I think I did not well conceal my disappointment when I stood before him in the dimly lighted hall looking up into the face of the new President. There was nothing in his appearance calculated to make a favorable impression at first sight. He was illy clad, ungraceful in movement, and his rudely chiselled face, that was always sad in repose, clearly portrayed the fretting anxieties which his election to the Presidency to meet the severest trial of the Republic had brought upon him. He had then decided to appoint Cameron to the Cabinet, against which I had protested, and he had sent for me to know whether there were good reasons for a change of judgment. We sat down in his plainly furnished parlor, and for an hour or more he heard me patiently with evident interest. During this part of the conversation he said but little, but gave many incisive questions to be answered. He did not exhibit a single trace of humor, and it seemed to me most of the time as if I were making my appeal to a sphinx. He gave no sign whatever as to whether I impressed him or not, and when I left him I had not a single clue by which to judge what importance he had attached to my arguments, but before he retired that night he wrote a letter to Cameron revoking the appointment, and suggesting that Cameron should regard the position as tendered, and give a letter of declination. In that letter, which can be found in Nicolay and Hay’s “Life of Lincoln,” he uses this language: “You will say this comes of an interview with McClure, and this is partly but not wholly true.” The result was that the position of Secretary of War was held open until Lincoln arrived in Washington, when Seward and Weed finally prevailed upon the President to give the position to Cameron. He advised me of his purpose after he had decided, and was much gratified for the assurance that no factional hostility would be made against either Cameron or the administration. Seward and Weed were much embittered at Curtin and Lane for defeating Seward at Chicago, and they dealt a retributive blow by securing the appointment of Cameron, as Cameron and Curtin were never in political accord after the bitter struggle they had for Senator in 1855. It was not until after the question of the Cabinet appointment was dismissed that I had an opportunity to see something of Lincoln as he was. It was my part to do the talking on the Cabinet issue; after that it was his part to talk, and he gradually developed all the great and grand qualities of his character. He was appalled at the prospect of civil war being the sequel of his election to the Presidency, and above all things, he wanted peace if consistent with the line of duty. He fully appreciated that he was confronted by graver problems than had ever beset American statesmanship, and that he was compelled to meet the great issue of the threatened dismemberment of the Republic.