Friday, May 12, 2023

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, December 21, 1865

Chandler, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, sent me a note this evening, stating that a pardon had been proposed for Pasco, recently convicted, after long struggles and delays, of a series of outrageous frauds and villainies upon the Government. Pasco was master plumber in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, one of a combination of thieves, cheats, and rascals. He was the principal scoundrel of the gang. He acknowledges that he had signed fraudulent certificates; in one instance admits that a party had delivered 20,000 pounds of copper, for which he was paid, when he actually delivered but 16,000; in another instance for 25,000 when only 19,000 was delivered. He received $8200 for the last false certificate, or one third of the swindle, the Government losing or being cheated out of about $26,000 in a single transaction. So of the former. Specifications of eleven distinct cheats similar to these, some of them of larger amounts, besides cases of actual theft, were proven on this fellow. He plead guilty, and was a week or two since sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment. Judge Cadwalader gave light punishment for the alleged reason that Pasco plead guilty and had made restitution when he could not escape conviction and fine. How much he may have cheated and defrauded the Government without detection cannot be known.

I called on the President after receiving Chandler's note and stated the facts. He was a good deal disturbed and seemed unable to express himself. He is evidently surprised, and I apprehend has blindly committed himself for a pardon. He says a large portion of the Pennsylvania delegation applied for the pardon, the district attorney among them, also a portion of the jury.

Senator Harris had quite an interview with me. Our principal chat was on the great question and he expresses himself as concurring in my opinions.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 400-1

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