The persistence of office-seekers nearly drove President Lincoln wild.
They slipped in through the half-opened doors of the Executive Mansion;
they dogged his steps if he walked; they edged their way through the
crowds and thrust their papers in his hands when he rode; and, taking it
all in all, they well-nigh worried him to death.
He once said that if the Government passed through the Rebellion without
dismemberment there was the strongest danger of its falling a prey to
the rapacity of the office-seeking class.
“This human struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without
work, will finally test the strength of our institutions,” were the
words he used.