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408]
Dana concurred in this is hardly consistent with the assumption of the
Sun that
Washburne was to have a cabinet position.
What
Washburne's real feelings were towards
Dana cannot be positively stated on any evidence in my possession, but the chances are that they were inimical.
He was a strong, aggressive, and ambitious public man, not over-fond of his rivals nor over-lenient to the people he did not like.
Having been long in political life, and a Republican before it was popular to be one, he had many debts to pay and many friends to reward.
Grinnell was widely known at the time as a gentleman of the highest character, but he was without political prominence, and was besides regarded as a special friend of
Seward, which of itself could scarcely have commended him to
General Grant, no matter what might have been his relations with
Washburne.
In making the announcement of this appointment in the editorial page of the
Sun, March 26th,
Dana certainly showed no feeling of resentment.
He stated truly that it was regarded as a victory of the
Seward faction over the
Greeley faction of the Republican party in New York, and that
it was all the more interesting from the fact that General Grant was supposed to have cherished anything but a feeling of love for the late Secretary of State, ever since the celebrated question of veracity in which Mr. Seward took the side of President Johnson. ...
It is to be noted that
Dana went out of his way to add:
... For our own part, notwithstanding our sympathies are with the Greeley wing, we are not going to complain because such a jolly veteran as Moses H. Grinnell has got a good thing.
He is a splendid specimen of a New York merchant prince, and we do not question that he will leave the
