Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, December 22, 1865

McCulloch, Stanton, and Dennison are absent from Washington. Seward read a letter from Bigelow at Paris, which indicates peace, though all the diplomats here believe a war inevitable. Seward represents that Montholon was scared out of his wits when General Logan was appointed to Mexico. He certainly is not a very intelligent or cultured diplomat. The horizon is not perfectly clear, but the probabilities are peaceful. Had a talk with the President on the subject of Pasco. Chandler was the attorney of the Department in this investigation and prosecution at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and I had him state the case to the President. He presented the whole very well, confirming all that I had stated, and making the case stronger against Pasco. The President was puzzled and avoided any direct answer. I have little doubt he has been imposed upon and persuaded to do a very improper thing. But we shall see. This case presents the difficulties to be surmounted in bringing criminals to justice. Pasco was a public officer, an active partisan, very popular and much petted by leading party men in official position. Detected in cheating and stealing, public men for a time thought the Department was harsh and severe in bringing him to trial. Objections were made against his being tried by court martial, and he was turned over to the civil courts. But a trial could not be had. Term after term it was carried along. Confessions from others implicated and the books and documents produced were so conclusive that finally he plead guilty and disgorged so far as he was actually detected. In consequence of his pleading guilty and making restitution of the amounts clearly ascertained, Judge Cadwalader gave him a mild sentence of only one year and a half of imprisonment. Having, after a long struggle, reached this stage, the politicians and the court favoring him, we now have the President yielding to the pressure of Members of Congress, and, without inquiry or a call for the records or the facts, pardoning this infamous leader of fraud and crime. The influence will be pernicious, and scoundrels will be strengthened. I shall be glad to know that the President has not committed himself irretrievably.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 401-2