Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, August 9, 1865

I yesterday wrote a letter to Paul S. Forbes, returning an impertinent and insolent letter of his lawyer, Dickerson, and also wrote to Gardner, who claims to be his agent, and mentioned that the trial of the Algonquin was to be made by engineers selected by the Secretary of the Navy pursuant to contract. These letters I modified to-day and more carefully worded, for there is an obvious intention on the part of Dickerson, the patent lawyer, to have a controversy.

J. Z. Goodrich, Collector at Boston, called on me to-day. An effort is making — an intrigue, he says to displace him and appoint some other person. Ex-Vice-President Hamlin has been one of the persons named to succeed him, Assistant Postmaster-General McClellan another; the last person named is Gooch, the Representative. From the facts stated by Goodrich, I have little doubt that Mr. Representative Hooper has been active in this matter, probably the instigator. Gooch is doubtless in complicity with him. But Hooper is a man of equivocal character from these representations, and has connived at a fraud, was exposed and defeated by Goodrich, and now seeks to get Goodrich displaced from his position.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 356-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, August 16, 1865

Wrote a letter to Paul S. Forbes in relation to his engine and the trial of the Algonquin. The letter is an answer to one from him, written evidently by his lawyer and prompter, Dickerson, designedly insolent and intended to provoke retort.

But I have contrived to keep cool and, I think, to place them in the wrong, although they have control of the New York press and correspondents, who make aggravated assaults without any knowledge of the facts. Here and there silly editors, wholly ignorant of the subject, also assume to speak oracularly, and doubtless the public become in some degree prejudiced. In due time there will be correction, the truth will come out, but to some extent the slander will long remain to taint the minds of many.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 361-2

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, July 29, 1865

We had this P.M. a violent storm of rain and wind. The day had previously been exceedingly sultry. Dickerson, the patent-lawyer, has contrived to get up quite a little fuss in the matter of steam engines. Paul Forbes, a man of wealth, became Dickersonized on the subject of engines and cut-offs, and finally offered to build a vessel on such terms and at his own risks that it would have been hardly excusable to refuse. By the terms of the contract, the test steamer was to be such as the Secretary of the Navy should prescribe. When I was notified that the engines of the Algonquin were completed, preliminary measures as to the test were taken. In the meantime, Dickerson sent a challenge, which he published in the New York papers, appealing to the press and others to aid. The test of the Department was based on the contract and this was called an acceptance of Dickerson's published challenge. Exceptions are now taken to it as unfair toward Dickerson, with much ridiculous nonsense, all which goes to advertise the patent lawyer; when the truth is the Department has nothing to do with Dickerson or his challenge.

If his engine has merit, we wish to know it. I am no expert, or engineer; have no feeling or bias for or against; want the best engine that is made, regardless who is the inventor, or what the principle, so that it is the best. Not unlikely Dickerson's scheme or invention has some merit, though the naval engineers generally think not. If it has, let us know it; but there is a gasconade and pretension on Dickerson's part that is flabby and disgusting, though indorsed by certain of the New York presses, which doubtless are paid.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 346