By Richard Cunningham McCormick

(Edited by Parker Anderson)

(Continuing with remarks by the Hon. Richard McCormick, Governor of the Arizona Territory, as printed in the Arizona Miner newspaper in Prescott, 1866):

I was at Washington at the first inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and saw much of him. It was difficult, even in view of the Baltimore plot, to make him think that anyone sought to injure him, or that his life was in danger. The intention of that plot, by the by, suggests a correction of the common impression that Mr. Lincoln passed through Baltimore in disguise. The story of the Scotch cap and other changes in dress, over which his opponents were wont to make merry, was one of the ingenious inventions of a newspaper correspondent, since famous or infamous in connection with a more inexcusable fabrication.

From the hour of his inauguration, Mr. Lincoln devoted himself to the business of his great office with remarkable assiduity. While no other President had such varied and oppressive cares, none was ever so indifferent to relaxation. His friends were ever apprehensive of the breaking of his health, and his face at times became exceedingly haggard and worn, yet he never lost an opportunity to laugh or crack a joke.

My relations to his private secretaries during my residence in Washington (ending in the summer of 1863) were such that I was often at the White House late at night. On more than one occasion, while chatting with them, supposing the President to have retired, he came to the room and entered into familiar and lively conversation. Once, soon after I had made a canvass for Congress (1862) he congratulated me upon my vote, and took much pains to show what a variety of influences combined to ensure the defeat of any one friendly to his administration.

When I told him, with a frankness which I knew he would like, that the more I advocated and defended his course the further people went from me, he laughed heartily, and commiserated me upon my identity with such an unpopular leader.

On the same occasion he talked at length of the battles of Antietam and South Mountain, and of the difficulty in accounting for the number of men upon the army rolls, yet not in action. He said he had a list of the men in the several corps, provided him by General McClellan, and that he also had a list of those who took part in the battle, and that there was a wonderful discrepancy, for which he could not account, except upon the ground that the men were let off by the company officers. He concluded by pronouncing it a most difficult matter to retain men, to put your finger upon them when needed. ‘They are like fleas,’ said he, ‘the more you shovel them up in a corner, the more they get away from you.’

When John A.Gurley was made Governor of Arizona, he went often to the White House to talk over that country and its necessities. After receiving the appointment of Secretary of the Territory, I accompanied him. The President took a lively interest in the labor before us, and contributed in every way to our assistence, telling Mr. Gurley, jovially, that while he could not be expected to send an army to Arizona, he would see that his scalp was properly protected. He went so far as to endorse the orders to military authorities and others upon our route, and in emphatic words requested them to be particular in their attentions. He was much interested in the reports from the mines, and said to one of our number: ‘Tell the miners I hope to visit them and dig some gold and silver after the war.’

Upon the sudden death of Mr. Gurley, which he much deplored, I went with one of the judges of Arizona to ask the appointment of Mr. (John) Goodwin, then Chief Justice of the Territory to the vacancy. We were at the White House by 8 a.m., while William, the colored servant who had attended Mr. Lincoln from Springfield, was in the act of shaving him. He looked up, with his face white with lather, and said: ‘Is it the best judgement of you all (referring to the Territorial officers) that Mr. Goodman should be appointed?’ Being told that it was, and that prompt action in the matter was important, that the starting of our party, already delayed, might not be seriously retarded, he said: ‘Well, see the members of the Cabinet, and we will try to fix it at the meeting at noon today.’ It was so fixed, and at two o’clock we had the new Governor’s commission from the State Department.

When suggesting that the appointment of Mr. Goodwin would leave the Chief Justiceship of the Territory vacant, the President quickly said that he had a man for that place, and begged that we would not name anyone. ‘It is Grimes’ man,’ (referring to Senator Grimes of Iowa) said he, ‘and I must do something for Grimes. I have tried hard to please him from the start, but he complains, and I must satisfy him if possible.’ And so Grimes’ man, Mr. Turner of Iowa, was made Chief Justice.

Note: Richard McCormick (1832-1901) was, as a young man, a war correspondent in Europe during the Crimean War. At age 25, he worked on Wall Street and, in 1860, became editor of the New York Evening Post. During the Civil War, he went to the front lines as a war correspondent. He worked on the committee to elect Abraham Lincoln and, in 1863, Lincoln appointed him as Secretary of Arizona Territory. He journeyed to Prescott with the newly appointed Governor John N. Goodwin party in 1864. Goodwin served as governor until 1866 leaving his office to be a delegate to the U.S. Congress from AZ Territory. Richard McCormick was sworn in as acting governor in March of 1866. While in Prescott, he began the Arizona Miner Newspaper in 1864 and held it until he left office in 1868. He went on to be a U.S. Representative from AZ Territory as well as from the state of New York. He died in 1901 in Queens, NY.

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