Dined this evening
at Tassara's, the Spanish Minister. The banquet was given in honor of Dulce,
late Governor-General of Cuba. Seward and Stanton were the only Cabinet-members
besides myself who were present. Sir Frederick Bruce, Montholon, Baron Gerolt,
etc., etc., were present. General Dulce does not speak nor understand English,
and therefore all conversation was through an interpreter. As I sat at his
right, and could not talk Spanish, we were not very sociable. He is a quiet,
gentlemanly man with little of the look of a Spanish grandee.
I was sorry to hear
Seward and Stanton chuckling over an allowance which they had succeeded in
getting for Mrs. Bertinatti, the wife of the Italian Minister. They evidently
thought it an adroit piece of management, and I judge the President has been
misled in regard to it. Mrs. B. was a Rebel Mrs. Bass, of Mississippi, and her
claim unjust. I apprehended it should not have been allowed.
The President has
made the annual Executive appointments of midshipmen. In this he exhibited more
painstaking than Mr. Lincoln, and gave less authority to me, which I did not
regret. Usually Mr. Lincoln specified two or three special cases and then
turned over the residue to me. Mr. Johnson desired me to go over the applicants
twice with him in detail, got, as far as he could, particulars, and retained
the whole schedule of names for more than a week, occasionally speaking of some
one or more to me. His aim seemed to be to confer the appointment on the poor
and deserving, regardless of locality, names, and influence. His selections
were probably good ones, but some of them would have been different had the
choice devolved on me.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 526
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