propriety of _postponing_ such a resort until
January--and he hopes it may not be necessary then to depart from the
settled policy of the government--to forbear trading cotton to the
Yankees, etc. etc.

Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State, has given Mr. Dunnock permission to
sell cotton to the Yankees and the rest of the world on the Atlantic and
Gulf coast. Can it be that the President knows nothing of this? It is
obvious that the cotton sold by Mr. Dunnock (who was always licensed by
Mr. Benjamin to trade with people in the enemy's country beyond the
Potomac) will be very _comfortable_ to the enemy. And it may aid Mr.
Dunnock and others in accumulating a fortune. The Constitution defines
_treason_ to be giving aid and comfort to the enemy. I never supposed
Mr. Randolph would suggest, nay _urge_, opening an illicit trade with
"Butler, the Beast." This is the first really dark period of our
struggle for independence.

We have acres enough, and laborers enough, to subsist 30,000,000 of
people; and yet we have the spectacle of high functionaries, under Mr.
Davis, urging the necessity of bartering cotton to the enemy for stores
essential to the maintenance of the army! I cannot believe it is a
necessity, but a destitution of that virtue necessary to achieve
independence. If they had any knowledge of these things in Europe, they
would cease their commendations of President Davis.

Mr. Randolph says, in his letter to the President, that trading with
ports in possession of the enemy is forbidden to citizens, and not to
the government! The archives of the department show that this is not the
first instance of the kind entertained by the Secretary. He has granted
a license to _citizens_ in Mobile to trade cotton in New Orleans for
certain supplies in exchange, in exact compliance with Gen. Butler's
proclamation. Did Pitt ever practice such things during his contest with
Napoleon? Did the Continental Government ever resort to such equivocal
expedients? A member of Washington's cabinet (and he, too, was a
Randolph) once violated the "settled policy of the government," but he
was instantly deprived of the seals of office. He acted under the advice
of Jefferson, who sought to destroy Washington; and the present
Secretary Randolph is a grandson of Jefferson. Washington, the
inflexible patriot, frowned indignantly upon every departure from the
path of rectitude.

I can do nothing more than record these things, and WATCH!

NOVEMBER