ough the brain and
oppressed the heart of Abraham Lincoln that night--his first at the
White House. The City of Washington swarmed with rebels and rebel
sympathizers, and all the departments of Government were honeycombed
with treason and shadowed with treachery and espionage. Every step
proposed or contemplated by the Government would be known to the
so-called Government of the Confederate States almost as soon as thought
of. All means to thwart and delay the carrying out of the Government's
purposes that the excuses of routine and red tape admitted of would be
used by the traitors within the camp to aid the traitors without. No one
knew all this better than Mr. Lincoln. With no army, no navy, not even a
revenue cutter left--with forts and arsenals, ammunition and arms, in
possession of the South, with no money in the National Treasury, and the
National credit blasted--the position must, even to his hopeful nature,
have seemed desperate. Yet even in this awful hour, he was sustained by
confidence in the good effects of his conciliatory message to the South,
and by his trust in the patriotism of the people and the Providence of
God."

Mr. Welles, the incoming Secretary of the Navy, in writing of the period
immediately following the inauguration, says: "A strange state of things
existed at that time in Washington. The atmosphere was thick with
treason. Party spirit and old party differences prevailed amidst the
accumulating dangers. Secession was considered by most persons as a
political party question, not as rebellion. Democrats to a large extent
sympathized with the Rebels more than with the Administration. The
Republicans, on the other hand, were scarcely less partisan and
unreasonable ... clamorous for the removal of all Democrats,
indiscriminately, from office."

The President's first official act was the announcement of his Cabinet,
which was composed of the following persons: William H. Seward,
Secretary of State; Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Salmon P. Chase,
Secretary of the Treasury; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb
B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair, Postmaster
General; and Edward Bates, Attorney General. Lincoln had selected these
counselors with grave deliberation. In reply to the remonstrances urged,
on political grounds, against the appointment of one or two of them, he
had said: "The times are too grave and perilous for ambitious schemes
and personal rivalries. I need t