Lincoln’s political savviness became evident a long time after his governance. However, a confidential memo criticizing Lincoln and endorsing his candidacy came to light and turned everyone in the party against him.Ĭhase withdrew his bid and wrote the president a conciliatory letter.Īfter letting him sweat for a while, Lincoln absolved him of the blame. Lincoln knew him well, and kept him in the office, first because he was an excellent worker, and second because he wanted to keep him too busy to do a major election push. The “Team of Rivals” Working Behind the ScenesĪt the beginning of 1864, as the tide of the war begun to turn in favor of the Union, Chase was planning to run for a president. He believed that all freed slaves would want to fight for the Union, so he also was eager to take advantage of that workforce. Lincoln wanted to relieve the country of all half-measures that did not solve the problem and finally put an end to it. The cabinet had to go through many war issues, among which the plan to free the slaves. In the first year, the civil war that followed because of Lincoln’s election went bad for his Northern troops. So, he appointed Seward to be the secretary of state, named Bets as attorney general, Montgomery Blair as postmaster general, and Case as secretary of Treasury.Ĭhase believed he had superior qualities to those of Lincoln and had ambitions to enter the White House as the president himself, which Lincoln privately recognized but never made a problem of them. In 1861 he was preparing to assume office, and he knew that he needed to gather the most reliable possible cabinet. In November, he won the general election as well. To everyone’s surprise, except his own, Lincoln secured his nomination on the third ballot. When the frontrunner Seward did not secure a victory in the first ballot, Lincoln was the next choice. He made a campaign that relied on good networking, organization, and a superior ground game, while his opponents missed opportunities and made mistakes. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln.ĭuring the Republican nomination, however, Lincoln, although was thought unlikely, outmaneuvered all three other men. They chose among four candidates: the front-runner William H. In May 1860, while the US was battling the issue of slavery in the South, while abolitionists were taken control in the North, the new Republican Party of the US gathered together in Chicago to nominate its first candidate for president. About Doris Kearns Goodwinĭoris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer-winning author.

“Team of Rivals” offers a look at the history of Abraham Lincoln’s legendary governance. 3 min read ⌚ The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

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