Usher relates to me to-day some damaging stories concerning
the Treasury. I cannot but think them exaggerations. I know, from some reliable
and unmistakable sources, that there have been improprieties among the
subordinates of a licentious character, and that Chase is cognizant of the
facts. It has surprised me that, knowing the facts, he should have permitted
the person most implicated to retain a position of great trust. Only great
weakness, or implication in error would give a solution. I do not for a moment
entertain the latter, and the former is not a trait in his character.
These matters cannot be suppressed. Blair says Chase will
not assent to a committee. He cannot avoid it, and since Frank Blair has left,
I think he will not attempt it. Colfax, the Speaker, will give him pretty much
such a committee as he wishes. The majority will be friends of Chase, as they
should be, and none probably will be unfair opponents.
The President to-day related to two or three of us the
circumstances connected with his giving a pass to the half-sister of his wife,
Mrs. White. He gave the details with frankness, and without disguise. I will
not go into them all, though they do him credit on a subject of scandal and
abuse. The papers have assailed him for giving a pass to Mrs. White to carry
merchandise. Briefly, Mrs. W. called at the White House and sent in her card to
Mrs. Lincoln, her sister, who declined to receive or see her. Mrs. W. two or
three times repeated these applications to Mrs. L. and the President, with the
same result. The President sent a pass, such as in some cases he has given, for
her to proceed South. She sent it back with a request that she might take
trunks without being examined. The President refused. She then showed her pass
and talked “secesh” at the hotel, and made application through Mallory first
and then Brutus Clay. The President refused the former and told Brutus that if
Mrs. W. did not leave forthwith she might expect to find herself within
twenty-four hours in the Old Capitol Prison.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 20-1