ron, and Chase--all large national figures. What
would not history give for a page of self-revelation showing us how he
felt in the early days of that company! Was he troubled? Did he doubt
his ability to hold his own? Was he fatalistic? Was his sad smile his
refuge? Did he merely put things by, ignoring tomorrow until tomorrow
should arrive?

However we may guess at the answers to such questions, one thing now
becomes certain. His quality of good humor began to be his salvation.
It is doubtful if any President except Washington had to manage so
difficult a Cabinet. Washington had seen no solution to the problem but
to let Jefferson go. Lincoln found his Cabinet often on the verge of a
split, with two powerful factions struggling to control it and neither
ever gaining full control. Though there were numerous withdrawals, no
resigning secretary really split Lincoln's Cabinet. By what turns and
twists and skillful maneuvers Lincoln prevented such a division and
kept such inveterate enemies as Chase and Seward steadily at their
jobs--Chase during three years, Seward to the end--will partly appear
in the following pages; but the whole delicate achievement cannot be
properly appreciated except in detailed biography.

All criticism of Lincoln turns eventually on one question: Was he an
opportunist? Not only his enemies in his own time but many politicians
of a later day were eager to prove that he was the latter--indeed,
seeking to shelter their own opportunism behind the majesty of his
example. A modern instance will perhaps make vivid this long standing
debate upon Lincoln and his motives. Merely for historic illumination
and without becoming invidious, we may recall the instance of President
Wilson and the resignation of his Secretary of War in 1916 because
Congress would not meet the issue of preparedness. The President
accepted the resignation without forcing the issue, and Congress went
on fiddling while Rome burned. Now, was the President an opportunist,
merely waiting to see what course events would take, or was he a
political strategist, astutely biding his time? Similar in character
is this old debate upon Lincoln, which is perhaps best focussed in the
removal of Secretary Blair which we shall have to note in connection
with the election of 1864.

It is difficult for the most objective historian to deal with such
questions without obtruding his personal views, but there is nothing
merely individual in recording t