The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-04-02
LINCOLN AND HIS CABlN6T
Lecture Delivered on Tuesday
March 10th, by c. A. Dana
of New York.
From the NeW York Sun

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: l have been IN
vited to tell you some recollections OF I'M
nressiOns that were made upon me during
the period when 1 was serving at Wasnlng-
ton under President Lincoln and Edward NJ
Stanton. [ felt no special anxiety to per-
form this duty, but it seemed to me as
Though ought not to decline it. The num-
her of those who knew those men lace 10
face and saw them intimately during the
time that tried mems souls, is small ana
is growing smaller: and it is a duty to record
the impressions and to narrate the facts OF
those times and of those relations.
The election of Abraham Lincoln was
brought about by dissension in the Demo-
cratic party. 1t was divided and the Repub-
lican party was united, and the consequence
was his election. The great question at issue
in that election, although do not think 1t
was formally stated in the platforms of the
parties, was this: Shall the owners of slaves
enjoy the right of taking their slaves into
the Territories of the United States that
are now free, and keeping them there: The
slave owners claimed that right Slaves
were property, They were like other prop
erty, and why should their owners be denied
the right of taking their property into the
territories, W0en Il MOI Iutlu Soule'
take his property, his horses, his oxen, what
ever he possessed? The slaves were their
oxen: they were their Chattels, and they in
sisted that they ought to have the right OF
taking them into the Territories and keeping
them there as slaves. That was the
fundamental question of the election. And
when Mr.. Lincoln was elected the South
said: Now We are denied this right, we
will break up the Government: we will Sc
Cede: we will withdraw" That right too,
they claimed as a constitutional principle.
No Northerner had claimed it, though some
ardent partisanS had threatened it: but
several of the Southern States now set it up
as an original inalienable right. They
claimed that the refusal to them of the right
to take their property with them when they
went to live in one of the new Territories,
was sufficient occasion for the withdrawal
from the Union of the slave-holding States,
and for the breadng up of the Government.
The question was to be determined by war:
and as soon as Abraham Lincoln was elected
they began to prepare for war. And when
he became President we began on our side to
prepare for war. Previous to his inaugur-
alton there had been no preparation. When
Mr.. Lincoln was inaugurated his first act
was to name his Cabinet; and it was COM
mon remark at the time that he put into the
Cabinet every man who had competed with
him for the nomination in the Republican
National Convention. The first in impor-
lance, in consequence, was William H. Sew
ard, of New York. He had been the most
prominent competitor with Mr. Lincoln. 1t
had been feared by many of those who were
opposed to Mr.. Stewards FRIENDSHIP had no
personal opposition, but some of his friends
had good DEALT was feared by those who
were opposed to his friends that if he be-
came President his friends would run the
Government, and run it for purposes that
all might not approve. He was made Secre-
tary of State.
1t Is worth While to notice this: the great
opposition against Mr.. Seward was because
he was New Yorker, and the Republican
party in New York was under the CONTROL
more or less descded, of what is called
boss. And they raid that there shouldn't be
any boss but that the party should direct it
self. Well. exactly what that means, have
not been able to understand. An army with
out General is of no use. and a ship with
out Captain doesn't get navigated safely
l notice, too, that the class of politicians who
are most strenuous against bOssess are those
who are not able to control for themselves
the boss who happens to be in power in their
district or in their State. [Applause.] At
any rate, that objection, managed by skill
full politicians, and aided by Mr. Lincoln's
personal popularity in the West avaled suf-
fciently to deprive Mr.. Lincoln of the NOM
ination.
The second man in Importance to be put
into the Cabinet was Mr.. Chase of Ohio. He
was very able, noble, and spotless states
man; man who would have been worthy of
the best days of the old Roman republic.
He had been a candidate, though less con-
spIcious than Seward: and he was also a can
udate against whom the opposition that
had been raised against Mr.. Seward would
not have availed, because while Mr.. Seward
had friend who was the boss of the Repub-
lican party, Mr.. Chase bossed it himself in
Ohio.
Then there was Mr.. Cameron of Pennsyl-
vania He was made Secretary of War. A
very gifted man; a practical politician OF
immense knowledge and resource; in earlier
days friend of Gen. Jackson; one of the
first and most decided statesmen to embrace
the Republican cause and to advocate the
Republican doctrine. He held the Office of
Secretary of War only little over year, I
think, and there was an outcry against him
because, they said, he was buying too many
guns, too many arms he was spending too
much money. And those who were against
bosses were against this expenditure. be-
cause they said they did not think it could
be quite correct But all these things were
investigated afterward and nothing was
ever proved against Simon Cameron except
this, that he was a man with a manly heart
in his bosom, that he appreciated the mag
nitude of the contest that was upon US, and
prepared for it accordingly. His prepara-
tiohs were equal to the emergency at hand;
aud, instead of being decried. he ought to