circular, but explained that he had yielded to the urgent solicitations
of friends and had consented to be a candidate for the Presidential
nomination. "If there is anything in my action or position which in
your judgment will prejudice the public interest under my charge, I
beg you to say so. I do not wish to administer the Treasury Department
one day without your entire confidence. For yourself I cherish sincere
respect and esteem and, permit me to add, affection."
The next day the President acknowledged the receipt of this letter and
promised to answer it more fully later, which he did, saying,--
"... My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public came
to me only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself, known of
its existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I think
I shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the
letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of
secret issues which I supposed came from it, and of secret agents who I
supposed were sent out by it, for several weeks. I have known just as
little of these things as my friends have allowed me to know. They bring
the documents to me, but I do not read them: they tell me what they
think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for more....
"Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a
question which I will not allow myself to consider from any stand-point
other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I do
not perceive occasion for a change."
If anything was needed to complete the collapse of the plans of Mr.
Chase, the reputation of the man who signed the circular was sufficient.
As fast as conventions were held delegations were instructed for
Lincoln. The Republican members of the Ohio Legislature were so fearful
lest they might be suspected of sympathizing with the ambition of Mr.
Chase that they held a caucus and unanimously endorsed the President.
Even little Rhode Island, supposed to be a pocket borough absolutely
controlled by its Governor, who was a son-in-law of Mr. Chase, bolted
and declared for Lincoln. The Secretary of the Treasury, left without
a supporter in the Republican party, sought consolation from the
Democrats, but they repudiated him and selected as their candidate
General McClellan, a man who had been alternately eulogized and
anathematized by him.
The retirement of Mr. Chase from the Cabinet was due to his
determination to control the patronage of the Treasury Department in
the State of New York without reference to the wishes of Mr. Morgan and
Mr. Harris, the Senators from that State. There was also friction over
Treasury appointments in other parts of the country. Mr. Chase's failure
as a Presidential candidate made him very irritable, and whenever the
President or any member of the Cabinet offered the slightest opposition
to his plans or wishes, he showed so much temper that it was impossible
to get along with him except by conceding all his demands. Lincoln,
valuing his services in the Treasury so highly, endeavored to gratify
him as far as possible, and assured other members of his Cabinet
that, as Mr. Chase's ability, industry, and integrity were beyond
question, he had a right to select men for whose proper conduct he was
responsible. But when Mr. Chase invaded the political provinces of the
members of the Senate, the President found it difficult to reconcile
the differences, and on two occasions the Secretary of the Treasury
tendered his resignation rather than yield what he considered to be
his right to select all of his subordinates. Maunsell B. Field, the
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, quotes Lincoln as saying, "I went
directly up to him [Chase] with the resignation in my hand, and putting
my arm around his neck, said, 'Here is a paper with which I wish to have
nothing to do. Take it back and be reasonable.' I had to plead with him
a long time, but I finally succeeded, and heard nothing more of that
resignation."
But this state of affairs could not endure. There came an occasion upon
which the President was not able to give way, and when the two New York
Senators objected to the appointment of the same Maunsell B. Field as
Assistant Treasurer of New York, he was compelled to recognize their
wishes. He wrote Mr. Chase, "As the proverb goes, no man knows so well
where the shoe pinches as he who wears it. I do not think Mr. Field
a very proper man for the place, but I would trust your judgment and
forego this were the greater difficulty out of the way.... Strained
as I already am at this point, I do not think that I can make this
appointment in the direction of still greater strain." But Mr. Chase
felt that the President was acting badly and must be disciplined, and so
he resigned again. To submit to Mr. Chase under the circumstances would
be to abdicate in his favor and to offend his loyal supporters in New
York; hence, without hesitation, he wrote Mr. Chase as follows: "Of all
I have said in commendation of your ability and fidelity I have nothing
to unsay, yet you and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment
in our official relations which it seems cannot be overcome or longer
sustained consistently with the public service."
Mr. Chase was taken entirely by surprise. He supposed that the
President, like himself, believed that his presence in the Treasury
Department was indispensable to the salvation of the government.
Governor Todd, of Ohio, was nominated as his successor, but declined,
and the President then sent to the Senate the nomination of William
Pitt Fessenden, a Senator from Maine and chairman of the Committee on
Finance, entirely without that gentleman's knowledge.
After the President's secretary had left for the Capitol with the
nomination, Mr. Fessenden appeared at the White House and, after
preliminary conversation, suggested the appointment of Hugh McCulloch,
who had served with great ability since the beginning of the war as
Comptroller of the Currency. Lincoln listened to his eulogy of Mr.
McCulloch with a gentle smile, and then informed him that he had already
sent his own name to the Senate. Mr. Fessenden protested and declared
that he would decline.
"If you decline," replied the President, "you must do it in open day,
for I cannot recall the nomination."
The significance and appropriateness of Mr. Fessenden's nomination
to succeed Mr. Chase was immediately recognized as a _coup d'état_
on the part of the President, and the former could not decline the
responsibility. He served for only a few months, however, and was
succeeded by Hugh McCulloch.
Mr. Chase could not suppress his sense of injury or cease talking
about it. After he left the Cabinet, his criticisms of the President
personally and the administration of the government became more frequent
and bold than ever; but as soon as the death of Chief-Justice Taney of
the Supreme Court was announced, he immediately claimed the vacancy.
Notwithstanding all that had occurred, he was willing to forgive and
forget, provided the President would make him Chief-Justice. Samuel
Bowles, editor of the _Springfield Republican_, writes on December 4,
1864, two months after Taney's death, "Chase is going around peddling
his grief in private ears and sowing dissatisfaction about Lincoln.
Oh, how little great men can be!" The President at once made up his
mind to appoint Mr. Chase, but would not announce his intention until
he had heard the views of every Republican of importance. In the mean
time Mr. Chase was appealing to his friends for support and endorsement
and prophesying disasters for the government unless his appointment was
made. One day Mr. Nicolay brought the President a letter from Mr. Chase.
"What is it about?" inquired Lincoln.
"Simply a kind and friendly letter."
"File it with the other recommendations," was the laconic reply.
On December 6, when the Senate met, Mr. Chase's nomination appeared
among others. It was written out in Lincoln's own hand instead of upon
a printed blank, as was customary. The nomination was confirmed without
reference to a committee, and the same evening Mr. Chase wrote the
President a very grateful acknowledgment. "Be assured," he said, "that
I apprize your confidence and good-will more than any nomination to
office."
Lincoln afterwards told Mr. Boutwell that he never had any intention
of refusing the office to Mr. Chase. "There were three reasons why he
should be appointed and one reason why he should not be," said the
President. "In the first place, he occupies a larger space in the public
mind with reference to the office than any other person. Then we want
a man who will sustain the Legal Tender Act and the Proclamation of
Emancipation. We cannot ask a candidate what he would do, and if we did
and he should answer we should only despise him for it. But Chase wants
to be President, and if he does not give that up it will be a great
injury to him and a great injury to me. He can never be President."
Among the most urgent friends of Mr. Chase were Senator Sumner and
Representative Alley, of Massachusetts, who went to Washington to plead
with the President in his behalf.
"We found, to our dismay," said Mr. Alley, "that the President had
heard of the bitter criticisms of Mr. Chase upon himself and his
administration. Mr. Lincoln urged many of Mr. Chase's defects, to
discover, as we afterwards learned, how his objection could be answered.
We were both discouraged and made up our minds that the President did
not mean to appoint Mr. Chase. It really seemed too much to expect of
poor human nature. But early one morning in the following December I
went to the White House, found the President in his library, and was
cordially received. As I entered he made to me this declaration:
"'I have something to tell you that will make you happy. I have just
sent Mr. Chase word that he is to be appointed Chief-Justice, and you
are the first man I have told of it.'
"I said, 'Mr. President, this is an exhibition of magnanimity and
patriotism that could hardly be expected of any one. After what he has
said against your administration, which has undoubtedly been reported
to you, it was hardly to be expected that you would bestow the most
important office within your gift on such a man.'
"His quaint reply was, 'Although I may have appeared to you and to Mr.
Sumner to have been opposed to Chase's appointment, there never has been
a moment since the breath left old Taney's body that I did not conceive
it to be the best thing to do to appoint Mr. Chase to that high office;
and to have done otherwise I should have been recreant to my convictions
of duty to the Republican party and to the country.'
"I repeated again my sense of his magnanimity and his patriotism in
making the appointment.
"He replied, 'As to his talk about me, I do not mind that. Chase is, on
the whole, a pretty good fellow and a very able man. His only trouble is
that he has "the White House fever" a little too bad, but I hope this
may cure him and that he will be satisfied.'"
One would suppose, after this exhibition of magnanimity on the part
of the President, that he would escape the criticism of Mr. Chase at
least, but the latter still considered himself the inspired critic
of the administration and sought the Democratic nomination for the
Presidency. Nor was this all. His decisions upon the bench were in
direct contradiction to the positions he had taken as a member of the
Cabinet. He had criticised the President for his weakness in refusing to
attack the doctrine of State rights, yet, on the first opportunity, he
appeared as the judicial champion and defender of that doctrine; from
his place on the bench he declared unconstitutional the Legal Tender Act
which he had himself assisted in preparing and whose passage through the
House of Representatives had been secured by his personal influence.
While he was Secretary of the Treasury he sustained and encouraged Mr.
Stanton in the exercise of the "war power" more earnestly and took more
radical grounds than any other member of the Cabinet, yet when those
very transactions came before the Supreme Court he denounced them as
illegal and unjustified. The only explanation, the only apology that
could be made by the friends of Mr. Chase was that his mind was soured
by disappointment. He was a man of unbounded ambition, he had been
working all his life to become President, he was convinced of his own
great talents, and could not reconcile himself to disappointment.
President Lincoln's character and methods are nowhere better illustrated
than in the story of his relations with Edwin M. Stanton, his
great Secretary of War, a man of intense personality, of arbitrary
disposition, impetuous in action, impatient under restraint, and
intolerant of opposition. Combined with these qualities Mr. Stanton had
great learning, unselfish patriotism, and conscientious convictions
of duty. He was a native of Ohio, a graduate of Kenyon College, and
when still young in years attained a high rank in the practice of his
profession of the law, making his head-quarters first at Pittsburgh and
in 1856 at Washington. He was born and bred in Democratic principles,
but had a profound hatred of slavery, and during the administration of
President Buchanan was pronounced in his opposition to the disunion
schemes of the Southern politicians.
Shortly after the election in 1860, when the situation at Washington
was becoming critical, President Buchanan sought his advice, and Mr.
Stanton prepared an argument to prove that a State could be coerced into
remaining in the Union. A few weeks later Mr. Buchanan called him into
his Cabinet as Attorney-General, and he immediately joined with the
loyal members of the Cabinet and the Republican leaders in Congress in
vigorous efforts to save the Union. But after Lincoln was inaugurated
Mr. Stanton became the most scornful and unsparing critic of the new
administration. He called the President an imbecile, charged Cameron
with corruption, and declared that the administration was treating
the treasure of the nation as booty to be divided among thieves. He
predicted disaster in every direction; he declared that in less than
thirty days Jefferson Davis would be in possession of Washington, and
used the most intemperate and unjust language that his lips could frame
in his comments upon the character and the conduct of the President and
his advisers. Therefore, when he was invited to succeed Mr. Cameron,
the chief object of his detestation and attack, he was placed in a
peculiar situation, but was broad-minded enough to appreciate Lincoln's
magnanimity, and accepted the war portfolio as the highest duty that
could be assigned to a citizen. He wrote ex-President Buchanan, "My
accession to my present position was quite as sudden and unexpected
as the confidence you bestowed upon me in calling me to your Cabinet.
And the responsible trust was accepted in both instances from the same
motives and will be executed with the same fidelity to the Constitution
and the laws." In another letter he wrote, "I knew that everything that
I cherish and hold dear would be sacrificed by accepting office, but I
thought I might help to save the country, and for that I was willing to
perish."
When some one objected to Stanton's appointment on account of his
ungovernable temper, and stated that he was in the habit of jumping up
and down when he lost his patience, Lincoln replied,--
"Well, if he gets to jumping too much, we will treat him as they used to
treat a minister I knew out West. He would get so excited and wrought up
at revival meetings that they had to put bricks in his pockets to keep
him down. But I guess we will let Stanton jump a while first."
Lincoln and his new Secretary of War had met before, and the President
had no reason to be friendly towards him. The story is told in the
chapter relating to Lincoln's legal career. But the President was
willing to submerge his personal feelings in his patriotism in order to
secure the support and assistance of a man for whose ability, energy,
and patriotism he had the highest respect. He selected Mr. Stanton for
the same reason that he retained McClellan in command and postponed the
Emancipation Proclamation. He was not thinking of himself, but of his
country. He was not seeking a friend or an agreeable companion, but
a man of executive ability, iron will, stern integrity, and physical
endurance to relieve him from what was becoming an unendurable burden;
for, up to this time, he had borne almost alone the responsibility
for military movements in the field as well as the organization and
equipment of the army. Months before he had foreseen that Mr. Cameron
must soon leave the Cabinet, and had been on the lookout for a suitable
Secretary of War. With the silent sagacity and foresight that were
among his most remarkable characteristics, he had searched the list of
public men, and, finding no one available among his friends, had gone
over into the ranks of his opponents and had chosen perhaps the most
unfriendly and vigorous critic of his administration. He had learned
of Mr. Stanton's tremendous energy and keen perceptions and recognized
at once how useful those traits would be in the War Department; while
his fearless candor, his indifference to criticism, and the public
confidence in his integrity were qualities equally valuable under the
circumstances.
Within a few weeks he was satisfied of the accuracy of his judgment
in making the selection, and their daily intercourse brought the two
men into relations which could not have existed between men of weaker
character. Unlike Mr. Chase, his colleague of the Treasury Department,
Mr. Stanton had the highest admiration for Lincoln's ability and
judgment, and his imperious will and stubborn convictions would not have
yielded to any one else. On the other hand, no one appreciated so much
as Lincoln the genuine worth, the deep sincerity, and the rare ability
to organize and execute that existed in his new Secretary of War. There
were continual differences of opinion between them. Men of strong
character seldom think alike, and with his peculiar temperament and
impulsive disposition Mr. Stanton could not have served under a chief
less amiable and considerate than Lincoln.
There is no doubt that the President's patience was often sorely tried,
but the same spirit that governed him when he invited Mr. Stanton into
the Cabinet continued to recognize the necessity of toleration and
forbearance. While he usually yielded to his War Secretary in details,
in matters of supreme importance he invariably insisted upon following
his own judgment, and with a gentle but unyielding firmness compelled
Mr. Stanton to submit to his will. For example, Mr. Stanton refused to
carry out an order of the President concerning the enlistment of rebel
prisoners of war who wished to enter the service of the Union, and
when the order was repeated, refused a second time. General Fry, the
Provost-Marshal-General, who was present at the interview, describes the
incident as follows:
"'Now, Mr. President, those are the facts, and you must see that your
order cannot be executed,' exclaimed Stanton.
"Lincoln sat upon a sofa with his legs crossed, and did not say a word
until the Secretary's last remark. Then he said, in a somewhat positive
tone, 'Mr. Secretary, I reckon you'll have to execute the order.'
"Stanton replied with asperity, 'Mr. President, I cannot do it.'
"Lincoln fixed his eyes upon Stanton, and in a firm voice, and with an
accent that clearly showed his determination, he said, 'Mr. Secretary,
it will have to be done.'
"Stanton realized that he was overmatched. He had made a square issue
with the President and had been defeated, notwithstanding the fact that
he was in the right. Upon an intimation from him I withdrew and did
not witness his surrender. A few minutes after I reached my office I
received instructions from the Secretary to carry out the President's
order."
The President "always liked to get something on Stanton," as he used to
say. Judge Shellabarger, of Ohio, relates this incident:
"A young man in the army, Ben Tappan, wanted a transfer from the
volunteer service to the regular army, retaining his rank of Lieutenant
and with staff duty. There was some regulation against such transfer;
but Tappan's step-father, Frank Wright, thought it could be done. He
had been to Secretary Stanton, who was an uncle of Tappan by marriage,
and, on account of this so-called relationship, the Secretary declined
to act in the matter. Wright and I therefore went up to the White House
to see the President about it. After talking it over, Mr. Lincoln told
a story, the application of which was that the army was getting to be
all staff and no army, there was such a rush for staff duty by young
officers. However, he looked over Lieutenant Tappan's paper, heard
what Secretary Stanton had told us about his delicacy in transferring
Lieutenant Tappan against the regulation because of his relationship by
marriage. Then Mr. Lincoln wrote across the application something like
the following endorsement:
"'Lieutenant Tappan, of ---- Regiment Volunteers, desires
transfer to ---- Regiment, Regular service, and assigned
to staff duty with present rank. If the only objection is
Lieutenant Tappan's relationship to the Secretary of War, that
objection is overruled.
"'A. LINCOLN.'
"Of course this threw the responsibility of breaking the regulation on
Secretary Stanton. We never heard anything more about the transfer."
General Fry says, "A story has long been current that Lincoln sent
an application for office with a note to the Secretary of War,
directing that a letter of appointment be prepared for the man to the
office he sought; that the applicant returned to the President and
announced that Stanton refused to obey the order; that the President
looked disappointed, but merely expressed his regret at the result,
and remarked that he had not much influence with the administration.
The anecdote has generally been interpreted as meaning that Lincoln
could not control Stanton. The inference is erroneous. Lincoln, so
far as I could discover, was in every respect the actual head of the
administration, and whenever he chose to do so he controlled Stanton as
well as all the other Cabinet ministers."
Ex-Representative John A. Kasson, of Iowa, says, "Numerous officers in
the field had written me to have Colonel ----, of ---- Iowa Regiment,
promoted to be a brigadier-general. The colonel deserved the promotion,
but it was difficult to obtain. At last there came an Iowa resignation,
and I went to the President, who signed an order to the Secretary of
War to let Colonel ---- have the commission in place of the resigning
brigadier. Mr. Stanton was seated on a sofa talking with a friend. I
told him my errand, and handed him the President's order. He glanced at
it, and said, in an angry tone,--
"'I shan't do it, sir; I shan't do it!' and passed the paper up to his
clerk.
"Utterly amazed at these words, and indignant at his tone, I inquired
why he refused to obey the President's order.
"'It isn't the way to do it, sir, and I shan't do it.'
"I was going on to speak of the merits of the officer and of the
proceeding, my wrath rising, when he cut me off with,--
"'I don't propose to argue the question with you, sir; I shan't do it.'
"Utterly indignant, I turned to the clerk and asked to withdraw the
paper.
"'Don't you let him have it, sir,' said Stanton; 'don't let him have it.'
"The clerk, whose hands were trembling like an Eastern slave before his
pasha, withdrew the document which he was in the act of giving to me. I
felt my indignation getting too strong for me, and, putting on my hat
and turning my back to the Secretary, I slowly went to the door, with
set teeth, saying to myself, 'As you will not hear me in your own forum,
you shall hear from me in mine.'
"A few days later, after recovering my coolness, I reported the affair
to the President. A look of vexation came over his face. Then he gave me
a positive order for the promotion of the colonel to be a brigadier, and
told me to take it over to the War Department. I replied that I could
not speak again with Mr. Stanton till he apologized for his insulting
manner to me on the previous occasion.
"'Oh,' said the President, 'Stanton has gone to Fortress Monroe and
Dana is acting. He will attend to it for you.'"
[Illustration: EDWIN M. STANTON, SECRETARY OF WAR