Grant's first Cabinet was a conglomerate which stupefied the politicians. For Secretary of State he named Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois. Washburne had represented the Galena District in Congress continuously and creditably for twelve years, and was just entering upon a new term. He was a fellow townsman of Grant when the war broke out and had recommended him to Governor Yates as a military helper, and from that time onward had been his stanch and unwavering supporter. When Grant fell into disfavor after the battle of Shiloh, and almost everybody in Washington was clamoring against him, Washburne fairly roared on the other side, and contended not only that he ought to be retained in his place, but that he ought to be promoted to Halleck's place in command of all the Western armies—and here he was right. His personal relations with the General had been so close and his services so conspicuous that there was a general expectation that he would have a place in the Cabinet; but nobody supposed that it would be the Department of State, for which he was wholly unfitted. Although a man of ability, tenacity, and long experience in public affairs, he was impulsive, headstrong, combative, and unbalanced. The Department of State was regarded then as the premier position, where equipoise was the chief requisite, and this quality Washburne lacked.
Grant had chosen James F. Wilson, of Iowa, as Secretary of State and Wilson had accepted the appointment. He had been a leading member of the House and chairman of its Judiciary Committee, and had been consulted by Grant on the most important matters connected with his duties as Secretary of War ad interim, including his correspondence with Andrew Johnson after he had resigned that office. Wilson had declined a reëlection to Congress because he wished to retire from public life, and he accepted the appointment offered by Grant with reluctance and only at the urgent solicitation of the latter.
Washburne had been promised the office of Minister to France. When he knew that Wilson was to be appointed Secretary of State, he went to Grant and asked that the appointment of Secretary might be conferred upon himself temporarily so as to give him prestige in his office as Minister. Grant saw no objection to this, but he asked Wilson's permission first. Wilson did not relish the proposition, but he consented, on condition that Washburne should not take any action as Secretary, either in the way of appointments to office or the announcement of policies. As soon as Washburne had been confirmed by the Senate, he began to make appointments and announce policies, and Grant did not immediately call him to order. Wilson accordingly notified Grant that as the conditions had been broken he would not now accept the office. Grant then compelled Washburne to resign. But meanwhile Wilson had gone to New York en route to his home in Iowa, and a messenger (A. D. Richardson) was sent after him by Grant to urge him to change his mind; he declined to do so, in terms, however, which preserved their friendship unimpaired.[113]
"Who ever heard before of a man nominated Secretary of State merely as a compliment?" was Fessenden's comment on the Washburne episode.
Wilson afterward served a term in the United States Senate. He was a good lawyer, a man of sound judgment, of probity and stability of character, and would have filled the office of Secretary of State creditably if not brilliantly. When Grant found that Wilson's purpose to withdraw could not be changed he offered the place to Hamilton Fish, who accepted it.
Grant's mishaps in filling the Treasury Department were quite as droll as the foregoing. He first sent in the name of Alexander T. Stewart, the great dry-goods merchant of New York, as Secretary. Stewart was a Scotch-Irishman who had migrated as a young man, and had taken up the vocation of a school-teacher in his adopted country. Of his start in life he was very proud. He kept a well-thumbed copy of the New Testament in Greek on the centre table of his hospitable mansion, which he was fond of exhibiting to his guests as one of the tools of trade with which he began his career in America. Pedagogy, however, did not detain him long. He had brought some capital from the old country and he turned his attention to silks and muslins, and by diligence, skill, and integrity had reached the foremost place in the nation as a merchant, before the outbreak of the Civil War. His wholesale business was chiefly with the South, and this part of it was suddenly obliterated in 1861. Yet he recovered his leadership in dry goods before the war ended, and was then rated as third in the list of rich men in the United States, the names of Astor and Vanderbilt only being placed higher.
Nobody knew, at the time when he was named for a place in the Cabinet, what political party he belonged to or favored. His most intimate friend and counselor was Henry Hilton, a Democratic ex-judge, potent in Tammany Hall. That fact, however, implied no political bias on the part of Stewart. Hilton was his watch-dog at the place where the local taxing and blackmailing power lay. Nor did Grant have any political aims or thought in selecting Stewart for the portfolio of the Treasury. He chose him because great wealth appealed strongly to the imagination of one who had had severe struggles with poverty, and because he reasoned that a man who had been very successful in his private business would necessarily know how to manage the public business. Both Sumner and Gideon Welles said that Stewart had made a gift of considerable amount to Grant.
The nomination of Stewart was scoffed at by nearly everybody in Washington, but it was well received by the press and no Senator dared to vote against it. It was presently discovered, however, that he could not legally hold the office, as he was disqualified by a law of 1789, which provided that nobody engaged in trade or commerce, nor any owner of a seagoing vessel, nor any dealer in public lands or in public securities, should be eligible. Stewart had not been a candidate for the position, or for any position, but when it was offered to him, he thought he would like to have it, and to this end he proposed to retire temporarily from trade and commerce, and put his business in the hands of trustees for charitable use, in order to meet the requirements of law. The President also requested Congress to change the law so that he might be qualified. Congress, however, did not think it desirable to trim the law to fit a particular case, and Stewart did not raise his bid. After a week's delay the President sent in the name of George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, for Secretary of the Treasury, and he entered upon the duties of the office with general satisfaction.