I had a brief talk with Chase on certain financial matters,
and gave him copies of some Rebel correspondence, — extracts of letters from
young Lamar, showing that ——, of the firm of —— & —— is in league with
certain traitors. Chase professed to have some previous knowledge of a similar
character, but did not indicate wherein and I was not satisfied he had any
information whatever on this matter. It is a weakness with him, — as if he
wished others to believe him omniscient, or that no one else should know of
matters relating to his Department which he does not possess.
The laws, he said, are not sufficiently stringent. He hoped
Congress would pass some severe enactments on the subject of trading in gold. “Why
not,” I asked, “trade in gold as well as iron? Our depreciated currency has
made gold merchandise, to be bought and sold, not a standard of value.” I had
but little time and no disposition for controversy. These ideas of forbidding,
restricting, and regulating trade in gold and silver when Government has made
the currency legal tender by law, are so absurd, and so repugnant to all my
opinions and convictions, that I had no patience to listen to the remarks of a
Secretary of the Treasury, the financial officer of the Government, a man of
his professed principles, when I had anything else to do. I therefore left him
abruptly.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary
of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p.
493-4
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