3. Lincoln’s Administration Generally.

Long before the Eastern public was very keenly aware of Lincoln the members of his Cabinet had come to think of the Administration as his Administration, some, like Seward, of whom it could have been little expected, with a loyal, and for America most fortunate, acceptance of real subordination, and one at least, Chase, with indignant surprise that his own really great abilities were not dominant.  One Minister early told his friends that there was but one vote in the Cabinet, the President’s.  This must not be taken in the sense that Lincoln’s personal guidance was present in every department.  He had his own department, concerned with the maintenance of Northern unity and with that great underlying problem of internal policy which will before long appear again, and the business of the War Department was so immediately vital as to require his ceaseless attention; but in other matters the degree and manner of his control of course varied.  Again, it is far from being the case that the Cabinet had little influence on his action.  He not only consulted it much, but deferred to it much.  His wisdom seems to have shown itself in nothing more strongly than in recognising when he wanted advice and when he did not, when he needed support and when he could stand alone.  Sometimes he yielded to his Ministers because he valued their judgment, sometimes also because he gauged by them the public support without which his action must fail.  Sometimes, when he was sure of the necessity, he took grave steps without advice from them or any one.  More often he tried to arrive with them at a real community of decision.  It is often impossible to guess what acts of an Administration are rightly credited to its chief.  The hidden merit or demerit of many statesmen has constantly lain in the power, or the lack of it, of guiding their colleagues and being guided in turn.  If we tried to be exact in saying Lincoln, or Lincoln’s Cabinet, or the North did this or that, it would be necessary to thresh out many bushels of tittle-tattle.  The broad impression, however, remains that in the many things in which Lincoln did not directly rule he ruled through a group of capable men of whom he made the best use, and whom no other chief could have induced to serve so long in concord.  As we proceed some authentic examples of his precise relations with them will appear, in which, unimportant as they seem, one test of his quality as a statesman and of his character should be sought.

The naval operations of the war afford many tales of daring on both sides which cannot here be noticed.  They afford incidents of strange interest now, such as the exploit of the first submarine. (It belonged to the South; its submersion invariably resulted in the death of the whole crew; and, with full knowledge of this, a devoted crew went down and destroyed a valuable Northern iron-clad.) The ravages on commerce of the Alabama and some other Southern cruisers