The selection of a successor to Chase was no easy matter.  The Vindictives were the leaders of the moment.  What if they persuaded the Senate not to confirm Lincoln’s choice of Secretary.  “I never saw the President,” says Carpenter, “under so much excitement as on the day following this event” On the night of July first, Lincoln lay awake debating with himself the merits of various candidates.  At length, he selected his man and immediately went to sleep.

“The next morning he went to his office and wrote the nomination.  John Hay, the assistant private secretary, had taken it from the President on his way to the Capitol, when he encountered Senator Fessenden upon the threshold of the room.  As chairman of the Finance Committee, he also had passed an anxious night, and called this early to consult with the President, and offer some suggestions.  After a few moments’ conversation, Mr. Lincoln turned to him with a smile and said:  ’I am obliged to you, Fessenden, but the fact is, I have just sent your own name to the Senate for Secretary of the Treasury.  Hay had just received the nomination from my hand as you entered.’  Mr. Fessenden was taken completely by surprise, and, very much agitated, protested his inability to accept the position.  The state of his health, he said, if no other consideration, made it impossible.  Mr. Lincoln would not accept the refusal as final.  He very justly felt that with Mr. Fessenden’s experience and known ability at the head of the Finance Committee, his acceptance would go far toward reestablishing a feeling of security.  He said to him, very earnestly, ’Fessenden, the Lord has not deserted me thus far, and He is not going to now—­you must accept!’

“They separated, the Senator in great anxiety of mind.  Throughout the day, Mr. Lincoln urged almost all who called to go and see Mr. Fessenden, and press upon him the duty of accepting.  Among these, was a delegation of New York bankers, who, in the name of the banking community, expressed their satisfaction at the nomination.  This was especially gratifying to the President; and in the strongest manner, he entreated them to ’see Mr. Fessenden and assure him of their support.’"(4)

In justification of his choice, Lincoln said to Hay:—­“Thinking over the matter, two or three points occurred to me:  first his thorough acquaintance with the business; as chairman of the Senate Committee of Finance, he knows as much of this special subject as Mr. Chase; he possesses a national reputation and the confidence of the country; he is a Radical without the petulance and fretfulness of many radicals."(5) In other words, though he was not at heart one of them, he stood for the moment so close to the Vindictives that they would not make an issue on his confirmation.

Lincoln had scored a point in his game with the Vindictives.  But the point was of little value.  The game’s real concern was that Reconstruction Bill which was now before the Senate with Wade as its particular sponsor.  The great twin brethren of the Vindictives were Wade and Chandler.  Both were furious for the passage of the bill.  “The Executive,” said Wade angrily, “ought not to be allowed to handle this great question of his own liking.”