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Confidential Washington City, August 29 1867
Mr. President:
You will not, I trust, regard me as
presumptious in addressing you this letter. Two years ago, not long after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, at the request of Robert W. Hughes, Esqr and after an interview on the subject with Govr Pierpoint, of Virginia, endeavoring to rise to the Weight of the new status of the nation, I set myself to the task of addressing you in relation to the terrible & tremendous nature & character of the issues you would be called upon to meet as the Executive of the Government. But fearing, under the circumstances then attendant upon me, that the self-imposed task might possibly be misconstrued and attributed to motives beneath the sincerity & dignity of my intentions, I laid down my pen in the middle of the labour. Nevertheless, from that day to this I have not been able to repress the deep-abiding concern I have unceasingly felt towards you in your noble efforts to save the Republic & to preserve Constitutional liberty to the People; and my constant regret has been that it was so little in my power to render you effective aid. By recurring to my notes I find I did not then overes- timate the appalling circumstances that fettered your position in the beginning, and I believe that I rightly divine now the imperative necessities imposed upon you at this time.
You have been defrauded of all sincere, manly
and right support, by some of those by your side whose honour was bound to a different course, and cannot afford to close your eyes to the exact reality of the situation into which you have been shamelessly betrayed however abhorrent & distasteful may be this aspect presented.
Between this and the reassembling of Congress
the Peace of the Nation, the happiness of the People, and your own personal safety, together with that of your friends, demand that the Executive power of the Government under the Constitution shall be firmly secured against all illegal efforts at its subversion and every possiblity of its overthrow; and how can this be done is the only question, it seems to me, that should be considered.
The War and the Navy Departments constitute the
Right arm of the executive, and the Treasury and Post Office Departments may be regarded as it's Left arm. In view of the situation the remaining Departments associated with the Executive Office are as nothing in comparison with these. You cannot, it seems to me, leave these Departments in the hands of either weak, doubtful, or faithless men, without serious calamities to the Country, as well as to yourself, in every sense.
The War Department must be the
bulwark of the Executive in the pending emergency against the usurpations of the Congress in the line of the destruction of the Executive and the overthrow of the Government; and the Army and its officers should be reduced again, as it aforetime was, and as is required of them by the Constitution, to the position of obedient instruments of the Executive and faithful agents of the War Department in the assertion of the fundamental Laws of the Land against all aggression. Without this, in six months there will be an end of Republican Government, and American Freedom will have past into history as a thing of the Past. If disposed to question the truth of this prognostication, turn your eyes upon my political Essays of 1857-'8-'9-'60, on the "Political Status,: the "Moral & Social Status," the "Territorial Status," and "the issues of 1860," and you will be convinced it is never either my policy, or my habit, to consider important matters affecting the public save in their actual relations, real significance, and unavoidable results where the currents of events are suffered to continue unbroken.
What, if the War Department shall be left by you in
the hands of an Army officer with no ideas of Government than those associated with Military Rule & Martial Law, and who has been thrown to the surface of affairs from abject obscurity & want by the events of a Revolution in itself the expression & assertion of disrupting [?]? -- he, himself a successful General and sought already to be created by the Congress a Cromwell against the Executive power in the lead of Radicalism? -- and he, himself, it is so probable that it would not be reasonable were it otherwise - aiming at the Chief Magistracy merely as a stepping stone to Dictatorial Powers & Dynastical Sway disguised under cheating forms, through the influence of the Congress, his own control over the army, and a million of bayonets from among the Negroes of the South, and the Loyal Leaguers of the North, combined & directed by his Military brethren, themselves formed into an affiliated Corps and operated upon in the line of his imperial purposes by the same crude ideas of Government with those entertained by himself, and aiming at the chief honours of the state under him, as well as chief positions in social life that, under these circumstances, would be necessarily accorded to them? It is plain, too plain for argument, that such a Military Chieftain would stand ready to cooperate with those who had been, and were, thus inviting him to the possession of absolute power, and that the very sword with which you had entrusted him to strike down the enemies of the Law and all usurpers against the Law, would be wielded by him adversely to yourself, in behalf of the Conspirators against the Law, and in support of Usurpation. That which is most germain to human nature is logically consistent & most probable. If in this I am correct, then the War Department should not be hazarded in such keeping, but should be secured in the hands of some man of Counteracting influences and, if possible, of superior will, who will proceed at once resolutely to subordinate fully & perfectly these dangerous illiterate military aspirants after forbidden honours, reducing them to their true position as creatures of orders and assuring the impossibility, without delay, of their becoming constituted by Radicalism the source of orders. Upon the fidelity, nerve-power, military & popular influences in counteraction to those possessed by the pets of Radicalism & the favourites of the Congress, & the force & energy of your Minister of War, will depend mainly your fortunes, the integrity of the Republic, the Peace of the Nation and the security of the People, in the fearful issue about to be forced upon you. He should be, moreover, a man of correct political antecedents & Constitutional Principle and not altogether ignorant of social requirements & Civil Service. I know of but one man in the Nation in whom these requisites unite at this time, and that man is William T. Sherman, if he will assume the attitude.
The Navy Department it is only necessary to consider as
an important adjunct to the War Office. Just now, and, conse- -quently, to be filled by a true friend to yourself possessing harmonious political sentiments and similar views of policy. But the Treasury Department is worthy of more serious attention, and, next to the Treasury, the Post Office Department stands most consequentially in view of the necessities of the situation.
Shall the Treasury & Post Office Departments
through their ministers, be delivered up to a competing candidate for the Presidency, whose policy it may or may not be to conciliate the Radical faction by delivering you up to the mercy of the Congress? These two Departments most wield the popular agencies of the Country apart from the Military, the one through its direct contact with Capitalists & property holders, and the other through direct contact with the Masses of the People. Together they leave no popular avenue unexplored and few persons unapproached. It is only less important that these Departments shall be filled by resolute supporters of Constitutional Law & Liberty, as well as faithful friends of yourself as the Executive of the Nation, than the War Department should be so adjusted. If the Executive authority of the Republic lodged in you by the fundamental Law shall be shorn in the one direction of its military power, and in the other direction of the power of the Purse, while at the same time your enemies through the Post Office shall command and hold to themselves all mail facilities for communication with the People, your Proclamations, Messages, and orders, however right & just & noble they may be, will be as impotent as the paper on which they are written. Of what avail will your more personal exertions prove in behalf of the Liberties of the People and the peace & happiness of the Country, if your own Ministers, truckling to the Congress & a Congressional Candidate for the Presidency, shall grasp from your right hand the Sword and from your left hand the purse of the Nation, while the mails shall be used only in the line of the usurpation thus assured? It is essentially necessary that these Departments, as well as the War office, shall be severed from the possibility of being directed to Radical ends, and the only way of doing this is by placing them, as in the case of the War office, in the hands of men who can & will act independently of the usurpers in the Congress. In regard to the Treasury Department Thomas Ewing of Ohio would doubtless stand side by side with Sherman in the War Office, combining influences between them which the Senate would be compelled to respect in considering their Confirmation, which Radicalism could not successfully resist in the Congress, and which, with the Post Office in the control of [Ex Marshal Lamou?], or of General Denver would assert such Military & popular elements of strength as to secure the result & save the future. The great West would be brought up to the support of your noble & patriotic policy, and the East would stand rebuked in the presence of the Majesty of the Law, upheld and wielded by vigorous hands, and the will of the Nation be re- deemed from the curse of infidelity & puritanism, the brutal & debased nurses of the Radical Monster of the age.
So far as the remaining Departments of the Executive
power are concerned, all can be made to contribute valuable aid toward the rescue of the Constitution, if each new appointee shall be with equal care selected in view of the suggestions that have been made. But take good care that no adverse, or discordant or feeble element be now admitted in your Cabinet, and expunge from it all who are doubtfull or timid. Your Enemies in furtherance of their usurping schemes & designs have sought to destroy the unity of the Executive in various modes knowing well its constitutional potentiality. Make the Executive power through your Cabinet a unit & you cannot be overthrown, and draw around you your friends and you may defy your enemies.
Respect all of you Executive Powers, secure all of your
Executive resources, and organise your admistrative energies, Mr. President, for the conflict that is speeding upon you. It is idle for me to seek to disguise my convictions & speak in bated breath. You will not be permitted to escape the issue of the Sword, or that of the halter. For this dreadful alterna- -tive you are called upon to prepare, or otherwise to yield up your office without further delay, discarding the responsibilities upon you and tacitly surrendering the fortunes of mankind entrusted to your keeping to the mad passions of an illegal mob resolved upon the destruction of Free Government. It is already boldly confessed by one of the Chief Actors in the recent measures passed by the Congress over your Vetos that, these measures have no warrant in the Constitution or fundamental Law of the land, but are measures purely of "Legislative Usurpation." This being true, {?] it be questioned that you will be required to surrender your Executive functions to the Legislative faction in control of the Congress through the force of further Usurpations if tamely suffered? Rely upon it there is not only a purpose before them of sufficient import in their estimation to seduce to Conspiracy & Treason but now that they have defiantly assumed the guilty responsibility they will be driven by the fearless restrictive justice to greater atrocity, and they will not halt until they have achieved safety and the full measure of ambitious desire. The independence of the Supreme Judiciary is no less endangered than that of the Executive, and it is well worthy of consideration whether it is not equally incumbent upon the Judiciary Department as upon the Executive to prepare for a vindication of its Constitutional prerogatives & powers. Indeed, it appears to me that there should be a close political alliance formed between the two as equally necessary to the maintenance of either and to the protection of the liberties of the People and the Peace of the Nation. With such an understanding between the Executive & Judiciary Establish- ments, and with a Cabinet rearranged as suggested, the power of an usurping Congress would be broken, the Laws would resume peaceful sway, citizens would cease to live in dread of armed assassination & public robbery under a Reign of Terror, and your own Glory would become immortal & [?] eternally with Praise & blessing.
I cannot be deceived in pronouncing the issue
before you, Mr. President, not only as a Collision between the Executive & Legislative branches of the Government, the first seeking to uphold and the other to overthrow the Constitution & Laws, but as an issue over & above this mere political aspect of it, involving anarchy & bloodshed, unless the Executive shall successfully resist further Legislative efforts at usurpation, and the Supreme Judiciary shall assert the integrity of the [Ermine?] and the full force of rightful authority. You may no longer tamper with the hastening emergency. Mere measures of expediency & skilfull diplomacy will no longer ward off the danger. If there be any meaning in the past the Congress is resolved to prostrate the Executive & Judiciary & to grasp the powers of the Government and the forces & resources of the Nation. Without immediate & stern resistance by the Executive & Judiciary it requires no Prophets ken to foresee the result. The Usurpers will quickly come to be sustained by five hundred thousand Negroe bayonets at the South, and by five hundred thousand Loyal-League bayonets at the North, the armed representatives of the agrarian elements of Society in both directions embraced in Secret-oath- -bound political fraternities, outside of & apart from the Regular forces & resources of the Usurped Government, and all Conservative elements & influences will be subjected, not only to general [despoliation?], but will also be made to quaff the cup of blood that the hand of robbery never yet failed to administer. With your impeachment, and banishment, if not Execution which is the most probable, would inevitably follow a similar doom to Jefferson Davis, and the leading supporters of yourself throughout the North, together with those implicated with Davis at the South, will be pursued with the same inexorable fate. Every thing will be regarded as a Crime that is not Criminal. Neither Life, nor Property, will be held sacred & the Land will groan with agony until Jacobinism shall cease its [?] with the inauguration of Caesar- ism. Shall such atrocity & woe be permitted through a failure to recognise the full presence of the impending danger and consequent neglect of fitting preparation for the issue? Throughout all the life of Man his sins of omission have been no less fatal to his happiness than those of Commission, and too late are the saddest words that misery utters from the depths of misfortune.
I again implore you, Mr. President, to excuse
the language of deep Concern and sympathetic anxiety with which I address you, and again subscribe myself,
Sincerely your friend
John Tyler, Jr.
To His Excellency
Andrew Johnson
President United States
P.S. In respect to what is said as to Mr Thomas Ewing in connection with the Treasury Department, the idea I wish to convey is this. Let Genl Sherman be [induced?] by family considerations, as well as the public policy & personal ambition, to the position firmly by your side as Secretary of War, holding, as I think he would do, Genl Grant aloof from Radical Influences. If the Treasury Department should require an appointee of greater financial ability to satisfy the business world, and one of younger & more acive energies than Mr Ewing, the object in view might possibly be reached by tendering the State Dept to the latter. But by all means, strike for the Military & popular influences of Genl Sherman as a counterpoise of force to Grant, and in order to diminish & scatter the forces of the Usurpers in the Northwest where the power of the Nation is already lodged. Divide & Conquer! Play Sylla against Marius!
