Having now in his hands the resignations of the chiefs of the two principal factions of the party, the President had made the first step towards relieving the situation of dangerous one-sidedness.  At once he took the next step by sending to each this note:—­

December 20, 1862.

HON.  WILLIAM H. SEWARD and HON.  SALMON P. CHASE: 

Gentlemen,—­You have respectively tendered me your resignations as secretary of state and secretary of the treasury of the United States.  I am apprised of the circumstances which render this course personally desirable to each of you; but, after most anxious consideration, my deliberate judgment is, that the public interest does not admit of it.

I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your departments respectively.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

The next morning Mr. Seward wrote briefly:  “I have cheerfully resumed the functions of this department, in obedience to your command.”  Mr. Chase seemed to hesitate.  On December 20, in the afternoon, he had written a letter, in which he had said that he thought it desirable that his resignation should be accepted.  He gave as his reason that recent events had “too rudely jostled the unity” of the cabinet; and he intimated that, with both himself and Seward out of it, an improved condition might be reached.  He had not, however, actually dispatched this, when the President’s note reached him.  He then, though feeling his convictions strengthened, decided to hold back the letter which he had prepared and “to sleep on” the matter.  Having slept, he wrote, on the morning of December 22, a different letter, to the effect that, though reflection had not much, if at all, changed his original opinion as to the desirability of his resignation, yet he would conform to the judgment and wishes of the President.  If Mr. Chase was less gracious than Mr. Seward in this business, it is to be remembered that he was very much more dissatisfied with the President’s course than was Mr. Seward, who, indeed, for the most part was not dissatisfied at all.

Thus a dangerous crisis was escaped rather than overcome.  For though after the relief given by this plain speaking the situation did not again become quite so strained as it had previously been, yet disagreement between men naturally prudent and men naturally extremist was inevitable.  Nevertheless it was something that the two sections had encountered each other, and that neither had won control of the government.  The President had restrained dissension within safe limits and had saved himself from the real or apparent domination of a faction.  When it was all over, he said:  “Now I can ride; I have got a pumpkin in each end of my bag.”  Later on he repeated:  “I do not see how it could have been done better.  I am sure it was right.  If I had yielded to that storm and dismissed Seward, the thing would all have slumped over one way, and we should have been left with a scanty handful of supporters.”  Undoubtedly he had managed very skillfully a very difficult affair, but he ought never to have been compelled to arrange such quarrels in the camp of his own party.