WELLES, GIDEON (1802-1878), American political lead er, was born at Glastonbury (Conn.), on July 1, 1802. He studied for a time at Norwich University, Vt., but did not graduate. From 1826 to 1837 he edited the Hartford Times, making it the official organ of the Jacksonian democracy in southern New Eng land. He left the Democratic Party on the Kansas-Nebraska issue, assisted in the formation of the Republican Party in the state of Connecticut, and was its candidate for the office of governor in 1856.
On the inauguration of President Lincoln in 1861 he was ap pointed secretary of the Navy, a position which he held until the close of President Andrew Johnson's administration in 1869. Al though deficient in technical training, he handled with great skill the difficult problems which were presented by the Civil War. The number of naval ships was increased between 1861 and 1865 from go to 670, the officers from 1,300 to 6,700, the seamen from 7,500 to 51,500, and the annual expenditure from $12,000,000 to $123, 000,000; important changes were made in the art of naval con struction, and the blockade of the Confederate ports was effec tively maintained. Welles supported President Johnson in his
quarrel with Congress, took part in the Liberal Republican move ment of 1872, and returning to the Democratic Party, warmly advocated the election of Samuel J. Tilden in 1876. He died at Hartford (Conn.), on Feb. II, 1878.
While Welles was in President Lincoln's Cabinet, he kept a diary of the stirring events happening daily. This manuscript, though greatly amended by Welles in later years, is a valuable historical source. But the published diary is unreliable because it makes no distinction between the entries that were contempo raneous and those that Welles made in his old age.
See Albert Welles, History of the Welles Family (New York, 1876) ; also "Is the Printed Diary of Gideon Welles Reliable ?", Amer. Hist. Rev. vol. xxx.