. The Civil War : the national view . icers, he demandedthat they be removed, and placed his own resignation In thepresidents hands, if his request could not be granted. Lin-coln accepted the resignation and called General Hooker tosucceed him. While disaster was befalling the army, Lincoln was facinga crisis in his Cabinet. He had selected his rivals for thepresidency as members of his Cabinet—Seward, Chase, andCameron, who early was asked to resign and Stanton wasappointed to his place. The radical element of the Repub-lican party favored Chase, criticised Seward and looked withmild indulgen
. The Civil War : the national view . icers, he demandedthat they be removed, and placed his own resignation In thepresidents hands, if his request could not be granted. Lin-coln accepted the resignation and called General Hooker tosucceed him. While disaster was befalling the army, Lincoln was facinga crisis in his Cabinet. He had selected his rivals for thepresidency as members of his Cabinet—Seward, Chase, andCameron, who early was asked to resign and Stanton wasappointed to his place. The radical element of the Repub-lican party favored Chase, criticised Seward and looked withmild indulgence on Lincoln: Seward was too conservativefor them. The political tension could be borne no December 19th, Lincoln, to the surprise of all partiesbrought the radical senators—Sumner, Grimes, Trumbull,Fessenden, and others, and his Cabinet, together In confer-ence. Seward was absent. The senators spoke strongly;the conference was stormy and protracted. Both Chaseand Seward handed In their resignations. Lincoln declined T. o o < o cIjJ o THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR 289 to receive them, replying that the public interest did notadmit of it, and requesting them to resume their respectiveduties. Had he been a lesser man and parted with thesestrong men, he would have lost with them the support ofcontrolling sentiment at the North. The plain people knewnothing of the factional politics of Washington: they sawin Seward the famous senator, the able ex-governor of NewYork, the candidate of a strong portion of the Republicanparty for the office which Lincoln now held, and the ableminister who had met Great Britain fearlessly and fairly ondiplomatic ground. In Chase they saw a great minister offinance who had rescued the country from bankruptcy anddevised a system which kept armies In the field. Lincolnwas too sagacious to spare such counsellors; but had publicopinion been as strong against them as he knew It was forthem, it may be questioned whether he would have re-quested
Size: 1330px × 1878px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcivilwarnati, bookyear1906
