Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, May 19, 1866

Dixon informed me last evening that he was apprehensive Foster would leave his friends in the lurch. Brandegee and some others came on from New Haven and had a private interview with Fessenden, who took Foster in hand, and D. believes has succeeded in capturing or controlling him. I think it probable, for Foster has wanted stamina and decision in this instance, though I think he is very well disposed and possessed of a pretty good share of good sense, if he had the courage to use it.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 510

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: Monday, May 14, 1866

Mr. Smythe, Collector in New York, called at my house yesterday with Senator Doolittle, and both were much interested in the election of Senator in Connecticut. I remarked to them that the subject had been greatly mismanaged, and I doubted, knowing the men and their management, or mismanagement, whether anything could now be done; that Foster and his friends had been sanguine and full of confidence, — so much so that they had taken no precautionary measures, and he and his friends could not, in good faith, make farther move for him, and yet they would do nothing for any one else.

Mr. Smythe said that from information which he had there was no doubt that Ferry would be defeated and a true man elected. There were, he said, three candidates spoken of, myself, Foster, and Cleveland; that they could do better with me than with either, Foster next, and Cleveland last.

I repeated that I could not well see how Foster could now be taken up, and yet so intense were he and his friends that they would engage for no others. Smythe said he would leave this evening and would go on to-morrow to New Haven, confident he could do something.

But all will be labor lost. I have little doubt that if the matter were taken up sensibly the election of a true man could be secured. But Babcock, Sperry, Starkweather, and others, who had managed things at New Haven, would interest themselves for no one but Foster, while his chances are the worst after what has been done, and to now be a candidate would be dishonorable.

The Democrats, who would securely control this, would probably unite on me sooner than any one named, but the Republican friends of Johnson have been manipulated by Foster's friends and taught to stand by their party until they have no independence or strength. The weak and simple conduct of Babcock and the Republican Johnson men, is disgusting. They have resolved and re-resolved that they will not divide the Republican Party. Consequently they must go with it in all its wrongdoing and mischief, because the Radicals, being a majority, will control what is called the Republican Party. This is the light, frivolous training and results of Connecticut Whiggery. While preferring to be Johnson men and to support the Administration, they are aiding the election of a Radical, anti-Johnson, anti-Administration man to the Senate, — all, as they claim, to preserve the party, but certainly without regard as to consistency or principle.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 507-8

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, March 21, 1866

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