Three autograph letters signed "W. A. Field" as Acting Attorney
General, totaling eleven pages on sets of adjoining sheets (two on
official letterhead of the "Attorney General's Office"), 5 x 8, dated
August 6-September 1, 1869. All to Attorney General Ebenezer A. Hoar
(apparently on leave in Concord, MA) detailing conversations with and
directions from President U. S. Grant at cabinet meetings attended by
Field in Hoar’s absence, as well as legal affairs, military matters,
diplomacy, appointments and internal Executive Branch deliberations.
The
first, August 6, 1869, in part: "We are all well here and are doing as
well as usual. The only urgent matter I have got on hand is a request by
the Sec. of War for an opinion upon the lawfulness and propriety of
putting U.S. soldiers under the control of Internal Revenue collectors
to be used in making seizures of property alleged to be forfeitable
under the new Internal Revenue laws. These seizures are made without a
warrant as preliminary to the filing of an imprimatur of forfeiture. The
Comr. of Int. Rev. says the Int. Rev. laws can’t be enforced in
Brooklyn N.Y. without the army and the supervision under 500 soldiers
for 4 days…The subject is full of all possible difficulties…I send
enclosed a letter from Benj. F. Butler, Esq. in regard to suits pending
against him in N.Y. City. It is desirable that some directions be given
in regard to these claims. Five of these suits pretty soon and I await
instructions, to put the defense in the hands of Mr. Pickford…and before
Devlin Miller & Trull and make filings as he wants…In the Spanish
gunboat war I simply do whatever the Department of State wants done,
taking care to put the responsibility on that Department. Personally, I
don’t like us [starting] up a war with [Spain’s Rear Admiral] Polo, for
the sake of doing what may perhaps be thought as justice by Cuba."
The
second, August 10, 1869, in part: "At the Cabinet meeting today all the
members were present but you and Secy. Boutwell, nothing really
important was done. The President has called my attention orally to the
District Atty. for Northern Mississippi—Stewart—already suspended and
desires to know whom you want designated to act in his place; also to
Dist. Atty. for Southern Mississippi—Adams—to be suspended and desires
to know whom you want designated in his place.
I
understood him to say that Judge B ____ whose Christian name I have not
yet learned but shall in a day or two and whose surname I can not now
remember accurately enough…had been agreed upon by you and him. He also
said that he was in favor of suspending the Marshal for
California…unless you had decided objections to the contrary…The pardons
you have recommended have been granted and I am promised the papers
from the Department of State tomorrow before the President leaves.
I
have been compelled to act upon two pardon cases…the Dave Ross case of
murder in the Cherokee country, sentenced to be hung Sept 3d next. The
President has commuted this sentence to five years imprisonment. This
case has been considered by Sec'y of Interior and Comr. of Indian
Affairs, and has been…lawfully disposed of. There was not time to wait
for the President’s return from his absence and take the risks of him
getting hung or reprieve or pardon after that in Western Arkansas."
David Ross was a native Cherokee convicted of murder—as an accessory to a
murder committed in his presence—in US District Court for the Western
District of Arkansas; President Grant commuted sentence on August 11,
1869.
The
third, September 1, 1869, in part: "At the cabinet meeting yesterday
all the members were present but you and Secy. Boutwell. Your opinion in
re test oath in Va. was read and the Pres't ordered Sec'y of War to
send copy to Genl. Canby and order him to act accordingly. This is of
course kept secret. In Cuba it was agreed to notify Spain that the
negotiations cannot be kept open indefinitely and that unless something
were concluded the offer of 'good offices' would be withdrawn in thirty
days viz by Oct 1st next… The President has…this morning directed that
Walter Q. Gresham be commissioned judge of District Court for Indiana in
place of McDonald, deceased. I recently notified him that McDonald was
dead and that sundry applications had been received, but it seems he
knew Gresham and intended to appoint him and did. Gresham is said to be a
good man for it but whether it is worth while to be in such a hurry to
appoint even good men to office without consulting the Department which
is in some sense responsible for the appointment is a question on which I
really have an opinion."
Packed
with intriguing content, Field opens with commentary on Grant's order
to Gen. Canby concerning the 'Test Oath' controversy in Virginia. The
New York Times reported: 'General Canby's persistence in insisting that
the test oath must be taken by the members of the new Legislature of
Virginia, has caused some consternation in the victorious party. Many of
the Representatives elected by the Conservatives will be unable to take
that oath; and some of the Radical members also will not be more
fortunate.' The Attorney General’s opinion confirmed that the oath is
not required of the officers of the state of Virginia, or members of the
legislature elected under the new constitution, after Congress shall
have approved the constitution and restored the State to its proper
place in the Union. Before Congress has thus acted, the members of the
legislature so elected may come together organize, and do whatever is
required by the acts of Congress as preliminary to the reconstruction of
that state, without taking the oath referred to; but they cannot,
without violation of the law, be allowed to transact any business or
assume any other function of a legislature, if the oath has not been
taken by them.
Addressing
United States diplomatic efforts concerning Spain and Cuba, President
Grant noted in his State of the Union address of December 6, 1869, that
the US offer of “good offices” was not accepted by Spain.
Walter
Q. Gresham received a recess appointment from President Ulysses S.
Grant on September 1, 1869—the same date of the letter from Field to
Hoar—to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of
Indiana vacated by Judge David McDonald.
In overall fine condition.
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