Speculations have been almost endless as to how the Cabinet came to be made up as it was.  But the truth is, according to Secretary Welles, that it was practically made up in Springfield almost as soon as Lincoln found himself elected.  In Lincoln’s own words, as given by Mr. Welles:  “On the day of the Presidential election the operator of the telegraph in Springfield placed his instrument at my disposal.  I was there without leaving, after the returns began to come in, until we had enough to satisfy us how the election had gone.  This was about two in the morning of Wednesday.  I went home, but not to get much sleep; for I then felt, as I never had before, the responsibility that was upon me.  I began at once to feel that I needed support,—­others to share with me the burden.  This was on Wednesday morning, and before the sun went down I had made up my Cabinet.  It was almost the same that I finally appointed.”

The only two members of the Cabinet who served from the beginning to the end of Lincoln’s administration were Welles and Seward.  Stanton was not appointed until January 13, 1862, succeeding Simon Cameron.  Chase left the Treasury Department to become Chief Justice, and was succeeded in the Treasury Department by ex-Governor Fessenden of Vermont, who in his turn was succeeded by Hugh McCulloch.  The Attorney General’s chair was filled successively by Bates and Speed.  Caleb B. Smith was the first Secretary of the Interior, succeeded (January 1, 1863) by John P. Usher.  The first Postmaster General was Montgomery Blair, who was followed (September 4, 1864) by ex-Governor Dennison of Ohio.  The appointment that gave the greatest surprise of any in the Cabinet was that of Stanton as Secretary of War.  Stanton had been in Buchanan’s cabinet as Attorney General.  He had been outspoken, almost brutal, in his scornful hostility to Lincoln, and the appointment by him was as great a surprise to Stanton as his acceptance of it was to everyone.  When asked, somewhat incredulously, what he would do as War Secretary Stanton replied, “I will make Abe Lincoln President of the United States.”  Of the character of this remarkable man, Mr. Alonzo Rothschild, in his interesting study of the relations between Lincoln and Stanton ("Lincoln, Master of Men,” p. 229), says:  “Intense earnestness marked Stanton’s every act.  So sharply were all his faculties focused upon the purpose of the hour that he is to be classed among the one-idea men of history.  Whatever came between him and his goal encountered an iron will....  Quick to penetrate through the husks of fraud into the very nubbin of things, he was even more swiftly moved by relentless wrath to insist upon exposure and punishment.  The brief career [as Attorney General] in Buchanan’s cabinet had been long enough to demonstrate his almost savage hostility toward official dishonesty, as well as his moral courage to grapple with treason in high places.  Above all, he evinced a loyalty to the Union that rose above the party creed of a lifetime—­that might demand of him any sacrifice however great.”