Franklin W. Smith and the U. S. Navy

[RJNorton]

Interesting case, David. Thank you for posting it. Because Gideon Welles approved the verdict, I tried to find if he wrote about it in his diary. He did, and he was disappointed in President Lincoln's action.

From Welles' diary:

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March 18, Saturday.

"The President this day returned the abstract made by Eames in the case of F. Smith of Boston with an indorsement in his own handwriting, disapproving the verdict and annulling the proceedings. It is, I regret to say, a discreditable indorsement, and would, if made public, be likely to injure the President. He has, I know, been much importuned in this matter, as I have, and very skillful and persistent efforts have been pursued for months to procure this result. Senators and Representatives have interposed their influence to defeat the ends of justice, and shielded guilty men from punishment, and they have accomplished it. They have made the President the partisan of persons convicted and pronounced guilty of fraud upon the government. Of course, rascality will flourish. I regret all this on the President's account, as well as that of the ends of justice. I had in my letter to the President invited a conference after he had examined the
case, and on Tuesday last, when he was not well and was in bed, I had, among other things, mentioned Smith's case. He said he had gone through with Mr. Eames' summing-up, an opinion which seemed to him to be able and impartial; that he had handed the paper to Sumner to read, etc., and he would see me in relation to it when Sumner returned the document."