{"id":954,"date":"2013-06-28T20:37:30","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=954"},"modified":"2016-06-20T15:24:29","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T15:24:29","slug":"letter-to-william-seward-april-1-1861","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-william-seward-april-1-1861\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to William Seward (April 1, 1861)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributing editors for this page include Moyra Schauffler<\/em><\/p>\n

Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

#56<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n

Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n

“Since parting with you I have been considering your paper dated this day, and entitled ‘Some thoughts for the President’s consideration.’ The first proposition in it is, ‘1st. We are at the end of a month’s administration, and yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign.'”<\/a><\/p>\n

On This Date<\/h3>\n

HD Daily Report, April 1, 1861<\/a><\/p>\n

The Lincoln Log, April 1, 1861<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom Map<\/h3>\n

\"Screen<\/a>
\nView in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n

Close Readings<\/h3>\n

Moyra Schauffler, “Lincoln Responds to Seward,” (Dickinson College, Spring 2015)<\/a><\/p>\n

How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n

\u201cOne of Lincoln\u2019s greatest challenges was taming his secretary of state. \u2018I can\u2019t\u00a0afford to let Seward take the first trick,\u2019 he told Nicolay in early March. While struggling with the Fort Sumter dilemma, Lincoln had to keep the wily New Yorker, who presumed he would serve as the Grand Vizier of the administration, from taking not just the first trick but the entire rubber. Seward hoped to dominate Lincoln just as he had dominated President Zachary Taylor. Seward evidently wished the motto of the administration to be, \u2018The King reigns, but does not govern.\u2019 He told a European diplomat that there \u2018exists no great difference\u00a0between an elected president of the United States and a hereditary monarch. The latter is called to the throne through the accident of birth, the former through the chances which make his election possible. The actual direction of public affairs belongs to the leader of the ruling party here just as in a hereditary principality.\u2019 The New Yorker considered himself, not Lincoln, the \u2018leader of the ruling party.\u2019 In his own eyes, he was a responsible, knowledgeable, veteran statesman who must guide the na\u00efve, inexperienced Illinoisan toward sensible appointments and policies. Unlike Lincoln, he did not believe that the new administration had to carry out the Republicans\u2019 Chicago platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Michael Burlingame,\u00a0Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 2, Chapter 22 \u00a0(PDF), 2327-2328.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the war years, Seward, while remaining a faithful subordinate to Lincoln, enjoyed the President’s complete confidence. If Seward was in any sense a prime minister, it was because the chief executive desired him to play that role. Yet a myth persists to the contrary.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Norman B. Ferris, \u201cLincoln and Seward in Civil War Diplomacy: Their Relationship at the Outset Reexamined,\u201d<\/a> Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association <\/em>12, no. 1 (1991), 21-42.<\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS<\/h3>\n

This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford’s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n
Executive Mansion<\/span><\/div>\n
April 1, 1861<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Hon. W. H. Seward<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
My dear Sir:<\/span><\/div>\n
Since parting with you I have been considering your paper dated this day, and entitled “Some thoughts for the President’s consideration.” The first proposition in it is, “1st. We are at the end of a month’s administration, and yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign.”<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
At the\u00a0beginning<\/em>\u00a0of that month, in the inaugeral, I said “The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties, and imposts.” This had your distinct approval at the time; and, taken in connection with the order I immediately gave General Scott, directing him to employ every means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, with the single exception, that it does not propose to abandon Fort Sumpter.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Again, I do not perceive how the re-inforcement of Fort Sumpter would be done on a slavery, or party issue, while that of Fort Pickens would be on a more national, and patriotic one.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The news received yesterday in regard to St. Domingo, certainly brings a new item within the range of our foreign policy; but up to that time we have been preparing circulars, and instructions to ministers, and the like, all in perfect harmony, without even a suggestion that we had no foreign policy.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Upon your closing propositions, that “whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prossecution of it”<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
“For this purpose it must be somebody’s business to pursue and direct it incessantly”<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
“Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or”<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
“Devolve it on some member of his cabinet”<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
“Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide” I remark that if this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without good reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising in its progress, I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have the advice of all the cabinet.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Your Obt. Servt.<\/span><\/div>\n
A. LINCOLN<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributing editors for this page include Moyra Schauffler Ranking #56 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript “Since parting with you I have been considering your paper dated this day, and entitled ‘Some thoughts for the President’s consideration.’ The first proposition in it is, ‘1st. We are at the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10859],"tags":[10866,11636,6088,11642,10865],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-savior-of-the-union","tag-antebellum","tag-diplomacy","tag-letter","tag-management-style","tag-private"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4464,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions\/4464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}