Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, July 2, 1866

I wrote on Saturday night replies to Randall in regard to the convention, to the Tammany Society, which had invited me to Fourth of July anniversary, to the Mayor of Boston also. In those letters I indicate pointedly my views on the great questions before the country.

McCulloch hesitates about sending a letter to Randall, lest he shall experience hostility from the Radicals in Congress on important measures connected with his Department, which are there pending. My own opinion is that his opinions should be expressed, and if for that reason the public welfare is to be put in jeopardy, let the country so understand. This is my view, and I have written accordingly, although I am also in the same category with the Secretary of the Treasury. Only two bills, one for accepting League Island for a Navy Yard and the bill for naval promotions, are strangely delayed, — the former in the Senate, the latter in the House. I am ready, however, to proclaim my position on the great questions affecting the country, but do not care to isolate and obtrude myself if other members of the Cabinet hold back.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 546-7