Book Description

Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet: Edward Bates Artist unknown, President Lincoln And His Cabinet In Council At The White House Members Demonstrating To The President The Importance Of The Evacuation Of Ft. Sumter. New York, March 30, 1861. Wood engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. This woodcut is the first portrait of the Lincoln Cabinet. From the inability to distinguish-the faces of Cabinet members, it is apparent that the artist used poetic license in depicting them. Attorney General Bates could either be the person shown fifth from the left or seated at the President's right. While Bates would not hold Ft. Sumter if it meant war, he did not favor evacuation but relief of the fort on the oceanside to avoid conflict. Yet the Attorney General always provided two crucial functions for the President: he was an important political adviser, and he could legitimize the actions of the President. There was also the duty of writing opinions. This opinion-writing function is now usually handled by a relatively subordinate member of the top team of the Department of Justice, and while on occasion it has tremendous significance when controversial decisions are prematurely leaked, those occasions are infrequent. Bates retained the opinion - writing functions. Though often of little significance, all presidents see it as occasionally important. The marginal importance of opinion-writing then is seen in the fact that when Bates did n_ot do the work, nobody did it; and the country did not have to call off the War as a result. There was a period when Bates did little or nothing for several months and the opinion work simply piled up; a response to Secretary Welles on March 4, 1864, for example, defensively apologizes that the opin ion had been pending for three and a half months and a few days later Bates made a similar apology to the President for a two month delay.25 The delays did not seem to matter very much. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.