Diary of Gideon Welles, Friday, July 20, 1866

I learn that the President to-day sent in the nomination of Mr. Stanbery for Attorney-General. He made no mention of it in Cabinet. There is a reticence on the part of the President — an apparent want of confidence in his friends — which is unfortunate, and prevents him from having intimate and warm personal friends who would relieve him in a measure. Doolittle spoke of this to me last evening as we came from the President's, with whom he wanted some frank and friendly conversation, and he felt a little hurt that he was not met in the same spirit. It is a mistake, an infirmity, a habit fixed before he was President, to keep his own counsel. I find no want of confidence or frankness in him when I introduce a topic, or make an inquiry, but it is unpleasant to seek information which should, in friendly courtesy, be communicated or invited by him.

Professor Davies comes to see me. Wants his nephew, General Davies, to be made Naval Officer at New York. Says Smythe, the Collector, is doing nothing to sustain the President, or the Philadelphia movement. I am inclined to believe there is truth in it and that Smythe is a very indifferent officer, as well as a useless politician, or party man, and that the President has been deceived in him. I have heretofore expressed my doubts of his fitness to the President, McCulloch, and Doolittle, and they, neither of them, controverted my opinion. He is a weight, no aid.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 558