Very warm. Little done at Cabinet. Seward undertook to talk
wise in relation to Commander Collins and the Mont Blanc, but really betrayed
inexcusable ignorance of the subject of prize and prize courts, and admiralty
law, the responsibilities of an officer, etc.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 394
