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Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet.
sketches of its members.

The telegraph informs us this morning that the United States Senate yesterday, confirmed the following appointments by Mr. Lincoln, of members of his Cabinet: W. H. Seward, of New York, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster General; Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy; C. B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior, and Ed. Bates, of Missouri, Attorney General. The following sketches of these gentlemen will be interesting at this time:


Wm. R. Seward, Secretary of State.

Mr. Seward was born in Orange county, in the State of New York, on the 16th of May, 1861. He was educated at Union College, in New York, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1820, and of Master of Arts in 1824.-- in the age of 21 he established himself at Auburn in the profession of the law, and soon required a lucrative and extending practice.--Early in his public and professional life he traveled in the Southern slave States, and is supposed to have formed at that time the opinions and principles hostile to slavery, to which it has since given expression. To a greater degree than is known of any other American --Mr. Sumner, perhaps, excepted — the object of his life seems to have been to counteract the extension of slavery.-- In he had acquired such influence and character that he was elected a member of the Senate of the State of New York, then the highest judicial tribunal of the State, as well as legislative body. In 1834, at the close of his term of four years, he was nominated a candidate for the Governorship of the State of New York, in opposition to Mr. William L. the then Governor, and, later, the distinguished Secretary of State of the U. States. on this occasion Mr. Seward was defeated by a majority of nearly 10,000. In 1839, his party becoming bolder and stronger, he was triumphantly elected, in opposition to Mr. Mar the majority being greater than his previous minority. Without having passed through the lower stratum of the House of representatives, he was, in 1849, elected to the of the United States for six years.--He gave so much satisfaction that he was elected in 1855.


S. P. Chase, Secretary of Treasury.

Salmon Portland Chase was born at Corn- N. H., on the opposite bank of the Connecticut river from Windsor, Vt., in the year . When nine years of age his father died, and three years after this bereavement, in the young Chase was found at the seminary in Worthington, Ohio, then conducted by the Venerable Bishop Philander Chase, his uncle. Here he remained until Bishop Chase accepted the Presidency of Cincinnati College, and was entered there. After a year's residence in Cincinnati, he returned to his maternal home in New Hampshire, and shortly after resumed his studies in Dartmouth College. Hanover, where he graduated in 1826. He shortly after commenced the study of law in the city of Washington, under the guidance of the celebrated William Wirt, then Attorney General of the United States. He was admitted to the bar at Washington in 1829, and at the following year returned to Cincinnati and entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he soon rose to eminence. He was subsequently elected a member of the United States Senate, and upon the expiration of his Senatorial term he was put in nomination for Governor of Ohio, and elected. He was again put in nomination for Governor and was again elected to that position.


Simon Cameron, Secretary of War.

Gen. Simon Cameron was born in Lancaster county. Pennsylvania, Reverses and misfortunes in his father's family cast him very early in life on the world to shape and carve out his own fortune. After having removed to Sonbury, in Northumberland county, his father died, while Simon was yet a boy. In he came to Harrisburg and bound himself as an apprentice to the printing business as James Peacock. Having completed his apprenticeship he went to Washington city, and was employed as a journeyman printer. In 1824, his party — then in the ascendancy in the Congressional district--proposed to nominate him for Congress, an honor which he declined, as interfering with the enterprise in which he was then engaged. He was appointed Adjutant General of the State in 1828, an office which he filled creditably and acceptable during Gov. Shultz's term; and in 1831, unsolicited, he was appointed by Gen. Jackson as a visitor to West Point. He has always been prominent in the internal improvements of Pennsylvania, but not in matters of war.


Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General.

Judge Montgomery Blair resides at Montgomery Castle, near Silver Spring, Montgomery county. Md. Judge Blair is a son of Francis P. Blair, well known in Gen. Jackson's time. He graduated at West Point, went to the State of Missouri, practiced law in St. Louis, was made Judge, and was appointed by President Pierce one of the Judges at the Court of Claims, from which place he was removed by President Buchanan. He is son-in-law of the late Hon. Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, and brother of Frank P. Blair, Jr., Congressman elect from the St. Louis district.


Gideon B. Wells, Secretary of the Navy.

Gideon B. Wells has been for 30 years a leading Connecticut politician. He for some time held the office of Postmaster of Hartford, under Mr. Van Buren's administration, and left the office soon after the election of General Harrison in 1840. During a part of Mr. Polk's administration he occupied an important position in the Navy Department.--Mr. Wells disagreed with his party on the subject of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He was a delegate from the State at large to the Chicago Convention, and constituted, one of the committee to proceed to Springfield with official notice of Mr. Lincoln's nomination.

C. B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. Smith is well known in Indiana. He has been in Congress, and was Commissioner to Mexican claims.

Edward Bates, Attorney General.

Edward Bates was born on the 4th of September, 1793, on the banks of James river, in the county of Goochland. Virginia, about 30 miles above Richmond. He was the seventh son and youngest child of a family of twelve children, all of whom lived to a mature age, Thomas Bates and Caroline M. Woodson. After the death of his parents he was educated by his brother, Fleming Bates, of Northumberland co., Va. In 1812, having renounced service in the Navy, and with no plan of life settled, his brother Frederick (who was Secretary of the Territory of Missouri from 18 to 1820, when the State was formed, by successive appointments under Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and was second Governor of the State) invited him to come out to St. Louis, and follow the law, offering to see him safely through his course of study. He accepted the invitation, and was to have started in the spring of 1813, but an unlooked for event detained him for a year — Being in his native county of Goochland, a sudden call was made for volunteers to march for Norfolk, to repel an apprehended attack by the British fleet, and he joined a company in February, marched to Norfolk, and served to October of that year, as private, corporal, and sergeant successively. The next spring he left out for St. Louis. He came to the bar in the Winter of 1816-'17, and practiced with as a beginner. In 1853, he was elected Judge of the Land Court of St. Louis county, and after serving in the office about three years he resigned, and returned again to the practice of law. He acted as President of the River and Harbor Improvement Convention, which sat at Chicago, and in 1852 acted as President of the Whig National Convention which met at Baltimore. In 1850, he was appointed by President Fillmore and confirmed by the Senate Secretary of War, but declined the appointment for personal and domestic reasons.

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