March 2, 1861; The New York Herald
—The latest shuffle of the cards of Mr. Lincoln’s initiative Cabinet, it appears, has resulted in the following distribution of his Executive departments, to wit:-
Secretary of State ……….. Wm. H. Seward, of N.Y.
Secretary of Treasury……… Simon P. Chase, of Ohio.
Secretary of War………….. Simon Cameron, of Penn.
Secretary of Navy…………. Montgomery Blair, of Md.
Secretary of Interior……….Caleb B. Smith, of Ind.
Postmaster General………….Gideon Welles, of Conn.
Attorney General……………Edward Bates, of Mo.
And this Cabinet, we are told, has been virtually adopted as a compromise between the contesting sections, factions and cliques of the republican party. This may be so, but we fear that this compromise foreshadows the predominance of the radical anti-slavery interest, and its dictatorship over the new administration. Two such radicals as Chase and Blair, men of great energy, activity, tenacity and decision of character, will lead by the nose or ride over a host of such excavated fossils as Smith, Welles and Bates. Thus Seward and Cameron, with the Cabinet turned against them, will have nothing to do but to follow as Chase and Blair may lead. There can hardly be a doubt upon this point when the history, the antecedents and the latest expositions of Mr. Lincoln himself put him quite up to chase and Blair in his hostility to any concessions to slavery.
Poor Pierce, it was supposed, set out with a conservative Cabinet, Marcy, his Premier, being a host in himself. But Marcy’s influence and counsels in the general policy of poor Pierce, although backed in the beginning by a Cabinet majority, were soon borne down by that resolute and persevering Southern revolutionary radical, Jefferson Davis. Hence the repeal of the Missouri compromise, which was the opening of Pandora’s box upon the country. Next, the first Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan was hailed by all conservatives as guaranteeing a calm, safe, steady and Union strengthening administration. The name of General Cass, in this view, was regarded as a tower of strength. But what has been the sequel? Cass, simply devoting himself to the routine duties of his department was soon reduced to a cipher in the Cabinet; and those two ambitious and designing secessionists, Cobb and Thompson, with Floyd as their obedient tool, ruled the roost.
The results are too palpably before the eyes of all the world to need a repetition here. When too late to be remedied, Mr. Buchanan, confiding in the honesty of his subordinates, discoveries that they have been diverting the Treasury, the military defences and stores, the powers and moral influence of the government, to the revolutionary purposes of a Southern confederacy. At this point, a Northern anti-slavery President, running safely the gauntlet of a line of conspirators and infernal machines from Harrisburg in a quiet moon light ride, and in his Scotch cap and long military cloak, pushes on to Washington. He is received as delivered dropped from the clouds. The conservatives of Congress clap their hands. The old gentlemen of the Peace Conference rejoice. ‘Old Abe is here. He will help us. We shall have a compromise. That wise man, Wm. H. Seward, has him in charge, and Thurlow Weed is at his elbow. The day breaks. Wall street will soon hold a jubilee. Allah is Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet.’
But how stand the matter now? the Peace Conference slip though a compromise, under the shadow of Old Abe; but they have done it as we are told George the Third slipped into heaven, when the gate keeper was not watching. This compromise, such as it is, they try in the Senate, when, lo! the conservative Seward reports against it. There is much meaning in this. Mr. Seward speaks by authority. There is a will, or there is a power behind him in the republican camp, stronger than his own. He is at liberty to make fine promises, but his action is another thing. Mr. Corwin pushes his compromise of water gruel, without salt, through the House. The poor deluded people of Washington are in ecstasies. The Union is saved, and thus one tub after another is thrown to the whale, and each is greedily snapped at by the whale of public credulity at Washington, and by the ravenous sharks of Wall street.
Flatly and emphatically, we must say to all concerned that there is no compromise, and there is no intention to make a compromise in behalf of the incoming administration. Looking all the so-called compromise proceedings at Washington of the last few days fairly in the face they vanish into thin air. The forthcoming inaugural, like the late speeches of Mr. Seward, will doubtlessly be as charming to behold as the plains of the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey. But on a nearer approach the mirage will melt away into the sands of the desert. Acts and facts are what we want, and by these President Lincoln must be judged. Accepting the Cabinet at the head of this article as a substantial fact, what does it signify as the initiative act of the new administration? The control of the administration by the anti-slavery radicals of the republican party, the sub-ordination of Seward or his early removal from the Cabinet, and no concessions beyond the limits of the constitution, as understood in the North, to slavery or slave power.”
We naturally conclude that the events and developements of this week at Washington will give a new impetus to the revolutionary spirit and movements of the South; that under this new paroxysm several more States will go off into the Southern confederacy; that the of the laws”by Mr. Lincoln will involve the government at Washington in a war with the government at Montgomery, and what then? Universal confusion, demoralization, strife. bankruptcy, dissolution, all ending in two, three, four or a half a dozen belligerent military despotisms, elective, as in Mexico, by the bayonet.
This is the entertainment, we fear, to which we are soon to be invited, and while yet our conservative men are hoping and striving for some way of escape, it would be well for all of us, North and South, of all parties, all classes, all pursuits and all professions, high and low, rich and poor, to prepare for the worst. From the indications of the beginning we are only looking logically to the end.