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.
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, July 26, 1865
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
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.
Thursday, May 5, 2022
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.
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
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.
Saturday, May 1, 2021
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