Washington, June 14, 1862.
Your letter in behalf of two officers in your squadron is at
hand. . . . The difficulty arises from
the displacement of those who have been continuously in the service, and the
apparent impossibility of stopping restorations with a few of the most worthy
ones. About a score of them have been before us, and the Senate has finally
disposed of the matter. The officer who in my opinion has the least merit, was
the only one who was strongly urged and insisted upon; all the others were made
to hang upon the decision in his case. This would not have been fair (though I
told the Senate what my opinion was on the subject), had not the question been
decided squarely upon its real merits, viz., whether any one ought to be
restored, who had resigned and gone into civil life, if the restoration would
injure those who had remained all of the time in the service. It is doubtless
true that the result was influenced by the fact that we have been besieged
during the session by persons in the interest of those who seek to be restored,
and whose names would probably have been sent to us, had we acted favorably
upon those who were sent in. The number in favor of confirmation was
very small indeed, not half a dozen; but you will understand that this decision
was not predicated at all upon the merits of the officers themselves.
You are misinformed as to the action of the Senate on the
vote of thanks to Farragut's fleet-officers. The President sent two
recommendations, one embracing Farragut and his officers and men, which the
committee advised the Senate to adopt, and it was adopted; and the other,
recommending a vote of thanks to the commander of each vessel, specifying each
officer by name. This last the committee has not acted upon, and will probably
take no notice of.
We have just had the naval bill under consideration. I had
put on amendments:
1. Abolishing
spirit-ration after 1st September, and allowing no spirituous liquors to be
carried on board, save for medical stores, and giving each man five cents per
day in lieu of it.
2. Making board
of visitors at Naval Academy a mixed commission from civil and naval life, and
making an appropriation for mileage, as in the case of the Military Academy.
3. Authorizing
ten naval cadets to be appointed each year, to be selected from the sons of
officers and men in the military and naval profession, who have distinguished
themselves.
4. Giving
commodore's secretary fifteen hundred dollars per annum and one ration. And
sundry other amendments in which you probably take no particular interest.
We hope to leave here soon. I shall hope to hear from you
often at my Western home.
SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes,
p. 200-1
No comments:
Post a Comment