We had yesterday a telegram that the British pirate craft
Alabama captured the Ariel, one of the Aspinwall steamers, on her passage from
New York to Aspinwall, off the coast of Cuba. Abuse of the Navy Department will
follow. It will give the mercenaries who are prostituted correspondents, and
who have not been permitted to plunder the Government by fraudulent contracts,
an opportunity to wreak vengeance for their disappointments.
I am exceedingly glad it was an outward and not a homeward
bound vessel. It is annoying when we want all our force on blockade duty to be
compelled to detach so many of our best craft on the fruitless errand of
searching the wide ocean for this wolf from Liverpool. We shall, however, have
a day of reckoning with Great Britain for these wrongs, and I sometimes think I
care not how soon nor in what manner that reckoning comes.
A committee has been appointed by the Legislature of
Connecticut, of eight persons, to visit Washington and urge the selection of
New London for a navy yard. Twelve hundred dollars are appropriated to defray
their expenses. There has been no examination by the Legislature of the
question, or investigation of the comparative merits of this and other places,
or whether an additional yard is needed, or what the real interest of the
country requires; but there is, with excusable local pride, a speculating job
by a few individuals and a general idea that a government establishment for the
expenditure of money will benefit the locality, which controls the movement. As
I am a citizen of Connecticut, there is a hope that I may be persuaded by
personal considerations to debase myself,—forget my duty and make this
selection for that locality regardless of the wants or true interests of the
country. I have proposed to transfer the limited and circumscribed yard at
Philadelphia to League Island, where there is an abundance of room, fresh
water, and other extraordinary advantages. We do not want more yards, certainly
not east of the Hudson. We do need a government establishment of a different
character from any we now have, for the construction, repair, and preservation
of iron vessels. League Island on the Delaware combines all these required
advantages, is far in the interior, remote from assault in war, and is in the
vicinity of iron and coal, is away from the sea, etc., etc. New London has none
of these advantages, but is located in my native State. My friends and my
father's friends are there, and I am urged to forget my country and favor that
place. A navy yard is for no one State, but this the Legislature and its
committee and thousands of their constituents do not take into consideration;
but I must.
The six members of the Cabinet (Smith absent) to-day handed
in their respective opinions on the question of dividing the old Commonwealth
of Virginia and carving out and admitting a new State. As Stanton and myself
returned from the Cabinet-meeting to the Departments, he expressed surprise
that I should oppose division, for he thought it politic and wise to plant a
Free State south of the Ohio. I thought our duties were constitutional, not
experimental, that we should observe and preserve the landmarks, and that mere
expediency should not override constitutional obligations. This action was not
predicated on the consent of the people of Virginia, legitimately expressed;
was arbitrary and without proper authority; was such a departure from, and an
undermining of, our system that I could not approve it and feared it was the
beginning of the end. As regarded a Free State south of the Ohio, I told him
the probabilities were that pretty much all of them would be free by Tuesday
when the Proclamation emancipating slaves would be published. The Rebels had
appealed to arms in vindication of slavery, were using slaves to carry on the
War, and they must be content with the results of that issue; the arbitrament
of arms to which they had appealed would be against them. This measure, I
thought, we were justified in adopting on the issue presented and as a military
necessity, but the breaking up of a State by the General Government without the
prescribed forms, innate rights, and the consent of the people fairly and
honestly expressed, was arbitrary and wrong. Stanton attempted no defense.
At the meeting to-day, the President read the draft of his
Emancipation Proclamation, invited criticism, and finally directed that copies
should be furnished to each. It is a good and well-prepared paper, but I
suggested that a part of the sentence marked in pencil be omitted.1
Chase advised that fractional parts of States ought not to be exempted. In this
I think he is right, and so stated. Practically there would be difficulty in
freeing parts of States, and not freeing others, — a clashing between central
and local authorities.
There is discontent in the public mind. The management of
our public affairs is not satisfactory. Our army operations have been a
succession of disappointments. General Halleck has accomplished nothing, and
has not the public confidence. General McClellan has intelligence but not
decision; operated understandingly but was never prepared. With General Halleck
there seems neither military capacity nor decision. I have not heard nor seen a
clear and satisfactory proposition or movement on his part yet.
Information reaches us that General Butler has been
superseded at New Orleans by General Banks.
The wisdom of this change I question, and so told the
President, who called on me one day last week and discussed matters generally.
I have not a very exalted opinion of the military qualities of either. Butler
has shown ability as a police magistrate both at Baltimore and New Orleans, and
in each, but particularly at the latter place, has had a peculiar community to
govern. The Navy captured the place and turned it over to his keeping. The
President agreed with me that Butler had shown skill in discharging his civil
duties, and said he had in view for Butler the command of the valley movement
in the Mississippi. Likely he has this in view, but whether Halleck will
acquiesce is more questionable. I have reason to believe that Seward has
effected this change, and that he has been prompted by the foreigners to do it.
Outside the State and War Departments, I apprehend no one was consulted. I
certainly was not, and therefore could not apprize any of our naval officers,
who are cooperating with the army and by courtesy and right should have been
informed. Banks has some ready qualities for civil administration and, if not
employed in the field or active military operations, will be likely to acquit
himself respectably as a provisional or military governor. He has not the energy,
power, ability of Butler, nor, though of loose and fluctuating principles, will
he be so reckless and unscrupulous. The officer in command in that quarter must
necessarily hold a taut rein.
_______________
1 Just what this suggestion referred to does not
appear.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864,
p. 207-10
