March 15, 1862
Attorney Edward Bates, one of the most conservative members of the Lincoln Cabinet, meets privately with President Lincoln during a rainy day in Washington: “Warned him that extreme men in Congress were lying in wait ast. him, anxious to catch him in some error – and striving to make precedents against him, especially in regard to both the appointing and removing power – e.g. Mashal Laman’s case, and the pressure brought, to bear for the entire prostration of McClellan &c,” wrote Bates in his diary.
I warned him to stand firm on his present rock (as to the slavery question) and not yield an inch either to the fierce rush of the northern abolitionists or the timid doubters of the border slaves states. I told him that nothing valuable was ever won, by timid submission – ‘You have taken your positions cautiously (said I), now maintain them bravely, and I will [sic] sink or swim with you.’
“He answered me very kindly and frankly &[.]
Aging General Ethan Allen Hitchcock visits the White House with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Hitchcock is reportedly offered McClellan’s job by Secretary of War Edwin McClellan.
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 
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