Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, September 16, 1864

At the Cabinet nothing of interest. Seward and Fessenden were early there and left. Judge Otto,¹ who was present in the place of Usher, presented a paper for the removal of Charles L. Lines, a land officer in Kansas, stating he was a troublesome man and an opponent of the Administration. It is not usual for me to volunteer remarks touching the appointments of another Department, but I could not forbear saying this statement if correct was extraordinary, — that Lines was an old Whig, we had been old opponents in Connecticut, — that he, in earnest zeal, went early to Kansas, had made sacrifices of domestic comfort, had lost one or two sons there, and I should be surprised if he was not a friend of the President. Otto said he knew nothing on the subject. It was a question in which Senator Jim Lane took an interest and had been submitted by Mr. Edmunds.² The President said he was sorry Lane had come here just at this time, for he would want him (the President) to adopt all his personal quarrels. For the present, and until he knew more, he declined to interfere.

Acting Admiral Bailey has come here, and dislikes, I presume, his orders to the Portsmouth Navy Yard, — would have preferred his command of the East Gulf Squadron. I had supposed he desired and would be gratified with the change. But prize money is a great stimulant.

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¹ William T. Otto, Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

² James M. Edmunds, Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 147-8