The weather for
several days has been exceedingly warm. For some time there have been
complaints of mismanagement of affairs in the storekeeper's department at
Boston, and on Monday last I made a change, appointing an officer who lost a
leg in the service. Mr. Gooch comes to me with an outcry from the Boston
delegation wanting action to be deferred. Told G. if there was any reason for
it I would give it consideration. He wished to know the cause of the change. I
told him the welfare and best interest of the service. It is not my purpose in
this and similar cases to be placed on the defensive. I do not care to make or
prefer charges, yet I feel it a most unpleasant task to remove even
objectionable men.
The President is
still indisposed, and I am unable to perfect some important business that I
wished to complete with the close of the fiscal year. There are several Radical
Members here, and have been for some days, apparently anxious to see the
President. Have met Senator Wade two or three times at the White House.
Complains that the Executive has the control of the government, that Congress
and the Judiciary are subordinate, and mere instruments in his hands; said our
form of government was on the whole a failure; that there are not three
distinct and independent departments but one great controlling one with two
others as assistants. Mentions that the late President called out 75,000 men
without authority. Congress, when it came together, approved it. Mr. Lincoln
then asked for 400,000 men and four hundred millions of money. Congress gave
him five of each instead of four. I asked him if he supposed or meant to say
that these measures were proposed without consulting, informally, the leading
members of each house. He replied that he did not, and admitted that the
condition of the country required the action which was taken, that it was right
and in conformity with public expectation.
Thad Stevens called
on me on business and took occasion to express ultra views, and had a sarcastic
hit or two but without much sting. He is not satisfied, nor is Wade, yet I
think the latter is mollified and disinclined to disagree with the President.
But his friend Winter Davis, it is understood, is intending to improve the opportunity
of delivering a Fourth-of-July oration, to take ground distinctly antagonistic
to the Administration on the question of negro suffrage.
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