Sent a letter to Naval Committee in favor of an iron navy
yard, transmitting former communications. Action is required and should have
been taken by Congress long since.
Neither Chase nor Blair were at the Cabinet to-day, nor was
Stanton. The course of these men is reprehensible, and yet the President, I am
sorry to say, does not reprove but rather encourages it by bringing forward no
important measure connected with either. As regards Chase, it is evident he
presumes on his position and the condition of the finances to press a point,
hoping it may favor his aspirations.
Stanton has a cabinet and is a power in his own Department.
He deceives the President and Seward, makes confidants of certain leading men,
and is content to have matters move on without being compelled to show his
exact position. He is not on good terms with Blair, nor is Chase, which is
partly attributable to that want of concert which frequent assemblages and
mutual counselling on public measures would secure. At such a time the country
should have the combined wisdom of all.
Rear-Admiral Porter has sent me a long, confidential letter
in relation to affairs on Red River and the fights that have taken place at
Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, etc. The whole affair is unfortunate. Great sacrifice
of life and property has been made in consequence of an incompetent general in
command. It is plain from Admiral Porter's account that Banks is no general,
has no military capacity, is wholly unfit for the position assigned him. He has
never exhibited military capacity, and I regret the President should adhere to
him. It is to be attributed in a great degree to Seward, who caused Butler to
be superseded by Banks, and naturally desires he should not prove a failure,
and therefore hopes and strives against facts. Banks has much of the demagogue,
is superficially smart, has volubility and a smack of party management, which
is often successful. The President thinks he has Presidential pretensions and
friends to back him, but it is a great mistake. Banks is not only no general,
but he is not much of a statesman. He is something of a politician, and a party
man of his own stamp, and for his own advancement, but is not true and reliable.
There is an attempt to convert this reverse into a victory,
but the truth will disclose itself. The President should, if Porter's
statements are reliable, dismiss Banks, or deprive him of military command.
I asked Halleck, who called on me to-day, what the army
opinion was of the recent conflicts on Red River. He said we undoubtedly had
the worst of it, and that Banks had no military talent or education. While I do
not place a high estimate on Halleck himself, his expressed opinion of Banks
corresponds with my own. Whether he will recommend the withdrawal of Banks from
the army remains to be seen.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 17-8
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