Busy through the day
until dark on the subject of promotions, except for a short time at the
Cabinet. The promotions will, unavoidably, give pain to many worthy men, but
the principle which I have adopted will cause immensely less dissatisfaction
than the original recommendations of the boards convened under the previous
law. My action has been based on their recommendations, only deviating in a few
cases when I was convinced injustice had been done by partiality or prejudice.
Many would be glad
to dispense these promotions, but it has been to me a labor of sadness in many
respects, and, though as glad as anyone to assist in rewarding merit, yet, when
accompanied with the knowledge that a lifelong sorrow is to be inflicted on
others, necessarily, because extra promotion cannot be made without overriding
others, some of them estimable men though not proved heroic officers, I am
grieved.
Mr. Stanbery, the
new Attorney-General, took his seat to-day in the Cabinet. He seems to have encountered
no opposition in the Senate.
Seward presented a
letter which he had prepared to our Minister to Japan. I did not like it, nor
have I been favorable to the course which our Government and authority have in
some respects pursued towards the Japanese. We Americans had found favor in
their eyes above any Christian nation. To us they had opened ports and
permitted trade. The English and French sought the same privilege; ultimately
these countries and the Japanese became involved in hostilities, and the two
powers had their fleets there. They intrigued to get us to unite with them. But
the Japanese wanted no quarrel with us. Yet Mr. Pruyn, our then Minister,
persuaded or directed Captain McDougal, commanding the Jamestown, to furnish a
small detachment to go on board a small steamer which was chartered and
entered, with the American flag, into the fight. Although performing little or
no service, the two powers were delighted, extolled our men, who were mere
spectators, gave honors to our officers, who rendered no service, and when the
Japanese came to terms and agreed to pay three millions, it was insisted the
Americans, with their little chartered steamer and with no expectation, should
receive the same as the other powers with their large fleets and great expense.
Of this money, called indemnity, three hundred thousand dollars have been
received. The Japanese have now requested delay in the payment of the other
installments. Seward's letter was very arrogant, dictatorial, and mandatory.
This Government would consent to no delay; immediate and full payment must be
promptly made, unless the two other powers decided on a different course, when
our hostile policy would yield and conform to theirs. I was
disgusted and said so.
There was, moreover,
a by-transaction in which Thurlow Weed and Lansing of Albany, a brother-in-law
of the Minister, were interested to the amount of several hundred thousand
dollars in gold, which had been intrusted to their hands under the advisement
of the Minister for building ships years ago. When the war came on in Japan
these two gentlemen with Japanese money in their pockets desired our Government
to take the vessel which they had then built. President Lincoln, when I
declined the purchase, was appealed to. He had one or two interviews with me,
and as I considered the proceeding improper he put his name to a paper
expressing a wish that she might be taken into our service. But I was finally
successful, though with much difficulty, in resisting the scheme. Difficulties
between our Government and Japan on other subjects relieved Weed and company in
their matters.
When, therefore,
Seward read his letter to-day, I expressed a wish that if a refusal were to be
sent, it might be less harsh. I preferred, if he so shaped our relations that
we must be tied to England and France, they should take the initiative, and we,
acting independently, should consent to a reasonable delay even if they did not
assent. This, I thought, sufficiently humiliating. Seward was not pleased.
Stanton saw the point of my suggestion and doubted whether we should complicate
ourselves with the other powers. No other one made a remark or asked a question
to draw me out. They saw, which indeed was very perceptible, that Seward was
nettled, and they knew not the preceding history.
I took occasion,
immediately after the adjournment, to inform the President of the main points
and also McCulloch. On learning the facts, both declared themselves against
Seward's letter. The President said he recollected former remarks of mine in
Cabinet when the notice of the first installment was announced and Seward took
great credit to himself for the money. I said it cost the nation dear.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 559-62
