Thick rumors concerning the Army of the Potomac, — little,
however, from official sources. I abstain from going to the War Department more
than is necessary or consulting operators at the telegraph, for there is a hazy
uncertainty there. This indefiniteness, and the manner attending it, is a
pretty certain indication that the information received is not particularly
gratifying. Whether Hooker refuses to communicate, and prevents others from
communicating, I know not. Other members of the Cabinet, like myself, are, I
find, disinclined to visit the War Department under the circumstances.
A very singular declaration by John Laird, Member of
Parliament and one of the builders of the pirate Alabama, has been shown. Laird
said in Parliament, in reply to Thomas Baring, that the Navy Department had
applied to him to build vessels. It is wholly untrue, a sheer fabrication. But
John Laird writes to Howard of New York, that he (Howard) had said something to
him (Laird) about building vessels for the Government. Howard, I judge, was
Laird's agent or broker to procure, if possible, contracts for him or his firm,
but did [not] succeed. The truth is, our own shipbuilders, in consequence of
the suspension of work in private yards early in the war, were clamorous for
contracts, and the competition was such that we would have had terrible
indignation upon us had we gone abroad for vessels, which I never thought of
doing.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 290-1
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