During July, 1865, after the war was over, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles recorded in his diary that Seward felt called upon, at a cabinet meeting of July 14, to defend his cautious policies toward Maximilian and Napoleon III in order "to counteract a speech of Montgomery Blair . . . in which he makes an onslaught on Seward and Stanton, as well as France." Grant and Sheridan joined in serious criticism of Seward.