It was confidently forethought by the numerous admirers of Governor
Seward--who escaped being the President by a political combination and
not want of supreme merit--that he would in the Cabinet, whatever
nominally his post, be the ruling spirit. Not a man suspected that the
plain man of the prairie could develop into the lord of the manor, and
put and keep not only the able and cultured Seward, but the turbulent
Stanton and the obstreperous Chase, in their places. The pettifogger of
the West simply expanded, like its sunflower, in the fierce white light
around the chair, and was the lion, among the lesser creatures.
Seward raised his hand early. Within a month he had the impertinent
fatuity to lay before his superior a paper suggesting the policy, and
moving that the President might commit to him, the secretary, the
carrying out of that policy! With gentle courtesy--says General
Viele--Lincoln took the paper from the author and popped it into his
portfolio. He had no policy, and did not want another's. He had bottled
his wasp. Seward was obedient as the spaniel. His powers were
recognized by the villains who comprised him in the detestable plot.
* * * * *