Lincoln's Cabinet

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Mr. Lincoln’s Cabinet was not composed of friends – at least not initially. It was composed of major Republican figures with whom Mr. Lincoln’s personal acquaintance was very limited. The lone friend who had been proposed, Illinois’s Norman B. Judd, had been rejected – in part simply because he came from Illinois. Just to select the Cabinet, Mr. Lincoln came close to ruining relationships with future Treasury Secretary Simon Cameron and Secretary of State William H. Seward. With time, Mr. Lincoln repaired and improved most of these relationships.

But if there was one member of President Lincoln’s Cabinet with whom he was not particularly friendly, it was Salmon Chase — despite the fact that Salmon P. Chase campaigned for Lincoln in 1858 and Lincoln had campaign for Ohio Republicans in 1859. Treasury Secretary Chase didn’t like being ignored or being overlooked. He complained to Ohio journalist Murat Halstead: “I am not responsible for the management of the war, and have no voice in it, except that I am not forbidden to make suggestions, and do so now and then, when I cannot help it.'” continued: http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/the-cabinet/

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They underestimated a guy from the US frontier who was self educated and was a ruthless western politician. Maybe underestimating a guy who had argued Stephen A. Douglas to a draw was not the way to go.
 
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