Question of the Week: Most capable cabinet member?
Which cabinet member, in either the administrations of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis, was most capable?
Which cabinet member, in either the administrations of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis, was most capable?
I would have to go with Stephen Mallory, the Confederate navy secretary. One of the few of Davis’s cabinet members to remain throughout the conflict, he helped set and implement a vision of a functioning CS Navy. At the very least, he is one cabinet member who did more with less.
Simon Cameron is under-rated. Lincoln would not have been President had he not thrown his weight behind the nomination.
Appointed Dorothea Dix to bring women nurses into the war effort. Later worked closely with the Czar in Russia, important diplomacy
He was an early advocate of arming blacks.
William Seward
Wells as Secretary of the Navy.
Designed and executed the Anaconda Plan.
Managed rapid expansion in ships.
Advanced capable officers to Fleet command.
Got Monitor on station just in time.
Few mistakes.
Salmon Chase. The revenue of the state is the state.
Chase is fascinating, and someone I’d like to learn more about. Lowenstein’s Ways and Means really made me appreciate his role more.
Judah Benjamin, the “Brains of the Confederacy”, Secretary of War and Secretary of State who had an amazing escape story and went on to be a Queen’s Counsellor in England.
John H. Reagan, CSA Postmaster General, who actually ran the Confederate Postal Service at a profit, “the only post office department in American history to pay its own way,” according to William C. Davis.
From what I know (limited know for sure) I think Edward Stanton, Secretary of the War, may have been the most capable member of Lincoln’s cabinet due to his decisions made during the Civil War and after.
I think Gideon Wells.
Edwin Stanton — a tough-minded, demanding and impatient leader who made big things happen … President Lincoln gets an A+ for acceding to the recommendation of Chase and Seward and nominating Stanton as Secretary of War.
For Least Effective, I nominate Lucius Northrop, Confederate Commissary General, who was a taciturn thorn in everyone’s side, especially Lee’s. But he was a friend of Davis, who stuck with him far beyond any reasonable point. When Lee took over as Commander in Chief in early 1865, Northrop was replaced by Brigadier General Isaac St. John, a far more effective leader who put many reforms in place immediately, with good results but ultimately no chance for broad effect. Ref.: “Confederate Commissary General, Lucius Belllinger Northrop and the Subsistence Bureau of the Southern Army”, Jerrold Northrop Moore, 1996, an excellent reference for many details of the War effort on both sides. There may be other candidates for Least Effective, in both Armies, but Northrop is in the lead so far.
I totally agree with Neil about Mallory. Lincoln had several competent secretaries, especially Chase, who manufactured the first paper mache finance for a major industrial war. Otherwise, it seemed that the personal conflicts and position infighting too often impeded the smooth operation of a cornucopia blessed war machine. Mallory, vexed by the individualistic southern political peacocks, worked miracles.
I agree with many of the comments above that praise Edwin Stanton and Stephen Mallory. However, I think that William Seward deserves to be mentioned. Lincoln came into office with no foreign policy experience and heavily relied on Seward to assist him. Seward was able to weld together an effective foreign policy that focused on preventing the recognition of the Confederacy by London and Paris. Seward’s efforts helped isolate the Confederacy diplomatically and succeeded in an area where the Confederacy failed.