Declining to seek the advice of Congress in the embarrassments of his position, President Johnson necessarily subjected himself to the counsel and influence of his Cabinet.

He had inherited from Mr.
Lincoln an organization of the Executive Department which, with the possible exception of Mr.Seward, was personally agreeable to him and politically trusted by him.

He dreaded the effect of changing it, and declined upon his accession to make room for some eminent men who by long personal association and by identity of views on public questions would naturally be selected as his advisers.

He had not forgotten the experience and the fate of the chief magistrates who like himself had been promoted from the Vice-Presidency.

He instinctively wished to avoid their mistakes and to leave behind him an administration which should not in after years be remembered for its faults, its blunders, its misfortunes.
The Federal Government had existed fifty-two years before it encountered the calamity of a President's death.