. . . Senator
Guthrie has thrown a mischievous resolution into the Senate in relation to an
order forbidding officers from visiting Washington, and inquiring if any have
been refused permission to come here and appeal to the President or to
Congress. The object is to show that naval officers are denied the privileges
of citizens, and to make out that the Navy Department is arbitrary. Senator G.
seemed not aware that persons on entering the service, officers as well as
privates, surrender certain privileges which private citizens enjoy who are not
in the service and subsisting on the Treasury, and subject themselves to
certain restraints. The inquiry is designed to get up sympathy for the
officers; no interest is manifested for or given to the men, who are under
greater restraint. . . . Senator Guthrie himself is guiltless of any
mischievous intent and has been prompted by some one, and I cannot be mistaken
as to who that some one is.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 494
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