Journalist (1819-1897) best known for his support of Grant during the Civil War and his aggressive postwar political advocacy through the New York Sun newspaper. Four LSs, signed "C. A. Dana," totaling 14 pages on sets of adjoining sheets, ranging in size from 5 x 8 to 8 x 10, dated from 1865 to 1889. Includes two letters to "General [William F. 'Baldy'] Smith" and two letters to "Mr. MacVeagh." The highlight is a lengthy letter on War Department letterhead, February 6, 1865, with commentary on the makeup of President Lincoln's cabinet, the passage of the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery in the United States), and the 'Hampton Roads Conference,' in which Confederate commissioners met with Lincoln in an effort to negotiate an end to the Civil War.
In part: "As you have learned by the papers General Meade has been confirmed. This was not done without strenuous opposition from Senators Wade and Chandler, the former of whom made a long speech. The result was that there were only five votes against Meade. General Ord has been appointed to succeed Butler. There is a proposal current about the streets to make Hancock, Minister to France, but there is no chance of its being adopted. It is pretty well settled that the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Interior will go out of office. who their successors will be is not so certain. A vigorous effort is being made to put Governor Andrew in the place of Mr. Welles, and another party is busy in securing for Senator Harlan, the place of Mr. Usher. the other places in the Cabinet will probably remain in the possession of the present occupants. Schofield's Army Corps. transported here from Eastport, Mississippi, in the dead of winter, with the loss of from fifty to seventy five deserters only, in its whole passage of sixteen hundred miles…
The great event of last week has been the passage of the constitutional amendment. This will no doubt be immediately ratified by a sufficient majority of the states to establish it, if the proposition be adopted that the rebel states are out of the union, and have no right to be considered in amending the constitution. That proposition is now definitively before the Senate, having yesterday been introduced by Mr. Sumner. If the ratification of the amendment has to depend upon obtaining the votes of twenty seven states, which is three fourths of the whole thirty six, it will require some years for it to be established; still there will be a great deal of unwillingness to adopt the view proposed by Sumner, and it is possible that Congress will at last rather prefer to admit the new state governments of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and some one of the other states yet to be reorganized.
The President's visit to Fortress Monroe to meet the rebel Peace Commissioners has, as was to have been expected, amounted to nothing. They got into our lines by writing a letter to General Grant, substantially adhering to the terms laid down by Mr. Lincoln in a previous letter from him to Mr. Blair. Those terms were in substance that he was tilling to receive any person who might desire to confer respecting peace for our common country, but when they came to meet Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, the rebel agents entirely repudiated these terms and declared themselves ready to negotiate for nothing but separation and independence. What they most of all desired was an armistice, and they held out the hope that if this could be granted them, and if free intercourse could be allowed to be resumed between the two sections, the intimacy this established, would finally result either in the reunion of the two, or in such intimate relations, commercial and otherwise, that for all practical purposes as regards foreign governments, they might be considered as one people. Of course all this was promptly and positively rejected by the President, and the parties went home.
Major Eckert, who was sent down previous to the interview to meet the rebel commissioners, and who saw a great deal of them, describes their appearance as having been seedy in the extreme. They were dressed either in threadbare old clothes, or in new homespun of the coarsest material, and the most uncivilized fashion. The only good article of dress they wore was shoes of English manufacture. They were considerably embarrassed and confused. The only hospitality which they especially desired was a little good whiskey, which was promptly and liberally furnished to them." In the other letters, Dana arranges visits and comments on some recollections of the Civil War. In fine condition. Accompanied by the original sales folder from early 20th century antiquarian bookseller Ernest Dressel North.
