Two or three Members of the House have had an opportunity to
spend their wrath on me in relation to appointment of midshipmen. Calvert is
quite angry on two or three matters and takes this opportunity to vent his
spite. Washburne of Illinois, who has the reputation of being the “meanest man
in the House,” is sore under my reply to his inquiry concerning the “vessel
Varuna”; others but little better than Washburne were abusive.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 234
