Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, August 20, 1863

Information is received of the death of Governor Gurley. He was a native of Manchester, Connecticut, born within a few miles of my home. He claimed to have imbibed his political principles from me and my writings; was, while in Connecticut and for some time after, an earnest reader of the Hartford Times, where many of my writings appeared. Subsequently, when new issues arose, he has often told me of the satisfaction he experienced when he found the Times and myself at variance, and that his convictions on the Kansas difficulties and questions in dispute in 1856 and 1860 corresponded with mine. He was here in Congress at the commencement of this administration. Mr. Lincoln thought much of him, and appointed him Governor of Arizona. He was making his preparations to proceed and organize that Territory when death overtook him.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 408

No comments: