Montgomery Blair
still persists that Seward is false to the President and that he and Stanton
have an understanding. There are many strange things in Seward's course, and he
is a strange man. I am inclined to think he is less false to the President than
adhesive to the Secretary of State. He does not like Johnson less, but Seward
more. Seward is afraid of the Democrats and does not love the Republicans. But
he feels that he is identified with the Republicans, thinks he has rendered
them service, and considers himself, under the tutoring of Thurlow Weed, as
more than any one else the father of the party. The managers of the party
dislike him and distrust him, fear that he will by some subtlety injure them,
and do not give him their confidence. The Democrats look upon him as a puzzle,
a Mephistopheles, a budget of uncertainties, and never have and never will
trust him.
The President
believes Seward a true supporter of his Administration. I think he means to
support it. The President finds him a convenience, but does not always rely
upon his judgment. His trust in Seward begets general distrust of the
Administration. It is remarkable that none of Seward's devoted friends—men who
under Weed breathe through his nostrils—sustain the President on his great
measures. Raymond has been a whiffler on public measures, but no others have
ever doubted, or dared express a doubt of, the Radical policy. This puzzles me.
Stanton is very anxious
to retain his place, and yet he has a more intimate relation with the Radical
leaders than with the President or any member of the Cabinet. His opinion and
judgment, I think, the President values more than he does Seward's, yet he
distrusts him more,—feels that he is insincere. But Stanton studies to conform
to the President's decisions and determinations when he cannot change them,
apparently unaware that he occupies an equivocal position, both with the
President and the public.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 523
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