The steamer Chenango exploded her boilers in New York
Harbor, and I feared there might have been mischief, such as [an] incendiary
shell in the coal, but the reports indicate that such was not the case.
I am gratified to find so many sagacious and able naval
officers sustaining me and my course in relation to Du Pont. There is no man in
the service who is so skillful and successful at intrigue as S. F. Du Pont. He
has his cliques and has laid his plans adroitly, and may, for a time, be
successful in deceiving the public by artful means, but it cannot last. Truth
is mighty and will prevail.
Stocks have had a heavy fall to-day in New York, and there
are reported failures. It is a temporary check, I apprehend, a reaction or
pause resulting from some action of Mr. Chase in New York. He has doubtless
effected a loan with the banks, and they have closed on some of their
customers. Money, or investments, are tending to government securities, rather
than railroad and other like investments, for the moment.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 14-5
