It is necessary to review, briefly, the situation at Washington.
[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD (_From Lord Newton's "Life of Lord Lyons," by kind permission_)] Lincoln was inaugurated as President on March 4.

He had been elected as a Republican by a political party never before in power.

Many of the leading members of this party were drawn from the older parties and had been in administrative positions in either State or National Governments, but there were no party traditions, save the lately created one of opposition to the expansion of slavery to the Territories.

All was new, then, to the men now in power in the National Government, and a new and vital issue, that of secession already declared by seven Southern States, had to be met by a definite policy.

The important immediate question was as to whether Lincoln had a policy, or, if not, upon whom he would depend to guide him.
In the newly-appointed Cabinet were two men who, in popular estimate, were expected to take the lead--Chase, of Ohio, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Seward, of New York, Secretary of State.