Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Diary of Gideon Welles, Friday, June 29, 1866

Not much of special interest in the Cabinet. Seward read dispatches to Washburn, the poor Minister at the poor Government of Paraguay, expressing expectation that he had ere this reached his destination, assisted by Acting Rear-Admiral Godon. The course of Washburn has been inexcusably wrong, and the State Department scarcely less so. He has wasted time and opportunities at Montevideo, when he should have been at his post, if we are to have a Minister at Paraguay, and is now asking, and the State Department is conceding, too much in order that he may get there.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 543

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