ther causes than loyalty contributed to the President's regard for
Seward. In their daily companionship the latter took a genial,
philosophical view of the national struggle, not shared by all his
Cabinet associates, while Lincoln dissipated the gloom with quaint
illustrations of Western life.[931] At one of these familiar fireside
talks the President expressed the hope that Seward might be his
successor, adding that the friends so grievously disappointed at
Chicago would thus find all made right at last. To this Seward, in his
clear-headed and kind-hearted way, replied: "No, that is all past and
ended. The logic of events requires you to be your own successor. You
were elected in 1860, but the Southern States refused to submit. They
thought the decision made at the polls could be reversed in the field.
They are still in arms, and their hope now is that you and your party
will be voted down at the next election. When that election is held
and they find the people reaffirming their decision to have you
President, I think the rebellion will collapse."[932]

[Footnote 931: Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 3, p. 197.]

[Footnote 932: _Ibid._, p. 196.]

Unlike Seward, Thurlow Weed wabbled in his loyalty to the President.
Chafing under the retention of Hiram C. Barney as collector of
customs, Weed thought Lincoln too tolerant of Radicals whose
opposition was ill concealed. "They will all be against him in '64,"
he wrote David Davis, then an associate justice of the United States
Supreme Court. "Why does he persist in giving them weapons with which
they may defeat his renomination?"[933] Barney had become a burden to
Lincoln, who really desired to be rid of him. Many complaints of
irregularity disclosed corrupt practices which warranted a change for
the public good. Besides, said the President, "the establishment was
being run almost exclusively in the interest of the Radicals. I felt
great delicacy in doing anything that might be offensive to my friend.
And yet something had to be done. I told Seward he must find him a
diplomatic position. Just then Chase became aware of my little
conspiracy. He was very angry and told me the day Barney left the
custom house, with or without his own consent, he would withdraw from
the Treasury. So I backed down."[934]

[Footnote 933: T.W. Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p. 434.]

[Footnote 934: Maunsell B. Field, _Memories of Many Men_, p. 304.]

Lincoln's tolerance did not p