Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, April 11, 1865

The cotton question was the chief topic at the Cabinet. Secretary McCulloch is embarrassed how to dispose of the Savannah capture. I am afraid of replevin and other troubles. Told him I thought it an error that the Rebel cotton had not been brought forward and sold in parcels instead of accumulating public and private in such quantity as to attract the vultures.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 278