Many liberal historians make a big deal of the fact that Lincoln appointed a lot of his Republican Rivals to the Cabinet, as that was an act of great courage. In truth, Lincoln HAD to appoint these “rivals” to his Cabinet because many of them had been promised patronage jobs in return for their votes at the Convention.
Though Lincoln received only 39 percent of the popular vote, Lincoln wouldn’t appoint anyone to his Cabinet who did not support him for President.
How much better America would have been had John Fremont won the Presidency four years earlier.
Lincoln also received almost 60% of the electoral votes, and would have been elected even if the Democrats had not fractured because in most of the states he won by an absolute majority.