[77]
his province has been seized.
Yet Belknap, more Caesarian than Caesar, wires to New Orleans:
All of us?
Who are these “all of us” The telegram is dated “ War Department.”
“All of us” may only mean the adjutants and secretaries; but as Belknap is a Cabinet minister, “all of us” may mean the whole Executive.
In this sense it is read by General Sheridan's staff.
If they are right this telegram is the most serious document issued since the war. If Hamilton Fish and Benjamin H. Bristow have endorsed the military action in this city, we may look for storms.
At noon a second telegram comes, in explanation of the first, which seems to prove that Fish and Bristow are as much committed to Caesarism as either Williams or Belknap ; yet Sheridan, after reading and re-reading the document, feels uncertain of the sense, and puzzled as to what he is empowered to do. The message runs:
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