Lincoln’s own Cabinet arrived as a unit, having had their dinner together at the Weddell House. He greeted Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Secretary of State Seward, Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and, his old Kentucky friend and now Attorney General James Speed.
The Senators and Congressmen of the Executive Committee arrived in ones and twos. The House members were Speaker of the House John Sherman, Thad Stevens of Pennsylvania, and William Vandever of Iowa. The Senators were Lincoln’s friend Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, and Zachariah Chandler of Michigan.
Lincoln’s personal secretary John Hay came down, having finished his supper while working on the President’s correspondence in his upstairs quarters. The men greeted one another, expressing their satisfaction with Mr. Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg.
“My constituents were impressed by your speech,” said Zach Chandler. “They tell me, ‘Mr. Lincoln looks and acts like a President.’”
“In other words, he’s not the hick from Illinois that the Democrats had led them to believe,” replied Illinois Senator Trumbull.
“Not at all,” concurred Zach Chandler. “Maybe it was that other President from Illinois they were thinking of!”
The men laughed at the reference to the late Senator Stephen Douglas.
“He’s only been gone a few weeks and he’s already faded from public memory,” said Senator Sumner. “How time marches on. The Confederate Union is Jeff Davis’ country now!”
How true! Lincoln thought. Nobody talks about Douglas any more. His time, and everything of it, is over. It is I and Jefferson Davis that history will remember as the Presidents who led our respective nations through this war.
The men took their seats and Lincoln called them to order.
“Mr. Hay, will you please read us today’s agenda.”
“Right,” said Hay, glancing at his notes. “First topic: our commercial relations with the Canadas. The Secretary of State will apprise us of the commercial treaties he has negotiated in Quebec.
“Second topic: The state of our national finances including the circulation of gold and silver specie and the issuance of paper currencies.
“Third topic: the military situation.
“Fourth topic: The proposal by Horace Greeley to mediate a peace between us and the Confederate Union.”
“Thank you, Mr. Hay,” said Lincoln. “Will the Secretary of State please begin by telling us what has transpired with our neighbors to the Northeast?”
“Yes, Mr. President,” replied Seward. “I had a productive meeting with Speaker of the Joint Canadian Assembly John McDonald and British Governor General Lord Monck. They consider the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States dating from 1857 to be in force with our successor government in the United States of Free America. In fact, they asked if we would agree to extend the treaty to cover manufactured items as well as raw materials. They’ve given us permission to transship our Europe-bound trade through the Canadas duty-free and at the same freight rates as charged to Canadians.”
“They do seem favorably disposed to us,” Lincoln remarked. “Their favorable disposition surprises me somewhat given the reliance of the British on Confederate cotton, which is reciprocated by the Confederates’ desire to import British manufactured goods.”
“They depend on us for wheat and corn as much as they depend upon the Confederates for cotton,” explained Seward. “Our independence would provide them with competition from two American markets instead of just one which might be monopolized and controlled by tariffs.”
Seward wagged his finger as he expanded on his point. “Also remember that abolishing slavery is a paramount interest of the British. The former United States — and that means us in the successor government — have treaty obligations to suppress the smuggling of slaves out of Africa. The Confederates don’t care about that. I don’t know that they would go so far as to legally reopen the African slave trade, but they would be sure to look the other way at pirates who smuggle slaves to their shores.”
Seward glanced at the wall map. “Canada also concerns them. They feel as we do — that maintaining fortifications, standing armies, and navies on the Great Lakes in anticipation of war is a futile expense. The only way to effectively defend that border is to make certain that no cause for war ever comes into existence. But the Confederate Union has told the world of their desire to acquire all of America, from Cape Horn to the regions of eternal frost. If the Confederates conquer us, the British will have to expend millions of pounds fortifying that border. That expense would debilitate their treasury. So they desire that we maintain our independence.”
The expressions on the Cabinet members showed approval of Seward’s points. Seward continued:
“The Canadians are proposing duty-free port of entry at Sarnia, another on the Niagara Frontier, and the third on the railroad from Portland to Montreal. Portland will become the warm-water port for the Canadas. The Canadians pledge improve their railroads and the Port of Montreal to accommodate the increase in commerce. To pay for these investments they ask us to pledge to ship at least fifty percent of our export trade through Montreal for a minimum of twenty years. They will share the cost with us of constructing rail ferries or bridges between Port Huron and Sarnia and at the designated port on the Niagara Frontier. They will double-track the railroads on their side of the border if we will do the same on ours. Here is the preliminary draft of the treaty.”
Seward handed one draft to Lincoln, another to Senator Sumner, and another to Speaker Sherman.
Lincoln thumbed through the treaty. “It appears that they have given us everything we could reasonably expect. Do we need to discuss the treaty in detail?”
“I don’t think it requires any further discussion,” said Speaker John Sherman, reading his copy. “The proposal appears more than satisfactory. If no one has any objections, let’s recommend that Congress ratify it, including the expansion of Reciprocity to include manufactured items.” He turned to Sumner who was skimming his copy. “What do you think, Charles?”
“I’ll need to study it carefully for a day or two. But from I see on cursory examination I would recommend that we ratify it.”
The other Cabinet and the Senators and Congressmen nodded their approval.
“Next on our agenda,” said Lincoln “is the state of our national finances, including the specie in circulation and the question of whether to augment it with paper currency. I’m assuming our finances are satisfactory at the moment because the Great Northern Bank and Trust Company cashed the check that Congress wrote for the advance on my salary!”
“Yes, Mr. President, they are satisfactory for the moment,” confirmed Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase. “But we will need to issue paper currency to make up for the shortage of specie. The Confederates control the gold and silver mines in the West. There won’t be any new specie coming into our territory except what we get from England in exchange for our exports. And that will be down to a trickle until the harvest is in.”
Chase paused for a moment to give the Cabinet time to consider that point, then began speaking in an irritated tone. “Another difficulty is that the disconnection of New York from our territory is causing a contraction of business. That is inducing our people to hoard the limited amount of specie we do have. So far it’s not nearly as bad as it might be, and could become, later on. The Confederate cordon around the city is still loose. People may come and go between the lines as they please, and it has not yet become inconvenient for them to move specie, financial papers, and regular mail into and out of the city. Nevertheless, the port and railroad terminals are closed to us. We no longer collect customs duties on the trade through its port.