Volume II Part 30 (2/2)

”In pecuniary matters Weed was generous to a fault while poor; he is said to be less so since he became rich.... I cannot doubt, however, that if he had never seen Wall Street or Was.h.i.+ngton, had never heard of the Stock Board, and had lived in some yet undiscovered country, where legislation is never bought nor sold, his life would have been more blameless, useful, and happy. I was sitting beside him in his editorial room soon after Governor Seward's election, when he opened a letter from a brother Whig, which ran substantially thus: 'Dear Weed: I want to be a bank examiner. You know how to fix it. Do so, and draw on me for whatever sum you may see fit. Yours truly.' In an instant his face became prematurely black with mingled rage and mortification.

'My G.o.d,' said he, 'I knew that my political adversaries thought me a scoundrel, but I never till now supposed that my friends did.'”--Horace Greeley, _Recollections of a Busy Life_, pp. 312, 313.]

[Footnote 732: ”President Lincoln looked to Mr. Weed for counsel, when, as often during the war, he met with difficulties hard to surmount. It was Mr. Lincoln's habit at such times to telegraph Mr. Weed to come to Was.h.i.+ngton from Albany or New York, perhaps at an hour's notice. He often spent the day with the President, coming and returning by night, regardless of his age and infirmities. His services in these exigencies were often invaluable.”--Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p. 288.]

The immediate influence that led to the announcement of Barney's selection, however, is not entirely clear. At the Cooper Inst.i.tute meeting in February, 1860, at which Lincoln spoke, Barney occupied a seat on the stage, and was among the few gentlemen having opportunity to pay the distinguished Illinoisan those courtesies which especially please one who felt, as Lincoln did ”by reason of his own modest estimate of himself,”[733] that he was under obligation to any person showing him marked attention. But neither this fact nor Barney's subsequent support at Chicago sufficiently accounts for the strong preference indicated by such an important and far-reaching appointment. Among the few indors.e.m.e.nts on file in the treasury department at Was.h.i.+ngton, one letter, dated March 8, 1861, and addressed to Salmon P. Chase, speaks of Barney as ”a personal friend of yours.” Six days later a New York newspaper announced that ”the appointment of Barney has been a fixed fact ever since Chase went into the Cabinet. It was this influence that persuaded Chase to accept the position.”[734] The biographer of Thurlow Weed, probably basing the statement upon the belief of Weed himself, states, without qualification, that ”Barney was appointed through the influence of Secretary Chase.”[735] This may, in part, account for Weed's and Seward's bitter hostility to the Ohioan's becoming a member of the Cabinet; for, if Chase, before his appointment as secretary of the treasury, had sufficient influence to control the princ.i.p.al federal office in New York, what, might they not have asked, would be the measure of this influence after the development of his great ability as a financier has made him necessary to the President as well as to the country?

[Footnote 733: Nicolay and Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 2, p. 217.]

[Footnote 734: New York _Herald_, March 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 735: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.

613.]

Inquiry, however, as to the one first suggesting Barney's name to Lincoln does not lead to the open. Chase's entrance into the Cabinet being settled, his influence firmly sustained Barney, but, before that, very early after the election, between November 7 and Weed's visit to Springfield on December 17, some one spoke the word in Barney's behalf which left such a deep and lasting impression upon the President's mind that he determined to advise Weed, before Seward could accept the state portfolio, of his intention to appoint Barney collector of the port of New York. The name of the person exerting such an influence, however, is now unknown. During this period Chase neither saw the President-elect, nor, so far as the records show, wrote him more than a formal note of congratulations. Another possible avenue of communication may have been Bryant or Greeley, but the latter distinctly denied that he asked, or wanted, or manipulated the appointment of any one.[736] Bryant, who had great influence with Lincoln,[737] and who strongly opposed Seward's going into the Cabinet,[738] had presided at the Cooper Inst.i.tute meeting and sat beside Hiram Barney. He knew that such a man, placed at the head of the custom-house and wielding its vast patronage, could be a potent factor in breaking Weed's control, but the editor's only published letter to Lincoln during this period was confined to reasons for making Chase secretary of state. In it he did not deprecate the strengthening of the Weed machine which would probably ignore the original New York supporters of Lincoln, or in any wise refer to local matters. Bryant had been partial to Chase for President until after Lincoln's Cooper Inst.i.tute speech, and now, after election, he thought Chase, as secretary of state, would be best for the country.

Lincoln's reply of ”a few lines,” convincing his correspondent ”that whatever selection you make it will be made conscientiously,”

contained no word about Barney. Other letters, or parties personally interested in Barney, may have pa.s.sed between the President-elect and Bryant, or Chase. Indeed, Lincoln confessed to Weed that he had received telegrams and visits from prominent Republicans, warning him against the Albany editor's efforts to forestall important state appointments, but no clue is left to identify them. The mystery deepens, too, since, whatever was done, came without Barney's suggestion or knowledge.[739]

[Footnote 736: New York _Tribune_, editorial, April 2, 1861.]

[Footnote 737: ”'It was worth the journey to the East,' said Mr.

Lincoln, 'to see such a man as Bryant.'”--John Bigelow, _Life of William Cullen Bryant_, p. 218.]

[Footnote 738: Nicolay and Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 3, p. 257.]

[Footnote 739: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.

613.]

Hiram Barney, a native of Jefferson County, a graduate of Union College in 1834, and the head of a well-known law firm, was a lawyer of high character and a Republican of Democratic antecedents, who had stood with Greeley and Bryant in opposing Seward at Chicago, and whose appointment to the most important federal office in the State meant mischief for Weed.[740] In its effect it was not unlike President Garfield's selection of William H. Robertson for the same place; and, although it did not at once result so disastrously to Weed as Robertson's appointment did to Conkling twenty years later, it gave the editor's adversaries vantage ground, which so seriously crippled the Weed machine, that, in the succeeding November, George Opd.y.k.e, a personal enemy of Thurlow Weed,[741] was nominated and elected mayor of New York City.

[Footnote 740: ”Hiram Barney belongs to the Van Buren Democratic Buffalo Free-soil wing of the Republican party. He studied law with C.C. Cambreling and practised it with Benjamin F. Butler. For President he voted for Jackson, for Van Buren in 1840 and 1848, for Hale in 1852, and for Fremont and Lincoln. He was also a delegate to the Buffalo convention of 1848; so that as an out-and-out Van Buren Democratic Free-soil Republican, Barney is a better specimen than Van Buren himself.”--New York _Herald_, March 28, 1861.

”Mr. Barney's quiet, unostentatious bearing has deprived him of the notoriety which attaches to most of our politicians of equal experience and influence. Nevertheless, he is well known to the Republican party and universally respected as one of its foremost and most intelligent supporters.”--New York _Evening Post_, March 27, 1861.]

[Footnote 741: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 1, p.

528; _Ibid._, Vol. 2, p. 322.]

At the conference of the President and New York senators, Seward, accepting the inevitable, received Lincoln's announcement of Barney's appointment in chilling silence. Without openly disclosing itself, the proposed step had been the cause of much friction, and was yet to be opposed with coolness and candour,[742] but Lincoln's firmness in declaring that Barney was a man of integrity who had his confidence, and that he had made the appointment on his own responsibility and from personal knowledge,[743] impressed his hearers with the belief that, with whatever disfavour Seward listened, he had practically surrendered to the will of his superior. Another scene occurred, as the interview proceeded, which also indicated the master spirit. After reviewing the extended list of names presented for collectors and other officers, Seward expressed the wish that the nominations might be sent forthwith to the Senate. The embarra.s.sed senators, unprepared for such haste, found in the secretary of the navy, who had accompanied the President on the latter's invitation, a ready opponent to such a plan because other members of the Cabinet had been wholly ignored. Welles inquired if the secretary of the treasury and attorney-general had been consulted, insisting that a proper administration of the departments made their concurrence in the selection of competent subordinates upon whom they must rely, not only proper but absolutely necessary. Seward objected to this as unnecessary, for these were New York appointments, he said, and he knew better than Chase and Bates what was best in that State for the party and the Administration. The President, however, agreed with the secretary of the navy, declaring that nothing conclusive would be done until he had advised with interested heads of departments. ”With this,” says Welles, ”the meeting soon and somewhat abruptly terminated.”[744] So far as it related to the distribution of patronage, this conference, held early in March, settled nothing beyond Barney's appointment; as to the question whether Seward was President or Premier, however, the New Yorker soon learned that he was to have influence with his chief only by reason of his a.s.siduous attention to the public business and his dexterity and tact in promoting the views of the President.[745]

[Footnote 742: ”Strong protests against Barney have been received within the last twenty-four hours.”--New York _Herald_, March 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 743: Gideon Welles, _Lincoln and Seward_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 744: Gideon Welles, _Lincoln and Seward_, p. 73.]

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