discreet New Englander..."political gossip": Entry for August 31, 1864, Welles diary, Vol. II, p. 131.

Times of London..."first cla.s.s power": NR, January 7, 1865.

Bates had contemplated..."to your age": Barton Bates to EB, May 13, 1864, Bates Papers, MoSHi.

prospect of going home..."G.o.d's blessing": Entry for May 29, 1864, The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, p. 371.

Bates believed..."as long as I live": EB to AL, November 24, 1864, Lincoln Papers.

first months as Attorney General...military matters: Entry for December 31, 1861, The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, pp. 21819; entry for January 10, 1862, ibid., pp. 22326.

deliver a legal opinion..."and clothing": EB to AL, July 14, 1864, OR, Ser. 3, Vol. IV, pp. 49093 (quote p. 493).

Abolitionists applauded: Entry for May 26, 1864, The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, p. 371.

citizenship issue...of the United States: Frank J. Williams, "Attorney General Bates and Attorney President Lincoln," R. Gerald McMurtry Lecture, Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, Ind., September 23, 2000, author's collection; Cain, Lincoln's Attorney General, pp. 22223.

"Though esteemed...const.i.tutional interpretation": Daily Morning Chronicle, Washington, D.C., December 4, 1864, quoted in The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, p. 430.

reveals frustration..."no subordination": Entry for October 1, 1861, ibid., p. 196.

General Butler...arrests in Norfolk: Entry for August 4, 1864, ibid., pp. 39394.

"chief fear...easy good nature": Entry for February 13, 1864, ibid., p. 334.

troubled at the start..."sure to prevail": EB, quoted in Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, pp. 6869.

each of his colleagues..."affable and kind": Entry for December 2, 1864, The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, p. 429.

Bates left..."with regret": Entry for November 30, 1864, ibid., p. 428.

forever connected..."when I am gone": Poem, quoted in entry for October 13, 1864, ibid., p. 419.

"My Cabinet...would have to be heeded": AL, quoted in t.i.tian J. Coffey, "Lincoln and the Cabinet," in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Rice (1909 edn.), p. 197.

Holt declined the offer..."personal character": Joseph Holt to AL, December 1, 1864, Lincoln Papers.

"I appoint you...come on at once": AL to James Speed, in CW, VIII, p. 126.

"Will leave tomorrow for Washington": James Speed to AL, December 1, 1864, Lincoln Papers.

"I am a...everywhere forever": James Speed, quoted in Gary Lee Williams, "James and Joshua Speed: Lincoln's Kentucky Friends" (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1971), p. 137.

"We are less now but true": James Speed to AL, November 25, 1864, quoted in ibid., p. 138.

"a man I know...ought to know him well": AL, quoted in Coffey, "Lincoln and the Cabinet," in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Rice (1909 edn.), p. 197.

Had it been..."freely and publicly": David Herbert Donald, "We Are Lincoln Men": Abraham Lincoln and His Friends (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 38.

"You will find...by a big office": AL, quoted in Coffey, "Lincoln and the Cabinet," in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Rice (1909 edn.), p. 197.

only position..."Stanton ever desired": Wolcott, "Edwin M. Stanton," p. 162.

"You have been wearing...owes it to you": Robert Grier to EMS, October 13, 1864, Stanton Papers, DLC.

Ellen Stanton..."subject tomorrow": Entry for October 16, 1864, in Browning, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. I, p. 68788.

Matthew Simpson..."I will do it": AL, quoted in Gideon Stanton, ed., "Edwin M. Stanton."

Grant worried...stay at his post: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, p. 337.

Stanton informed..."among candidates": Edwards Pierrepont to AL, November 24, 1864, Lincoln Papers.

He "felt that...higher ambition": Wolcott, "Edwin M. Stanton," p. 162.

"The country cannot...fame already": Henry Ward Beecher to EMS, November 30, 1864, quoted in ibid., p. 163.

"Often, in dark hours...fresh hope": EMS to Henry Ward Beecher, December 4, 1864, quoted in ibid., pp. 16364.

Welles told Lincoln..."suppose he would": Entry for November 26, 1864, Welles diary, Vol. II, p. 182.

taken his son's...personal blow: Entry for September 27, 1864, ibid., p. 161.

"I beg you to indulge...of that Bench": FPB to AL, October 20, 1864, quoted in Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. II, pp. 29899.

"Chase and his friends...Chief-Justiceship": MTL, quoted in "If All the Rest Oppose," in Conversations with Lincoln, ed. Segal, p. 360.

"had been tried...stood by him": FPB to John A. Andrew, quoted in ibid., p. 360.

"a crowning and retiring honor": Entry for November 22, 1864, The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, p. 428.

had "personally solicited": Entry for October 18, 1864, in Browning, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. I, p. 688.

"If not overborne...to private life": Entry for November 22, 1864, The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, pp. 42728.

"Of Mr. Chase's...not hesitate a moment": AL, quoted in John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol. IX (New York: Century Co., 1890), p. 394.

similar comment..."life to the Bench": Schuyler Colfax, quoted in Blue, Salmon P. Chase, p. 245.

"Now, I know...men can tell me": Noah Brooks, "Personal Reminiscences of Lincoln," Scribner's Monthly 15 (March 1878), p. 677.

"we have stood...fitness for the office": AL, quoted in Blue, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 24445.

Oblivious to Stanton's..."life & work": SPC to EMS, October 13, 1864, Chase Papers, Vol. IV, p. 434.

"I have something...will be satisfied": AL and John B. Alley, quoted in John B. Alley, in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Rice (1886 edn.), pp. 58182.

Lincoln later told Senator Chandler..."nominated Chase": Entry for December 15, 1864, Welles diary, Vol. II, p. 196.