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REPUBLICANS MAKE BID In December
of 1862 the Radical Senate Republicans
made a bid to take over conduct of the
Union side of the Civil War. Their target
was Secretary of State William H. Seward,
left. Their ammunition was correspondence
indicating that the Secretary, not President
Lincoln, (center) was running the admin-
; SsCIV IL
Senate Radicals Bow
By MERTON T. AKERS
UPI Correspondent
The Radical Senate Repub
licans made a bid at mid-December
1362 to take over con
duct of the Union side of the
Civil War and ran head on in
to A. Lincoln, politician and
master manipulator of men.
On Dec. 16, three days after
the disastrous battle of Fred
ericksburg, the R a i a c a 1 s
made their move. Their tar
get Was Secretary of State
William H. Seward. Their
ammunition was a volume of
diplomatic correspondence in
which Seward had written to
U.S. Minister Charles Francis
Adams in London some indis
creet passage indicating that
the secretary of state not
Lincoln was running the
administration , and fur
thermore running it against
KadicalRepublican principles.
Late on that Tuesday after
noon of Dec. 16 the 32 Repub
lican Senators met in secret
caucus at the Capitol. First
they proposed to offer a reso
lution in the Senate expres
sing "a want of confidence"
;:i Seward, meaning that they
wanted him fired.
Indignation Session
Several conservative senat
ors objected to so dramatic a
resolution and- the meeting
soon . turned into an indigna
tion session during which all
the old and new charges
against Seward were given an
other airing.
Seward was against the
war, the arguments ran, want
ed a peace without victory,
cared nothing about freeing
the slaves and would welcome
the seceding states back into
the Union without punish
ment. Some of the diplomatic
correspondence seemed to
bear out the charges.
Sen. William Pitt Frcssen
den of Maine said he had been
told that there was a back
stairs influence which often
controlled the apparent con
clusions of the government it
self. The "backstairs influ
ence," of course, was Seward
the cabinet member who had
informed Fessenden and tile
other was Secretary of Tres
ury Salmon P. Chase. Every
man at the caucus knew
Chase was a dedicated anti
slavery man and also had his
eye on the prisidency.
The senators slept over the
problem and the next day
adopted a resolution reading:
"Resolved, that in the judg
ment of the Republican mem
bers of the Senate, the public
confidence in the present art
ministration would be in
creased by a change in and
partial reconstruction of the
cabinet."
They decided to present it
to Lincoln rather than to the
full Senate.
Acted Immediately
Before the linal vote was
taken. Sen. Preston King of
Xew York, a close friend of
Seward, left the caucus and
hastened downtown to sec the
secretary of state.
The former governor nf
New York was silting before
a wood fire smoking an after
dinner cigar when King ar
rived. The senator quickly
told him what (lie caucus had
done.
Sou ai d acted immediately.
'They may do as they
please about me. but they
shall not put the President in
a false position on my ac
count." Seward said.
He wrote a few words on a
silrrt of paper.
"Sir, I hereby resign the of
fice of secretary of state, and
big that my resignation may
be accepted immediately."
He callrd his son. Fred-
nek. assistant secretary, told
him to wrile his resignation,
t-m. and to deliver both to the
Pnsi.ii nt. King went along
"What does tins mean.'"
Lincoln asked and King re
jvatrd the story of tile caucus.
Still ptir.zlrd. Lincoln walked
?ii;rn.-s to Seward's house. The
seVictary was firm. lis resig
i. on stood,
a
istration. A good bit of this ammunition
came from the Treasury Secretary, Salmon
P. Chase, right. Lincoln, however, was to
out-maneuver the radicals. The party in
fighting was to end with Lincoln holding
the resignations of both men, neither of
which he was to accept. (UPI)
On Capitol hill the caucus
sing senators took a vote. The
31 present favored the resolu
tion. King was recorded as
not voting!
Sen. Jacob Collamer of Ver
mont was named chairman of
the committee to wait on the
President, probably because
he was a moderate. All the
other committee members
were Radicals.
Lincoln agreed to see the
delegation at 7 p.m. Thursday,
Dec. 18. That gave him about
24 hours to determine his
strategy not any too long
a time considering his whole
administration was shaken by
this cabinet fight. If he al
lowed Seward to resign, the
Radicals could claim domin
ance over the administration.
If he retained Seward the
Radical senators solid ex
cept for King's abstention
could block any administra
tion measure in the Senate.
Lincoln knew the country
would stand for neither.
The next morning - Dec. 19
Lincoln called a special
cabinet meeting. He outlined
what the Radical senators had
said and proposed that the
cabinet meet with him and
the committee that night.
The venerable White House
witnessed that night from 7:30
until after midnight the mas
ter politician at work.
Read Resolution
The committee of senators
and the cabinet assembled in
the same anteroom but the
senators went in to see the
President first. He asked their
permission to bring in the
cabinet. ,
To the combined group Lin
coln first read the committee
resolution, outlined the pre
vious conference and then be
gan defending his methods of
dealing with the cabinet. He
especially defended Seward.
Most important questions were
discussed in cabinet meetings,
Lincoln said, but in emer
gencies he acted without cab
inet sanction. But to the de
cision, once made, the cabinet
acquisced.
With that he turned to the
cabinet members and asked:
"Did they not?"
All eyes turned to Chase.
Everyone in the room knew
the charges against Seward
originated with Chase. Ang
rily the secretary of treasury
sai dhc had not come to the
meeting to "be arraigned."
Both Welles and Fessenden
recorded Chase's answer.
In general their accounts
j agree that Chase said impor
, tant questions had been con
j sidered by the cabinet, but not
thoroughly enough and, once
a policy had been laid down,
acquiescence had been the
rule.
THANK YOU
Thank you for your patronage dur
ing the year and we hope your
Christmas is a merry one, complete
with all good things and that your
New Year will be filled with peace
and prosperity.
CLOSED THE DAY FOLLOWING
CHRISTMAS, WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 26
Walt Young's
MEDFORD STATIONERY
210 East Main 773-3668
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE.
wm
To Lincoln
The meeting broke up on
that note with the Radicals
angry at Chase for not stand
ing up for his previous state
ments to the senators against
Seward.
Early the next morning
Welles, after a sleepless night,
saw the President and urged
him to stand fast against ac
cepting Seward's resignation.
Lincoln agreed and said if he
surrendered now the govern
ment might cave in. He told
Welles to see Seward and re
peat the words to him.
Assents to Views
Welles did and returned to
the White House. There he
found Chase and Secretary of
War Edwin M. Stanton with
Lincoln.
"Have you seen the man?"
Lincoln asked Welles.
"I have and he assents to
our views," Welles replied.
Lincoln turned to Chase
and said he had asked him to
the White House because he
was deeply troubled.
Chase replied that he was
troubled, too, and that he had
prepared his resignation.
"Where is it?" Lincoln de
manded quickly.
As Chase took the paper
from his pocket, Lincoln said
"Let me have it," and reached
for it.
He opened the letter, read
it and said:
"This cuts the Gordian
knot. I see my way clear."
Lincoln dismissed all three
with, "the trouble is ended."
Now if Seward went, so
would Chase.
Lincoln summed up -his vic
tory with a frontier phrase:
"Now I can ride. I have got
a pumpkin in each end of my
bag."
Lincoln wrote on Dec. 22 to
both the secretaries that the
country needed their services
and that he refused to accept
their resignations.
Missing Man's Car
Located in River
Sweet Home - IUPII - A car
owned by a man last seen
Dec. 14 was found in the
South Sanliam river near here
Sunday, the Linn county sher
riff's office reported.
Herbert Knippcl, 40, Leban
on, was last seen at the Ore
gon Plywood company. He
was reported missing Satur
day night by his wife.
The partially submerged
car was found in the river at
the fool of Clark Mill rd. near
the Sweet Home Sand and
Gravel pit.
A search of the river was
planned, deputies said.
MEDFORD. OREGON
Value of U.S.
Farm Land
At S140.1
Washington - IUPII - The Ag
riculture Department says
that as of July 1 the value
of all farm land in the Unit
ed States was an estimated
$140.1 billion.
This is $6.7 billion, or 5 per
cent, higher than the $133.4
billion estimated for a year
earlier, and $2.1 billion or 2
per cent, higher than the pre
vious record value of $138
billion on March 1, 1962.
The department's Economic
Research Service said the
market value of farm real
estate has maintained an al
most uninterrupted rise that
began in the early 1947s.
The area of greatest price
strength was the southern por
tion of the United States. Of
the 19 states where market
prices of farm land increased
6 per cent or more during
the yea; ended July 1, 17 were
continguous states extending
from California through Tex
as and Florida to Maryland.
The only other two states in
this group were South Dakota
and Wisconsin.
Maine Shows Drop
Maine was the only state to
show a drop in farm land val
be attributed to the low prices
July 1, and this was a rela
tively minor 1 per cent. ERS
said some of this oftness c .
be attributed to the loy prices
potato growers received for
much of the 1961 crop and
the prospect of continued low
prices for the 1962 crop.
Farm real estate values In
creased 2 per cent or more
in 22 states from March 1 to
July 1. Values remained virtu
ally unchanged in 21 states
and declined 2 per cent or
more in the remaining 5. Al
though the average value of
farm land in the United
States rose sharply in these
four months, the increase was
far from uniform and general
v Mm W
Figured
Billion
ly was confined to the south,
much of the plains stales, and
the Far West.
First Time Since 1959
Average land values In
creased in all farm production
regions during this year end
ed July 1, for the first time
since 1959. The rises were
fairly uniform through most
of the country, reflecting a
relatively good crop growing
season in combination with
comparatively good prices for
most crops. In the northeast,
where land values increased
the least, a widespread but
spotty drought was in the mak
ing and the farm price of
fluid milk had begun to de
teriorate. The value of all farm real
estate sold during the year
ended March 1 was nearly
$2.5 billion. With an estimated
125,000 transactions, the aver
age price per transfer was
$20,000. Most of these trans
fers were between farmers.
The actual cash outlay was
substantially less than $2.5
billion, because more than
two-thirds of the transactions
involved credit.
ARTIFICIAL ; L I G H -T I
i That Is for Photographic Purposes Only '&
St G-E AND SYLVANIA FLASH BUIBS - PROJECTION
BULBS - PHOTO FLOOD BULBS - DARK ROOM
V BULBS - ELECTRONIC FLASH UNITS.
3 Open Christmas Day 10 AM to 9 PM J
I HUDSON'S !001
613 East Main St.
n
Eugene Teacher
Killed in Crash
By United Press International
The Christmas holiday
week end traffic death count
in Oregon stood at one Mon
day. The victim was Alice
Thompson, a 26-year-old Eu
gene school teacher who was
killed Friday night. She died
in a one-car accident on U. S.
Highway 20, 14 miles west of
Burns.
Her car went out of control
and overturned after hitting
ice on the highway.
Michael R. Williams, a 22-year-old
sailor from Gladstone
stationed aboard the USS Bu
chanan, was killed in a one
car crash near Gorman, Calif.,
Sunday.
The car in which he was
riding swerved off a highway
and overturned.
DISCLOSES CASUALTIES
Port Said, U.A.R. - llll'H
President Gamal Abdel Nas
ser said Sunday night that
136 U.A.R. officers and men
have been killed fighting on
the republican side in Yemen.
"The shoes of each one of
them are more precious than
the crown of King Saud or
the crown of King Hussein,"
he told a "victory day" rally.
Saud, of Saudi Arabia, and
Hussein, or Jordan, support
the deposed Yemen monarch,
Imam El Badr.
Phone 773-4288
"iiHtiljlUHujiH it'M ,
Wooden Building for
Sale by Government
The Oakland. Calif.. De
fense Surplus sales office will
offer for sale four small
wooden buildings at the Sa
moa Coast Guard station. ,
The buildings vary in sie
from 12' - feet by 16' a feet to
29 'a feet by 15' a feet.
For further information
contact the Defense Surplus
Sales office, Defense Logis
tics Services center, building
502, Naval Supply Center,
Oakland.
Bids will be opened in
Oakland Jan. 8.
GREETINGS TO SCOUTS
Washington - Wl'li - Presi
dent Kennedy sent Christmas
greetings Sunday to the Boy
Scouts of America and-to its
leaders "who are helping to
develop them into responsi
ble young men." Kennedy is
honorary president of the
Scouts. He is the first Ameri
can president to have been
a Boy Scout, serving as a
member of Troop 2, Bronx
ville, N.Y., for two years.
MOW! , siiiwii
Accouniina I Secretarial
n DECEMBER 31-Day School
Beginning: JANUARY 3-Night School
Robertson School of Business
40 No. Riverside, Medford, Oregon, Phone 773-4264
May your heart be filled
with the joy of Christ
mas . . . tree-trimming
with the whole family
. . opening gifts Christ
mas, morning ... a
thankful prayer before
the family dinner . . .
may all these dreams
come true when we say,
"Merry Christmas."
mi
MONDAY. DECEMBER 24, 1962
ONE CONCESSION
Douglas. Isle of Man - IUPII
- T. A. Bridson celebrated his
102nd birthday Sunday with
one concession to old age. He
pos.poned until better weath
er his annual birthday climb
up 2.034-foot Suae Fell, the
island's highest peak.
iU,iMTiiilMiiitHaiii
Sorry this is late, due
illness, we want to take
opportunity to thank all
friends and patients for
beautiful cards sent to
and wish all of you
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
Dr. and Mrs. Jouett P. Bray
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DOGS FOR CHRISTMAS
Framingham, Mass. - llJPli -Dog
control officer Lee Berta
has spread Christinas cheer
while easing one of his most
pressing problems. He dis
tributed 60 homeless dog
from his overcrowded pound
to local youngsters.
to
this
our
the
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