The principal candidates talked of as successors to Lincoln were Secretary Chase, General Fremont, and General Grant.  Of the latter, Lincoln said, with characteristic frankness and generosity:  “If he could be more useful as President in putting down the rebellion, I would be content.  He is pledged to our policy of emancipation and the employment of negro soldiers; and if this policy is carried out, it will not make much difference who is President.”  But General Grant’s good sense prevailed over his injudicious advisers, and he promptly refused to allow his name to be presented to the convention.

The most formidable candidate for the Republican nomination was Secretary Chase.  The relations between him and the President had not latterly been very harmonious; and the breach was greatly widened by a bitter personal assault on Mr. Chase by General F.P.  Blair, a newly elected Congressman from Missouri, made on the floor of the House, about the middle of April, under circumstances which led Mr. Chase to believe that the President inspired, or at least approved, the attack.  Mr. Chase was very angry, and an open rupture between his friends and those of the President was narrowly averted.  Mr. Riddle, Congressman from Mr. Chase’s State (Ohio), relates that on the evening after General Blair’s offensive speech he was to accompany Mr. Chase on a visit to Baltimore.  “I was shown,” says Mr. Riddle, “to the Secretary’s private car, where I found him alone and in a frenzy of rage.  A copy of Blair’s speech had been shown him at the station, and I was the sole witness of his Achillean wrath.  He threatened to leave the train at once and send the President his resignation; but was persuaded to go on to Baltimore.  He wished to forward his resignation from there, but concluded to withhold it till his return to Washington the next day.  At Baltimore,” continues Mr. Riddle, “I excused myself, and took the return train for Washington.  I did not overestimate the danger to the Union cause.  It would be a fatal error to defeat Mr. Lincoln at the Baltimore Convention; yet how could he succeed, with the angry resignation of Mr. Chase, and the defection of his friends—­the powerful and aggressive radicals?  Reaching Washington, I went to the White House direct.  I knew the President could not have been a party to Blair’s assault, and I wanted his personal assurances to communicate to Mr. Chase at the earliest moment.  I was accompanied by Judge Spaulding, an eminent member of the House, fully sharing Mr. Chase’s confidence, and somewhat cool toward the President.  We found Mr. Lincoln drawn up behind his table, with papers before him, quite grim, evidently prepared for the battle which he supposed awaited him.  Without taking a seat, hat in hand, I stated frankly, not without emotion, the condition of affairs,—­the public danger, my entire confidence in him, my sole purpose there, the reason of Judge Spaulding’s presence, and that we were there in no way as representatives of