During his gubernatorial years in Virginia Floyd had been involved in some complicated state banking scandals where he possibly took kickbacks, though it seems more likely that he simply was combining his several troublesome qualities. He was always frivolous about details and casual about public monies. He considered himself a vigorous man of action, bold in both private and public ventures, and he frequently refused to listen to advice. He was, essentially, a ninny.
Under his hand the nation’s War Department drifted, wafting a spreading odor of corruption and inefficiency. Senator Jefferson Davis, himself recently an outstanding secretary of war, grew restive at the rumors. As chairman of the Senate’s military committee, Davis felt it was his responsibility to keep an eye on the department. Although a House committee was unable to find anything precisely dishonest, it did conclude that Floyd had been doing a shoddy job, and it spanked him with a censure vote of no confidence.
He might have resigned, but he stayed in his position, and brooded. He blamed Jefferson Davis for his humiliation.
Source:
Detzer, David. “Twilight of the Old Union.” Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 71, 72. Print.
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...