nds absolutely untrammelled by even any
knowledge of the President's wishes that the convention went about its
work of selecting his associate on the ticket."[962] In his long and
bitter controversy with Nicolay, however, McClure furnished testimony
indicating that Lincoln whispered his choice and that Raymond
understood it.[963]

[Footnote 961: Alex. K. McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War Times_, p.
444.]

[Footnote 962: Nicolay-Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 9, pp. 72-73.]

[Footnote 963: Alex. K. McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War Times_, pp.
425-449.]

While Raymond antagonised the radical supporters of Dickinson,
patronage questions were again threatening trouble for the President.
Serious friction had followed the appointment of a General Appraiser
at New York, and when John J. Cisco, the assistant United States
treasurer, tendered his resignation to take effect June 30 (1864), the
President desired to appoint one unobjectionable to Senator Morgan;
but Secretary Chase, regardless of the preferences of others, insisted
upon Maunsell B. Field, then an assistant secretary of the treasury.
Morgan vigorously protested, regarding him incompetent to fill such a
place. Besides, the designation of Field, who had no political backing
in New York, would, he said, offend the conservative wing of the
party, which had been entirely ignored in the past. As a compromise
the Senator begged the President to select Richard M. Blatchford,
Dudley S. Gregory, or Thomas Hillhouse, whom he regarded as three of
the most eminent citizens of New York.

Lincoln, in a note to the Secretary, submitted these names. "It will
really oblige me," he wrote, "if you will make choice among these
three, or any other men that Senators Morgan and Harris will be
satisfied with."[964] This brief letter was followed on the same day
by one presenting the annoyance to which patronage subjects a
President. Happily civil service reform has removed much of this evil,
but enough remains to keep an Executive, if not members of Congress,
in hot water. "As the proverb goes," wrote Lincoln, "no man knows so
well where the shoe pinches as he who wears it. I do not think Mr.
Field a very proper man for the place, but I would trust your judgment
and forego this were the greater difficulty out of the way. Much as I
personally like Mr. Barney it has been a great burden to me to retain
him in his place when nearly all our friends in New York were directly
or indirectly urg