In them he found at the same time representatives of the different shades
of opinion within the party, and of the different elements--former Whigs
and former Democrats--from which the party had recruited itself. This
was sound policy under the circumstances. It might indeed have been
foreseen that among the members of a cabinet so composed, troublesome
disagreements and rivalries would break out. But it was better for the
President to have these strong and ambitious men near him as his
co-operators than to have them as his critics in Congress, where their
differences might have been composed in a common opposition to him. As
members of his cabinet he could hope to control them, and to keep them
busily employed in the service of a common purpose, if he had the
strength to do so. Whether he did possess this strength was soon tested
by a singularly rude trial.
There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, Seward
and Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt themselves
wronged by their party when in its national convention it preferred to
them for the Presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought greatly
their inferior in ability and experience as well as in service.
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