He showed me a letter of his own, which was in print, dated Baltimore, April 11th, and another of April 12th, addressed to the President, urging him to recognize the freedmen as equal in all respects to the whites.

He was the first man, of any authority or station, who ever informed me that the Government of the United States would insist on extending to the former slaves of the South the elective franchise, and he gave as a reason the fact that the slaves, grateful for their freedom, for which they were indebted to the armies and Government of the North, would, by their votes, offset the disaffected and rebel element of the white population of the South.

At that time quite a storm was prevailing at sea, outside, and our two vessels lay snug at the wharf at Morehead City.

I saw a good deal of Mr.Chase, and several notes passed between us, of which I have the originals yet.
Always claiming that the South had herself freed all her slaves by rebellion, and that Mr.Lincoln's proclamation of freedom (of September 22, 1862) was binding on all officers of the General Government, I doubted the wisdom of at once clothing them with the elective franchise, without some previous preparation and qualification; and then realized the national loss in the death at that critical moment of Mr.Lincoln, who had long pondered over the difficult questions involved, who, at all events, would have been honest and frank, and would not have withheld from his army commanders at least a hint that would have been to them a guide.
It was plain to me, therefore, that the manner of his assassination had stampeded the civil authorities in Washington, had unnerved them, and that they were then undecided as to the measures indispensably necessary to prevent anarchy at the South.
On the 7th of May the storm subsided, and we put to sea, Mr.Chase to the south, on his proposed tour as far as New Orleans, and I for James River.

I reached Fortress Monroe on the 8th, and thence telegraphed my arrival to General Grant, asking for orders.