In the wave of
excitement following the surrender, even so debonair a minister
as Seward must have realized how fortunate it was for him that
his chief did not tell all he knew. About this time Seward began
to perceive that Lincoln had a will of his own, and that it was
not safe to trifle further with the President. Seward thereupon
ceased his interference.
It was in the dark days preceding the fall of Sumter that a crowd
of office-seekers gathered at Washington, most of them men who
had little interest in anything but the spoils. It is a
distressing commentary on the American party system that, during
the most critical month of the most critical period of American
history, much of the President's time was consumed by these
political vampires who would not be put off, even though a
revolution was in progress and nations, perhaps, were dying and
being born. "The scramble for office," wrote Stanton, "is
terrible." Seward noted privately: "Solicitants for office
besiege the President.... My duties call me to the White House
two or three times a day. The grounds, halls, stairways,
closets, are filled with applicants who render ingress and egress
difficult."
Secretary Welles has etched the Washington of that time in his
coldly scornful way:
"A strange state of things existed at that time in Washington.
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