Team of Rivals

The most prominent members of Lincoln's cabinet thought themselves better suited to the job than the man who was elected. Lincoln brought them into his cabinet largely based on the old saying that it was better to have enemies inside one's tent pissing out, than outside pissing in. The Republican Party, because it was so new in 1860 (it had, afterall, only been formed in 1854, and this was the very first national election that the party had ever won), that Lincoln felt that he had to bring his erstwhile rivals into the fold, rather than undermining his administration from the outside.

I. The 1860 Presidential Election

A. The 1860 Democratic Conventions


1. Democratic National Convention (Charleston, South Carolina)--convened on April 23, 1860. Stephen A. Douglas was the leading candidate, but the so-called "fire-eaters" were vehement in their opposition, insisting that the Democratic Party platform include various pro-slavery elements including the expansion of slavery into the territories and statement pledging support for the Dred Scott decision. Douglas, knowing these elements would kill his chances of victory by killing his vote-getting ability in the North, manuevered the platform committee to adopt those planks that aligned more closely with his own position. In response to this rebuff, the southern delegates walked out of the convention. The Democrats that remained went ahead with the nomination process, but Douglas could never get the two-thirds majority of all delegate votes (including in that number those who had walked out of the convention), and was denied the nomination at this convention. The convention then voted to reconvene in Baltimore in June.


2. Democratic National Convention (Baltimore, Maryland)--convened June 18 to attempt the nomination process once again. A vote was taken on whether to seat the original delegates who had walked out in Charleston, or to seat new appointees, more sympathetic to Douglas. Although the Douglas forces largely prevailed (although a few of the delegates who had walked out in Charleston were seated), most delegates from the South again walked out in an attempt to deny Douglas the nomination. The delegates vote to override the previous rules, however, and declare Douglas the nominee. In the hope of retaining some hold in the South, Benjamin Fitzgerald of Alabama was nominated as vice-president; after he turned down the nomination, Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia was nominate in his stead.

3. The Breckinridge Democratic Convention (Baltimore, Maryland)--met immediately afterward, and nominated John Breckinridge of Kentucky and to run for president, and Joseph Lane of Oregon as vice president. There is much speculation that the southern "fire-eaters" planned to throw the election to the Republican Party, and therefore precipitate the secession crisis; there is no "smoking gun" to prove this, but talk around the convention hinted at such a plot.

B. The Constitutional Union Party--ran former Whig John Bell for president; he won his home state of Tennessee and the border states of Kentucky and Maryland.

II. Assembling the Team of Rivals--the newness of the Republican Party, having to bring together disparate members with a variety of viewpoints on issues, and having to placate Republican Party members throughout the North with these appointments, Lincoln largely rewarded his enemies and cheated his friends.


A. William Henry Seward--the most prominent Republican nationally; his long political career and his association with the premier political operator, Thurlow Weed, damaged his reputation somewhat in the eyes of many party members. Like many politicians, Seward was a man of tremendous ambition and ego, and Lincoln's offer of the top post in his cabinet--Secretary of State--was just the thing to soothe that ego. Seward saw that position as offering him something of a co-presidency, because (he thought) he would have sole charge over foreign affairs, he had many contacts with leading politicians in the South--and he believed Lincoln was not intelligent enough to run the country by himself, and needed Seward to lean on in the troubled times ahead.


B. Salmon P. Chase--like Seward, Chase believed himself immensely more qualified to be President than was Lincoln, and was prevailed upon to take the second most powerful cabinet job--Secretary of the Treasury. Chase helped finance the early years of the war, but his rivalry with Seward, and the strain of finding ways to finance the war, led him to continually submit his resignation from his office--a resignation that Lincoln finally accepted, after he had secured his second nomination--only to nominate Chase as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.


C. Simon Cameron--nominated as the Secretary of War. Cameron's checkered past engendered a great deal of opposition (rivals called him "Chief of the Winnegabos" because he supposedly defrauded the tribe of upwards of $60,000). Cameron proved an inept and corrupt administrator, and a scandal in the War Department forced his resignation in late 1862; afterwards, he was reprimanded by House of Representatives.


D. Edward Bates--nominated as Attorney General. Bates was the eldest on this team of rivals, and became the most disillusioned by the political machinations of his rivals in the Lincoln cabinet--including the president himself. Bates was something of an outsider in the cabinet because of this attitude, and was the earliest member of the cabinet to leave of his own accord.


E. Montgomery Blair--from a powerful and prominent family of former Democrats, Blair was appointed Postmaster General, which was probably the most patronage-rich position in the cabinet, so it makes up for its lack of glamor in other ways. When Lincoln finally accepted Chase's resignation, to quiet Radical Republicans Lincoln also asked for the resignation of Blair, who was the most conservative member of the cabinet.


F. Edwin Stanton--replaced Cameron as Secretary of War, and proved brilliant in the post. Stanton was another Ohioan, first met Lincoln was the latter was pulled into the McCormick Reaper case that eventually was tried in Cincinnati. Stanton thought Lincoln an uneducated rube, and ignored him during the case; Lincoln chose to remain in Cincinnati for the trial, and was impressed with Stanton's performance during the trial. When Lincoln was elected, Stanton was a lawyer in Washington, and had plenty of disparaging things to say about Lincoln. Despite this, Lincoln turned to Stanton to replace Cameron with the War Department in disarray; Stanton proved an outstanding administrator, and eventually became a close friend of Lincoln.