ing his removal. Then the appointment of Judge
Hogeboom to be general appraiser brought me to the verge of open
revolt. Now the appointment of Mr. Field would precipitate me in it,
unless Senator Morgan and those feeling as he does could be brought to
concur in it. Strained as I already am at this point, I do not think I
can make this appointment in the direction of still greater
strain."[965]

[Footnote 964: Nicolay-Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 9, p. 93.]

[Footnote 965: _Ibid._, pp. 93-94.]

Chase had relieved the tension temporarily by inducing Cisco to
withdraw his resignation, but after getting the President's second
letter, cleverly intimating that Field's appointment might necessitate
the removal of Barney, the Secretary promptly tendered his
resignation. If the President was surprised, the Secretary, after
reading Lincoln's reply, was not less so. "Your resignation of the
office of secretary of the treasury, sent me yesterday, is accepted,"
said the brief note. "Of all I have said in commendation of your
ability and fidelity I have nothing to unsay, and yet you and I have
reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official relation which
it seems cannot be overcome or longer sustained consistently with the
public service."[966] Secretary Blaine's hasty resignation in 1892,
and President Harrison's quick acceptance of it, were not more
dramatic, except that Blaine's was tendered on the eve of a national
nominating convention. It is more than doubtful if Chase intended to
resign. He meant it to be as in previous years the beginning of a
correspondence, expecting to receive from the President a soothing
letter with concessions. But Lincoln's stock of patience, if not of
sedatives, was exhausted.

[Footnote 966: Nicolay-Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 9, p. 95.]

A few weeks later, after William Pitt Fessenden's appointment to
succeed Chase, Simeon Draper became collector of customs. He was one
of Weed's oldest friends and in 1858 had been his first choice for
governor.[967] But just now Abraham Wakeman was his first choice for
collector. Possibly in selecting Draper instead of Wakeman, Lincoln
remembered Weed's failure to secure a legislative endorsement of his
renomination, a work specially assigned to him. At all events the
anti-Weed faction accepted Draper as a decided triumph.

[Footnote 967: "Simeon Draper was impulsive and demonstrative. With
the advantages of a fine person, good conversational powers