With the President an hour or two this A.M., selecting
candidates from a large number recommended for midshipmen at the naval school.
Finished a set of instructions for our naval officers in matters
relating to prize captures and enforcing the blockade. Mr. Seward sent me a few
days since in the name of the President some restraining points on which he
wished the officers to be instructed, but I was convinced they would work
injury. Have toned down and modified his paper, relieved it of its illegal
features, added one or two precautionary points and sent the document to the
State Department for criticism and suggestions.
Mem. It may be well, if I can find time, to get up a
complete set of instructions, defining the points of international and statute
law which are disputed or not well understood.
Have a long telegram from Wilkes, who informs me that the
army has left, and asking for instructions what to do now that McClellan has
gone. I have not been advised of army movements by either the Secretary of War
or General Halleck. Both are ready at all times to call for naval aid, but are
almost wholly neglectful of the Navy and of their own duties in regard to it,
as in this instance.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864,
p. 82-3
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