During all this storm and stress the President-elect was at home struggling with office-seekers. They came in swarms from all points of the compass, and in the greatest numbers from Illinois. Judging from the Trumbull papers alone it is safe to say that Illinois could have filled every office in the national Blue Book without satisfying half the demands. Every considerable town had several candidates for its own post-office, and the applicants were generally men who had real claims by reason of party service and personal character for the positions which they sought. But there were exceptions, and Trumbull brought trouble on his own head many times by taking part in the mêlée. Yet there seemed to be no way of escape, even if he had wished to stand aloof. The day of civil service reform had not yet dawned. Time has kindly dropped its veil over those struggles except as relates to Lincoln's Cabinet. The selection of the Cabinet will be considered chronologically so far as the Trumbull papers throw light on it. On his journey to Washington for the coming session of Congress, Trumbull stopped a few days in New York. While there he received a call from three gentlemen, who were a sub-committee of a larger number who had been chosen, by the opponents of the Weed overlordship in New York politics, to call upon Lincoln and remonstrate against the appointment of Seward as a member of his Cabinet. The three men were William C. Bryant, William Curtis Noyes, and A. Mann, Jr. They said that finding it impracticable to see Lincoln, they had decided to call upon Trumbull and ask him to present their views to the President-elect. Although Trumbull disclaimed any peculiar knowledge or influence in respect of Cabinet appointments, they proceeded to make their wishes known. They said that a division had taken place in the Republican party of New York, growing out of corruption at Albany during the last session of the legislature, in which many Republicans were implicated; that so strong was the feeling against certain transactions there, that but for the presidential election the Republicans would have lost the state in November; and that unless the transactions were repudiated by the coming legislature the party would be beaten next year. They did not connect Governor Seward personally with these transactions, but said that several of his particular and most intimate friends, whom they named, were implicated, and that if he went into the Cabinet he would draw them after him.