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
