Mr. Lincoln; this was said with directness, because the messenger and myself had been for a very considerable time in quite warm, friendly relations, and I owed much to him, which I can never repay save with gratitude.

He said: "The President, as you know, intends to be a candidate for re-election, and as his friends indicate that Mr. Hamlin is no longer to be a candidate for Vice-President, and as he is from New England, the President thinks that his place should be filled by some one from that section; and aside from reasons of personal friendship which would make it pleasant to have you with him, he believes that, being the first prominent Democrat who volunteered for the war, your candidature would add strength to the ticket, especially with the war Democrats, and he hopes that you will allow your friends to co-operate with his to place you in that position."

I answered: "Please say to Mr. Lincoln, that while I appreciate with the fullest sensibility this act of friendship and the compliment he pays me, yet I must decline. Tell him," I said laughingly, "with the prospects of the campaign, I would not quit the field to be Vice-President, even with himself as President, unless he will give me bond with sureties, in the full sum of his four years' salary, that he will die or resign within three months after his inauguration. Ask him what he thinks I have done to deserve the

punishment, at forty-six years of age, of being made to sit as presiding officer over the Senate, to listen for four years to debates, more or less stupid, in which I can take no part nor say a word, nor even be allowed a vote upon any subject which concerns the welfare of the country, except when my enemies might think my vote would injure me in the estimation of the people, and therefore, by some parliamentary trick, make a tie on such question, so I should be compelled to vote; and then at the end of four years (as nowadays no Vice-President is ever elected President), and because of the dignity of the position I had held, not to be permitted to go on with my profession, and therefore with nothing left for me to do save to ornament my lot in the cemetery tastefully, and get into it gracefully and respectably, as a Vice-President should do. No, no, my friend; tell the President I will do everything I can to aid in his election if nominated, and that I hope he will be, as until this war is finished there should be no change of administration."

"I am sorry you won't go with us," replied my friend, “but I think you are sound in your judgment."

I asked: "Is Chase making any headway in his candidature ?"

"Yes, some; but he is using the whole power of the Treasury to help himself."

"Well, that's the right thing for him to do." "Do you really think so?"

"Yes; why ought not he to do it, if Lincoln lets him?"

"How can Lincoln help letting him?"

"By tipping him out. If I were Lincoln I should say to Mr. Chase, 'My Secretary of the Treasury, you know that I am a candidate for re-election, as I suppose it is proper for me to be. Now every one of my equals has a right to be a candidate against me, and every citizen of the United States is my equal who is not my subordinate. Now, if you desire to be a candidate, I will give you the fullest opportunity to be one, by making you my equal and not my subordinate, and I will do that in any way that will be the most pleasant to you, but things cannot stay as they now are.' You see, I think it is Mr. Lincoln's and not Mr. Chase's fault that he is using the Treasury against Mr. Lincoln."

"Right again!" said my friend, "I will tell Mr. Lincoln every word you have said."

What happened after is a matter of history.

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.

VIII.

CHARLES CARLTON COFFIN.

I.

'HE one political convention surpassing all

THE

others in enthusiasm, earnestness of purpose, and fidelity to principle, was that of the Republican Party held in Chicago, May, 1860. The spirit animating it was prefigured in the erection of the " wigwam," an edifice in which it was held. The convention was the sudden bursting into flower of the growing spirit of the free States against the aggressions of slavery.

The enthusiasm was stimulated by the conviction that through the dissensions of the Democratic Party the nominee of the convention would in all probability receive a majority of the electoral votes.

It was the opinion of most men east of Ohio that Mr. Seward of New York would receive the nomination. There were three other prominent candidates-Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Edward Bates of Missouri, and Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.

Several weeks prior to the assembling of the convention, I started from Boston on a tour of obser

vation through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, to Baltimore, attending the Whig Convention in that city, which nominated John Bell of Tennessee, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts. It was the last assembling of that party which had numbered among its leaders Daniel Webster and Henry Clay the raking together the embers of a dying political organization, appropriately held in an old church from which worshipers had forever departed. Southern men controlled the convention. They were enthusiastic over the nomination of Bell, but moderate in their demonstration over Everett's name, although public opinion in the Northern States regarded Everett as by far the greater statesman of the two. One editor called it the "kangaroo" ticket, and said that its hind legs were longest. It was noticeable that the antagonism of the Southern Whigs was manifestly greater toward the "black Republicans" than toward either wing of the divided Democratic Party.

From Baltimore I passed on to Washington, finding the name of Mr. Seward upon the lips of most Republicans as the probable nominee of the approaching convention. Mr. Seward expected to be nominated. I recall a day in the Senate Chamber, and a conversation with Henry Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts. We were seated on a sofa, when Mr. Seward entered from the cloak-room.