Lincoln and His Cabinet

[kerry]

Team of Rivals was well done - it's not too scholarly or political - it's pretty focused on human dynamics. For someone who doesn't have a lot of background on Lincoln and his cabinet, and who isn't looking for light beach reading, I think it's a great book. But it is long and a lot of it will be familiar to people who read about Lincoln. The stuff on the other cabinet members was enlightening to me, though, because I didn't know much about them.

I feel like people insist on a simplistic interpretation of the relationship that makes no sense. People often use "team of rivals" to mean "everyone overcomes their differences and becomes super civil to each other." That is *not* what it means, particularly in the sense of what Lincoln did. The intention was not to compromise and end up with some sort of middle-of-the-road cabinet. The point was to find the most able, intelligent, devoted men, and have them give their true opinions and fight for their causes. There's a lot of talk about whether Lincoln was "friends" with certain politicians, particularly Seward. To me, that's pretty irrelevant and hard to define. The members respected each other and were committed to a common cause, and inevitably grew close working together under such crazy circumstances, but they were all so strong and capable that there was inevitably conflict and it could never be reduced down to "being buddies." It was a deeper, more complex bond. And they sniped in their diaries and elsewhere just like people do today.

IMO, there's no reason to discount what Welles says. There's no such thing as an unbiased person, particularly in their own diary. He clearly does not have much respect for Seward and that should be taken into account, but it seems like the better tactic would be to discern what exactly he disliked so much about Seward and what that reveals about both of them. There seems to be some assumption by the media that most people did not criticize others/weren't criticized - in politics at that level in war time, everyone had something to say about somebody else. It's not a scandal. The average office environment has so much politics that we can only imagine what it's like in even crazier environments. The cabinet generally supported each other publicly, but of course they had resentments and the relationships went up and down. But they all had qualities that I think led to admiration of each other and cooperated to get the job done, and I think it's fascinating to read about their backgrounds and interactions.

While I repeatedly say I think they all respected each other, I will say maybe Welles did not respect Seward, which is interesting. I'd have to look at the fuller context of his remarks, but I remember he was summing up the cabinet and when he came to Seward, he said "Seward comforts him," meaning Lincoln. And when I thought about it, I realized that probably was the key to most of Seward's political success. While he really aggravated a minority of people, he was extremely likeable to most. He seems to have always been the most optimistic, fun-loving person around, who generally refused to quarrel (at least during the Lincoln administration). And that, combined with being smart enough and familiar enough with Washington to do it strategically, was an important enough role given the horror of the times. Seward certainly had a very impressive law career and extreme talents, but as a member of the cabinet, I can see why people who were turned off by a focus on appearances/what they perceived as phony cheerfulness did not respect him in that role. The standards of respect were very high at the time - I have a hard time coming up with anybody alive today who approaches the level of skill, principle and courage regularly displayed by politicians at this time. And so many of them were self-educated, physically awkward, and dealing with chronic health issues!

I will have to read "Lincoln and His Cabinet" - thanks for the rec!

A lot of Lincoln books that are not public domain are now on archive.org under the "borrow only, full-text disabled" option. There's a huge array - it's definitely work looking at. Check off the box that says "available to borrow/join waitlist."