I am apprehensive of
trouble in making future contracts. Old contractors have been attacked and
called to account, and will be shy. But the great damage is from the neglect or
delay of the Treasury, which does not pay. Honest contracts are not fairly
treated by the Treasury. Men are kept out of their money after due, wrongfully.
I had the material, and began the preparation, for a pretty strong statement to
Mr. Chase at the time he resigned.
Very mischievous
efforts are being made in some quarters to injure the President and assist
Chase by reason of his going out. I know nothing of the particulars from either
of them, but I feel a conviction that the country is benefited by Mr. Chase’s
retirement. His longer continuance in the Treasury would have been a calamity.
It would have been better could he have left earlier.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon
Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864
— December 31, 1866, p. 68-9
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