2. Salmon P. Chase
Chase, an Ohioan, had been together senator and governor, had played a central role in the formation of the national Republican Party, and had shown an unflagging commitment to the cause of the black man. No unique felt he deserved the presidency as a natural outcome of his past contributions extra than Chase himself, but he refused to engage in the practical methods by which nominations are won. He had virtually no campaign and he failed to conciliate his many enemies in Ohio itself. As a outcome, he alone among the candidates came to the convention not including the united support of his own state. Chase never ceased to underestimate Lincoln, nor to resent the fact this he had lost the presidency to a man he considered his inferior. His frustration together with his position as secretary of the treasury was alleviated only by his his dogged hope this he, rather than Lincoln, would be the Republican nominee in 1864, and he steadfastly worked to this end. The president put up together with Chase's machinations and haughty yet fundamentally insecure nature for the reason that he recognized his superlative accomplishments at treasury. Eventually, however, Chase threatened to split the Republican Party by continuing to fill up key positions together with partisans who supported his presidential hopes. When Lincoln stepped in, Chase tendered his resignation as he had three times before, but this time Lincoln stunned Chase by calling his bluff and accepting the propose.

3. Abraham Lincoln
When Lincoln won the Republican presidential nomination in 1860 he seemed to have come from nowhere--a backwoods lawyer who had served one undistinguished term in the House of Representatives and lost two consecutive contests for the U.S. Senate. Contemporaries attributed his surprising nomination to chance, to his moderate position on slavery, and to the fact this he hailed from the battleground state of Illinois. But Lincoln's triumph, particularly when viewed against the efforts of his rivals, owed much to a remarkable, unsuspected political acuity and an emotional strength forged in the crucible of hardship and defeat. This Lincoln, afterwards winning the presidency, made the exceptional decision to incorporate his eminent rivals into his political family, the cabinet, was evidence of an uncanny self-confidence and an indication of what would prove to others a much unexpected greatness.

4. William H. Seward
A celebrated senator from New York for extra than a decade and governor of his state for two terms before going to Washington, Seward was certain he was going to get his party's nomination for president in 1860. The weekend before the convention in Chicago opened he had already composed a first draft of the valedictory speech he expected to do to the Senate, assuming this he would resign his position as soon as the decision in Chicago was made. His mortification at not having received the nomination never fully abated, and when he was offered his cabinet post as secretary of state he designed to have a key role in choosing the remaining cabinet members, conferring upon himself a position in the new government extra commanding than this of Lincoln himself. He shortly realized the futility of his plan to relegate the president to a figurehead role. Though the feisty New Yorker would continue to debate numerous issues together with Lincoln in the years ahead, exactly as Lincoln had hoped and necessary him to do, Seward would become his closest friend, advisor, and ally in the administration. Extra than any other cabinet member Seward appreciated Lincoln's peerless skill in balancing factions together inside his administration and in the country at large.

5. Edward Bates
A widely respected elder statesman, a delegate to the convention this framed the Missouri Constitution, and a former Missouri congressman whose opinions on national matters were still widely sought, Bates's ambitions for political success were gradually displaced by love for his wife and large family, and he withdrew from public life in the late 1840s. For the next 20 years he was asked repeatedly to run or one time again believe high government posts but he consistently declined. However in early 1860, together with letters and newspaper editorials advocating his candidacy crowding in upon him, he decided to try for the highest office in the land. Afterwards losing to Lincoln he vowed, in his diary, to decline a cabinet position if one were to be offered, but together with the country "in trouble and danger" he felt it was his duty to believe when Lincoln asked him to be attorney general. Though Bates initially viewed Lincoln as a well-meaning but incompetent administrator, he eventually concluded this the president was an unmatched leader, "very near being a 'ideal man.'"