In June, Lincoln seemed “agitated” and “in a temper” when asking T. J. Barnett, a lawyer-journalist and Republican activist, about War Department contracts. Soon thereafter, when Ebenezer Peck urged him to replace Cameron, the president was impressed with his arguments about the Chief’s incompetence but feared that his hostility would have a deleterious effect on Pennsylvania. In August, influential New Yorkers called at the White House to express their lack of confidence in Cameron’s probity and efficiency and to recommend that he be supplanted by Joseph Holt. Even though the public was rapidly losing confidence in the war secretary that summer, Lincoln hesitated to replace him, saying: “It is no time to swap horses when we are crossing a torrent” and “I know everything that Mr. Cameron has done since he came into office, and I tell you that he is as honest as I am.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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