Collectors Babcock of New Haven and Smith of Bridgeport
called on me this morning. They had just arrived, having come on in relation to
the Connecticut election. English appears to have created an excitement, almost
a panic, in regard to the wishes of the Administration. There is alarm on the
part of the gentlemen and doubtless much at home which has impelled them to
come here. English has represented to them that he had had a long interview on
one or two occasions with the President, and that United States officers were to
be turned out if they voted for Hawley. Babcock said three or four in his
office had their resignations ready and he should tender his if that was
exacted. They informed me that Cleveland, Postmaster at Hartford, had called,
or was to participate in, a meeting favorable to English, and under the
excitement Starkweather of Norwich, Chairman of the State Committee of the
Republicans, had sent in his resignation as Postmaster. There is excitement and
a party panic in that State. Both Babcock and Smith admitted and asserted that
these troubles had their origin in the equivocal, ambiguous, and
inconsequential resolutions of the Republican Convention, which spoke two
voices, and made the party support antagonistic positions.
General Hawley and Mr. E. H. Owen came and spent more than
an hour with me after the interview with B. and S. They had come to Washington
impelled by the same causes as those of the other two gentlemen, but without
preconcert. Much the same ground was reviewed and the same arguments used, and
I told them their difficulties were the results in a great measure of the
inconsistent attitude of the convention in indorsing both the President and the
Radical majority in Congress, who were in direct antagonism; that no man could
support the two honestly.
Hawley two or three times expressed a wish that I would
write a letter indorsing him. This, had the issue been direct and fair, I could
have done cheerfully, but I asked him what I could say. I was a supporter of
the measures of the policy of the Administration; these measures and that
policy had my earnest approval; I was advising to them, was identified with
them. Of course I desired their success. If I knew that he was in favor of the
Administration policy and opposed to the schemes of the Radicals who would
defeat it, I could say something definite and positive, but unless that were
the case I could do him no good. As things were, I should be compelled, while
expressing my personal regard and belief that he would, if elected, be in
accord with the Administration, [to say] that my understanding of his position
was that his views coincided with those of the President, and particularly that
he favored the early reëstablishment of the Union and of the Government in all
its departments, that he recognized the rights of each and all of the States,
was for the admission of loyal Senators and Representatives promptly, was
against sectional division and the exclusion of any of the States. Both Hawley
and Owen gave a hesitating but full assent at first; but Hawley thought the
word confidence or belief would be better than understanding. Owen concurred,
yet all of us saw the embarrassment, and I expressed again my doubts whether I
could give any letter or written statement as things were without accompanying
it with qualifications which would destroy its effect.
They left me at 1 P.M. to meet Senator Foster, who was to
accompany them to the President, and they were to see me after the interview,
which lasted over two hours. They expressed themselves satisfied with the views
of the President and his course in regard to the election, his object being to
sustain his own measures and policy and his preference being for those
candidates of his own party who occupy that position. He had given Mr. English
no letter and did not intend to take part with any candidates in a merely local
election.
Hawley wished to know if I had read the Civil Rights Bill
and whether I thought the President would veto it. I told him I had been
through the bill, but had exchanged no opinions regarding it; that I thought it
very centralizing and objectionable, and my impressions were the President
would disapprove of it, though very reluctant to have further difficulty with
Congress.
They left, I thought, better satisfied with the President
than I was with the course of the Republicans in Connecticut.
In yesterday's Intelligencer was a leading editorial article
in relation to myself and my position. The editor had called on me the
preceding evening, and we had a conversation in relation to public affairs, the
substance of which he has incorporated in his article. What he says regarding
my course or stand in the Connecticut election is a little stronger than the
actual conversation will warrant. I declined giving any letter or authorization
of the use of my name, and informed him I did not wish to become mixed up with
the election, which was in many respects unpleasant to me, in consequence of
the ambiguous and equivocal course of the Republican Convention. An honest,
open, fair expression of views on their part would have left me free to approve
or condemn.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 457-60