d
was a leader of the "Radicals," who were "stern and unbending" in their
attitude towards slavery and towards the South. These two must be got
and kept together if possible. Bates was a good and capable man who
moreover came from Missouri, a border slave State, where his influence
was much to be desired. He became Attorney-General. Cameron, an
unfortunate choice as it turned out, was a very wealthy business man of
Pennsylvania, representative of the weighty Protectionist influence
there. After he had been offered office, which had been without
Lincoln's authority promised him in the Republican Convention, Lincoln
was dismayed by representations that he was "a bad, corrupted man"; he
wrote a curious letter asking Cameron to refuse his offer; Cameron
instead produced evidence of the desire of Pennsylvania for him; Lincoln
stuck to his offer; the old Whig element among Republicans, the
Protectionist element, and above all, the friends of the indispensable
Seward, would otherwise have been outweighted in the Cabinet. Cameron
eventually became for a time Secretary of War. To these Lincoln, upon
somebody's strong representations, tried, without much hope, to add some
distinctly Southern politician. The effort, of course, failed.
Ultimately the Cabinet was completed by the addition of Caleb Smith of
Indiana as Secretary of the Interior, Gideon Welles of Connecticut as
Secretary of the Navy, and Montgomery Blair of Maryland as
Postmaster-General. Welles, with the guidance of a brilliant
subordinate, Fox, served usefully, was very loyal to Lincoln, had an
antipathy to England which was dangerous, and kept very diligently a
diary for which we may be grateful now. Blair was a vehement,
irresponsible person with an influential connection, and, which was
important, his influence and that of his family lay in Maryland and other
border slave States. Of all these men, Seward, Secretary of State--that
is, Foreign Minister and something more--and Chase, Secretary of the
Treasury, most concern us. Lincoln's offer to Seward was made and
accepted in terms that did credit to both men, and Seward, still smarting
at his own defeat, was admirably loyal. But his friends, though they had
secured the appointment of Cameron to support them, thought increasingly
ill of the prospects of a Cabinet which included the Radical Chase. On
the very night before his inauguration Lincoln received from Seward, who
had just been helping to revise