I submitted the two cases, one of Judge Wayne for money due his granddaughter, and one of Mallory for a cylinder, to the Cabinet. The parties claim the first money due, and the last property seized by the Rebels and recaptured by the Union forces. All seemed united in the opinion that no action could be taken in behalf of these and similar claims at present.
Mr. Seward being absent, Mr. Hunter, who is Acting Secretary of State, stated that there was some embarrassment in regard to the Shenandoah. Both the State and the Treasury Departments appear to have been anxious to get possession of this vessel, but they are much more anxious to get rid of her. Dudley, consul at Liverpool, undertook to send her to the United States by a captain and picked-up crew, but after proceeding about six hundred miles and encountering rough weather she returned. Seward sent me word, a few hours before he left, with Dudley's dispatch that the vessel was on his (D.'s) hands, that he had sent to Admiral Goldsborough for an officer and crew to navigate her, but if the Admiral declined, he desired that I should send out the necessary force to England. This I did not feel inclined to do, but told him we would receive her here when delivered. Hunter now brings up the question in Cabinet, and advises that the vessel remain in Liverpool until after the vernal equinox, unless the Navy Department would receive her in Liverpool. Stanton thought this the proper course, and that I should send out for her. This suggestion I was satisfied came from Seward, who had turned the subject over to him before leaving. I incline to think she had best be sold for what she will bring in Liverpool.
An effort to procure the pardon of K, a swindler now in Sing Sing, was made through McCulloch. But on learning the nature of the case he at once dropped it. The President sends, making inquiry concerning Hale, prisoner in Philadelphia, and Wetmore in Boston. The first is one of a nest of swindlers and thieves, of whom Pasco, just pardoned by the President, was chief; the second swindled men under him, or was guilty of a breach of trust like Marston, whom the President also pardoned.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 411-2
