but did become a politician and a financier, his regret that he had not been a soldier may seem somewhat grotesque to one who does not know how the stress and the strain of the civil war compelled many a man to wish that he too were a strategist and a soldier. In one of his letters to Mr. Trowbridge, before referred to, Chase said: "While he was Secretary of War General Cameron conferred much with me. I never undertook to do anything in his department except when asked to give my help, and then I gave it willingly. In addition to Western border State matters, the principal subjects between General Cameron and myself were slavery and the employment of colored troops. We agreed very early that the necessity of arming them was inevitable, but we were alone in that opinion. At least no other member of the administration gave open support, while the President and Mr. Blair at least were decidedly averse to it." And yet the time came when the employment of colored troops in the suppression of the rebellion was not only accepted as a necessity, but was eagerly demanded and approved by all the loyal people of the North. Chase's resignation of the office of Secretary of the Treasury, in June, 1864, was the result of a series of misunderstandings or disagreements. between himself and President Lincoln in relation to Federal appointments. It must be admitted that Chase's selections for office were not always wise. Possibly they were in some instances better than those of the President, but he insisted with most autocratic vehemence that he should be sole in authority in all matters pertaining to the patronage of his high office, and while the President often did defer to the Secretary's will when it clashed with his own, there seems to have been no time when the Secretary deferred to the President's will when it interfered with his; or if he did, it was with ill grace, and after several such disagreements Secretary Chase abruptly left the Cabinet. His well-known ambition to be President was very naturally revived by the insidious flatterers who thronged about him as soon as it was known that he had definitely quitted Lincoln's Cabinet with something like a personal quarrel with the President. Many politicians who had become dissatisfied with Lincoln's policy, whether justly or unjustly, thought they saw in the towering figure of the ex-Secretary of the Treasury an opportunity to divide the party and to lead the more radical elements to victory through his candidacy. The nomination for the new Presidential term was about coming on, and some of the ill-advised friends of the ex-Secretary put forth frantic efforts to secure his nomination. Among other devices, a so-called secret circular was put out by Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, and others. Commenting on this ill-starred venture of the anti-Lincoln Republicans, Blaine says: "These various elements of discontent and opposition clustered about Secretary Chase and found in him their natural leader. He was the head of the radical forces in the Cabinet, as Mr. Seward was the exponent of the conservative policy. He had been one of the earliest and most zealous chiefs of the Free Soil party, and ranked among the brightest stars in that small galaxy of anti-slavery Senators who bore so memorable a part in the Congressional struggles before the war. He was justly distinguished as a political leader and an able and a versatile statesman. For the part he was now desired and expected to play he had a decided inclination and not a few advantages. Keenly ambitious, he was justified by his talents, however mistaken his time and his methods, in aspiring to the highest place." Chase had all along clung to the proposition that no President should have a second term of office, and he had added the opinion that a man of different qualities from those of Lincoln would be needed for the next four years succeeding his first term. A few days after the appearance of the so-called secret circular of Pomeroy, the Republican members of the Ohio Legislature passed a resolution in favor of Lincoln's renomination, upon which Chase withdrew his name as a candidate. It may be said that the opposition to Lincoln's renomination practically ended then and there, although it still showed itself in fitful bursts of restlessness before his renomination at Baltimore, in the summer of 1864. Later in that year, Roger B. Taney, that exSecretary of the Treasury who had been rewarded with the great office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by An drew Jackson, for his subserviency in the matter of removing the public deposits from the United States bank, died. By a curious coincidence, another ex-Secretary of the Treasury, but far more renowned, honest, and pure, was nominated to take his place. While the office remained unfilled, there was great concern throughout the country over the possible action of President Lincoln. Sumner and many other advanced Republicans besought Lincoln to nominate Chase; but, on the other hand, the President was overwhelmed with expostulations from his own friends, who besought him to remember that the man whose nomination seemed imminent had been his rival in the preceding canvass for the Presidential nomination, and to withhold from him this high honor. One day during the pendency of this doubt I had occasion to see the President in his private office. He was in gay humor, and asked what was the news. I said: "Mr. President, there is no news." Very well," he said; "what are people talking about?" They are guessing who will be Taney's successor," I said, jocularly. Instantly his countenance fell, and, with a grave and serious expression, he said, pointing to a huge pile of telegrams and letters on his table: "I have been all day and yesterday and the day before besieged by messages from my friends all over the country, as if there were a determination to put up the bars between Governor Chase and myself." Then, after a pause, he added: "But I shall nominate him for Chief Justice neverthe 66 66 |