Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, May 12, 1866

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

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, March 24, 1866

The Intelligencer of this morning contains an adroit letter from Cleveland, the Hartford Postmaster, stating that he is openly supporting English for Governor, who is in favor of the measures, policy, veto, and speech of the President, and that he is opposing Hawley, who is opposed to them, and tendering his resignation if his course is disapproved. On this letter the President indorsed that his (C.'s) action in sustaining his (the President's) measures and policy is approved and the resignation is, therefore, not accepted.

This correspondence will be misconstrued and misunderstood, I have no doubt. The Democrats will claim that it is a committal for English, and the Republicans will acquiesce to some extent. Yet the disposition of the subject is highly creditable to the sagacity and tact of the President. I regret that he did not earlier and in some more conspicuous case take action.

I do not like the shape things are taking in Connecticut, and to some extent the position of the President is and will be misunderstood. He is, I think, not satisfied with the somewhat equivocal position of Hawley, and would now prefer that English should be the Union candidate. Herein he errs, as things are situated, for most of his friends are supporting Hawley and some of his bitterest opponents are supporting English. He should soon draw the line of demarcation. In the break-up of parties which I think is now upon us, not unlikely Hawley will plunge into centralism, for thither go almost all Radicals, including his old Abolition associates. The causes or circumstances which take him there will be likely to bring English into the President's support. Nevertheless, under the existing state of things, I should, unless something farther occurs between this and election, probably, on personal grounds, prefer Hawley. It is too late to effect a change of front with parties.

Senator Sumner came this P.M. as usual on Saturdays. He doubts the correctness of taking naval vessels for the French Exhibition. Grimes, with whom I have had some conversation, has contributed to Sumner's doubts. It is certainly a strange proceeding to require or expect the Navy to furnish four vessels with their crews for this carrying service without any appropriation of funds for that object. It is not a naval matter, enters not into our estimates, and we have no suitable vessels. The House is very loose and reckless, however, in its proceedings, and appears to be careless of current legislation. Specific appropriations they would misapply, and are, in fact, pressing and insisting that I shall divert funds appropriated by law for one purpose to another and different purpose. But this was not Sumner's trouble. He thought it bad economy, as it undoubtedly is. I said to him that if I was called to do this transportation without instructions, I would, as a matter of economy, sooner charter merchant ships than dismantle and attempt to convert and use naval vessels for the purpose.

I learn in confidence from Sumner that dispatches from our legation in France have reached the State Department which have not been brought before the Cabinet. Louis Napoleon has quarreled with his cousin, who was president of the commission of savants, and he has left Paris and resigned the presidency. Napoleon has appointed in his place, as president of the World's Congress of wise men and inventors, his son, now some eight or ten years of age. This Sumner thinks an insult or worse, and is disposed to give the whole thing a rebuff. I shall be glad to have him, but he will not attempt to move without first consulting Seward, and that gentleman has his heart so much in the interest of France, his friends are so engaged in the Exhibition, that he has held back this information and will set himself earnestly at work to overpersuade Sumner, who, as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, has seen the dispatches. He may succeed. Sumner was, however, very earnest and pleased with his own idea of hitting Louis Napoleon a blow.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 461-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, March 29, 1866

Attended, with the rest of the Cabinet, the President to the Capitol, — the funeral of Senator Foot. Great interest was felt. He was pater senatus and much loved and respected. Had been twenty-three years in Congress.

He was on the Naval Committee in the first years of my administration and always a firm friend of the Department. This brought him intimate with me and somewhat in collision with J. P. Hale, who was Chairman of the Naval Committee and an opponent and faultfinder, ending with the retirement of Foot from the Committee, much to my regret, for, next to Grimes, he interested himself more in naval matters than any of his associates on the Senate Committee. Although indisposed to complain and always avoiding censorious remarks, he in apologizing for his course in retiring from the Committee stated that the association with the Chairman was unpleasant.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 466

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, March 9, 1866

Senator Grimes, after an interview this A.M. on naval matters, got on to the subject of our public affairs generally, and particularly the differences between the President and the party in Congress. He disclaims Stevens and Sumner, and spoke of each in severe and denunciatory terms, the former as a pretty unscrupulous old fellow, unfit to lead any party, Sumner as a cold-blooded, selfish, dangerous man. When I spoke of him as honest but theoretical and yet, I believe, truthful, Grimes was disinclined to award him these traits, and I perceive has a strong prejudice—perhaps I should better define it by saying hate of the Massachusetts Senator, who, though a student learned in books, Grimes asserts is not a statesman or wise legislator.

With very respectable talents, Grimes is of a suspicious and somewhat jealous nature, inclining to be misanthropic. He must be classed as of the Radical school, but recognizes no Radical leader, has no respect for them; abhors Stevens as a debauchee in morals and politics. He is intimate with Fessenden, who is dyspeptic and has similar traits, and the two hunt in couples. They were both former admirers of Seward, but now and for some time past they dislike him, think his influence on Johnson pernicious.

When I saw during the fall that the extremists were gathering up their strength against the President, it was a question with me how these two Senators would go. Their natural tendency would, I knew, incline them to the opposition. They are both intense on the negro. But neither of them liked Sumner or Stevens, who were in the extreme advance. The President was originally of a different school of politics, and there is not, therefore, that intimacy between them which begets zeal, but during the War they have been bound by a common interest. They had no personal opposition to the President and, I think, no feeling against him except that which minds like theirs would have against the elevation above them of an old associate Senator whom they had regarded as an equal rather than a superior. Though differing with him in fundamental principles of our government, they respected his honesty.

Grimes says he came here at the commencement of the present session kindly disposed to the President and not very hostile to his policy. But he soon found that certain obnoxious Democrats had free access to the White House, and that pardoned Rebels hung around there. He was not satisfied with this state of things, and spoke of it, and was asked why he and others remained away. Soon after he was invited to breakfast with the President, and spent two hours with him discussing all subjects in full and most satisfactorily. Allusion was made to Fessenden, and he expressed a wish that the two should come together and interchange opinions. The President requested him to speak to Fessenden and invite an interview. As the next day was Sunday, Grimes inquired if it would be agreeable for the President to see him on the Sabbath. The President assented, and F. spent several hours most satisfactorily at the White House and went over general measures now prominent.

On the following day appeared the celebrated letter of "a conversation of the President with a distinguished Senator." Grimes says on reading it he asked Fessenden if that was his conversation. F. after reading the letter said he had had no such conversation, and they soon ascertained that Dixon was the Senator. The two, finding that they were not the only confidants of the President, thereupon left him, and allied themselves to the Radicals. They had ascertained that the President conversed freely with others, was not likely to commit himself to their keeping exclusively, and therefore should have their opposition or at all events could not rely on their support.

I inquired of Grimes what there was offensive in the letter, or the President's policy, or wherein he was inconsistent; said that doubtless many, who, like him and Fessenden, had peculiar views of their own, had called on the President and he had frankly conversed with each of them, notwithstanding their different shades of opinion, and each, perhaps, had construed the friendly courtesy and kindly greeting as favoring his tenet, while the aim had been to commit himself to none, but to be friendly and conciliatory with all.

I asked Grimes where all this was to end; what we were to expect when Members of Congress made it a point to disagree, organized a joint committee of the two houses to get round constitutional difficulty, which committee was to establish a policy for Congress and the country, arrogated to itself and stimulated Congress to arrogate or usurp executive powers, were passing declaratory resolutions which had no force, but were designed to irritate and be offensive, with other extraordinary proceedings. I told him the country had a present and a future before it, and its fate was to some extent in the hands of men in responsible positions and for which they were accountable. The country, I said, appeared to me to be in peril; that we must either reunite or diverge still farther soon. We cannot remain inactive, must either advance or recede.

I could perceive he was disturbed, but soon remarked that the Southern people were a damned set of traitors, as bad now as at any time during the Rebellion, and he had no confidence in them.

I admitted they were bad, malignant, foolish to a great extent, but asked when they would be better, and if no better, were we to be forever a disunited country. Their indebtedness in various forms under their sham organization could not be less than twenty-five hundred millions; the property in slaves which was extinguished by emancipation could not be less than twenty-five hundred millions more; other individual losses were immense. To all this they were compelled to submit, and besides this they were to pay their proportion of our debt incurred in whipping them. Now was it strange that they were sore and complaining, and were we doing right in excluding them from all participation in the government, to which they were entitled under the Constitution? We must adopt conciliatory measures or national calamities would soon be upon us, and we ought not to shut our eyes to the facts.

He admitted something must be done, but said that he had confidence that all would come right. He guessed we were nearer now than some apprehended. This he said with a smile and manner that impressed me as coming from one who thinks he and his associates have the reins in their hands and intend to guide the government car safely. But the subject should not be trifled with.

McCulloch inquired of Stanton if he had reached a solution of the difficulty in regard to the oath. Stanton replied that he had given it considerable thought and come to the conclusion that it would be best for McCulloch to prepare a letter setting forth the difficulties of the case. This letter, I remarked, had better be addressed to the President. Stanton did not respond favorably to this suggestion. He thought it would do as well to send it to one of the committee. This was also Harlan's view. Dennison took very decided ground with me.

The rumors that the Fenians had seized Navy Island and that ten thousand volunteers had been called out by the Canadian authorities were current this morning. Seward was unwell and not at the Cabinet-meeting. The British and Canadian Governments were each much excited. The last arrival brings information that the habeas corpus is suspended in Ireland and the propriety of some governmental action here was discussed.

Stanton thought a proclamation should be issued and decisive measures taken, as was done by Van Buren in his day. Regretted Seward was not present, for we knew not what appeals had been made by the British Government. The propriety of taking some action was generally concurred in, and Stanton rather pressed it. I proposed that General Grant should be consulted, sent to the frontiers, and perhaps it would be well to address a communication on the subject which would form the basis of government action. Stanton could see no necessity for bringing Grant out; a proclamation from the President to put down these Fenian organizations was what was required. I assented, but stated that the occasion and condition of the country and of our public affairs were such that I thought it would be wise to have the public authorities fully heard, and all of them. The Irish element, I stated, was a strong one and clannish, and if a movement against an organization of theirs was to be made, I wished to see others besides the President moving, and especially did I desire, under existing circumstances, when the militia might be called to act, that General Grant should be consulted. Harlan thought a circular from the Attorney-General exhorting vigilance on the part of attorneys and marshals would be sufficient; the circular could be got into print. While I did not object to that process, I expressed my conviction that it would be wise to have General Grant identified with the Administration in these movements. Dennison and McCulloch concurred with me.

After the others left, the President expressed his satisfaction with the direction I had indicated and the bearing it seemed to have on others.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 447-51

Diary of Gideon Welles: October 1865

Some slight indisposition and pressing duties have postponed my daily remarks. The President had expressed to me his intention to go to Richmond and Raleigh on the 3d inst., and invited me to accompany him, but I doubted if he would carry the design out, and he said on the 3d he must postpone it for the present, which I think will be for the season.

A vote was taken in Connecticut on Monday, the 2d, on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to erase the word "white" and permit the colored persons to vote. I was not surprised that the proposition was defeated by a very decided majority, yet I had expected that the question might be carried on the strong appeal to party. But there is among the people a repugnance to the negro, and a positive disinclination to lower the standard of suffrage. They will not receive the negro into their parlors on terms of social intimacy, and they are unwilling to put him in the jury-box or any political position. There are probably not five hundred colored persons who could be made electors, and the grievance is therefore not very great.

The defeat of the Constitutional Amendment has caused a great howl to be set up by certain extremists, in the State and out of it. While I might have voted affirmatively had I been in the State, I have no wailing over the negative results. I regret to witness the abuse of the Press and other papers on those whom it failed to convince, and who consequently voted according to their convictions. This abuse and denunciation will tend to alienate friends, and weaken the influence of the Union leaders in future elections.

The effect of the vote elsewhere will be to impair centralization, which has been setting in strong of late, and invigorate State action, and in this respect the result will be beneficent. I apprehend our extreme negro advocates are doing serious injury to the negro in their zeal in his behalf, and they are certainly doing harm to our system by insisting on the exercise of arbitrary and unauthorized power in aid of the negro.

Some of the workmen in the Philadelphia Navy Yard complained that an assessment had been levied upon them for party purposes. I had written a pretty decisive letter correcting the evil when I went to the Cabinet-meeting on Tuesday, and had given it out to be copied. After the general business before the Cabinet had been disposed of, the President took me aside and said complaints of a similar character had been made to him. I told him my own conclusion and what I had done, which he approved. The opportunity is most favorable to correct a pernicious practice, which I last year would not sanction, and which led Raymond, Thurlow Weed, and others to try to prejudice President Lincoln against me.

On Wednesday Amos Kendall called and wished me to go with him to the President. He alluded to old friendly political associations and relations between us. I was glad of the opportunity of taking him to the President, whom I was about to call upon with my letter to the Commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, respecting the improper assessment of workmen. After a brief interview Mr. Kendall left, and I read my letter concerning the assessment of workmen, which the President complimented and desired it should go to other yards and be made public. [The letter follows.]

NAVY DEPARTMENT,      

3 October, 1865.

 

SIR: The attention of the Department has been called to an attempt recently made in Philadelphia to assess or tax for party purposes the workmen in the Navy Yard. It is claimed by those who have participated in these proceedings, that the practice has prevailed in former years, at that and other Navy Yards, of levying contributions of this character on mechanics and laborers employed by the Government.

 

Such an abuse cannot be permitted; and it is the object of this communication to prohibit it, wherever it may be practiced.

 

From inquiries instituted by the Department, on the complaint of sundry workmen, who represented that a committee had undertaken, through the agency of the masters, to collect from each of the employés in their respective departments, a sum equal to one day's labor, for party purposes—it has been ascertained that there had been received from the workmen before these proceedings were arrested, the sum of $1052.

 

This and all other attempts to exact money from laborers in the public service, either by compulsion or voluntary contribution, is, in every point of view, reprehensible, and is wholly and absolutely prohibited. Whatever money may have been exacted, and is now in the hands of the Masters, will be forthwith returned to the workmen from whom it was received; and any Master or other appointee of this Department who may be guilty of a repetition of this offense, or shall hereafter participate in levying contributions in the Navy Yards, from persons in the Government service, for party purposes, will incur the displeasure of the Department, and render himself liable to removal. The organization of the Yard must not be perverted to aid any party. Persons who desire to make voluntary party contributions, can find opportunities to do so, at ward or other local political meetings, and on other occasions than during working hours. They are neither to be assisted nor opposed, in this matter, by government officials. The Navy Yards must not be prostituted to any such purpose, nor will Committee men be permitted to resort thither, to make collections for any political party whatever. Working men, and others in the service of the Government, are expected and required to devote their time and energies during working hours, and while in the Yard, to the labor which they are employed to execute.

It has been also represented that some of the Masters at some of the Navy Yards employ extra hands preceding warmly contested elections, and that much of the time of these superfluous hands is devoted to party electioneering. Such an abuse, if it exists in any department of any of the Navy Yards, must be corrected. No more persons should be retained in the Navy Yards than the public service actually requires. Party gatherings and party discussions are at all times to be avoided within the Yards. It will be the duty of the Commandants of the respective Yards, and of all officers, to see that this order is observed.

 

Very respectfully,

G. WELLES, 

Secty. of the Navy.

COMMO. CHAS. H. BELL,

Commdt. Navy Yard,

New York.

 

(Also written to all the other Commandants of Navy Yards.)

I called on Seward on Wednesday in relation to the Stonewall, the Harriet Lane, the Florida, etc., as he was about leaving to be absent for a fortnight, and we may wish to send to Havana before he returns. After disposing of business, and I had left his room, he sent his messenger to recall me. He seemed a little embarrassed and hesitating at first, but said he wished to say to me that he had had full and free and unreserved talks recently with the President; that he had found him friendly and confiding, and more communicative than Mr. Lincoln ever had been; that he knew and could say to me that the President had for me, for him (Seward), and indeed for all the Cabinet a friendly regard; that he had no intention of disturbing any member of the Cabinet; that I had reason to be specially gratified with the President's appreciation of me. Some general conversation followed on past transactions and events. Among other things we got on to Blair's letters and speeches. He says the original armistice, alluded to by Blair, was left by Buchanan with other papers on the office table at the Executive Mansion or with the Attorney-General.

Seward, McCulloch, Harlan, and Speed were absent from Washington on Friday, the 6th, the day of the last Cabinet-meeting. No very important questions were presented and discussed. The presence of the assistants instead of the principals operates, I perceive, as an obstruction to free interchange of opinion.

At the last Cabinet-meeting in September, Seward read a strange letter addressed to one of the provisional governors, informing him that the President intended to continue the provisional governments in the several insurrectionary States until Congress assembled and should take the subject in hand with the newly formed constitutions. I was amazed, and remarked that I did not understand the question or status of the States to be as stated, and was relieved when the President said he disapproved of that part of the letter. Speed asked to have the letter again read and was evidently satisfied with it. Seward made a pencil correction or alteration that was unimportant and meaningless, when the President said very emphatically he wished no reference to Congress in any such communication, or in any such way. Stanton, I observed, remained perfectly silent though very attentive. It appeared to me that the subject was not novel to him.

In an interview with the President the Monday following (the 2d inst.), I expressed my wish that no letter should be sent defining the policy of the Administration without full and careful consideration. The President said he should see to that, and that Seward's letter as modified by himself was a harmless affair.

I have sent out another circular in relation to the appointment of masters in the navy yards. These appointments have caused great difficulty in the Department, the Members of Congress insisting on naming them, and almost without an exception the party instead of the mechanical qualifications of the man is urged. It is best to be relieved of this evil, and I shall try to cure it.

I see that Senator Grimes by letter expresses his disapproval of the Radical movements in the Iowa State Convention. Doolittle has been still more emphatic in Wisconsin. Things are working very well. The conventions in the Rebel States are discharging their duties as satisfactorily, perhaps, as could be expected. Some of the extreme Republicans, of the Sumner school, are dissatisfied, but I think their numbers are growing less. The Democrats, on the other hand, are playing what they consider a shrewd party game, by striving to take advantage of the errors and impracticable notions of the ultras. Therefore the policy of the Administration appears to be growing in favor, though the machinery of politics is at work in an opposite direction.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 375-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, December 23, 1864

Being a little late at Cabinet, found the President, Seward, and Stanton with my letter before them in relation to Osborn. Stanton was evidently not satisfied with my presentation of the case, and yet was not prepared to specify his objections. He spoke of the publishers as equally deserving arrest, which I did not controvert, but expressed an opinion that all implicated should be attended to. I furnished proof as to the complicity of Osborn. On this further proceedings might be had. Seward was interested in a late singular decision of Judge Wylie of the District Court against Baker, for false arrest and imprisonment at the instigation of the late Secretary of the Treasury, the present Chief Justice Chase. Under this decision, he said, no Cabinet officer was safe. Stanton said he would be imprisoned a thousand years at least.

This proceeding of the court had evidently caused Stanton to hesitate in the matter of Osborn, and hence he wanted me to make special request for the arrest, not only of O. but the different editors, who, he thought, should be punished. I did not incline to that view. O. had surreptitiously obtained information and sold to editors. The President remarked that he thought an example of Osborn might answer without a squabble with the editors. Both he and Stanton dwelt on the disinclination of General Dix to have a fight with newspapers.

An investigation as to the true condition of matters with Judge Wylie in the Baker and Gwin case was directed. The President suggested a difference in this and arrests under the military department.

I have had much difficulty in regard to the Dictator and the Puritan. The large balance due falls heavily on the contractors, who claim they are losing interest at the rate of about two hundred and fifty dollars per day. It is very hard that they should thus suffer, but the law for their relief is very bungling in its phraseology. I have delayed action, and consulted with several. Admiral Smith, Fox, and Faxon advise payment. Lenthall objects. I requested Senator Grimes to examine the papers and the law yesterday, and had intended to associate Mr. Rice with him, so as to have an opinion from the Chairman of each naval committee; but Rice had gone to Boston. Grimes advised payment, so I ordered half a million to be paid towards the Puritan, but none to the Dictator until we had a more satisfactory and full report.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 206-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: [Saturday, November 26, 1864]

I called on the President Satur: day, the 26th, as I had promised him I would the day before, with my abstract for the message, intending to have a full, free talk with him on the subjects that were under review the day previous. But Mr. Bates was there with his resignation, and evidently anxious to have a private interview with the President.

The question of Chief Justice has excited much remark and caused quite a movement with many. Mr. Chase is expecting it, and he has many strong friends who are urging him. But I have not much idea that the President will appoint him, nor is it advisable he should. I had called on the President on the 23d, and had some conversation, after dispatching a little business, in regard to this appointment of Chief Justice. He said there was a great pressure and a good many talked of, but that he had not prepared his message and did not intend to take up the subject of judge before the session commenced.

“There is," said he, "a tremendous pressure just now for Evarts of New York, who, I suppose, is a good lawyer?” This he put inquiringly. I stated that he stood among the foremost at the New York bar; perhaps no one was more prominent as a lawyer. "But that," I remarked, “is not all. Our Chief Justice must have a judicial mind, be upright, of strict integrity, not too pliant; should be a statesman and a politician.” By politician I did not mean a partisan. [I said] that it appeared to me the occasion should be improved to place at the head of the court a man, not a partisan, but one who was impressed with the principles and doctrines which had brought this Administration into power; that it would conduce to the public welfare and his own comfort to have harmony between himself and the judicial department, and that it was all-important that he should have a judge who would be a correct and faithful expositor of the principles of his administration and policy after his administration shall have closed. I stated that among the candidates who had been named, Mr. Montgomery Blair, it appeared to me, best conformed to these requirements; that the President knew the man, his ability, his truthfulness, honesty, and courage.

The President at different points expressed his concurrence in my views, and spoke kindly and complimentarily of Mr. Blair, but did not in any way commit himself, nor did I expect or suppose he would.

I have since seen and had a full conversation with Blair. We had previously exchanged a few words on the subject. I then stated to him that, while it would gratify me to see him on the bench, I preferred that he should continue in active political life, and that I had especially desired he should go into the War Department. This point was alluded to in our present interview, and he confessed the War Department was more congenial to his feelings, but Seward wanted a tool there, and if he had influence, it would be exerted against him (Blair) for that place. Yet in a conversation which he had with Seward about a week since, Seward had given him (Blair) to understand that he was his (Seward's) candidate for Chief Justice. I told him that he could hardly be sincere in this, for Evarts would not consent to be a candidate nor think of it if Seward was not for him. Blair seemed a little shocked with this view of facts, and remarked that if Seward was not for him he was an infernal hypocrite.

Blair says he is singularly placed at this juncture, for the Marylanders are disposed to put him in the Senate at this time, while this judicial appointment is pending. I told him that personally I should be as much pleased to see him in the Senate as in the Court.

Governor Dennison, Postmaster-General, called at my house this evening to have some conversation on the subject of judge. He says he is and was at the last session committed for his fellow townsman Judge Swayne, who was at the time recommended by all on the bench; that he had called on the President at that time in behalf of Swayne, and the President then remarked that that seemed a settled question in which all were agreed. Governor D. is now a little embarrassed, for he feels particularly friendly to Blair.

As regards Mr. Chase, Governor D., like myself, thinks it impossible that he should receive the appointment, that it is one which the President cannot properly make. Says they could not assimilate, and that, were Chase in that position,—a life tenure,—he would exhibit his resentments against the President, who he thinks has prevented his upward official career. He then told me that he labored to get Chase into the Treasury, and how sadly he had been disappointed over his failure as a financier. One of the strong traits of Chase, he says, is the memory of differences, and that he never forgets or forgives those who have once thwarted him. He may suppress his revenge, but it is abiding.

The resignation of Attorney-General Bates has initiated more intrigues. A host of candidates are thrust forward, or are thrusting themselves forward. Evarts, Holt, Cushing, Whiting, and the Lord knows who, are all candidates. Under the circumstances it appears to me the appointment must go to one of the Border States, and hence I have thought Holt would most probably be the candidate of the President. He is, moreover, of Democratic antecedents; still I have no information on the subject.

Fox tells me that Whiting sought him yesterday and introduced the subject of the Navy Department, and inquired of Fox if he would remain were I to leave. To this F. says he replied he thought not, for we had got along so well together that he did not believe he could be reconciled to another. Whiting told him that would have great influence in the matter; that it was thought Senator Grimes might be offered the appointment if there was a change. All of this means that Whiting wants to be Attorney-General, but New England cannot have more appointments, and the little fellow is intriguing for a remote chance. Could the Secretary of the Navy come from Iowa, the Attorney-General, he thinks, might be selected from New England. The game is very easily read. Little Whiting's intrigues are not equal to his egotism, and yet he is a convenient instrument for others. He writes for Stanton, for Seward, and for the President, and intrigues generally. But he overestimates himself. He will never go into the Cabinet.

R. H. Gillett, formerly Solicitor of the Treasury, now a practicing lawyer, chiefly in the Supreme Court, stopped me a few mornings since to relate his last interview with Judge Taney. They were discussing governmental affairs. The Chief Justice was, he says, communicative and instructive. He said the Navy Department made less noise than some of the others, but no Department of the government was so well managed or better performed its duty.

This was, and is, high praise from a quarter that makes it appreciated. The Chief Justice could, as well as any man, form a correct opinion, and in giving it he must have been disinterested. Twenty-five and thirty years ago we were slightly acquainted, but I do not remember that I have exchanged a word with him since the days of Van Buren, perhaps I did in Polk's administration. The proceedings in the Dred Scott case alienated my feelings entirely. I have never called on him, as I perhaps ought in courtesy to have done, but it was not in me, for I have looked on him and his court as having contributed, unintentionally perhaps, but largely, to the calamities of our afflicted country. They probably did not mean treason but thought their wisdom and official position would give national sanction to a great wrong. Whether Judge T. retained any recollection of me, or our former slight acquaintance, I probably shall never know, but his compliment I highly value.

The case of the Florida has from time to time and in various ways been up. She was taken by Collins in the Wachusett at Bahia and brought to Hampton Roads. Having been captured in neutral waters, a great outcry has gone up from the English press and people, and some of our own have manifested a morbid sentiment with those English who have nothing to do with the subject. The Secretary of State has not known what to say, and, I think, not what to do. In our first or second conversation he expressed a hope that we should not be compelled to give up the Florida, and this he repeated in each of our subsequent interviews. I told him the idea ought not to be seriously thought of for a moment, and said that I knew of no instance where a belligerent armed vessel had been restored. That he owed a respectful apology to Brazil, I not only admitted but asserted. We have disturbed her peace, been guilty of discourtesy, etc., etc. Yet Brazil herself has in the first instance done wrong. She has given refuge and aid to the robbers whom she does not recognize as a government. She has, while holding amicable relations with us, seen these pirates seize and burn our merchant vessels, and permitted these plundering marauders to get supplies and to refit in her ports, and almost make her harbors the base of operations. What Brazil will demand or require I know not. Although she has done wrong to us in giving comfort and assistance to these robbers, I would make amends for her offended sovereignty by any proper acknowledgments. I do not believe she will have the impudence to ask restitution. If she did, it would be under British prompting and I would not give it. The case is not as if the war was between two nations. Yet some of our politicians and editors are treating it as such. Among others the New York Evening Post. I am inclined to think there is something personal towards me in this pertness of the Evening Post. The papers have alluded to differences between Seward and myself. There has been no such controversy or difference as the Post represents on this subject. All our talk has been amicable, he doubtful and hesitating, I decided and firm on certain points which, if he does not assent to, he does not controvert. But the publisher of the Evening Post is held in bail for malfeasance at the instance of the Navy Department. Great efforts have been made to let him off, to which I could not yield, and his case is to come off before the grand jury now in session. Under these circumstances the editors of the Post are very willing to differ with me on a public question, and yet they would never admit that they were actuated by personal considerations or a design to influence and bias the jury. It is, they think, their nice sense of honor, which would have us, as a nation, humble ourselves to Brazil for having taken a pirate by the throat within her jurisdiction, and that same sense of honor would screen a malefactor from exposure and punishment.

Brazil, and other governments who have given shelter, comfort, and aid to the piratical vessels that have plundered our commerce under a pretended flag which neither Brazil nor any other nation recognizes, committed the first great wrong. The government of Brazil is aware that the Rebel pirates have no admiralty court, that they have never sent in a vessel captured for condemnation; therefore Brazil herself, by permitting and acquiescing in the outrages on a friendly nation, is the first aggressor, and she should be held to it. If we have injured Brazil, let us make reparation, full and ample. If she has injured us, let her do her duty also, in this respect. So far as her majesty is disturbed by our taking a sneaking thief, whom she was entertaining, by the throat, — an outlaw with some of his robberies upon him, — let all proper atonement be made.

I suggested to Mr. Seward that proceedings should be commenced against the prisoners captured on the Florida as pirates, but he shrank from it, although it would have relieved him of many difficulties. It would not have been wrong to have gone to extremes with them, but the prosecution would bring out the true points and stop noise.

Governor Morgan detailed his journey with Governor Morrill through the different States, visiting the different governors and our political friends prior to the election, under an appointment, it seems, from the Secretary of War, ostensibly to attend to the draft. It was when political affairs looked darkest. He thinks that he and M. under this appointment and visit did much to dissipate the gloom. The intrigues of the radicals were totally defeated, and, after opposing and abusing the President, all of them finally came in, as I had no doubt they would. Morgan says the malcontents held their final secret meeting at the house of one of the editors of the Evening Post.

Chase was, Morgan says, open and sharp in his opposition to the President, — they heard of him at various places, but, finding he could accomplish nothing, he eventually came in, called on the President, procured the sacrifice of Blair as a pretext for his wounded and bruised feelings and those of his friends. This is Morgan's representation.

There was probably something in this, and also, I think, in the intrigues of Thurlow Weed. Strange antagonisms seem to have been harnessed up together in some partypolitical personal operations. Morgan thinks Chase will be appointed Chief Justice, but I do not yet arrive at that conclusion. The President sometimes does strange things, but this would be a singular mistake, in my opinion, for one who is so shrewd and honest, — an appointment that he would soon regret. In this M. agrees with me, and also that Blair is the man.

The place of Attorney-General has been tendered to Holt, who declines it, preferring his present position. This I think an error; that is, no man should decline a place of such responsibility in times like these when the country is so unanimous in his favor. Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department and patent lawyer, is sorely disappointed.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 181-7

Flag Officer Samuel F. Dupont to Gustavus V. Fox, July 7, 1862

Flag Ship 'Wabash'         

Port Royal Harbor S.C.     

July 7, 1862 

My Dear Sir, 

My official letter will explain my views as to sending this ship North. I have always had a great dislike at running willing horses to death and the devotion and absence of all grumbling on the part of this crew, after their long and continuous service never having landed but to fight and doing the work they do for the whole squadron, with no chance at prize money &c have brought me to this determination; though it deprives me of my base of operations as it were, and like McClellan I feel like changing front in the face of an enemy, to say nothing of great personal discomfort, but it gratifies and raises the morale of seven hundred men.

You will appreciate all this, and at the same time will understand the earnest requests I am about to make in connection therewith.

First. Will you please send an order to Pendergrast to permit the crew to go on shore under the direction of her Captain, as soon as she arrives? Will you also ask him to have a berth ready for her wherever he may deem best? If vessels are moved in time for this, we shall start by gaining 24 hours.

As I state in my official letter there must be no pulling to pieces. I would rather run the risk of losing my mainmast next winter, than have it taken out now and I did not therefore send her to New York, where I hear they are giving fifty ($50).dollars to seamen for a voyage to Liverpool.

I beg you further in the most earnest manner not to detach a living being from her, Officer or man—if any applications come, tell them to apply through their flag officer.

You have here and there taken a Lieutenant out of returning ships or retained such as go in prizes such as the Executive Officers of the Alabama, Huron &c. I have thought this very hard for the outside appointments are getting lower and lower.

I hardly know how I can spare Rodgers for a few brief weeks even: he will go to Washington and see you and tell you many things I would like to write about but I have not the time to write them nor you to read them if I did.

Rodgers did not wish to go North but I insisted upon carrying out my view of the case.

From a letter from Grimes I infer the Admiral bill is very doubtful—that the Senate should be behind the House in such a matter seems strange.

We are in deep anxiety lest we have not heard the worst about Richmond—dates to July 2.

These midshipmen here will be applying to get in gun boats &c—they are of more service here, to themselves also than any where else—belong to our boats and infantry companies and are thoroughly disciplined. I beg you not to let one go. In this matter if you do as I did on arriving out here, put yr foot down, you will have no trouble. I put my face against all leaves of absence and now every one is glad that I did not permit a man to leave, even those who applied are glad I refused them.

Faithfully Yrs 

S. F. DUPONT. 

SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright, Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 131-2

Flag Officer Samuel F. Dupont to Gustavus V. Fox, April 3, 1862

Private & Confidential 

‘Wabash’ Port Royal 

April 3. 62. 

My Dear Sir

Since writing to the Department for more force Genl Hunter informs me that he considers the Army here too much spread, and he contemplates withdrawing the troops from North Edisto and Jacksonville!

We have many contraband at the former and its occupation was a thorn in the flank of Charleston, though the force naval and military was much too small. At the latter place the people committed to the Union movement will be checked, if not maltreated, and we shall lose Florida politically if not otherwise. The gun boats cannot hold Jacksonville without troops, and will have to be drawn down to the mouth of the St. Johns for a simple inside blockade of that river, losing all the moral effect of the splendid reconnaissance up it, for more than one hundred and fifty miles by Stevens.

The Henry Andrew the only vessel I could get into Mosquito inlet, to prevent the further ingress of Enfield rifles from Nassau and to guard the Live Oak, is seriously threatened by the rebels and will be driven out. A Regiment for a few days would scatter these wretches to the four winds—but of course I cannot now expect one, and we shall lose two hundred thousand dollars worth of live oak and pine.

Do not understand me as wishing to criticise the new order of things. Genl Hunter has good military reasons for his intentions, but they run counter to what we have been doing, and to your urgent pressure on me to take more ports. We had better have left Florida and the lower coast of Georgia alone, than to show an inability to keep what we have captured. We are informed that the Rebel order to evacuate Florida has been rescinded, and Genl Wright is threatened at Jacksonville by 2500 men.

I have not yet told you, that we have a ram as well as yourself to haunt our imaginations. Some swear to one as getting ready under Fort Jackson, others doubt. I get a new sketch of it every few days from Wall's Cut. Our friends in the batteries are greatly exercised thereby, and I cannot get away my light draft vessels to send and help my own people elsewhere. By the Charleston paper of the 25" ulto Tattnall passed through with his two sons to assume the command of the Merrimac.

Yesterday seventeen stupid volunteers and a Lieutenant, were captured by the rebels on Wilmington island, and of course I was called upon for assistance to prevent a recurrence. It is apprehended the enemy may extract from them the preparations on Tybee for the bombardment of Pulaski, which will now have to be accelerated—carriages or no carriages. When all patience was exhausted, they were looked for by the Atlantic but she came without them. Hamilton Chf. of Artill[er]y thinks it will be reduced in three days when they once commence. I fear mischief in the mean time.

Now my Dear Sir, there is an easy solution to all these difficulties and complications. Five thousand troops should be dispatched at once and give me the gun boats and Tugs I have asked for.

General Sherman leaves us in the morning. I have asked Eldridge to pass near us on going out that we may give him three hearty cheers from the Wabash. His position has never been understood by the Government or the people—he was required to make bricks without straw. All think well of having made a Military Department and sending a Major General, but why could not Sherman have remained in command of the Division? A more arduous, onerous and responsible but thankless work, no public officer ever went through, and none ever brought to such a task more true and unselfish devotion. It seems hard when such labors are about to bear fruit, that he who ploughed, harrowed, and sowed, should not be allowed even to participate in the gathering of the harvest.

He is a true friend to the Navy, and when I compare his noble endorsement of us fellows for the Port Royal affair with the meagre, stinty approval given by others on similar occasions, so properly commented on by Mr. Grimes in the Senate, I feel still more for Sherman.

Last not least—Stevens with this ships boats and the prize Steamer Darlington & Ellen has raised the America and brought her to Jacksonville. He had made one fruitless search; but a carpet bag was found containing a letter which gave the precise spot where she had been sunk, 147 miles up the St. Johns River; the letter closing with one of those refined rebel phrases, “They had so fixed her that all the Yankees outside of hell could not get her up.” She is not much injured but without sails or ground tackling. As you have heard doubtless, she was purchased by the Rebel Government to carry Mason and Slidell to England.

It occurred to me that so historical a craft, so curiously restored to us and to the North where she could only have been built, might be with a happy moral effect presented to the Governor of the State of New York, if the Department will allow me to do it. I would of course fit her up nicely, put an officer on board send her home and have it all done secundum artem.

Please remember this is a confidential letter. With best regards to Mr Welles

Yours faithfully,

S. F. DUPONT 

G. V. Fox Esq
    Ass. Sec. Navy,
        Washington.

SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright, Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 115-8