Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, April 25, 1866

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler is exercising a great and dangerous influence at the Treasury Department. He has been employed in some cases and is using his opportunities to press others where he is employed as counsel. As he has talents but no principles, is avaricious and unscrupulous, I have given our friends McCulloch and Chandler at the Treasury an occasional admonition concerning him.

In 1863 the Grey Jacket, a steamer laden with cotton, was captured by the Kennebec on the way from Mobile to Cuba. The cargo and vessel were valued at about half a million of dollars, and were condemned on the showing of the captain and owners. An appeal was taken, but the case was so flagrant that there was no avoiding condemnation. The owners had employed various counsel, — first Nott and others of New Orleans, then Seward and Blatchford of New York, but all have on hearing the facts abandoned the case. About the first of last December it was put in the hands of General Butler, who commenced a series of intrigues and manoeuvres, and from his persistency and unscrupulousness had evidently a large contingent fee. I have heard it stated at $125,000. But he found no favor at the Navy Department. His last appeal with me was a half-threat to go to Congress and make an appeal to their sympathies for a man who had lost his all by this capture and condemnation. I replied that my appeal for sympathy in behalf of the sailors who had nobly done their duty in sunshine and storm, in winter and summer, day and night, would probably be as effective as his. He then changed, proposed that the captors should take one half and the claimant the other, surrendering by this arrangement the moiety which should go to the naval pension fund. I told him that was impossible; the Secretary of the Navy should make no such arrangement; moreover he was the trustee of that fund and held it sacred.

One other futile attempt was made in company with the Attorney-General, whom he persuaded to come with him, but after a brief talk Speed appeared to think he had been imposed upon and abandoned the case.

Failing at these points, Butler commenced intriguing at the Treasury, where he was listened to by Chandler, and finally Caleb Cushing was employed at Chandler's suggestion to give a written opinion, General Butler being the prompter. Cushing was timid, hesitated to present his opinion unsustained, and General Butler drew up a preamble and resolution which he procured Thad Stevens to present and procured to be passed under the previous question, without debate, to the effect that cases of this description should be suspended until the judgment of the Supreme Court should be obtained next winter. There are one or two clauses in certain acts which Chase procured to be inserted when he was striving to absorb the whole government in the Treasury Department, having the Presidency in view. These clauses Butler and Cushing made the foundation of their proceeding. Stevens's resolution was passed on the 9th, and Cushing's opinion is dated on the 11th. The whole thing is disgraceful even to a lobby agent and discreditable to the Treasury Department, which has, so far as the Secretary is concerned, unwittingly lent itself to Butler. How far the Assistant Secretary is involved is uncertain. . . . Great derangement in order to get a great fee has been effected.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 492-3

John J. Crittenden to Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, April 21, 1851

WASHINGTON, April 21, 1851.

SIR, Your letter of the 12th inst. was received yesterday, and read with painful surprise. It is marked with such a spirit of rebuke and irritation that I hardly know how I ought to understand or reply to it. You have almost made me feel that any explanation under such circumstances would be derogatory. But, sir, suppressing all these feelings, and preferring in this instance to err, if at all, on the side of forbearance, I have concluded to address you a calm reply and explanation of the subject that has so much irritated and excited you.

Know, then, that I did receive the letter you addressed to me last winter requesting my assistance in procuring for your son the appointment of cadet in the Military Academy at West Point.

All such appointments, except ten, are so regulated by law that they must be made, one from each congressional district, on the nomination and recommendation of the representative of that district.

There was no vacancy in your district, and, of course, the only hope for your son was to obtain for him one of the ten extraordinary appointments at the disposal of the President. The power of conferring these is understood to have been given to the President for the benefit of the sons of officers of the army and navy, and especially of those whose fathers had perished in the service of their country; and although these appointments have not, in practice, been always confined to this description of persons, their claims have been generally favored and preferred. The number of such applicants has been greatly increased by the Mexican war, and their competitors from civil life are still more numerous.

From this general statement may be inferred the uncertainty and difficulty of procuring one of these appointments.

In the winter of 1849 and '50 I had, at the instance of my old friend, Gabriel Lewis, of Kentucky, very earnestly recommended a grandson of his to General Taylor for one of these appointments. He did not get it, and it was then determined by his family, with my advice and my promise to give what assistance I could, to renew or continue his application for another year, and I had, accordingly, again recommended him for one of the appointments that were to be made this spring.

Such was the condition of things and such my situation and engagement when your first letter was received. Notwithstanding all the difficulties in the way, I was not without the hope of serving you, for the sole reason, perhaps, that I wished to do so, and wished to obtain the appointment for your son. To learn something of the prospect of success, I conversed several times with the Secretary of War on the subject. He could only tell me that no selections would be made, that the subject would not be considered till the time had arrived for making the appointments, and that the number of applicants was very great, amounting to hundreds,—I think he said fifteen hundred.

I ought, perhaps, to have acknowledged the receipt of your letter and have given you all this information; and most certainly I would have done it if I had had the least apprehension of the grave consequences that have followed the omission. It did not occur to me that any punctiliousness would be exacted in our correspondence.

But, besides all this, and to say nothing of the daily duties of my office, and my almost constant attendance upon the Supreme Court, then in session, I had nothing satisfactory or definite to write. I waited, therefore, willing to avail myself of any circumstance or opportunity that time or chance might bring forth to serve you and to procure an appointment for your son as well as for the grandson of Mr. Lewis. I could find no such opportunity—no opportunity even for urging it with the least hope of success.

The appointments have all been recently made, and, with few exceptions, confined to the sons, I believe, of deceased officers, to the exclusion, for the second time, of the grandson of my friend Lewis, who has been on the list of applicants for two years, with all the recommendation I could give him.

I should have taken some opportunity of writing to you on this subject, even if your late letter had not so unpleasantly anticipated that purpose.

This, sir, is the whole tale. It must speak for itself. I have no other propitiation to offer. I am the injured party. When you become conscious of that, you will know well what atonement ought to be made and how it ought to be made. Till then, sir, self-respect compels me to say that I will be content to abide those unfriendly relations which I understand your letter to imply, if not proclaim.

I can truly say that I have written this "more in sorrow than in anger." I have intended nothing beyond my own defense and vindication, and if I have been betrayed into a word that goes beyond those just limits and implies anything like aggression, let it be stricken out.

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

SOURCE: Ann Mary Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 1, p. 385-7

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, February 23, 1866

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION                

OF THE MISSISSIPPI,        

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 23, 1866.

Dear Brother: The political aspect now is interesting to a looker-on. Sumner and Stevens would have made another civil war inevitably the President's antagonistic position saves us war save of words, and as I am a peace man I go for Johnson and the Veto.

I recollect that Congress is but one of three co-ordinate branches of the Government. I want to hear the Supreme Court manifest itself, and then can guess at the conclusion. . . . Let Johnson fight it out with Sumner, who, though sincere, represents an antagonism as ultra as of Davis himself. Both are representative men, and it will be a pity if the great mass of our people have to go on fighting forever to demonstrate the fallacy of extreme opinions.

The Republican party has lost forever the best chance they can ever expect of gaining recruits from the great middle class who want peace and industry. The white men of this country will control it, and the negro, in mass, will occupy a subordinate place as a race. We can secure them the liberty now gained, but we cannot raise them to a full equality in our day, even if at all. Had the Republicans graciously admitted the great principle of representation, leaving members to take the Ironclad Oath, you would have secured the active cooperation of such men as Sharkey, Parsons, Wm. A. Graham, Johnson, and others of the South, and it would not be many years before some of these States would have grown as rabid as Missouri, Maryland, and Arkansas are now disposed to be. The foolish querulousness of the Secessionists untamed would soon make a snarlish minority in their own States. Now, however, by the extreme measures begun and urged with so much vindictiveness, Sumner has turned all the Union people South as well as of the West against the party. . . . It is surely unfortunate that the President is thus thrown seemingly on the old mischievous anti-war Democrats, but from his standpoint he had no alternative. To outsiders it looks as though he was purposely forced into that category.

I know that the Freedmen Bureau Bill, and that for universal suffrage in the District, are impracticable and impolitic. Better let them slide, and devote time to putting the actual Government into the best shape the country admits of, letting other natural causes produce the results you aim at. Whenever State Legislatures and people oppress the negro they cut their own throats, for the negro cannot again be enslaved. Their mistakes will work to the interests of the great Union party.

I can readily understand what the effect must be in your circle. How difficult it is to do anything, but if Congress does nothing it will be the greatest wisdom; for the business relations opening throughout the South will do more to restore peace and prosperity than all the laws that could be published in six months.

I think Mr. Johnson would consent to a modification of the Constitution to change the basis of representation to suit the changed condition of the population South, but at is all he can or should do. . .

We need the Army Bills¹ to get to work. I will have to abandon all the remote settlements to the chances of the Indians, for even after the bill passes, it will take months to enlist the men, and in the meantime all volunteers are clamorous for discharge, and must be discharged as soon as winter lets them come in.

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

_______________

¹ The bills providing for the reorganization of the army.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 263-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: [Saturday, November 26, 1864]

I called on the President Satur: day, the 26th, as I had promised him I would the day before, with my abstract for the message, intending to have a full, free talk with him on the subjects that were under review the day previous. But Mr. Bates was there with his resignation, and evidently anxious to have a private interview with the President.

The question of Chief Justice has excited much remark and caused quite a movement with many. Mr. Chase is expecting it, and he has many strong friends who are urging him. But I have not much idea that the President will appoint him, nor is it advisable he should. I had called on the President on the 23d, and had some conversation, after dispatching a little business, in regard to this appointment of Chief Justice. He said there was a great pressure and a good many talked of, but that he had not prepared his message and did not intend to take up the subject of judge before the session commenced.

“There is," said he, "a tremendous pressure just now for Evarts of New York, who, I suppose, is a good lawyer?” This he put inquiringly. I stated that he stood among the foremost at the New York bar; perhaps no one was more prominent as a lawyer. "But that," I remarked, “is not all. Our Chief Justice must have a judicial mind, be upright, of strict integrity, not too pliant; should be a statesman and a politician.” By politician I did not mean a partisan. [I said] that it appeared to me the occasion should be improved to place at the head of the court a man, not a partisan, but one who was impressed with the principles and doctrines which had brought this Administration into power; that it would conduce to the public welfare and his own comfort to have harmony between himself and the judicial department, and that it was all-important that he should have a judge who would be a correct and faithful expositor of the principles of his administration and policy after his administration shall have closed. I stated that among the candidates who had been named, Mr. Montgomery Blair, it appeared to me, best conformed to these requirements; that the President knew the man, his ability, his truthfulness, honesty, and courage.

The President at different points expressed his concurrence in my views, and spoke kindly and complimentarily of Mr. Blair, but did not in any way commit himself, nor did I expect or suppose he would.

I have since seen and had a full conversation with Blair. We had previously exchanged a few words on the subject. I then stated to him that, while it would gratify me to see him on the bench, I preferred that he should continue in active political life, and that I had especially desired he should go into the War Department. This point was alluded to in our present interview, and he confessed the War Department was more congenial to his feelings, but Seward wanted a tool there, and if he had influence, it would be exerted against him (Blair) for that place. Yet in a conversation which he had with Seward about a week since, Seward had given him (Blair) to understand that he was his (Seward's) candidate for Chief Justice. I told him that he could hardly be sincere in this, for Evarts would not consent to be a candidate nor think of it if Seward was not for him. Blair seemed a little shocked with this view of facts, and remarked that if Seward was not for him he was an infernal hypocrite.

Blair says he is singularly placed at this juncture, for the Marylanders are disposed to put him in the Senate at this time, while this judicial appointment is pending. I told him that personally I should be as much pleased to see him in the Senate as in the Court.

Governor Dennison, Postmaster-General, called at my house this evening to have some conversation on the subject of judge. He says he is and was at the last session committed for his fellow townsman Judge Swayne, who was at the time recommended by all on the bench; that he had called on the President at that time in behalf of Swayne, and the President then remarked that that seemed a settled question in which all were agreed. Governor D. is now a little embarrassed, for he feels particularly friendly to Blair.

As regards Mr. Chase, Governor D., like myself, thinks it impossible that he should receive the appointment, that it is one which the President cannot properly make. Says they could not assimilate, and that, were Chase in that position,—a life tenure,—he would exhibit his resentments against the President, who he thinks has prevented his upward official career. He then told me that he labored to get Chase into the Treasury, and how sadly he had been disappointed over his failure as a financier. One of the strong traits of Chase, he says, is the memory of differences, and that he never forgets or forgives those who have once thwarted him. He may suppress his revenge, but it is abiding.

The resignation of Attorney-General Bates has initiated more intrigues. A host of candidates are thrust forward, or are thrusting themselves forward. Evarts, Holt, Cushing, Whiting, and the Lord knows who, are all candidates. Under the circumstances it appears to me the appointment must go to one of the Border States, and hence I have thought Holt would most probably be the candidate of the President. He is, moreover, of Democratic antecedents; still I have no information on the subject.

Fox tells me that Whiting sought him yesterday and introduced the subject of the Navy Department, and inquired of Fox if he would remain were I to leave. To this F. says he replied he thought not, for we had got along so well together that he did not believe he could be reconciled to another. Whiting told him that would have great influence in the matter; that it was thought Senator Grimes might be offered the appointment if there was a change. All of this means that Whiting wants to be Attorney-General, but New England cannot have more appointments, and the little fellow is intriguing for a remote chance. Could the Secretary of the Navy come from Iowa, the Attorney-General, he thinks, might be selected from New England. The game is very easily read. Little Whiting's intrigues are not equal to his egotism, and yet he is a convenient instrument for others. He writes for Stanton, for Seward, and for the President, and intrigues generally. But he overestimates himself. He will never go into the Cabinet.

R. H. Gillett, formerly Solicitor of the Treasury, now a practicing lawyer, chiefly in the Supreme Court, stopped me a few mornings since to relate his last interview with Judge Taney. They were discussing governmental affairs. The Chief Justice was, he says, communicative and instructive. He said the Navy Department made less noise than some of the others, but no Department of the government was so well managed or better performed its duty.

This was, and is, high praise from a quarter that makes it appreciated. The Chief Justice could, as well as any man, form a correct opinion, and in giving it he must have been disinterested. Twenty-five and thirty years ago we were slightly acquainted, but I do not remember that I have exchanged a word with him since the days of Van Buren, perhaps I did in Polk's administration. The proceedings in the Dred Scott case alienated my feelings entirely. I have never called on him, as I perhaps ought in courtesy to have done, but it was not in me, for I have looked on him and his court as having contributed, unintentionally perhaps, but largely, to the calamities of our afflicted country. They probably did not mean treason but thought their wisdom and official position would give national sanction to a great wrong. Whether Judge T. retained any recollection of me, or our former slight acquaintance, I probably shall never know, but his compliment I highly value.

The case of the Florida has from time to time and in various ways been up. She was taken by Collins in the Wachusett at Bahia and brought to Hampton Roads. Having been captured in neutral waters, a great outcry has gone up from the English press and people, and some of our own have manifested a morbid sentiment with those English who have nothing to do with the subject. The Secretary of State has not known what to say, and, I think, not what to do. In our first or second conversation he expressed a hope that we should not be compelled to give up the Florida, and this he repeated in each of our subsequent interviews. I told him the idea ought not to be seriously thought of for a moment, and said that I knew of no instance where a belligerent armed vessel had been restored. That he owed a respectful apology to Brazil, I not only admitted but asserted. We have disturbed her peace, been guilty of discourtesy, etc., etc. Yet Brazil herself has in the first instance done wrong. She has given refuge and aid to the robbers whom she does not recognize as a government. She has, while holding amicable relations with us, seen these pirates seize and burn our merchant vessels, and permitted these plundering marauders to get supplies and to refit in her ports, and almost make her harbors the base of operations. What Brazil will demand or require I know not. Although she has done wrong to us in giving comfort and assistance to these robbers, I would make amends for her offended sovereignty by any proper acknowledgments. I do not believe she will have the impudence to ask restitution. If she did, it would be under British prompting and I would not give it. The case is not as if the war was between two nations. Yet some of our politicians and editors are treating it as such. Among others the New York Evening Post. I am inclined to think there is something personal towards me in this pertness of the Evening Post. The papers have alluded to differences between Seward and myself. There has been no such controversy or difference as the Post represents on this subject. All our talk has been amicable, he doubtful and hesitating, I decided and firm on certain points which, if he does not assent to, he does not controvert. But the publisher of the Evening Post is held in bail for malfeasance at the instance of the Navy Department. Great efforts have been made to let him off, to which I could not yield, and his case is to come off before the grand jury now in session. Under these circumstances the editors of the Post are very willing to differ with me on a public question, and yet they would never admit that they were actuated by personal considerations or a design to influence and bias the jury. It is, they think, their nice sense of honor, which would have us, as a nation, humble ourselves to Brazil for having taken a pirate by the throat within her jurisdiction, and that same sense of honor would screen a malefactor from exposure and punishment.

Brazil, and other governments who have given shelter, comfort, and aid to the piratical vessels that have plundered our commerce under a pretended flag which neither Brazil nor any other nation recognizes, committed the first great wrong. The government of Brazil is aware that the Rebel pirates have no admiralty court, that they have never sent in a vessel captured for condemnation; therefore Brazil herself, by permitting and acquiescing in the outrages on a friendly nation, is the first aggressor, and she should be held to it. If we have injured Brazil, let us make reparation, full and ample. If she has injured us, let her do her duty also, in this respect. So far as her majesty is disturbed by our taking a sneaking thief, whom she was entertaining, by the throat, — an outlaw with some of his robberies upon him, — let all proper atonement be made.

I suggested to Mr. Seward that proceedings should be commenced against the prisoners captured on the Florida as pirates, but he shrank from it, although it would have relieved him of many difficulties. It would not have been wrong to have gone to extremes with them, but the prosecution would bring out the true points and stop noise.

Governor Morgan detailed his journey with Governor Morrill through the different States, visiting the different governors and our political friends prior to the election, under an appointment, it seems, from the Secretary of War, ostensibly to attend to the draft. It was when political affairs looked darkest. He thinks that he and M. under this appointment and visit did much to dissipate the gloom. The intrigues of the radicals were totally defeated, and, after opposing and abusing the President, all of them finally came in, as I had no doubt they would. Morgan says the malcontents held their final secret meeting at the house of one of the editors of the Evening Post.

Chase was, Morgan says, open and sharp in his opposition to the President, — they heard of him at various places, but, finding he could accomplish nothing, he eventually came in, called on the President, procured the sacrifice of Blair as a pretext for his wounded and bruised feelings and those of his friends. This is Morgan's representation.

There was probably something in this, and also, I think, in the intrigues of Thurlow Weed. Strange antagonisms seem to have been harnessed up together in some partypolitical personal operations. Morgan thinks Chase will be appointed Chief Justice, but I do not yet arrive at that conclusion. The President sometimes does strange things, but this would be a singular mistake, in my opinion, for one who is so shrewd and honest, — an appointment that he would soon regret. In this M. agrees with me, and also that Blair is the man.

The place of Attorney-General has been tendered to Holt, who declines it, preferring his present position. This I think an error; that is, no man should decline a place of such responsibility in times like these when the country is so unanimous in his favor. Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department and patent lawyer, is sorely disappointed.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 181-7