Pretense Of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks

12 No Desire for Dishonest Gains

12 No Desire for Dishonest Gains JDenied fame for his military ventures, Banks decided to pursue another stratagem to capture the nations attention. Althoughit is apparent today that Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburgconstituted the decisive turning point of the war, Bankshad no way of knowingthat at the time, and although things looked promisingfrom the Union side, the war was far from over. Consequently, the idea of a negotiated peace to end the bloodshed was a remote possibility that Banks knew many people hoped for during the late summerand earlyfall of 1863. Banks thought that he might succeed where others had failed. If he could encourage the South to reenter the Union under generous terms, perhaps a program of gradual emancipation with compensation for the loss of slave property, the North might agree to a peace settlement. Not onlywould the country asawhole benefit from apeacefultermination of the debilitating struggle if he were successful, but Bankswould emerge as a peacemaker and statesman ofgreat note. An accomplishment of this magnitude would be of particular importance for someone who had his eye on the presidential election just over ayear away.1 The first man Banks chose to assisthim in his attempt to initiate a dialogue between the United and Confederate States was a successful cotton broker in New Orleans, MartinGordon. Asa registered enemyof the United States, Gordon could travel safely in the Confederacy to act as 1. For an overviewofthe peace movement duringthe lastfull yearofthe war, see Edward Chase Kirkland, The Peacemakers of 1864 (1927; reprint, New York: AMSPress, 1969). No Desirefor Dishonest Gains 155 Banks's emissary. Banks sent Gordon through the lines in early July 1863, just before the capture of Port Hudson.2 Gordon went to Richmond, where he talked to President Jefferson Davis and other leading officials of the Confederate government.Although he found that Davis favored continued resistance, Gordon also discovered that manysoutherners wanted peace, even if it meant emancipation , provided owners would be compensated for their liberated slaves.3 Banks was encouraged by Gordon's report and decided to follow up the initial contact with a second peace emissary, Dr. Issachar Zacharie, an ardent promoter of Banks's aspirations for president in 1864. Zacharie was a native of New York and a onetime grocer who had developed some fame as a chiropodist after pirating a popular book on the subject.Banks had brought him to New Orleans late in 1862 to act as a spy and informant . In this capacity, Zacharie was reasonably successful. He established manygood contacts and gathered valuable information. He also was able to gain the confidence of the powerful Jewish communityin New Orleans by performing minor favors for persons of his own Jewish faith.4 Not everyone appreciated Zacharie's presence in New Orleans. George S. Denison, an abolitionist from Vermontand confidant of the most radical member of Lincoln's cabinet, SalmonP.Chase, considered Zacharie to be just another of the "host of speculators, Jews and campfollowers , [who] came hither in the track of Banks's expedition." Denison wanted as little to do as possible with Zacharie and his "Israelite friends." Brigadier General George F. Shepley, military governor of Louisiana and a native of Maine,was even more outspoken. Commenting on Zacharie's position regarding Banks's administration, Shepley 2. Banks toW.H. Emory, July 2,1863, Gordon to Banks, January 1,1864, BanksCollection , LC; George S.Denison to Chase, September 21,1863, in Chase, "Diary andCorrespondence ," 408-9. 3. Harrington, Fighting Politician, 125-26. 4. Banks to Zacharie, January 1,1863, Zacharie's reports, January-February 1863, Banks Collection, LC; also New York Herald, May6,1863. Harrington (Fighting Politician , 247)reportsthat the text of Zacharie's book, Surgical and Practical Observations on the Diseases of the HumanFoot (New York, 1860),was taken without acknowledgment from John Eisenberg's book of the same title (London, 1845).The correspondence between Banks and Zacharie has been printed by Fred Harvey Harrington, "A Peace Mission of 1863," American Historical Review46 (October 1940):76-86. 156 Pretense of Glory complained to Butler that "the Christ killers, as Andrew [Butler's brother] calls them, have it all their ownway."5 Given these anti-Semitic remarks from high-ranking Union officials with impeccable abolitionist credentials, there is some irony to that fact that the man Banksdirected Zacharie to contact, Judah P.Benjamin,was both a Louisiana Jew and the highest-ranking member ofthe Confederate cabinet. But first...