Seward sent me this morning a scary dispatch which he
proposed to give each of the foreign ministers, in relation to the blockade at
Galveston, which he, unwisely, improperly, and without knowledge of the facts,
admits has been raised, but which he informs them will be again immediately
enforced. I was exceedingly annoyed that he should propose to issue such a
document under any circumstances, and especially without consultation. It is
one of those unfortunate assumptions, pregnant with error, in which he sometimes
indulges. I toned and softened his paper down in several places, but told the
clerk to give Mr. Seward my compliments and say to him I totally objected to
his sending out such a paper.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 233
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