In the mean time Trumbull, having learned that a place in the Cabinet—probably the Treasury—had been offered to Cameron, wrote a letter to Lincoln, dated January 3, advising him not to appoint him. To this letter Lincoln wrote the following reply:

Very Confidential
Springfield, Ill., Jan. 7, 1861.
Hon. Lyman Trumbull,

My dear Sir: Yours of the 3d is just received.... Gen. C. has not been offered the Treasury and I think will not be. It seems to me not only highly proper but a necessity that Gov. Chase shall take that place. His ability, firmness, and purity of character produce this propriety; and that he alone can reconcile Mr. Bryant and his class to the appointment of Gov. S. to the State Department produces the necessity. But then comes the danger that the protectionists of Pennsylvania will be dissatisfied; and to clear this difficulty Gen. C. must be brought to coöperate. He would readily do this for the War Department. But then comes the fierce opposition to his having any Department, threatening even to send charges into the Senate to procure his rejection by that body. Now, what I would most like, and what I think he should prefer too, under the circumstances, would be to retain his place in the Senate, and if that place has been promised to another let that other take a respectable and reasonably lucrative place abroad. Also, let Gen. C.'s friends be, with entire fairness, cared for in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. I may mention before closing that besides the very fixed opposition to Gen. C. he is more amply recommended for a place in the Cabinet than any other man....

Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.

It is easy to read two facts between these lines: first, that although Lincoln had written a letter four days earlier withdrawing his offer to Cameron, some influence had intervened to cause new hesitations; second, that Lincoln knew that Cameron ought not to be taken into the Cabinet at all, and that he was now seeking some way to buy him off. The cause of the new hesitation was that David Davis was clinging to him like a burr. The last observation in the letter to Trumbull, that Cameron was more amply recommended for a place in the Cabinet than any other man, points to the activity of Seward and Weed in Cameron's behalf, of which Welles gives details in the interview with Fogg above mentioned.

Before Lincoln's letter of the 7th reached Trumbull, the latter wrote the following, giving his objections to Cameron more in detail:

Washington, Jan. 10, 1861.
Hon. A. Lincoln,

My dear Sir: My last to you was written in a hurry—in the midst of business in the Senate, and I have not a precise recollection of its terms—but I desire now to write you a little more fully in regard to this Cameron movement, and in doing so, I have no other desire than the success of our Administration. Cameron is very generally regarded as a trading, unscrupulous politician. He has not the confidence of our best men. He is a great manager and by his schemes has for the moment created an apparent public sentiment in Penna. in his favor. Many of the persons who are most strenuously urging his appointment are doubtless doing it in anticipation of a compensation. It is rather an ungracious matter to interfere to oppose his selection and hence those who believe him unfit and unworthy of the place [Copy illegible] seems to me he is totally unfit for the Treasury Department. You may perhaps ask, how, if these things are true, does he have so many friends, and such, to support him, and such representative men. I am surprised at it, but the world is full of great examples of men succeeding for a time by intrigue and management. Report says that C. secured Wilmot in his favor by assurances of support for the Senate, and then secured Cowan by abandoning W. at the last. The men who make the charges against Cameron are not all, I am sure, either his personal enemies, or governed by prejudice. Another very serious objection to Cameron is his connection with Gov. Seward. The Governor is a man who acts through others and men believe that Cameron would be his instrument in the Cabinet. It is my decided conviction that C.'s selection would be a great mistake and it is a pity he is [Copy illegible] Gov. Seward's appointment is acquiesced in by all our friends. Some wish it were not so, but regard it rather as a necessity, and are not disposed to complain. There is a very general desire here to have Gov. Chase go into the Cabinet and in that wish I most heartily concur. In my judgment you had better put Chase in the Cabinet and leave Cameron out, even at the risk of a rupture with the latter, but I am satisfied he can be got along with. He is an exacting man, but in the end will put up with what he can get. He cannot get along in hostility to you, and when treated fairly, and as he ought to be, will acquiesce. This letter is, of course, strictly confidential.

There is a reaction here and the danger of an attack on Washington is, I think, over.

Very truly your friend,
Lyman Trumbull.

The newspapers soon got hold of the fact that a place in the Cabinet had been offered to Cameron. They did not learn that he had been asked to decline it. Letters began to reach Trumbull urging him to use his influence to prevent such a calamity. For example:

James H. Van Alen, New York, January 8, says honest men of all parties were shocked by the rumor of Cameron's appointment to the Treasury. This evening Judge Hogeboom and Mr. Opdycke leave for Springfield and Messrs. D. D. Field and Barney for Washington to make their urgent protest against the act. Says he has written to Lincoln and forwarded extracts from congressional documents in relation to Simon Cameron's actions as commissioner to settle the claims of the half-breed Winnebago Indians. Refers to the Congressional Globe, 25th Congress, 3d Session, p. 194.

E. Peck, Springfield, January 10, says all the Chicago members of the legislature took such steps as they could to prevent the appointment of Cameron, believing him not to be a proper man for any place in the Cabinet. If he goes in, it will not be as the head of the Treasury Department. Understands that Chase was offered the Treasury, but did not accept.

C. H. Ray, Springfield, January 16, thinks that the Cameron business should be brought to a halt by some decisive action among the Republicans in Senate and House. Says Lincoln sees the error into which he has fallen, and would, most likely, be glad to recede; but, except a dozen letters, he hears only from the Cameron and Weed gang.

E. Peck, Springfield, February 1, says David Davis is quite "huffy" because of the objections raised to Cameron and because Smith, of Indiana, is not at once admitted to the Cabinet.

William Butler (state treasurer), Springfield, February 7, says that last evening he had a confidential conversation with Lincoln, who told him that the appointment of Cameron, or his intimation to Cameron that he would offer him a place in the Cabinet, had given him more trouble than anything else that he had yet encountered. He had made up his mind that after reaching Washington he would first send for Cameron and say to him that he intended to submit the question of his appointment to the Republican Senators; that he should call them together for consultation, but would leave Cameron out, as the question to be considered would be solely in reference to him; and that he (Lincoln) wished to deal frankly and for the good of the party. Butler thinks it would be disastrous to Cameron to go into the Cabinet under such circumstances.

Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, was also expecting a place in the Cabinet. He was a lawyer by profession and general attorney of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. He had been a member of the State Senate, where he contributed largely to Trumbull's first election to the United States Senate, after which he had been devoted to Trumbull's political interests and no less to Lincoln's. He was chairman of the Republican State Committee and a member of the National Committee. He had been a delegate-at-large to the Chicago Convention, where he had worked untiringly and effectively for Lincoln's nomination. He was not a man of ideas, but was fertile in expedients. In politics he was a "trimmer," sly, cat-like, and mysterious, and thus he came to be considered more farseeing then he really was; but he was jovial, companionable, and popular with the boys who looked after the primaries and the nominating conventions. Both as a legislator and a party manager his reputation was good, but his qualities were those of the politician rather than of the statesman. He was certainly the equal of Caleb Smith and the superior of Cameron. If he had been taken into the Cabinet, he would not have been ejected without assignable reasons nine months later. It was known immediately after the November election that he expected a Cabinet position and that Trumbull favored him.

January 3, 1861, Judd wrote to Trumbull that he had heard no word from Lincoln, but he had heard indirectly from Butler (state treasurer) that Lincoln "never had a truer friend than myself and there was no one in whom he placed greater confidence; still circumstances embarrassed him about a Cabinet appointment." Judd understood this to mean that he would not be appointed and he took it very much to heart. Doubtless the circumstance that most embarrassed Lincoln was the same that operated in Cameron's case. David Davis was insisting that his pledge to the Indiana delegates should be made good.