Diary of Gideon Welles, Wednesday, July 18, 1866

The President tells me that Dennison did not intend to leave, — that his purpose was to maintain his party relations but conform to the Administration in his action. He did not want nor expect his resignation would be accepted. These were the President's impressions. He looked upon it as a refined partyism to which he would give no attention. Speed, he says, thought to be very short, and he, therefore, did not reply to Speed's note resigning, but considered it a fact in conformity with the terms of the note.

The authentic published proceedings of the Radical leaders are disgraceful to the Members who were present and took part. It shows their incapacity as statesmen and their unfitness as legislators. Raymond publishes the statement, the injunction of secrecy having been removed. He also prints a letter in his paper, the New York Times, disclosing the revolutionary feeling of the leading Radicals, who are, in fact, conspirators.

Montgomery Blair is possessed of the sentiment that another civil war is pending and that the Radical leaders design and are preparing for it. I am unwilling to believe that a majority of Congress is prepared for such a step, but the majority is weak in intellect, easily led into rashness and error by the few designing leaders, who move and control the party machinery. There is no individuality and very little statesmanship or wise legislation, and as little in the Senate. The war on the President and on the Constitution, as well as on the whole of the people South, except the negroes, is revolutionary.

The President, while he has a sound and patriotic heart, has erred in not making himself and his office felt as a power. He should long since have manifested his determination to maintain and exercise his executive rights, in fact should in the first month of the session, and as soon as the spirit and hostility of the Radical leaders was apparent, have drawn the lines and made his own position known and felt. I so said to him on more than one occasion. But the influence and counsel of Seward, who deals in vacillating expedients, have been disastrous. He has striven to keep alive and strengthen the party organization, which is opposed to the President, and thus given power to the Radicals, who are conspiring against him. The President's friends have, as a result, been proscribed and his opponents favored by his own Administration. In this way Congress, where the Administration had or might have a majority, has become consolidated against the President. Those Members who were kindly disposed have been disciplined and drawn away from him by this trimming New York management. His mind is tardy in its movements, though honest and firm, and required stimulating and urging onward at the very time when Seward was exerting himself to suppress and hold back any decisive action in order to secure a party ascendancy in New York under Thurlow Weed. Stanton, of course, operated with Seward to prevent Executive action, for he was in all his feelings with the extreme Radicals, though contriving to so far keep in with the President as to retain his place.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 555-6

Diary of Gideon Welles, Thursday, July 19, 1866

The Democrats have had a large meeting at Reading in Pennsylvania. Mr. Blair is reported to have made an ultra speech, denouncing the intrigues and schemes of the Radical leaders and predicting civil war if they are not defeated at the fall elections. The country has had too recent and too exhausting an experience for another war.

A telegram from the coarse, vulgar creature who is Governor of Tennessee says that there is a quorum of the legislature and that they have ratified the Constitutional Amendment. This legislature was chosen when war existed, and under circumstances and animosities which would not be justified or excusable in peace. It is, of course, no exponent of popular sentiment in that State. But under the urgent appeals of the Radical Members of Congress, Brownlow, the Governor, convened a special session of this dead body on the 4th of July, to ratify the changes in the Constitution of the United States. But he was unable to get a quorum together. Fifty-six were necessary for a quorum; only fifty-four would be assembled, and two were arrested and brought to Nashville as prisoners. These made the requisite fifty-six, and forty-three of these bogus members voted for the Constitutional changes. This is an exhibition of Radical regard for honest principle, for popular opinion, and for changes in the organic law. The change is to be imposed upon the people by fraud, not adopted of choice.

I asked by way of suggestion to the President, how it happened that General Thomas's telegram of the 14th respecting the arrest of members of the legislature was not responded to until the 17th. He said he could not tell, and, evidently apprehending my object, said perhaps General Grant did not get it until the 15th and passed it over to the War Department possibly the next day, and the Secretary of War brought it here on the 17th. "Yet it does seem to have been some time on the way for a telegram," said he. "In the mean time," continued I, "two members of the legislature appear to have been arrested and brought to Nashville." This is Stantonian. Why does the President submit to be victimized?

The irregular tidings that Tennessee had in any way, however illegal or by force and fraud, confirmed the Amendment, as it is called, caused great exultation in Congress. The Radicals felt as if they were relieved, or those of them who felt uneasy under the dictation of Stevens, Boutwell, Schenck, etc. Conscious of their wrongdoing and that they were trifling with the country for mere party ascendancy and power, they broke away from Stevens and refused to follow him. Tennessee can now be permitted to have Representatives, — a right from which she has been excluded.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 556-8

Diary of Gideon Welles, Saturday, July 21, 1866

The Senate has altered and passed the resolution and preamble concerning the right of Tennessee to be represented, Congress, or the Radical majority, graciously permitting it, — not because the Constitution sanctions, or that the people or State have any rights, but because a fragment of a legislature, less than a quorum, elected nearly two years ago and summoned by the vulgar Governor, have adopted or ratified the Constitutional Amendment. The whole proceeding is a burlesque on republican government and our whole system of popular rights, opinion, State action, and constitutional obligation.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 559

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, July 23, 1866

Had a discussion last evening with McCulloch and Doolittle in the council-room, the President being by, respecting the preamble and resolution of Congress in regard to Tennessee. McCulloch thought it might injure the President or help the Radicals if he did not sign it. I preferred that he should not, especially that he should not give his assent to the preamble. My own course would be to approve of neither, for it would be claimed as a precedent in future toward the other States. If it were an isolated instance, the resolution affirming that the State might send Representatives would, perhaps, be harmless, but the precedent in the present state of things would be bad. The President listened and then read a dispatch from the Speaker, saying he would not sign a certificate that the Amendment had been ratified.

Admiral Farragut and myself have been busy to-day on promotions under the recent law.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 559

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, July 2, 1866

I wrote on Saturday night replies to Randall in regard to the convention, to the Tammany Society, which had invited me to Fourth of July anniversary, to the Mayor of Boston also. In those letters I indicate pointedly my views on the great questions before the country.

McCulloch hesitates about sending a letter to Randall, lest he shall experience hostility from the Radicals in Congress on important measures connected with his Department, which are there pending. My own opinion is that his opinions should be expressed, and if for that reason the public welfare is to be put in jeopardy, let the country so understand. This is my view, and I have written accordingly, although I am also in the same category with the Secretary of the Treasury. Only two bills, one for accepting League Island for a Navy Yard and the bill for naval promotions, are strangely delayed, — the former in the Senate, the latter in the House. I am ready, however, to proclaim my position on the great questions affecting the country, but do not care to isolate and obtrude myself if other members of the Cabinet hold back.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 546-7

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, July 9, 1866

Senator Morgan spent last evening at my house. Our conversation was chiefly on public affairs, but there was not that unreserved and cordial intimacy which we have sometimes had. No allusion was made to the national convention, which was unnatural and could not have been, had there been our old and friendly sympathy.

I censured strongly, perhaps harshly, the proposed Constitutional changes and the method of getting them through Congress by caucuses, excluding the Democratic minority and one third of the States, etc. He attempted no defense or justification. Trumbull, he tells me, has introduced another of his revolutionary bills to deprive the President of his Constitutional right of removing from office. This subject, like most measures in each house, was passed through a caucus crucible. M. says he refused to give it his sanction, and so did one other.

I have no doubt Morgan feels a little uncomfortable in the existing state of things, and I fancy he is conscious he has committed a mistake. There are strange men in position in New York. The Weed school is a bad one. Raymond is a specimen. A man of considerable talent, but of little consistency of principle. I have so said to the President more than once, and I think he understands R., yet Seward is in with him, directs his movements by Weed's help, and has influenced the President in R.'s favor to some extent. No man has more injured the cause of the President in Congress or more strengthened the Radicals than Raymond, the pronounced organ of the Administration, but only the confidant of Seward. He has by his fickle, versatile changes, attempting to go with the President but always deserting him, and always clinging to party, deterred [some] by his example, others by his ridiculous somersaults. No one follows him.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 549-50

Diary of Gideon Welles, Wednesday, July 11, 1866

This morning received telegram that my nephew, Samuel Welles, constructing engineer at Mare Island, died last evening at 7.15 from injuries received by the explosion of a steam boiler in the Navy Yard. His death is a loss to his country as well as his family, for he was one of the most promising young men in all my acquaintance. Had it pleased God to spare his life, he bade fair to be at the very head of his profession, and would from his ability and integrity have been, if he chose public life, among the first citizens of California. Although young, he was the ablest and best civil engineer in the service, and I know not how nor whom to select to fill his place. Of fine abilities, excellent judgment, great kindness of heart, suavity of manners, and readiness to serve and befriend others, he endeared himself to all who knew him. I loved him as a son. He had always great respect and affection for me, had spent much time in my family, and was almost as one of our household. In September he was to have returned home and to have been married. But, alas, all is changed.

There is rumored this evening that Postmaster-General Dennison has resigned. I shall not be disappointed if such is the case. For two or three months he has wavered on important measures, been less intimate and familiar personally than he was, and some recent indications and remarks have prepared me for this step. If it has not been taken already, I have little doubt that it soon will be.

Harlan and Speed will follow. Whether Stanton will go with them is doubtful. Although he has been fully with the Radicals in all their extreme measures from the beginning, he has professed to abandon them when the President made a distinct stand on any subject. I am, therefore, uncertain what course he will take; but if he leaves he will be likely to be malevolent. He is selfish, insincere, a dissembler, and treacherous. Dennison, however, is honorable and manly. If his Radical friends have finally succeeded in persuading him to go with them, he will do it openly and leave the Cabinet, not remain to embarrass and counteract the President, or, like them, strive to retain place and seek the confidence of his chief to betray him.

I read to Blair my answer to Doolittle concerning the national convention. He is highly pleased with it and suggested I should make a point on the imminent danger of another civil war. Blair repeats a conversation with Boutwell, a Massachusetts fanatic, who avows that the Radicals are preparing for another war.

Blair says the Radical programme is to make Wade President of the Senate, then to impeach the President. Having done this the Radicals will be prepared to exclude the Southern Members from the next Congress, and the Southern States from the next Presidential election.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 551-2

Diary of Gideon Welles, Thursday, July 12, 1866

The Radicals held a caucus last evening at the Capitol, to determine in relation to their future course, and also in regard to the adjournment of Congress. It was resolved their proceedings should be secret, but the doings are published. They appear to have come as yet to no conclusion. The plan, or conspiracy, for it is nothing else, seems to be some contrivance first of all to embarrass and hamper the Executive, some scheme to evade an honest, straightforward discharge of duty, some trick to cheat the President out of his prerogative and arrogate to themselves unauthorized executive power.

Raymond is reported to have played the harlequin and again deserted. Although it is difficult to believe that one of his culture and information could make such an exhibit of himself, I am prepared to credit any folly of his. He has clearly no principles, no integrity, and is unconscious how contemptible he appears. Under Weed's teaching he has destroyed himself.

The President informs me that Dennison has handed in his resignation. His reasons are his adherence to the Republican Party. He was president of the national convention which nominated Lincoln and Johnson, and has imbibed the impression that his character is involved, that his party obligations are paramount to all other considerations. He has been trained and disciplined. In due time he will be a wise man.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 552-3

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, June 25, 1866

For two or three days I have been prostrated by a severe attack of indigestion, yet against the remonstrance of Dr. H. I went to the President's Saturday evening. What took place and subsequent reflection while prostrated on my lounge have disquieted and greatly disturbed me. It is a lost opportunity. The President fails to comprehend the true condition of affairs and the schemes of prominent men around him, or hesitates to grapple with them. In either case he is deceived and fatally wrong. He must, and evidently expects to, rely on the Democrats to overcome the Radicals who are conspiring against him and the Constitution. But the Democrats have no confidence in Seward and will not fellowship with him. Seward knows that, if the President does not. This call for a national Union convention which has been gotten up is perverted into a Seward call; the party is to be Seward's party, and it cannot, therefore, be Democratic. The President is, consequently, purchasing or retaining Seward and his followers at too high a price, too great a sacrifice. Enough Republicans may rally with this call to defeat the Radicals, but cannot themselves become a formidable and distinct power. If, however, the movement defeats the reckless plans of the Radicals, it will accomplish a great good. I have my doubts if the flimsy expedient will do much good.

Our President has been too forbearing, has wasted his strength and opportunities, and without some thorough changes will find himself, I apprehend, the victim of his own yielding policy in this regard. I do not see how it is possible to sustain himself with Seward on his shoulders.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 540-1

Diary of Gideon Welles, Saturday, June 30, 1866

Had a long talk this afternoon with the President on the condition of affairs and especially in regard to the proposed national convention. He does not like the composition of the Cabinet, yet does not, in my opinion, perceive the most questionable feature in it. Harlan and Speed, he does not conceal from me, are in the way. The course and position of Dennison do not suit him. Dennison, like others, has been drawn into the Radical circle against his better judgment, is committed to the Republican Party, and is appointing extreme Radicals to the local post-offices, carrying out the views of the Radical Members and strengthening them by displacing friends of the President. In this I do not think D. intends antagonism to the President, although it is that and nothing else. But he does not permit himself to believe that the President and the Party, which is now a mere machine of Thad Stevens, are not identical.

Seward knows the distinction and yet contrives to persuade the President to acquiesce, while favoring the Radicals. It is curious, but by no means pleasant, to witness this proceeding. The President, usually sagacious, seems not to discern the management and ultimate purpose of the Secretary of State, who is prompted by Stanton, one of the Radical chiefs. Stanton has an assumed frankness, but his coarse manner covers a good deal of subtle duplicity. Seward never differs with the President. If he has taken an opposite view from or with others, or before the President's opinion is known, it disappears forever when the sentiments of the latter are ascertained. His knowledge and estimate of men are weak and erroneous in the extreme.

The President understands the political dexterity of Seward and yet does not apprehend that it may ever operate adverse to himself, nor does Seward intend to antagonize his chief. Some recent proceedings, connected with the schemes of the Radicals, are to me inexplicable, and in our talk I so informed the President. I could not understand how all the Republican Members from New York, a considerable portion of whom are under the influence of Seward and Weed, should vote steadily with the Radicals and against him, if Seward and Weed are his true friends.

The New York Times, Raymond's paper controlled by Weed, declared that the President and Radicals were pretty much reconciled on the Constitutional changes, and by this representation multitudes were entrapped into the measure. Seward, hastily and without consulting the President, hastened to send certified copies of the Amendment by the first mail to the State Executives. These and other things I alluded to as very singular, and that I could hardly reconcile them to sincere and honest friendship. The President was puzzled; said it was strange.

I told him I could account for these proceedings readily, if it were to build up and sustain the Weed and Seward party in New York, but it certainly was not strengthening the Administration.

Raymond and Seward knew of the movements for the convention, and the Times in advance spoke of it as a move to unite the Republican Party while it would certainly injure the Administration. The effect was, when the call appeared, to cause distrust among Democrats, and to repel the World, the Herald, etc. It looks like design or stupidity. I knew they were not fools.

My efforts to incorporate with the call a clause adverting to the proposed Constitutional changes which made a convention advisable were resisted and defeated by the tools of Seward, because it would be agreeable to the Democrats and opposed to the Radicals. His friends were committed on that subject. They had adopted it and were, therefore, antagonistic to Johnson, yet they succeeded through the assistance of Radicals who care little for principles.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 543-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, June 15, 1866

Nothing special at Cabinet. On Tuesday Seward submitted a correspondence between Schenck and Romero, the Mexican Minister. It was a very improper proceeding, and R. evidently thought it wrong in giving a copy to the Secretary of State. Seward mentioned it as of little moment, — a sort of irregularity. Stanton said there was nothing wrong so far as Schenck was concerned, but that it was a questionable proceeding on the part of Romero. I declared my entire disapproval of the whole transaction and that it was one of the many indications of ignoring and crowding on the Executive.

The others were silent, but, after a little earnest talk, Seward said he would give the subject further consideration. To-day he brought forward the correspondence with an indorsement disapproving it and said he should communicate it to Romero.

Senator Doolittle took breakfast with me this morning. We went over the political questions and discussed what had best be done. Both were satisfied that the time had arrived when the Administration must take a stand. The game of the Radicals and of certain conspicuously professed friends of the President, that the Republican Party must be sustained and kept united at any sacrifice, even the surrender of the Constitution in some of its important features, and to the jeopardy of the Union itself, must be checked, and the opposition to any such policy made clearly manifest. We called on the President and made known our opinions. He concurred and thought a prompt call for a national convention of friends of the Union should be issued. Doolittle agreed to undertake to draw up such a call, but desired that I would also place on paper my views. He proposed that the call should be signed by the members of the Cabinet, or such of them as approved the measure. I told them that I, personally, had no objection, but I questioned its propriety and effect.

McCulloch, with whom I had a brief interview after Cabinet-meeting, told me that the elder Blair was preparing the call. I saw Judge Blair this evening and found him much engaged, yet not altogether satisfied. He expresses apprehension that Seward has control of the President and has so interwoven himself into the mind and course of the President as not to be shaken off, and if so that the Democrats must go forward independent of both President and Congress. Says the Democratic leaders, many of whom he has seen, such as Dean Richmond, Dawson, and others, say they will go in under the President's lead provided he will rid himself of Seward, but they have no confidence in him, would rather give up Johnson than retain Seward. Governor Andrew of Massachusetts takes a similar view. B. says his father has had a talk with the President; that he himself has written him fully; that he advised the President not to dismiss Harlan unless Seward also went; that the President expressed doubts whether the Senate would confirm two Cabinet officers; that he was told there would be no difficulty; if there were, he would let the assistants carry on the Departments, and assign General Grant ad interim to the War; that Grant had been consulted and assented to the arrangement.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 527-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, May 18, 1866

Ferry was elected Senator on the part of the House of Representatives of Connecticut by some thirty majority on Wednesday. In the Senate the election was postponed for a week, three of the Republican Senators refusing to vote for Ferry. This check has caused consternation among the Radicals here, and I have no doubt at home also. A violent onset will now be made on the three recusant or independent Senators. Intriguers at New Haven, and intriguers in their respective districts will be at work to influence them, and I have my doubts whether one or more of them may not be shaken.

In the mean time our friends should be at work upon others. A great mistake, however, has been committed in getting the members pledged for persons instead of principles. I have advised that they should put themselves on impregnable ground for the Union, irrespective of men or parties.

Seward has gone home. He told me he intended to make a speech while absent in favor of the President and his policy. Originating no measure himself, and cautious and calculating in adopting the plans of others, he nevertheless supposes that what he says has wonderful influence. I do not think he has ever made a speech which gave shape or character to a party, though usually the oracle of Weed and the managers of his party. Often his remarks have been more harmful than beneficial. His harangues at Auburn are studied orations, prepared after consultation with his confidants, and he is now pregnant with one. If it is a quiet baby, passive and pleasant, I shall be satisfied; if it has some deformities, I shall not be surprised.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 509-10

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, May 21, 1866

Captain S. P. Lee called on me to-day respecting his orders to Mare Island. The President on Saturday showed me an application which Lee had made to him to be relieved from the orders and placed on leave for one year. Mr. Blair had left with me a similar paper, unsigned, however. The President inquired what he should do with the paper. I answered that it was an extraordinary application even if made to the Department, but more extraordinary in passing over the Department and applying to the President to rid himself of orders.

The President said he would refer the paper to me to dispose of. It reached me this A.M., and Lee followed it within half an hour. He showed a consciousness of manner in opening the subject, and made a half-turn apology for having gone to the President by saying, if he had not called on me, his father-in-law, Mr. Blair, had. I did not conceal from him my surprise at the unusual course he had pursued, the more so as his age, experience, and long attendance at Washington precluded any idea that it was the result of ignorance.

I told him that he had been favored and fortunate in some respects beyond any officer of his grade, perhaps beyond any officer in the service; that he could not expect to remain off duty while all others were on duty; that he had been eight months on waiting orders, and that no officer had asked a year's leave; that he assigned no reason, nor could I conceive of any that would justify such leave.

He said his case was peculiar and he wished to remain in Washington to attend to his promotion.

Then, said I, any officer would be entitled to the same privilege, and the service would soon be in a demoralized state; that I did not desire for his own reputation to see him seated at the threshold of the Executive Mansion, or at the door of the Senate, beseeching for undue favors; that he would do well to leave his case in the hands of the Department, as did other officers. He certainly would fare as well if away as if here.

The interview was long and unpleasant. Again this evening he has called at my house to repeat the same plea.

The President, I find, is by no means pleased with the steps that have been taken in regard to Fox's going to Russia. He thinks that injustice is designed towards me by Seward, certain Radicals, and by Fox himself. His surmises are probably correct, except as regards Fox, who does not wish to do me wrong, though, perhaps, not sufficiently considerate in his efforts for this mission; and on other occasions the same fault may appear.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 511-2

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, May 28, 1866

Events have crowded thick, and I have been unable to find time to record them. Judge Blair called on me yesterday with a request that I would, for his father's sake, revoke the orders of Captain Lee to Mare Island. Lee has been busy and mischievous in his intrigues to evade duty. I am told has seen every Senator but one and related his services and sorrows. As a last resort he threatens to take his wife and child to California and thus leave his father-in-law's family desolate. His persisting in this respect has made Mr. Blair, who is now seventy-five, sick and is likely to permanently affect his health.

Judge Montgomery Blair, who for nine years, he tells me, has not spoken to Lee, and who would, I have no doubt, feel relieved were Lee in California, earnestly requested for his father's sake, that the orders might be revoked. I finally told him that I would, with the approval of the President, to whom Lee himself had appealed, revoke them and place Lee on leave for two months. The President, on whom we called, assented, and I this morning sent Lee a revocation of the order to Mare Island. He knew the fact yesterday. Two hours after the order revoking his detail to Mare Island, I received a long communication of eight or ten foolscap pages, dated the 26th, accepting the order, and stating he should proceed to Mare Island by next steamer. I immediately wrote him that he was at liberty to go or remain, and that I made it optional with him to present a future claim for favor for indulgence granted.

The intrigues of this man to get his orders countermanded have been as wonderful as disgusting. His wife was made to harass her old father and threaten him with an interruption of domestic arrangement and family repose if he was not permitted to remain. Appliances and measures through others were used. My wife was compelled to listen to lamentations on account of the cruel orders of the Department. I called on the President the latter part of last week, and there were sixty or eighty children from the orphan asylum with the matron and others, and I was implored, for the children's sake, to revoke the orders, that Mrs. Lee could remain, for she was one of the managing directors of the school, etc., etc.

The President invited me to come and see him on Saturday. He was not reconciled to the arrangement in regard to Fox. We went over the whole subject, and I told him Fox had rendered great service, such as I thought would justify his visiting Europe for six months in behalf of the Department. Among other things the President has received from some quarter an impression that Fox is a Radical and strong in that interest. This, I think, is one of the intrigues of Lee, through the elder Blair.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 513-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, May 2, 1866

The papers to-day contain a synopsis of what took place yesterday in the Cabinet on the subject of Reconstruction. I have no doubt that the President himself furnished the information and probably the report precisely as it is published. He has shown tact and sagacity in doing it. The report of the position of each member is accurate, although I think Stanton was less decided than stated. Nevertheless he intended that the President should take that impression, and I appreciate the adroitness of the President in giving publicity to Stanton's position as he represented himself in the Cabinet. The Radical friends of Stanton will be incredulous as to his position in the Cabinet. He must, however, content himself with the exposition made or openly deny it. He can no longer equivocate or dissemble.

In a conversation which I had with the President yesterday after the other members left, he remarked that the time had come when we must know whether we had a united or divided Cabinet; that the Radicals had strengthened themselves by constant representations that portions of the Cabinet were with them.

To-day Seward remarked to me that while he should say nothing in regard to the opinion of his associates, he had said, and should repeat to others, that he was not misrepresented in the report. I told him I was glad that Stanton's position was so clearly defined, for I had not so understood him. Seward said Stanton had gone along with us so far; that Stanton had come into Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet under peculiar circumstances, and had said to him (Seward) that he should stand by his (Seward's) policy while he remained in the Cabinet and go with him on all essential questions.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 498

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, May 4, 1866

The subject of Reconstruction was not discussed to-day in Cabinet. Seward, while the President was engaged with some one, remarked on the publication which had been made of our last meeting, saying that he concluded the report had been made by Stanton, for the

papers had said it was from a Cabinet Minister, and there was no interest felt as regarded any one else but Stanton. There were, he remarked, some other indications. All this was said playfully as he walked the room and took snuff. But I could see it was not play for Stanton, whose countenance betrayed his vexation. Seward saw it also, and when Stanton said that Seward was the only one who would do this,—draw up and publish proceedings in Cabinet, the subject was dropped.

As we came out at the close of the meeting, McCulloch said to me that he had hoped there would have been some call for a decided expression from Stanton, for the newspapers and many honest men were disputing in regard to the truth of the report of his views in the Cabinet exposition, and he (McC.) thought it wrong that a Cabinet Minister should occupy a false or an equivocal position on such a question, at such a time. In all of which I concurred.

There is no doubt that the Radicals are surprised and many of them incredulous at the enunciation of Stanton's remarks and position in the Cabinet. I apprehend that no one was more astounded at the publication than Stanton himself. It ended any double course, if one had been pursued. Sumner has repeatedly assured me, most emphatically, that Stanton was with him and opposed to the President's policy. Others have said the same. These men were deceived and have been until now, and they cannot believe they have been duped.

The President has not been unaware of the conflicting statements in regard to Stanton, and for this reason adopted the course of calling out the individual opinions of each member of his Cabinet and then took the opportunity of throwing them in a condensed form before the public. This gives the attitude and views of the Administration and of each member of it on the subject of the report of the Reconstruction Committee in advance of the debate in Congress, and prevents misrepresentations and false assumptions in regard to them. It has been the policy of the Radical leaders to claim that the Cabinet was divided, that Stanton and others were with them, and hence their papers and orators have eulogized and magnified Stanton into enormous proportions. All this has now terminated. I did not understand Stanton as expressing himself quite so decidedly as he is represented to have done in the report, though it appeared to me he meant to be understood as represented. No doubt he dissembles. He said he did not approve the Directory plans in many respects, and if he were compelled to act upon them as now presented he should avow himself opposed; and he thought Congress and the President not so far apart that they could not come together.

I followed in direct antagonism and objected unequivocally to the whole programme. I had no faith in Constitutional amendments at this time, in the present existing state of affairs, with eleven States unrepresented and without any voice in the deliberations; nor could I admit that Congress could prescribe terms to the States on which they should be permitted to enjoy their Constitutional right of representation, or that Congress should usurp and take to itself the pardoning power, which is a prerogative of the Executive, nor were they to prosecute and punish the people without trial. I, therefore, antagonized Stanton purposely. He saw and felt it. Hence I think he hardly committed himself so fully as represented. But he does not deny it. Will he?

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 499-501

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, May 8, 1866

The subject of admitting Colorado was to-day before the Cabinet. The bill has passed both houses after having been once rejected. Congress in 1863 authorized the formation of a State constitution, and the people refused to take upon themselves local State government. Subsequently the people formally adopted it by a small majority in a vote of some six thousand, and elected Senators, who are here anxious to get their seats. After the proposition and Senators were rejected, it was ascertained the latter would vote with the Radicals, and that their votes would contribute to overrule and defeat the Executive. This new light led Senators to revise their votes. The Constitution restricts suffrage to the whites, but Senators and others who insist on negro suffrage where the blacks are numerous, and in States where Congress has no right to intervene, voted for Colorado.

Seward, McCulloch, and myself were against admitting the State. She had a population of less than twenty thousand, as claimed by some, and not exceeding thirty or thirty-five thousand, as insisted by the most strenuous for admission. As a principle I have uniformly opposed recognizing and admitting States with a population below the ratio for one Representative. This has always ruled. The slaveholders thrust in Florida and Arkansas as an offset to Free States; and Kansas was authorized under peculiar and extraordinary circumstances to form a constitution with, I think, less than sixty thousand. There was, perhaps, some excuse for admitting and authorizing Colorado to frame a constitution when the difficulties of the country and the attempts of the Rebels to lessen the number of States was before us. But the people then refused self-government.

I therefore had no difficulty in coming to my conclusions on general principles. Stanton thought it might in this instance be well enough to let them in and avoid further trouble. Harlan argued for admission with some ability and tact, but did not meet the great underlying principle. He thought it expedient, and with so much effect as to cause Dennison to doubt, who was at first opposed to the bill. The question was deferred.

The subject of sending naval vessels to attend the laying of the Atlantic telegraph was considered. Seward, Dennison, and Harlan in the affirmative. McCulloch and Stanton opposed. I felt very indifferent; had advised Field to go to Congress. Told him I should not act without authority from Congress or an order from the Executive. Stated to the President that we could, without any difficulty or much additional expense, detail a vessel, Mr. Seward having said we did not require all the four ordered to the fishing-ground. Although my faith in the success of the ocean telegraph is not great, yet, in view of the fact that Congress had once ordered a vessel and of our present ability to spare one, and the further fact that a vessel had been ordered to assist or be present at laying the Russian telegraph, it might be expedient to show a friendly feeling as regards this, and I would assent, though unwilling to advise it.

The President thought it would be well for Congress to take up the subject, or, at all events, that we should delay a day or two before deciding. This I approved as the better course. Stanton, who had seen my previous indifference, immediately slapped me on the shoulder and said I could decide readily with the President. I said I could, for he usually was not far wrong. Stanton was vexed.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 502-4

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: Thursday, April 19, 1866

The President last evening addressed a large concourse who assembled under a call of soldiers and sailors who desired to serenade and thank him for a proclamation in their favor for government employment. His speech is bold and well enough if it was advisable that the Chief Magistrate should address such gatherings.

Senator Trumbull called upon me this morning for the first time in several months. It was to ask a favor, and for Mrs. Trumbull more than himself. I regretted that I could not without violating regulations grant it, for both of them have been a little miffed because I opposed his two great measures which have been vetoed. The speech of the President last evening was alluded to, and Trumbull was very emphatic in condemning Presidential speechmaking. We did not greatly differ on this subject, for it has never been regarded favorably by me. Sometimes it may be excusable, but omission is better than compliance with calls from irresponsible gatherings. Frequent harangues to promiscuous crowds lessen the dignity of the President.

Passing from this subject to the condition of the country, he asked me if I was willing, or would consent, that Senators and Representatives should be admitted to take part in the Government, coming from Rebel States and districts. I told him I was most assuredly willing, provided they were loyal and duly and properly elected. "Then," inquired he, "how could you deny one a seat in Congress from South Carolina during the existence of the Rebellion?" "That," said I, "is a different question, but I am by no means prepared to say I would not have been glad to have seen a true and loyal man like Andrew Johnson, or yourself, here from that State during the War. I regretted that more did not, like Johnson, remain in 1861. Would you have expelled them?" Without answering me direct, Trumbull became a good deal excited and was very emphatic against the Rebels. I said we would have no controversy on that point. I was not their apologist, though I was not their persecutor, now that the Rebellion was suppressed. They had greatly erred and wronged us, had slain our kindred and friends, wasted our treasure, etc., but he and I should not bear resentment. We had a country to care for and should, I thought, exert ourselves to promote reconciliation and reëstablish the Union in all its integrity at the earliest attainable moment.

"Without conditions?” inquired he. "The Constitution," replied I, "provides for all that is necessary to be done. The condition of affairs is anomalous, but the path is plain. Each State is entitled to the Senators and Representatives according to population. Why are eleven unrepresented and denied their rights by an arbitrary and despotic majority of Congress?"

He imputed the difficulty chiefly to the President, who, he declared, had failed to act up to the principles of his message; and he quoted a passage. I told him the course of the President I thought perfectly consistent and I knew it was honest. But why was Tennessee, for instance, more loyal than Kentucky, excluded from representation in either branch of Congress? He said the President was to blame for that, for had he not put his veto on the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, Tennessee, and he thought Arkansas and Louisiana also, would long before this have had their Representatives in Congress. I told him this did not appear to me very enlightened and correct statesmanship. Why those States should be denied their undoubted constitutional rights, because the President and Congress disagreed, I could not understand. He complained that the President was not frank, that he had advised civil rights in his message to all, and yet vetoed the very bill which confirmed those rights.

I remarked that the subject of civil rights—personal rights—belonged to the States, not to the Federal Government. The amendment to the Constitution had abolished slavery, and the blacks had the same remedies that the whites had to preserve their freedom. That undoubtedly some of the States would, at least for a time, make discriminating laws. Illinois, I presume, did, and I thought Connecticut also. He denied that Illinois made any distinction affecting the civil rights of the negro, and asked when and in what respects the civil rights were affected in Connecticut.

"Both States," said I, "deny them suffrage, which is claimed as a right by the extreme Radicals in Congress. He said there were not ten men in Congress who took that view; there were just eight, he finally remarked in the Senate, and perhaps double that number in the House. "But," said he, "suffrage is a privilege, not a right." I remarked I so considered it, but Sumner and others took a different view. "Well, then," said he, "in what other respects are the civil rights of the negro affected?" "He is not," said I, "by our laws put on terms of equality. He is not permitted to get into the jury box; he is not allowed to act as an appraiser of property under any circumstances, and there are other matters wherein distinctions are made." "These," replied he, "are all matters of privilege.”

What, then," said I, "do you mean by civil rights? Please to define it." "The right," replied he, "to his liberty, to go and come as he pleases, have the avails of his own labor, not to be restricted in that respect. Virginia," continued he, "has passed a law that they shall not leave the estate on which they reside without a permit." I know not that Virginia denies or restricts the right to emigrate. The other rights mentioned the negro possesses.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 487-90

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, April 3, 1866

The proclamation announcing peace in all the Rebel States but Texas appeared in the National Republican this morning. I was at first a little startled by it, apprehending it would cause some difficulty with our volunteer officers, who, by law, ceased to act on the return of peace. This provision towards that class of officers was one of those headless moves of J. P. Hale, made in the spirit of a demagogue under professed apprehension that Mr. Lincoln, or whoever might be President, would use the Navy to make himself dictator. The proclamation does not include Texas; therefore the Rebellion is not declared wholly suppressed. When I spoke of the subject to-day in Cabinet, I found that none of the members had been apprised of the fact, except Seward, and he not until five o'clock the preceding evening, when he was compelled to send to Hunter, Chief Clerk, at Georgetown. A sudden determination seems to have influenced the President. He did not state his reasons, but it is obvious that the Radicals are taken by surprise and view it as checkmating some of their legislation.

The returns from Connecticut leave no doubt of the election of Hawley, though by a very small majority, some six or eight hundred. This is well,—better than a larger majority, and serves as a warning to the extremists. There is no denying that the policy of the President would have been sustained by a large majority of the people of Connecticut, were that the distinct issue. But this was avoided, yet Forney, in his Chronicle, asserts that the President is defeated, and his veto has been vetoed by the State. An idle falsehood. Mere partisanship will not control, and there has been much of it in this election. Each of the parties shirked the real, living issues, though the Democrats professed to respect them because the Republicans were divided upon the issues, and to press them destroyed or impaired that organization.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 473-4