Took the President
the executive order for the trial of Semmes. Found that he hesitated. Told him
I had no feeling whatever in regard to it. That I was not willing nor did I
believe we could legally try him for treason or piracy by a military commission,
for those crimes were cognizable by the civil courts, but a violation of the
laws of war required, perhaps, a commission and could be reached in no other
way. He assented to these views, but thought it would be better to get an
opinion from the Attorney-General. Moreover, he thought delay rather advisable
at this time. I told him I thought it a good opportunity to show that he was
ready to bring criminals to trial when the duty devolved on him.
Senators Doolittle
and Cowan were with the President when I called on him this morning. Doolittle
had the rough plan of a bill to modify and terminate the Freedmen's Bureau
Bill. I prefer non-action. So does Cowan, and I think the President also.
Doolittle thinks something will be advisable to satisfy the public, whose
sympathies have been excited by cunning appeals. This is Seward.
Whiting, Solicitor,
or late Solicitor, of the War Department, came to see me. It was amusing to see
how self-satisfied he was in weaving a pleasant web on the subject of negro
suffrage and the questions at issue. He is writing and publishing a series of
numbers in the Republican, which, he says, were penned at my suggestion some
months since, doubtless in part at least for my benefit. In the midst of our
talk Montgomery Blair came in, and Whiting left with great speed. Blair is
gratified with the stirring-up of the waters of controversy, and anticipates, I
doubt not, that Stanton, who still occupies an ambiguous attitude, may be
brought to a plain development of his true position. He insists that Stanton is
playing false to the President. No doubt of it in my mind, yet he and Seward
are in accord, but Seward is not treacherous.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 436-7
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