President Abraham Lincoln Exercises Equity, and Good Politics, in Satisfying a Congressman’s Request For a Fair Distribution of Patronage

Republicans had never held the Presidency. Democrats had held it for all but eight years since the days of Andrew Jackson. With the election of the first Republican administration, there was considerable pressure not only regarding the Cabinet but virtually the entire slate of federal employee positions. Since no one had civil service protections, successful parties could fill virtually every available office. The stakes were large. The fight over patronage which consumed Mr. Lincoln after the election was really a fight over political power, and in some cases a continuation of turf squabbles within states that had been going on for a decade or more. The fight took place on several levels – first over the Cabinet, second over patronage posts in the states. For example, Secretary of State William Seward had definite opinions on appointments in and outside his native New York, and got his man, E. Delafield Smith, named U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase criticized Seward for appointing an insufficient number of diplomats from Chase’s state, Ohio.

Historian William B. Hesseltine noted that Mr. Lincoln “was fully, even keenly, aware of the role of patronage in building and maintaining a political party.” He had had experience with it since the Zachary Taylor campaign, after which Lincoln himself had unsuccessfully sought a senior post. But that knowledge did not lessen the pressure he was under as President. As John G. Nicolay wrote in late March 1861: “The intense pressure does not seem to abate as yet…I am looking forward with a good deal of eagerness to when I shall have time to at least read and write my letters in peace and without being haunted continually by some one who wants to see the President for only five minutes. At present this request meets me from almost every man, woman and child I meet whether it be by day or night in the house or on the street.” John Hay, wrote, “The throng of office-seekers is something absolutely fearful. They come at daybreak and still are coming at midnight.”

Lincoln himself tried to keep the patronage crush under control, and thought it wisest to delegate many of the selections to his cabinet department heads. He said, “I have made up my mind not to be badgered about those places…By-and-by, when I call somebody to me in character of an advisers, we will examine the claims to the most responsible posts, and decide what shall be done. As for the rest, I shall enough to do without reading recommendations for country postmasterships; these and all others of the sort, I will turn over to the heads of departments, and make them responsible for the good conduct of their subordinates.” Hay explained to a friend seeking a post that he could not help: “Mr. Lincoln positively refuses to make any recommendations for positions in the departments; he rejects the entreaties even of his most intimate friends and relatives.” However, Lincoln sought amidst the onslaught to act fairly, and tried to see that offices were distributed equitably.

Stephen Baker was an importer of woolen goods who lived in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1860, he ran for the House of Representatives in New York’s 12th District as a Republican and was elected, his term starting on March 4, 1861, the same day the presidential candidate he had supported, Abraham Lincoln, took office. Being a first term Congressman, he had little clout to influence patronage, and watched as time went by and with no positions (outside of strictly local ones like postmasters) going to men in his constituency. Finally he determined to approach the President with this fact and ask for redress. At the time Baker wrote Lincoln, McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign was in full swing, and the President was tied up with matters relating to the war, to say the least. He nonetheless gave Baker a respectful and sympathetic hearing.

Autograph memorandum signed, Washington, circa April 15, 1862. “Hon. Mr. Baker, writer of the within, says he has had no appointment, little or large, from his District, except the local ones, and he particularly wishes these. I desire that he may be obliged. Yours truly, A. Lincoln.” Thus he exercised equity, and good politics, to redress the imbalance.

“From day to day, from the start of his administration to the very end, Lincoln had to concern himself with the distribution of the spoils,” noted historian James G. Randall. “Only by doing so could he hold his party together, and only by holding the party together could he hope to accomplish his program. He did not succeed perfectly but, considering the magnitude and complexity of his tasks, he did extremely well.” As for Baker, he left office after one term to return to New York.