Moore, the
President's Private Secretary, came to me on Wednesday, the 9th, by request of
the President, who desired him to consult with me respecting orders recently
issued to Captain S. P. Lee to take command at Mare Island Navy Yard. He said
the elder Blair was very importunate on the subject and made it a personal
matter. I told him I was aware of what Lee was procuring to be done through
others, and that therein he was violating regulations and usage, but that it
was characteristic of him. The orders to him were complimentary, for he had
seniors who had prior claims, but I considered Lee a good yard officer. His
case was peculiar. I had given him the command of the North Atlantic Squadron
when other and older officers were entitled to the position. But, knowing that
he had good business qualities, and that much that was improper was then being
carried on in violation of blockade by Treasury men and by General Butler, I
had purposely selected him for that position. The business portion of his
duties were well performed, but as an officer he has not sufficient energetic
fighting qualities. Some efforts towards getting possession of the entrance of
[the] Cape Fear [River] and capturing Fort Fisher were proposed, but eventuated
in nothing, and when the army finally indicated a willingness to join in a
coöperative movement, the first step taken was to detach Lee. While in command,
however, he had been wonderfully favored in procuring prize money, being
entitled to one twentieth of all the captures on that extensive blockade. He
had, consequently, accumulated a handsome fortune of over $150,000. With the
fortune he now sought rank to which the Navy was opposed. I have been more
blamed for favoritism to Lee than to any other officer. But while others blamed
me for favors to Lee, he was dissatisfied because I did not give him promotion
and was continually harassing my old friend his father-in-law to press his
promotion. I had repeatedly assured Mr. Blair, as well as Lee, that it was
impossible to gratify him. Both they and those opposed to him had done me
injustice. I had in view the good of the service without partiality or
prejudice.
I told Moore to tell
the President that Lee had now had about nine months' waiting orders, that
every officer of his grade was on duty, that he could not expect to escape duty
and remain in the service; that his rank did not entitle him to a squadron, but
it would be unpleasant for him after having acted as rear-admiral to take a
single ship and go under the command of another. I had, therefore, given him
the California shore station, to which, however, he was not entitled, but as a
compromise under the peculiar circumstances. But this duty he was trying to
evade through political influence, and, instead of coming to the Department, he
was intriguing and operating through his father-in-law and annoying the
President. I requested him to communicate the facts in full to the President,
for I desired him to know them and would myself speak to him on the subject.
At a caucus of the
Republican members of the Connecticut Legislature General Ferry on the seventh
ballot was nominated. Senator Foster had been confident of a reelection, but
there never was a case worse managed. His friends went into a caucus without
qualification, having Governor Buckingham and Ferry for competitors. B. was
from the same town with Foster, and the contest consequently had a personal
bearing. Ferry, being from the western part, slipped in between them. I had
told Dixon and had written to some friends that the struggle would be likely to
eventuate in Ferry's nomination.
Babcock and Sperry
of New Haven have undertaken to manage the matters, and they have, as I
expected they would, made a failure. They have been afraid of dividing the
party, and, as the Radicals outnumber them in the organization, they must go
against their conviction and do wrong. I do not believe there is vim enough
among the friends of Johnson to make a stand in this matter. Babcock has run
his head into a bag and taken others with him. He is afraid to withdraw it lest
he should see something. By this action he has demoralized the members.
Fox is bewildered
with the idea of going out in his official capacity as Assistant Secretary of
the Navy to Europe. I am sorry to see so much self-glorification. But he is
stimulated by Seward, Grimes, and others.
Old Mr. Blair came
in to-day and had more than an hour's talk with me in behalf of Lee. I went
over the ground with him, as I did with Moore. "But," said Mr. Blair,
"I ask as a favor to myself, who have labored here in Washington for
thirty-five years without office, that Lee may have a position in
Washington." He said his sons, Montgomery and Frank, had been sacrificed,
and he asked me as an old friend to spare Lee. I told him I was willing to do
anything in my power for him or either of his sons, but I could not depart from
what is right and the usages of the service; that Lee had been guilty of great
impropriety in procuring him to take up his cause with the President or myself;
that Lee had received special favors, had become rich in a place which others
believed justly theirs, and that they had imputed his success to the Blair
influence; that, were I to give Lee position here in one of the bureaus, as he,
Mr. Blair, requested, or were I to give him promotion as asked, it would cause
great dissatisfaction in the service, and be charged to the Blairs; that I, as
a friend, was unwilling that discontent against them should be incurred for
Lee; that he ought not to absorb their influence nor strive to get court favor
at their expense.
Mr. Blair claimed
that Lee stood next to Farragut and Porter in the Navy and ought to be made an
admiral; says he would have been but for Fox, and named some things against Fox
which I told him were incorrect. At length he drew out an application from Lee,
but not signed though in his handwriting, asking a year's leave. I told him it
was an extraordinary application, such as no one of his rank had made, and that
Lee must know it was improper. He could not think, after his great pecuniary
success, of remaining idle in the service, nor must he strive to evade its
duty. If he declined the Navy Yard at Mare Island, he might take Pensacola, or
he might have a good ship, but he must not decline service after nine months'
leisure. I told him I could do better for Lee if absent than if here, that
whatever I had done for him had been unsolicited and when he was away.
Mr. Blair deprecated
the desolation of his house from this order to move; said his daughter and
grandchildren would leave him, and he and his old woman would pack up and go to
California also, which was very hard at seventy-five. I said that neither he,
his wife, nor daughter would go, that he had been urged to this application by
this improper view.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 504-7