Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-01-27
ON ELECTION NIGHT.
SECRET HISTORY OF THE FoRMA-
TON OF LINcoLN's CABINET.

The President-eIect Reading the Election
Dispatches in the Telegraph Office ut
Springfield, IIls.-How He Received the
Tidings of Victory.
There is distinguished authority for the
statement that the work of framing the new
cabinet was mainly performed on the even
ing of the presidential election. After the
polls We're closed on Nov. 6 $50 Mr.. Lincoln
related year or two later, the superintend-
ent of the telegraph at Springfield invited
him to come and remain in his office and
read the dispatches as they should come in.
He accepted the offer; and, reporting himself
in due time at the telegraph office, from
which all other visitors We're excluded at .
o'clock, awaited the result of the eventful
day.
Soon the kilograms came thick and fast,
first from the neighboring precincts and
counties; then from the great western cities,
Chicago, st. Louis, Cincinnati, and finally
from the capitals of the doubtful states, In
diana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the empire
state of New York. Here in this little room,
in the company of two or three silent opera
tors moving about their mysteriously click
ing instruments, and recording with imper-
turbable gravity the swift throbbing mes
sages from near and far, Mr.. Lincoln read
the reports as they came in, first in vague
and fragmentary driblets, and later in the
rising and swelling stream of cheering news.
There was never a nicer or closer calculator
of political probabilities than himself. He
was emphatically at home among election
figures. All his political life he had scanned
tables of returns with as much care and ac-
curacy as he analysed and scrutinized max
inns of government OF platforms of parties
Now, as formerly, he was familiar with all
the turning points in contested counties and
''close" districts, and knew by heart the
value of each and every local loss OF gain and
its relation to the grand result. In past
years, at the close of many hot campaign
he had searched out the comforts of victory
from a discouraging and adverse looking col
umn of figures, or correctly read the fatal
omen of defeat in some fragmentary an
nouncement from precinct or county.
TIDINGS OF VICTORY.
Silently, as they were transcribed, the OPP
orators handed him the MESA ges, which he
laid on his knee while he adjusted his epec-
tacles, and then read and re-read several
times with deliberation. He had not long to
wait for indications. From a scattering be-
ginning, made up of encouraging local frag
nents, the hopeful news rose to almost unin-
terrupted tidings of victory. Soon shower
of congratulatory kilograms fell from the
wires, and while his partisans and friends
from all parts of the country were thus
shaking hands with him "by lightning"
over the result, he could hear the shouts and
speeches of his Springfield followers, gath
cred in the great hall of the state house
across the street, and fairly making that
building shake with their rejoicings.
Of course his first emotions were those of
kindling pleasure and pride at the sweep
ing completeness of his success. But this
was only monetary glow. He was i'll
deed president-elect; but with that conscious
ness there fell upon him the appalling shadow
of his mighty task and responsibility. 1t
seemed as if he suddenly bore the whole
world upon his shoulders, and could not
shake it off; and sitting there in the yet
early watches of the night, he read the still
coming kilograms in sort of absent minded
mechanical routine, while his elmer man"
took up the crushing burden Of his country's
troubles and traced out the laborious path of
coming duties "When I finally babe my
friends good night and left that ROOM" said
Lincoln, II had substantially completed the
framework Of my cabinet as it now exists"
If the grouping and combining of the new
presidents intended councillors occurred at
this time, it is no less true that some of them
were selected at much earlier date In the
meantime no one was informed of his inten-
tions in this regard For a full month after
the election he gave no intimation whatever
of his purpose.-The Century,