least it seems to have
been for him. At the beginning of September,

1 My father had asked Mr. Bryant to write to the President,
urging an appeal to the " hard-handed people of the country " to
support him " on a plain square issue," i. e. the uncompromising
prosecution of the war. — Ed.

102 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Messrs. Seward, Greeley, and others had been com-
bining with Vallandigham to negotiate, at Niagara
Falls, a plan of compromise which roused my father
to unusually vigorous protests. He writes to Mr.
Fox: —

J. M. FOKBES TO G. V. FOX.

Yacht Azalea, September 6, 1864.

N. East gale, bound to New Bedford.

I was so disheartened by what I heard in New
York that I cannot help trying to do and say some-
thing to help. I heard there, from what seemed to
be the best authority, that thoughts were still enter-
tained by the administration of opening negotiations
with the rebel leaders. Thurlow Weed is desperate
as to our political success, and Raymond of the
" Times," Chairman of the National Committee, and
his paper, the out and out champion of Mr. Lin-
coln, is giving intimations that indicate this disposi-
tion to patch up a peace, on what he vaguely calls
honorable terms. These indications are paralyzing
the Republican and the Union party; and if a new
keynote cannot be struck, the campaign will go by
default, or will depend only on brilliant success by
Grant for any chance of success. We cannot for a
moment compete with the Copperheads in bidding
for terms of surrender, or call it peace if you like,
nor can we meet the rebels in diplomacy. Their
blacklegs and jockeys from S. to B., desperate, wily,
practiced, and unscrupulous, can beat us all to shiv-
ers ; and everything we have done, or can do, will
only be turned against us in the election, or in the

THE SUMMER OF 1864 103

field, by encouraging their people and discouraging
ours, or used with foreign powers for intervention.
Until their military power is broken, nothing but
hard knocks in the field, and a bold, square war
policy at home, will give us any shadow of a chance
to succeed.

... If the milk and water policy of trying to
negotiate with the rebels while their armies exist
is attempted, earnest men will feel that it is a mere
contest for party power, and that perhaps the war
Democrats may react upon the peace party, and make
McClellan just as likely to save the Union as we
should be. Peace negotiation is their thunder.
Let us not try to steal it, but with all firmness and
moderation insist upon war, until the rights of the
people, North and South, are safe from subversion.
Peace can only mean with such enemies, cheating :
it can only be a truce, giving them time to arm and
make treaties with foreign nations, and negotiate
with our border and Copperhead States for free
trade seduction. There is no peace possible, and
talking of it will destroy the Republican and Union
party, and practically put Vallandigham and Wood
into the White House.

I have everything at stake in the army ; my son
and my son-in-law are there — my younger son
training to go. All the young men that I love or
value are there or incapacitated. I want peace for
their sakes ; I hate war for its own sake ; but I sol-
emnly protest against crying " Peace " when there
is no peace. It only means a short truce, defeat at

104 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

the election, and then prolonged war with an invig-
orated enemy, perhaps strengthened with foreign
alliances. If I had any political position or any
eloquence, or had any power of moving the Presi-
dent, I would go and tell him this ; but situated as
I am, I feel that it would be a mere waste of his
time and mine. If, however, you agree with me,
you have his ear, and our combined voices might
reach him. In that case, pray read him this letter,
telling him it comes from one who has no political
aspirations, and who only wants safety for free in-
stitutions, and a true peace ; one who has no isms,
and who is willing to trust to the negro's getting
his rights, if we can only establish a true democracy ;
for the greater involves the lesser.

The only offices I ever held were that of presi-
dential elector in 1860, and a seat in the Peace
Congress.

Those who knew my father will easily picture him
to themselves, driven to desperation by the way
things were going, with his head down over the table,
writing that northeasterly-gale-letter in the little
cabin of the Azalea. What became of it appears
from the following memorandum by his correspond-
ent : —

Washington, D. C, March 29, 1883.

The original letter, of which the foregoing is a
copy, was read to Mr. Lincoln, and if my memory
is not at fault, I left that in his hands. He seldom
read the newspapers during the war, but gathered

THE SUMMER OF 1864 105

his information of the popular feeling from private
letters and talks. He was always grateful for such
disinterested and earnest letters as this, and I have
no doubt that they had great influence in leading
him towards those final conclusions to which he only
arrived after patiently hearing all that any one
wished to state.

His playing with " peace negotiations " in 1864
was a repetition of that profound and secretive
policy which marked his course with regard to Fort
Sumter in 1861. Many of the leaders, even those
close to him, thought him to be a " simple-minded
man." He was the deepest, the closest, the cutest,
and the most ambitious man American politics has
produced. G. V. Fox.

The letter to Mr. Fox was followed, the next day,
by a circular to " Mr. George Bancroft and others
of the older war Democrats " (who seemed to him
to form too large a retired list), with much the same
ring in it, asking for a conference with them on the
following Sunday in New York. Of this he writes
in his notes, " It resulted in no meeting, but in a
good deal of personal and written consultation, and
perhaps helped to lead up to the great public rally
at the Cooper Institute in New York, which was
one of the turning points of the political campaign."
I find that this rally was preceded by a feeling of
depression on the part of my father and his friends
in New York and Boston, who saw that the Niagara
Falls peace negotiation was paralyzing the Union

106 JOHN MURRAY FOEBES

party, and concluded that " the only card to play "
against it was a popular meeting. As to what fol-
lowed, he wrote, in 1885, the following note, for
his friend Thomas Hughes : —

" I pushed on again to New York to see what
could be done, and the first step was to see our
Nestor, Peter Cooper, not then so well known out-
side of Manhattan Island as he has been since.
When asked for advice and letters of introduction
to leading men, he curtly replied, ' There is no time
for letters or palavers; get with me into my buggy/
The horse was soon at his office door, or already
there tied to a lamp-post or to a weight, and away
trotted the vigorous old merchant, with his queer
hat and his keen eye, whip in hand, ready even
then, after all our blunders, to take the war by
contract and i put it through by daylight,' as the
old sta^e-drivers used to advertise their routes !
From door to door we drove, through the crowded
streets, stirring up one timid friend, holding back
the next who wanted some other method, and insist-
ing against delay, or doubt, or change of plans ;
and in half the time anybody else would have
taken, he (with the big Cooper Institute open at his
nod) settled the great meeting of the period, when
the brains and force of New York gave the key-
note to the voices of the country for making no
compromise, no step backward while such a contest
at the polls was going on, until by hard knocks the
back of the rebellion should be broken and a real
peace secured."

THE SOIMEE OF 1364 107

The prospect was now brightening, and Mr.
Sedgwick could write from Syracuse : —

"The old enthusiasm is reviving here. We have
enlisted a new regiment in this county in a fort-
night; and men enough to make another go into
the organizations in the field. Atlanta and Mobile
have lifted us out of the slough of despond. If
you can wake up the Rip Tan Winkles at Washing-
ton all will yet be well."

Whether excited or depressed, my father never
lost sight of the question of ways and means ; and
we find him writing from Naushon, on the 8th of
September, to Mr. W. P. Fessenden, now Secretary
of the Treasury, thus : —

u The inclosed cutting from the •' Evening Post '
embodies my views as to one mode of filling our
treasury.

" Let the capitalists at home and abroad see that
the people are coming to the treasury for invest-
ments, and it will be the best possible stimulant to
capitalists at home and abroad to come in while
gold is high. Let the popular rills begin to fill
your cistern, and capitalists will be sharp enough to
take the hint, and then each will act favorably on
the other.

" If the idea is worth anything, that shrewd old
fox, Louis Napoleon, may claim a patent for it. He
issued bonds down to twenty francs, I think = four
gold dollars. . . .

a I continue unalterably opposed to more infla-
tion of the currency, and I hope you can give the

108 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

people some $10 security which cannot be used to
inflate the currency, in other words something which
is not a legal tender."

In the following month my father writes in his
notes : —

"I had been much struck while in England in
the preceding year by the logical and scholarly sup-
port given our cause by Professor Goldwin Smith.
It was perhaps not so whole-souled as that of Bright
and Cobden, but its judicial tone made it quite as
effective. He was now on his first visit to America,
and I intended to bring him into contact with such
men as would best post him as to the true state of
affairs and opinions in the North."

My father wrote with this intention to the pro-
fessor, who accepted his invitation to Naushon, and
added: "I am as sensible as you can desire me to
be of the fact that the Democratic party, so-called,
is an oligarchy conspiring with a mob ; somewhat
analogous to the conspiracy of the French emperor
with the most ignorant part of the French peasan-
try against the party of liberty in France. Con-
fusion wait on their banners in the approaching
struggle ! For if they win and reimpose upon you
the yoke of the planter, it is over with the liberal
cause, not only here, but in other countries for
many a day."

A letter from my father to Mr. R. W. Emerson
invites him to be at Naushon at the same time : —

THE SUMMER OF 1864 109

J. M. FORBES TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

Naushon, October 3, 1864.

I write partly to remind you of your promise to
be on the 10.30 train of Saturday, 8th, partly to in-
terest you to expedite Mr. Smith's advent, and make
sure of his being there with you, to meet, I hope,
Mr. William Cullen Bryant and some others. . . .

We had yesterday a sad letter from Lowell ; * do
not blush for me, but I wanted to cry, over a horse !
When W. was taken I begged Lowell to use his two
remaining horses (Beauregard, you know, being
killed under him when captured). Soon after the
late Sheridan campaign began, Lowell had one of
the horses shot under him, leaving little Billy ; and
now he writes that little Billy had three more balls
through him in a charge on Breckinridge's guns,
brought him off the field, and fell to rise no more !
He had been hit three times before, under Lowell,
but had recovered ; and a letter was on the way
withdrawing him from active service until his master
returned; Will's last letter saying, "If Billy is to
be shot again, it must be with me on him ! " Poor
fellow, he was the best horse in the regiment and we
all loved him ; and his master will only half enjoy
his release when this news comes ; but of course I
could not have withheld him.

My father's notes remark, apropos of Billy : —
" When Will got his commission he was very
anxious to be mounted from the island ; but at the

1 Colonel Charles Russell Lowell. — Ed.

110 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

time of his starting to join his regiment we had
searched in vain for a horse, stout enough to carry
his weight, among the thirty or forty colts which,
with high pedigrees, had descended from the fa-
mous thoroughbred Bob Logic. We at last found
a sturdy pony-built bay, the product of a rough
plebeian mare by an unknown father. Amidst all
his patrician associates, however, Billy was the only
fit one to mount his young master; and, indeed, for
hard service he proved the best among a regiment
of 1200 horses ; he could go furthest, jump high-
est, and upon hard fare come out brightest of the
whole ; and when he returned home from Antietam,
I remember him reduced in weight to about 900
pounds, but still cheerful, easy, and strong. He was
with Will all through his campaigns until he was
captured by Mosby in 1864. . . . Lowell said [that]
while his brigade was preparing, he walked up and
down debating whether to take Billy or some other
trooper's horse ; but he knew I should not hesitate.
I only wish we had a historian who could better tell
the story of ' a horse without a pedigree.' '

Of the party to meet Mr. Smith at Naushon, my
father continues in his notes : —

" The proposed visit came off, with much valuable
interchange of ideas. William Cullen Bryant was
prevented from coming, but, besides Mr. Emerson
and Charles Sedgwick, John Weiss and George
Ward were of the party, which fully answered the
intended purpose. They arrived, seasick and woe-
begone, after a very rough passage from New Bed-

THE SUMMER OF 1864 111

ford, in the Azalea ; but soon revived, and were able
to enjoy the island mutton, seasoned with profitable
conversation."

It was of this meeting that Mr. Emerson wrote
the words which are given at the beginning of this
book. I append here the whole of the passage as it
originally stood in his journal ; and as it was given
by his son, Dr. E. W. Emerson, in a letter to the
" Boston Herald," just after my father's death : —

" October 12, 1864. Returned from Naushon,

whither I went on Saturday with Professor , of

Oxford University, and Mr. . Mr. Forbes at

Naushon is the only ' squire ' in Massachusetts, and
no nobleman ever understood or performed his duties
better. I divided my admiration between the land-
scape of Naushon and him. He is an American to
be proud of. Never was such free, good meaning,
good sense, good action, combined with such domes-
tic, lovely behavior, and such modesty and persistent
preference of others. Wherever he moves he is a
benefactor.

" It is of course that he should shoot well, ride
well, sail well, administer railroads well, carve well,
keep house well, but he was the best talker also in
the company, with the perpetual practical wisdom
seeing always the working of the thing, with the
multitude and distinction of his facts (and one de-
tects continually that he has had a hand in every-
thing that has been done), and in the temperance
with which he parries all offense and opens the eyes
of his interlocutor without contradicting him. I

112 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

have been proud of my countrymen, but I think
this is a good country that can breed such a creature
as John M. Forbes.

"There was something dramatic in the conver-
sation on Monday night, between Professor ,

Forbes, and , chiefly, the Englishman being

evidently alarmed at the new prospect of the retalia-
tion of America's standing in the identical position
soon, in which England, now and lately, has stood to
us, and playing the same part toward her. Forbes
a year ago was in Liverpool and London, entreating
them to respect their own neutrality, and disallow
the piracy and the blockade running, and hard
measure to us in their colonial ports, etc. And now,
so soon, the parts were entirely reversed, and Pro-
fessor was showing us the power and irrita-
bility of England, and the certainty that war would
follow if we should build and arm a ship in one of
our ports and send her out to sea, and at sea sell
her to their enemy ; which would be a proceeding
strictly in accordance with her present proclaimed
law of nations.

" At Naushon I recalled what Captain John Smith
said of the Bermudas, and I think as well of Mr.
Forbes's fences, which are cheap and steep : i No
place known hath better walls or a broader ditch/

" I came away saying to myself of J. M. F.,
'How little this man suspects, with his sympathy
for men and his respect for lettered and scientific
people, that he is not likely ever to meet a man who
is superior to himself.' "

THE SUMMER OF 1864 113

On the day on which Mr. Emerson was making
this entry in his diary, Mr. Adams was writing to
my father from Kingston, Derbyshire : —

" I learn to-day that Semmes is off again in a
screw steamer, called the Laurel, taking eight officers
and a hundred men, with six guns as cargo. This
is provoking enough. If you could catch the con-
cern, I doubt whether anybody would cry. I note
what you say about matters at Washington. On
the whole, the country is wonderfully firm. The
government will, I think, be sustained."

So it would appear that Mr. Adams was now satis-
fied of there being no " prospect for restoration and
reconciliation," save through the utter prostration
of the South and the abolition of slavery.

Now came what to my father was, I think, the
hardest personal loss of the war ; the death, namely,
on the 19th of October, of Brigadier-General Charles
Russell Lowell, Jr., nephew of the poet, at the bat-
tle of Cedar Creek. This is what General Sheridan
wrote of him to my father in 1881 : —

"He had three horses killed under him at the

first battle of Winchester (September 19, 1864), and

on the morning of October 19, Cedar Creek, same

year, he was mortally wounded while holding an

advance position with his brigade on the left of the

retreating army, in the village of Middletown. On

my arrival on the field, my first order was sent to

General Lowell through an aide-de-camp, to hold

the position he then occupied if it was possible. His
vol. n.

114 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

reply was that he would, and when the final charge
was made by the whole line in the evening, he was
lifted on his horse, but could only whisper his last
order for his men to mount and advance against
the enemy.

"I watched him closely during the campaign,
and had he survived that day at Cedar Creek, it was
my intention to have more fully recognized his gal-
lantry and genius by obtaining for him promotion
in rank, and a command which would have enlarged
his usefulness and have given more scope to his
remarkable abilities as a leader of men."

My father had admired and loved Charles Lowell
from the time when they first met in 1856. The
younger man's alert, ready mind, keen wit, and in-
domitable courage had endeared him to a spirit to
which exactly those qualities most appealed. And
his interest in him had become keener when, at the
time of his employment on the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Railroad, he had refused a brilliant pro-
spect in India held out to him by Mr. Ashburner.
To the latter, in England, I find my father writing
on December 12, 1864 : —

" Making up my old files, I came upon a most
characteristic letter from Lowell, and my wife wishes
you to have a copy of it, which she has made. With
his taste, refinement, consciousness of intellectual
power, and his love of the beautiful, I can hardly
conceive of any greater temptation, since the Lord
was taken into a high place, than that which you
set before Lowell (I don't mean to extend the com-

THE SUMMER OF 1864 115

parison on your side !), situated as he was in that
dull place, amid rough men, and away from all that
was tasteful and pleasant. His letter shows how
the temptation came to him, and how it was resisted.
It took more solid character, more self-sacrifice, than
many a desperate charge, — and he made some be-
fore which that of Balaklava will not, or should not,
stand in more heroic colors. If you have no objec-
tion, — suppressing your name if you wish it, — I
think this letter should be published when his life
is written. He had a taste for luxury, a delicate
frame, his family looking to him for help ; yet how
loyally and bravely he rejects wealth and position,
offered him, too, in such a flattering way ! One of
the strange things has been how he magnetized you
and me at first sight ! We are both practical, un-
sentimental, and perhaps hard, at least externally,
yet he captivated me just as he did you, and I came
home and told my wife I had fallen in love ; and
from that day I never saw anything too good or too
high for him, — more knowledge confirming first
impressions. But he is gone, and leaves us only
memory of a genius departed."

About a year before his death, Colonel Lowell, as
he was then, had married our cousin Josephine, a
sister of the Kobert Shaw who fell at Fort "Wagner.
The following extract from one of his letters to her,
she sent to my father after her husband's death. I
find it among his papers, and she kindly allows me
to print it. It may well follow what I have quoted

116 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

above, as expressing Charles Lowell's feeling towards
his friend of many years: —

Camp Brightwood, June IT, 1863.

... I wonder whether I shall ever be able to re-
pay cousin John in any way for his many kind-
nesses, and for the many pleasant days and evenings
I have passed at Milton and Naushon. Do you
know that after Chancellorsville 1 he wrote that he
had more than a half a mind to come home at once
to help raise a new army, and if necessary to take
a musket himself? Perhaps one of these days I
may have a chance to do something to gratify him.
I wonder whether my theories about self-culture,
etc., would ever have been modified so much —
whether I should ever have seen what a necessary
failure they lead to — had it not been for this war :
noio, I feel every day, more and more, that a man
has no right to himself at all ; that indeed he can
do nothing useful unless he recognizes this clearly ;
nothing has helped me to see this last truth more
than watching Mr. Forbes. I think he is one of
the most unselfish workers I ever knew of ; it is
painful here to see how sadly personal motives in-
terfere with most of our officers' usefulness. After
the war, how much there will be to do; and how
little opportunity a fellow in the field has to pre-
pare himself for the sort of doing that will be
required. It makes me quite sad sometimes; but
then I think of cousin John, and remember how

1 When my father was in London. — Ed.

THE SUMMER OF 1864 117

much he always manages to do in every direction
without any previous preparation, simply by pitch-
ing in, honestly and entirely — and I reflect that
the great secret of doing, after all, is in seeing what
is to be done.

With this spontaneous eulogy I close the brief
mention of a friendship to which my father looked
back with tenderness to the end of his life, thirty-
four years later.

And now of Lincoln's reelection and of other
matters, my father wrote to his old friend, Mr.
Aspinwall, in New York : —

J. M. FORBES TO W. H. ASPINWALL.

Milton, November 25, 1864.

I stopped to vote and then went down to Wash-
ington with my daughter * and her baby ; and thence
with Fox to Grant's headquarters, where we picked
up the general and brought him back to Norfolk
and Fortress Monroe, Admiral Porter having joined
us at the Fortress on our way down. They had
thus consultations in which I am happy to say the
public did not participate ; and out of old Grant
there is no getting anything, even if one were so
indiscreet as to try.

He talked in some such way, as he would, about
the rebs having robbed the cradle and the grave
for conscripts, and spoke of deserters daily coming
in and confirming his ideas of their exhaustion ; but

i Mary, the wife of Colonel H. S. Russell. — Ed.

118 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

he talks very little, and all such things are rather
drawn out of him than volunteered. . . .

I have seen Colonel Cole, Cobden's cousin, and
had him to dine at the Club two days since : he was
just from the front, and says the Dutch Gap Canal
can probably be opened any time, and he thinks the
river will sweep through and make it a short cut,
but he has no idea what the plan of using it is.
Goldwin Smith has gone through, with Ben Butler,
to the front ; then visits Seward ; so you have my
budget of gossip. . . .

I hear of my son being alive and cooking ' on 1st
November ; and from him in October, and hourly
look for his parole. If all goes right with him, we
may go to Washington three weeks hence, to a house
which I have secured there.

In December, 1864, the United States minister to
Paris, Mr. Dayton, died. It was a post only less
important than that of minister to London. My
father advocated the appointment of Mr. Bigelow,
and I find a letter from Mr. Evarts agreeing with
him, and saying that he also had " given his voice "
for him.

The Massachusetts senator appears to have been
of a different mind : —

1 As a prisoner of war at Columbia, South Carolina. He used to
boast greatly of his sweet potato pies, and made us an excellent one
on his return home. — Ed.

THE SUMMER OF 1864 119

CHARLES SUMNER TO J. M. FORBES.

Senate Chamber, December 31, 1864.

I have your note of the 29th December. I don't
know whether in my former letter I expressed to you
the rule which I think should govern the President on
this occasion : it is to fill the vacancy occasioned by
the death of Mr. Dayton as he would fill up the gap
if Sherman should suddenly die in Georgia. In
each case the best man, he who can serve the coun-
try best, should be selected, without regard to the
minor considerations of where he comes from or
where he is now. Carrying out this idea, the per-
son who, all things considered, could serve the coun-
try best, could do most to strengthen us at Paris at
this time, is, in my judgment, Mr. Everett.

Mr. Bigelow would, of course, continue to act as
consul, and we should have two strong men there
instead of one. . . .

But I may be doomed to disappointment. Will
it not go to a politician ? Who knows ?

By this time Mr. Chase had left the Treasury,
and had been appointed, in December, 1864, Chief
Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States,
and Mr. Fessenden had temporarily given up his
seat in the Senate and his chairmanship of the Com-
mittee on Finance, and was fining the gap at the
Treasury till a permanent chief secretary should be
appointed.

As to this, my father writes to Mr. Fessenden : —

120 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

J. M. FORBES TO W. P. FESSENDEN.

Boston, January 11, 1865.

The more we think of a successor to you in the
Treasury, the more unfortunate it seems that you
must go. Where shall we look for a man big
enough to begin to fill your place ?

If it is a foregone conclusion that you must go,
one thing is clear, that we ought to put forward the
best man that is left; for now that our military
affairs go so well, the next great battle is to be
fought in the money market, and you or some other
first-class general must lead.

I think your experience will confirm the opinion
which I hold, that no mere merchant or banker
ought to be put there, in such a crisis. If we had
an Alexander Hamilton, who had slipped down into
commercial life, he might do ; but the mere know-
ledge of detail and of the course of business, which
you would get in any commercial man, will be more
than counterbalanced by his having certain fixed
notions about small things which will eternally be
standing in the way of big ones.

I see the New York papers want a merchant there,
and I hear several named, yet none of them is big
enough.

The moment you positively decide to go, you of
course want to throw upon your successor the re-
sponsibility, jointly with Congress, for the work he
is to do after you abdicate ; and I take it that this
and other considerations will make immediate action
necessary whenever you do decide to go.

THE SUMMER OF 1864 121

New York has got one member of the cabinet ;
but, for God's sake, give her another if she can offer
a first-class man.

I should as soon hesitate about keeping Grant,
and Sherman, and Thomas, and Farragut, if they
all belonged to one section or one State, as to hesi-
tate about putting into the Treasury the best man
we have, irrespective of state lines ; but I happen to
know no New Yorker who has just the right quali-
fications. New England ought to be represented in
the cabinet by her best man, and this brings me to
my point. Governor Andrew is going out of office
here after this year, and can go out without great
damage to our state affairs any time, on sixty days'
notice. He will not voluntarily run against Wilson
for the Senate ; but if the legislature and people
say so, neither he nor any other man can refuse to
serve the State in any post during the war.

He ought to be in the cabinet, and while, for his
own sake, his friends would like to see him in some
other place less arduous and less dangerous, he is in
my judgment the next best man, after you, for the
place. I have summered and wintered him for five
years of war and trouble, and while he represents
the most advanced opinions on politics, I know no
man who so fully unites tact and judgment with
perseverance and force. You probably know all this
as well as I do, and you will see the cruelty, too,
of asking any friend to go into such a battle as
impends ; but if I read him aright, he is bound to
go wherever duty calls, even if it were into the veri-

122 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

table battlefield. He will not consider himself or
his interests, all of which point to his returning to
his family and his profession, from which he has
been practically divorced since the war broke out.
But we cannot afford to lose him from public life,
even if there is danger of his being expended.

I shall probably be in Washington about the 18th,
and only write because I suppose immediate action
about some of the cabinet offices may be taken, and
one change probably involves others. I know all
about your delicacy at interfering, but you will of
course be called upon for advice as to your successor,
and so, as usual, I cannot help putting in my sug-
gestion. I congratulate you personally upon your
prospect of getting out.

My father evidently wrote to Governor Andrew
also, suggesting that he should be a candidate for
the Treasury ; but he replied, declining, and added :

"For myself, I should dread to undertake any
place but that of attorney-general. My legal train-
ing and tastes would help me to master its duties ;
while the functions and the opportunities for useful-
ness in that office are such as peculiarly tempt me
to risk a failure for the sake of the chance of doing
good, according to my way of thinking, which it
affords.

" I think that the administration lacks coherence,
method, purpose, and consistency ; not in the sense
which impugns its patriotism, or its philanthropic
will either, but in a sense which affects its intelligent

THE SUMMER OF 1864 123

unity of purpose. God has so made the world of
matter and of mind both, that nothing can work
well which is not moved and operated from its
centre, rather than its circumference. This is emi-
nently true, whether of a school district, an army,
or an empire, and not less of a water-wheel, or of
the infinite system of the sidereal heavens. In our
cabinet, the law officer is the one who, if either,
can best promote that unity and coherence needful
and missing now — the finding of that centre on
which mere action must revolve, or else degenerate
into wild and abnormal agitation. Now perhaps I
should find I had missed my vocation ; but I have
will, patience, faith, good temper, and a clear pur-
pose. From boy to man for thirty years, I have
been looking and working in one direction. When I
cannot see, I do not the less believe. I am conscious
of no very great personal ambition. Still I enjoy
public life, if it is only active, working, and useful.
And while I am far from sure that I should not
serve better others and myself by going, at the end
of this year, into private life, and waiting until (and
always remaining there unless) a clear call, like that
of 1860, may command me to try my hand again, I
am still ready to report for duty as a drafted man,
if others who can judge fairly, think it best I should.
I do not perceive how I can be of any special use
compared with many others, in any of the cabinet
places, unless in the one I have named."

Governor Andrew appears to have seen some pro-
spect of the attorney - generalship being vacant.

124 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Subsequent correspondence shows that the office
was not offered to him ; and as to the secretaryship
of the treasury, it will be seen that, very soon after
this, my father became satisfied, from personal inter-
course, of Mr. McCulloch's being the best man for
that office.

CHAPTER XVin

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON

December, 1864, had been fixed on for the re-
moval of our family to Washington, where my
father had taken a house for two years. He does
not give in his notes the object of this plan ; but he
doubtless wished to be at the centre of things at
this most interesting period ; and both he and my
mother wanted to be near the army and to keep
within call of my brother, who, though at the
moment at home on parole, was likely at any time
to be exchanged and to return to his regiment in
Virginia.

This exchange was not effected until the follow-
ing March ; and so Christmas, at Milton, was made
glad by his return ; and the removal was postponed
until January, when we all migrated to Washington.

My father entertained, in an informal way, a good
deal. Among our guests were Mr. Sumner, then
at the head of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Affairs ; Senators Grimes and Fessenden ; and Mr.
McCulloch, then an officer in the Treasury, and
soon to succeed Mr. Fessenden as Secretary of that
department. Mr. McCulloch became an habitue of
the house, and I can remember endless talks be-

126 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

tween him and my father on the withdrawal of the
surplus of greenbacks from circulation, and the
general contraction of the currency with a view to
a return to specie payment. It seemed to me then
a very dry subject, and I am reminded that it is not
one of thrilling interest to the general reader even
now ; and so I shall only give short extracts from
the letters which passed between them after our
return to Milton. It was a most interesting and
exciting time, that winter in Washington. As I
find in the notes : " We saw all sorts of people at
our house, from soldiers and statesmen down to the
old residents. Most of the latter were rebels at
heart, but kept up appearances ; and many of them
called out of curiosity or politeness." But at times
calling, whether by "carriage company" or other
people, was not to be undertaken lightly. The
house which we occupied was on one of the good
streets. It was large and sunny, but it fronted on
what, in rainy weather, was a shallow canal of mud,
rather than a street, along which you might have
poled a flat-bottomed boat ; and after there had
been a few days of sunshine it became a trough of
red dust which, as the long trains of army wagons
with eighteen mules to the wagon ploughed through
it, rose in clouds and filled one's mouth, eyes, and
ears, and every cranny of the houses. It was not
much better in the neighborhood of the public
offices. In his notes my father says : —

" I remember as a specimen of the state of the
streets, that I was once driving by the Post Office

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 127

Department in my heavy old Boston carriage, when,
after a jolt in a mud hole, I saw my driver's heels
go up into the air and then disappear with the
horses ; both the whippletrees had snapped ; and
the carriage was turned and shipwrecked directly
across the track of the horse railroad. I had my
foot in a moccasin from gout, and the mud was
knee-deep between me and the sidewalk ; so there
was nothing for it but to sit and face the crowd
of passengers, interrupted by our being across the
track, until my man returned with the horses and
two borrowed whippletrees, and hauled us out, —
breaking the embargo, which had become quite em-
barrassing, as nobody hankered after the task of
wading out and dragging the heavy carriage away
from the track. At any rate, that was not the
Washington method of doing business, which still
smacked very much of the South."

My father made no record of any other unplea-
sant adventure at the capital, nor of any story likely
to be of general interest, except the following. He
speaks of the call at our house of one of the old
residents already mentioned : —

" One of these gentlemen, who were all sure to
be proud of any acquaintance with the rebel gen-
erals, one day by way of conversation remarked,
i The last time I was in this house I met a cousin of
General Lee's, a very fine fellow, who came to a
most melancholy end.' ' Well,' said I, ' what hap-
pened to General Lee's cousin ? ' ' He was captured
in Tennessee as a spy, and executed.' I only re-

128 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

marked for the comfort of my aristocratic guest,
that I regretted that so few of the rebel spies had
been hanged ; and the occurrence passed out of my
mind until, some weeks after, the details of it acci-
dentally came out as follows, — told us in the course
of conversation at the dinner-table, by General
Webster, an officer of high position on General
Sherman's staff. At this distance of time I cannot
at all do justice to the impression it made, told as it
was by one perfectly familiar with the scenes, and
with the actors in the tragedy ; but the mere outline
is worth preserving among the memories of those
momentous days. I cannot fix the time when it
occurred, but it was during the dark hours before
the successes of Grant and Sherman and Thomas
had given us anything like an assured hold upon
the northern part of Tennessee. Our main army was
around Nashville, but for various strategic or politi-
cal reasons, considerable bodies of troops were scat-
tered about that region, within twenty or thirty miles
of headquarters, furnishing very tempting oppor-
tunities for sudden attacks by the rebels, whose
sources of information, through their numerous
friends around us, were abundant, while we were
practically, if not nominally, in an enemy's country.
One such outpost, consisting of one or two small
regiments, was placed about twenty miles from Nash-
ville, and was commanded by Colonel , a grad-
uate of West Point, and an officer of approved
courage and experience. Returning one evening
from his tour of duty, the colonel found at his

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 129

headquarters tent a new arrival at camp, and was
informed by his second in command that it was

Lieutenant-Colonel , assistant adjutant of the

general commanding, who was on a tour of inspec-
tion, and had just gone through the post and made
a full examination of the numbers and condition
of the troops, which he had pronounced eminently
satisfactory. He was at that moment under the
tent drawing an order for $25 on headquarters,
having run short of funds during a rather pro-
longed absence at the outposts. He presently ap-
peared, paid his respects to the commandant, and then
mounted and rode slowly off in the direction of an-
other isolated camp some ten or twelve miles distant.
It was just after sundown, and our tired colonel
was about to throw off his clothes after a hard day's
work, when a sort of intuition flashed across his
mind. He called to his orderly to give him his
horse, and told him to turn out the guard and then
follow him, and, mounting hastily, he rode after the
inspecting officer, who was slowly proceeding on his
solitary ride. Gradually overtaking him in the dusk
about a mile from the camp, he hailed him quietly,
and, approaching him deliberately, told him that,
upon reflection, he could not let him take that road,
beset as it was with rebels, without an escort, which
he had ordered to turn out, and which would be
ready by the time they reached camp. The in-
spector remonstrated at the delay; he knew the
road, was well mounted, and indifferent to the sup-
posed danger, but, after some hesitation, he turned

vol. n.

130 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

and followed the colonel back. Passing a cross
road, however, he pulled up, turned his horse down
it, and said, ' As the upper road is dangerous, I will
take this one, which is but little longer.' ' True,'
said the colonel, ' and it leads through the camp of
the 33d Regiment, where you might, indeed, get an
escort, but ours is about ready ; do come this way.'
Both officers were armed, but our colonel, in carry-
ing out his plan, had taken the part of showing no
suspicion, thus not running the risk of an escape in
the dark, and in doing this he found it necessary to
lead the way, feeling all the time that if his sus-
picions were just and were perceived, his first know-
ledge of it would be a bullet from behind. Riding
back to his tent, he asked the inspector to enter for
a moment, and then directed the sentinel to hold
him as prisoner. When the guard came up and the
colonel entered the tent, he found the inspector with
his head upon the table in an attitude of despair.

Looking up, the prisoner said, { Colonel , don't

you know me ? Have you forgotten West Point ? '

The prisoner was Captain of the rebel army,

an own cousin of Robert E. Lee, and an old class-
mate of our colonel.

" It was evident to the latter that he had captured
a spy in the act of obtaining important intelligence
for the enemy, for he had inspected other camps,
and the opposing forces were so nicely balanced
that the accurate report of each exposed outpost
might well have turned the scale. The spy's only
prayer to his old comrade, when he saw that his dis-

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 131

guise was penetrated, was, 'For God's sake have me
shot ! ' A court-martial was immediately held, and
the facts being beyond dispute, the spy was con-
demned to be hanged the next morning, an hour
being fixed which gave the colonel time to telegraph
the result to the general at headquarters, and ask
permission to have the culprit shot. The time came
for execution without any signs of a respite. That
was indeed out of the question ; but no alleviation
was granted, and at noon the spy bravely died on
the gallows.

" All this was told so graphically that it had ten
times the effect which any written description could
have."

Returning to financial matters, of which my father
says that they had " then become almost the turn-
ing point of the war," I reduce to a mere extract a
letter received by him at this time from Mr. Thomas
Baring, giving, as he says, " the view of one of the
soundest and most far-seeing of English bankers of
our financial prospects and dangers."

THOMAS BARING TO J. M. FORBES.

London, February 4, 1865.

... I am no finance doctor, but it seems to me
that the greatest evil which ought to be avoided is
an increase of the paper currency, and your plan
of gradually funding a portion of this, and of the
certificates of indebtedness, is a wise one, provided
that by national receipts and taxation of some kind,

132 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

united, you are able to pay the dividends, and not
obliged to continue a regular system of borrowing
in order to pay interest. Then upon the return of
peace, the exports of your produce, the reduction of
imports, partly from economy, but more from your
high tariff, and the return of the money lodged in
various parts of Europe, must go far to rectify your
exchange and bring greenbacks nearer to gold value,
especially when they will be almost the only paper
in circulation, and kept within bounds. Whether
you can bear the transition from war, with all its
attendant expenditures which keeps all your indus-
tries at work, and spreads money through so many
channels, apparently enriching millions, without a
great shrinking and commercial crisis, I am not wise
enough to predict. . . .

I trust, however, that I may not live to have you
a national enemy. As a personal friend, believe me
always.

As may be guessed from the ending to Mr.
Baring's letter, the friends of peace between the
two countries were still apprehensive of a rupture.
The revival of this feeling was probably due to Mr.
Seward's dispatch on the Florida incident. Of this
Professor Goldwin Smith writes to my father from
Oxford on the 27th January, 1865 : —

" Seward's dispatch about the Florida has made
anything but a good impression here. When will
the bearing and style of your politicians and jour-
nalists catch something of the grandeur of your
nation ? "

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 133

Few of us, however, in Washington, in those
days, were troubling ourselves much with what peo-
ple across the Atlantic were thinking or saying of
us. The discussions over the thirteenth amendment
to the Constitution, finally abolishing slavery, were
in full swing. We had our fill of excitement over
them, culminating on the 1st of February, when the
debate closed and the amendment was passed by the
required two thirds majority, with three to spare.
It was a scene not likely to be forgotten by any one
who took part in it, but I cannot remember whether
or not my father was present with the rest of us.
I find a letter written to him from New York by
Mr. George Ward in the excitement of just having
received the news by telegraph, which begins : —

" Thank God for the constitutional amendment !
How happy you must have been to be in Washing-
ton when it was passed, and to remember how much
you had done to bring it about ! "

But the time had not yet come to sing a Nunc
Dimittis. The end of the war was perhaps within
view, but the embarrassments of the Treasury were
pressing. I find a letter to Mr. Peter Cooper ask-
ing his cooperation in getting the wealthier " busi-
ness men of the country " to come forward with a
loan of $100,000,000, " in such large sums as would
set the example to the smaller investors, and so prac-
tically clear off arrearages and put the new Secretary
comparatively at ease ; " and to his old partner in
Russell & Co., Mr. John C. Green, then in New
York, with the same motive.

134 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

To Mr. A. A. Low, also in New York, he writes
at this time, advocating the opening of Southern
ports under proper regulations, as being, by this
time, the best way to help " in breaking up the re-
bellion ; " and adding, with an eye to the practical
carrying out of the idea : —

" I have called the attention of friends in Boston
to it, and hope our Chamber of Commerce will take
some action ; but New York has an almost exagger-
ated influence in all commercial matters, and if your
chamber sees its importance as I do, I hope they
will act upon it promptly, and send an influential
delegation here to present their views to the Presi-
dent, the Secretaries of War and of the Treasury.

" If they do not, the next best thing is for you
to write such a letter as can be shown to the Presi-
dent, and send it to some one here to bring before
him. Any one else would be better than I, because
Massachusetts is always suggesting practical ideas,
and those in high places are tired of us ! "

At this period his friend, Governor Andrew, wrote
to him as to his own plans, thus : —

GOVERNOR ANDREW TO J. M. FORBES.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Executive Department,

Boston, March 25, 1865.

I think that there will be a good chance for me
to make a little money and look out for a rainy day
by means of my own profession, in Washington.
I propose trying it. The United States Supreme

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 135

Court and the Court of Claims will have a great
deal of work for the next few years, of a kind to
be very remunerative and to bring out one's fac-
ulty, if he has any. . . .

I can wind up my work as governor this year.
A new man can undertake it then safely. I can go
out and not seem to any one to have a disposition
(which in truth I have not) to " lag superfluous on
the stage ; " and can, perhaps, be of quite as much
use in the end to everybody else, and, certainly, of
more use to my family. . . .

I cannot feel happy at the thought of going back
to our own bar, after having for five years admin-
istered the Executive Government of the Common-
wealth. I don't think it exactly consistent with
respectability to do so ; not for myself, but for the
Commonwealth. And, especially, since my duties
have been so peculiar, both in kind and variety,
compelling me to make appointments, decide ques-
tions, veto, or propose and carry, measures, beyond
all precedent in the past ; I shall be hereafter more
exposed to criticism and observation accordingly.
This remark, however, I make, not to defend, but
only to confess a feeling, which, if need be, I can,
and I would, disregard and overcome. Now, what
do you think of my plan ? Perhaps it is too bold.
But I hope not.

P. S. Just received your letters on " finance "
and on " coast defenses." Will try to write in re-
ply to-night ; many thanks.

136 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

To this my father replied, opposing the plan, and
adding : " I would like to see you leading the bar
of Massachusetts, and coming here only when you
have special cases. The spectacle of a man leading
the war as you have done, — fairly leading the na-
tion when old Abe has lagged and drifted along
with the current you have made, — such a man
going back from the highest place, to work at his
profession at home, is my ideal of respectability and
dignity, — yes, grandeur. I have often compared
your modest house and hard-working habits with the
attempts at show and high living which so many
of our public men mistake for dignity, and now my
wish would be to see the same common sense and
manliness carried back into private life. . . .

" I should like to see Massachusetts people, by a
spontaneous movement, put into trustees' hands for
your wife and children something like the sum you
have given to the public for five years past by work-
ing on a low salary instead of at your profession ;
but whether this will come about in a manner that
would suit you, I cannot yet judge." J

In public affairs event was following event in
rapid succession. Late in February came Sherman's
taking of Charleston ; and after that Lincoln's sec-
ond inauguration with the address which made
him revered throughout the nation. My father was
at the centre of the excitement of it all, but found

1 This project was carried out, after the governor's death, by my
father and others. — Ed.

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 137

time for some excursions from Washington. The
pleasantest of these appears to have been one with
Mr. Fox down the Potomac, giving him a view of a
sham attack on Fort Monroe, as a rehearsal of what
was afterwards done at Fort Fisher. After this
sight he " passed two or three days of great enjoy-
ment " at Point Lookout with his daughter and her
husband, Colonel Russell, in their " little hut about
sixteen feet square." Colonel Russell was in charge
of a camp of rebel prisoners. Of them my father
writes : —

" These men on the whole gave a very favorable
idea of the Southern soldier ; they had not the edu-
cation of our New England men, but were superior
to the men drawn by the bounties from the city
roughs and other such reserves, and I am inclined
to think that the average was made up of young
farmers with quite a sprinkling of well-educated
men, and on the whole was nearly as civilized as
our own."

u Just before the actual capture of Richmond," as
my father writes in his notes, he " felt that the war
was practically over," and accepted an invitation to
himself and my eldest sister to visit Havana and
Matanzas, on board the sloop of war Santiago de
Cuba, " one of the fastest and most successful of
the blockading squadron." They left Baltimore,
where the steamer had been lying, about the end of
March, had a much enjoyed trip to Cuba, and on
their return arrived at Charleston just in time for

138 JOHN MURRAY FORBES .

the raising of the old flag on Fort Sumter on the
14th of April. There they heard of Lee's surren-
der. Leaving directly after the ceremony, they
were met, two days afterwards, at the " Capes of
the Chesapeake " with the news that the President
had been murdered on the night of the fourteenth.
Of all this my father wrote soon afterwards to Mon-
sieur de Beaumont. First apologizing for having
neglected to answer some letter of his, on account
of the press of public business, he goes on as fol-
lows, so far as can be made out from a very bad
press copy : —

" We just arrived at Fort Sumter in time to see
the old flag raised by General Anderson, on the
spot where, four years before, the hands of the slave
power had caused it to be lowered. . . . The plat-
form crowded by abolitionists and warriors, the ap-
proach to the fort guarded by black soldiers lately
slaves, the ruined fort around us ; and then to see
the same old flag raised amidst salvos of artillery
from the very guns which had assailed it, and the
peaceful reecho from the battlements and from the
fleet!

" You will, I know, forgive me for recalling these
scenes in partial explanation of my neglect. It will
be a sad anniversary, for though the morning gave
us, there, the news of Lee's surrender, the night of
the 14th April saw the murder of our President."

To this letter M. de Beaumont replies, writing in
French from " Beaumont par la Chartre," June,
1865 : —

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 139

" I have read with extreme pleasure all the details
you give me of the circumstances which accompa-
nied the reestablishment of your glorious flag on Fort
Sumter. I assure you that by the account you have
given me, I seemed to be present at that solemn
scene. I thought I heard the cries of enthusiasm
which saluted the triumph of the Federal Union and
of human liberty, and my heart beat in unison with
yours with joy and pride ; yes, I was at once proud
and happy at this magnificent success of the liberal
cause. . . . Thanks to God, and thanks to the he-
roic virtues on which I counted and which have not
failed you, I have seen you triumph ! And it is for
me, I assure you, a great joy to have lived long
enough to see the destruction of the slavery of
the blacks, and the reestablishment of American
liberty."

M. de Beaumont then goes fully into the dangers
to be encountered by the reunited States, and urges
especially clemency towards the late rebels, the ex-
tent and spontaneity of which he, in common with
nearly all other foreigners, failed to foresee. He
ends thus : " I shall be very happy, sir, if, inde-
pendently of little private affairs about which you
have had the goodness to write to me, and to which
you have given your benevolent care, you are still
good enough to continue to speak to me sometimes
of the general affairs of your country, and of the
great American interests which have become more
and more dear to the civilized world."

Before this letter was written, we were coming to

140 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

the end of our stay in Washington. Of this my
father writes : —

" The great event of our last days in Washington
was the grand review of the armies of Sherman and
Grant, which must have taken place early in May,
and in which I had the chance to take a hand.
When the preparations for it were going on, I
found that it was planned to have only a very small
grand stand for the President and the government
officers, right in front of the White House ; and it
occurred to me that with plenty of room on each
side, it would be a good thing to have seats for the
convalescents of the army who were well enough to
be out, there being at that time a very large num-
ber in the hospitals around Washington. So I
went to General Augur and proposed it, he being
then in command of the city. There were all sorts
of difficulties : no money ; no time ; no orders for
anything more. It was Saturday afternoon and the
review was to begin Monday morning, but I would
not i take no for an answer,' and proposed to the
general to give me an order for the ground on each
side of the grand stand, to which he with much
promptness acceded, and I at once got hold of the
carpenter who had made the changes in my hired
house, and before Monday morning he had plat-
forms and benches for about 1500 sitters. Only a
part of these could be filled by the convalescents,
but they proved very useful, for no provision had
been made for navy officers and many others who
ought to have been thought of. I had what tickets

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 141

I wanted for myself and friends, and had the op-
portunity to oblige a great many from the North
who crowded into Washington for the spectacle,
among whom I remember Professor Benjamin Peirce
of Cambridge. My seats were next to the grand
stand, so that we saw everything to great advan-
tage."

Then follows a description of the two days of the
grand review which, as they belong to history, I
omit, except the following part of it : " On one of
my excursions along the line of search, I saw a very
pretty incident. As a division was approaching led
by General Merritt, a little mulatto girl came out
from the sidewalk with a wreath of flowers. The
crowd at first hooted at her, but the general stopped
his horse and with great politeness and grace received
the wreath and adjusted it on his pommel, thanking
her very nicely for her gift, which turned the cur-
rent of popular feeling, and elicited a shout of
approbation."

He winds up his account of our life in Washing-
ton thus : " I think we were packed up and bound
home within a day or two [after the review], owing
to the hot weather of the early May. So the grand
march past marks the end of our winter in Wash-
ington, and to us the end of the war ; for William,
of course, resigned his commission, and in due course
was married the next fall."

"Reconstruction" is the word with which my
father heads the next part of his notes. It begins
thus : —

142 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

" The war was over, but the work of recon-
struction was one of infinite difficulty, including
the return of the rebel States with colored voters,
resumption of specie payment, and of all the ma-
chinery of a state of peace. It ought to have in-
cluded a reduction of the revenue by abolishing the
war taxes, both foreign and domestic, but many
complications were involved which either demanded
or gave excuse for delay, until the manufacturers
and home producers of lumber and minerals, follow-
ing their real or supposed interests, became banded
together against any reduction ; while the liquor
dealers, always a formidable element, allied them-
selves largely with the protectionists for the aboli-
tion of the internal revenue tax on liquors."

As will be seen later on, it was the growth (when
there ought to have been mitigation) of these war
taxes on foreign goods, almost as much as the cor-
ruption caused by years of uninterrupted power,
which, in 1884, compelled him to leave the Repub-
lican party and hold himself till the end of his life
an independent in politics. But as yet he was
heart and soul with his party, and all the time
which he could devote to public affairs for the next
few years was to be given to the questions: 1st.
How to deal with the freedmen, lately slaves, and
with the States of which they were now citizens ;
2d. The settlement of the claims against Great
Britain for damages by the Alabama and other ves-
sels let out from her ports ; and 3d. The finances
of the country. In the last mentioned subject, as

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 143

being that with which he was most familiar, we find
him for some time absorbed. His press-copy letter-
book of this date is not to be found, so I have only
a great bundle of Mr. McCulloch's replies to his
letters during 1865. From these, for the reason
already given, I shall make but one or two short
extracts. But I first give part of a letter written
by my father at this time to Mr. Beckwith, formerly
a partner, in China, of Russell & Co., but now, as
will have been seen, settled in Paris ; and his con-
stant correspondent on public matters : —

J. M. FOKBES TO N. M. BECKWITH.

Boston, June 25, 1865.

Nothing from you for some time past, and I have
hardly written you anything since I came home.

As to politics, the worst feature is the apparent
haste for reconstruction. We can only hope that it
is Johnson's plan to consider his present operations
experimental, hold the war grip, and reject all terms
unless they are consistent with our safety and honor.
To give back the loyal blacks to the tender mercies
of the planters without the protection of the ballot
is equally mean and stupid. I hope you will read
the account of our Faneuil Hall meeting, and will
like, as I do, Dana's ground that the war will not
be over until we have secured the safety for which
we fought. We are trying to form an association
to mould public opinion, against the meeting of
Congress. Perhaps you will like to be one ; and
besides contributing your ideas, send us from

144 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

to $500, towards the diffusion of sound political in-
formation. Perhaps we shall do it through the
Loyal Pub.; perhaps in various other ways. The
L. P. has been, we think, a great success, reaching
about a million of readers a week.

We have also started a new weekly in New York,
" The Nation," under Godkin, into which I have
put some money as a proprietor, and to which you
ought to subscribe. I will send you the first num-
ber. Then we are going to establish a free press in
Delaware, under Nordhoff, now working editor of
the " Evening Post," in the hope of saving to free-
dom the two senators from that little half-alive nest
of slavery. We are trying to do this without get-
ting into an attitude of opposition to the Presi-
dent.

So much for politics: now for finance:. [Here
follow long estimates of public assets and liabilities,
and a case stated for his correspondent's opinion, of
how to make both ends meet and reduce paper cur-
rency. After which he goes on :] Meantime the
issue of certificates alarms the public as to the
emptiness of the treasury, and the reports of large
orders for foreign goods tend to panic about gold,
and counterbalance the benefit of free cotton, and
of the much larger estimates now prevailing of the
supply in the Southern States ; which have in a
month risen from 1,600,000 bales as the total sup-
ply for 1865 from the South, to 3,000,000 bales;
and under these influences gold keeps at over
140. . . .

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 145

This letter appears to have crossed one from Mr.
Beckwith on Treasury matters, which was sent on
to Washington by my father and returned to him
by Mr. McCulloch, with the following : —

H. McCULLOCH TO J. M. FORBES.

Treasury Department, July 18, 1865.

Your favors of the 12th and 14th inst. are re-
ceived.

... I forward Mr. Beckwith's letter under date of
June 29. . . . He writes forcibly and intelligently,
and his suggestions are entitled to great weight.

We may all ask, I think, with Mr. Beckwith,
"what financial blatherumskyte has got into the
' Evening Post ' ? " If you have any personal re-
gard for Mr. Bryant, do induce him to prevent Mr.

(or Mr. Somebody-else) from writing upon

subjects that he knows nothing about.

I am exceedingly pressed now with all sorts of
business, and have no time to write you at length.
Do not let this, however, prevent me from hearing
often from you.

My father accordingly wrote to Mr. Bryant on
the 24th of July, upholding the course which Mr.
McCulloch had taken in reserving the government's
right to " pay gold interest at 6 per cent, instead
of 7.30 per cent, in currency," showing the success
of his last loan in spite of very adverse circum-
stances, and appealing to the " usual fairness " of

the " Post " for a reconsideration of its position

vol. n.

146 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

with regard to these matters ; he concluded his let-
ter thus : —

" While I thus ask your support for the secretary,
there is one abuse which is well worthy the investiga-
tion and criticism of the ' Post/ When a govern-
ment only pays its debts in promises, the least it can
do is to give those promises promptly. The delays
of disbursing officers have been, and are, notorious ;
they make it impossible for any merchant to sell, or
contract to government, without a large addition to
the price, for the loss of interest and often loss of
credit which they involve.

" If, after making fair allowance for the necessary
reorganization which a new incumbent must have
time to make, Mr. McCulloch is responsible for these
delays, you will do him, and the public, good by
criticising him on this point.

" He certainly will have reason to thank you, if
you can point out the parties who are responsible,
whether they are subordinates in his department,
or in those of the army and navy ; for it will stop
not only a great leak in the Treasury, but a great
discredit to government and great suffering to
individuals. I know that such delays exist to a
mischievous extent; but I do not believe that the
Treasury is responsible for them. Let them be
rooted out, whoever gets hit."

On July 28, Mr. McCulloch writes : —

" I must have an interview with you before the
preparation of my report, as I have much more con-
fidence in your sound practical views than I have

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 147

in the theories of those who have made finance a
study."

I will not quote more from his letters ; but will
merely say that extending, as they do, from this
date into the year 1868, they seek, and express
great obligations for, " financial counsel " on every
kind of measure proposed by the Treasury, and ask
for help with " some members who would be likely
to be influenced " by his correspondent's opinion.

Meanwhile, the friends in France and England,
who had been so stanch in holding to the Union
during its struggle for existence, did not take less
interest in its reconstruction : —

GUSTAVE DE BEAUMONT TO J. M. FORBES.

(Translated.)

Beaumont par la Chartre, bur le Loire.
(Sarthe) 17 August, 1865.

... I have been very grateful to you for send-
ing me some extracts contained in your letter, and
for the account given of the meeting at Faneuil
Hall. ...

It is, I think, the policy of Mr. Johnson to follow
worthily that of Abraham Lincoln. You will under-
stand that the death of the assassins of Lincoln was
approved beforehand. What voice could be raised in
favor of such vile rascals ? Public opinion could not
object to any punishment legally inflicted on them.
But be assured that with regard to any purely polit-
ical crime, however great, it cannot be prosecuted
and punished without raising the greatest difficulties

148 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

and the most dangerous protests. It is on this ac-
count that I regret so much Jefferson Davis having
fallen into your hands. It would have been a great
piece of luck, especially for you, if he had escaped.
Whatever part may have been played by individual
treason in this huge insurrection, one cannot hide
from one's self the fact that in the eye of public
opinion the struggle has taken the character of a
great war between two peoples ; and after the war
one expects, not justice with its tribunals, but
amnesty with its mercy and pardon. . . .

Then one asks one's self what you are going to
do with your black population, which owes to you
its freedom, and which is becoming your greatest
embarrassment, and which, on account of its igno-
rance, its corruption, and its vices, will perhaps some
day be very dangerous even for the Union. Justice
and humanity called for its freedom ; it is to your
eternal honor that you have accomplished this : but
in what political position are you going to place it?
On this point you are masters, to do whatever you
judge most suitable to the general interests of your
country. For if morality and justice cannot recog-
nize the right of slavery, the absolute enjoyment of
all political rights is not a question of morality and
justice. Placed as I am so far from the country
where these great questions are agitated, I should
not dare to have an opinion which might not have
a solid basis. You appear to consider as not only
necessary but equitable the giving of the right of
suffrage to all the blacks, and the future itself of

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 149

the union of the Southern States with those of
the North appears to you to turn on this question.
I bow to an opinion so wise and clear as yours,
founded on observation of facts of which you have
been witness, and on knowledge of all elements of
the question. And yet this solution troubles my
mind. I can scarcely convince myself that men,
gross, ignorant, and corrupt up to this point, can
become useful co-citizens in a society and form of
government which calls for the greatest political
enlightenment. Perhaps this concession is expe-
dient at the moment, but can you recall it when it
is once an accomplished fact ? And again, will the
expedient succeed ? We had in 1848 a terrible ex-
perience of the danger that there is in proclaiming
certain absolute principles with a view to the utility
of the moment. It is certain that if the members
of the provisional government of 1848 proclaimed
absolute universal suffrage (including soldiers, do-
mestics, and all common laborers without exception),
they did it with the idea that it was the only method
of establishing the republic in France forever ; and
it is no less certain that it was the laborers, the pea-
sants, and the soldiers, hirelings of all sorts, who by
their votes destroyed the republic, which only had
in its support the votes of 1,500,000 " censitaires."
I submit, my dear sir, for your consideration this
fact, which is surely one of the most curious of con-
temporaneous history, and shows perhaps better than
any other how little statesmen know what they are
doing, and how little where they are drifting. To-

150 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

day in France every one, even the imperial govern-
ment, which has benefited by universal suffrage,
recognizes that it would be necessary to place some
condition on the exercise of this right, even when
already proclaimed. For example, while conceding
the principle, to make its application dependent on
the elector's knowing how to read and write, having
an established domicile for a certain number of
years, possessing some independent means, etc.

How thankful I shall be to you, my dear sir, if
you will be so good as to continue to let me know
your opinion on what passes in your country. For
a long time to come, it will be on you that the atten-
tion of Europe will be fixed. You have shown the
world what a country can do in which all the citi-
zens are enlightened, and in which morality and
religion accompany enlightenment. Your political
difficulties frighten me, but your marvelous suc-
cesses reassure me ; and when I think of what you
have done, I await with confidence the accomplish-
ment of that which remains for you to do.

JOHN BKIGHT TO J. M. FORBES.

Rochdale, September 22, 1865.
... I am looking at the progress of reconstruc-
tion with great interest ; the difficulties are con-
siderable, and the negro question is a puzzle in a
republican country. The President seems willing
to try the system of unlimited confidence with the
South, which may possibly succeed, and to which
there would be little objection if the negro were

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 151

safe from his former masters. But, for the negro,
I fear state rights may be reestablished too rapidly.

I say nothing in public on these your internal
questions, for I am anxious to do no harm, and I
have faith that you will find out what is best. I
think your advice in favor of delay is wise, and must
meet the general approval of the people.

There has been much talk of my coming to see
you, but I seem as if I cannot leave home this
autumn.

GOLDWIN SMITH TO J. M. FORBES.

Mortimer, Reading, December 17, 1865.

. . . All that you say about the Alabama case is
only too true : and it is felt to be true by people of
sense and high position before whom I have brought
your views. Our government ought to have been
only too happy to submit to arbitration : especially
as your magnanimous and wise disarmament (the
most truly magnanimous and the wisest thing in his-
tory) removed from your claim the slightest appear-
ance of intimidation. It was worth to us not two
but ten millions to get the law solemnly settled
against the offense. It would have been a noble
thing, too, and most beneficial to commerce and hu-
manity, to see two great nations, under no pressure
of fear, but from a free sense of justice, referring to
arbitration a question of right which barbarism
would settle by force. But, you see, gray hairs do
not always bring wisdom : and wisdom does not al-
ways guide the councils of this old world. You

152 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

have done all you could, personally, at all events, to
avert the evil with which it is to be feared this ques-
tion is pregnant for the future. . . .

I suppose it is treason to say it, but I wish, if
our government says anything to yours on the sub-
ject of Fenianism, your government would courte-
ously point out that Fenianism has its source not in
America but in Ireland, and make at the same time
a few remarks on the state of barbarism in which
the Irish are thrown upon your hands. . . .

I have just been talking to a friend of mine, who
has been sent over by our government to inspect
your schools, with a view to the improvement of
ours. His account of them to me is not flattering,
and the documents which he has brought with him
seem to prove, to my surprise, that your masters and
mistresses are very much underpaid. . . .

I long to see America again, but my hopes of do-
ing so grow fainter.

My kindest regards to your family. Often do I
think of the pleasant days I passed at Naushon.

In the autumn of 1865 came the marriage of my
brother William, at Concord, to Edith, the daughter
of Mr. Emerson. Among my father's notes of this
period I find the following account of an adventure
that almost kept him and my brother Malcolm away
from that most interesting family occasion : —

" We had planned a ducking expedition to the
St. Clair River which we did not like to lose; so
measuring our time carefully and loaded down with

A WINTER IN WASHINGTON 153

guns and ammunition, we started off for the West
about a week before the wedding. At Detroit we
made arrangements with our old friend, Captain E.
B. Ward, to have his boat, the Reindeer, stop for
us on her way down from the upper lakes, at a
ducking point which we expected to make our head-
quarters, but which was not one of the usual stop-
ping places. I cannot here recount the myriads of
ducks and geese which fell before our unerring guns,
but we had a pleasant time paddling round among
the lagoons and wild rice fields, and at last packed
up and got all ready for the approaching steamer on
a certain Saturday morning. We were on the wharf
waiting for her, but instead of stopping she shot
gayly by, paying no attention whatever to our sig-
nals. We, of course, gave up all hope of reaching
home on time, but just at this moment a tug ap-
peared in sight, coming down the river with a long
tow of vessels astern. Knowing the obliging dispo-
sition of our Western friends, we left our cumbrous
baggage, and with our lighter things jumped into a
skiff and made signals to the tug to take us on
board, which with some difficulty was accomplished,
and the captain promised that, if nothing happened
to prevent, he could still land us at Detroit in time
for the afternoon train or boat, which would bring
us home in season. It was, however, blowing a
gale of wind, and in passing one of the shoals at
the entrance to Lake St. Clair, our tow grounded,
and we gave up hope once more. While struggling
to get under way again, the captain of the tug

154 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

called out, ' There 's the Keindeer coming back ! '
and sure enough we soon made out Captain Ward's
steamer heading for us. We made all sorts of wild
shrieks and whistles to let her know that we were
on board the tug, from which finally, at some risk,
we got on to her decks and sped away for Detroit.

" It appeared that the Reindeer had changed
captains on the voyage, and the old one had forgot-
ten to give orders to his successor to stop for us ;
but when Captain Ward, expecting to meet us on
the wharf at Detroit, found that she had passed by
our point without stopping, he landed his passengers
who were bound to Ohio at once, and ordered the
boat to go back for us. This is a good specimen
of Captain Ward's method of doing business. We
reached in good season the train which brought us
home just in time for the wedding at Concord on
Monday."

CHAPTER XIX

AFTER THE WAR

In his notes, my father recalls no event of public
interest between the end of 1865 and the begin-
ning of 1868 ; but though, after the feverish ex-
citement of the war, this may have been a period of
comparative calm, his correspondence does not indi-
cate much relaxation. There are letters from De
Beaumont, thanking him for keeping him posted as
to the different stages of reconstruction, and regret-
ting that he was not young enough to be its his-
torian ; from Henry Wilson, Mr. Sumner's co-senator
for Massachusetts, asking to be " favored with an
expression of [his] views on taxation of United
States bonds ; " from Mr. Dudley, the indefatigable
consul at Liverpool, telling him, with glee, of his
having disposed of the Sumter, Tallahassee, and
other Confederate " pirates," on account of the
United States government ; and from his old corre-
spondent in St. Louis, Rev. Dr. W. G. Eliot, pre-
sident of Washington University, fearing President
Johnson's influence in Missouri, asking for help in
that " important crisis," and adding, a little doubt-
fully, " whether this comes in your range or not I
do not know : but almost everything does ! "

156 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Mr. Samuel Hooper, one of the representatives
from Massachusetts, writes : " You must take upon
yourself some of the responsibility for the postpone-
ment of the tariff bill in the Senate. Your remark
that the high rates in the tariff bill would split the
party and pave the way for a reaction against the
manufacturers influenced the Massachusetts sen-
ators to vote for postponing." And Mr. Sedgwick,
whose hand one always rejoices to see among the
files of letters, after upbraiding him for abandoning
Washington to returned rebels, adds in his quaint,
semi-pessimistic manner, " If you have any present
views upon public affairs which are at all encour-
aging, let me have them. I have a sort of indistinct
and dim faith in Providence, and hope that all will
end well ; but the grounds of it are weak."

It will have been seen how steadily my father
fought against the application of the term " de-
mocracy " to one particular party in our republic.
We find him now making a new use of this doc-
trine, in his efforts to persuade the old Abolitionists
to follow the example of Mr. Garrison, in adopting
a new course.

WENDELL PHILLIPS TO J. M. FOKBES.

Boston, February 5, 1866.

I well know, from what you have said to me and
others, how carefully you read and how highly you
value the " Anti-Slavery Standard." Accordingly, I
took the liberty of sending you the Ladies' Circular,
calling on its friends for funds to continue it.

AFTER THE WAR 157

Not hearing from you, you must pardon me if I
trouble you too much in asking whether you find
yourself unable to give us anything towards its
support.

J. M. FORBES TO WENDELL PHILLIPS.

Boston, February 6, 1866.

I meant to have accepted your invitation to the
festival, but was absent in New York (supposed to
be) privateering.1

I have received your debates, and must say I
think the weight of argument is against keeping up
the anti-slavery name ; and yet I value the " Stand-
ard," while differing from it ; so I, with some doubt,
try it again another year with my little contribution
inclosed, which please do not publish. It is a trick
the " Standard " has, which I always considered in
bad taste. I wish you had changed the name into
the " Democratic Standard" or the "Standard of
the Democracy." . . .

Now do not think I am so presumptuous as to
affect to chain down your brightness to common-
place expediency, but I must for my own comfort
say out my thought, which is, with you, that real
democracy is broader than mere anti-slavery. If
you could only become the apostle of democracy, I
am sure you would do the negro more good than
any other way.

I do not pretend to be philanthropic, or to love

1 Referring to his vessel, the Meteor, an account of which will be
found later in this chapter. — Ed.

158 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

the negro, and still less the Irishman, or the English-
man (I only mention it because I think I represent
the commonplace man who does the voting), but I
have a thorough-going, hearty belief in the expe-
diency and justice and necessity of equal rights, and
a thorough disgust at anything like aristocratic or
class badges. We have all been at times beshadowed
by various issues, by Whiggery, and sham conserva-
tism, and by tariffs and compromises ; and our people
are to this day so be juggled by a name that what
they want, in my judgment, more than anything
else, to secure equal rights is a party like your own
anti-slavery party, never expecting office, but deter-
mined to push onward and upward the idea of a
true democracy.

Nobody can lead such a party as you can. You
have always preached it ; but as subsidiary to the
slavery question. Has not the time come when you
can make this the grand motor, and let the negro
take his chance, or rather his shelter, under the
broader principle of the rights of man ?

For my own part I feel dissatisfied with all par-
ties (yours among the rest) ; some for one reason,
some for another ; and I can do nothing with hearty
satisfaction until we get upon a broader basis than
any of them now stand upon. While we were fight-
ing I felt sure, like the Irishman at the Donnybrook
Fair, that hard hitting was the right thing ; but now
I feel like lying by, and waiting for something that
I can support in earnest.

AFTER THE WAR 159

Early in 1866 Mr. Fox, still Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, was sent by the United States govern-
ment, in a monitor, to Russia, to offer to the Czar
our country's congratulations on the freeing of the
serfs. When this was in contemplation, it occurred
to my father that a slightly different touch might
be given to the proceedings by some verses " with
a good ring to them ; " and accordingly, at his sug-
gestion, his kind friend, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
wrote for this occasion the ode beginning : —

" Though watery deserts hold apart
The worlds of East and West."

Mr. Fox, after crossing the ocean successfully in
the small monitor (to the surprise of some of his
friends, who feared her voyage would end at the
bottom of the ocean rather than at Cronstadt), ar-
rived duly in Russia; the poem was read to the
Czar and translated by the court poet, and was a
great success.

The account of the affair was transmitted by Mr.
Fox to my father and forwarded to Dr. Holmes,
who writes in reply : —

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES TO J. M. FORBES.

164 Charles Street, Boston, September 8, 1866.

I thank you heartily for your attention and your
pleasant words. I am naturally gratified that the
small efforts I made to oblige my friends — your-
self and your friend, perhaps I ought to say —
should have served the purpose so well. I beg you

160 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

will thank Mr. Fox for me when you next write,
and assure him of the great pleasure his most polite
and agreeable note afforded me.

About this time my father had one very annoy-
ing experience, viz. : the detention of the steamship
Meteor by the United States government, at the in-
stance of the Spanish minister, whose government
was now at war with that of Chile. That official
had received intelligence of the " evil intentions "
of the owners of the Meteor, from New York in-
formers, eager for their share of the spoil in the
event of condemnation.

She had been built, as has been said, by a num-
ber of patriotic men as a cruiser fast enough to
capture the Alabama and other privateers. The
rapid collapse of the rebellion, however, left her on
her owners' hands, no longer needed in the service
of their own government. They consulted interna-
tional lawyers of eminence and found that she could
legally be sent, unarmed, to a neutral port, for sale
there to any party, at peace or war, who wanted
her. Fortified by this opinion, she was just fitting
out for Panama, when she was accused, as before
mentioned, of being about to break the United
States neutrality laws, and held in dock.

As a matter of fact, before the news of the war
between Chile and Spain had reached America, the
Chilean consul had looked over the vessel and made
an attempt to buy her ; but he offered too low a
price, and the negotiation had been dropped.

AFTER THE WAR 161

Unhappily for her owners, the Alabama claims
were just coming to the front, and the government
were most eager to show how much more strictly
we could interpret our laws than the English did
theirs, and how much more promptly we could en-
force them. The poor Meteor was a convenient
object lesson. She was detained, at great loss to
her owners, and much worry and perturbation to
my father, who had, he felt, more or less led his
brother and friends into the scrape. After endless
expense and law suits, a final verdict was given
against the United States government, which ac-
cordingly had to pay damages for her detention.
The amount thus paid by no means made up for
the loss ; but so ended this episode. A lively ac-
count of the whole affair will be found in my uncle's
" Reminiscences." 1

My father had a number of copies of the argu-
ments in the case printed, and one of them was sent
to Mr. Adams. In acknowledging the receipt of
it, he wrote as follows : —

C. F. ADAMS TO J. M. FORBES.
57 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, 4 February, 1869.
I have to thank you for a copy of your law work,
which I shall examine with great interest. It al-
ways seemed to me a little singular that, after all
your devotion to the support of the government on
the ocean during the war, you should be the one

1 Page 271. Personal Reminiscences. By Robert B. Forbes. Sec-
ond edition, revised. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1882.
vol. n.

162 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

selected to be a scapegoat for the offenses of the
Alabama, at its close. But thus goes the world in
too many cases. . . .

I have spoken repeatedly of the deep respect my
father had felt for Governor Andrew. His death,
due to overwork in the war time, came on the 30th
of October, 1867. I give his last letter to my
father : —

JOHN A. ANDREW TO J. M. FORBES.

Boston, October 4, 1867.

My dear Mr. Forbes, — Although I sent word
to Major Rogers to reply for me to your invitation
to the hunt, I think a brief line is due in my own
hand.

I have been very lazy this week in consequence
of being unwell, and even the grasshoppers have
been a burden.

But next week I am mortgaged deep with engage-
ments, which have heaped up, instead of scatter-
ing.

Besides, I imagine I should make a far worse
hunter than your countryman Fergus Mclvor found
Edward Waverly to be, when Captain Waverly
joined in the deer hunt with the Scotch Jacobites.

For all that, I would surely visit Naushon, if I
could. I should find there my own pleasure ; while
the other followers of Vich Ian Vohr might, each
for his " nain-sel," not only kill a deer, but swallow
him, horns and all, without exciting the calm repose

AFTER THE WAR 163

which your beautiful island and waters would shed
over the soul of respectfully and faithfully,
Your friend and servant,

John A. Andrew.

Soon after the governor's death there came a let-
ter from my father's respected friend, Mr. Martin
Brimmer, which expresses the feelings of the com-
munity at large towards this simple, great-hearted
man. An extract from this reads as follows : —

"I have a strong feeling of the obligation we
are under in Massachusetts to Andrew. At the
same time I esteemed the man himself more highly
than any service he ever rendered. He was almost
the only public man I ever knew who combined
thorough independence and disregard of self with
a great power of leading and determining public
opinion. No man believed in the people more, or
truckled to them less, than he. He was the fore-
most man in New England, on the whole, I think.
In a few years he might have been the foremost
man in the country. As you say, we cannot begin
to fill his place."

During this period, the anger in the North,
caused by President Johnson's Southern policy, was
growing apace, and culminated in his impeachment
and trial by the Senate. Mr. Fessenden and Mr.
Grimes, on this occasion, broke from their party
and voted against the impeachment. In conse-
quence of this vote a storm of abuse fell on the
heads of these senators, which deeply irritated my

164 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

father, -who fully respected their independence, al-
though he differed from them. He took the occa-
sion to invite Mr. Grimes to his house, and wrote to
Mr. Fessenden a letter which I give in full, with
extracts from the answer : —

J. M. FORBES TO W. P. FESSENDEN.

Boston, May 23, 1868.

I am the owner of a portrait of your son which I
found in Brackett's studio, and which struck me
favorably as a picture. Mr. Brackett tells me you
saw it and appeared to like it.

If it is a good portrait, the only proper place for
it is in your house, and I shall in that case esteem
it a great favor if you will allow me to send it to
you, either to Washington or Portland.

If you would not value it I shall either keep it as
a companion piece to that of my dear young friend
Colonel Charles Lowell, or find a place for it in
some gallery where the public can see it ; but if it
will be any pleasure to you it would be most gratify-
ing to me to think of it in your possession.

All true hearts love the memory of the young sol-
diers who have so nobly given their fives for us !

P. S. I hope you do not care anything for the
ravings of our radical papers ; and I know you will
not let them move you a hair from the even tenor
of your way. The more I agree with them, in the
main, the more they make me mad with their ex-
travagance and unreasonableness.

Nobody feels more deeply than I do the misfor-

AFTER THE WAR 165

tune of seeing impeachment fail; but it is sheer
madness to add to this great disaster the risk of
splitting up the Republican party, now the only bul-
wark of freedom. We owe it to the living and to
the dead to keep together until we have absolutely
secured the fruits of our dearly bought victories.
After that, party becomes comparatively unimportant.

W. P. FESSEKDEN TO J. M. FORBES.

Washington, June 21, 1868.

My dear Sir, — I have no doubt the picture is
a very good portrait. My son William admires it
very much, and upon reflection, perhaps it may be
as well sent to me at Portland. I consider it your
gift to me, wherever it may be, and I accept it from
you with pleasure. . . .

A word or two upon the subject of your post-
script. I have, of course, felt very much outraged
by the gross attacks which have been made upon
me by some of our Republican journals. . . . From
whatever feeling they may have originated, how-
ever, I cannot but feel that time will set all things
even. Whether it does or not, the path of duty is
plain. No considerations of this sort could justify
me in abandoning my principles, or departing from
my line of duty. Long-continued injustice will of
course shake any man's party attachments, and
blunt his interest in public affairs ; but it ought not
to lead him astray from the path of rectitude and
honor. I hope to be preserved from anything which
will give pain to my friends, or diminish my own

166 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

self-respect. A man who has knowingly and delib-
erately put at hazard all that most public men value,
in obedience to his sense of right, will not be likely
to throw away all the consolation that remains to
him, — his own approval.

Grimes will be in Boston before long, and I hope
our friends will see and cheer him. His tempera-
ment is more excitable and delicate than one would
suppose, and I think the struggle has affected him.
He is a noble fellow, and I love him more than ever.

I am sorry to say that I find no more letters from
Senator Fessenden, whose death took place in Sep-
tember, 1869.

About the beginning of 1868 came Mr. Seward's
retirement from office. I have preserved, in an ap-
pendix,1 the opinion then held by my father as to
his management of our foreign affairs, an opinion
which he never modified in after years. It illus-
trates my father's views on important points in our
public policy during the war, and I cannot persuade
myself wholly to omit it ; but it would delay the
narrative too much if I were to insert it here.

I find no special mention in my father's notes of
the first election of General Grant to the presidency
in 1868 ; but among his papers of that period a
constant fire was kept up on the subject of the
Alabama claims till the time of their being settled

1 Apparently an article written for one of the New York papers.
See Appendix B, p. 240. — Ed.

AFTER THE WAR 167

by the Geneva arbitrators. As to this, referring
to the opposition of Sumner and others, he says :
" We had become at this time so confident in our
strength that it took some courage to meet Sum-
ner's opposition to the negotiation which led to the
Geneva Convention ; but General Grant was equal
to the occasion, and I had the opportunity to do
what little I could to support his views, when the
subject was under consideration in the cabinet, but
had not reached the public."

During the controversy which preceded the arbi-
tration, most of his English friends had come to
consider the claims urged by the United States gov-
ernment as excessive. He contended, on the other
hand, that from their point of view, more than any
other, they could not be too liberally treated. All
this has long since passed into history ; and so I
give only a specimen, in a letter which he wrote to
his friend, Mrs. N. J. Senior, on the 18th of April,
1872. After referring to some bit of private busi-
ness, he goes on to say : —

The treaty is a good one, and will take care of
itself and come out all right. All this bother about
it reminds me of the Chinese edicts for sending out
a fleet of bamboo baskets, called junks, " ivith thun-
dering guns to drive off the foreign barbarians"
Much powder would then be expended, and the
national honor being noisily vindicated, things (no
foreign barbarian being seen alive) would in due
course settle down to their ordinary course. . . .

168 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Our lawyers' argument for full, or even exem-
plary, damages, based upon the hasty declaration of
belligerency, and upon Lord Russell's Chinese tight
shutting of the eyes to the Alabama's outfit, is an
admissible one, even if overstrained; and, if such
an absurd fuss had not been made about it, might
possibly have given us a few pounds sterling more
than we should otherwise have got ; and now, the
pother will simply induce the Geneva arbitrators to
give us still more, in a lump verdict, which will
promptly settle the whole matter and restore ami-
cable relations much sooner than a long and hotly
contested attempt to settle damages in detail ; and
the more Uncle J. B. coolly considers it, the more he
will be pleased with this result then. Madam, I see
I have made your eyes open as wide as I did your
good father-in-law's, in 1863, when I told him that
the time would come when his government would
be glad to pay for the Alabama's burnings in order
to cancel her bad precedents. I wonder if he ever
recorded my talks with him ! Now, to-day, and for
months back, all England, except Lord John and a
few disappointed politicians, would have applauded
a settlement which merely paid for the Alabama's
burnings !

To look one step ahead, what earthly good will
it do J. B., a chronic belligerent on the sea, to have
the damages limited to direct damages for gross neg-
ligence in letting a steamer escape ? On our exten-
sive coasts, Atlantic and Pacific, no vigilance can
prevent swarms of vessels escaping our officials the

AFTER THE WAR 169

next time you go to war. Your safety requires that
the neutrals shall hold all such vessels responsible
for their evasion of neutral laws, and shall pay ex-
emplary damages if they fail to do so. Then our
buccaneers, who are just as bad as your Liverpool
fellows, will not dare to send their vessels to sea ;
for they cannot get coal or shelter without being
overhauled for their previous sins.

If I were an Englishman I would insist upon
the Geneva conference making you pay smartly for
the doings of all the cruisers who, by the mere
hoisting of a flag and opening a commission at sea,
were allowed to become purged of their crimes
against your government, and were welcomed with
all the honors, and supplied openly with coal, and
secretly with men and arms. They would never
have been sent to sea, and never could have kept
the sea long enough to do any serious mischief, if
their rascally outfitters had not known that they
would receive shelter and countenance after merely
getting out.

So much for your side ; now for ours. We feel
deeply our wrongs, and many here oppose the treaty
as totally inadequate, and predict that not a tithe of
the reasonably direct damage will ever reach our
pockets. If it drags along and looks like resulting
in totally inadequate pecuniary redress, it will leave
a permanent grievance which our mob orators and
our wild Irish voters will inflame, until it produces
mischief ; and to leave things as they are is simply
to have a match burning in a powder magazine.

170 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Everything points to the expediency of a prompt
and final settlement by a fixed award of arbitrators ;
since you cannot, without disgust at your rulers,
come down squarely from the untenable positions
Lord Russell took, and pay voluntarily. Please re-
cord my prediction, and read my preface to Sum-
ner's speech and my letters in the appendix which
I will send you. No names to either printed. For-
give me, your enemy, and let politics go !

In three days I intend embarking in the Ram-
bler for Fayal, there to pick up my Alice, to whom
you were so kind ; and, after a cruise among the
Azores, land wherever the wind will let us, in France
or England ; join my son for a few days, perhaps, in
Switzerland, and home by steam. My sister and a
young lady accompany me, and will perhaps be the
first lady yachters across the Atlantic. I shall call
and see you if I reach London, and am

Very truly yours, J. M. Forbes.

The excursion referred to in the concluding por-
tion of this letter duly took place. I well recall the
cold, bright April day when we all went down the
harbor on the little vessel, — those of us not out-
ward bound parting from her at the Boston light, and
returning by the tow-boat. The Rambler, though
large for a yacht, looked very small to us, while with
a fair wind she sped out into " blue water," my
father, aunt, and friend waving their handkerchiefs
to us from her deck, the gulls wheeling around her,
and the sun full on her white sails. The voyage

AFTER THE WAR 171

was very successful. They touched at Fayal and
St. Michael's, and then, abandoning the plan of
going to England, they sailed for Teneriffe, and so
home. At Fayal lived at that time our friends the
Dabneys. While there my father wrote to Mr.
Hamilton Fish, then Secretary of State : —

J. M. FORBES TO HAMILTON FISH.

Fatal, 8th June, 1872.

You may perhaps have forgotten that two or
three years ago I wrote you very earnestly recom-
mending the retention of our late consul at this
place, Charles W. Dabney. That excellent friend
and good American has since died, leaving two sons,
most worthy successors to his business and his popu-
larity here. Everything which I then said about
the importance of having a gentleman as our consul
here, and especially one of strong American feeling,
is more than confirmed by my observation upon the
spot. The Portuguese attach great value to official
position in such an isolated place as this, and look
up to our consul with the same sort of respect which
in large capitals attaches to an ambassador. I find
here every one full of remembrance of the public-
spirited acts of the Messrs. Dabney, from the day
when they gave their ship, freight free, to transport
a cargo of provisions contributed by Boston (through
their influence) to the starving people here, down to
the time when they bought up all the coal here to
prevent the pirate Semmes getting his supplies for
the Alabama. In short, the name of Dabney is in

172 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

every respect associated with good-will towards the
inhabitants, and zeal for American interests. I now
find that the new consul, Mr. Cover, is in such a
state of health that his resignation is probable, and
I would most urgently beg, upon public as well as
personal grounds, that if a vacancy occurs you will
give full consideration to the many reasons which
exist for appointing one of the Messrs. Dabney.
They are both gentlemen of mature age, good edu-
cation, unspotted integrity, and in every way calcu-
lated to do honor to the office. The salary is only
$750, and to merely political aspirants the office is
unimportant, while to an American merchant per-
manently residing here, it is desirable. During the
years in which I have been identified with the Re-
publican party by some work and certainly much
zeal, I have never before solicited anything for my-
self. I now venture to ask of the administration,
as a personal favor, that my wishes, backed by direct
knowledge of the parties and of the circumstances,
may have weight in the appointment of the consul
here.1

The next extract is from a letter to me, from St.
Michael's, and will amuse any who recollect my
father's fondness for quick modes of locomotion.

Rambler, St. Michael's.
Here we are, with sail up, tied to a buoy, and

Mr. Cover died on his voyage home from Fayal, and Mr. S.
Dabney was appointed consul. — Ed.

AFTER THE WAR 173

ready to let go the moment the passengers come on
board for Fayal. We have had a delightful visit
here, weather favoring us, and the yacht proving a
most valuable home, besides transporting us and a
large party back and forth.

I could not help thinking how your eyes would
twinkle with enjoyment at seeing me bound hand
and foot, and given over to the power of a donkey
and his driver, perched upon a high pack with both
feet on the same side. No bridle, no whip, nothing
to do but submit and hold on, while turning sharp
corners overhanging a precipice, or being goaded at
an ass's double quick, into the midst of the party,
who are all equally helpless !

Some of those heathen kings led captive into
Rome might have conceived of my sensations. You
cannot. And then, once down from the mountains,
to be led through narrow streets of villages teeming
with men, women, and children, all doubtless mak-
ing fun of one, though happily their gibberish is
generally unintelligible !

A donkey train of sixteen or eighteen, with the
girls in red and blue, is very picturesque, zig-zagging
along the mountain sides.

I have spoken of repeated journeys to California
and Florida. It is impossible to give one tithe of
the accounts which have been preserved of these
various excursions. But I ought to mention that
my father often added his friends to the family
parties that were made up for these numerous expe-

174 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

ditions. It is to one of these plans, for a trip to
the White Mountains in New Hampshire, that the
following letter refers.

R. W. EMERSON TO J. M. FORBES.

Concord, June 6, 1870.
My dear Friend, — Your letter delighted me
and my dame to-night with its wit and its benefi-
cent proposal, and I believe you cannot write a let-
ter which shall not have both these elements. And
the scheme is charming to me, the company and the
mountains. And yet it is not to be thought of by
me, — I wish it were. I have just come to the end
of my Cambridge work, which has been so unusual
a strain on my lawless ways of study, that I have
been forced to postpone all duties, demands, pro-
prieties, specially letters, to it, and now they will
break my doors down if I do not face them. Please
give me credit for rare honesty, nay, magnanimity,
that I do not run out by the back door and take
the train to you. If Ellen were here, or within reach
of your invitation, it would be still harder to say
no ; but she has gone this morning, with Mr. Keyes
and his family, to Amherst and Northampton ; I
suppose for a week. I hope the happiest weather
and conditions to Mrs. Forbes and Alice, and I have
the sorrow of a boy that I cannot go.
Yours affectionately,

R. W. Emerson.

AFTER THE WAR 175

On another occasion, in the next year, my father
succeeded in enticing Mr. Emerson away from his
study and his beloved town of Concord, on a mem-
orable journey across the continent.1 In answer to
an invitation to join this party, Mr. Emerson wrote
as follows : —

R. W. EMERSON TO J. M. FORBES.

Concord, Sunday Evening, 26 March, 1871.
My dear Friend, — Your brave offer, which
startled me yesterday, has kept my thoughts pretty
steadily at work all to-day. And I am hardly ready
to-night to decide. I have been postponing some
serious tasks till my Cambridge work (which is a
more serious strain than you would imagine) is
ended, and to postpone these again, I fear seems
to threaten the breaking of my contracts. One
of these is to an English bookseller whom I have
stopped from stealing old scattered articles of mine,
by promising to furnish him an honest book, in No-
vember, I believe. And other work is to precede
that, — which were long to tell. On the other side
is the brilliant opportunity you offer me to see the
wonderful country, and under every advantage, and
with friends so dear and prized, and with yourself
the leader. And I have the whisper that the adven-
ture may add so much strength to body and mind
as to compensate the shortened time on my return.
Add that my wife and Ellen and Edward are unani-
mous in urging the journey.

1 Already mentioned in chapter i. page 8.

176 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

The result is that at this moment I lean to your
munificent proposal, and shall prepare to go with
you ; but I shall reserve, for a day or two yet, a
right to reconsider the decision of this moment.
Meantime I value dearly the great heart that makes
the proposition.

R. W. Emerson.

This journey, which included the Yosemite valley
and Lake Tahoe, was successfully carried out, and
enjoyed all the more by the rest of the party for the
serene and dignified presence of Mr. Emerson. An
episode in my father's next trip to Florida is men-
tioned in the following letter. It does not read like
that of a man sixty years old, who had just recovered
from a violent attack of lumbago.

Magnolia, Florida, March 9, 1873.

My dear Sarah, — Just after I had been abusing
you came your nice letter of February 26 from the
Berkeley, where you seem to be having a peaceful
time. Here we have little incident, the great
struggle being to find time enough to do anything.

Three days ago I went with Will and Hemenway,
by sailboat, to some splendid snipe grounds about
eight miles down river. It was a beautiful day, and
we found the loveliest snipe marsh in America,
where two days before a party had killed 118 in
four hours.

It took us till noon to beat down, and then we
had a fine walk of three hours, getting only eight

AFTER THE WAR 177

birds, however, as the flight had gone by. I had
the ill luck to step into a deep hole, and went into
the water up to my waist ; then a tumble, heels over
head, without breaking my gun or my neck ! then
my india-rubber boot separated into two parts, and
I had to walk back nearly barefoot !

One party down here got out of powder and shot
and then met an enormous moccasin snake, which
they dared not attack. Will saw an alligator. We
got home at seven, pretty cold and stiff, but a good
pine-wood fire and hot supper set us to rights, and
I have no ill effects except a little lameness in the
knee. The hole in my back made by Dr. Rogers's
blister is nearly healed, and I am beginning to feel
worth a little something. Yesterday I went to
Jacksonville on business, and on my return found
another horse sent up for me to try, a nice, compact
pony, easy and gentle, and all right except a Roman
nose.

To-day Hunt * and I took a long ride to try the
new pony, which he pronounced first-rate ; then we
went into the Emerald Spring and voted ourselves
happy to get in there, and out of Boston. We are
talking of a trip to St. Augustine with our guns,
leaving mother here. . . . Hunt is delighted with
the climate and the life here.

Always your affectionate, J. M. F.

Thermometer about 70.

In the political campaign of 1872, when Horace

1 William Morris Hunt, the artist. — Ed.
vol. n.

178 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Greeley, as the Democratic nominee for the presi-
dency, was opposed to Grant's candidacy for a
second term, my father was chosen one of the
two Republican electors at large. Charles Sumner,
strangely enough, was supporting Greeley. I have
purposely omitted the notes of a journey taken by
my father in 1867 over Sherman's route to the sea,
as its chief results are given in the following letter
to Mr. Sumner. The letter is long, but it seems to
me too important to shorten.

J. M. FORBES TO CHARLES SUMNER.

Naushon, August 10, 1872.

My dear Mr. Sumner, — I have re-read with
great care the letter to the colored people you sent
me, and really wish I could take your rose-colored
view of the situation, for I should then feel tranquil,
whichever party won. But I have actually seen
something of the South, and I cannot but look with
alarm upon the chance of your coalition succeeding,
and I regret exceedingly that you could not have
held yourself in reserve so as to throw your weight
on the right side after the campaign develops more
clearly the intentions of the Democracy.

Just after the war, I followed Sherman's march
in reverse, going slowly from Savannah to Atlanta,
Chattanooga, Nashville, Louisville ; stopping with
my family a few days at each important point, talk-
ing with Simms (colored editor), with Saxton, and
finally with that fine old soldier, General Thomas.
The Ku-Klux machinery was just coming into play,

AFTER THE WAR 179

and the Southern cities were decorated with its
emblems, death's heads and cross-bones, daggers
dripping blood, etc., etc. At Louisville, having a
letter to the general, I discussed with him the mean-
ing of this organization in a full and confidential
manner, and Johnson's impeachment being then on
the tapis, I wrote to some of our friends East the
result, perhaps to you. General Thomas was con-
vinced that the Ku-Klux was a far-reaching machine
got up by the Southern leaders to perfect them-
selves, as far as they were allowed, into a Vigilance
Committee, or, as they used to call it, into an army
of regulators, to eventually control the Southern
elections by intimidation and actual violence against
the Union or Republican voters, white or black.
Everything I have seen since in my visits South,
including the whole of last winter, satisfies me that
this view was, and is still, correct, and that if we
give back to the rebel States what the Greeley party
call " local self-government," it will simply mean
the right to control the elections by fraud or vio-
lence, as either may promise to be most effective ;
and of course their next step would be to reorganize
the whole social system, and reorganize labor.

Up to last spring I found the insane cry of the
educated rebels just the same as it had been : " the
blacks will not work ; " " they rule the country so as
to make it insufferable for the whites ; " " their inso-
lence is intolerable ; " " their taxes are eating us
up ; " and so on to the end of the chapter. I wish
you had been, by the mercy of Providence, induced

180 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

to take a run down and mix with the people your-
self, instead of having to get your impressions of
the South from politicians and newspapers. I do
not forget what nuisances many of the carpet-bag-
gers were, and are; but in the ignorance of the
four millions about the machinery of voting, they
were the schoolmasters in the caucus and town
meetings, and the ABC teachers of free govern-
ment ; and though in many cases an evil, they were
a necessary one, — unless we were to give over the
government to the old slave leaders, and their less
educated sons now coming forward, suckled as they
were upon rebel milk, and taught to labor and to
wait for the revival of the lost cause. ... I have
seen no signs at the South of a desire for recon-
ciliation on the part of the old slave party. They
have a strong desire to regain power, and by a
united South and a Democratic North to again
govern the country ; but in my judgment the masses
of that party are as bitter against the black voters,
and against you black Republicans, as they ever
were ; and the only safe way is to keep them under
by a united Republican North until the colored
population are strong enough to protect themselves.
An old rebel colonel said to me in South Caro-
lina, " The moment the federal government with-
draws its interference, we shall fly at each other's
throats, and the weakest will go under." The poor
man was in favor of continued federal control, for
he evidently thought it doubtful whether his gray-
coated friends in that State could hold their own.

AFTER THE WAR 181

I agree that the time has got to come when the
four millions must do without guardianship, and
learn to take care of themselves; but with their
still imperfect education, their general mildness,
their habitual fear of the bowie-knife and revolver,
I dread to see them put to the test yet. Give them,
for a few years longer, the pen, and the press, and
the habit of carrying arms, and of working for
themselves, before you turn them out to the tender
mercies of their old masters, under the plausible
guise of " local self-government." Without going
there you really cannot understand what children
most of them are. With their instinct of owning
land, they do not yet find their way to the public
homesteads to any extent; and until they actually
get land they will never be safe from something like
peonage. The old slaveholders show their instinct,
too, in discouraging by every possible means the
breaking up of large estates and the acquisition of
land by the blacks, whether from public or pri-
vate domains. Many of the States have very large
amounts of state lands, acquired under the Swamp
Land swindle,1 and otherwise, as in Texas, by the
original act of annexation.

1 The allusion is to the legislation of the United States by which
" Swamps and overflowed lands " belonging to the national govern-
ment were ceded to the States where they were situated. This
began with a statute of March 2, 1849, making a cession to Louisi-
ana. In September, 1850, a similar grant was made to Arkansas
and " each of the other States ; " and afterwards States subsequently
admitted to the Union had the same grant made to them. Great
frauds have been committed under these statutes, and they have been
the cause of much litigation, and endless difficulty to the Land De-
partment. See Donaldson's Public Domain) p. 217. — Ed.

182 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Now, as an old friend, I wish in all kindness to
put myself on record as regretting your leaving our
party, and as predicting that you will come back to
us. I know you will pardon me for begging you,
even at this late day, to maintain such a reserve in
your speeches and other campaign work as to make
it easy for you to strike a blow for the right side
with the greatest effect, if in your judgment the
occasion arises.

I have no doubt of Greeley's good intentions, but
I consider them the very worst kind of pavement
to depend on unless there is a good hard substratum
underneath. Nobody knows better than you that
where his kindness of heart, his fear of violence, or
his prejudices and hobbies are concerned, Greeley
can never be depended on in a pinch. He has
always been flying from one extreme to the other ;
giving up the Union in March, 1861 ; then shout-
ing, " On to Richmond ; " and the worst of all, in
1864, when a compromise would have destroyed all
we had so fearfully earned, doing his best to ac-
complish it. Now you are the very antipode of
Greeley in firmness and tenacity of purpose. You
may for a while act as balance-wheel, but with his
Democratic millions at his back I have not the
slightest hope that you can keep him out of the
reactionary vortex (if he should be elected) ; and
then, or earlier, when you see the old slave leaders,
from Voorhees, and his Northern coadjutors, up to
Wade Hampton and General Johnston, and perhaps
Jeff Davis himself, preparing to take full possession

AFTER THE WAR 183

of the government (with Greeley for a helpless
figure-head), I wish you may be in the best position
to reclaim your old position among us with the
least possible friction ; for in such a case I know
you will reclaim it, no matter what breaks.

With such opinions on the main question, it is
not worth while to go into the smaller issues of how
best to manage finance, currency, etc., etc. ; and to
get back from protection, which Greeley would (as
far as his influence goes) make prohibitory, to some-
thing like sound revenue tariffs. On all these,
Greeley will, however honest, be an experimental
philosopher instead of a practical one. I don't
object to novelties in a small way, but when the
fate of millions is involved, I want steadiness and
safety, and I am sure you will split with Greeley
before you go very far.

Forgive me this frankness, which may even seem
meddlesome, but you and I can still, I hope, talk
plainly to each other; or rather you can let me
speak out to you and disagree with you for a while
without quarreling.

Yours very truly, John M. Forbes.

CHAPTER XX

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS. RAILROADS

During the second term of office which the
gratitude of a nation to its military hero, and its
wholesome dislike of feather-headed virtue, had
given to General Grant, I find my father's public
work, except occasional attacks on the growing
political corruption in his party, to have been chiefly
devoted to the currency question. He considered
this question, as he says, one of " the most impor-
tant, not only to commercial men, but to all the in-
dustrious men of the country." In December, 1873,
he supported Mr. H. L. Pierce's bill " to provide
for resumption of specie payments." The next
month he appeared as a witness before the con-
gressional committee on " Banks and Currency,"
and did his best to convince its members that the
welfare of the country in such matters required
above all things " the steadiest possible measure of
values," and that the laboring man was the first
victim of any tampering with that measure. Later
on in the year (1874), he was able to use some in-
fluence with General Grant in favor of his veto of
the " Inflation Bill." This veto, given by the Pre-
sident in the teeth of much opposition in the ranks

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 185

of his own party, my father considered as, " next to
his military success, the crowning glory of Grant's
life." In May he was rejoicing with his friend,
Mr. J. S. Ropes, over this veto, and with him
striving to " disabuse the minds of their Western
friends " of the idea that more currency meant " a
boon to the toiling millions ! "

A flagrant instance, at this time, of the growing
corruption in what is called machine politics, was
the appointment to the collectorship of the port of
Boston, of a man whose political career had shown
him to be unfitted for the post. This appointment
was urged by General Butler, then a Republican
member of the national House of Representatives,
and always, as my father held, one of the most mis-
chievous influences, in war and in politics, with
which Massachusetts had ever had to deal. To
oppose the confirmation of this appointment, my
father went to Washington as chairman of a com-
mittee of merchants; unsuccessfully, as it turned
out, for, as he says in his notes, "like the horse
jockey who had said a horse was seventeen feet
high, instead of seventeen hands, and had stuck to
it, General Grant was famous for persisting in any
mistake which he made." I find the following let-
ter written to the President, some time after this
Boston appointment and other worse mistakes had
ruined any chance of overcoming the very general
prejudice against a presidential third term : —

186 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

J. M. FORBES TO PRESIDENT GRANT.

Boston, September 27, 1876.

When I called upon you in regard to the appoint-
ment of Simmons to the collectorship of Boston, I
ventured to say that sooner or later you would find
that Butler was the worst enemy of the Republican
party. The inclosed telegrams, which some of the
Democratic papers have dug out, prove conclusively
that at that very time Butler was in close affiliation
with the leaders of the Democratic party, and was
using the alliance to get Simmons confirmed ; their
motive being to split the Republican party, which
he gladly availed himself of for his selfish ends.
The split came, and left him entirely out of sight
until B. H. has again brought him to the surface ;
and now with the help of the federal officers whom
he then got appointed, he has turned up a threaten-
ing nuisance, and is doing more harm to the party
than any man alive.

We shall keep Massachusetts right side up,1 in

spite of him and Mr. both ; but the mischief

he is doine: outside the State is incalculable. I can-
not believe that he and the rebels will triumph ; but
he is doing all that one man can for them, and if
they succeed there will be one consolation, — we
shall get rid of him, and see him go back to them,
where he belongs.

By the end of Grant's second administration, the

1 In the contest for the presidency between Hayes, Republican,
and Tilden, Democrat. — Ed.

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 187

need of civil service reform was apparent to all
men of my father's stamp. " To the victors be-
long the spoils " had become the cry of the politi-
cal bosses ; and the evil it implied had been grow-
ing, from the war time onwards. As long ago as
May, 1869, Charles Sumner, writing from the sen-
ate chamber, had said to him : " I did my best to
prevent adjournment, . . . but senators and mem-
bers were so anxious to escape this terrible pressure
of office-seekers that I was powerless."

The notes continue : —

" My having been one of the two Massachusetts
electors at large in the campaign of 1872, —
which resulted in the reelection of General Grant, —
with other things, probably led to my being chosen,
four years later, one of the delegates at large to the
Cincinnati Republican National Convention, which
nominated General Hayes, — instead of Bristow, as
had been proposed.

" I had supported Grant through his second term,
as I had already done through his first ; but then
(1876) took part in the Independent movement of
which Massachusetts formed the nucleus. At Cin-
cinnati, R. H. Dana, Judge Hoar, and perhaps
President Seelye were with me as delegates at large,
and were pushing for a nomination which would
mean abolishing the rule of the machine bosses,
then represented by Blaine and Conkling, who op-
posed each other, but were equally mischievous in
their support of the discipline of the Republican
party, and were entirely blind, or indifferent, to its

1S3 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

many abuses. It was a great gain to get so good
a man as Hayes for the nominee, and a platform
which meant reform within the party. At this
convention I was put on the national committee to
represent Massachusetts. On our return from Cin-
cinnati there was an enthusiastic ratification at
Faneuil Hall to confirm the action of the Massa-
chusetts delegation."

I give the following extract from my father's
speech at that meeting, the first and last that he
ever made on an occasion of note : —

" Let me add one word upon a subject which is
too often classed with the sentimental politics of
theorists and unpractical men, — civil service reform.
The present generation has been so long accustomed
to the abuse of the government service by making
office the reward for past, or the bribe for future,
political work, that we have almost forgotten the
origin of the evil habit into which both political
parties have been led ; and we are blinded by habit
to the dangers into which it is drawing us. Will
you indulge me for one moment in a reminiscence
and in a parallel ? Some of us now here well re-
member the thrill of indignation with which the
announcement was received some forty-seven years
ago that General Jackson, then just entered upon
his high office, had at one fell swoop removed nearly
all the subordinates in the government service, re-
placing them by his own partisans. From the
humblest tide-waiter or porter, and the smallest
country postmaster upward, all were swept away.

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 189

This little army was then insignificant, compared
with its present immense numbers, but at one blow
more changes were forcibly made than had occurred
by death, resignation, and removal since the foun-
dation of our government. . . . The evil system
inaugurated by Jackson, and indorsed by Marcy,
to-day overshadows the whole of the body politic,
just as slavery did thirty years ago.

" In the face of other great issues, and especially
with the whole industry of the country paralyzed
by an unsound, fluctuating currency, a living lie,
which we indorse by enduring, I would not exag-
gerate the immediate importance of civil service
reform ; but I do say that in the near future it is
the task of young America to remand to its post of
duty and of service the office-holding class, which,
after growing from a corporal's guard under Gen-
eral Jackson into a large and compact army, now
threatens to rule the whole country.

" We have all been brought up in a wholesome
jealousy of even the little standing army of 25,000
men necessary to control the Indians and the Ku
Klux, and to garrison our forts ; yet we are gradu-
ally having fixed upon our necks a trained army of
140,000 officeholders, whose chief business, in the
eyes of practical politicians, is to pack the caucus,
drum up voters, and perpetuate their own power.
Resistance to this danger many will stigmatize as
sentimental politics, but I do not hesitate to say
here, in the old Cradle of Liberty, that until we
have put an end to the growing and dangerous

190 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

abuse of the patronage of office, whether by the
Executive or by Congress, those who rescued the
country from the grasp of slavery will have but half
done their work."

My father's pleasant personal relations with Gen-
eral Grant were not affected by political differences.
Referring to a visit to Washington just before
Hayes's inauguration, he writes : —

" We called on General Grant and had a free talk
with him during the last days of his presidency ; "
and he goes on to say, as to his successor at Wash-
ington : " Of course, I saw President Hayes then,
and later, and always had very friendly relations
with him. He was not a great man, and had little
experience in government, but he was a thoroughly
honest one ; and, though making some very grave
mistakes in his appointments, and also in his meth-
ods of pushing civil service reform (by proclamations
and rules rather than by acts), his administration,
on the whole, prepared the way for the success of
Garfield in the presidential contest of 1880."

The same old controversies went on through the
next four years ; and among them, next in impor-
tance to the fight against political corruption, was
that for sound money. This last had now become
further complicated by the efforts which the men,
recently enriched by the huge discoveries of silver
in the West, were making to have their precious
metal freely coined at a rate which would have
driven out gold. Their attempt which culminated
in the nomination of Bryan as Democratic can-

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 191

didate for the presidency in 1896, was now only
beginning ; and its first check came from President
Hayes's veto of the Bland Silver Bill. As to this,
I find among my father's papers an interchange of
letters with Mr. Bristow, Secretary of the Interior
under President Grant, the same who had unearthed
the whiskey frauds, and who would have been nom-
inated as Republican candidate in 1876 but for jeal-
ousies among the leaders. In a note from him,
written before the veto, he says, " I doubt whether
the President will put enough energy and snap into
his message." And after the veto came, my father,
while finding it " creditable to the President's con-
sistency and courage," missed in it " the ring which
might have made it a working force in directing the
policy of the country." Of this period he writes
in his notes : —

" During the four years of President Hayes's ad-
ministration I continued an active member of the
executive committee which really ran the Republi-
can party ; was in constant communication with the
leaders of the party, in Congress and out, and was
able to raise a good deal of money for its operations.
I also got an insight into the abuses of the party,
which I tried in vain to resist and correct. I found
with me many good men, but also some of the most
unscrupulous bosses, and had a continuing fight
with the latter during the whole four years."

By this time most of my father's foreign corre-
spondents, with whose names the reader has been
acquainted, had died. I find a consequent dearth of

192 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

letters from abroad ; and in the year 1878 Thomas
Hughes is the only one who writes of public affairs.
I give an extract from his letter : —

" I watch your politics as usual with great inter-
est, but can't satisfy myself whether the South is
dictating the government policy or not. Are Hayes
and his cabinet strong enough to keep a straight
road ? Hayes seems to me a strong man ; so is Carl
Schurz ; so is Evarts ; but one begins to doubt
whether they will do much, with a third and more
of their term gone already."

Then came the presidential campaign of 1880.
That he took a vigorous part in this is indicated by
a note in which Mr. Henry Lee, just before the elec-
tion, tells him : " If Garfield is elected, he will owe
more to you than to any one man." But my father
was becoming more and more disgusted with the
growth of corruption and " boss-rule " in the party ;
and, looking back on that campaign in after years,
he wrote in his notes : —

" When the presidential contest approached, the
national committee was very much divided. The
friends of General Grant wished to put him up for
the next campaign, giving him a third term as presi-
dent, and the chairman of the committee was Senator
Cameron, a strong Grant man. Blaine's friends
were represented by W. E. Chandler, Wm. P. Frye,
and Eugene Hale ; and the minority, who really, when
well managed, held the balance of power, consisted
of the other New England members, Massachusetts
leading.

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 193

" The Republican convention was called at Chi-
cago in June, 1880, and the preliminary arrange-
ments had already been made by Mr. Cameron as
chairman. When I reached Chicago I found the
committee almost in a state of chaos, Mr. Cameron
having assumed the whole authority, and showing a
determination to ignore the majority of the commit-
tee, although he had only a minority of the members
present. The only way to meet this pretension
was for the Independents to join with the Blaine
party, and insist upon the right of the majority to
rule. In spite of the objections to Grant, I pre-
ferred him, as being an honest man, to Blaine ; but,
for the purposes of a fair organization of the con-
vention, a combination with the Blaine leaders was
necessary, and by patience and firmness we pre-
vented the breaking up of the convention, and finally
succeeded in getting George Hoar made chairman
of the convention, and in having an organization
satisfactory to the majority.

" The convention met in a large building capable
of holding 10,000 people. This was packed full by
the delegates themselves (the substitutes standing
ready to fill vacancies in the delegations), and by an
audience consisting largely of Illinois men whose
sympathies were with Grant. By the usages of
party, the whole arrangement of the convention was
with the old national committee, who gave passes
for admission, fixed the preliminary rules, and or-
ganized the police. During the first struggle, and,

indeed, through the whole convention, which lasted
vol. n.

194 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

through a very exciting week, constant negotiations
were carried on for a coalition between the Independ-
ents and the Grant or Blaine parties. In these I
had to take a leading part, but nothing could be
done, as we resisted firmly putting into the nomina-
tion any of the leading bosses on the Grant side,
even with the very desirable object in view of de-
feating Blaine. There was a very strong popular
objection to giving Grant, or any president, a third
term, as being an innovation on the unwritten un-
derstanding which had grown up against having a
president for more than two terms ; and to this pop-
ular feeling was added the conviction that Grant
had gathered around him a very unscrupulous body
of partisans who would be sure to perpetuate the
Republican abuses.

" After trying to get the Southern vote for John
Sherman, who was the Secretary of the Treasury,
and who, by his official influence, had many office-
holding delegates in the convention, we at last,
through the personal magnetism of General Garfield,
who was in the convention as a delegate, managed
to throw the Sherman vote over to him, and to get
him nominated ; but, unluckily, the Ohio politicians
deserted us, their allies, on the question of vice-pre-
sident, and so gave that office to Arthur, a very
strong Grant man, who, however, turned out a great
deal better than we had any right to expect from his
antecedents as a member of the machine.

" The moment the nominations were made, every-
body, after that exciting and expensive week, was in

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 195

a hurry to get home. I had been reelected for four
years as the Massachusetts member of the new na-
tional committee, whose business it was to organize
the management of the coming political campaign.
We, accordingly, met that night to make our ar-
rangements before separating, but the cunning Grant
men were more punctual at the meeting than their
former opponents, and nearly succeeded in appointing
officers of the committee without giving Garfield and
his advisers any voice in the selection of those who
were to conduct the campaign. With the help of
Chandler, Frye, and Hale, we managed to avert this
and postpone action until the committee could meet
a few weeks later in New York city. It had been
one of the most exciting conventions ever known,
owing to the close division of the parties, and to the
enormous audience, made up largely of Grant's Chi-
cago friends. At one of the evening sessions the
audience fairly took possession of the convention ;
the chairman, George Hoar, sat powerless on the
platform striving in vain to bring back order ; the
crowd below us caught the fever, and one faction
after another yelled and paraded with the flags
about the hall, acting like so many Bedlamites. An
enthusiastic woman jumped on the rail behind the
chairman and began to harangue the meeting, bal-
ancing herself doubtfully on the narrow edge until
ex-Governor Jewell, of Connecticut, one of our
members, gallantly supported her by both his hands
until she could be pacified. In swinging her parasol
about, she nearly struck me, just below her, and to

196 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

avoid further danger I raised my umbrella and sat
safe under her lee until she subsided. This mad
scene lasted over an hour, Mr. Hoar and his sup-
porters doing all they could to restore order, and
at last succeeding, — without adjourning the con-
vention to another smaller building, as at one time
seemed necessary.

" To conclude the story of the Garfield campaign.
It was, of course, important not to give our candi-
dates entirely over to doubtful friends, and it was
of great importance to have a suitable chairman in
the national committee. Mr. Garfield urged me to
accept the office, but I firmly refused, and at last ex-
Governor Jewell, a good business man of tolerable
capacity, was fixed upon as chairman. When the
national committee met in New York, a sub-commit-
tee of three was appointed to nominate officers, and
naturally each of the three existing parties was re-
presented on this committee, — W. E. Chandler for
Blaine, General John A. Logan for Grant, and my-
self for the Independents. We had fixed on Jewell
for chairman, which irritated Logan, and he refused
to have anything to say about the remaining officers,
telling us that Conkling and the New Yorkers (who
had great political influence and, being at the com-
mercial centre, great means of raising money) would
just withdraw, and let the Blaine men and Independ-
ents run the campaign to suit themselves. This
would have been the worst possible augury for suc-
cess at the beginning of a great fight, and I insisted
on Logan's being pacified, and asked him whom he

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 197

wanted for secretary, which was the next most in-
fluential office, and became the most important one.
After some difficulty and much storming, he nom-
inated Senator Dorsey, as a rich and successful min-
ing manager of great organizing power ; and as

assented, and I knew nothing of Dorsey except that
he had been, and perhaps still was, a senator, I, for
the sake of harmony, agreed, and we reported unan-
imously. Hardly was this done when one of our

committee came to me.1

I could not stand this responsibility, and at once
called one or two members out to consult about the
best course. While there, Senator Piatt, of New
York, attacked me for having opposed him as chair-
man ; and while debating matters with him in the
lobby, a few minutes were lost ; and when we re-
turned to the hall for the purpose of my recalling
my assent to the nomination of Dorsey, we found
they had voted in our absence and the committee
was adjourning. It was too late to do anything,
and so, all through the campaign, I was forced to
see it carried on by the worst machine men in the
whole party. Governor Jewell was a very weak
man and allowed the secretary to run the campaign,
and all I could do was to insist that none of the
money we raised in New England (about one third
of the whole fund) should be touched by Dorsey.

" I have always considered this nomination of
Dorsey, and his subsequent management of the Re-

1 I omit the details of certain reports relating to Senator Dorsey. —
Ed.

198 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

publican party, as the beginning of the end of the
rule of the party, and have often smiled at the part
which Massachusetts, representing as she did the re-
form element, had in this disgraceful appointment.

" We carried Garfield into power, perhaps through,
perhaps in spite of, Dorsey's influence ; then came
the assassination ; then a better administration from
Arthur than we had any right to expect."

Whether or not " the beginning of the end " of
Eepublican rule had begun, it is clear from the fol-
lowing " Resolution of the Executive Committee of
the National Republican Committee " that my father
checked so far as he could any improper use of the
campaign funds during the pending contest : —

New York, October 28, 1880.

Voted, that the Chairman and Mr. Forbes be a
committee to use any money raised by the latter,
and by the Massachusetts Auxiliary Committee, in
such manner as they may deem most judicious.

Having forced a decent disposition of the money,
at any rate, for which he was responsible in that
campaign, he had the satisfaction of finding that
the nature of his requirements was recognized by
those who called upon him for this money. When
the chairman of the Republican committee of a
neighboring State, writing from the United States
senate chamber on July 3, 1882, told him how
much help was required in that State, he ended by
saying, " I hope to receive a contribution from you,

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 199

and trust that I need not assure you that whatever
you may send me shall be expended only for pur-
poses that would commend themselves to you."

What my father considered a proper use of cam-
paign funds, the following "rough notes" will
show. They were written in 1884, after the nomi-
nation of candidates for the presidential campaign
then going on, but it is convenient to insert them
here : —

" For the past eight years the political money
raised in Massachusetts has been entirely by written
and personal application, and very largely from the
business men of Boston, the manufacturers not
contributing much, and the office-holders nothing,
except what the congressional committee collected.
This last method of levying has been entirely
stopped now by law.

" The proper mode of distributing is through the
chairman of the national committee, or the execu-
tive committee, and this has been the rule; but
money is sometimes given with the special under-
standing that some member of the committee shall
see to its application, and occasionally the purpose
is denned by the subscriber.

"So much for method of collection and dis-
bursement. The legitimate expenses of the national
campaign can only be indicated in a very general
way, extending from barbecues at the South to
clambakes and public meetings at the North. Some,
however, can be specified. The New York head-
quarters bill, with its Fifth Avenue or other rooms

200 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

for four months, its staff of correspondents and
traveling agents for canvasses, is always a heavy-
item. Public speakers sent over the country by
the national committee are not often paid for their
speeches, but their expenses are usually paid out of
the fund and are apt to be large, — traveling, as
they do, in palace cars and living in first-class
hotels ; and they cannot well be scrutinized carefully,
through vouchers or by auditors. Flag-raisings,
torchlight processions, and bands of music swallow
the fund fast. The nominating conventions are
costly, but paid in part by the cities where the
convention sits. Other States have usually called
largely upon the commercial ones, and especially
upon the cities, for their expenses, which ought to
be (and which in Massachusetts are) chiefly collected
by local committees. Newspaper advertisements are
sometimes very costly indeed ; extra copies of papers
foot up a heavy bill, as does the distribution of cam-
paign matter from headquarters ; the newspaper
supplement, or broadside, often going in the same
wrappers without additional postage, is a very valu-
able method, and in proportion to its value is not a
costly one; but there is abundant room to spend
money legitimately in this way. The most costly
part of the last Republican campaign was the pick-
eting of the Indiana border for the legitimate pur-
pose of preventing Kentucky from colonizing its
spare voters into Indiana, where the requirement as
to prior residence was short and loose. Men were
brought from Kentucky also to attend the Indiana

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 201

polling places and identify, or scare away, Kentucky
residents who illegally offered to vote. This was
right while fairly conducted, but, of course, very
liable to abuse and to the charge of illegality and
fraud ; similar scrutiny of the polls is necessary in
large cities, and very expensive.

" In all these methods of using money, high pay
for workers and great waste of money is almost in-
evitable. There is, of course, much room for abuse,
and the only real check upon it is to avoid trusting
money with the Dorsey class, but they are for such
purposes the smart ones, and there is great temptation
for both parties to employ them. It will be inter-
esting to see how the Independents and the Cleve-
land folks will avoid these and other similar dangers.
Printing and distributing votes and bringing voters
to the polls on election day is all right and will
easily absorb very large sums. In Massachusetts it
is generally done by local contribution, but money is
almost always asked of us for this sort of work in
other States where (especially in the country) ready
money is really scarce. From some of the Southern
States money is often asked for to pay the poll tax
of the negroes, necessary to be done before voting,
and wanted theoretically to pay only the taxes of
those unable to pay themselves. This use is cer-
tainly very objectionable, but by some is claimed to
be legitimate. It would soon absorb very large sums
for taxes if the smarter voters, as well as the poorer
ones, should learn to depend on this mode of paying
their poll taxes, and would do double mischief by

202 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

making an election depend upon the ' barrel/ and
by degrading the ballot at the South, where the
colored voters ought to be leveled up and taught
that the ballot is their only safety, and their most
valuable possession."

In addition to these " rough notes," I give what
my father wrote on the same subject in December,
1890. It shows how the abuses against which he
protested in 1884 had been growing in the mean
while : —

" I see that what, in 1884, I considered a great
extravagance was very much exceeded two years
ago when Harrison and Cleveland were the candi-
dates.

" Quay, "Wanamaker, perhaps Carnegie, and other
protectionists deliberately put the leading manufac-
turers on the gridiron and ( fried the fat out of
them,' — a phrase obtained from an intercepted Re-
publican manager's dispatch. Besides the ordinary
contributions from office-holders, office-seekers, con-
tractors, and other jobbers, at least $400,000 was
levied in large sums on the manufacturers during
the last days of the campaign, and was absolutely
used to perpetuate what is called protection of the
workmen, but is nothing short of plunder by the
capitalists who have planted their money in manu-
facturing works."

To turn now to state politics. For some years
before 1882, a continuous fight had been going on
to prevent the election to the governorship of Mas-

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 203

sachusetts of General Butler. As far back as 1879,
I find a letter from Judge Hoar, in which, reply-
ing to a warning note from my father, he says :
" While I am drowsily whiling away this leisure
summer time, your letter comes like i the voice of
one crying in the wilderness.' ... I am not at all
alarmed, though sorry, of course, that the fight with
Satan is to be again on our hands.

" I think the accession of and to the

camp of Butler Democracy has an element in it of
some value to our side ; the political adhesion that
lasts just as long as a lucrative office can be held, is
not the kind that the bulk of mankind admire. So
be cheerful."

But now (1882) the general at last attained the
object of his ambition. Of this my father writes
in his notes : " After a hard fight amid much mis-
management, he was run in for one term as gov-
ernor. He made so many splurges, and showed
his colors so completely, that one term sufficed;
and it looks as if we had got rid of him, in spite of
his wonderful faculty of hitting the small popular
currents and coming down on his feet."

My father was out of health at the time of the
campaign, and only just towards its close was able,
as he says in a letter to Whittier, to " brace up a
little and take a hand in the final charge, too late to
do much good." He thanks Mr. Whittier for hav-
ing given such help as he could, and proceeds : —

" No evil is entirely without its uses ; even helle-
bore and deadly nightshade can be turned to good ;

204 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

and Butler, bad as he is, in some directions, is not
all bad. His very vices have a largeness about them
which partially redeems him from our scorn. No-
body can say of him, as the country boy said to his
own father, ' Come to town, daddy ; dreadful mean
men get into office here.' I confess a preference
for a bold, bad man, over the mean ones who have
infested some of our high places. Their boldness,
like the rattle of the coiled snake, gives warning,
and they don't strike in the dark. The strong men
of Massachusetts have been lulled into fatal security
by the too often repeated cry of wolf, when there
was no wolf. Now he is in our fold we must
band together, and we must corral him around dur-
ing this year and drive him out at the end of it,
although it is much harder to do this than to have
kept him out of the fort by timely work.

" I hope to have strength given me to join in
this good work, and I know you are never appealed
to in vain for the help of your aged arm. May it
long be preserved for new blows for the right."

The " strong men of Massachusetts " did band
together ; General Butler was defeated, and a very
different person succeeded him, — Governor Rob-
inson.

During this year (1883) came the death of Gusta-
vus Fox, whose conduct, under Secretary Welles of
the Navy Department, throughout the war, my father
had so much admired. He now seized the opportu-
nity of testifying in a public print to this " un-
pretending naval lieutenant, who, placed without

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 205

warning virtually at the head of one of the most
important departments of the government, always
did the right thing at the right time, and directed
all the operations of the navy much more directly
and completely than it was possible for any officer
to direct the operations of the army." So passed
away one more of those with whom he had worked
during the struggle for life of the republic.

At this time Mrs. Lucy Stone and her friends
were demanding the suffrage for women. Of this
he declared himself a " thorough advocate," only
wishing that " they had done more on the school
committees," in which they already had the power
of voting. He even proposed that there should be
a clause like the following in favor of this con-
cession in the next Republican platform for the
State : —

"Resolved, That whenever the women of this
Commonwealth who would, under the educational
clause of our Constitution (or law), be entitled to
vote, ask with reasonable unanimity for the suffrage,
we cordially approve of accepting them as co-workers
in the toils and duties of government.

" We strongly recommend the step towards this
desirable end, of allowing each town and municipality
to concede to its women who are qualified the right
to vote upon all municipal and town affairs, thus
extending an experiment which has been partially
tried here in regard to school business, and still
more broadly by our conservative cousins abroad."

The time, however, was near at hand when any

206 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

official responsibility for " planks " in political plat-
forms was to be at an end for him.

As a member of the national committee, he at-
tended the Chicago Convention in 1884, when that
body nominated Mr. Blaine as Republican candidate
for president. This was the last straw. The tie
that had bound him to the Republican party for
twenty-seven years had to break. Looking half
sick with disgust and disappointment, he returned
home, never again to take an active part in any
political organization. As to this I quote from the
notes as follows : —

" At the Chicago Convention in June, 1884, when
Blaine was nominated, I was urged to accept an-
other nomination as the Massachusetts member of
the committee, but I had seen too much of the
methods of party rule, even under a reasonably
good administration ; and with the chances of Blaine
being elected I could see nothing but disgrace in
being connected with the management, so I abso-
lutely refused to serve, and while the Chicago Con-
vention was dispersing, steamed up and started for
home, free from further duty as a party man."

I cannot better explain my father's reasons for
standing aloof from the Republican party, after
actively supporting it for so many years, than by
giving a copy of his letter to the chairman of the
Massachusetts Independents : —

RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS 207

Naushon, October 29, 1884.

My dear Sir, — Your note of October 27 has
only just reached me. I prefer not to be put for-
ward as vice-president.1 Had I remembered, when
writing to your first Independent meeting, the
circular which had been sent me, I should have es-
caped the false position in which I found myself, of
appearing as a leader in active politics. I am now
asked the reasons why I cannot support Mr. Blaine,
and why I think the Democratic party a less dan-
gerous alternative. I will try to give you a few of
them.

First. I object to Mr. Blaine because I have
carefully studied his correspondence (old and new)
with Mr. Fisher and others, and because I have
entire faith in Mr. Mulligan's testimony regarding
the circumstances under which the first letters were
brought before the public in 1876. This faith is
based not only on Mr. Mulligan's unimpeached
reputation, but also from personal knowledge of
him. I consider those letters alone amply sufficient
in any ordinary case ; but when confirmed by Mr.
Mulligan's testimony and Mr. Blaine's own admis-
sion before his colleague in Congress, I can find no
possible room for doubt that Mr. Blaine stands con-
victed of having offered for sale his political influ-
ence, and of having tried to suborn the witness
called to testify upon his case. Either offense seems
to me absolutely to disqualify him for leading up-
ward and onward the Eepublican party, which many

1 Vice-president of a proposed meeting of Independents. — Ed.

208 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

of us still believe to be the party of progress and
of honest government, and which we expect to see
assume that position again, either when Mr. Blaine
is defeated, or when the Democratic party may have
justified the fears of its enemies by maladministra-
tion. The election of Mr. Blaine I should consider
the suicide of the Republican party and the inaugu-
ration of a new one which would combine the worst
elements of American politics, now represented by
Messrs. Blaine, Butler, Kelly, and Denis Kearney.

Second. I object to Mr. Blaine because his man-
agement of our foreign affairs while Secretary of
State was sensational and eminently dangerous, warn-
ing us against what he might do in the presidency.

Third. Remembering, as I do, that the twenty-
five millions of our people who support the Demo-
cratic ticket, with the exception of a very small frac-
tion, are just about as honest and patriotic as those
who compose our own party, and recollecting, too,
that we have in the latter our full share of star-route
and other soldiers of fortune, I can only reach the
conclusion, already suggested in my former letter
to the Boston meeting of Independents, that there
is less danger in to-day trying the experiment of a
Democratic turn (which I thought premature when
Sumner, Greeley, and other such men tried it) than
there would be in promoting the election of Mr.
Blaine, allied, as I believe him to be, with General
Butler, and subject, if elected, not only to his influ-
ence, but to that of the star-route and stock specu-
lating clique of Republicans who now seem to gather
around him.

EETIREMENT FKOM POLITICS 209

Fourth. I object to Mr. Blaine because, when
speaker, he appointed General Butler chairman of
the Committee upon Civil Service Reform, thus
showing in the most active way possible his hostil-
ity to that important measure.

Whether you make a mistake or not in the method
of carrying out your principles, I abate nothing
of my warm approbation of your determination to
defy the tyranny of party while following out your
convictions of duty. I then omitted one suggestion
which I think very important. I have seen with
pain the bitter and personal tone which has been
given to the discussion on both sides in this cam-
paign. Invective and personal attack, like over-
loaded guns, inevitably react upon those using such
weapons, and I venture the counsel that you should
use the greatest moderation of statement while push-
ing every legitimate method of explaining your
position, and especially of organizing your canvass
by steady, systematic work. With these words of
caution, that I beg you not to interpret as throwing
cold water upon your enthusiasm, which I applaud
and admire,

I am your friend and servant,

John M. Forbes.

The notes continue : " Having got entirely free
from the shackles of party, by voting for Cleveland
on each of the campaigns when he was a candidate,
I find myself left free to give what influence I can
to whichever party seems most likely to carry into

VOL. II.

210 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

effect the two important practical issues which seem
to me now before the country, civil service reform,
and still more, a readjustment of the tariff ; and, of
course, to vote, without regard for party, for the
candidate in each federal, state, or local election
who seems to me most creditable."

This break with the machine politicians brought
him in contact with some of the younger men who
were working for reform, among whom was the son
of his old friend, Governor Andrew. In the post-
script of a letter to him he says : —

"Whether you young men make mistakes or not,
I had much rather see you carrying into effect what-
ever you, after mature examination, think sound,
than to wait, as some very good men seem to wish,
and follow blindly the footpaths, worn, and perhaps
worn out, by their paternal (or maternal) relatives.
I would by no means throw any cold water upon
your organization."

There was much pain in the rupture with his old
party; a pain that can scarcely be understood by
those who had not fought and suffered with it
through its dark days ; but no real friendship was
broken, and Judge Hoar thus writes to him : —

E. R. HOAR TO J. M. FORBES.

My dear Mr. Forbes, — Your letter came last
evening, but there was nothing in it to indicate
where you are; and so I send my reply to Sears
Building, hoping that some traces of you may there
be preserved. . . .

RAILROADS 211

I have been glad to hear from you once or twice
this summer, through Sam. It is more and more
an astonishment to me how anybody that was the
friend of Whittier, and knew and valued Grant,
and Sherman, and Sheridan, and believes in honest
money and keeping the public faith, can encourage
young men to hitch themselves on to the Democratic
party ! As for improving it, you might as well turn
in a few lambs to improve a pack of hungry wolves.

Well, God bless you ! and improve your sight !
for you are one of the very few cronies I have left,
and "there are glimmers o' sense in the Dougal
creature."

Hoping to see you on Saturday,

I am faithfully yours, E. R. Hoar.

My father's notes now resolve themselves into
some brief account of the business of his firm of J.
M. Forbes & Co., and of the ingress and egress of
partners ; the house was coming to be chiefly occu-
pied in the care of trust funds and the property
of its members, with occasional ventures in grain
or tea, while the senior partner devoted most of
his business hours to the Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy Railroad.

Long after leaving China, at twenty-four years of
age, he continued (as appears from his correspond-
ence) to be the guiding spirit of Russell & Com-
pany, — occupying the post, officially, of arbitrator
in the various matters of dispute which seem not
infrequently to have arisen between the active part-

212 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

ners; and suggesting lines of policy and conduct
in the general management of the house. This
position, as his work in the railroad grew, he finally
gave up.

Railroad management, as has been shown, was a
business for which, at the time he took hold of it,
there were no precedents : he had to learn as he
went; and he felt that to his two friends, Mr.
Brooks and Mr. Joy, each in his several way, he
owed much of the success that attended his efforts.
The one was an engineer with the clearest possible
head and an unending power of work, the other a
keen, clever, energetic Western lawyer; and both
labored as hard as even he wished, — or harder,
which is saying a good deal.

With such forces in its management, and the
great prairies only waiting to be opened, to give
food and work to millions, the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Company grew from a " feeder of the
Michigan Central " of one hundred and fifty miles
into the great organization of to-day, having over
seven thousand miles of railroad to operate, giving
work to a small army of employees, and among rail-
roads having the name of so conservative a manage-
ment as to be considered a safe investment for
women and minors. There were, of course, periods
of depression, and fights with adverse state and
United States restrictive legislation ; but with its
able board of directors, and such men at their head
as my father and the young cousin, now the presi-
dent, who yearly developed more and more capacity

RAILROADS 213

for railroad affairs, and advanced by strides into
the confidence of my father and his colleagues, this
great machine has had a history of remarkable pro-
sperity. My father could be a restraining agency as
well as a constructive one. In his notes he says : —

" It had become quite common for to come

from the West with a plan for a hundred or two
miles of new road, which then meant about $30,000
of seven or eight per cent, bonds per mile ; and on
one occasion when such a branch was about being au-
thorized I related a story of my Naushon experience.
We had been troubled with cats, which destroyed
our birds, and so we put a bounty on killing them
of so much for every cat's tail brought in, which
amount proving insufficient we raised the price until
we found, or thought we found, that they were rais-
ing cats to bring in to sell to us. l Now,' said I to
the directors, i I am convinced that the contractors
and speculators are building roads merely to sell to
us, and the more we buy of them, the more cats'
tails will be brought in to us ! ' That cat was not
bought ; the story got around, and in Boston circles
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy branches were
known as the C. B. and Q. cats' tails."

This story is followed by one of a Western jour-
ney, about which the notes go on to say : —

" My next memory carries with it a moral. My
connection with the Western railroads naturally
led me to various journeys in the West, among
which was one made in company with Leonard and
Arthur Beckwith in May, 1867. We went, per-

214 JOHN MUEEAY FORBES

haps, as far as Clinton by rail. We were on a
Northwestern Railroad train and were approaching
the point on the Mississippi at which we intended
to take boat, when I stopped the conductor of the
train, to ask him some questions about boats going
up the river, which were to some extent rivals of
the railroad. The official, who in those days was a
very important personage on those roads, replied by
saying, * Here, just give me your check ! ' This I
did, at the same time asking him his name and put-
ting it down in my memorandum book. Struck by
the incivility of the man, I sat down and wrote a
short account of his behavior to the president, with
whom I was well acquainted, thinking the rebuke
would do the conductor and the company some
good. After writing it, I changed my mind, and
instead of sending it to the president of that road,
I sent it to the general manager of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy, which was running in com-
petition, and told him that I hoped the Northwest-
ern had a great many just such conductors, and
that he would take warning from the incident and
instruct our conductors to be very civil ; which I
think had a good effect, as the reputation of our
officials has been good in this respect."

There were all sorts of difficulties in railroad
management, not at all anticipated by my father
when he first undertook the guidance of one line,
and then another, in the growing business of the
West. From the beginning, certain maxims had
been fixed in his mind as part of his commercial

RAILROADS 215

code. Among these was, "Never undertake to
'hunt with the hounds and run with the hare.":
At one time he was faced by a dilemma of this
description, partly due, as he felt, to his own want
of careful inspection of the business methods of his
fellow directors in a railroad company. These direc-
tors thought it allowable to be interested in the
construction company of a branch railroad then
building, the contracts of which were loosely framed.
Some of the bonds of this road had been sold to
stockholders of the parent line, some taken by new
investors, and some by the directors, who all had
thought well of them.

The money produced by the bonds had been
used up, the branch line had been poorly con-
structed and was still incomplete, and the directors
were devoting such earnings as it was making to
paying their own construction company (this hav-
ing, in their eyes, and perhaps legally, the first lien
on such earnings) instead of paying the coupons
on the mortgage bonds. When my father came to
know of the state of affairs he twice urged his col-
leagues to have the outside bondholders paid their
interest, pointing out the impropriety of being
directors and constructors on the same line. They
were simply unable to see it from his point of view,
and refused to entertain any such plan. He hesi-
tated as to what he ought to do. The directors
were personal friends, with whom he had acted for
years, and they had already received proxies for the
shareholders' meeting then close at hand.

216 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

He was tempted to sell out his interest in the
road and let the matter pass, especially as he was
convinced that no dishonesty or even impropriety
had been intended. Then came the feeling that he
was responsible both from his lack of care and his
present knowledge of the proceedings. As has
been said, a yearly meeting of the stockholders was
pending. He appealed to the shareholders of the
road with a printed statement of the case, which
resulted at the meeting in an overturn of the board
of directors and practically a new management.

On one occasion there had come a temporary
drop in the market value of the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy shares. Some people thought it due to
stock manipulation adverse to the road, and my
father was asked about it. In replying he says,
" There is no proof of this," and adds, " I am
obliged to keep to my role of never advising any-
body to buy or sell Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
stock. Besides the soundness of the rule, I have
long noticed that those in a concern get their feel-
ings interested and often their judgment warped,
and are not as good judges as cool outsiders."

I find also in the notes the following : —

" I had been averse to taking the official position
of president of the company, but finding that Mr.

was not satisfactory and that my cousin, Mr.

Perkins, was not yet sufficiently known to warrant
putting him at the head of the road, I concluded
that it was wiser to manage it directly as president,
and so consented with much reluctance to try the

RAILROADS 217

experiment. I came to this conclusion when I was
out West with Will, and, in order to be in time for
the meeting of the board for reorganization, I then
had the fastest railroad run of my life. At this
meeting I accepted the position of president, and
held it for two or three years, until the younger
directors, and indeed all of them, became fully
aware of the fact that C. E. Perkins, who had won
the confidence of the board and of the stockholders,
was entirely competent to run the road, and then I
gladly turned over the presidency to him."

My father remained, however, chairman of the
board of directors until his death ; able to do little
work for the last part of the time, but always en-
joying the meetings, because of the friendly atti-
tude of his fellow directors ; he mentioned often the
kindness of Mr. John L. Gardner, his successor in
the place of chairman, who unhappily survived him
only a short time.

On my father's death the board of directors pre-
sented to my mother the resolution which will be
found in an appendix.1

1 See Appendix A, p. 239.

CHAPTER XXI

LAST YEARS

One may say that in 1884 the active political life
of my father closed. But, as we have seen, he con-
tinued interested in politics from the independent
point of view, supporting those candidates who ap-
pealed to him as honest men and capable of doing
well the desired work.

Old scenes had become more vivid, and the ties to
old friends closer. He wrote from Naushon, in Octo-
ber, 1886, to his cousin, Henry Lee : —

"We are coming up in a week or ten days for
good, and then I shall hope to see you in the
cocked hat and feathers of chief marshal. Don't
extinguish the ancient Harry whom I so much like,
in spite of his obstinacy and other stiff-necked pro-
clivities. I am reminded, too, that I did not re-
spond to a line of yours about our good Colonel
Frank,1 who has gone before. If the spirit ever
moves me, I have been meaning to make a sketch
of that bright autumn day when he went to sea
with his regiment. I was having a hunting party,
and he promised to turn the transport a little north,

1 His brother, Colonel Francis L. Lee, of the 44th Massachusetts
regiment. — Ed.

LAST YEARS 219

in passing Tarpaulin Cove, and pick up a buck,
which we killed and had ready for his mess table.
We watched from the hills all day in the intervals
of the hunt, but night came on before the ship ap-
peared, and I forget the result, — but the picture of
his genial face was before us all that day, and I never
now get with my gun on my knee on those southern
shore hills without his face returning to me ; and

O 7

the thought of that gallant band of young fellows
under his leadership passing by us, while we were
engaged in what we tried to make sport, amid the
shadows of the future that surrounded them. I
have not seen him of late, and prefer to think of
him in his glorious maturity."

The older he grew the more his old interest in
ships and shipping returned to him. He became
part owner of two sailing vessels, and wished to
hear of all modern improvements in construction.
He had had a very deep feeling about loss of life
at sea, and had always instructed his captains to
send a man aloft just after sunset and before sunrise
to scan the horizon and be sure no vessel was within
sight needing help. He had also commanded that
in case one of his ships encountered any craft in
distress, every chest of tea or bale of cotton was if
needful to go overboard to lighten the ship, rather
than that a life should be lost. This humane feel-
ing was common to himself and his brother Bennet;
and one day in 1884, when my uncle had some ill-
ness which aggravated his chronic deafness, my
father and I went to see him. It was just after the

220 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

■wreck of the City of Columbus on the Devil's Keef,
Gay Head. Another steamer had passed by on the
morning after the wreck, the captain of which, not
seeing with an opera-glass any sign of life on the
ship, had gone on his way without running nearer
to make sure. As a matter of fact, a good many
lives mio-ht have been saved if he had taken a more
careful survey. We found my uncle very limp in
bed and scarcely speaking, and my father, who
disliked his brother's ear-trumpet and never could
learn to speak properly through it, said to me, " Ask
him what he thinks of the conduct of Captain

in not running nearer the City of Columbus? "

No electric shock could have worked more quickly.
My uncle sat straight up in bed, and in very sea-
faring language expressed his opinion of Captain

. Then my father bade me tell him to write

to the papers about it, and my uncle at once seized
paper and pencil, and we went our way, leaving the
medicine to work, and feeling sure that the old sea-
captain was well on the road to recovery.

My father had always strongly inclined towards
free trade, holding, however, that duties should be
very carefully lowered, and only step by step. He
had felt it almost a disgrace when our navigation
laws forbade his sailing such ships as he owned in
world commerce under the United States flag. He
always hoped to live to see this again foremost on
the high seas ; and in testifying before a congres-
sional committee, he pleaded earnestly that it might
be permitted to be raised on a foreign-built vessel ;

LAST YEAES 221

he wrote also a pamphlet on " Free Ships," and he
kept constantly on the lookout for all indications
of interest in the subject, either in Congress or the
press. In May, 1889, at the meeting of the Tariff
Reform League, he gave an address from which I
make the following quotations : —

" Fifty years ago Great Britain was protecting
her shipbuilders, not so much by national legisla-
tion as by permitting a system of guilds which un-
dertook to regulate not only the rates of wages paid
for work on ships, but the number of apprentices a
shipbuilder might use, and every other detail of his
business, and of course endeavored by combination
to fix the selling price of vessels. American ship-
builders were free and unprotected, and their mari-
time genius, exercised freely, enabled them, in spite
of high rates of interest and high prices of iron and
hemp, to lead the world in foreign commerce, carry-
ing English goods from England to the East, cov-
ering the Eastern seas with their flags, and doing
absolutely the whole packet business between Eng-
land and America : so that nobody, however bigoted
his admiration of the mother country, ever dreamed
of trusting himself to any but an American packet
ship on the Atlantic. Steam, and later iron, helped
to change the condition of shipbuilding ; but while
emancipation from guilds and other paternal restric-
tions has brought the British islands up in the
scale, our fatal hallucination in regard to protection
has weighed around our necks and landed us on
the same shoals from which our competitors had

222 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

escaped. The war, with its Confederate cruisers,
formed one element, but the pervading influence of
the Goddess of Protection has been the continuing
cause of our downward career, and now the costly
experiment of bounties and subsidies will be urged,
and perhaps accepted, by those patriots who wish to
keep our taxes high, before we can emerge from the
dead sea in which we have become embayed. . . .

" The laws of trade are immutable, and so long as
our people set them at defiance in this particular,
the American shipowner and merchant must be con-
tented with a very insignificant position. While I
am perfectly sure that any impartial coroner's jury,
sitting upon the remains of our foreign shipping
interests, would to-day bring in the verdict of i pro-
tected to death,' I am a firm believer in resurrection ;
and when the financial quacks and political machin-
ists have tried their hand in applying the stimulus
of jobs, bounties, and subsidies, and have given iip
the hopeless task, I am sure that competition and
free trade in ships, and the materials and supplies
for their use, will in due time restore not only our
flag to the seas, and the foreign trade which natu-
rally follows it to our citizens, but also the activity
to our shipyards which is now a matter of tradition
to the young and of memory among the old men ! "

This address was afterwards printed in pamphlet
form, together, if I recollect aright, with some
further arguments in favor of free trade, and was
sent to various friends. Mr. William Eathbone was
among the number ; and he acknowledged its re-
ceipt in the following letter : —

LAST YEARS 223

WILLIAM EATHBONE TO J. M. FOKBES.

18 Princes Gardens, London, S. W., July 4, 1891.

My dear Mr. Forbes, — You cannot think what
pleasure the receipt of your note gave me. You are
about the oldest friend we have left in America, and
around you so many happy associations and recol-
lections gather, that to receive a note assuring us
that we are not forgotten, and that you are, with
your old vigor, interested in public affairs, is a very
great gratification to us.

My brother, S. G. R., who is here, and who is,
like you, an old China merchant, as you will remem-
ber, desires to join in remembrances to you. He
was, like myself, highly pleased with the receipt of
your note.

I had previously received your Free Trade pam-
phlet, and read it with great interest, for I believe
protection is a far more serious crime in its effect
on the character of the people than even in its
bearings on their material interests. Indeed I be-
lieve it to be the one great source of danger to the
peace and prosperity of America.

What a splendid country yours would be with free
trade and its consequent guarantee of steadiness of
employment and wages ! I should be inclined to
invest there almost every penny I have, under such
circumstances, which I should not venture to do
while the thunder-cloud of protection hangs over it.

I should be a most ungrateful man if I did not
continue to feel the liveliest interest in American
affairs. . . .

224 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

Your friends here, I think, remain pretty much
as usual. I have had tremendous hard work the last
three years, on special subjects, but it has agreed
with me, as I am happy to see it seems to do with
you. Your Scrap Book comes at a time when I hope
I shall have leisure to read and thoroughly enjoy it.

Reciprocating heartily your " old-time regard,"
which I am delighted to think, with you as with us,
does not lose its youthful freshness, I remain,

Your faithful friend, W. Rathbone.

About business, especially in railroad affairs with
which he had become so familiar, my father's head
remained remarkably clear to the advanced age of
eighty or over ; and it seemed no effort to him to
go into complex questions of their management.
He kept up his full interest in the Chicago, Burling-
ton and Quincy Railroad, which many years of work
had brought him to regard with almost a parental
affection ; well content that its active management
should be in the hands of his cousin, Mr. C. E. Per-
kins, who had grown into the work under his own
eye, and with whom, as lately as 1890, he took a
journey to Oregon on business of the road. He
kept track of its varied interests, and, as I have said
before, took real comfort as chairman of the board
in discussing its affairs with his brother directors at
their meetings. These meetings he attended when-
ever health permitted, up to that of the 18th of
August, 1898.

Though he had left it years before, he was greatly

LAST YEARS 225

grieved by the failure of his old house in China,
Russell & Co., occasioned by some speculations1 in
steamers and the close competition by German com-
mission merchants ; and still more, he felt as if the
stars had fallen when he read one morninp: in the
paper, without any previous warning, that his friends,
the time-honored Baring Brothers & Co., had sus-
pended payment. These events seemed to give him
an actual physical shock, and almost made him ill.

As time went on, though he kept more vitality
than most men have to lose, we all felt that his
power of carrying through work was diminishing ;
and we were glad when his physicians advised less
activity in public matters. After that the streams
of letters to and from editors and men of all shades
of party opinion gradually lessened. Old friends,
however, did not forget him any more than he did
them ; and he had great comfort in receiving from
time to time such notes as those which I append, —
from two persons as far apart as the poles, his large-
hearted friend in London and the shy poet at Ames-
bury. Each is acknowledging a new edition of the
" Old Scrap Book : " —

1 In view of this collapse of the house, I may mention the advice
which he gave to Messrs. Russell & Co. as far back as 1859 : " I
have all my life tried to preach to the managers of Russell & Co.
the pregnant fact that the $200,000 per annum which they can make
net by sticking to commission business alone creates a capital of
$2,000,000 paying net dividends of 10 per cent, per annum, so long as
it is well managed, and that any operations which tend to hurt their
commission business, like speculations of any sort, are sure to hurt
and depreciate the $2,000,000 corporation capital far more than
such operations can benefit by the profit thereon." — Ed.
vol. n.

226 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

FANNY KEMBLE TO J. M. FORBES.

26 Hereford Square, South Kensington, S. W.,

Monday, January 6, 1890.

My dear old Friend, — Your young people
called and left the books you were kind enough to
send me. . . .

I have not much to say of myself that is worth
saying, my dear John Forbes, — I am past eighty
years old, my eyes are dim, and my ears are deaf, —
and my memory is gone, and my mind is dull. But
I am free from pain, thank God, and though pretty
generally good for nothing, have reason to be glad
not to be worse than that.

Thank you for remembering me so kindly. My
friends beyond the Atlantic live in my heart with
sincere and grateful affection. Boston and its lovely
neighborhood is still vividly remembered with many,
many pleasant and dear associations ; and Milton
Hill and those who were so kind to me there is one
of my brightest Massachusetts memories.

God bless you and yours, my dear and kind and
constant friend.

I remain always, affectionately and gratefully
yours,

Fanny Kemble.

john g. whittier to j. m. forbes.

Amesbury, 6th Mo., 12, 1891.

My dear Friend, — I should have at once ac-
knowledged thy beautiful volume and kind letter,
had I not been unable to write, owing to illness,
which so affected my failing eyes.

LAST YEARS 227

The years rest heavily upon me. I am now in
my eighty-fourth year.

I have not forgotten that thirty years ago we met
in the electoral college and voted for Abraham
Lincoln with the shadow of the coming war resting
upon us. How many of that company are left now?
Thee and I and Governor Banks, and I can think of
no more. Of the sixty-three delegates to the first
anti-slavery convention in Philadelphia in 1833,
only two remain, — Robert Purvis and myself.

I am thankful that we have outlived chattel sla-
very, but the rights of the colored citizen are de-
nied, and the entire vote of New England in
Congress is neutralized by that of thirty or forty
Southern representatives who owe their place to the
suppression of the colored vote. Will the time ever
come when the Sermon on the Mount and the De-
claration of Independence will practically influence
our boasted civilization and Christianity ?

I take great satisfaction in looking over thy book,
and I send with this a little booklet of mine, an
octogenarian's last, with the thanks and good wishes
of thy old friend,

John G. Whittier.

Naushon life continued to give my father great
pleasure, and I find him inviting Judge Hoar to the
deer hunt of 1891. The judge could not come, and
gave his reasons in the following note, whereon are
scribbled in pencil, in my father's hand, the words I
have inserted in brackets. The two old friends

228 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

could still give and take chaff, on my father's inde-
pendent position in politics and the judge's stanch
Republicanism ; and if Judge Hoar could not come
to the hunt, a haunch of venison could go to Con-
cord.

E. K. HOAR TO J. M. FORBES.

Concord, October 1, 1891.

Your two letters from Naushon and Boston
reached me last evening, and they are both very
kind and pleasant.

Don't imagine that I am any such broken-down,
gloomy, despairing old codger as that one for whom
you tried good advice and change of air so success-
fully. On the contrary, I am serene as a summer
morning, — cheerful as a huntsman's chorus, — and,
looking back upon a well-spent life, mainly devoted,
aside from getting a living, to the support of the
Republican party, I look forward with pious trust to
whatever blessings may yet be in store [within that
party].

As to your pretending to be nearly old enough to
be my father, unless upon the maxim of the law, that
malitia supplet cetatem, and that the length of a
life is to be reckoned by its amount of pure cussed-
ness, it's all nonsense, and one of those delusions
which attend otherwise excellent men who have
poor health and vote the Democratic ticket. You
may be a mere trifle my elder ; but how much satis-
faction it would give me to know that in many par-
ticulars you were as wise, — for example, that you
played whist as regularly and well, smoked cigars

LAST YEARS 229

with as much comfort, and avoided the Democratic
party with the steadiness and constancy that I try to
exhibit.

But I cannot accept your kind invitation, be-
cause a duty imposed on me by a court, which I
unadvisedly undertook, will require my attendance
elsewhere at the time of your party. And I must
say, besides, that such a limping, halting, fragmen-
tary attachment to a party of merrymakers as I
should be, would be a spectacle to angels and men
which I should hardly think it right to exhibit.

I am delighted to hear that you have the new
lease of life you speak of, and hope you will go back
to all your good old ways [including the Republican
dynasty], and stay there indefinitely.

Meantime I shall always be refreshed whenever
we come together, in body or mind, and if in neither
by adverse fate, can assure you that we shall always
be very much one at heart.

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Concord, October, 1891.
My Deer Mr. Forbes, — Dweller in the forest
and the wilderness ! Eking out your scanty sub-
sistence by hunting and fishing ! No doubt at this
moment exulting in the thought of that stag ; and
saying to all comers, " Veni ! (or if not veni himself,
at least veni's son !) Vidi ! Vici ! " What splendid
bounty you show in forwarding such a share of the
fruits of the chase to the humble dwellers in Con-
cord, unused to such luxuries ! But are you sure

230 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

that your own stock of provisions will last through
the winter ? How can I sit down before that haunch
when roasted, with any comfort, if I think that the
munificent giver may himself be at the brink of
starvation before spring? Be sure, if any such
catastrophe should be impending, to let me know it
seasonably. I might spare a few potatoes, or tur-
nips, to help you through.

Meantime I remain your anxious, but obliged
friend,

E. K. Hoar.1

Echoes from past correspondence also returned to
him from time to time. A few years later than
these notes from Judge Hoar came a line from Miss
M. A. Dodge,2 saying she was writing the Life of
J. G. Blaine, and asking leave to use parts of a letter
from my father to Mr. Blaine, which she inclosed,

1 My father greatly valued the friendship of Judge Hoar. Of
his esteem for my father, I have recently been shown an interesting
expression in a letter to a friend, written by a leading lawyer of
Boston. He was on his way one day to Judge Hoar's office, when he
met my father, in the odd but comfortable apparel that he sometimes
wore on horseback, — probably just on the way between his own
office and the stable. In mentioning this fact to Judge Hoar, the
gentleman added some comments on those queer garments. The
letter goes on : " Judge Hoar parted his coat-tails, stood up before
the steam radiator, and spoke with great earnestness of what Mr.
Forbes had done for his country. No American ought to criticise
him for any personal pecularities. In the war of the rebellion he
did more for his country than any other private citizen, and we owed
our success as much to him as to any other man," and much else to
the same effect. — Ed.

2 Gail Hamilton. — Ed.

LAST YEARS 231

written before some of the later events in that
gentleman's life had wholly closed their personal
relations. My father gave the required permission,
and added : " I had forgotten that, among the many
points at which I had crossed Mr. Blaine's brilliant
path, I had agreed with him on any one subject."

His attention now inclined more and more to his
old pastimes of tree-planting and yacht-building;
his last experiment with yachts being the Wild
Duck, a schooner built in 1890, with Belville coil
boilers and auxiliary screw. He was never tired of
praising the Belville boilers as economizing water
and minimizing risk from explosions ; and he urged
Secretary Herbert to forward their use in the navy.
He made one long cruise in the Wild Duck as far
as the Windward Islands, in 1892, and was always
best pleased when a stiff breeze from the proper
quarter justified him in insisting, in the teeth of his
captain, on feathering the propeller and setting all
the sail the little schooner would carry. He used
to send photographs of this favorite yacht to his
friends ; and Mrs. Kemble acknowledges the receipt
of some of them in the following pleasant note : —

FANNY KEMBLE TO J. M. FOKBES.

86 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W.,
November 29, 1891.

Thank you, dear John Forbes, for the sweet dead
leaves of your dear American woods, full of mem-
ories to me, and thank you for the three likenesses

232 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

of the brave Wild Duck, the bonny steam yacht,
of which, as you proudly say, England cannot show
the like, and which has done already such worthy
sea work. I cannot write, even dictating, a letter
worthy to answer yours, but with affectionate love
and gratitude for your constant friendship, remain
yours and Sarah's gratefully attached,

Fanny Kemble.

After his love of yachts, or perhaps before it,
came that of horses. He used to say that the only
drawback to a voyage was that one could not ride
on shipboard. He had a most delicate hand on a
horse, and even in old age, riding or driving, could
calm a nervous animal. Riding was the last active
exercise which he gave up ; 1 he would face north-
east snowstorms, and rush through blinding rain
and sleet when eighty years of age. He never
failed to attend the Loyal Legion dinners ; and from
these, and their patriotic songs, which were among
his most cherished enjoyments, he would ride home
late at night, sometimes in a zero temperature,
when far past seventy. He used to drive in and
out of Boston, when nearly eighty-five years old, in
a sort of sleigh with a buggy top, quite open in
front; and yet he had suffered all his life, when
not on the move, from a poor circulation. He in-
vented for use on horseback a marvelous waterproof
apron which tied about his waist and was divided so

1 In a letter dated 1875, he says : " When I can no longer enjoy
riding, don't regret my going hence."

LAST YEARS 233

as to cover his thighs ; and with this contrivance
and high leather leggings encasing his legs, with
arctics on his feet, and a cloak, with a peaked hood
to cover his head, he defied the weather, looking, as
one of his family informed him, like a member of
the Ku-Klux Klan.

Up to a late date he maintained his habit of
going on long journeys. Trains never tired him,
and he often slept better on them or in boats than
at home. Florida, as a stopping-place, was the one
he seemed to prefer, as its climate soothed the
chronic cough from which he suffered ; and he went
thither many times.

Notwithstanding his immense vitality, my father's
physical ailments came on apace in later years ; the
energy used, in former times, for such large objects,
became hard for him to control when these were no
longer open to him, and when he gradually felt his
inability to work without confusion and fatigue of
mind and body. But the old wish to share what
he had with others remained as strong as ever.
Two of his grandchildren were much touched at
being asked by him, when they were about to leave
home for California, in the spring of 1897, to take
with them a check for $500, for use in case they
should meet, in their travels, invalids or others who
might need help.

Towards the end, in particular, his being no longer
able to take a hand in influencing public affairs, and
the increasing infirmities of age, prevented his wish-
ing even to hear of passing events. He scarcely spoke

234 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

of the late war with Spain (April, 1898), but when
war was declared he exclaimed, " Outside a lunatic
asylum, I don't believe there was ever such a set of
idiots as our Houses of Congress ! " And again,
" This is no war of philanthropy ; it is a political
game to keep the Republican party in power ; " and
lastly, when the war was over, he said, " I would
give Spain the amount of our war debt five times
over to take those islands back again." He clearly
foresaw the source of danger and perplexity these
possessions were likely to become to his country.

During the summer and autumn of 1897 he drove
daily, while at Naushon, inspecting the tree-planting,
and fences, and the " Sargent treatment " * of old
forest favorites whose lives he wished to prolong.
After his inspection he would get out of the wagon
and lie down, with his head in the shade, and sleep
for half an hour or so. Then his saddle-horse would
be brought, and he would mount and ride back,
sometimes four or five miles, to the mansion house,
— his man always riding close beside him, however,
for his failing sight made this necessary.

We could see that the present grew dim for him,
as for so many old people ; but he still dwelt with
much pleasure on the memory of old friends, con-
stantly referring to the good, pure, and useful life of
his old neighbor and his sister's friend, Mrs. Henry
Ware, Jr., long ago dead, whose daughters he re-
joiced to know were carrying on their mother's good
work. And pleasant memories of other old friends

1 So called after Professor Charles S- Sargent, of Harvard. — Ed.

LAST YEARS 235

seemed often to bring him comfort. All his life he
had had the power of very keen suffering ; and
■when he lost those he loved, he used to try to stifle
the sense of pain by strenuous work. This trait
became more marked in old age ; and I think that,
half consciously and half unconsciously, he tried
not to realize the death of those who were dear to
him.1 It was a very beautiful and affecting thing
to see how the young people to whom he had been
so kind now gathered around him and tried in every
way to cheer and brighten his life.

In July, 1898, as my mother did not feel equal
to undertaking the move to Naushon, it was decided
that my husband and I should take our family to
the island, and that my father should come there
when he pleased. We moved down, accordingly,
and in a few days he arrived, on the Wild Duck,
with his friend and physician, Dr. Stedman, and his
eldest grandson. He only stayed a few days, how-
ever, and then sailed for Fortress Monroe, with the
same party and an old friend, Mr. William Hale.
He was never seasick in his life ; all suffering from
that cause he termed " weak-mindedness ; " and he
was always rather bored by calms. The friends
reported that, as a whole, he had enjoyed the voy-
age to Norfolk and back; but on his return he
seemed very tired.

The next week he had two slight attacks of un-
consciousness. Notwithstanding this, he had one

1 My brother William died one year and one day before his father.
— Ed.

236 JOHN MURRAY FORBES

more ride, and said that it did him good to " get
his leg over a horse's back again."

On the first of September he became seriously
ill. But in the intervals of the disease he enjoyed
much the visit of his old friend, Captain Oliver
Eldridge, who came from San Francisco largely in
order to see him ; and the comfort which my father
took in his company, in sailing with him in the
Wild Duck, and in talking over old times with him,
was a sight very pleasant for those about him.

He delighted, at this time, in a little seven-year-
old grandchild, often repeating, " I cannot tell
how I love that child," and taking her hand, and
saying, in the most lovely and tender tones, " You
little darling ! " Even at the times when he was
most depressed, he would rouse himself to listen
with pleasure to Longfellow's poem on " Agassiz's
Fiftieth Birthday," and other little pieces which she
recited to him.

My mother had been ill, so that it had been
thought unwise to move him back to Milton ; but
she was now better, and on Monday, September the
26th, Dr. Stedman and my eldest sister came to the
island to go home with him. The next day a brisk
north wind came up, covering the bay with white
caps ; and bright sunshine streamed into the house.
My father sat in the parlor until it was time to go,
and then asked to be taken into each of the ground-
floor rooms. He sat at his writing-table, whence so
many letters had taken flight, and touched lovingly
the inkstand and pens as if loath to part from these

LAST YEARS 237

old friends. Then my husband led him to the car-
riage, where his daughter was waiting for him. The
little granddaughter was brought out and held up
to him in the wagon, and he kissed her lovingly and
bade her good-by, and then said to my sister, as
they drove off, looking up at the old mansion house,
" Never again, perhaps." He was driven carefully
to the wharf, where the launch, steered by his faith-
ful Charles Olsen, was ready for him. The gun of
the Wild Duck at her moorings saluted him as he
steamed past her down the harbor; and so he left
the island.

I feel as if any vivid life ended for him here.
He arrived safely in Milton, whither we followed
him in a couple of days. He drove as far as our
house a few times, but seemed very languid. On
Thursday, October the 6th, pneumonia set in, and
he died on the following Wednesday morning, Oc-
tober the 12th, 1898, at eight o'clock, having had
little real consciousness from the beginning of this
last illness. But he recognized my mother, and
knew others of us, dimly, from time to time.

Mrs. Howe's " Battle Hymn of the Republic"
had been for years the tune that stirred and moved
him most, and it was the last that he greeted with
the old motion of the hand, beating time. At his
funeral it was sung ; and we all felt that no truer
citizen ever served the republic which inspired the
verse.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX A

RESOLUTION PASSED AT A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIREC-
TORS OF THE CHICAGO, BURLINGTON AND QUINCY RAILROAD,
OCTOBER 18, 1898

Resolved, That the directors make this record for the pur-
pose of giving expression to their great sorrow for the death of
John M. Forbes, who died at his home in Milton, on the 12th
of October ; and to testify their appreciation of his high and
uncompromising character and his uncommon qualities, which
gave him the confidence and esteem of all who knew him.
Taking part from the first, in the steps leading to the forma-
tion of this company, he was elected a director in 1857, served
in that capacity continuously thereafter until his death, and
was present for the last time at a meeting of the board on
August 17, 1898. He was for more than forty years active in
the affairs of the corporation, and to his far-seeing sagacity, his
courage and energy, it owes a large measure of its success.

He was president of the company from 1878 to 1881, and
has since that time been chairman of the board of directors.
He was as wise in counsel as he was vigorous in action, and his
sound judgment, ripened by experience, was never afraid, and
seldom at fault.

He lived through a period of wide and rapid material develop-
ment, to which he contributed in many ways, particularly as a
pioneer in railroads beyond the Alleghany Mountains and the
Great Lakes, and he was one of the last of those who were the
leaders in giving form and impetus to the great railroad sys-

240 APPENDIX

terns of the West. Among the first to see the possibilities of
this development, he lived to share in its realization, and has
left us at the age of eighty-five, after a long and useful life.

Adopted at a meeting of the directors of the Chicago, Bur-
lington and Quincy Railroad Company, October 18, 1898.

C. E. Perkins, President.

APPENDIX B

me. seward's foreign policy

" It is a fashion with some men, including some good Repub-
licans, who deplore Mr. Seward's course in our home politics,
to talk of his successful management of our foreign affairs. It
would be more agreeable to let our premier retire from public
life without criticism, and with whatever glory his admiring
friends may be disposed to bestow, but any great error in mea-
suring him may react upon the choice soon to be made, or upon
the action, of his successor, and it thus becomes a question of deep
interest to the country whether Mr. Seward's policy ought to be
imitated or avoided. We think that a little examination will
show that we have kept out of European complications, not in
consequence of Mr. Seward's management, but in spite of it ;
and we would now call attention to a few of the more promi-
nent points of his administration.

" Immediately upon Mr. Lincoln's election in November,

1860, Mr. Seward was practically selected as secretary of state,
and he thus had ample time to digest his plans and prepare for
the great crisis that everybody knew must come in March,

1861. Next to vigor at home, it was perfectly clear that the
most important point was to be properly represented abroad,
and to do promptly whatever was possible to secure popular
sympathy — and its actual consequence, neutrality of action —
on the part of the European nations ; and especially of Eng-
land, where lay the greatest power to annoy us by furnishing
ships and supplies to the rebels.

" Upon at least one subject, slavery, the sentiment of the

APPENDIX 241

English masses, and of many of the governing classes, was sure
to be with us, so long as our war was understood to be waged
in the interests of freedom. Upon another subject the greatest
jealousy had long existed there ; namely, the fears of our design
of annexing the British North American provinces. One of
Mr. Seward's first strokes of policy was in an after-dinner —
or public — speech not long before he came into office, when he
referred to the acquisition of Canada as merely a question of
time.

" The commonest foresight dictated the immediate replace-
ment of Mr. Dallas, who represented our recent pro-slavery
government, by a minister who would gather around him the
support of all Englishmen who hated slavery. Instead of noti-
fying Mr. Adams of his intended appointment, and dispatching
him by the first steamer which sailed after the 4th of March,
1861, we find that Mr. Seward sent him to England about the
middle of May, when the rebel emissaries had for months been
using every means of personal and pecuniary influence ; to say
the least, totally unopposed by any voice. Mr. Motley, then by
chance in Europe, alone made a stand for us. What wonder
that Mr. Adams arrived to find the hasty declaration of bel-
ligerent rights just made by England and France ? He thus
landed almost in an enemy's country to begin at every disad-
vantage the long struggle with the English aristocratic govern-
ment, which only ended when the news of the surrender at
Appomattox reached the reluctant ears of the British ministry.

" Following this first great lapse in his administration, we
next find Mr. Seward sending a circular to all our foreign min-
isters, practically, and almost in terms, informing the govern-
ments of Europe that slavery had nothing whatever to do with
the rebellion. What his delay in sending abroad representa-
tives of freedom had begun, this wretched attempt to conciliate
the slaveholders completed. It fell like a pall upon our friends,
and it was promptly seized upon by the sharp envoys of the
rebels to prove that the North was only fighting for power, and
that the people, and even the liberals of Europe, might well
give their sympathies and their material aid to the weaker

vol. n.

242 APPENDIX

party ; especially as the weaker party loudly promised cheap
cotton and free trade, instead of sharp competition in both
trade and manufactures, high tariffs, and annexation of British
provinces.

" This short-sighted, sixty day policy, of conciliating our
enemies by disowning our friends, was next followed by Mr.
Seward's ill-timed and ill-judged offer to give up what has
properly been called our militia of the sea, the right to use pri-
vateers against our enemies. Mr. Marcy had gone to the great-
est length which public opinion would justify in offering to give
up privateering — then our best offensive weapon — if the mari-
time powers would give up the right to seize any private pro-
perty, except contraband of war, on the ocean. They, with
their enormous navies, stood ready in case of war to destroy
our commerce, and they had refused to give up the chance for
prize money which was so dear to every naval hero. Will it
now be believed that our astute Secretary of State hastened to
offer this fatal concession, under the delusive idea that, if ac-
cepted, it would prevent the rebels from fitting out vessels
in England against us ? Fortunately our ministers abroad were
slower than their chief in completing this surrender, and our
European enemies were blinder than we had any right to ex-
pect. They believed that we were already split asunder, and
they did not catch at the offer ; which was finally withdrawn
before they saw its significance. It will be noted that not a
single privateer was fitted out against us abroad, and that all
the mischief was done to our commerce by so-called Confeder-
ate ships of war, which would have been equally destructive
had we given up our precious right to a militia on the sea. Any
practical man would have foretold the result at the moment that
this preposterous concession was offered. There is every rea-
son to believe that our ministers abroad saw this, and of their
own motion delayed in pushing the negotiation until wiser coun-
sels prevailed at home, and they were allowed to withdraw it.

" We come next to the Trent affair.1 Mr. Seward's final

1 Apropos of this Mr. George Ashburner had written from Eng-
land to my father on the 21st of December, 1861, " Though I must

APPENDIX 243

letter, backing out of the position we had taken, is considered
adroit as accomplishing its end without entirely disgusting and
disheartening our own people. We will admit that he proved
himself skillful in backing out from the false position into which
he had put himself. How much more adroit and statesmanlike
it would have been to have resumed in the first place the old
American ground for which we fought in 1812, and at once to
have released the rebel emissaries, whom we had captured in
conformity with British precedents and against our own ! We
should have equally accomplished our object by this straight-
forward course without the national humiliation and depression
which was caused by yielding to the most degrading threats.
Badly as Great Britain treated us on this occasion, she would
have kicked us still harder had she found us stripped of the
right of privateering, our sharpest offensive weapon against
English commerce.

" This danger past, our nest one grew out of the English
cruisers sent out, and the ironclads preparing to go out, against
us. When the English government made their one practical
and fair proposal for averting this danger by offering to change
their neutrality laws, which even if properly enforced were
notoriously insufficient, Mr. Seward received the proposal so
coolly that Lord Russell charged him with ' throwing cold
water upon it,' and availed himself of this pretext for with-
drawing it. Was this statesmanship? Any schoolboy could

Say I have throughout maintained that there would be no war on
the Trent affair; still we all feel here that Seward's total want of
statesmanship increases the danger of a misunderstanding greatly
between the countries, and we greatly regret the accident which has
placed a man like him, clever certainly but ignorant of the ideas of
Europe, in charge of the foreign relations of the United States. His
letters just published to the ministers in Europe have astonished the
best friends of the United States here." But I ought to add that
my father did have one thing to praise in Mr. Seward's conduct of
this affair, viz., the redeeming humor of his offer to the British gov-
ernment, when about to send out troops to protect Canada, of a
passage for these via Portland through Maine, as the nearest route
to their destination. — Ed.

244 APPENDIX

see that it was an occasion to close at once with the offer, and
if England had drawn back it would at least have put their
government flagrantly in the wrong, instead of giving them a
chance to throw the blame upon our cool reception of a fair
offer. Giving all credit to the cool, dignified, and able course
of Mr. Adams, we do neither him nor Mr. Seward any injustice
when we insist that the diplomacy which really prevented the
Laird ironclads from going to sea, and thus causing a rupture
with England, came from the guns of Grant, Sherman, Thomas,
and Farragut, from the cavalry charges of Sheridan, and from
the indomitable spirit shown by our own people.

" We cannot close without giving Mr. Seward credit for one
good point in his foreign policy. When our success knocked
away the foundation of Maximilian's throne, and made the
withdrawal of the French army from Mexico a foregone con-
clusion, Mr. Seward did prudently accept tbe situation, fore-
bore to strike Napoleon in the face, and only assaulted him,
and the national Treasury, by very long and (under the skill-
ful manipulation of our minister to France, Mr. Bigelow) very
harmless volumes of cable telegrams. He did not plunge us
into a war with France, as Andrew Johnson, without him,
might possibly have done.

" We here leave the subject of Mr. Seward's foreign policy,
for there is no danger of the public's overrating the value of
his untiring efforts to procure Alaska, St. Thomas, Samana Bay,
Alta Vila, and Heaven knows what other polar, or tropical,
accessions of territory ; nor of their applauding his diplomacy
in placing and keeping Eeverdy Johnson in the post so worthily
occupied by Mr. Adams."

INDEX

Abbott, Mrs. Mary, i. 57.

Abolitionists, J. M. F.'s advice to,
i. 174, 175; 237-240, 317 ; ii. 138,
156-158.

Adams, Charles Francis, U. S. Min-
ister to London, i. 225, 233-235 ;
his efforts to prevent sailing of
Confederate cruisers, ii. 9, 32, 37,
44, 45 ; letter to J. M. F., 56, 57 ;
61, 85-87, 113 ; letter to J. M. F.
about Meteor, 161, 162 ; 241, 244.

Adams, Mrs. C. F., i. 234.

Agassiz, Professor J. L. R., i. 8.

Alabama, the, Confederate cruiser,
i. 340, 343 ; ii. 3, 12, 20, 25, 61-
63, 72, 93, 98, 142, 151, 152, 160-
162, 166-170, 171.

Alexander II., Czar of Russia, ii.
159.

Alexandra, the, suspected Confeder-
ate gunboat, ii. 44-47.

Alsop, Robert, ii. 14.

Ames, Oakes, member of Committee
on Militia, i. 213.

Ampere, J. J., i. 246.

Anderson, Major Robert, command-
er of garrison at Fort Sumter, i.
193, 194, 198 ; raises flag at Fort
Sumter, ii. 138.

Andre\ Major John, i. 330.

Andrew, John A., Governor of Massa-
chusetts, i. 8, 18, 33, 182 ; nomi-
nates members of Peace Congress,
188 ; 196 ; organizes and equips
militia, 198, 203 ; moves troops
South at outbreak of war, 205-210 ;
arrangements for getting food to
troops, 212-214; overwork, 226,
227 ; 240-243, 258, 259, 288, 307 ;
approves Loyal Publication Soci-
ety, 326, 328 ; correspondence
with J. M. F. on army reform,
329-332 ; letter from J. M. F., ii.
15, 16 ; in New York during draft
riots, 49, 50 ; 57, 67, 68, 82-84,
87, 96, 97; suggested as candi-

date for Secretary of the Treas-
ury, 121-124 ; consults J. M. F.
as to future plans, 134-136; last
letter to J. M. F. and death in
1867, 162, 163 ; 210.

Andrew, John Forrester, ii. 210.

Anthony, Captain Caleb, i. 107 ; ii.
50.

Anthony, Mrs. Caleb, i. 66.

Antietam, battle of, i. 334, 336 ; ii.
110.

Apee, Chinese servant, i. 73.

Appleton, T. G., schoolmate of
J. M. F., i. 45.

Appleton, William, member of Con-
gress, i. 132-134, 168.

Argyle, Duke of, ii. 18.

Arthur, Chester A., nominated for
Vice-President at Chicago Con-
vention, ii. 194.

Ashburner, George, i. 140, 141, 161-
163, 244, 245 ; letter as to Trent
affair, 259, 260 ; ii. 33, 114, 115,
242, 243.

Aspinwall, W. H., i. 193, 195-197,
286, 287 ; goes with J. M. F. on
mission to England, ii. 4-9, 20, 23,
26, 31 ; correspondence concerning
mission with Secretaries Chase
and Welles, 40-48 ; returns to
America, 48; 52, 64-66; letter
from J. M. F., 117, 118.

Atkinson, Edward, letter from
J. M. F. about Educational Com-
mission, i. 309-313 ; member of
Loyal Publication Society, 328 ;
ii. 90, 91.

Augur, General C. C, ii. 140.

Azores, voyage to, on yacht Ram-
bler, ii. 170-173.

Bacon, William B., goes to Beau-
fort with J. M. F., i. 296, 302, 303.

Baker, John I., member of Com-
mittee on Militia, i. 213.

Bancroft, George, historian ; master

248

INDEX

at Round Hill School, i. 43 ; ii.
105.

Bancroft, Captain Henry, of ship
Logan, i. 69.

Banks, General N. P., i. 345; ii.
227.

Baring Bros. & Co., J. M. F.'s
business relations with, i. 63 ; 90,
140 ; purchase breadstuffs for
French government, 145 ; ii. 7-9,
41, 43, 64, 65, 98 ; suspend pay-
ment, 225.

Baring, Edward, i. 141.

Baring, Thomas, of Baring Bros. &
Co., ii. 8, 9, 18, 35 ; letter from
J. M. F., 55, 56 ; 91, 93, 94 ; letter
to J. M. F. on finance, 131, 132.

Barlow, General Francis C, wounded
at battle of Gettysburg, ii. 69.

Barney, , collector at New York

custom-house, ii. 49.

Bates, Joshua, partner in Baring
Bros. & Co., letter from J. M. F.,
i. 339, 340 ; ii. 8, 9 ; letter to J. M.
F., 54, 55 ; 56, 63.

Bates, Mrs. Joshua, i. 340.

Beaufort, S. C, First Mass. Cavalry
stationed at, i. 288 ; J. M. F.'s
visits to, 293-303, 304-309; in-
adequacy of garrison, 314, 315.

Beaumont, Gustave de, i. 246 ; ii.
138, 139 ; letter to J. M. F. on re-
construction, 147-150 ; 155.

Beauregard, General P. G. T., i. 315.

Beckwith, Arthur, ii. 213.

Beckwith, Leonard F., ii. 213.

Beckwith, N. M., partner in Russell
& Co., i. 140, 172, 173, 287, 288 ;
letter from J. M. F. on recon-
struction, ii. 143, 144 ; 145.

Beecher, Henry Ward, i. 285.

Bellows, Rev. Dr. Henry W., head
of Sanitary Commission, i. 265-
273; 285.

Bennet, Barbara, great-grandmo-
ther of J. M. F., i. 3.

Bennet, Robert, ancestor of J. M. F.,
i. 2.

Bennett, James Gordon, proprietor
of " New York Herald," i. 244.

Berkeley, " single speech," member
of Parliament, ii. 32, 33.

Bigelow, John, ii. 118, 119, 244.

Blackadder, Rev. John, Scotch Cov-
enanting preacher, i. 2.

Blaine, James G., ii. 187 ; presi-

dential campaign of 1880, 192-
196 ; nominated as Republican
candidate for President in 1884,"
206 ; J. M. F.'s objections to, 207-
209 ; 230, 231.

Blair, Francis P., Sr., i. 190.

Blair, General Francis P., i. 177.

Blair, Montgomery, i. 190.

Blake, Peter, fishman at Milton, L
135.

Blakeley, Captain, ii. 32.

Bonaparte, Napoleon, ii. 74.

Borden, Colonel Richard, transpor-
tation of troops, i. 207-209, 211.

Boutwell, George S., member of
Peace Congress, i. 188.

Bowlegs, Billy, Indian chief, i. 135.

Brackett, W. M., artist, ii. 164.

Braithwaite, J. B., member of the
Peace Society in England, ii. 10,

Breckinridge, John C, Vice-Presi-
dent, i. 198, 199.

Breckinridge, , ii. 109.

Brigbam, Colonel E. D., i. 214.

Bright, John, supports the Union
cause in England, ii. 3, 11, 15, 16,
18, 19, 20 ; letter to J. M. F., 52-
54; 74, 77, 81, 108; letter to
J. M. F. on reconstruction, 150,
151.

Brimmer, Martin, member of
Loyal Publication Society, i. 328 ;
admiration for Governor Andrew,
ii. 163.

Bristow, B. H, Secretary of the In-
terior under Grant, ii. 187, 191.

Brooks, J. W., civil engineer, i. 119 ;
ii. 212.

Brooks, Peter C, goes to Beaufort
with J. M.F.,i. 296,302.

Brough, John, Governor of Ohio, ii.
89.

Brown, G. W., mayor of Baltimore,
his loyalty, i. 189, 190.

Brown, John, introduced to J. M. F.
by S. G. Howe, i. 178 ; visits
Milton, 179-182 ; his execution,
182 ; 239 ; ii. 63.

Brownlow, Wm. Gannaway, " Par-
son Brownlow," i. 315.

Brune, F. W., i. 189.

Bryant & Sturgis, i. 59, 69.

Bryant, Dr. Henry, i. 136.

Bryant, William Cnllen, editor of
" New York Evening Post ; " let-

INDEX

249

ter as to changes in cabinet, i. 236,
237 ; 241-244, 281, 282 ; opposes
Stanton's order as to telegrams,
291 ; 325, 327, 335, 336 ; ii. 87,
101, 109, 110 ; letter from J. M. F.
on finance, 145, 146.

Bryan, W. J., candidate for presi-
dency in 1896, ii. 190.

Bryce, James, i. 8.

Buchanan, President James, i. 151,
152, 154, 156-158, 169, 172, 192,
193, 199.

Bull Run, battle of, i. 202, 203, 227,
238, 245, 246, 329, 332 ; ii. 89.

Bulwer, E. Lytton, ii. 30.

Burlingame, A., i. 225.

Burnside, General A. E., i. 335,
345, 353.

Butler, General Benjamin F., Gov-
ernor of Massachusetts, J. M. F.'s
objections to, i. 9 ; 33, 189, 207,
241, 345 ; ii. 89, 118, 185, 186 ;
elected Governor of Massachusetts
203, 204 ; 208, 209.

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, ii. 30.

Cabot, Handasyd, clerk to J. M. F.,
i. 69 ; death in China, 72, 73.

Cabot, J. Elliot, i. 3.

Cabot, Samuel, managing partner in
Perkins & Co., Boston, i. 54—56,
58-60, 69, 116, 117.

Cabot, Colonel Stephen, commands
armory in draft riots in Boston,
ii. 50, 51, 54.

Calhoun, J. C, i. 153, 253.

California, trip to, ii. 176.

Cameron, Senator J. D., supports
Grant's candidacy, ii. l92, 193.

Cameron, Kate, i. 1.

Cameron, Simon, of Pennsylvania,
i. 186 ; dissatisfaction with, 236,
237 ; 242-244.

Canton, fire at, i. 76-80.

Carnegie, Andrew, ironmaster, ii.
202.

Cary, Mrs. E. M. (see also Forbes,
Alice), ii. 236, 237.

Cary, William F., commission mer-
chant, i. 130, 294-297.

Cedar Creek, battle of, ii. 113, 114.

Chancellorsville, battle of, news re-
ceived in England, ii. 17, 19, 37,
116.

Chandler, T. P., member of Peace
Congress, i. 188.

Chandler, Senator W. E., supports
J. G. Blaine, ii. 192, 195, 196.

Chandler, Senator Z., i. 242 ; ii. 70.

Channing, Rev. Dr. W. E, anti-
slavery meeting at Faneuil Hall,
i. 100 ; 247.

Channing, Rev. W. H., i. 227.

Chapman, Judge R. A., approval
of Proclamation of Emancipation,
i. 350, 352.

Chase, S. P., Secretary of the Trea-
sury, i. 8, 242 ; inflation of the
currency, 275 ; 286, 287, 301, 338,
339, 346 ; sends J. M. F. and W.
H. Aspinwall on mission to Eng-
land, ii. 4, 5, 7 ; letters from J.
M. F., 20, 21 ; 22, 31, 41-44, 86 ;
appointed Chief Justice of Su-
preme Court, 119.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroad, see Railroads.

China, first voyage to, i. 61 ; return
home from, 65 ; second voyage to,
69 ; final return from, 87.

Chowles, Rev. , i. 67.

Civil Service Reform, J. M. F.'s
support of, ii. 187-189 ; 190, 209.

Clarendon, Lord, ii. 26, 27.

Clarke, James Freeman, visits Mil-
ton, i. 227.

Cleveland, President Grover, i. 113 ;
ii. 201, 202, 209.

Cleveland, Captain Richard, cap-
sized in yacht Ariel, i. 113, 114.

Cleveland, Mrs. Sarah, i. 113.

Clifford, John H., i. 288, 289.

Cobden, Richard, i. 8 ; stipports the
Union cause in England, ii. 3, 11,
15, 16, 18-20 ; speech in House of
Commons, 36; 45, 93, 94, 108,
118.

Cogswell, Joseph G., master at
Round Hill School, Northampton,
i. 43, 44, 46-52; opinion of J.
M. F., 51 ; 56.

Cole, Colonel, ii. 118.

Colledge, Dr. and Mrs., friends of
J. M. F., at Macao, i. 81.

Conkling, Senator Roscoe, ii. 187,
196.

Coolidge, Joseph, partner in Russell
& Co., i. 72.

Cooper, Peter, ii. 106, 133.

Corning, Erastus, joins in purchas-
ing Mich. Cent. Railroad, i. 119;
123, 124, 200, 201.

250

INDEX

Cover, J. C, U. S. Consul at Fayal,
ii. 172.

Cowper, J. Hamilton, correspond-
ence with J. M. F. regarding dif-
ferences between North and
South, i. 147-158.

Coxetter, Captain, commander of
rebel privateer, i. 217.

Crittenden, Senator John J., i. 191.

Crowninshield, F. N, member of
Peace Congress, i. 188.

Cuba, trips to, i. 147 ; ii. 137.

Cunningham, Edward, partner in
Russell & Co., i. 165, 167-169.

Cunningham, Mrs. Francis (see also
Forbes, Mary A.), ii. 170.

Cunningham, Captain John A., i.
137 ; commands Pembroke, 218.

Cunningham, Loring, i. 137.

Currency, inflation of, see Finances,
National.

Curtis, George William, i. 33, 326 ;
ii. 88-90.

Cushing, J. P., managing partner in
Perkins & Co. in China, i. 37-39,
53 ; 57 ; merging of Perkins &
Co. in Russell & Co., 61 ; 62, 70,
99.

Dabney, Charles W., U. S. Consul at
Fayal, ii. 171, 172.

Dabney, J. P., ii. 171, 172.

Dabney, Samuel, ii. 171, 172.

Dahlgren, Admiral John A., ii. 16.

Dallas, G. M., U. S. Minister to Eng-
land, ii. 241.

Dalton, Charles H., work on Sani-
tary Commission, i. 265.

Dana, Charles, ii. 143.

Dana, R. H., author of " Two Years
Before the Mast," i. 65 ; draws up
Bill for a Volunteer Nayy, 227 ;
ii. 87 ; delegate to Republican Na-
tional Convention at Cincinnati,
187.

Daniel, Mrs., i. 83.

Davis, Jefferson, in U. S. Senate, i.
198 ; captured, ii. 148 ; 182.

Dayton, W. L., U. S. Minister to
France, ii. 118, 119.

Delano, J. C, on commission to buy
ships for navy, i. 228.

Delano, Warren, with J. M. F. in
China, i. 85.

De Wolf, Dr. Oscar, assistant sur-
geon of First Cavalry, at Beau-

fort, i. 304 ; letter to Mrs. J. M. F.,
322, 323.

Dimmick, Colonel, commanding"
Fortress Monroe, i. 206; rein-
forced, 211.

Dix, General John Adams : tele-
gram to collector of Pensaeola,
i. 193; Governor of New York,
193 ; ii. 89.

Dodge, Miss M. A., " Gail Hamil-
ton," ii. 230, 231.

Dorsey, Senator S. W., secretary of
Republican National Committee,
ii. 197, 198, 201.

Douglas, S. A., i. 172, 173, 184.

Dudley, Thomas H., U. S. Consul at
Liverpool ; efforts to stop sailing
of Confederate cruisers, ii. 7-9, 25,
40, 46, 64; letter to J. M. F., 80;
155.

Dumaresq, Captain P., i. 78 ; in-
structions as captain of Acbar,
101-105 ; 127.

Dupont, Admiral Samuel F., i. 189;
at Hilton Head, 307 ; ii. 23.

Early, General J. A., Confederate,
ii. 99.

Edgeworth, Miss Maria, i. 71, 295.

Educational Commission, the, i. 295,
296 ; prejudice against, 300, 301 ;
305 ; J. M. F.'s opinion of, 309-
313.

Eldridge, Captain John, i. 217.

Eldridge, Captain Oliver, com-
mands Atlantic, i. 169 ; commands
State of Maine with troops bound
South, 209-212 ; commands trans-
port Atlantic, 294; visits Nau-
shon, ii. 236.

Eliot, Captain, stationed at Beau-
fort, i. 296.

Eliot, T. Dawes, chairman of Naval
Committee in House of Represen-
tatives : J. M. F.'s suggestions for
volunteer navy, i. 221-224 ; 227.

Eliot, Rev. Dr. W. G, enlists col-
ored troops at St. Louis, i. 10 ; on
Sanitary Commission, 264 ; ii. 155.

Elliot, Captain Charles, afterwards
Admiral, R. N., i. 83 ; ii. 27.

Elliot, Mrs. Charles, i. 83.

Ellis, Edward, M. P., ii. 31, 32.

Emancipation, S. G. Howe's advo-
cacy of, i. 238 ; J. M. F.'s opin-
ion, 239, 240; 302, 315-318, 335;

INDEX

251

Proclamation of, 344-353 ; ii. 53,
73, 77, 78; Thirteenth Amend-
ment passed, 133.

Emerson, Edith, ii. 152. See also
Forbes, Mrs. W. H.

Emerson, Dr. Edward W., i. 28 ; ii.
Ill, 175.

Emerson, Miss Ellen T., ii. 174, 175.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, i. 8, 33 ;
member of Saturday Club. 34 ; 36 ;
letter to J. M. P., ii. 87, 88 ; 108,
109 ; visit to Naushon and extract
from diary, 110-113 ; 152 ; letters
to J. M. F., 174-176; goes to
California with J. M. F., 176.

Emerson, Mrs. R. W., ii. 174, 175.

Endicott, William, Jr., treasurer of
Loyal Publication Society, i. 328.

England, trips to, i. 138-141, 168-
170 ; J. M. F. and W. H. Aspin-
wall go on business of the govern-
ment, ii. 4-48. See also Mission to
England.

Enrollment Bill, the, ii. 96, 97.

Eustis, F. A., i. 296.

Evans, Thomas, ii. 14.

Evans, William, ii. 19 ; visits
America, 76 ; correspondence
with J. M. F., 77, 78 ; 80, 81.

Evarts, William M., i. 324 ; ii. 47,
64, 80, 118, 192.

Everett, Edward, i. 33 ; ii. 87, 119.

Faneuil Hall, anti-slavery meeting
in, i. 100 ; other meetings, ii. 143,
147, 188.

Farragut, Admiral D. G., ii. 121,
.244.

Farrandsville, Pennsylvania, trip to,
i. 91-97.

Faucon, Captain E. H., commands
Fearnot, i. 228.

Fay, Joseph S., ii. 98.

Felton, S. M., president of Wil-
mington and Baltimore Railroad,
i. 189, 206.

Fessenden, General Francis, ii. 99.

Fessenden, William, ii. 165.

Fessenden, William Pitt, i. 8 ; chair-
man of Ways and Means Com-
mittee of Senate, 277-281 ; cor-
respondence with J. M. F. on pub-
lic affairs, 336-338; 344; letter
from J. M. F. on pay of colored
troops, ii. 81-83; 99, 100, 107,
108 ; appointed Secretary of the

Treasury, 119; letter from J. M. F.,
120-122; 125, 163; correspond-
ence with J. M. F., 164-166;
death, 166.

Finances, National ; opposition to
inflation of currency, i. 275-284 ;
286-288 ; ii. 107, 108, 126 ; letter
from Thomas Baring, 131, 132 ;
142; letters from J. M. F. and
H. McCulloch, 143-147; 184,
185 ; Bland Silver Bill, 190, 191.

Fish, Hamilton, Secretary of State,
letter from J. M. F., ii. 171, 172.

Fisher, Warren, ii. 207.

Florida, trips to, i. 134-137, 147 ; ii.
176, 177.

Forbes, Alice H., daughter of J. M.
F., i. 110, 168, 169, 294, 298 ; ii.
49, 50, 137, 138, 170, 174. See
also Cary, Mrs. E. M.

Forbes, Cornelia Frances, sister of
J. M. F., i. 42, 47.

Forbes, Ellen R., daughter of J. M.
F., i. 110, 168, 169 ; death of, 185.

Forbes, Emma P., sister of J. M. F.,
i. 40, 47, 50, 56, 66.

Forbes, John, grandfather of J. M.
F., i. 3.

Forbes, General John, ii. 33.

Forbes, Mrs. J. G, aunt of J. M. F.,
i. 66.

Forbes, J. Malcolm, son of J. M. F.,
i. 43, 90, 138-141, 147, 299; ii.
103, 152-154.

Forbes, John Murray, Introductory
chapter : ancestry, i. 1 ; personal
characteristics, 2-34 ; life at Nau-
shon, 16-27; golden wedding
celebration, 28 ; poem by O. W.
Holmes on eightieth birthday, 35.
Birth in Bordeaux and voyage to
the U. S., 38 ; childhood, 40 ; first
mercantile ventures, 42 ; Franklin
Academy, Andover, 43 ; Round
Hill School, Northampton, 43-52 ;
enters counting-house of J. & T.
H. Perkins in Boston, 53 ; death
of his brother, T. T. Forbes, 60 ;
first voyage to China, 61 ; busi-
ness relations with Houqua, 62 ;
clerk in office of Russell & Co. at
Canton, 62 ; return home, 65 ;
first meeting with Miss Sarah
Hathaway, 66 ; engagement and
marriage, 67 ; second voyage to
China, 69; partner in firm of

252

INDEX

Kussell & Co., 72 ; death of Han-
dasyd Cabot, 72 ; trip to Manila,
73-76 ; fire at Canton, 76-80 ; first
mention of railroads, 81 ; farewell
ball at Macao, 81-84 ; Union Club,
Canton, 86 ; voyage home, 87-89 ;
commercial panic, 90, 91 ; care of
his brother R. B. Forbes's affairs
and trip to Farrandsville, Pa., 91-
97 ; continued business relations
with Houqua, 98, 99 ; effect of
hearing Wendell Phillips's speech
at Faneuil Hall, 100 ; mercantile
affairs and instructions to Captain
P. Dumaresq, 100-105 ; tree-plant-
ing at Milton and Naushon, 105,
106 ; birth of daughters Alice
and Ellen, 110 ; birth of son
William, 111 ; death of brother-
in-law William Hathaway, 111,
112 ; trial trip of schooner Ariel,
112-115 ; China merchants' sug-
gestions as to mission to China,
115 ; views on profits and expen-
diture of merchants, 115-117 ;
leaves Whig party, 118 ; first in-
terest in railroads, 118 ; Michigan
Central R. R., 119 ; expedition
of Jamestown to relieve Irish
famine, 121 ; interest in iron pro-
perty at Mount Savage, 121, 122 ;
practical joke on Dr. Edward
Robbins, 123-126 ; advice to com-
mission merchant in San Francisco,
127-132; builds ships for Cali-
fornia trade, 132 ; first trip to
Florida, 134-137 ; beginnings of
the Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy and the Hannibal and St.
Joseph railroads, 138 ; first trip
to England, 138-141 ; letter to
N. W. Senior on differences be-
tween North and South, 142 ; buys
breadstuffs for French govern-
ment, 145-147 ; trip to Florida
and Cuba, 147 ; correspondence
with J. H. Cowper, 148-158 ; joins
W. W. Swain in buying the island
of Naushon, 159; decrease of
mercantile and increase of rail-
road interests, 160 ; letter to E.
Cunningham on financial panic of
1857, 167; trip to England (and
France) to negotiate loan for
Mich. Cent. Railroad, 168-170;
growing interest in politics and

support of the Republican party,
171 ; advice to Wendell Phillips
and others, 174 ; letter to son at
college, 175 ; receives visit from
John Brown, 179-182 ; first ac-
quaintance with John A. Andrew,
182 ; appointed elector at large at
Lincoln's election, 183 ; opinion
of Lincoln, 183 ; threatening war-
cloud, 185 ; member of Peace
Congress, 187-201 ; plans for re-
lief of Fort Sumter, 193-198;
opening of the war, 201 ; with-
draws merchant ships from South-
ern ports, 204 ; helps Governor
Andrew in arrangements for mov-
ing troops South, 205-212 ; does
work of deputy commissary, 212-
214 ; buys ships for transports,
215-218 ; urges formation of vol-
unteer navy, 219-225 ; recom-
mends appointment of Lothrop
Motley as Minister to Vienna,
225; battle of Bull Run, 227;
Bill for a Volunteer Navy, 227,
228 ; buys merchant ships for
navy, 228-233 ; correspondence
with C. F. Adams, W. C. Bryant,
S. G. Howe, and N. W. Senior on
public affairs, 233-257 ; eldest son
receives commission in First Mass.
Cavalry, 258, 259 ; interest in the
Trent affair, 259-263; organiza-
tion of the Sanitary Commission
and correspondence with F. L.
Olmsted and Dr. H. W. Bellows,
263-274 ; interest in, and corre-
spondence about, national finances,
275-284; advocates severe treat-
ment of spies and slavers, 285 ;
letters to W. H. Aspinwall, N. M.
Beckwith, J. H. Clifford, G. Rip-
ley, and W. C. Bryant on finance
and other public affairs, 286-291 ;
charters vessels for Navy Depart-
ment, 292, 293 ; taken ill, goes to
Beaufort to be near his son, 293-
303 ; writes to Charles Sumner as
to Educational Commission and
the negro question, 300-302 ; re-
turns home, 303, 304 ; second trip
to Beaufort with his wife, 304-
308 ; writes to Edward Atkinson
as to Educational Commission,
309-313 ; letters on public affairs
to Parke Godwin, C. B. Sedgwick,

INDEX

253

and Charles Sumner, and from C.
B. Sedgwick, 314-322 ; helps raise
colored regiments, 323, 324 ; starts
the N. E. Loyal Publication So-
ciety : letters to W. C. Noyes, 324-
329 ; correspondence with Gov-
ernor Andrew on army reform,
329-332 ; difficulties of recruit-
ing, 333-334 ; letters on public
affairs from W. C. Bryant, W. P.
Fessenden, G. V. Fox, and C. B.
Sedgwick, and to W. P. Fessenden
and Joshua Bates, 335-346 ; draws
up address of electors to the Pre-
sident urging Proclamation of
Emancipation, 344, 347, 348 ; cor-
respondence with Charles Sumner
as to Proclamation, 348-353 ; sent
by Secretaries of State and Navy
on private mission to England
with W. H. Aspinwall, ii. 4 ; gets
loan for U. S. government from
Baring Bros. & Co., 8, 9 ; appeals
to English Quakers in the cause
of peace, 10-15 ; writes to Gov-
ernor Andrew about ironclads and
guns, 15, 16 ; correspondence on
objects of the mission with S. P.
Chase, Gideon Welles, and G. V.
Fox, 20-26; letter from Mrs.
Fanny Kemble, 26, 27 ; goes to
Germany and France, 28-31 ; hears
Cobden speak in the House of
Commons, 36 ; letters to Secre-
taries Chase and Welles concern-
ing the mission, 40-48 ; returns to
New York just before the draft
riots, 48 ; letters on public affairs
from Mrs. Fanny Kemble, John
Bright, Joshua Bates, and C. F.
Adams, and to Thomas Baring,
Charles Sumner, Wm. Rathbone,
Jr., and Joshua Bates, 51-63 ; re-
sults of mission to England and
letter from Secretary Welles, 63-
66 ; interest in enlistment of col-
ored troops and education of ne-
groes, 67-71 ; joins in building S.
S. Meteor, 72 ; letter to President
Lincoln on public matters, 73-75 ;
visits camp of Second Mass.
Cavalry, 76 ; correspondence with
William Evans, 77, 78 ; letters on
public affairs to W. P. Fessenden,
and from C. B. Sedgwick and C.
F. Adams, 81-87 ; Saturday Club

dinner on Shakspere anniversary,
and letter from R. W. Emer-
son, 87, 88 ; letter to G. W. Curtis
on Lincoln's renomination, 89, 90 ;
letters from William Rathbone
about Confederate ironclads, 91-
95 ; enrollment of colored troops,
and letter from C. B. Sedgwick
96, 97 ; capture and imprisonment
of his son William, 97-99 ; letter
to W. P. Fessenden on letters of
marque, 99-100 ; letters as to
Lincoln campaign, etc., from C. B.
Sedgwick, W. C. Bryant, and G.
V. Fox, and to G. V. Fox and W.
P. Fessenden, 101-105; Lincoln
meeting at Cooper Institute, 106 ;
letter to W- P. Fessenden on cur-
rency, 107, 108 ; visit of Goldwin
Smith, Emerson, and others to
Naushon, 108-112; death of Colo-
nel C. R. Lowell, 113-115 ; letters
on public affairs to W. H. Aspin-
wall and W. P. Fessenden, and
from Charles Sumner and Gov-
ernor Andrew, 117-124 ; goes to
Washington with his family for
the winter of 1864-65, 125 ; letter
from Thomas Baring on finance,
131, 132 ; efforts to raise money
for government, 133 ; advocates
opening of Southern ports, 134 ;
correspondence with Governor
Andrew, 134-136; trip to Fort-
ress Monroe with G. V. Fox, 137 ;
trip to Cuba, 137 ; witnesses rais-
ing of flag at Fort Sumter, 138;
correspondence with G. de Beau-
mont, 138, 139 ; grand review at
Washington, 140, 141 ; difficulties
of reconstruction, letters to N. M.
Beckwith and W. C. Bryant, and
from H. McCulloch, G. de Beau-
mont, and John Bright, 141-151 ;
letter from Goldwin Smith on
Alabama case, etc., 151, 152 ; mar-
riage of his son William, 152,
154 ; correspondence with Wendell
Phillips, 156-159 ; letter from O.
W. Holmes, 159, 160 ; difficulties
as to S. S. Meteor : letter from
C. F. Adams, 160-162 ; last letter
from Governor Andrew, 162, 163 ;
correspondence with W. P. Fessen-
den, 164-166 ; letter to Mrs. N.J.
Senior on Alabama claims, 167-

254

INDEX

170 ; voyage in yacht Rambler
to Azores, 170-173 ; letter to
Hamilton Fish, 171, 172 ; letters
from R. W. Emerson, and trip,
accompanied by him and others,
to California, 174-176 ; trip to
Florida, 176, 177 ; chosen Repub-
lican elector at large, 178 ; letter
to Charles Sumner on political
campaign of 1872, 178-183 ; un-
diminished interest in politics : let-
ter to President Grant, 184-186;
appointed delegate at large to the
Cincinnati Republican National
Convention, 187 ; speech at Faneuil
Hall on Civil Service Reform,
188-190 ; Republican National
Convention at Chicago and nomi-
nation of Garfield, 193-198 ; notes
on proper use of campaign funds,
199-202 ; opposition to Benjamin
Butler, 203-204 ; approval of wo-
men's suffrage, 205 ; reasons for
leaving the Republican party,
206-210 ; letter from Judge Hoar,
210-211 ; railroad work, 211-217 ;
interest in shipping and advocacy
of tariff reform, 219-222 ; letter
from William Rathbone on free
trade, 223, 224; continued inter-
est in railroads, 224, 225 ; letters
from Mrs. Fanny Kemble, J. G.
Whittier, and Judge Hoar, 226-
230; building of yacht Wild
Duck, 231 ; last summers at Nau-
shon, 234-237 ; death at Milton,
October 12, 1898, 237.

Forbes, Mrs. J. M. (see also Hath-
away, Sarah), i. 67, 69, 76, 89, 90,
111, 112, 132, 159, 188, 235, 294-
299; visit to Beaufort, 304-306;
letter from Dr. De Wolf, 322, 323 ;
ii. 9 ; letter from J. M. F., 28 ; in
New York during the draft riots,
49, 50; 114, 115; goes to Wash-
ington for the winter, 125; 174,
177, 232, 236, 237.

Forbes, John Murray, U. S. Consul
at Buenos Ayres, i. 40.

Forbes, Mary A., sister of J. M. F.,
i. 42, 47, 65, 66. See also Cun-
ningham, Mrs. Francis.

Forbes, Mary Hathaway, daughter
of J. M. F., i. 188, 295 ; marries
Colonel H. S. Russell, ii. 4. See
also Russell, Mrs. H. S.

Forbes, Paul Sieman, i. 294, 295.

Forbes, Ralph Bennet, father of J.
M. F., i. 3, 37-39, 41.

Forbes, Mrs. R. B., mother of J. M.
F. (see also Perkins, Margaret), i.
37-41, 46-48, 50-52, 56, 57, 59,
65, 69, 73.

Forbes, Robert, i. 1.

Forbes, R. B., brother of J. M. F.,
i. 39, 41, 42, 47, 60, 61, 64, 65, 81,
90, 91, 97, 102-106, 111, 112-115,
118 ; commands Jamestown, 121 ;
159, 206, 218 ; ii. 93, 94, 161, 219,
220.

Forbes, Sarah, daughter of J. M. F.,
i. 139, 295 ; ii. 172, 173, 176, 177.
See also Hughes, Mrs. W. H.

Forbes, Thomas Tunno, brother of
J. M. F., i. 39, 41, 42, 47-51, 53,
56-59 ; death in China, 60-62.

Forbes, William Hathaway, son of
J. M. F., i. 43, 111, 134-137, 138-
141 ; appointed lieutenant in First
Mass. Cavalry, 258, 259 ; goes to
Beaufort, 283, 284 ; 288 ; visited
by J. M. F., 293-306 ; 323 ; ii. 39,
51, 76 ; taken prisoner, 97-99 ;
103, 109, 118 ; at home on parole
and then exchanged, 125 ; resigns
commission at end of war, 141 ;
marries Miss Edith Emerson, 152 ;
170, 176, 177, 217 ; death in 1897.
235.

Forbes, Mrs. W. H. (see also Emer-
son, Edith), ii. 152.

Forster, Joshua, ii. 14.

Forster, Robert, member of Peace
Society in England, ii. 10, 14.

Forester, W. E., ii. 11, 18, 45, 93.

Fortress Monroe, poorly garrisoned,
i. 206, 207, 210 ; relief of, 211 ;
304 ; ii. 117, 137, 235.

Fort Sumter, straits of garrison, i.
193 ; plans for the relief of, 193-
198 ; fall of, 198 ; 202, 204, 205,
254, 290, 303, 343 ; ii. 4, 23, 105 ;
raising of the flag, 138, 139.

Fox, Gustavus V., experienced naval
officer, plans for relief of Fort
Sumter, i. 193-198 ; Assistant Sec-
retary of Navy, purchase of ves-
sels for navy, 228-232 ; 289-290 ;
letters to J. M. F. as to ironclads,
etc., 340-343 ; letters to J. M. F.,
ii. 22, 23, 98, 99 ; letter from J. M.
F., 102-104 ; 105, 117 ; trip down

INDEX

255

Potomac with J. M. F., 137 ; goes
to Russia, 159, 160 ; death in
1883, 204, 205._

France, trips to, i. 169 ; ii. 31.

Franklin, Captain W. H., of Penn-
sylvania, in charge of Capitol ex-
tension, i. 200.

" Free-Soilers," the, i. Ill, 177, 180,
181, 183.

Fremont, General John C, i. 151,
169, 170, 173, 321 ; ii. 89.

Fry, Richard, ii. 14.

Frye, Senator William P., supports
J. G. Blaine, ii. 192, 195.

Gardner, John L., ii. 217.

Garfield, President J. A., ii. 190;

campaign of 1880, 192-198.
Garrison, William Lloyd, ii. 156.
Germany, J. M. F.'s visit to, ii. 28-

31.
" Gideonites," the, see Educational

Commission.
Gilman, Captain, of ship Lintin, i.

102.
Gladstone, William E., ii. 18.
Godkin, E. L., editor of " Nation," ii.

144.
Godwin, Parke, editor of "New

York Evening Post," letter from

J. M. F., i. 314, 315.
Goldshorough, Admiral L. M., at

Fortress Monroe, i. 304.
Goodrich, J. Z., member of Peace

Congress, i. 188.
Gordon, Captain N. P., of the slaver

Erie, captured and executed, i.

285.
Grant, General U. S., appointed

Lieutenant-General, i. 335 ; 336 ;

ii. 70 ; his success in commanding

the army, 72, 73, 88, 99, 102 ; his

reticence, 117, 118; 121, 128;

grand review at Washington, 140 ;

election to the Presidency, 166 ;

167, 178, 184-187 ; candidate for

reelection, 190-195 ; 211, 244.
Gray, Horace, i. 208.
Gray, Miss I., work on Sanitary

Commission, i. 265.
Gray, William, opposes inflation of

the currency, i. 276, 279, 286 ; ii.

83.
Greeley, Horace, ii. 102 ; Demo-
cratic nominee for President, 178,

179, 182, 183 ; 208.

Green, David A., merchant and ship-
owner, i. 229.

Green, J. C, partner in Russell &
Co., i. 71, 72, 78, 87, 98; joins in
purchase of Mich. Cent. Railroad,
119 ; ii. 133.

Greene, Hugh W., member of Com-
mittee on Militia, i. 213.

Grimes, Senator James W., i. 321 ;
ii. 125, 163, 164, 166.

Grinnell, Moses H., i. 225.

Griswold, George, joins in purchase
of Mich. Cent. Railroad, i. 119.

Hale, Rev. E. E., member of Loyal
Publication Society, i. 328.

Hale, E. J., partner of J. M. F., i.
204, 219.

Hale, Senator Eugene, supports J.
G. Blaine, ii. 192, 195.

Hale, William A., ii. 235.

Hallowell, Colonel N. P., commands
colored regiment, i. 324 ; ii. 50.

Hamilton, Alexander, ii. 120.

Hampton, Wade, ii. 182.

Harper's Ferry, John Brown's cap-
ture at, i. 182.

Harrison, President Benjamin, ii.
202.

Harrison, William Henry, ex-Presi-
dent, i. 184.

Hatch, Miss Mattie, i. 55.

Hathaway, Charles, i. 169.

Hathaway, Francis, trip to Manila
with J. M. F., i. 72-76 ; in China,
80, 81.

Hathaway, Mary (afterwards Mrs.
R. S. Watson), sister of Mrs. J. M.
F., i. 65, 66.

Hathaway, Sarah, i. 65-67. See also
Forbes, Mrs. J. M.

Hathaway, William, brother of Mrs.
J. M. F., i. Ill, 112.

Hay, John, private secretary to
President Lincoln, letter to J. M.
F., ii. 76.

Hayes, President R. B., ii. 186 ;
presidential campaign of 1876,
187-192.

Hayward, J. T., bookkeeper in Per-
kins & Co., i. 54, 55, 64. _

Heard, Augustine, managing part-
ner in Russell & Co. at Canton,
i. 61-64, 71, 72, 76 ; goes to Beau-
fort, S. C, 295-303.

Hemenway, Augustus, ii. 176.

256

INDEX

Hentz, , master at Round Hill

School, i. 49.

Herbert, H. A., Secretary of the
Navy under Cleveland, ii. 231.

Higginson, Major Henry L., quar-
tered at Hilton Head, i. 303.

Hoar, Judge E. R., member of Sat-
urday Club, i. 34 ; delegate to
Republican National Convention
at Cincinnati, ii. 187 ; letters to
J. M. F., 203, 210, 211, 227-230.

Hoar, Senator G. F., chairman of
Republican Convention at Chi-
cago, ii. 193-196.

Hoar, Samuel, ii. 211.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, member of
Saturday Club, poem on J. M. F.'s
eightieth birthday, i. 34, 35 ; let-
ter to J. M. F. about ode to Czar
of Russia, ii. 159, 160.

Hooker, General Joseph, i. 335 ; ii.
15.

Hooper, Edward W., on Educational
Commission, i. 296.

Hooper, Samuel, i. 339 ; ii. 156.

Hopkins, General , i. 134-136.

Horses :

" Billy," i. 297-299 ; ii. 109, 110.
"Johnny Crapaud," i. 17, 107-111.
" The Judge " and Di," i. 106, 107.

Horton, Valentine B., i. 317.

Houghton, Lord, see Monckton
Milnes.

Houqua, Chinese merchant, business
relations with J. M. F., i. 62, 63,
72, 77-80, 98, 99, 101.

Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, ii. 237.

Howe, S. G. : letters introducing
John Brown to J. M. F., i. 178,
179 ; advocates emancipation,
238-240.

Howe, Mrs. Samuel, i. 4, 50.

Howland, Matthew, ii. 14.

Hudson, Commodore William L., at
the head of Charlestown Navy
Yard, i. 215, 216 ; buys ships for
navy, 228, 229.

Hughes, Thomas, ii. 38, 106, 192.

Hughes, W. H, ii. 235, 237.

Hughes, Mrs. W. H. (see also
Forbes, Sarah), letters from Ed-
ward Atkinson and William Rath-
bone about J. M. F., ii. 90-95.

Hunt, William M., i. 32; meets
John Brown at Milton, 179 ; ii.
177.

Hunter, General David, command-
ing at Hilton Head, i. 303 ; enlists
colored soldiers, 307, 308 ; 317.

Inflation of currency, see Finances,
National.

Inglis, , i. 83.

Institute of Technology, J. M. F.'s
interest in, i. 14, 16.

Irish famine, expedition of James-
town, i. 120, 121.

Ironclads, the Laird, i. 340-343,?
ii. 4-8, 12, 13, 16, 21, 23, 46, 47,
55, 56, 58, 64, 80, 91, 92-94, 243,
245.

Irving, Washington, i. 225.

Jackson, President Andrew, ii. 188,
189.

Jackson, Thomas Jonathan, Confed-
erate general, ii. 18.

Jarnegan, Captain, i. 135.

Jefferson Proviso, the, i. 153.

Jennison, Dr. John, fellow-passenger
of J. M. F. on voyage to China,
i. 61.

Jewell, Marshall, ex-Governor of
Connecticut, ii. 195 ; chairman of
National Republican Committee,
196-198.

Johnson, President Andrew : grand
review at Washington, ii. 140;
143, 144, 147, 150, 155, 163, 179,
244.

Johnson, Reverdy, ii. 244.

Johnston, General J. E., Confeder-
ate, ii. 182.

Joy, James F., i. 168, 242 ; ii. 212.

Kearney, Denis, ii. 208.

Kearsarge, the, ii. 72.

Kelly, John, ii. 208.

Kelly, Judge William, i. 345.

Kemble, Charles, i. 31.

Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, i. 31, 32, 66 ;
letters to J. M. F., ii. 26, 27, 51,
52, 226, 231, 232.

Keyes, Colonel E. D., aide to Gerir
eral Scott, i. 196, 197, 206, 207.

Keyes, John, ii. 174.

Kimber, Thomas, Jr., ii. 14.

King, Preston, i. 346.

Knapp, Rev. F. N, work on Sani-
tary Commission, i. 265.

Ku-Klux Klan, the, secret society,
ii. 178, 179, 189, 233.

INDEX

257

Laird, William, builder of ironclads
for Confederates, i. 840 ; ii. 4, 25,
44, 56, 80, 91, 92-94, 244.
Lawrence, Amos A., works at re-
cruiting with J. M. F., i. 333, 334.
Lee, Colonel F. L., ii. 218.
Lee, Colonel Henry, on Governor
Andrew's staff, i. 208; ii. 192,
218, 219.
Lee, General Robert E., captures
John Brown at Harper's Ferry,
i. 182 ; 336 ; ii. 98, 127, 130 ; his
surrender, 138.
Lee, Captain W. P., of S. S. Pem-
broke : J. M. F.'s instructions,
i. 217, 218.
Lee, Colonel W. Raymond, impris-
oned at Richmond, i. 259.
Legal Tender, see Finances, Na-
tional.
Letters, and quotations from letters ;
see also Telegrams :
From J. M. Forbes to —

Adams, Charles Francis, i. 233.
Andrew, Governor J. A., i. 212,

258, 329 ; ii. 15, 136.
Andrew, J. Forrester, ii. 210.
Appleton, William, i. 133.
Ashburner, George, i. 161, 245;

ii. 114.
Aspinwall, W. H, i. 286 ; ii. 117.
Atkinson, Edward, i. 309.
Baring, Thomas, ii. 55.
Bates, Joshua, i. 339 ; ii. 63.
Beaumont, Gustave de, ii. 138.
Beckwith, N. M., i. 172, 287;

ii. 143.
Bellows, Rev. Dr. Henry W.,

i. 270.
Bryant, W. C, i. 241, 281, 282,

291 ; ii. 146.
Chairman of Mass. Independents,

ii. 207.
Chase, S. P., ii. 20, 21, 41, 43.
Clifford, John H., i. 288.
Cooper, Peter, ii. 133.
Cowper, J. Hamilton, i. 152.
Cunningham, Edward, i. 167.
Curtis, George W., ii. 89.
Dumaresq, Captain P., i. 102.
Eliot, T. Dawes, i. 221.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, ii. 109.
Evans, William, ii. 77.
Fessenden, W. P., i. 277, 279,
283, 338 ; ii. 81, 99, 107, 120,
164.

Fish, Hamilton, ii. 171.
Forbes, J. Malcolm, i. 138.
Forbes, Mrs. J. M., i. 294 ; ii. 28.
Forbes, R. B., i. 81, 111.
Forbes, Mrs. Ralph Bennet, i. 46.
Forbes, Sarah, ii. 172, 176.
Forbes, T. T., i. 42, 48, 49, 56, 58.
Forbes, W. H., i. 134, 138.
Fox, G. V., i. 228, 229 ; ii. 102.
Godwin, Parke, i. 314.
Grant, President U. S., ii. 186.
Grinnell, Moses H., i. 225.
Howe, S. G., i. 239.
Lee, Captain W. P., i. 217.
Lincoln, Abraham, ii. 73.
Low, A. A., ii. 134.
Matthews, Captain, i. 216.
" New York Evening Post,"

i. 219, 285.
Noyes, W. Curtis, i. 324. 326.
Olmsted, F. L., i. 269, 273.
Phillips, Wendell, ii. 157.
Quakers, English, ii. 10.
Rathbone, William, Jr., ii. 59.
Ripley, George, i. 289.
Scott, General Winfield, i. 226.
Sedgwick, Charles B., i. 315,

316, 319 ; ii. 1.
Senior, Mrs. Nassau J., ii. 38,

167.
Senior, Nassau W., i. 142, 183,

247, 253, 260.
Seward, W. H, i. 220.
Son, i. 175.

Sturgis, Russell, i. 145.
Sumner, Charles, i. 300, 317, 318,

349 ; ii. 58, 178.
Welles, Gideon, ii. 21, 40, 44-

46,64.
Whittier, John G., ii. 203.
To J. M. Forbes from —

Adams, Charles Francis, i. 234 ;

ii. 56, 85, 113, 161.
Andrew, Governor J. A., i. 214,

331 ; ii. 122, 134, 162.
Ashburner, George, i. 259; ii.

242.
Baring, Thomas, ii. 131.
Bates, Joshua, ii. 54.
Beaumont, Gustave de, ii. 139,

147.
Bellows, Dr. Henry W., i. 267.
Bright, John, ii. 52, 150.
Brimmer, Martin, ii. 163.
Bryant, W. C, i. 236, 242, 335;

ii. 101.

258

INDEX

Chase, S. P., ii. 42.
Cowper, J. Hamilton, i. 148.
Curtis, G. W., ii. 88, 90.
Dudley, Thomas H., ii. 80.
Eliot, Rev. Dr. W. G., ii. 155.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, ii. 87,

174, 175.
Evans, William, ii. 78, 80.
Fessenden, W. P., i. 336; ii.

165.
Fox, G. V., i. 231, 340-342; ii.

22, 99, 104.
Hay, John, ii. 76.
Hoar, Judge E. R., ii. 203, 210.
Holmes, O. W., ii. 159.
Hooper, Samuel, ii. 156.
Houqua, i. 98, 99.
Howe, S. G., i. 178, 179, 238.
Hughes, Thomas, ii. 192.
Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, ii. 26, 51,

226 231.
Lee, Henry, ii. 192, 218.
Lowell, James Russell, ii. 85.
McCulloch, Hugh, ii. 145, 146.
Olmsted, F. L., i. 265.
Phillips, Wendell, ii. 156.
Rathbone, William, Jr., ii. 91,

92, 223.
Robbins, Dr. E. H., i. 124, 125.
Sedgwick, Charles B., i. 308,

320, 344 ; ii. 83, 96, 101, 107,

156.
Senior, Nassau W., i. 245, 251.
Sheridan, General P. H., ii. 113.
Smith, Goldwin, ii. 108, 132, 151.
Stanton, Edwin M., ii. 69.
Sturgis, William, i. 165.
Sumner, Charles, i. 186, 348, 352 ;

ii. 84, 119, 187.
Tocqueville, Madame Alexis de,

i. 185.
Ward, George C, ii. 133.
Welles, Gideon, i. 292 ; ii. 5, 23,

65.
Whittier, John G., ii. 88, 226.
From —

Atkinson, Edward, to Mrs. W.

H. Hughes, ii. 90.
Cogswell, Joseph G., to Mrs. R.

B. Forbes, i. 51, 52.
De Wolf, Dr. Oscar, to Mrs. J.

M. Forbes, i. 322.
Electors, Presidential, to Abra-
ham Lincoln, i. 347.
Hunter, General David, to E. M.

Stanton, i. 308.

Lowell, Colonel C. R., to Mrs. C.

R. Lowell, ii. 116.
Rathbone, William, to Mrs. W.

H. Hughes, ii. 92.
Sturgis, William, to J. P. Cush-
ing, i. 37.

Letters of marque, i. 218 ; ii. 21, 25,
100.

Lewis, George Cornwall, ii. 26,

Lincoln, Abraham, i. 18 ; chosen
President, 182-185 ; plot to attack
him in Baltimore, 189 ; 191, 197-
199, 236, 237, 242, 243, 267, 268,
308, 309, 314, 315, 317, 329, 332 ;
appoints U. S. Grant Lieutenant-
General, 335 ; 336-338, 343-346 ;
letter from electors urging Pro-
clamation of Emancipation, 347,
348 ; 349, 353 ; ii. 59 ; letter from
J. M. F, 73-75; 76-78, 84, 85;
campaign of 1864, 88-90, 101-105,
117; 119,134; second inaugura-
tion, 136 ; assassinated, 138 ; 147,
227, 240.

Logan, General John A., at Cincin-
nati Convention, i. 33 ; ii. 196.

Lonero, Captain, i. 84.

Longfellow, H. W., member of Sat-
urday Club, i. 34 ; ii. 87, 236.

Low, A. A., ii. 134.

Lowell, Miss Anna, i. 322.

Lowell, Charles Russell, clerk in J.
M. Forbes & Co., goes to Florida
and Cuba with J. M. F., i. 147 ;
commands Second Mass. Cavalry,
ii. 76, 97, 109; killed at Cedar
Creek, 113-117 ; 164.

Lowell, Mrs. Charles Russell, ii.
115-117.

Lowell, James Russell, member of
Saturday Club, i. 34; ii. 2, 85,
113.

Lovejoy, Elijah P., indignation
meeting after the murder of, i. 99,
100.

Loyal Publication Society, see New
England Loyal Publication So-
ciety.

Lyman, Mrs. A. J., i. 4.

Mack, Thomas, i. 296.

Mallory, S. R., Confederate Secre-
tary of the Navy, i. 321.

Manila, trip to, i. 73-76.

Manly, W., trip to Farrandsville
with J. M. F., i. 94-97.

INDEX

259

Marcy, Governor William L., i. 233 ;
ii. 189, 242.

Martineau, Rev. James, ii. 17.

Mason, James M., Confederate am-
bassador, i. 245 ; seizure of, 259 ;
284 ; ii. 36.

Massachusetts, S. S., i. 118.

Matthews, Captain, commanding
S. S. Cambridge, J. M. F.'s in-
structions to, i. 216, 217.

Maximilian, Archduke of Austria
and titular Emperor of Mexico,
ii. 244.

May, Miss Abby, work on Sanitary
Commission, i. 265.

McClellan, General George B. : re-
organization of Medical Bureau,
i. 267 ; prepares for movement on
Richmond, 304 ; 332, 336 ; ii. 89,
96,103.

McCulloch, Hugh, Secretary of the
Treasury, ii. 124, 125, 133, 134,
143 ; letter on finance to J. M. F.,
145 ; 146, 147.

McLean, John, i. 173.

Meade, General George G., ii. 55.

Medical Bureau, bill for reorganiza-
tion of, i. 267-269, 271-274.

Meigs, General M. C, i. 332.

Melius, Mrs., i. 55.

Merchant marine compared with
navy, i. 221-224.

Merrimac, frigate, i. 212, 304 ; ii. 99.

Merritt, General Wesley : grand re-
view at Washington, ii. 141.

Meteor, the, subscriptions for build-
ing, ii. 72 ; 157, 160-162.

Michigan Central Railroad, see Rail-
rowels

Mills, J. K. & Co., failure of, i. 167.

Milnes, Monckton, afterwards Lord
Houghton, supports Union cause
in England, ii. 11, 37.

Mission to England, ii. 4-48, 55,
64-66.

Missouri Compromise, the, i. 153,
154.

Monitor, the, i. 304.

Monroe, Fortress, see Fortress Mon-
roe.

Morey, , presidential elector, i.

350.

Morrill Tariff, the, i. 243, 249, 250.

Morris, Captain, i. 204.

Mosby, Colonel J. S., ii. 97, 98, 110.

Motley, J. Lothrop, author of

"Dutch Republic," i. 220, 225;

ii. 241.
Motley, Thomas, at Beaufort, S. C,

i. 306.
Mount Savage, ironworks at, i. 121,

122.
Mulligan, James, ii. 207.
Murray, Dorothy, grandmother of

J. M. F., i. 3.

Napoleon, Louis, i. 145-147, 169,

247, 252, 253, 262, 280; ii. 56,

107, 108, 244.
National Finances, see Finances, Na-
tional.
Naushon Island, i. 13, 16-27, 66,

159, 160, 163, 168-170, 319, 321,

322; ii. 108,110-112, 162, 213,

218, 219, 227, 234-237.
Navy, compared with merchant

marine, i. 221-224.
Nebraska Bill, the, i. 155.
New England Loyal Publication

Society, formation of, i. 324-329 ;

ii. 70, 144.
Newspapers :

" Anti-Slavery Standard," ii. 156,
157.

" Boston Daily Advertiser," i.
309 ; ii. 83.

" Louisville Courier," i. 202, 203.

" Nation," ii. 144.

" New Bedford Mercury," i. 314.

" New York Herald," organ of
seceders, i. 254, 279, 286, 312.

" New York Evening Post," letter
from J. M. F., i. 219, 220 ; 240,
281, 284, letter from J. M. F.,
285, 286 ; 314, 318, 324, 325 ; ii.
144-146.

" New York Times," ii. 102.

"New York Tribune," i. 289,
290, 324.
Nordhoff, Charles, editor of " New

York Evening Post," ii. 144.
Norton, Charles E., work on Sani-
tary Commission, i. 268 ; manages

Loyal Publication Society, 328,

329.
Noyes, William Curtis, letters from

J. M. F. as to Loyal Publication

Society, i. 324-327.

Ogden, W. B., i. 120.
" Old Scrap Book, An," i. 29, 30 ;
ii. 224-227.

260

INDEX

Olmsted, F. Law : work on Sanitary

Commission, i. 265-274 ; ii. 75.
Olsen, Charles, captain of launch

Coryell, ii. 237.
Ossawatomie, battle of ; description

by John Brown, i. 180, 181.
Overend & Gurney, bankers, ii. 14,

15.

Packard, Colonel, i. 211.
Palmerston, Lord, ii. 19, 31, 36, 58,

93, 94.
Parker, Theodore, i. 36.
Parrott, R., gunmaker at West

Point, ii. 79.
Pate, Henry Clay, i. 181.
Paulding, Commodore Hiram, i. 173.
Peabody, Miss Elizabeth, anecdote

of, i. 21 ; 65.
Peace Congress of February, 1861,

i. 1S7-201 ; ii. 104.
Pearson, Captain Charles, of ship

Luconia, i. 87.
Pease, Henry, M. P., ii. 14.
Pease, Joseph, president of Peace

Society in England, ii. 10.
Pease, Joshua, ii. 14.
Peck, Mrs. Elizabeth, ancestress of

J. M. F., i. 3.
Peirce, Professor Benjamin, ii. 141.
Peirson, Adjutant C. L., imprisoned

at Richmond, i. 259.
Perkins, Charles E., president of

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy

Railroad, ii. 212, 213, 216, 217,

224, 239, 240.
Perkins, James, uncle of J. M. F.,

i. 39, 53.
Perkins, Mrs. James, i. 89.
Perkins, J. H., cousin of J. M. F., in

Perkins & Co., i. 54, 55, 58.
Perkins, Margaret, mother of J. M.

F., i. 3, 39. See also Forbes, Mrs.

Ralph Bennet.
Perkins, Samuel G., uncle of J. M.

F., i. 39.
Perkins, Colonel T. H., uncle of J.

M. F, i. 39, 51, 53, 117.
Perry, Commodore, expedition to

Japan, i. 132.
Philbrick, E. S., educates negroes

on Sea Islands, ii. 70, 71.
Phillips, Wendell, i. 33 ; speaks at

Faneuil Hall meeting, 100 ; 174 ;

reference to J. M. F.'s foresight,

204, 205 ; visits Milton, 227 ; cor-

respondence with J. M. F., ii. 156-

159.
Pierce, E. L., head of Educational

Commission, i. 294, 296, 301.
Pierce, H. L., ii. 184.
Pitt, William, i. 339.
Piatt, Senator T. C, ii. 197.
Pollock, Baron, ii. 46, 47.
Porter, Admiral D. D., i. 321 : ii.

117.
Postell, , first lieutenant of rebel

privateer, i. 217.
Potter, Thomas, ii. 19.
Purvis, Robert, ii. 227.
Putnam, Dr. George, i. 36.
Putnam, " Preceptor," master of

Franklin Academy, Andover, i.

43.

Quakers, English, J. M. F.'s appeal

to them in behalf of peace, ii. 9-

15, 16.
Quay, Senator M. S., ii. 202.
Quincy, George, enlisting officer, i.

334.
Quincy market men, offer to furnish

fresh meats for troops, i. 213, 214.

Railroads :

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, i.
138, 160-164, 168, 170 ; ii. 114,
211-217, 224, 239, 240.

Erie, i. 167.

Hannibal and St. Joseph, i. 138,
177.

Michigan Central, i. 119, 120, 160,
163, 165, 167, 168, 170 ; ii. 212.

New York Central, i. 167.

Sault Ste. Marie, i. 252, 257.

Southern Michigan, i. 167.
Rathbone, William, of Liverpool,

England, ii. 7, 8, 19 ; letter from

J. M. F., 59-63 ; 91-95 ; letter to

J. M. F. on free trade, 222-224.
Rathbone, S. G, ii. 223.
Raymond, H. J., chairman of Na-
tional Committee, ii. 102.
Reconstruction, ii. 141-152, 155-

158, 178-183.^
Revere, Mary, i. 4.
Revere, Major Paul J., imprisoned

at Richmond, i. 259.
Ripley, George, of the " New York

Tribune," i. 289-290.
Robbins, Dr. Edward H., practical

joke of J. M. F.'s, i. 123-126.

INDEX

261

Robbins, Mrs. Elizabeth Murray,

great aunt of J. M. F., i. 4.
Robertson, Alexander, guest of J.

M. F. at Macao, i. 82.
Robinson, G. D., elected Governor

of Massachusetts, ii. 204.
Robinson, William S., see "War-
rington's Pen Portraits."
Rodgers, General, i. 315.
Rodman, Thomas J., ii. 16.
Roebuck, John A., ii. 36, 37, 54, 55.
Rogers, Dr. S., ii. 177.
Rogers, Major, ii. 162.
Rogers, Henry B., member of Loyal

Publication Society, i. 328.
Rogers, Prof. W. B., member of

Loyal Publication Society, i. 328.
Ropes, J. S., ii. 185.
Rosecrans, General W. S., ii. 63.
Ruffln, Thomas, of North Carolina,

member of Peace Congress, i. 191.
Russell, Colonel Henry S., marries

Mary H. Forbes, ii. 4; 39, 52,

103, 117, 137.
Russell, Mrs. Henry S. (see also

Forbes, Mary Hathaway), ii. 4,

39, 117, 137.
Russell, James S., ii. 117, 235.
Russell, Lord John, i. 251, 253 ; ii.

8, 18, 22, 36, 57, 168, 170, 243.
Russell, Nathaniel, of Plymouth,

goes to Farrandsville with J. M.

F., i. 91-97. '
Russell, William, i. 294.
Russell & Co., i. 61-64 ; 7C-72, 87,

90, 91, 98, 165, 172 ; ii. 133, 143,

211, 212, 225.

Sanborn, Frank, i. 179.

Sanitary Commission, National, or-
ganization of, i. 263-274 ; 320 ; ii.
70.

Sargent, Professor Charles S., ii. 234.

" Satanic Press," the, i. 280, 282,
286, 289.

Saturday Club, the, i. 34 ; ii. 87, 88.

Saxton, General Ruf us, i. 313 ; ii.
178.

Schley, , i. 137.

Schofield, General J. M., i. 10.

Schools : Miss Polly Crane, i. 40 ;
Master Pierce, 40 ; Franklin Aca-
demy, Andover, 43 ; Round Hill
School, Northampton, 43-52.

Schurz, Carl, ii. 192.

Scott, Russell, ii. 17.

Scott, Sir Walter, J. M. F.'s admira-
tion for the works of, i. 18, 27,
31.

Scott, General Winfield, approves
plan for relief of Fort Sumter, i.
193-197 ; 198 ; instructions to
Governor Andrew as to route of
troops, 205-206 ; 226, 227.

Seddon, James A., of Virginia, mem-
ber of Peace Congress, i. 191.

Sedgwick, Charles B., comment on
Peace Congress, i. 201 ; 282, 308,
309 ; correspondence with J. M.
F., 315-317, 319-322; letter to
J. M. F. on Emancipation Pro-
clamation, etc., 344—346 ; 352 ; ii.
1,2; letter to J. M. F. on pay of
colored troops, 83, 84; letter on
enrollment bill, 96, 97 ; 101, 107 ;
visit to Naushon, 110; 156.

Sedgwick, Mrs. Charles B., i. 319,
322.

Seelye, J. H, ii. 187.

Semmes, Raphael, commander of
Alabama, ii. 113, 171.

Senior, Mrs. Nassau J., ii. 38, 39 ;
letter from J. M. F. on Alabama
claims, 167, 170.

Senior, Nassau William, i. 141, 142-
144, 183, 184 ; correspondence
with J. M. F., 245-257 ; 260-263 ;
ii. 2, 19, 37, 38, 168.

Sever, Captain J. W., of ship
Alert, i. 65.

Seward, William H., i. 173, 183,
184 ; J. M. F.'s objections to, 185 ;
Sumner's opinion of, 186 ; 189 ;
imprisons mayor of Baltimore,
190 ; 197 ; prophesies end of war
in sixty days, 198 ; 219, 220, 221,
225, 237, 244, 325, 337, 338, 342,
343, 344 ; resigns from cabinet,
but is recalled, 346 ; ii. 3, 40, 44,
73, 78, 89, 101, 102, 118, 132 ; re-
tirement from office, 166 ; 240-
244.

Seymour, Governor Horatio, i. 338 ;
ii. 55.

Shaw, Francis G., ii. 50-52.

Shaw, Josephine, see Lowell, Mrs.
C. R.

Shaw, Colonel Robert G., com-
mands colored regiment, i. 324 ;
ii. 52, 54 ; killed at Fort Wagner,
67, 68 ; monument on Boston Com-
mon, 68 ; 115.

262

INDEX

Sheridan, General P. H., ii. 98, 109 ;
letter about Colonel C. R. Lowell,
113,114; 211,244.

Sherman, Senator John, i. 242 ; Pre-
sidential campaign of 1880, ii.
194.

Sherman, General William T., ii.
119, 121, 128 ; takes Charleston,
136 ; grand review at Washing-
ton, 140 ; 178, 211, 244.

Ships :

Cambridge, i. 215-218.
Flying Childers, i. 137.
Jamestown, i. 121.
Massachusetts, i. 118.
Pembroke, i. 215-218.
See also Alabama, Alexandra,
Ironclads, Kearsarge, Merrimac,
Meteor, Monitor, and Yachts.

Simmons, W. A., collector of the
port of Boston, ii. 185, 186.

Simms, , colored editor, ii. 178.

Slidell, John, Confederate ambassa-
dor, i. 245 ; seizure of 259 ; 284 ;
ii. 36.

Smalls, Robert, escaped slave, i.
303.

Smith, Chauncey, solicitor of War
Department, ii. 68.

Smith, Goldwin, i. 8; ii. 40, 108;
visits Naushon, 110-112; 118,
132 ; letter to J. M. F. on Alabama
case, etc., 151, 152.

Smith, Captain John, ii. 112.

Smith, Captain Jonathan, command-
ing yacht Azalea, i. 303.

Sprague, Horatio, U. S. Consul at
Gibraltar, i. 70.

Stanton, Edwin M., independence
and energy of , i. 280; 282,288,
289 ; controls telegraph, 291 ;
308, 332, 345, 353; letter to J.
M. F. on enlistment of colored
soldiers, ii. 68-70 ; 82, 134.

Stearns, Major G. L., recruiting
officer, ii. 63.

Stedman, Dr. C. E., ii. 235, 236.

Stephens, Alexander H., Vice-Pre-
sident of Southern Confederacy, i.
349.

Stevens, Lieutenant, on S. S. Cam-
bridge, i. 216.

Stevens, General Isaac I., in com-
mand at Beaufort, S. C., i. 305,
306.

Stewart, Mrs., i. 83.

Stewart, Governor D., of Missouri,
visits Milton, i. 182.

Stoeckel, Baron, Russian Ambassa-
dor, i. 188.

Stone, Mrs. Lucy, ii. 205.

Stone, Miss M., i. 322.

Stowe, Mrs. Harriet B., i. 142, 143.

Sturgis, Henry, i. 73.

Sturgis, Mrs. Henry, i. 85.

Sturgis, James P., i. 3, 64.

Sturgis, Russell, i. 145, 146.

Sturgis, Captain William, i. 37, 38,
56, 114, 165-167, 168.

Sumner, Charles, i. 8, 173, 185 ; let-
ter concerning Seward, i86 ; opin-
ion of W. P. Fessenden, 281 ; let-
ter from J. M. F. on the Educa-
tional Commission and the negro
question, 300-302 ; letters from
J. M. F. on emancipation, and
bribery of senators, 317-319 ; cor-
respondence with J. M. F. on Pro-
clamation of Emancipation, 348-
353 ; letter from J. M. F., ii. 58,
59 ; belligerent speech, 59, 60 ; 73,
75, 76, 84, 119, 125, 155, 167, 170 ;
supports Greeley's candidacy, 178 ;
letter from J. M. F., 178-183;
187, 208.

Sumter, Fort, see Fort Sumter.

Swain, " Governor " W. W., i. 16,
25, 67 ; adventure with runaway
horse, 107 ; joins J. M. F. in buy-
ing Naushon, 159 ; 166, 167.

Swain, Mrs. W. W., i. 107.

Swift, Captain W. H., i. 1S8, 200.

Tariff Reform League ; address of
J. M. F. on free ships, ii. 221,
222.

Telegrams : to Colonel Keyes, as to
route of troops bound South, i.
207 ; to Colonel Richard Borden,
as to transporting troops South, i.
207, 208, 209, 211 ; from Colonel
Richard Borden on the same sub-
ject, i. 209 ; from S. P. Chase,
desiring interview with J. M. F.,
ii. 4.

Thayer, Professor J. B., i. 14 ; Sec-
retary of Loyal Publication So-
ciety, 325, 328, 329.

Thayer, John E., joins in purchase
of Michigan Central Railroad, L
119.

Thayer, W. S., i. 325.

INDEX

263

Thomas, General G. H., ii. 121, 128,

178, 179, 244.
Tilden, S. J., Democratic candidate

for presidency, ii. 186.
Tobey, Samuel Boyd, ii. 14.
Tocqueville, Alexis de, i. 247.
Tocqueville, Madame Alexis de, i.

185, 245, 246.
Toucey, Isaac, Secretary of the Navy,

i. 197, 243.
Tree-planting, i. 105, 106 ; ii. 231,

234.
Trent question, the, i. 254, 259-263,

284 ; ii. 242, 243.
Trumbull, W., i. 149, 242.
Twitchell, , ii. 84.

Upton, George B., i. 196 ; transport
of troops, 20S ; 342, 343.

Vallandigham, C. L., ii. 102J 103.
Van Buren, Dr., i. 267.
Volunteer navy, advocated by J. M.
F., i. 219-225 ; bill for, 227, 228.
Voorhees, Senator D. W., ii. 182.

Walker, Robert J., former Secretary
of the Treasury under President
Polk, ii. 42, 43, 53.

Walker, T., i. 296.

Wanamaker, John, Postmaster-Gen-
eral under President Harrison, ii.
202.

Ward, Captain, in the navy, i. 196.

Ward, Captain E. B., ii. 84, 153,
154.

Ward, George C, ii. 50, 110, 133.

Ward, S. G., Boston agent of Baring
Bros. & Co., i. 170 ; work on
Sanitary Commission, 268 ; mem-
ber of Loyal Publication Society,
328 ; ii. 68.

Ware, Miss Emma F., i. 32, 322.

Ware, Mrs. Henry, ii. 234.

Ware, Dr. Robert, visits refugees at
Fort Monroe, i. 266.

" Warrington's Pen Portraits : ' ' ac-
count of J. M. F.'s methods, i. 10,
11.

Washington, Peace Congress held at,
i. 188-201 ; J. M. F. and family
spend winter there, ii. 125-141.

Waters, B. F., member of Peace
Congress, i. i88.

Watson, R. S., i. 66.

Webster, Daniel, i. 33 ; sends cir-

cular to China merchants, 115 ;
118, 132, 142, 154, 171.

Webster, General J. D., tells story
about a Confederate spy, ii. 128-
131.

Weed, Thurlow, editor of ' ' Albany
Evening Journal," i. 244, 346 ; ii.
101, 102.

Weiss, Rev. John, writes epitaph on
"Johnny Crapaud," i. 108-111;
ii. 110.

Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the
Navy, authorizes cruise of the
Cambridge after privateer, i. 216 ;
doubts safety of giving com-
missions to merchant sailors, 221 ;
230, 231, 243, 289,290; commis-
sions J. M. F. to charter vessels,
292, 293 ; 342, 343 ; sends J. M. F.
and W. H. Aspinwall on mission
to England to prevent sailing of
Confederate cruisers, ii. 5-7 ; let-
ter from J. M. F., 21, 22 ; letter
to J. M. F., 23-26 ; letters from
W. H. Aspinwall and J. M. F. con-
cerning mission, 40, 41, 44-48 ;
64-66, 204.

White, Captain, of ship Flying Chil-
ders, i. 137.

White, James S., supposititious wri-
ter of letter, i. 124-126.

White, R. G., ii. 87.

Whitehouse, William, i. 123, 124,
126.

Whittier, John G., i. 350 ; ii. 87, 88 ;
letter from J. M. F. on Butler's
election, 203, 204 ; 211 ; letter to
J. M. F., 226, 227.

Wigglesworth, T., square dealing of,
i. 91.

Wilkes, Admiral Charles, ii. 45.

Williams, John Earl, of the New
York Metropolitan Bank, i. 10.

Wilmot Proviso, the, i. 171, 172.

Wilson, Senator Henry, brings for-
ward bill for reorganizing Medi-
cal Bureau, i. 267 ; 319 ; ii. 121,
155.

Winslow, Captain J. A., commander
of Kearsarge, ii. 72.

Wolcott, J., Huntington, president
of Sanitary Commission, i. 264.

Wood, Fernando, ii. 103.

Wool, General John E., member of
Peace Congress, i. 188.

Wyman, Jeffries, i. 8, 137.

264 INDEX

Yachts : I Rambler, ii. 170-173.

Ariel, i. 112-115. Wild Duck, i. 13 ; ii. 231, 232, 235-
Azalea, i. 13, 159, 160, 303, 306, 237.

307; ii. 104,111. I

ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND CO.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.

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