- 25 Sep 2020 13:35
#15122798
September 26, Friday
Lincoln has shrewdly anticipated the favorable foreign reaction to his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He feels less certain about how emancipation will be perceived in the army that has made it possible. From McClellan on down, many officers in the Army of the Potomac are conservative Democrats who generally oppose immediate emancipation and favor a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy. This fact, as much as McClellan’s penchant for caution, has created an extraordinary distrust of the generals among the Radical Republicans, who from the beginning of the war have called for the abolition of slavery and an all-out war to destroy the South’s institutions. These Radicals have repeatedly accused McClellan and some of his top officers of outright treason. After Antietam, they go so far as to circulate tales that McClellan conspired with Lee to prevent a decisive Federal victory.
In addition to these rumors, a lot of loose talk is rattling around the Army of the Potomac itself. Now Lincoln is confronted with the case of Major John Key, a member of General Halleck’s staff and, more importantly, brother of Colonel Thomas Key, McClellan’s influential aide. After Antietam, John Key has told another officer that McClellan failed to destroy Lee because “that is not the game. The object is that neither army shall get much advantage of the other; that both shall be kept in the field till they are exhausted, when we will make a compromise and save slavery.” Lincoln acts promptly and firmly. He fires Keys as “an example and warning” to officers who have loose tongues. McClellan himself needs no such warning. To be sure, he thinks the Emancipation Proclamation premature and believes that Lincoln has exceeded his presidential powers. He even briefly considers resigning his command because of it. But he is loyal. Even after prominent Democrats and a few fellow officers urge him to take a public stance against emancipation, he heeds calmer counsel and maintains a proper silence. And to quell disloyal talk among his men, he issues a general order—with a copy to the President—reminding them of the soldier’s “highest duty” under the Constitution: “earnest support of the authority of the government.”
The Battle of Wood Lake, Minnesota, on the 23rd has proven decisive, despite the lack of White pursuit when the beaten Sioux withdrew. Most of Little Crow’s warriors have had enough fighting, and they are scattering with their chiefs and families, some going as far as Canada, others joining Yanktonai and Teton bands farther west, still others traveling on to Devils Lake in the future North Dakota to spend the winter beyond the reach of the troops. While the warriors disperse, a Sioux chief from the Upper Agency named Red Iron, who has opposed the uprising, helps the other peace-minded chiefs, Wabasha and Taopi, to protect the captives. When Sibley appears today with a troop escort at Red Iron’s camp near the mouth of the Chippewa River, the chiefs turn over 91 White prisoners and about 150 mixed bloods; over the next few days they will release about thirty more captives for a total of 269. The site will become known as Camp Release. Many of the Whites and half-breeds are in pitiful mental and physical condition, but young Mary Schwandt, protected by a kindly family of missionary-influenced Santees during most of her 39-day ordeal, is well. At least one White woman vocally objects to her own liberation, declaring that “were it not for her children she would not leave her dusky paramour.”
A quiet day on the major fronts. In Arkansas there are Federal expeditions from Helena to La Grange and Helena to Jeffersonville and Marianna, Tennessee; also a skirmish at Catlett’s Station, Virginia; a Federal expedition from Point Pleasant to Buffalo, western Virginia; and a skirmish at Fort Abercrombie, Dakota Territory.
President Lincoln and his Cabinet confers on colonization of the Blacks.
Lincoln has shrewdly anticipated the favorable foreign reaction to his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He feels less certain about how emancipation will be perceived in the army that has made it possible. From McClellan on down, many officers in the Army of the Potomac are conservative Democrats who generally oppose immediate emancipation and favor a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy. This fact, as much as McClellan’s penchant for caution, has created an extraordinary distrust of the generals among the Radical Republicans, who from the beginning of the war have called for the abolition of slavery and an all-out war to destroy the South’s institutions. These Radicals have repeatedly accused McClellan and some of his top officers of outright treason. After Antietam, they go so far as to circulate tales that McClellan conspired with Lee to prevent a decisive Federal victory.
In addition to these rumors, a lot of loose talk is rattling around the Army of the Potomac itself. Now Lincoln is confronted with the case of Major John Key, a member of General Halleck’s staff and, more importantly, brother of Colonel Thomas Key, McClellan’s influential aide. After Antietam, John Key has told another officer that McClellan failed to destroy Lee because “that is not the game. The object is that neither army shall get much advantage of the other; that both shall be kept in the field till they are exhausted, when we will make a compromise and save slavery.” Lincoln acts promptly and firmly. He fires Keys as “an example and warning” to officers who have loose tongues. McClellan himself needs no such warning. To be sure, he thinks the Emancipation Proclamation premature and believes that Lincoln has exceeded his presidential powers. He even briefly considers resigning his command because of it. But he is loyal. Even after prominent Democrats and a few fellow officers urge him to take a public stance against emancipation, he heeds calmer counsel and maintains a proper silence. And to quell disloyal talk among his men, he issues a general order—with a copy to the President—reminding them of the soldier’s “highest duty” under the Constitution: “earnest support of the authority of the government.”
The Battle of Wood Lake, Minnesota, on the 23rd has proven decisive, despite the lack of White pursuit when the beaten Sioux withdrew. Most of Little Crow’s warriors have had enough fighting, and they are scattering with their chiefs and families, some going as far as Canada, others joining Yanktonai and Teton bands farther west, still others traveling on to Devils Lake in the future North Dakota to spend the winter beyond the reach of the troops. While the warriors disperse, a Sioux chief from the Upper Agency named Red Iron, who has opposed the uprising, helps the other peace-minded chiefs, Wabasha and Taopi, to protect the captives. When Sibley appears today with a troop escort at Red Iron’s camp near the mouth of the Chippewa River, the chiefs turn over 91 White prisoners and about 150 mixed bloods; over the next few days they will release about thirty more captives for a total of 269. The site will become known as Camp Release. Many of the Whites and half-breeds are in pitiful mental and physical condition, but young Mary Schwandt, protected by a kindly family of missionary-influenced Santees during most of her 39-day ordeal, is well. At least one White woman vocally objects to her own liberation, declaring that “were it not for her children she would not leave her dusky paramour.”
A quiet day on the major fronts. In Arkansas there are Federal expeditions from Helena to La Grange and Helena to Jeffersonville and Marianna, Tennessee; also a skirmish at Catlett’s Station, Virginia; a Federal expedition from Point Pleasant to Buffalo, western Virginia; and a skirmish at Fort Abercrombie, Dakota Territory.
President Lincoln and his Cabinet confers on colonization of the Blacks.
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
—Edmund Burke
—Edmund Burke