Further news of the depredations by the Alabama. Ordered
Dacotah, Ino, Augusta, etc., on her track. The President read in Cabinet to-day
his sensible letter of the 13th of October to General McClellan, ordering him
to move and to pass down on the east side of the Blue Ridge. McClellan did not
wish to move at all. Was ordered by Halleck, and when he found he must move,
said he would go down the west side of the mountains, but when he finally
started went on the east side without advising H. or the President. Stanton,
whose dislike of McC. increases, says that Halleck does not consider himself
responsible for army movements or deficiencies this side of the mountains, of
which he has had no notice from General McClellan, who neither reports to him
nor to the Secretary of War. All his official correspondence is with the
President direct and no one else. The President did not assent to the last
remarks of Stanton, which were more sneering in manner than words, but said
Halleck should be, and would be, considered responsible, for he (the President)
had told him (Halleck) that he would at any time remove McC. when H. required
it, and that he (the President) would take the entire responsibility of the
removal. Mr. Bates quietly suggested that Halleck should take command of the
army in person. But the President said, and all the Cabinet concurred in the
opinion, that H. would be an indifferent general in the field, that he shirked
responsibility in his present position, that he, in short, is a moral coward,
worth but little except as a critic and director of operations, though
intelligent and educated. Congress wisely ordered a transfer of all war vessels
on the Mississippi to the Navy. It was not by my suggestion or procurement that
this law was passed, but it was proper. It has, however, greatly disturbed
Stanton, who, supported by Halleck and Ellet, opposes a transfer of the ram
fleet as not strictly within the letter, though it is undoubtedly the intent of
the law. That Ellet should wish a distinct command is not surprising. It is
characteristic. He is full of zeal to overflowing; is not, however, a naval
man, but is, very naturally, delighted with an independent naval command in
this adventurous ram service. It is, however, a pitiful business on the part of
Stanton and Halleck, who should take an administrative view and who should be
aware there cannot be two distinct commands on the river under different orders
from different Departments without endangering collision.
Seward sent me a day or two since a singular note,
supercilious in tone, in relation to mails captured on blockade-runners,
telling me it is deemed expedient that instructions be given to our naval
officers that such mails should not be opened, but that as speedily as possible
they be forwarded. Who deems it expedient to give these instructions, which
would be illegal, abject, and an unauthorized and unwarranted surrender of our
maritime rights? No man the least conversant with admiralty or statute law,
usage, or the law of prize, or who knowingly maintains national rights can deem
it expedient to give such instructions, and I have declined doing so. The
President must give the order, which he will never do if he looks into the
subject. This is another exhibition of the weakness and the loose and
inconsiderate administrative management of the Secretary of State, who really
seems to suppose himself the Government and his whims supreme law. We had this
subject up last August, and I then pointed out the impropriety of any attempt
to depart from law and usage, but so shaped a set of instructions as to relieve
him; but this proceeding is worse than the former. I shall make no farther
effort to relieve him, and have told him I cannot go beyond my instructions of
the 18th of August last. He professes to believe something more is necessary to
keep the English authorities quiet. The truth is he then and now undertook, in
a spirit of self-conceit, to do more than he is authorized. Stuart, the English
Chargé, knows it;
has, I have no doubt, pressed Seward to have instructions issued to our
officers which shall come up to the promises he ostentatiously made. He is
conscious, I think, that he has been bamboozled, but he will not be able to
extricate himself by bamboozling me. His course is sometimes very annoying, and
exhibits an indifference which is astonishing in one of his long experience and
intellectual capacity.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864,
p. 179-81
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