Charlottesville

[David Lockmiller]

(08-26-2017 03:46 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Did Lincoln ever express his views on various members of the Confederacy during the war?

I copied this material, without footnote references, from the Knox College online version of “Abraham Life: A Life,” Volume II, Chapter 36. It is much the same in the published book in Chapter 36, Volume II, pages 804-805. The footnote references may then be accessed to determine the original sources.

Lincoln was not disposed to withdraw his support of amnesty for most Confederates. According to Gideon Welles, he “dreaded and deprecated violent and revengeful feelings, or any malevolent demonstrations toward those of our countrymen who were involved, voluntarily or involuntarily in the rebellion.” When criticized for excessive leniency, he asked: “How many more lives of our citizen soldiers are the people willing to give up to insure the death penalty to Davis and his immediate coadjutors?”

But what should be done with the Confederate president and his advisors? Lincoln told Grant and Sherman that he hoped that the Rebel leaders would escape the country without his knowledge. Similarly, in response to Postmaster General William Dennison’s query about letting Confederate eminenti escape, the president said: “I should not be sorry to have them out of the country; but I should be for following them up pretty close, to make sure of their going.”

In discussing the possibility of capturing Jefferson Davis, Mary Lincoln allegedly exclaimed: “Don’t allow him to escape the law! He must be hanged.” The president replied: “Let us judge not that we be not judged.”

When Charles A. Dana asked if he should order the arrest of Jacob Thompson, who had served as a Confederate agent in Canada as well as James Buchanan’s secretary of the interior, Lincoln replied: “no, I rather think not. When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he’s trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.”

But what if Confederate leaders did not emigrate? Lincoln told Schuyler Colfax “that he did not want their blood, but that we could not have peace or order in the South while they remained there with their great influence to poison public opinion.” To encourage them to flee, he suggested that military authorities “inform them that if they stay, they will be punished for their crimes, but if they leave, no attempt will be made to hinder them. Then we can be magnanimous to all the rest and have peace and quiet in the whole land.” Lincoln did not indicate what he would recommend if Confederate leaders still refused to take the hint.

The subject of amnesty came up at a cabinet meeting on April 14. According to Welles, Lincoln expressed the hope that “there would be no persecution, no bloody work, after the war was over. None need expect he would take any part in hanging or killing those men, even the worst of them. Frighten them out of the country, open the gates, let down the bars, scare them off,” he said, gesturing as if he were shooing sheep. “Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union.” Stanton reported that Lincoln “spoke very kindly of General Lee and others of the Confederacy” and showed “in marked degree the kindness and humanity of his disposition, and the tender and forgiving spirit that so eminently distinguished him.”

At the April 14 cabinet meeting, with Grant in attendance, Lincoln stressed that Reconstruction “was the great question now before us, and we must soon begin to act.”