Welles, Gideon

(1802–78) secretary of the navy, journalist, politician; born in Glastonbury, Conn. As part owner and editor of the Hartford Times (1826–36), he endorsed Jacksonian democracy. Although he failed in his efforts to become a representative, senator, and governor, he held several state political offices (1826–44) until becoming chief of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Provisions and Clothing (1846–49). Opposed to slavery, he left the Democratic Party in 1854 and helped organize the new Republican Party, founding the Hartford Evening Press to promote the Republicans' goals. The newly elected President Lincoln, knowing he needed a New Englander in the cabinet, appointed Welles to his cabinet. As secretary of the navy (1861–69), he managed the department with great energy, enterprise, and economy, gaining a reputation for freeing it as far as possible from political favoritism. Under his leadership, the navy quickly expanded, adopted the ironclads and other new technology, successfully blockaded the Confederacy, and contributed greatly to the eventual Union victory. He did not get on with all his fellow cabinet members and he deplored Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus in 1863, but he supported Lincoln's moderate plans for reconstruction and backed Andrew Johnson when he was impeached. After leaving the cabinet, he wrote a series of important magazine articles; one of these was expanded to become Lincoln and Seward (1874); his diary of the Civil War period (revised by him in later years; not published until 1911) provides a revealing glimpse of the times.