Gideon Welles: Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy

by John Niven

Reprint of the Oxford University Press work originally published in 1973 (and distinguished by inclusion in BCL3 ). Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Civil War, Biography

696 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

An educator and historian, (William) John Niven earned a BA from the University of Connecticut in 1943, an MA from Columbia University in 1947 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1954. He was an instructor at Mitchell College from 1949 until 1951 and taught at the Claremont Graduate School from 1965 until his retirement in 1990, where he served as professor of American history and chairman of the Graduate Faculty of History.

Reviews

[Aaron Million · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read John Niven's biography of Martin Van Buren last year and having not cared for it too much, my expectations were not very high that I would enjoy his effort on Gideon Welles, who served as Secretary of the Navy for both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Unfortunately, my low expectations were met: this one was a slog to get through! The book is slightly past halfway by the time we get to the Civil War and Welles' Cabinet service time. I do want to note before proceeding that I had bought this book prior to reading the Van Buren book, so at the time I didn't know that I wouldn't care too much for Niven's style. So I want to be fair to Niven and acknowledge that I did know what I was getting into by the time I began reading this one.

Welles was from Connecticut, and grew up in what would probably best be described today as upper middle class. His family was not wealthy, there were sacrifices at times, and he did have to find an occupation. At the same time, he didn't face poverty or going hungry, and when his father died Welles inherited enough money to definitely make life comfortable for him at that time. Welles was a political animal from an early age, and gravitated to being absorbed in writing about local and state politics. He went into the newspaper business as an editor and opinion writer, and slowly built up his credentials amongst the Democratic Party power brokers. Welles' rise in backroom political circles coincided with Andrew Jackson running for and then winning the presidency in 1828.

For approximately the first three hundred pages, Niven treats the reader to mind-numbing detail about Connecticut politics. At times I felt like there was no meeting that Welles had that Niven failed to cover. This was reminiscent of the Van Buren book, with Connecticut substituting for New York. While Niven certainly makes the point that Welles did yeoman work for the Party, and that he came to influence Connecticut politics, I think that cutting out 50+ pages here would not have marred the narrative. Yet despite all of this, Niven sometimes did not make it clear what actual job Welles held at certain times nor what his financial/income situation was.

Also like with the Van Buren book. the personal side of Niven's subject is relegated to the backburner. Welles' wife, Mary, pops up here and there, but never for long. Kids seem to come and go with only an occasional sentence interspersed amongst all of the political talk. On page 388 Niven writes of Welles: "His youngest child, Hubert, a cheerful little boy of three, had died suddenly of diphtheria six weeks before." This is the first mention of Hubert. I do not know why Niven so chooses to focus on mainly the political side, to the near total exclusion of the personal side, of a person's life. This is at least partly why I didn't feel like I ever got to know Welles. Oh he was sensitive, that much Niven made clear. But the color, the personality, seemed to be absent.

Also absent was context. During the lead-up to the Civil War, in the late 1840s and through the 1850s, Niven makes mention of events and people who, if you don't already know who or what they are, will leave you in a quandary. One example is the Barnburners and the Hunkers, rival political factions in the New York Democratic Party in the 1840s. Niven talks of them, but never says what each really stood for. Lots of names float through this first half of the book, so much so that many become a blur. I feel that Niven lost sight of the forest for the trees here.

Another area that Niven skims past is travel. Considering the primitive travel conditions of Welles' time, he traveled quite a bit. Many trips to Washington D.C. for work, and multiple trips out to Pennsylvania to see relatives. But suddenly, on page 292, we learn that Welles is in Detroit, heading to the 1860 Republican Presidential Convention in Chicago. When did Welles decide to go? How did he suddenly end up in Detroit? I even went back several pages, to see if I missed a paragraph that talked about Welles taking the trip. No. There was no mention of him going. So that was a bit disorienting. Niven does that later in the book too, when Welles takes a Southern trip down the coast to inspect fort conditions. That is dispensed with in a few sentences. Instances like there are where Niven could have tried to inject color and interest into Welles' life, but instead we quickly get back to Welles' interminable wranglings with fellow Cabinet officers.

Welles typified the Northern Democrat of his time in that, while personally being against slavery, he did not want to do anything that would inflame the South and lead to conflict. He carried the usual prejudices of that time period in that, despite being mildly anti-slavery, he did not view blacks as - nor want them to be - his equal. He was against them having voting rights, and for a long time hoped that slavery would eventually just wither and die. But as the South become more implacable and belligerent about slavery, Welles came to realize that there could be no appeasing them without allowing slavery to spread unchecked. A strict constructionist and states' rights man, he was aghast at the extreme positions being taken (he was also unhappy with abolitionists and blamed them for contributing to the turmoil). Reluctantly, he slowly moved towards joining the nascent Republican Party.

Welles made many enemies through his political writings, among them New York Senator William Seward, who was the odds-on favorite to get the Republican nomination. Welles had met Lincoln and liked him enough, but was not for him initially, preferring Ohio Governor Salmon Chase. Ultimately he did switch to Lincoln, and worked hard to get Connecticut on board with Lincoln. When Lincoln won the presidency, Niven states that Welles' "lifelong goal" (page 301) was to become a Cabinet secretary. Once again, I had wondered if I had missed something earlier in the narrative, as I don't recall Niven mentioning that previously. At any rate, Welles was in consideration as Lincoln knew that, in order to try to placate every geographic region (at least outside of the South in his case), he would need a New Englander to occupy one place in his Cabinet. Much how Lincoln was not Welles' first choice, Welles was not Lincoln's first choice either. But eventually Lincoln offered him the Navy Department and Welles immediately accepted. Welles had worked as a Naval Bureau Chief under James K. Polk, so he was not entirely ignorant of naval affairs.

As a Cabinet officer, Welles was never part of the inner circle of advisors, either with Lincoln or Johnson. And he resented this, giving vent to his frustration in his diary. Sometimes Welles verbally spared with his counterparts, such as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, but more often than not he would seethe to his diary about their machinations. I got the sense that Welles' performance as Secretary of the Navy was adequate but not spectacular. He worked hard, and should be commended for doing so in the most trying time our country had faced up to the point, and still has faced. He worked long hours and tried to get a small and not well-equipped Navy up to battle readiness with no time to do so. But again, as with the earlier parts of Welles' life, the color and context just aren't there. Even when Lincoln is assassinated, the drama is missing.

The last few chapters concern Welles' service under Johnson. Welles liked Johnson, and was much closer to him politically than he was to Lincoln, but as with Lincoln, Welles was not an intimate. I sensed that he became more of a placeholder than anything else as he worked to downsize the Navy following the war's conclusion. Niven is not particularly complimentary towards Lincoln, finding him to be somewhat of an inept President at filing out his Cabinet and in the beginning stages of the war. Niven seems more friendly towards Johnson, but notes that he kept blundering politically.

The narrative ends with Welles' death in 1878. Niven does not offer any final comments about his overall performance as Secretary of the Navy, his life in general, or if he left any lasting impact on the Navy Department. Personally, I dislike it when books end in this manner. Niven's writing style is not for me. While he clearly is a serious scholar, and devotes a lot of effort to his work, and he cares about what he produces, how he structures his books and what areas he tends to focus on are not compatible with my reading preferences. I do not want to say that this is a bad book, because it certainly is not. One of the reasons I bought this was because I am interested in Lincoln's (and other Presidents') Cabinet and Welles is someone who served at a moment of crisis but has been largely overshadowed by Seward, Chase and Stanton. After reading Niven's book, I can understand why.

Grade: C-

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old whitebearded Gideon Welles was New England's geographical representation in Abraham Lincoln's Civil War cabinet and would be one of only two who would serve the full eight years of
Lincoln's administration and that of his successor Andrew Johnson. Welles was also one busy
diarist and his diaries provide much of the insight into the inner workings of the administrations of
both presidents. They also reveal much of the Jacksonian biases that Welles had as he was a leader
of the Democratic party in the Federalist/National Republican/Whig state of Connecticut. Not that
the Democrats didn't have some victories there. But that party also had its internal dissension.

Welles's power rested in the fact that he was editor of the local Democratic paper in Hartford. He was
also during years of Democrat control up to the Polk administration, the postmaster of the state and
controlled all the federal jobs in the patronage laden Post Office. During the Polk administration he
got a job in the Navy Department, a credential which stood him in good stead when the cabinet was
being chosen by Lincoln. Welles did join the Republican party when it was being formed and did
yeoman service for Lincoln at the convention in Chicago in 1860 getting him the nomination.

He thought Lincoln was doing too much in trying to appease the radical Congressional Republicans
during the war. But he was entirely grateful that Lincoln gave him a fairly free hand in administering the naval war which clearly was in second place to the land battles. Welles was
also fortunate to have as his Assistant Secretary one Gustavus Vasa Fox who served as a kind of
Chief of Naval Operations before the post was actually created. Fox was a Navy veteran and the two
worked well together.

Welles was also well served by commanders like David Dixon Porter and David Farragut. What the
Civil War navy was best known for was that engagement of the Monitor and Merrimac as Welles and Fox led the way in construction of ironclad ships, the wave of the future.

In the Johnson administration Welles backed his chief fully right through the impeachment crisis
that Andrew Johnson and the nation faced. After he was out of office Welles supported the Liberal
Republican movement that nominated Horace Greeley against Ulysses S. Grant. Welles did not like
Grant and felt him disloyal to Johnson in his crisis. After that health issues caught up with him
and he dies in 1878.

For what he did during the Civil War giving a competent and honest administration of our Navy
Welles deserves to be remembered in history as one of the best who occupied that position.