CHAPTER VIII
CABINET-MAKING—THE DEATH OF DOUGLAS
During all this storm and stress the President-elect was at home struggling with office-seekers. They came in swarms from all points of the compass, and in the greatest numbers from Illinois. Judging from the Trumbull papers alone it is safe to say that Illinois could have filled every office in the national Blue Book without satisfying half the demands. Every considerable town had several candidates for its own post-office, and the applicants were generally men who had real claims by reason of party service and personal character for the positions which they sought. But there were exceptions, and Trumbull brought trouble on his own head many times by taking part in the mêlée. Yet there seemed to be no way of escape, even if he had wished to stand aloof. The day of civil service reform had not yet dawned. Time has kindly dropped its veil over those struggles except as relates to Lincoln's Cabinet. The selection of the Cabinet will be considered chronologically so far as the Trumbull papers throw light on it.
On his journey to Washington for the coming session of Congress, Trumbull stopped a few days in New York. While there he received a call from three gentlemen, who were a sub-committee of a larger number who had been chosen, by the opponents of the Weed overlordship in New York politics, to call upon Lincoln and remonstrate against the appointment of Seward as a member of his Cabinet. The three men were William C. Bryant, William Curtis Noyes, and A. Mann, Jr. They said that finding it impracticable to see Lincoln, they had decided to call upon Trumbull and ask him to present their views to the President-elect. Although Trumbull disclaimed any peculiar knowledge or influence in respect of Cabinet appointments, they proceeded to make their wishes known. They said that a division had taken place in the Republican party of New York, growing out of corruption at Albany during the last session of the legislature, in which many Republicans were implicated; that so strong was the feeling against certain transactions there, that but for the presidential election the Republicans would have lost the state in November; and that unless the transactions were repudiated by the coming legislature the party would be beaten next year. They did not connect Governor Seward personally with these transactions, but said that several of his particular and most intimate friends, whom they named, were implicated, and that if he went into the Cabinet he would draw them after him.
Trumbull suggested to them that if Governor Seward went into the Cabinet, as many people considered to be his due, it did not necessarily follow that he would control the patronage of New York. Mr. Mann, however, thought that this would be inevitable. He and Mr. Bryant and Mr. Noyes expressed the opinion that Seward did not desire to go into the Cabinet unless he could control the patronage and thus serve his friends. They said they had no name to propose as a New York member of the Cabinet, but they did not want the load of the Albany plunderers put upon them, and that if it were so the party in New York would be ruined.
The purport of this interview was communicated by Trumbull to Lincoln by letter dated Washington, December 2, 1860. Lincoln replied as follows:
Private
Springfield, Ill., Dec. 8, 1860.
Hon. Lyman Trumbull.My dear Sir: Yours of the 2nd is received. I regret exceedingly the anxiety of our friends in New York, of whom you write; but it seems to me the sentiment in that State which sent a united delegation to Chicago in favor of Gov. Seward ought not and must not be snubbed, as it would be, by the omission to offer Gov. S. a place in the Cabinet. I will myself take care of the question of "corrupt jobs" and see that justice is done to all our friends of whom you wrote, as well as others.
I have written to Mr. Hamlin on this very subject of Gov. S. and requested him to consult fully with you. He will show you my note and enclosures to him; and then please act as therein requested.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
The enclosures were a formal tender of the office of Secretary of State to Seward and a private letter to him urging his acceptance of the appointment. The note to Hamlin requested that if he and Trumbull concurred in the step, the letters should be handed to Seward. They were promptly delivered.
As matters stood at that time it was certainly due to Seward that a place in the Cabinet should be offered to him and that it should be the foremost place. He was still the intellectual premier of the party and nobody could impair his influence but himself. The principal scheme at Albany, to which Bryant and his colleagues alluded, was a "gridiron" street railroad bill for New York City, for which Weed was the political engineer.