Lincoln's Cabinet - Davis' Cabinet

[longstreetlass]

Sirs:

This is a continuation of the talk from "Reconstruction." Let's dig in here and take a look at both of these cabinets. There are some stark differences, and it should be fun.

Dear Oldreb, Where are you? I have little incentive to pore over my Lincoln books without your presence. You are truly needed for the purpose of my greater edification. Still, I do think you were mincing words back there about whether or not Abe met in total or in part with his cabinet.

Unionblue, what say you?

Just to get things started, let me say that Davis had a very wimpy cabinet. Why did he not get some fire-breathers in there?

LongstreetLass

[unionblue]

I am gonna have to let someone else speak on Davis's cabinet. The little I have read is that most of the trouble Davis got was self-generated as he felt anyone who did not agree with him was attacking him personally. His biggest crime, no sense of humor.

Unionblue

[longstreetlass]

Dear Unionblue

I still have not done my homework on this, but what do you think...I told Oldreb I believed he was wrong in his interpretation of Abe saying, "You are all against me." I think Oldreb believes he was whining or something. I told him I thought Abe was more or less thinking out loud and just making a statement of fact. He was not complaining just because it appeared his cabinet had ganged up on him.

Anyway, I am visiting the chat room and then I am reading.

LongstreetLass

[longstreetlass]

OK, Debaters Among Us,

On Jefferson Davis' Cabinet, according to Bruce Catton in The Coming Fury:

"For better or worse, Davis had not tried the experiment Lincoln was trying, of bringing in the most forceful leaders the nation's politics had to offer; none of these men [of Davis' cabinet] had either the stature or the desire to take the reins away from the President and direct the government. The executive would be Jefferson Davis and no one else."

Clifford Dowdey, in Experiment in Rebellion, makes the argument that Davis' cabinet was more suited for peacetime, not for revolution, which is what the CSA was attempting to pull off.

So while, on the one hand, Davis actually had more de facto power than his counterpart in the North, he did not have the real power behind him of the planter aristocracy or the fire-eaters (except for Robert Toombs of Georgia, CSA Secretary of State).

The idea was, apparently, that they were all to look real sweet and nice and the United States was just going to hand over politely the Federal forts and arsenals and recognize the CSA as this was their entitlement now having seceded.

LongstreetLass

[longstreetlass]

Unionblue,

I know you made this same argument to Oldreb, regarding the South believing itself entitled to form a new nation. Anyway, I was hoping to get into the nitty-gritty of the merit of one cabinet versus the other.

I think I am out here talking to myself!

LongstreetLass

[unionblue]

LongstreetLass, where Ron/Oldreb has gone, I know not. I was waiting to hear from him.

Unionblue

[tamaroa]

I think that the Reb cabinet did just fine. Judah P. Benjamin was a great secretary of state, Stephan Mallory was the secretary of the Confederate Navy. As far as I am concerned no one on either cabinet did a better job than he did. And the Postmaster General, I think his name was Regan also did a masterful job considering what they were up against.

Bill D.

[unionblue]

Bill, On the Post Office I would have to agree. The Confederate Post Office actually made a profit during it's operation!

Unionblue

[longstreetlass]

OK, Gentlemen!

Are we on a roll yet?

Let's weight these cabinet men one-for-one, US Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, and CSA Sec. of War, Leroy Pope Walker.

We need to consider, too, the motivations for these appointments on the part of Davis and Lincoln. Were there examples of a cabinet member fulfilling a political role better than he did his cabinet position?

(Neil, it is nice to see you back on the boards after a few days' absence.)

LongstreetLass