James Speed
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US Attorney General under Lincoln.
1812-1887
Attorney General of the United States who succeeded Edward Bates in
late 1864. He was the brother of Joshua Speed, who had been Mr.
Lincoln's closest friend in Springfield before Speed returned to
Kentucky in 1841. The friendship was transferred to James; guard
William Crook described Speed as "Mr. Lincoln's oldest friend in
Washington; there were friendship and confidence between the two
men."1 Speed was a Douglas Democrat turned War Democrat, Union
organizer and uncompromising abolitionist.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Kentucky Unionists arranged for
the purchase of weapons to arm their supporters. According to
historian Lowell H. Harrison, Speed "was sent to Indianapolis to
obtain ammunition for the weapons. Most of the guns were sent to
Louisville for distribution, but those intended for central Kentucky
were shipped from Cincinnati to Lexington over the Kentucky Central
Railroad."2
Like his predecessor, Edward Bates, Speed came from a border state.
Bates did not have a high opinion of his successor: "It seems that
when he came into office a new man, with not much reputation as a
lawyer, and perhaps, no strong confidence in his own opinions, he was
caressed and courted by Stanton and Seward, and sank, under the
weight of their blandishments, into a mere toolto give such opinions
as were wanted!"3
Mr. Lincoln, however, needed a Southern member for his Cabinet and
Kentucky was as far South as he could reasonably go to find a new
member. The President told a visitor: "My Cabinet has shrunk up
North, and I must find a Southern man. I suppose if the twelve
Apostles were to be chosen nowadays, the shrieks of locality would
have to be heeded."4 There was a delay in Speed's confirmation
because Senators wanted to convey their mild annoyance with the
appointment of someone with whom they were not familiar. Because an
attorney general's approval was necessary to the appointment of a
Supreme Court justice, Salmon Chase's appointment was held up until
the Senate acted. Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher later
noted:
The name of James Speed was sent to the Senate for confirmation at or
about the time that Chase was nominated for chief justice. The senate
promptly confirmed the nomination of Chase, but omitted to pass upon
the nomination of Speed. Lincoln, observing this, was quite annoyed.
Although Chase was confirmed his commission was not signed. Some of
his friends inquiring of the President why the commission was not
delivered, he quaintly remarked: 'The Senate has not acted upon my
nomination of Speed; when that is done I will consider whether I will
deliver the commission to Chase or not.' It was not long after this
remark before the Senate confirmed the nomination of Speed. 5
Speed had been summoned to Washington by President Lincoln in late
November. After his arrival, he wrote his mother on December 5,
1864, "I have seen the President this morning and consented to take
the office tendered, in the event my nomination is confirmed by the
Senate. He desired that I should qualify at once and have the
confirmation to follow. As the Senate is in session, I thought it
best not to qualify until the nomination shall be confirmed." Speed
observed: "The call was sudden and unexpected. It looks to me much
like leaving my old home and life-long friends forever. Yet in a
crisis like this, we must fling behind us all such considerations."6
As Attorney General, Speed had to defend the Administration's
policies on habeas corpus and military trials. William H. Rehnquist,
who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court at the end of the
20th Century, described Speed's skills as "lackluster" and wrote that
he was not "aware of his own limitations" in arguing cases before the
Supreme Court.7 Gideon Welles recorded in his December 29, 1864
diary, a cabinet meeting at which a court order for administration
documents was discussed:
I called at the Executive Mansion at precisely ten this A.M. The
President was not in. Mr. Attorney-General Speed came in soon after,
and, while waiting for the President I stated to him the case. He
said he heard something from Mr. Seward concerning it last evening.
On the question of giving exemplified copies of public records and
trial by court martial he was partly decided that copies should be
furnished. The President came in while we were discussing the
subject, and said he had not fully determined, but his opinion from
the consideration he had given it coincided with that of Mr. Speed,
but he proposed to send for Mr. Seward, who shortly came. On hearing
