Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, May 22, 1866

Little of interest transpired to-day in Cabinet. Wrote Lee repeating the order to Mare Island. But for a word from the President he would have been court-martialed. He presumes greatly on his connection with the Blairs and would himself monopolize all that is due them; is full of low intrigue, is selfish and is avaricious, regardless of what belongs to others.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 512

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, July 26, 1865

Blair called on me in some trouble respecting the Maryland appointments, which have been violently contested. From some intimation he apprehends that his friend B—, the marshal, is in danger, and this touches him in a tender point. He therefore wished me to have an interview with the President. I went almost immediately to the Executive Mansion. General Slocum was with the President, but I waited till he was through, and then stated the case. He told me it was his intention to close the Maryland appointments to-day and get them off his hands, and asked if I really supposed Blair cared much about the marshalship. I assured him he did and was sensitive in regard to it. He reached over and took up a paper, which he examined closely. It convinced me that Blair's suspicions were right, and I spoke earnestly and zealously for the Blairs. We had a free conversation in regard to them, and as to the policy which should be pursued in Maryland. I did not hesitate to oppose the selection of opponents or doubtful friends, and to express my opinion that the friends were the reliable supporters of the Administration in that State.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 343-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, July 8, 1865

The week has been one of intense heat, and I have been both busy and indolent. Incidents have passed without daily record. The President has been ill. On Friday I met him at the Cabinet. He has been threatened, Dennison tells me, with apoplexy. So the President informed him.

Mr. Seward has undertaken to excuse and explain his strange letter to me stating “our vessels will withhold courtesy from the English.” He was not aware what he wrote. Damns the English and said he was ready to let them know they must not insult us, and went into pretty glib denunciation of them. Says the French want to get out of Mexico and will go if we let them alone. In Cabinet yesterday, Dennison mentioned a call he had from Sir Frederick Bruce, who desired him to bring to the notice of the President the grievance of an Englishman. Seward and Stanton objected to the informality of the proceedings, which should come through the State Department. The objection was well taken, but Seward could not well prevent, having been constantly committing irregularities by interfering with other Departments.

McCulloch is alarmed about the Treasury. Finds that Fessenden had neither knowledge nor accuracy; that it would have been as well for the Department and the country had he been in Maine, fishing, as to have been in the Treasury Department. His opinion of Chase's financial abilities does not increase in respect as he becomes more conversant with the finances. But McCulloch, while a business man, and vastly superior to either of his two immediate predecessors, or both of them, in that respect, has unfortunately no political experience and is deficient in knowledge of men.

In some exhibits yesterday, it was shown that the military had had under pay during the year about one million men daily. Over seven hundred thousand have been paid off and discharged. There are still over two hundred thousand men on the rolls under pay. The estimates of Fessenden are exhausted, the loan is limited by law, and McCulloch is alarmed. His nerves will, however, become stronger, and he can he will - find ways to weather the storm. Stanton has little idea of economy, although he parades the subject before the public. It is notorious that no economy has yet penetrated the War Department. The troops have been reduced in number, - men have been mustered out, - because from the cessation of hostilities and the expiration of their terms they could not longer be retained, but I have not yet seen any attempt to retrench expenses in the quartermasters', commissary, or any other branch of the military service, - certainly none in the War Department proper.

On Tuesday the 4th, I went with Mrs. Welles and Mrs. Bigelow, wife of John B., our minister to France, to Silver Spring, a pleasant drive. The Blairs, as usual, were hospitable and interesting. They do not admire Louis Napoleon and want his troops should be expelled from Mexico. Mrs. B. is joyous, pleasant, and happy, and it is evident her husband wished her to see and get something of the views of the Blairs, but, while intelligent and charming, she is not profound on matters of State, and was a little disconcerted at the plain, blunt remarks of the elder Mr. and Mrs. Blair. She has, however, a woman's instincts.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 327-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, May 19, 1865

Preston King tells me he has a letter from Senator Dixon, speaking of me in very complimentary terms and expressing a wish that I may continue in the Cabinet, assuring K. that this is the sentiment of all parties in Connecticut. The President is not yet prepared to complete the Amnesty Proclamation, nor to issue the order for the reëstablishment of the authority of the local State governments. Our North Carolina friends have not arrived. Seward was to-day in the State Department, and the President with the rest of us went to his room. I noticed that his old crony and counterpart, Thurlow Weed, was with him as we entered. Seward was gratified and evidently felt complimented that we called. Was very decisive and emphatic on the subject of a proclamation declaring the Rebel vessels pirates and also a proclamation for opening the ports. Both these measures I had pressed rather earnestly; but Stanton, and Speed under Stanton's prompting, had opposed, for some assumed technical reason [?], the first, i.e. declaring the Rebel vessels pirates, and McCulloch the last, opening the ports. I was, therefore, pleased when Seward, unprompted, brought them both forward. I suggested that the proclamation already issued appeared to me to be sufficient, but I was glad to have his opinions on account of the opposition of Speed.

Received a telegram this P.M. from Commander Frailey and one from Acting-Rear-Admiral Radford, stating that the former, in command of the Tuscarora, had convoyed to Hampton Roads the William Clyde, having on board Jeff Davis, Stephens, etc.

This dispatch, addressed to me, Stanton had in his hand when I entered his room, whither he had sent for me. The telegraph goes to the Department of War, where it has an office, and I before have had reason to believe that some abuse — a sort of an espionage — existed. Half apologizing for an obvious impropriety, he said the custody of these prisoners devolved on him a great responsibility, and until he had made disposition of them, or determined where they should be sent, he wished their arrival to be kept a secret. He was unwilling, he said, to trust Fox, and specially desired me to withhold the information from him, for he was under the Blairs and would be used by them, and the Blairs would improve the opportunity to embarrass him.

I by no means concur in his censures or his views. Fox, like Stanton, will sometimes confide secrets which he had better retain, but not, I think, when enjoined. The Blairs have no love for Stanton, but I do not think he has any cause of apprehension from them in this matter.

He wished me to order the Tuscarora to still convoy and guard the Clyde, and allow no communication with the prisoners except by order of General Halleck or the War Department, — General Halleck, Stanton has ordered down from Richmond to attend to this business, — and again earnestly requested and enjoined that none but we three — himself, General Grant, and myself — should know of the arrival and disposition of these prisoners. I told him the papers would have the arrivals announced in their next issue.

Stanton said no word could get abroad. He had the telegraph in his own hands and could suppress everything. Not a word should pass. I remarked he could not stop the mails, nor passenger-boats, and twenty-four hours would carry the information to Baltimore and abroad in that way. Twenty-four hours, he said, would relieve him.

Stanton is mercurial, - arbitrary and apprehensive, violent and fearful, rough and impulsive, — yet possessed of ability and energy. I, of course, under his request, shall make no mention of or allusion to the prisoners, for the present. In framing his dispatch, he said, with some emphasis, the women and children must be sent off. We did not want them. “They must go South,” and he framed his dispatch accordingly. When he read it I remarked, “The South is very indefinite, and you permit them to select the place. Mrs. Davis may designate Norfolk, or Richmond.” “True," said Grant with a laugh. Stanton was annoyed, but, I think, altered his telegram.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 307-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, May 10, 1865

Senator Sumner called on me. We had a long conversation on matters pertaining to the affairs of Fort Sumter. He has been selected to deliver an oration on Mr. Lincoln's death to the citizens of Boston, and desired to post himself in some respects. I told him the influence of the Blairs, and especially of the elder, had done much to strengthen Mr. Lincoln in that matter, while Seward and General Scott had opposed.

Sumner assures me Chase has gone into Rebeldom to promote negro suffrage. I have no doubt that Chase has that and other schemes for Presidential preferment in hand in this voyage. S. says that President Johnson is aware of his (Chase's) object in behalf of the negroes, and favors the idea of their voting. On this point I am skeptical. He would not oppose any such movement, were any State to make it. I so expressed myself to Sumner, and he assented but intended to say the negroes were the people.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 304

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, October 7, 1864

The President was not at his house to-day. Mr. Bates had said to me that the President told him there was no special business. Nevertheless, I preferred soon after twelve to walk over, having some little business of my own. Fessenden, Usher, and myself arrived about the same moment, and we had half an hour's friendly talk. In the course of it, Fessenden took an occasion to pass an opinion upon certain naval officers, showing the prejudiced partisan rather than the enlightened minister and statesman. Farragut, he said, was the only naval officer who has exhibited any skill and ability; there were undoubtedly other officers, but they had not been brought out. I inquired what he thought of Foote. “Well, I allude more particularly to the living,” said he, “but what is Lee, that you have kept him in? Is there any reason except his relationship to the Blairs and to Fox?" — he knew of no other reason. I inquired when Lee had been remiss, and asked him if he knew that Montgomery Blair and Lee were not on speaking terms and had not been for years. He seemed surprised and said he was not. I told him such was the case; that he had never expressed a wish in Lee's behalf to me, or manifested any gratification at that selection, but on the contrary, I knew Blair had thought, with him, that it was an appointment not judicious. I did not tell F. of the narrow animosity of Lee towards Fox. But all this spleen came, I knew, from the War Department and certain influences connected with it. Dahlgren he also denounced, yet when I inquired if he had ever investigated the subject, if he was aware that Dahlgren had maintained an efficient blockade, while Du Pont, whom he half complimented, had not [sic]. “Then,” said I, “what do you say of Porter?” He admitted that he had thought pretty well of Porter until he begun to gather in cotton, and run a race with Banks to get it instead of doing his duty. I told him this was ungenerous and, I apprehended, a sad mistake on his part. The whole tenor of the conversation left no doubt on my mind that Stanton, Winter Davis, Wade, Chase, the thieving Treasury agents and speculators had imposed on Fessenden.

. . . Fessenden is, in some personal matters, very much of a partisan, and his partisan feelings have made him the victim of a very cunning intrigue. He dislikes Seward, and yet is, through other instrumentalities, the creature to some extent of Seward.

Stanton, having been brought into the Cabinet by Seward, started out as a radical. Chase and others were deceived by his pretensions at the beginning, but some time before leaving the Cabinet, Chase found a part of his mistake. Fessenden and others have not yet. They suppose Stanton is with them; Seward knows better. I have no doubt but Stanton when with Fessenden, Wade, and others acquiesces and participates in their expressed views against Seward. Hating Blair, it has grieved Stanton that Lee, the brother-in-law of Blair, should have command, and Fessenden has been impressed accordingly. Himself inclined to radicalism on the slavery issue, though in other respects conservative, Fessenden, who is in full accord with Chase, has a dislike to Blair, an old Democrat but who is represented as the friend of Seward. Yet Blair has no more confidence in, or regard for, Seward than Fessenden has, and I have been surprised that he should acquiesce in the erroneous impression that is abroad. It is easy to perceive why Seward should favor the impression alluded to. Blair was ready to accept the denunciatory resolution of the Baltimore convention as aimed at him, whereas it was intended more particularly for Seward. The Missouri radicals are some who were deceived by the impression that Seward and Blair were a unit. In the convention there was a determination to get rid of Mr. Seward, but the managers, under the contrivance of Raymond, who has shrewdness, so shaped the resolution as to leave it pointless, or as not more direct against Seward than against Blair, or by others against Chase and Stanton.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 172-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, April 28, 1864

The opinion in regard to General Banks is very unanimous. None speak favorably of him as a military man, and his civil administration is much censured. Whether the President will continue to sustain him is to be seen.

General Frank Blair has resigned his seat in the House, and the President has revoked the acceptance of his military resignation. This is a stretch of power and construction that I do not like. Much censure will fall on the President for this act, and it will have additional edge from the violent and injudicious speech of General Blair denouncing in unmeasured terms Mr. Chase. He also assails the appointees of Chase, and his general policy touching agent's permits in the valley of the Mississippi as vicious and corrupt. I have an unfavorable opinion of the Treasury management there and on the coast, and there are some things in the conduct of Chase himself that I disapprove.

The Blairs are pugnacious, but their general views, especially those of Montgomery Blair, have seemed to me sound and judicious in the main. A forged requisition of General Blair has been much used against him. A committee of Congress has pronounced the document a forgery, having been altered so as to cover instead of $150 worth of stores some $8000 or $10,000. He charges the wrong on the Treasury agents, and Chase’s friends, who certainly have actively used it. Whether Chase has given encouragement to the scandal is much to be doubted. I do not believe he would be implicated in it, though he has probably not discouraged, or discountenanced it. Chase is deficient in magnanimity and generosity. The Blairs have both, but they have strong resentments. Warfare with them is open, bold, and unsparing. With Chase it is silent, persistent, but regulated with discretion. Blairs make no false professions. Chase avows no enmities.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 19-20

Diary of John Hay, September 24, 1864

This morning I asked the President if the report of the resignation of Blair were true. He said it was.

“Has Dennison been appointed to succeed him?”

“I have telegraphed to him to-day — have as yet received no answer.”

“What is Mr. Blair going to do?”

“He is going up to Maryland to make speeches. If he will devote himself to the success of the national cause without exhibiting bad temper towards his opponents, he can set the Blair family up again.”

“Winter Davis is taking the stump also. I doubt if his advocacy of you will be hearty enough to be effective.”

“If he and the rest can succeed in carrying the State for emancipation, I shall be very willing to lose the electoral vote.”

SOURCES: Abstracted from Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 221-2; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 230

Diary of John Hay: December 9, 1863

. . . . In the evening Judd and Usher, and Nicolay and I were talking politics and blackguarding our friends in the Council Chamber. A great deal had been said about the folly of the Edward Bates letter — the Rockville Blair speech, etc. — when the President came in. They at once opened on him, and after some talk he settled down to give his ideas about the Blair business. He said:—

“The Blairs have, to an unusual degree, the spirit of clan. Their family is a close corporation. Frank is their hope and pride. They have a way of going with a rush for anything they undertake; — especially have Montgomery and the Old Gentleman. When this war first began, they could think of nothing but Frémont; they expected everything from him; and upon their earnest solicitation he was made a General, and sent to Missouri. I thought well of Frémont. Even now I think he is the prey of wicked and designing men, and I think he has absolutely no military capacity. He went to Missouri, the pet and protegé of the Blairs. At first they corresponded with him and with Frank, who was with him, fully and confidently thinking his plans and his efforts would accomplish great things for the country. At last the tone of Frank’s letters changed. It was a change from confidence to doubt and uncertainty. They were pervaded with a tone of sincere sorrow, and of fear that Frémont would fail. Montgomery showed them to me, and we were both grieved at the prospect. Soon came the news that Frémont had issued his Emancipation Order, and had set up a Bureau of Abolition, giving free papers, and occupying his time apparently with little else. At last, at my suggestion, Montgomery Blair went to Missouri to look at, and talk over matters. He went as the friend of Frémont. I sent him as Frémont ‘s friend. He passed on the way, Mrs. Frémont coming to see me. She sought an audience with me at midnight, and taxed me so violently with many things that I had to exercise all the awkward tact I have, to avoid quarreling with her. She surprised me by asking why their enemy, Montgomery Blair, had been sent to Missouri. She more than once intimated that if Gen'l Frémont should conclude to try conclusions with me, he could set up for himself.”

(Judd says: — “It is pretty clearly proven that Frémont had at that time concluded that the Union was definitely destroyed, and that he should set up an independent government as soon as he took Memphis and organized his army.")

“The next we heard was that Frémont had arrested Frank Blair, and the rupture has since never been healed.”

“During Frémont’s time, the Missouri Democrat, which had always been Blair’s organ, was bought up by Frémont, and turned against Frank Blair. This took away from Frank, after his final break with Frémont, the bulk of the strength which had always elected him. This left him ashore. To be elected in this state of things he must seek for votes outside of the Republican organization. He had pretty hard trimming and cutting to do this consistently. It is this necessity, as it appears to me, of finding some ground for Frank to stand on, that accounts for the present, somewhat anomalous, position of the Blairs in politics.”

Judd: — “The opinion of people who read your Message to-day is that, on that platform, two of your ministers must walk the plank — Blair and Bates.”

Lincoln: — “Both of these men acquiesced in it without objection. The only member of the Cabinet who objected to it was Mr. Chase.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 132-5; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 130-4.

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, September 11, 1862

I find it difficult to hurry Wilkes off with his command. The public, especially the commercial community, are impatient; but Wilkes, like many officers, having got position, likes to exhibit himself and snuff incense. He assumed great credit for promptness, and has sometimes shown it, but not on this occasion. Has been fussing about his vessel until I had, to-day, to give him a pretty peremptory order.

Men in New York, men who are sensible in most things, are the most easily terrified and panic-stricken of any community. They are just now alarmed lest an ironclad steamer may rush in upon them some fine morning while they are asleep and destroy their city. In their imagination, under the teachings of mischievous persons and papers, they suppose every Rebel cruiser is ironclad, while in fact the Rebels have not one ironclad afloat. It only requires a sensation paragraph in the Times to create alarm. The Times is controlled by Seward through Thurlow Weed, and used through him by Stanton. Whenever the army is in trouble and public opinion sets against its management, the Times immediately sets up a howl against the Navy.

Senator Pomeroy of Kansas called yesterday in relation to a scheme, or job, for deporting slaves and colored people to Chiriqui. I cautioned him against committing himself or the Government to Thompson, or any corporation or association. Let him know my opinion of Thompson's project and my opposition to it. Advised him, if anything was seriously and earnestly designed, to go to the Government of New Granada or any of the Spanish-American States and treat with them direct, and not through scheming jobbers. Should suspect P. to have a personal interest in the matter but for the fact that the President, the Blairs, and one or two men of integrity and character favor it.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 122-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, August 22, 1862

The President tells me he has a list of the number of new recruits which have reached Washington under the late call. Over 18,000 have arrived in just one week. There is wonderful and increasing enthusiasm and determination to put down this Rebellion and sustain the integrity of the Union. It is confined to no class or party or description: rich and poor, the educated and ignorant, the gentle and refined as well as the stout, coarse, and athletic, the Democrats generally as well as the Republicans, are offering themselves to the country.

Governor Dennison and Judge Swayne¹ of Ohio, with others, are urging in person the establishment of a line of armed and armored steamers on the Ohio River. The plan has been elaborated with much care, and has been before presented and pressed with some zeal. Distrust, no doubt, in regard to army management leads these men to seek naval protection. The Blairs are quoted to me as favoring the movement, and Fox has given them encouragement. It has not found favor with me at any time. It is now brought to my attention in such a way that I am compelled to take it up. I find that great names and entire communities in Ohio and Indiana, led on by the authorities of those States, are engaged in it. I told the principal agent, who, with Governor D., had a long interview with me, that my judgment and convictions were against it, for: First: I had no faith that light-draft gunboats would be a safe and reliable means of frontier river-defense. They might be auxiliary and essential aids to the army, but they cannot carry heavy armament, are frail, and in low stages of the water, with high banks which overlook the river, would not be effective and could hardly take care of themselves, though in certain cases, and especially in high water, they might greatly aid the army. Secondly: As a matter of policy it would be injudicious and positively harmful to establish a frontier line between Ohio and Kentucky, making the river the military boundary, — it would be conceding too much. If a line of boats could assist in protecting the northern banks of the Ohio they could afford little security to the southern banks, where, as in Ohio, there is, except in localities, a majority for the Union. I added that I should be opposed to any plan which proposed to establish frontier lines, therein differing from some of our best army officers; that I thought neither Ohio nor Indiana could, on deliberate consideration, wish the line of separation from hostile forces should be the northern boundary of Kentucky. It appeared to me the true course was to make their interest in this war identical with that of Kentucky, and if there were to be a line of demarcation it should be as far south as the southern boundary of Tennessee, and not the banks of the Ohio. The gentlemen seemed to be impressed with these general views.

_______________

¹ Noah H. Swayne, of the United States Supreme Court.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 87-9