Reverdy Johnson: Conservative Unionist

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Reverdy Johnson: Conservative Unionist © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. contents Acknowledgments, ix Introduction, 1 part i. reverdy johnson: conservative unionist 1 Defender of the Republic and the Constitution, 9 2 Johnson and Lincoln: A Fragile Collaboration, 30 3 Civil War Senator and Lincoln Nemesis, 58 4 After the War: Republican Adversary, 83 part ii. horatio seymour: democratic party leader 5 Seymour and Lincoln: The Early Sparring, 115 6 A Thorn in Lincoln’s Side, 1863, 137 7 Democratic Champion, 1864, 169 8 Reconstruction Dissident and Presidential Candidate, 187 Conclusions, 210 Notes, 217 Essay on Sources, 241 Index, 247 © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. acknowledgments During my many years of research and writing on Abraham Lin- coln and other Civil War–era subjects, many people have aided me. Some have simply shown an interest in my study and asked important questions that prompted my careful consideration. Others have given material as- sistance and read drafts of the manuscripts. During the last two decades, my dining partners and senior colleagues Alex De Grand, John Riddle, Jim Banker, Joe Mobley, and the late Joe Hobbs learned to tolerate my near obsession with Lincoln. They have provided encouragement and good hu- mor for my research and writing. I owe a special word of thanks to John David Smith, a former colleague and now a distinguished member of the Department of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for his generous help in all of my scholarly activities. I also would be remiss if I did not recognize the interest and support of the Department of History at North Carolina State University during my thirty-five years as a member of its faculty. Many library staffs and curators of manuscripts and illustrations have been helpful, none more so than that of the D. H. Hill Library at North Carolina State University. In addition, I have received marvelous assistance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University libraries. Both the Manuscript and the Prints and Photographic divisions of the Library of Congress have often rendered important aid for my publi- cations. In numerous ways, the North Carolina State Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, has provided generous assistance for my research and writing on national as well as Old North State subjects. Finally, my wife of many years, Betty Glenn Harris, has been an indis- pensable pillar of support for all of my research and writing. I continue to owe her a great deal. [ ix ] © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. Introduction In writing about the Northern opposition to Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans during the Civil War, historians have usually focused on the Copperheads or antiwar wing of the Democratic Party. They have debated the question of the loyalty of the Cop- perheads and their importance. Reflecting the need to defend democracy and political dissent during the Cold War, several his- torians at that time refuted the traditional view that the Copper- heads were conspirators against the Lincoln government and the state Republican governments in the West (today’s Midwest). The most important of these revisionist scholars was Frank L. Klement whose Copperheads in the Middle West, published in 1960, became the standard account of the interpretation that the Copperheads were mainly the product of Republican propaganda. According to Klement, they were loyal dissenters who felt threatened by Re- publican economic policies and by violations of civil liberties and states’ rights during the Civil War.1 In 2006, Professor Jennifer L. Weber in a splendid book, the Cop- perheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North, seri- ously challenged the Klement interpretation. She revealed that the antiwar Democrats were, as President Abraham Lincoln character- ized them, “a fire in the rear” and a threat to the Union cause in the war.2 Other historians have contrasted these peace Democrats and obstructionists with the War Democrats who patriotically affili- ated with the Republicans in the Union Party, as the coalition was called. The War Democrats, despite their traditional adherence to a strict construction of the Constitution, usually supported Presi- dent Lincoln and Republican policies. Although some might have [ 1 ] © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. had misgivings, Democrats in the Union Party backed Lincoln’s Emanci- pation Proclamation, the suppression of antiwar dissent, confiscation of rebel property, federal military conscription, and the recruitment of black troops. War Democrats like Governor Oliver Perry Morton of Indiana and General Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts ultimately cast their lot with the radical wing of the Republican Party. A few prominent War Democrats, for example John A. Dix of New York, a political general, returned to the Democratic Party after the war. Frequently neglected in the accounts of the Civil War have been those Democrats who remained faithful to the old party of Andrew Jackson, to its constitutional tenets, and also to the original Union purpose in the war, but opposed Lincoln, the Republicans, and the Union Party coalition. Horatio Seymour, who served as governor of New York from January 1863 to Janu- ary 1865, emerged as the leader of these loyal Democrats. Reverdy John- son of Maryland, an old-line Whig conservative, often cooperated with the Democrats in supporting the war and opposing Lincoln and Republican policies. Johnson, reputedly America’s pre-eminent lawyer, not only helped to save his state for the Union, he also articulated valuable constitutional and political principles and arguments for conservatives and Democrats. Although they might not have met or corresponded, Seymour and John- son in speeches, pamphlets, and letters provided the loyal opposition with its most penetrating critique and political challenge to Lincoln and his party during the war. With remarkable consistency and often similarity in their views, the vigorous efforts of Seymour and Johnson against the Republi- cans continued after Lincoln’s death. Both men came to the conclusion that the Republicans represented a serious threat to civil liberties (for whites) and to the federal system of government created by the Founders. Further- more, Seymour and Johnson increasingly doubted that the war could be won under Lincoln’s leadership and the “hard war” policies of the Republi- cans, including federal emancipation. Plainly, these two loyal opponents of Lincoln and the Republicans have not received the attention from scholars and students that they deserve in the history of the Civil War era. In opposing Lincoln’s policies and his assumed leadership failings, Hora- tio Seymour especially placed himself on the wrong side of history. When historians have referred to Seymour, they have faulted him for his opposi- tion to Republican or radical efforts in Congress to reconstruct the defeated South. More often, historians have condemned Seymour for his reportedly provocative actions as governor during the New York Draft Riot of mid-July 1863. They have cited his Fourth of July, 1863, “rabble-rousing speech” in New York City for creating the mood for mob violence, which occurred less [ 2 ] introduction © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. than two weeks later.3 Some have linked Seymour with peace Democrats like Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio and Fernando Wood of New York.4 They have uncritically accepted the contemporary Republican charge that at best the New York governor obstructed Lincoln’s policies and the Union cause; at worst he was a Copperhead who advocated peace at any price with the rebels. William B. Hesseltine in Lincoln and the War Governors (1948) maintained that the president only tolerated Seymour, believing that the New York Democratic leader’s real objective in opposing the administra- tion was to win the presidency in 1864. (Seymour refused to become a can- didate at that time.) According to Hesseltine, the governor “could not stand against Lincoln’s Union-saving sentiments” or the president’s superior abil- ity to express his views.5 Associates of Seymour and even some contemporary opponents, how- ever, uncritically proclaimed him a man of erudition and considerable political ability. After Seymour’s nomination for president in 1868 by the Democratic Party, in which he proved a stronger challenger to U. S. Grant and the Republicans than has been realized, the Philadelphia Evening Tele- graph commented, “He bears the reputation of being one of the most schol- arly and polished men who have ever been in public life in the country.”6 His political friends praised him for his defense of civil liberties during and after the war. Seymour’s biographer, Stewart Mitchell, writing during the Great Depression of the 1930s when it was fashionable to be critical of Civil War Republicans, agreed with Seymour’s friends regarding
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