Details
[LINCOLN, Abraham]. CHASE, Samuel Portland, Secretary of the Treasury. Autograph letter signed to William C. Endicott, Jr. (later Secretary of War in the Cleveland cabinet), Columbus, Ohio, 19 January 1861. 1 page, 4o, minor defects .
AN IMPORTANT LETTER COMMENTING ON HIS CABINET NOMINATION. Chase, a former rival for the Republican Presidential nomination and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (he presided at the impeachment of Andrew Johnson), was at this date under consideration by Lincoln for the post of Secretary of the Treasury (he was nominated, and was confirmed on 5 March). Here, writing to a close confidant, he reveals his personal trepidations at filling the key post: "...I should be tempted to accept the responsible cabinet post...should Mr. Lincoln finally find himself at liberty to fulfill his cordially expressed wish to offer it to me. My fears...are greater than my hopes...I concur with you fully in respects to the need of the time & the duty as well as policy of the Republican Organization. God grant that our Union may be preserved in the spirit...It must not be broken up & destroyed by the mad men of treason."
AN IMPORTANT LETTER COMMENTING ON HIS CABINET NOMINATION. Chase, a former rival for the Republican Presidential nomination and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (he presided at the impeachment of Andrew Johnson), was at this date under consideration by Lincoln for the post of Secretary of the Treasury (he was nominated, and was confirmed on 5 March). Here, writing to a close confidant, he reveals his personal trepidations at filling the key post: "...I should be tempted to accept the responsible cabinet post...should Mr. Lincoln finally find himself at liberty to fulfill his cordially expressed wish to offer it to me. My fears...are greater than my hopes...I concur with you fully in respects to the need of the time & the duty as well as policy of the Republican Organization. God grant that our Union may be preserved in the spirit...It must not be broken up & destroyed by the mad men of treason."