Public interest in the subject would indeed have caused greater impatience if public attention had not in every Northern State been intently occupied in welcoming to their homes the troops, who in thinned ranks and with battered standards were about to close their military career and resume the duties of peaceful citizens.
The personal character and political bias of the members of the Cabinet, and especially their opinions respecting the policy which the President had indicated, became therefore a matter of controlling importance.

The Cabinet had undergone many changes since its original organization in March, 1861.

The substitution of Mr.Stanton for Mr.
Cameron and of Mr.Fessenden for Mr.Chase has already been noticed; but on the day of Mr.Lincoln's second inauguration Mr.Fessenden returned to the Senate, resuming the seat which he had left the July previous, and which had in the interim been filled by Nathan A.
Farwell, an experienced ship-builder and ship-master of Maine, who possessed an extraordinarily accurate knowledge of the commercial history of the country.

Mr.Farwell is still living, vigorous in health and in intellect.
When Mr.Fessenden left the Treasury, he was succeeded by Hugh McCulloch, whose valuable service as Comptroller of the Currency had secured for him the promotion with which Mr.Lincoln now honored him.
Mr.McCulloch was a native of Maine, who had gone to the West in his early manhood, and had earned a strong position as a business man in his Indiana home.

He was a descendant of that small but prolific colony of Scotch and Scotch-Irish who had settled in northern New England, and whose blood has enriched all who have had the good fortune to inherit it.