masters, but withheld to lessen the enemy's mili- CHAP. VIII. tary resources.1

Ordinarily so radical a difference in administrative policy, the abrupt manner of its promulgation, and the peremptory recall and modification of a Secretary's report, would scarcely fail to cause a disagreeable Cabinet explosion. Lincoln's uniform good-nature and considerate forbearance, however, enabled him to endure and manage the incident without a quarrel, or even the least manifestation of ill-will on either side. Having corrected his minister's haste and imprudence, the President indulged in no further comment, and Cameron, yielding to superior authority, received the implied rebuke with becoming grace. From the confidential talks with his intimates it was clear enough that he expected a dismissal. But Lincoln never acted in a harsh or arbitrary mood. For the time being the personal relations between the President and his Secretary of War remained unchanged. They met in Cabinet consultations, or for the daily dispatch of routine business, with the same cordial ease as before. Nevertheless, each of them realized

labor may be useful to us; with-
held from the enemy it lessens
his military resources, and with-
holding them has no tendency to
induce the horrors of insurrec-
tion, even in the rebel communi-
ties. They constitute a military
resource, and, being such, that
they should not be turned over
to the enemy is too plain to
discuss. Why deprive him of
supplies by a blockade and vol-
untarily give him men to produce
them?"-Report of the Secretary
of War, December 1, 1861 (Re-
vised Copy).

CHAP. VIII. that the circumstance had created a situation of difficulty and embarrassment which could not be indefinitely prolonged. Cameron began to signify his weariness of the onerous labors of the War Department, and hinted to the President that he would greatly prefer the less responsible duties of a foreign mission. Lincoln said nothing for several weeks, but he was waiting for a favorable moment when he might make a Cabinet change with the least official friction or public attention. To outsiders the affair seemed to have completely blown over, when, on January 11, 1862, Lincoln wrote the following short note:

Lincoln to
Cameron,
Jan. 11,
1862. MS.

Warden,

"Life of pp. 400, 401.

Chase,"

MY DEAR SIR: As you have more than once expressed a desire for a change of position, I can now gratify you, consistently with my view of the public interest. I therefore propose nominating you to the Senate, next Monday, as Minister to Russia.

Very sincerely, your friend,

A. LINCOLN.

There is an interesting passage in the published diary of Secretary Chase, informing us that this note, written on Saturday, was shown by Cameron on Sunday afternoon to Secretaries Seward and Chase; also implying that several separate and joint interviews had been going on between these three Cabinet ministers for a day or two previous, in which they discussed the question of Cameron's retirement, his nomination to Russia, and the equally important topic of who should become his successor in the War Department. Three points seem evident from the record: that while they all had a hint of the change, neither of them knew definitely whether it would be finally made, or when it

would occur, or who would be called to fill the va- CHAP. VIII. cancy. Chase laments that Seward might suspect him of not dealing frankly; Seward is represented as appearing to know more than he communicated, and Cameron as hesitating between "no and yes." They finally all joined in the opinion that the most agreeable and the fittest successor in the War Department would be Stanton. And, if we may trust the language of the diary, each of them was impressed with the belief that he alone was the chief agency in bringing about the change, in delicately causing its hearty acceptance, and especially in selecting the man destined to become the greatest war minister the Government has ever had. The truth was that a stronger will and a yet more delicate tact had inspired and guided them all. Lincoln, securing his main purpose of once more combining these three influential leaders in renewed support of his Administration, in the midst of a Cabinet crisis changing rupture into strength and discord into harmony, was quite content to allow them to appropriate the merit of the success. On the following day the new nominations went to the Senate, where they were speedily confirmed. Nearly a month elapsed before the usual perfunctory and ex post facto correspondence was published in the newspapers, wherein the incident was recited in more formal phraseology.

It is proper to mention in this connection that the Cabinet change here described caused no change in the friendship between Lincoln and Cameron. Three or four months afterwards a violent factional assault upon the latter in the House of Representatives resulted in the passage of a VOL. V.-9

Jan. 13, 1862.