Trumbull suggested to them that if Governor Seward went into the Cabinet, as many people considered to be his due, it did not necessarily follow that he would control the patronage of New York. Mr. Mann, however, thought that this would be inevitable. He and Mr. Bryant and Mr. Noyes expressed the opinion that Seward did not desire to go into the Cabinet unless he could control the patronage and thus serve his friends. They said they had no name to propose as a New York member of the Cabinet, but they did not want the load of the Albany plunderers put upon them, and that if it were so the party in New York would be ruined. The purport of this interview was communicated by Trumbull to Lincoln by letter dated Washington, December 2, 1860. Lincoln replied as follows: _Private_ SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Dec. 8, 1860. HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL. MY DEAR SIR: Yours of the 2nd is received. I regret exceedingly the anxiety of our friends in New York, of whom you write; but it seems to me the sentiment in that State which sent a united delegation to Chicago in favor of Gov. Seward ought not and must not be snubbed, as it would be, by the omission to offer Gov. S. a place in the Cabinet. _I will myself take care of the question of "corrupt jobs"_ and see that justice is done to all our friends of whom you wrote, as well as others. I have written to Mr. Hamlin on this very subject of Gov. S. and requested him to consult fully with you. He will show you my note and enclosures to him; and then please act as therein requested. Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. The enclosures were a formal tender of the office of Secretary of State to Seward and a private letter to him urging his acceptance of the appointment. The note to Hamlin requested that if he and Trumbull concurred in the step, the letters should be handed to Seward. They were promptly delivered. As matters stood at that time it was certainly due to Seward that a place in the Cabinet should be offered to him and that it should be the foremost place. He was still the intellectual premier of the party and nobody could impair his influence but himself. The principal scheme at Albany, to which Bryant and his colleagues alluded, was a "gridiron" street railroad bill for New York City, for which Weed was the political engineer. Trumbull saw Horace Greeley at this time. The latter would not recommend taking a Cabinet officer from New York at all, but he did suggest giving the mission to France to John C. Frémont. If this advice had been followed, and Frémont had been kept out of the country, Lincoln would have been spared one of the most terrible thorns in the side of his Administration; but fate ordained otherwise, for when Cameron was taken into the Cabinet it became necessary to provide a place for Dayton, and Paris was chosen for that purpose.