Team of Rivals_ The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwin [428]
Lincoln had no patience for such personal contention. He had warned his cabinet members in July to refrain from criticizing one another in public. He decided that when the opportunity arose, he would take Monty Blair up on his offer to resign. That moment arose when Michigan senator Zachariah Chandler informed him that Blair’s resignation would elicit the support of Wade and Davis for Lincoln’s reelection. Chandler later asserted that the radical senator and congressman were only part of a larger bargain that included Frémont’s agreement to withdraw his candidacy if Blair were removed. Historians have debated the extent of Chandler’s influence on Frémont. By September, the Pathfinder had no hope of winning in any case and realized that his reputation would be sullied if he stayed in the race.
Two facts are clear: On September 22, Frémont announced his withdrawal from the race. Then, on the morning of September 23, Lincoln sent a letter to Monty’s office asking for his resignation. “You have generously said to me more than once,” he began, “that whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any friend.” Moreover, “in the three years and a half during which you have administered the General Post-Office, I remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith.”
Despite his offer to resign, Blair was surprised to find the dismissal letter on his desk. Later that morning, he encountered Welles and Bates coming out of the White House. “I suppose you are both aware that my head is decapitated,” he told them. “I am no longer a member of the Cabinet.” Welles was so stunned that he asked Blair to repeat himself, at which point Blair took the letter from his pocket and read it aloud to his two colleagues. Blair said “he had no doubt he was a peace-offering to Frémont and his friends.” Welles was uncertain, telling Blair that while “pacifying the partisans of Frémont might have been brought into consideration…the President would never have yielded to that.” Welles thought it more likely that Blair had been sacrificed to restore balance to the cabinet after Chase’s resignation. Chase’s partisans clearly “felt wounded” that their man was gone while his assailant remained. The removal of Blair would allow Lincoln to “reconcile all parties, and rid the Administration of irritating bickerings.” Lincoln chose the former governor of Ohio, William Dennison, to succeed Blair.
Welles was saddened by Blair’s departure. “In parting with Blair,” Welles recorded in his diary, “the President parts with a true friend, and he leaves no adviser so able sagacious. Honest, truthful and sincere, he has been wise, discriminating and correct.” In the days that followed, Welles came to view “the removal of Montgomery from our counsels as the greatest misfortune that had befallen the Cabinet.” Bates was equally distressed. Though he did not consider himself so intimate with Blair, he respected his straight-speaking colleague and believed Lincoln had erred in making a bargain for Wade and Davis. “I think Mr. Lincoln could have been elected without them and in spite of them. In that event, the Country might have been governed, free from their malign influences.”
Although Blair was hurt by a dismissal that he felt was “an unnecessary mortification,” he remained certain, he told his wife, that Lincoln had acted “from the best motives” and that “it is for the best all around.” His father wholeheartedly agreed. “In my opinion it is all for the best,” he told Frank, no doubt worried that his fiery son would make some regrettable public remark.