A Strange Act by President Lincoln

[Houmes]

(01-12-2013 08:39 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  President Lincoln was pretty sure he was going to be defeated in his 1864 reelection bid. Nothing it seemed, was going right. The war was going badly, casualties were beyond high, and the South appeared very close to gaining independence. In August of 1864, with his political future looking bleak, Lincoln had his Cabinet members sign a document without knowing its contents. What a strange thing to do, don't you think? And even stranger is the fact that they signed it! Of course, it was made known later that they had signed a statement pledging their cooperation with the Democratic President-elect-in the case of Lincoln having lost reelection. Seems very odd to me. Seems odder they would have signed it. Think todays Cabinet members would ever agree to such a thing?

The great unknown is that we have never learned what he said or did prior to that signing. I doubt very much that they would blindly sign something without a hint of what it contained.