Existing comment:
Vice President Hannibal Hamlin:
A former Democrat-turned-Republican, Hamlin was a farmer's son from Maine who had dabbled in newspaper work and the law before climbing his state's political ladder. From the outset, Lincoln treated the former senator with more that the usual respect accorded vice presidents. Among other things, he confided the makeup of his Cabinet to Hamlin. It was Hamlin who suggested Gideon Welles -- a fellow New Englander -- to be Secretary of the Navy.
After their inauguration in March 1861, the new president spoke highly of his Yankee understudy -- though his personal regard wasn't enough to keep political considerations from replacing Hamlin in 1864 with a Tennessee "War Democrat" named Andrew Johnson. |