Little of interest in the Cabinet. Chase, who has been
absent a week, was present; Stanton did not attend. No navy or army matters
discussed. Chase says the New-Yorkers are generally coming into his financial
views, that all in Philadelphia approve them; thinks they should be made a
party test. No one responded to this, — an indication that they were not
prepared to have him set up a standard of financial, political, or party
orthodoxy for them.
A flurry in the Senate to-day over a letter from General
Meigs, who had been coarsely assailed a day or two since by Wilkinson of
Minnesota. The Senatorial dignity was ruffled by the manly rebuke of the
soldier. There is an impotent and ridiculous attempt at self-sufficient and
presuming airs, an exhibition of lame and insolent arrogance, on the part of
many Senators towards men who are, to say the least, their equals in every good
quality. Not long since J. P. Hale undertook to vent his personal spite in the
Senate on Admiral Smith, who regards the public interest more than the wordy,
personal, and selfish schemes of the New Hampshire Senator. The dignity of the
Senator was bruised by the old sailor's blunt honesty, who demanded a committee
with power and an investigation to whitewash the Senator or blackwash the
Admiral.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 223-4
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