Lincoln, the unknown

21When Lincoln turned to his Cabinet, he found there thesame quarrels and jealousy that existed in the army.Seward, Secretary of State, regarded himself as the "Premier,"snubbed the rest of the Cabinet, meddled in their affairs, andaroused deep resentment.Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, despised Seward; detestedGeneral McClellan; hated Stanton, Secretary of War; andloathed Blair, the Postmaster-General.Blair, in turn, went around "kicking over beehives," as Lincolnput it, and boasting that when he "went in for a fight" he"went in for a funeral." He denounced Seward as "an unprincipledliar," and refused to have any dealings with him whatever;and as for Stanton and Chase, he wouldn't condescendeven to speak to those scoundrels—not even at a Cabinet meeting.Blair went in for so many fightsthat finally he went in forhis own funeral—as far as politics were concerned. The hatredthat he aroused was so fiery and widespread that Lincoln hadto ask him to resign.There was hatred everywhere in the Cabinet.The Vice-President, Hannibal Hamlin, wouldn't speak toGideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; and Welles, topped withan elaborate wig and decorated with a vast growth of whitewhiskers, kept a diary, and from almost every page of it, he"hurls the shafts of his ridicule and contempt" at well-nigh allhis colleagues.147