FEINBERG/WHITMAN   MISCELLANY    Harlan, James - - interview with J. Hubley    (DCN 30)
Box 47 Folder 1                                        Ashton, July 5-8, 1865. A.MS. draft copy.[*718*]

1865 July 5-8     WHITMAN'S WRITTEN STATEMENT OF AN INTERVIEW 
BETWEEN MR. ASHTON and Secretary (of Interior) HARLAN, July 
1, 1865. A.MS. (6p. including MS. title page 34 x 20 cm.)

An account of the interview which had taken place between Messrs. Ashton 
and Harlan, in which Mr. Ashton tried to dissuade the Secretary of the 
Interior from dismissing Whitman from a post as clerk in the Department 
of Interior. The interview was not successful, however. Whitman ends this 
account with the statement: "Mr. Harlan said after this: You have changed 
my opinion of his (Whitman's) personal character, but I shall adhere to my 
decision dismissing him." Circumstances of the interview were described 
fully in With Walt Whitman in C., v.3, p.472, and this account was reproduced 
in facsimile between p.472 & 473.                                              {30}report to Wilkinson from Minnesota" -- "Subdued conversation going on everywhere--some members reading, others writing--the muffled yet sharp sound of the clapping hands, the call for one of the little imps of pages"--"Washington--describe--(on a big spacious plan, &c.) public buildings of white marble, with lots of columns, etc."    {25}

1865 DRUM-TAPS AND SEQUEL; notes.
A. MS. (10p. 21 x 13 1/2 cm. largest)

Trial pages for "Beat! Beat! Drums!--Blow! Bugles! Blow!" Two pages of trial lines for Ashes of Soldiers, also note for When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd. Two other pages contain a list of about 80 words which are all concerned with expression of sorrow.   {26}[*1.*]
Interview between Mr. Ashton
+ Secretary Harlon. 
July 1st, '65

(Made July [?]th + 8th, 1865
in Washington)[*2*]
Interview between Mr. Ashton +
 Mr. Harlan took place [Aug] July 1st 
1805 at the Room of the Secretary of the
Interior in the Patent Office. [Mr. A]
Mr. Ashton drove down there from the
Attorney General's, about 10 o clock a. m.
+ remained [till] over an hour. The
interview [was] [an] consisted of a most
animated conversation. Judge W. T. 
Otto was present, but took little or 
no part in the discussion. The
assistant Attorney General asked why 
W.W. was dismissed; asked if he
had been found inattentive to his
duties, or incompetent for them.
Mr. Harlan said, No, [as] there was
no complaint on those points. As
far as he [knew] heard or knew, W. was a both
a competent + faithful clerk. Mr.
Ashton then [asked] said, Then what is the reason?
The Secretary said, [it] W. was the 
author of Leaves of Grass. Ashton
said, Well is that the reason? The
Secretary said, yes. He then went into 
a sort of narrative to the following
purport. He was examining [r?] the
building after after office hours, + either[*3*]
in or on a desk he saw the Book.
He took it up + found it so
odd that he [took] carried it to his
room + examined it. He found
certain passages marked ; and
there were marks by [one erasure] + upon
passages all through the book.
He found [and] in the book [such] 
in [s??] some of these marked
passages, [such lines + opinion] 
matter so outrageous that he
had determined to discharge the
author &c. &c. &c.

Mr. Ashton then went into a
statement of the theory of the book -
that a construction of that kind
put upon the passages was not
consistent either with the intention
of W. W. [the are] or the rest of the
drift of the book - That he knew
what the [author] spirit + intention 
of the author + [thinks] they were
noble, whatever merit, [there] or deficiency
of merit, there might be in the book.
Mr. Harlan said : Well he couldn't
help that. He thought the author
[would have a bad effect was]
[was improp] was wrong, was a free
lover, deserved punishment, &c.[*4*]
The Assistant Attorney General
said ; [Now I know] Mr. Harlan, I
know something of W. W's life, + if
you will listen to me I will tell
you what it has been. He then
desribed Ws life throughout as manly, 
pure, + patriotic. Since the commencement
of the war he had devoted himself
to the care of the wounded + sick of
our armies ; had been [with them] to the front, had been on hand 
after all the great battles, labored
actively, for nearly three years, in 
that field, + had actually ministered
to, in direct contact with them, more 
than a hundred thousand [men] cases
of wounded, + sick men, [and was] 
had, indeed, sought his appointment 
so that he might be able to spend
his leisure hours in the service of
the maimed + sick, in camps +
hospitals around Washington, + was
now continuing [quiety?] + faithfully 
at that work.

Mr. Harlan said after this ; You
have changed my opinion of his personal 
character, but I shall adhere to my
decision dismissing him.[*5*]
On the Assistant Attorney 
General [press] commencing some remarks 
[toward a to controvert] involving a
change of that decision, Mr. Harlan
said, "It's no use, Mr. Ashton, - 
I will not have the author of
that book in this Department - 
No, if the President of the United 
States should order his reinstatement,
I would resign sooner than
I would put him back."
He then went into a long
+ angry abuse of the book, [its]
its offensive passages, & of W. W.
to which the Assistant Attorney 
General made no reply, but 
bowed & took his leave.
It is perhaps a main part 
[gr] of this transaction, and the getting of a 
full understanding of it, to know that
the ["] marked copy of "Leaves of Grass"
which Mr. Harlan [found] discovered
after office hours, he discovered  by personaly [exam]
prying into the drawers of W. W.s desk.
[He] Such a copy [& such a copy only] marked
all through, (for corrections & directions for future 
edition) W. W. had in one of his drawers. It contained
special marks & peculiarities[*6*]
with pencil, to which Mr. Harlan
directly & indirectly alluded, in his account in  in this
long & animated [convers] discussion;
making it unquestionable that this 
was the copy Mr. Harlan found,*
took away, examined, & then returned.
It lay in a drawer, with a lot
of private letters, & other articles
such as a man puts in his private
desk. It is due to Mr. Harlan
to say that nothing else (at least
as far as known) [was] appears to have been abstructed
from this private drawer.
This memorandum is made
written a [couple] week of [da] the
interview above described; and, in order
to have it right, a second & more 
minute account of the interview [has]
was obtained, before these [notes] items were
jotted down.
Mr. Harlan said to the Assistant 
Attorney General ; There is no need of 
any one's knowing either what W. W. was
dismissed for, nor the particulars of this
conversation. It would be best for [us] you & me to 
confine the matter to ourselves.
The Assistant Attorney General said [;] he
was not willing to make any promise on his part to
that effect; [He] said he should certainly tell W. W. as he thought
he had a right to know what he was dismissed for5