Friday, March 9, 2018

Diary of Gideon Welles: December 24, 1863

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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