Seward made a speech at Auburn, intended by him, I have no doubt, as the keynote of the campaign. For a man of not very compact thought, and who, plausible and serious, is often loose in his expressions, the speech is very well. In one or two respects it is not judicious and will likely be assailed.
Chase, who has been expressing his discontent, not in public speeches but in social intercourse down East, is beginning to realize that the issue is made up, — no new leaders are to be brought forward, — and he will now support Lincoln in order to defeat McClellan. So with others. After doing what they could to weaken the President and impair confidence in him, they now turn in and feel the necessity of counteracting their own unwise and mistaken policy.
Mr. Fessenden assures me that the payment of Navy requisitions commences forthwith, and will be prosecuted earnestly. It certainly is time. There are over thirteen millions of suspended requisitions in the Treasury, every dollar of which is due the parties. Many of them should have been paid three and four months ago. Chase commenced this system of deferring payments for value received. I have explained matters to Mr. Fessenden, who, however, does not yet, I apprehend, fully realize the consequences and the great wrong. The credit of the Department and of the government is seriously impaired, and the Navy Department is by these delays compelled to pay an extra price for everything it purchases, because the Treasury does not promptly pay the requisitions drawn on it. My administration of the Department is injured by these delays, and made to appear extravagant in its expenditures, when it is in fact the only one, except the Post-Office, that struggles for economy.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 140-1
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