eral Grant, and General Grant says he has not ordered it. McCulloch
wanted to know the probable expense--the numbers engaged, etc. Stanton
thought McCulloch had better state how many should be engaged--said
General Pope had command. Harlan said he considered Pope an improper
man--was extravagant and wasteful. Thought twenty-two hundred instead
of twenty-two thousand men was a better and sufficient number.

This whole thing is a discredit to the War Department.

Tuesday, August 15, 1865.

Stanton says there is to be a large reduction of the force which is
moving against the Indians. That by the 1st of October the force will
be about 6,000. That large supplies have gone on, but they can be
divided or deflected to New Mexico and other points, so that they will
not be lost.

Friday, August 18, 1865.

Senator Doolittle and Mr. Ford, who have been on a mission to the
plains, visiting New Mexico, Colorado, etc., had an interview with the
President and Cabinet of an hour and a half. Their statement in
relation to the Indians and Indian affairs exhibits the folly and
wickedness of the expedition which has been gotten up by somebody
without authority or the knowledge of the Government.

Their strong protestations against an Indian war, and their statement
of the means which they had taken to prevent it, came in very
opportunely. Stanton said General Grant had already written to
restrict operations; he had also sent to General Meigs. I have no
doubt a check has been put on a very extraordinary and unaccountable
proceeding, but I doubt if an active stop is yet put to war expenses.

It is no wonder that with such ignorance in the Cabinet as to the
condition of the country, that the administration at Washington was so
incompetent in the Civil War. No person can read Secretary Wells's diary
of the daily doings at Washington of the Cabinet during President
Lincoln's administration and see how little appreciation and support he
got from his Cabinet. Dissensions among themselves and hardly ever
agreeing on any important question, brings to view the great
responsibility of the President and the fact that in all the important
matters he was dependent upon his own judgment. The Cabinet knew nothing
of the Indian depredations that for three months held all the lines of
travel, mail, and telegraph crossing the plains to California, wi