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I have no fear with you that the fruits of the war are to be lost by a liberal policy towards the South. On the contrary the danger to the Blacks is in the widening the difference between the whites & Blacks—the whites being superior in numbers, and at present in intelligence & wealth in the South.

Therefore if Grant comes with the sword, & Greeley or Sumner^{4Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner.} with the olive branch—I go for the man of “peace.”

All experience shows that no party can live long in a free country— and I would <wish> the Blacks to show magnanimity to the rebels—that they might in turn in the day of need receive it.

With regard to Grant’s nepotism—I wrote hastily—and did not intend to write it with his European appointments: His nepotism here is beyond controversy^{5Critics and admirers of Ulysses S. Grant, then and now, agree that he was far too generous in using his power and influence to advance the interests of his friends and family members. In fact, some family members appear to have built their entire careers upon his largesse. Such was the case with Grant’s brother-in-law the Reverend Michael John Cramer (1835–98), the husband of his youngest sister, Mary Frances (1839–1905). Grant procured a chaplain position for Cramer, a Swiss-born Methodist clergyman, at a hospital during the Civil War, and another at an army barracks in Covington, Kentucky, after the war. Cramer then used his significant initiative to accumulate so many recommendations from prominent men from both parties that Grant felt it impossible to deny his appeal to be resident minister in Denmark, a post he held for eleven years. Based upon this experience, Cramer acquired the same position in his native Switzerland from 1881 to 1885. Largely because of the prestige he acquired in the diplomatic service, he taught at several universities and seminaries until his death in 1898. During the last year of his life, Cramer cashed in on the Grant name one final time, publishing a book revealing private conversations and letters his brother-in-law had shared with him. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 14 June 1872; Michael John Cramer, Ulysses S. Grant: Conversations and Unpublished Letters (New York, 1897), 7–8; Summers, Era of Good Stealings, 95; Chernow, Grant, 638, 717, 875; Office of the Historian, Department of State, “Michael John Cramer (1835–1898),” history.state.gov; Find a Grave (online).}
—and his promotions in the Diplomatic service except the elevation of his brother-in-law was confined so far as I was aware to Bancroft.^{6George Bancroft.} I have not seen the list nor taken the trouble to look into the details—my purpose was in writing a hasty letter to a friend to note the crimes of the President—and in that I see no reason to change my opinions from what you say about it.

With regard to Cuba, I believe as I live that a majority of the American people desired a fair course of neutrality observed between Cuba and her tyrants that Grant & Fish^{7Hamilton Fish.} would not allow—and but for the message and influence of Grant against the Republicans moving for Cuban independence—a majority of the Republicans would have done their duty to Cuba!

Fish is another of the men voting for Democrats to the last hour; who are now foisted upon us (voting for Hoffman!)^{8Clay believed that Hamilton Fish had supported the Democrat John T. Hoffman in his race for mayor of New York City (1866) or for governor of New York (1868). A pre–Civil War Whig, Fish had opposed abolitionism and only reluctantly affiliated himself with the nascent Republican party. Politically inactive during the Civil War and the early years of Reconstruction, Fish might have given his support to the moderate Hoffman as some other conservative Republicans in the state did. Calhoun, Presidency of Grant, 152–54; Homer A. Stebbins, “A Political History of the State of New York, 1865–1869,” in [Columbia University] Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, 55: 106–07, 370 (New York, 1913).} and who was mean enough to blackguard the Cuban Patriots after betraying them.

Very truly yours,

CASSIUS M. CLAY

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 600–02, FD Papers, DLC.