Hey everyone, thanks for downloading episode 29 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich and I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. As we've talked about before for three months after his election, up until the time he started his inaugural journey to Washington, Abraham Lincoln issued no public statements and made no formal addresses, but as we've also talked about before, that doesn't mean Lincoln was passively sitting at home in Springfield, twiddling his thumbs and killing time. On the contrary, he was at work behind the scenes, actively engaged

in shaping the Republican response to the growing secession crisis. One of Abraham Lincoln's most important tasks during the period between his election and inauguration was the construction of his cabinet. And to that responsibility, he devoted a considerable amount of time and energy between November and March.

There's an often repeated story that in November, 1860, on the night of his election victory, once he was finally home, an exhausted Abraham Lincoln was unable to sleep. So he stayed up pondering whom he should name to his cabinet. According to the story, which was encouraged by Lincoln himself, he wrote down eight names on a slip of paper that night. He put himself at the top of that list. And then the other seven names and amazingly, it was almost the same as the cabinet.

He finally appointed today, that little card can still be found in the Abraham Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress, but according to Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, there's just one problem with that story. It's not true. Abraham Lincoln may have encouraged that story to make it seem that the construction of his cabinet was a neat and tidy, quickly accomplished process and that the men finally selected was first and only choices for those key spots, but the reality is that after the election,

for weeks and in some instances for months, Lincoln worked to finalize the composition of his cabinet and to assemble the team of rivals alongside which he would confront, secession and civil war.

But what if that celebrated slip of paper in the Library of Congress? Well, according to Holzer, careful examination of the names reveals that most of the undated list appears to be in handwriting other than Lincoln's.

And it's well known that not all of the names on the list were even in consideration right after the election.

For instance, Gideon Wells' name appears on the list, and yet Wells was certainly not Lincoln's first and only choice for Secretary of the Navy.

In fact, Wells, supported by Vice President Elect Hannibal Hamlin, had to campaign quite hard for quite a while after the election for the post he ultimately won.

So the story that inspired Lincoln sat down the very night of his election and made up his cabinet is most likely a piece of fiction.

The truth is, Abraham Lincoln calmly took his time to finalize his cabinet, refusing to announce most of his appointments until the very afternoon he became president on March 4, 1861.

Since the president elect took great care and gave much time to the building of his cabinet, and since the men he selected for those key positions would be called upon to offer constructed leadership as the new administration struggled to cope with the dissolution of the union and the outbreak of civil war, we're going to give this episode over to taking a look at how Lincoln constructed his cabinet.

After his victory at the polls, Abraham Lincoln continued to use the governor's corner room on the second floor of the Illinois State House as an office, just as he had during the election campaign.

John G. Nicolay, Lincoln's personal secretary, now became the president-elect's one-man transition team.

Lincoln kept much the same schedule as he had before, working on correspondence with Nicolay first thing in the morning, then receiving visitors in the office from 10 until 12.

At noon he walked home for lunch with Mary and the boys. Lincoln returned to work with Nicolay in the early afternoon and then opened the door once again to visitors from 3 to 530.

A young newspaperman posted to Springfield to cover Lincoln for the New York Herald said, quote,

he sits or stands among his guests, throwing out hearty Western welcomes, asking and answering questions, joking, endeavouring to make matters every way comfortable to all present, end quote.

If Abraham Lincoln's schedule and behavior seemed to change little after election day, there were some changes that were readily apparent even the most casual observer.

While friends, politicians, reporters and curious visitors had always flowed through the open door of his temporary office in the State House, now there were also a steady stream of favor seekers that wanted something from Lincoln.

And most often what they wanted was an interview with the president elect and a government job.

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