Abraham Lincoln

by William Eleroy Curtis

A few moments after he sat down at his desk, with his own hand made two copies of the following note, and sent one to Mr. Seward and the other to Mr. Chase by messenger:

"You have respectively tendered me your resignation as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. I am apprized of the circumstances which render this course personally desirable to each of you; but, after the most anxious consideration, my deliberate judgment is that the public interest does not admit of it. I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your departments respectively."

Mr. Seward at once recognized the situation and wrote the President, saying, "I have cheerfully resumed the functions of this department in obedience to your command," and sent a copy of the note to the Secretary of the Treasury.

Mr. Chase, however, was not so frank. He realized that he had made a serious mistake, and by his duplicity had lost the confidence of the Republican leaders of the Senate as well as that of his colleagues in the Cabinet. He suspected that Mr. Seward had somehow obtained an advantage of him, and he was not sure which way he had better turn; so he asked time for reflection, and finally wrote a long letter to the President explaining his situation and his views, and concluded by saying that he thought both Mr. Seward and himself had better retire. He did not send the letter at once, but held it until the following day; and when he learned that Seward's resignation was withdrawn, enclosed it in another note stating that, while he had not changed his views, he was ready to resume his post or to retire from it if, in the judgment of the President, the success of the administration might be promoted thereby.

This was the end of the episode. The President had cleared up the misunderstanding between the Cabinet and the Senate and the members of his own official family by a novel expedient which is often adopted to reconcile quarrels between children, but was altogether new in diplomacy and statesmanship. Both sides to the controversy were conscious that they had placed themselves in the wrong, and, even under their chagrin, must have recognized the humor of the situation and the diplomatic skill with which Lincoln had handled it. The President himself was very proud of his triumph.

"I do not see how it could have been better," he said afterwards. "If I had yielded to the storm and dismissed Seward, the thing would all have slumped over one way, and we should have been left with a scanty handful of supporters. When Chase gave in his resignation I saw that the game was in my hands, and I put it through."

In this case and frequently throughout his administration the President resorted to the old-fashioned and homely but sensible methods that were commonly resorted to on the frontier to settle controversies between neighbors when the courts were scattered and litigation was considered disreputable. They were new in the administration of a government, but were none the less effective.

Lincoln frequently showed that he could easily avoid a direct answer and evade inquisitive visitors when he thought it was impolitic to make known his opinions. One of the latter wanted to know his opinion of Sheridan, who had just come from the West to take command of the cavalry under Grant. Said Lincoln,—

"I will tell you just what kind of a chap he is. He is one of those long-armed fellows with short legs that can scratch his shins without having to stoop over to do so."

One day, when the vain boasting of a certain general was the subject of discussion, Lincoln was "reminded" of a farmer out in Illinois who was in the habit of bragging about everything he did and had and saw, and particularly about his crops. While driving along the road during the haying season, he noticed one of his neighbors hauling a load of hay into his barn. He could not resist the opportunity, and commenced to brag about the size of his hay crop, which, as usual, he asserted to be larger and better than any ever before known in the county. After he had finished he asked what kind of a crop his neighbor had put in.