The man who developed the most serious presidential aspirations was
Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who listened to and
actively encouraged the overtures of a small faction of the Republican
party which rallied about him at the end of the year 1863. Pure and
disinterested, and devoted with all his energies and powers to the cause
of the Union, he was yet singularly ignorant of current public thought,
and absolutely incapable of judging men in their true relations He
regarded himself as the friend of Mr. Lincoln and made strong
protestations to him and to others of this friendship, but he held so
poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character, compared
with his own, that he could not believe the people blind enough to
prefer the President to himself. He imagined that he did not covet
advancement, and was anxious only for the public good; yet, in the midst
of his enormous labors found time to write letters to every part of the
country, protesting his indifference to the presidency, but indicating
his willingness to accept it, and painting pictures so dark of the
chaotic state of affairs in the government, that the irresistible
inference was that only he could save the country. From the beginning
Mr. Lincoln had been aware of this quasi-candidacy, which continued all
through the winter Indeed, it was impossible to remain unconscious of
it, although he discouraged all conversation on the subject, and
refused to read letters relating to it.
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