My constant application has left me no time for several days
to jot down occurrences and make remarks.
Mr. Sanford was very pertinacious and determined in his
scheme of going out in the Niagara, and represented that Mr. Seward favored it.
I am inclined to think Seward fell into the arrangement without much thought.
This is the best view for Seward. Sanford is . . . fond of notoriety; delights
to be busy and fussy, to show pomp and power; and to have a vessel like the
Niagara bear him out to his mission would have filled him with delight, but
would not have elevated the country, for Sanford's true character is known
abroad and wherever he is known, which is one of obtrusive intermeddlings, –
not that he is mischievously inclined, but he seeks to be consequential, wants
to figure and to do.
The consul at Bermuda having written us that the Florida was
there on the 14th inst., I wrote Mr. Seward that the Niagara would be directed
to cruise and get across in about thirty days, consequently Mr. Sanford had
better leave by packet steamer. Mr. Seward writes me today that he concurs with
me fully.
The army movements have been interesting for the last few
days, though not sensational. Grant has not obtained a victory but performed
another remarkably successful flank movement. Sherman is progressing in
Georgia.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 39
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