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INCOLN'S term of office was to expire on March 4, 1865, and in the fall of 1864 an election was to be held to decide whether he should succeed himself or should give way to some one else. Preparations for the nomination were begun in the spring of 1864. Lincoln's political position was quite strong, yet there was considerable disaffection, which had found its head in Secretary Chase whose craving for the Presidency was proverbial and perennial. Chase had repeatedly declared that he was not anxious for that office, but would bow to public sentiment. His private correspondence was permeated with an overweening anxiety for the nomination,* as an instance of which, out of many, witness

the letter he wrote to his son-in-law, Ex-Governor William Sprague, on November 26, 1863, when the administration of Mr. Lincoln had run scarcely two-thirds of its course:

"If I were controlled by merely personal sentiments I should prefer the reëlection of Mr. Lincoln to that of any other man. But I doubt the expediency of reëlecting anybody, and I think a man of different qualities from those the President has will be needed for the next four years. I am not anxious to be regarded as that man; and I am quite willing to leave that question to the decision of those who agree in thinking that some such man should be chosen." *

In January of 1864 a committee was formed to secure Chase's nomination, and Chase consented to allow his name to be submitted" to the consideration of the people." The movement in Chase's favor culminated in February when the chairman of the committee, Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kan

* Schuckers, Life of Chase, p. 494.