Read Commodore
Winslow's letter and correspondence relative to New Orleans riot and my reply
to the President, who was pleased and approved of my course.
Read Admiral
Farragut's acknowledgment and thanks to the President for his commission; also
Farragut's letter accepting the invitation to be of the party to Chicago.
Many delegates from
the South to the Philadelphia Convention are in the city on their way thither.
Generally they seem in good spirits and cheered with the prospect of a restored
Union. So far as I have conversed with them they are of right tone and temper.
I remarked to the
President that a large portion of the people North and South had no correct
idea of the condition of men and things. The claim of the Union men in the
Rebel States, that they alone must hold office and govern, while the great mass
of the people were to be excluded, proscribed, and eventually disfranchised, was
preposterous. The majority must govern or elections be abandoned. In looking to
the Central Government to keep the minority in power by force, the Unionists
were committing a serious error. The condition of things is anomalous and must
be treated with great circumspection and wisdom. The President agreed and fully
responded.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 576
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