The summer and autumn of 1864 were likewise filled with the
bitterness and high excitement of a presidential campaign; for,
according to law, Mr. Lincoln's successor had to be elected on
the "Tuesday after the first Monday" of November in that year.
The great mass of Republicans wished Mr. Lincoln to be reelected.
The Democrats had long ago fixed upon General McClellan, with his
grievances against the President, as their future candidate. It
is not unusual for Presidents to discover would-be rivals in
their own cabinets. Considering the strong men who formed Mr.
Lincoln's cabinet, and the fact that four years earlier more than
one of them had active hopes of being chosen in his stead, it is
remarkable that there was so little of this.
The one who developed the most serious desire to succeed him was
Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury. Devoted with all
his powers to the cause of the Union, Mr. Chase was yet strangely
at fault in his judgment of men. He regarded himself as the
friend of Mr. Lincoln, but nevertheless held so poor an opinion
of the President's mind and character, compared with his own,
that he could not believe people blind enough to prefer the
President to himself. He imagined that he did not want the
office, and was anxious only for the public good; yet he listened
eagerly to the critics of the President who flattered his hopes,
and found time in spite of his great labors to write letters to
all parts of the country, which, although protesting that he did
not want the honor, showed his entire willingness to accept it.
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