When Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860, one of the first decisions he made that November was whom he would choose for his Cabinet. While most Presidents usually chose friends and those who helped them get elected, Lincoln entertained a different approach.  “We needed the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet,” he argued. “We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men…I had no right to deprive the country of their services.”¹

The men he selected were those who had vied for the Presidency themselves. Not one was a friend. Most were jealous of his victory. Many disliked each other. Yet, they formed one of the most essential and historic Presidential Cabinets in the annals of our nation.

Since the Republican party was a new political party, some of Lincoln’s choices were former Whigs, like himself. Others were former Democrats – and a few still adhered to that party. When Lincoln made his choices public, many Republicans in power criticized him for his decision.

The Senate approved the Cabinet on March 5 – the day after Lincoln took office in 1861. The former Whigs were Secretary of State William H. Seward, Attorney General Edward Bates, and Secretary of the Interior Caleb Smith. The former Democrats were Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, and Secretary of War Simon Cameron. To the naysayers, Lincoln replied, “I’ll be there to make the parties even.” Even Lincoln’s Vice-Presidents for both elections were Democrats: Hannibal Hamlin and Andrew Johnson.²

Lincoln chose wisely. Welles was a native of Connecticut, Blair from Maryland, a border state, Bates was from Missouri, another border state. Bates also was a veteran from the War of 1812. Chase was an Ohio native, and was adept at raising money and careful with its allotment, Seward was from New York, and nationally popular. Cameron, the politically astute and ardent abolitionist, hailed from Pennsylvania. Caleb Smith, a native of Boston, lived in Indiana at the time of his appointment. Lincoln wanted the entire country, at least the parts loyal to the Union, to be represented.

On March 4, as Lincoln entered the Executive Mansion for the first time, he was assailed by office seekers, and alarming news awaited his immediate attention. The outgoing Secretary of War under James Buchanan handed the new President a letter from Major Robert Anderson, the commander of the Union garrison on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. His men were low on rations, the threat of Confederate bombardment came to them daily, as the Union forts in South Carolina had all been taken by the Confederacy. Additional Union forts in Louisiana and Mississippi – states who had seceded in January – had been taken as well. It was Lincoln’s first great test.

Lincoln called a meeting for his new cabinet and shared the letter with them. Immediately they were divided, as they would often be. Secretary Seward, who at the time considered himself the actual leader, “the chief pillar of the temple,” insisted that Lincoln allow the fort to be taken. He declared that sending relief to Sumter was “an act of war,” and that Lincoln needed to appease the South.³

Montgomery Blair was the son of Francis Preston Blair, a Jacksonian Democrat who held great esteem in Washington for many years. The Blair House in Washington, where the Vice-Presidents reside, was originally the home of the elder Blair. Monty, though, broke with the Democratic party over the issue of slavery. He had argued the Dred Scott Case before the Supreme Court in 1857. He disliked Seward and Chase, and was always ready to argue with them. He insisted that were Lincoln to allow Sumter and its protectors to fall into Southern hands, he was useless as a Commander-in-Chief and could be impeached for his lack of aid.⁴

Lincoln ruminated over the issue for several days, hoping that perhaps the emergency would lessen. When it remained as dire as before, Lincoln agreed with Blair. He would send supplies to Anderson and his men. Seward was aghast. “We are not yet in a position to go to war,” he said. Only Caleb Smith sided with Seward – the rest of the cabinet agreed with Lincoln. Lincoln sent supplies to Sumter. And war came.⁵

Lincoln’s daily schedule was as hectic as any who ever held the position of President. He was in his office every morning at 8 a.m. His private secretary John Hay wrote that Lincoln “began to receive visitors at 10 a.m., but long before that hour struck the doors were besieged by anxious crowds through whom the people of importance, Senators and members of Congress, elbowed their way…others came for help or mercy…on days when the Cabinet met – Tuesdays and Fridays – the hour of noon closed the interviews.”⁶

Other events that caused rifts between the Cabinet included Lincoln’s suspension of Habeus Corpus in the spring of 1861, the Trent Affair in late 1861, and the decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in the summer of 1862.

When an outspoken journalist in Baltimore attempted to get the state of Maryland to secede, Lincoln was at an impasse. Congress had the right to suspend Habeus Corpus, which is that no one could be jailed for an indefinite period of time without bringing charges. Congress, though, was not in session yet, and would not convene until July. Lincoln suspended that right for the recalcitrant Confederate sympathizer, and Congress gave him the right to make the suspension later.

The Trent Affair pertained to a British ship of that name which carried two Confederate statesmen, James Mason and John Slidell, to Great Britain, in order to gain English sympathy and aid. Lincoln told Gideon Welles to intercept the vessel before it entered international waters. The ship, however, escaped before the government could reach it. An overzealous ship’s captain continued to search, and found the ship near Cuba, where he boarded it and arrested Mason and Slidell. 

The parliament in Great Britain reacted with rage, and threatened Lincoln that if he did not free the two men and allow them passage to London, that they were prepared to declare war.

The Cabinet members were, as usual, divided in their solutions. Montgomery Blair insisted, as did Gideon Welles, that their nation had every right to detain the two Confederates in wartime. Blair scoffed at the threat of war, claiming that the British “would not dare do it.” Seward, however, showed his statesman’s wisdom, and urged Lincoln to allow Mason and Slidell to go free. It was not worth the risk of war on another front. Lincoln agreed and freed the two men. Lincoln then wrote letters to Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister, with an apology and an appeal for friendship and continued trade. The catastrophe was averted.⁷

The decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation brought the cabinet to its utmost disagreement with Lincoln. By that time, Edwin Stanton had replaced Simon Cameron as Secretary of War. Stanton was the most contrary of Lincoln’s staff, he frequently disagreed with Lincoln, and often called him derogatory names. He and Montgomery Blair argued incessantly. Moreover, Salmon P. Chase continually disparaged Lincoln and the rest of the cabinet, and sometimes his complaints were published in the newspaper, causing him embarrassment. While Secretary Seward had grown to like and trust Lincoln, Chase’s jealousy and imbuement of what Lincoln called “White House fever” continually rankled the rest of the group.⁸

On July 22, 1862, Lincoln informed his cabinet of his desire to issue emancipation to the slaves. The men erupted. Not one agreed with the President. Even Salmon P. Chase and Montgomery Blair, the more radical members did not think the proclamation was a prudent move. Lincoln listened to their reasons, which were that they would lose the border states and that the idea would appear out of desperation. It was soon evident that Lincoln would not back down. Finally, Secretary Seward suggested that the President should wait until a Union victory could be achieved, and that only the slaves in the Confederacy should be affected. Lincoln heeded his advice, and with the Union win at Antietam in September, Lincoln published his intent. The Emancipation Proclamation was officially signed on New Year’s Day in 1863. Two years later, with the approval of Congress, the 13^th Amendment of the Constitution, making all former slaves forever free, was passed and later ratified.⁹

It was during this time that William H. Seward wrote to his wife that “the President is the best of us.” What began as a one-sided rivalry ended as a lasting friendship. Lincoln enjoyed Seward’s company. Both possessed a flair for story-telling. Seward loved champagne and cigars, Lincoln did not indulge in either. Seward was known for his constant cursing, while Lincoln did not swear. They shared, however, a love of the country, and a desire to mend the nation.¹⁰

Gideon Welles, always a friendly man, also grew close to his President. He later said of Lincoln that he was “a remarkable man…had a vigorous and rugged but comprehensive mind” and “a genial, kindly temperament.”¹¹

Lincoln’s kindness was the key that kept his divisive cabinet together. When General Jubal Early nearly reached Washington on an 1864 raid, Montgomery Blair’s home was burned. The Postmaster General’s temper flared, and he called the “dunderheads in the War Department” men of “neglect, ignorance and folly.” Edwin Stanton, deeply offended, demanded that Lincoln fire Blair. Lincoln replied that “I do not consider what may have been said hastily in a moment of vexation…sufficient ground for so grave a step.”¹²

Lincoln’s acuity was even more evident that same year, when he learned that Salmon P. Chase continued his attempt to get Lincoln ousted, hoping the Republicans would nominate Chase instead. The President ignored the insult, insisting that Chase “is, on the whole, a pretty good fellow and a very able man.” When Chase’s antics and insults became fodder for the newspapers, Lincoln knew Chase had to go. The Secretary of Treasury repeatedly offered to resign, and finally Lincoln accepted. Rather than abruptly fire him, he found a way to remove the problem without insulting the man. With the death of Chief Justice Roger Taney, Lincoln simply gave the position to Chase. John Nicolay remembered that Chase “held so poor an opinion of the President’s intellect and character in comparison with his own, that he could not believe the people so blind as to…prefer the President to himself.”¹³

With Lincoln winning a second term, some of his cabinet remained, some did not. He had already replaced Chase with William Fessenden. The aged Caleb Smith and Attorney General Edward Bates requested resignations. Lincoln made James Speed his new Attorney General, John Usher became the new Secretary of the Interior, and Montgomery Blair was replaced by William Dennison. Lincoln’s new Vice-President was Tennessee Democrat Andrew Johnson, the only political leader from a Confederate state who had remained loyal to the Union. Seward, Welles, and Stanton remained in the cabinet.

Probably the most heartfelt Presidential compliment by one of Lincoln’s Cabinet came, incredibly, from Edwin Stanton. Shortly after Lincoln’s second term began, and as the war drew to a close, an assassin’s bullet struck and mortally wounded the 16^th President. Secretary Seward was also attacked, but survived. Members of his cabinet rushed to the Petersen House across the street from Ford’s Theater, as the death vigil took the entire night. Gideon Welles, Edwin Stanton, John Usher, James Speed, Secretaries Hay and Nicolay, Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana, Robert Lincoln and Doctors Leale and Taft were in attendance during Lincoln’s final hours. Even Chief Justice Salmon Chase hurried to the house, but stayed only a few minutes. When Lincoln took his last breath at 7:22 a.m. on Saturday, April 15, 1865, the room grew silent, and only the steady rain pelting the roof of the boarding house was audible. Then Edwin Stanton said, “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen. Now he belongs to the ages.”¹⁴

John Nicolay described the President’s success with his often cantankerous and disagreeable cabinet, and explained how Lincoln managed to make their decisions united: “While I can confirm everything the books say about his greatness, I can also personally bear witness that he was at the same time one of the kindest, most humane, and best men that ever lived. He was always gentle and never severe, always anxious to praise and never to blame, always eager to reward and slow to punish.”¹⁵

He brought out the best in them all with an unforgettable, and unrivaled, outcome.

Sources: Curtis, William Eleroy. Abraham Lincoln. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1902. Drury, Dave. “Witness to History: Lincoln’s Trusted Friend Gideon Welles”, Feb. 8, 2009. The Hartford Courant, Hartfordinfo.org. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. Hay, John & John Nicolay. Abraham Lincoln: A History. Vols. 3 and 10, New York: The Century Company, 1890. Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & The War Years. New York: Galahad Books, 199 (reprint, originally published as two volumes, 1954 by Harcourt Brace, Inc.). Seward, William Henry Letter, Britannica Kids Encyclopedia: kidsbritannica.com. Van der Linden, Frank. The Dark Intrigue: The True Story of a Civil War Conspiracy. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.

End Notes: 

1. Curtis, p. 179. Goodwin, p. 319. 

2. Sandburg, p. 216. 

3. Curtis, p. 198. 

4. Ibid. 

5. Goodwin, p. 340. 

6. Hay & Nicolay, vol 3, p. 101.

7. Sandburg, pp. 267-268. Goodwin, pp. 396-397. 

8. Sandburg, p. 491. Goodwin, pp. 435, 563. Curtis, pp. 189, 217. 

9. Goodwin, pp. 468-469. Sandburg, p 331. 

10. Van der Linden, p. 196. Seward, kidsbritannica.com. 

11. Drury, Hartfordinfo.org. 

12. Van der Linden, p. 124. 

13. Curtis, p. 217. Sandburg, p. 487. 

14. Hay & Nicolay, vol 10, p. 302. 

15. Ibid., p. 303.