By the President's approval of the arrest of Vallandigham Burnside was induced to further acts of folly. He issued an order announcing that "the publication or circulation of books containing sentiments of a disloyal tendency comes clearly within reach of General Orders No. 38, and those who offend in this manner will be dealt with accordingly." 1 June 1 he promulgated General Order No. 84. The circulation of the New York World, it said, "is calculated to exert a pernicious and treasonable influence, and is therefore prohibited in this department. . . . On account of the repeated expression of disloyal and incendiary sentiments, the publication of the newspaper known as the Chicago Times is hereby suppressed."2 Strange pronunciamentos were these to apply to the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, where there was no war, where the courts were open, where the people were living under the American Constitution and English law. Fortunately men bred in liberty do not easily forget their lessons. June 3, at three o'clock in the morning vedettes galloped Appleton's Annual Cyclopædia, 1863; The Quarterly Review, January, 1897, p. 215; N. Y. Times, May 8, 19, 20, June 13, 15; Tribune, May 15, 18, 22, June 13; World, May 6, 19, 25, June 12; Herald, May 8, 19, 20, 21, 22, June 11, 13; Eve. Post, May 14, 19, 21, June 15; Columbus Crisis, May 13, 20, 27, June 3, 17, Letter from Mt. Vernon, May 2; Chicago Tribune, May 6, 19, June 13, Agate's letter to Cincinnati Gazette, June 11; Nat. Intelligencer, May 27, June 16, 20; Boston Advertiser, May 19, 20, 22, June 13, 16; Boston Courier, May 7, 19, June 12, 13; Cincinnati Commercial, May 6, 8, 15, 19, 22, 26, June 1. 1 June 2, O. R., vol. xxiii. part ii. p. 382. 2 Ibid., p. 381. I add a contemporaneous opinion on the Chicago Times, and one written after the close of the war: "Upwards of eighteen months that sheet had poured forth one continuous flood of disloyal and incendiary sentiments. It had gone beyond any print, North or South, in its opposition to the war and in its devotion to the interests of the rebellion.". Chicago Tribune, June 5. "Chief among these instigators of insurrection and treason, the foul and damnable reservoir which supplied the lesser sewers with political filth, falsehood, and treason, has been the Chicago Times, a newspaper which would not have needed to change its course an atom if its place of publication had been Richmond or Charleston instead of Chicago.' - Report of Acting Asst. Provost-Marshal-General of Illinois, Aug. 9, 1865, up to the Chicago Times office in Chicago. An hour later two companies of infantry arrived from Camp Douglas, took possession of the office, stopped the press, destroyed the newspapers which had been printed, placed a guard over the estab lishment, and patrolled the entire block during the remainder of the night. At noon a meeting of prominent citizens of both parties was held in the room of the Circuit Court. The mayor presided. By a unanimous vote the President was requested to rescind the order of General Burnside suppressing the Chicago Times. To the telegram to Washington which imparted this action Senator Trumbull and Representative Arnold1 added: "We respectfully ask for the above the serious and prompt consideration of the President." The legislature was in session at Springfield, and the House of Representatives denounced by resolution the Burnside order. In the evening, in Court House Square, Chicago, "twenty thousand loyal citizens," half of whom were Republicans, assembled to hear speeches condemning the arbitrary act of the general, and resolved that the freedom of speech and of the press must not be infringed and that the military power must remain subordinate to the civil authority. The next day (June 4) the President rescinded the part of Burnside's order which suppressed the Chicago Times,3 and the Secretary of War directed the general to make no more arrests of civilians, and suppress no more newspapers without conferring first with the War Department.1 Nothing can be a more striking condemnation of the President's course towards Vallandigham than his own action in the case of the Chicago Times. Even in this he deserves no credit for the initiative in right doing; for he simply responded to the outburst of sentiment in Chicago,5 which was beginning to spread over the whole North. Nevertheless, in 1 Of Chicago. 2 O. R., vol. xxiii. part ii. p. 385. 3 Ibid., p. 386. The general also revoked his order concerning the N.. Y. World. 4 J. D. Cox's Reminiscences, MS. 5 See Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. ii. p. 525. this censure of Lincoln it is well to remember that, overweighted by the heavy misfortunes of the last year, he came to the consideration of the Vallandigham case oppressed with anxiety at the terrible defeat of the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville.1 1 My authorities other than those mentioned are: N. Y. Tribune, June 6; Times, June 12, 13; Columbus Crisis, June 10; Chicago Tribune, June 4, 5; Boston Advertiser, June 6, 12. CHAPTER XX THE appointment of Hooker to the command of the Army of the Potomac was the President's own, although it was plainly prompted by the sentiment of the rank and file and of the country which had been formed by the general's record as an excellent and dashing corps commander. But Halleck was opposed to it,2 and a few of the higher officers of the Potomac army who had grown up with it felt that Lincoln had made an unwise choice. Curiously enough, Chase, who was the persistent friend of Hooker and had more than once urged that he be given the command in the place of McClellan, conceived an inkling of defects that might come to the surface if he held the supreme responsibility. When he lay in Washington recovering from his wound received at Antietam, Chase visited him, and the two conversed freely. The general had "less breadth of intellect" than the Secretary had expected. His surgeon and devoted friend gave to Chase this estimate of him: "Brave, energetic, full of life, skilful on the field, not comprehensive enough, perhaps, for the plan and conduct of a great campaign." 3 The appointment of Hooker, however, was a natural choice and deserves no criticism. The day after it was made the President wrote him a remarkable letter. "There are some things in regard to which," he said, “I am not quite satisfied with you. . . . I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition. and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a 1 O. R., vol. xxi. p. 1009. 3 Warden, Life of Chase, p. 488. 2 C. W., 1865, vol. i. p. 175. great wrong to the country and to a meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. . . . Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success and I will risk the dictatorship. . . . I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. . . . Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories." 1 When Hooker took command, the Army of the Potomac had through continued defeats become "quite disheartened and almost sulky."2 The number of absentees was enormous, and desertions were frequent. "So anxious were parents, wives, brothers, and sisters to relieve their kindred that they filled the express trains to the army with packages of citizen clothing to assist them in escaping from the service." The general went to work energetically to correct these evils. His eminent talent for organization was felt throughout the "I have never known men to change from a condition of the lowest depression to that of a healthy fighting state in so short a time," wrote General Couch, one of his severest critics after Chancellorsville. A feeling of confidence grew up in the camp, while the labor of the general and its results were understood by the country. The people of the North took hope again, and their temper was buoyant as they looked forward to success. army. Early in April Hooker considered his army in condition to take the offensive. He was hastened in his determination by the knowledge that the term of service of 23,000 nine months' 1 Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. ii. p. 306. 2 Couch, Century War Book, vol. iii. p. 154. 3 Hooker's testimony, C. W., 1865, vol. i. p. 112. IV. - 17 |