Events have crowded
thick, and I have been unable to find time to record them. Judge Blair called
on me yesterday with a request that I would, for his father's sake, revoke the
orders of Captain Lee to Mare Island. Lee has been busy and mischievous in his
intrigues to evade duty. I am told has seen every Senator but one and related
his services and sorrows. As a last resort he threatens to take his wife and
child to California and thus leave his father-in-law's family desolate. His
persisting in this respect has made Mr. Blair, who is now seventy-five, sick
and is likely to permanently affect his health.
Judge Montgomery
Blair, who for nine years, he tells me, has not spoken to Lee, and who would, I
have no doubt, feel relieved were Lee in California, earnestly requested for
his father's sake, that the orders might be revoked. I finally told him that I
would, with the approval of the President, to whom Lee himself had appealed,
revoke them and place Lee on leave for two months. The President, on whom we
called, assented, and I this morning sent Lee a revocation of the order to Mare
Island. He knew the fact yesterday. Two hours after the order revoking his
detail to Mare Island, I received a long communication of eight or ten foolscap
pages, dated the 26th, accepting the order, and stating he should proceed to
Mare Island by next steamer. I immediately wrote him that he was at liberty to
go or remain, and that I made it optional with him to present a future claim
for favor for indulgence granted.
The intrigues of
this man to get his orders countermanded have been as wonderful as disgusting.
His wife was made to harass her old father and threaten him with an
interruption of domestic arrangement and family repose if he was not permitted
to remain. Appliances and measures through others were used. My wife was
compelled to listen to lamentations on account of the cruel orders of the
Department. I called on the President the latter part of last week, and there
were sixty or eighty children from the orphan asylum with the matron and
others, and I was implored, for the children's sake, to revoke the orders, that
Mrs. Lee could remain, for she was one of the managing directors of the school,
etc., etc.
The President
invited me to come and see him on Saturday. He was not reconciled to the
arrangement in regard to Fox. We went over the whole subject, and I told him
Fox had rendered great service, such as I thought would justify his visiting
Europe for six months in behalf of the Department. Among other things the
President has received from some quarter an impression that Fox is a Radical
and strong in that interest. This, I think, is one of the intrigues of Lee,
through the elder Blair.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 513-4
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