Lincoln - Part 162
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Part 162

535 from the cabinet: There has been much controversy over the alleged "bargain," in which Lincoln agreed to dismiss Blair from the cabinet if Fremont withdrew from the presidential race. Charles R. Wilson, "New Light on the Lincoln-Blair-Fremont 'Bargain' of 1864," American Historical Review 42 (Oct. 1936): 7178, argues that there was no bargain, because Lincoln had already decided to drop Blair and Fremont withdrew because his campaign was foundering and his approach for an alliance with the Democrats was rejected. Allan Nevins, Fremont: Pathmarker of the West (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1955), p. 580, contends that Fremont "rejected a bargain as dishonorable." Andrew Rolle, John Charles Fremont: Character as Destiny (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), p. 232, says that Fremont did not personally demand the removal of Blair and "played no central part in this procedure." The best evidence, then, is that Lincoln did consent to a bargain, negotiated by Chandler, trading the removal of Blair for the support of Wade and Davis; that, again at Chandler's urging, he agreed to propose a bargain to Fremont; and that Fremont did not accept it but withdrew for other reasons.

535 "be reappointed": Nevins, Fremont, pp. 579580. These letters prove that Fremont did not feel "insulted" by the offer of a bargain and that he did not reject it out of hand.

535 "in reputation": Harold A. Schofield, "The New Nation and Its Editor," LH 76 (Winter 1974): 206.

535 "appear tomorrow": Hayes, Du Pont, 3:394.

535 "financially a failure": McPherson, Political History, pp. 426427.

535 "support Lincoln": Hayes, Du Pont, 3:394.

535 "pure, and dignified": David Davis to AL, Oct. 4, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

535 "dutifully and manfully": Salmon P. Chase to Charles F. Schmidt, Aug. 12, 1864, Chase MSS.

535 "we would wish": Salmon P. Chase to Richard C. Parsons, Sept. 14,1864, Chase MSS.

536 "not know him": Chase, Diary, p. 254.

536 "my active support": Salmon P. Chase to George S. Denison, Sept. 20, 1864, Chase MSS.

536 the next Chief Justice: David M. Silver, Lincoln's Supreme Court (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956), chaps. 1516, offers a full account of the controversies over naming Taney's successor. See also the careful review of all the evidence in Charles Fairman, Reconstruction and Reunion, 186488 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1971), chap. 2.

536 "of my life": Edward Bates to AL, Oct. 13, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

536 "from your Cabinet": Francis P. Blair, Sr., to AL, Oct. 20, 1864, Blair MSS, LC.

536 "his other recommendations": Nicolay and Hay, 9:391392.

536 "expect great things": Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, Oct. 19, 1864, Lincoln MSS, LC.

537 "of the nation": New York Herald, Aug. 23, 1864.

537 "judgment of history?": Chase, Diary, p. 253.

537 "the people's business": Emanuel Hertz, Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931), 2:941.

537 "but the negro": Frank Freidel, ed., Union Pamphlets of the Civil War, 18611865 (Cambridge, Ma.s.s.: Harvard University Press, 1967), 2:981, 988.

537 "on the patent": CW, 7:508.

537 "incompetency, and corruption": James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1907), 4:531.

537 in St. Louis: Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 180.

538 "know was right": Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 18471865, ed. Dorothy Lamon Teillard (Washington, D.C.: 1911), pp. 145149. For further comment on this matter, see Randall, Lincoln the President, 4:247249.

538 "anything to say": CW, 7:398.