The Redwood gazette., 1896-04-09
LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET
A Lecture Delivered on Tuesday,
March 10th, by G. A. Dana
of New York.
CONTINUED.

CONTINUED.
Next. Mr.. Bates of Missouri, was made At
torney General. He also had been run
good deal as a candidate for the Preslden-
tial nomination against Mr.. Seward but
there had never been any great probability
that he would get it. He was a most elo-
uuent speaker and a very fair lawyer and
he served out his time in the Cabinet until
the end of the Administration, He was an
amiable and gifted man, entirely credit
able and satisfactory, without possessing
any extraordinary genius or any unusual
force of character. Then there was Mr.. Y.
B. Smith of Indiana, who was Secretary OF
the Interior, and Montgomery Blair or
Maryland, a Democrat of the old school, was
Postmaster General: all eminent, able, use
full men.
must not forget, especially here in New
Haven, in this rapid view of the assistants
of Mr.. Lincoln, the members of the Cabinet,
to speak of the Connecticut member, Gideon
Welles. He was the Secretary of the Navy,
and l am happy at this distance to testify to
the truth that he was an excellent Secretary.
He was a man of no decorations. There was
no noise in the street when he went along;
but he understood his duty and he did it et-
ficiently, continually and unvaryingly. Other
men were more conspicuous because they
were brought more Immediately in contact
with the people. The navy is off at sea, and
we don't see all the time what it is doing. 1
am able to testify that Mr.. Welles was per-
fectly faithful, able, devoted. and successful
public officer The navy under his control
was far more efficient it is true it was
larger-and it was more energetic than it
l>1f tn Ioy- To n
satisfactory and substantial member of the
Government, and was always Creditable to
the State that sent him forth.
When Mr.. Cameron went out of the Cabi-
net Mr. Lincoln following the advice both OF
Cameron and of Charles Sumner, selected as
his successor in the War Department Mr..
Edwin NJ Stanton. Stanton was an old
States rights Democrat. He had never vot-
ed anything but the Democratic ticket up to
that time. He was a very extraordinary
man. and it was through him that 1 came to
be put into the War Department, and had
the opportunities of acquiring the various
information that hope to lay before you
this evening.
Mr.. Stanton was short, thick, dark man,
with very large head and mass of black
hair. He was very intense and one of the
most eloquent men that ever met He was
entirely absorbed in his duties His energy
wassomething almost superhuman, and when
he took hold of the War Department the ar
mics seemed to grow; they certainly gained
in force and vim and thoroughness.T The time
ofpreparation which to US had before seemed
so long and tedious that we were almost los
ing hope, that time came to an end, and the
ti,11n of orti0 hono hot
ton was very eloquent man. In order to il
lustrate that, if you will allow me, I will tell
little story. In the last year of the war,
the Army of the Potomac had around it, a
man, a sort OF peddler-I think his name may
have been Morse but don't remember pos
itively it; it was something like that. He
went back and forward into Virginia. He
would go down into the rebel lines and then
he would come back. When he went down,
he went in the character of a man who had
entirely hoodwinked the Washington au-
thorities and deluded them; and, in spite of
them, or by some corruption or other, he al
ways brought with him into the Confederate
lines something that the people wanted down
there. some dresses for the ladies, or some
little luxury that they couldn't get other
wise.
These things that he took with him were
always supervised by Government agents be-
fore he went away.Then he would come back
again and bring us lot of valuable infor-
nation. AS you see, he was kind of spy for
both sides. So he found good thing in it,
and we found good thing in it, because in
that way we got great deal of information
about the strength of armies, about the
Of hoI
enemy, and so on; and it was thought to be
sufficiently useful to allow this thing to go
on. Well, at last he came back and went to
Baltimore and got his outfit to take down
south, and when he came up, the chief de-
tective of the War department examined his
goods carefully, and found that he had got
lots of things that we could not allow him
to take. We had all his bills, telling where
he had bought these things in Baltimore.
They amounted to perhaps 1000 or $685.
900, or more. good deal of his stuff was
military goods and uniforms, and this, we
said was altogether too contraband. So we
cOntscated the contraband goods and put
Morse in prison; and one afternoon, Col.
Taylor, very valuable military officer and
nephew of President Taylor, went over to
Baltimore and arrested the principal mer
chants of that town who had sold these arti-
cles to Morse, the chief dry goods dealers
and fancy merchants, so that no lady could
go out and buy even pair of gloves the next
day, for the shops were all shut. Presently,
deputation from Baltimore came over to
see President Lincoln to say that this was a
great outrage. and that these gentlemen
most respectable merchants, faultless citi-
zens, ought all to be set instantly at liberty
and damages paid them. Mr.. Lincoln sent
the deputation over to the War department,
and Mr.. Stanton sent for me. He said: sAll
Baltimore is coming here. Sit down here and
hear the discussion we shall have" So they
came in, the bank Presidents and boss mer-
chants of Baltimore. There must have been
at least fifty millions of dollars in the depu-
tation.
The gentlemen sat down around the fire in
the Secretary's office, and began to make
their speeches detailing the circumstances
and wickedness of the outrage. There was
no ground for it, no Justification. After half
dozen of them had spoken, Mr.. Stanton
asked one after another if he had anything
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