The President remarked that he thought it best to fight it out and have it over, and was determined that every point of difference between them should be exposed and explained before his guests separated. He read the resolution of the caucus and then called upon the Senators to explain themselves, which they did with earnestness. The Cabinet replied with equal candor,--all except Secretary Chase, who found himself in a very embarrassing position, because he had been chiefly instrumental in creating the dissatisfaction by misrepresenting the opinions of Seward and the rest of his colleagues to his friends in the Senate. He could not deny it, for the witnesses were present; nor could he defend himself for doing so. He could only protest against being entrapped in a mortifying predicament and express his regret that he had attended the meeting. Without malice, but with the hope of correcting the bad habits of his Secretary of the Treasury, the President had made sure that he should be present. When everybody had said all that he had to say, Lincoln astonished them by announcing that he intended to take a vote, and he put the question directly whether, after the explanations which had been heard, Mr. Seward should be excused. Senators Grimes, Trumbull, Sumner, and Pomeroy voted "Yes," Senator Harris "No," and Senators Collamer, Fessenden, and Howard declined to vote. Mr. Wade, the other member of the committee, was absent. The President decided that the vote had been in favor of Mr. Seward. While the Senators realized that the President had outwitted them, they, nevertheless, left the White House satisfied that Seward's position was untenable, and that after this incident he would be compelled voluntarily to retire from the Cabinet. As the committee was leaving the President's room, Senator Trumbull, with great vehemence, accused Mr. Chase of double-dealing, and the latter, having no defence to the charge, tendered his resignation the following morning, and was very much surprised at the alacrity with which the President received it. When the Cabinet retired, Lincoln took the resignation of Mr. Seward from his desk and, holding it up beside that of Mr. Chase, remarked to a personal friend to whom he had briefly sketched the situation,-- "Now I can ride. I have got a pumpkin in each end of my bag." A few moments after he sat down at his desk, with his own hand made two copies of the following note, and sent one to Mr. Seward and the other to Mr. Chase by messenger: "You have respectively tendered me your resignation as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. I am apprized of the circumstances which render this course personally desirable to each of you; but, after the most anxious consideration, my deliberate judgment is that the public interest does not admit of it. I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your departments respectively."