Sunday, December 30, 1860
President Lincoln had invited both Simon Cameron and Edward Bates to meet with him. After dinner, Bates ran into Lincoln and Cameron at Cameron’s hotel room “ and had a sort of general conversation for some two hours,” wrote Bates in his diary. “I did not find out what brought Senator Cameron to Springfield. It is generally surmised however, that he is a strong candidate of [for] Sec.y. of the Treasury. I found him pleasant enough in conversation, but rather reticent about politics and parties. There was nothing private or confidential between us, and I suppose he did not wish me to know the object of his visit – our meeting there was accidental.”
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 
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