The Problem with a 'Team of Rivals'

THE PROBLEM WITH A “TEAM OF RIVALS”

When Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860, he reached out to the men who had been his main opponents for the Republican nomination—Simon Cameron, Edward Bates, Salmon Chase, and William Seward—and offered them all positions in his cabinet. That story was immortalized by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in her bestselling 2005 book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.11

Lincoln’s “team of rivals” is now a standard example cited in books and articles urging people to expose themselves to diverse opinions. “Lincoln self-consciously chose diverse people who could challenge his inclinations and test one another’s arguments in the interest of producing the most sensible judgments,” wrote Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein in his book Going to Extremes.12 Barack Obama cited Team of Rivals as inspiration for his own presidency, praising Lincoln for being “confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices” in his cabinet.13

This is the account I had heard as well, before I began researching this book. But it turns out that the full story yields a more complicated moral. Out of the four “rivals” Lincoln invited into his cabinet—Cameron, Bates, Chase, and Seward—three left early, after an unsuccessful tenure.

Cameron was removed from his office after less than a year, for being corrupt. (A contemporary of Cameron’s said about him that he “wouldn’t steal a hot stove.”)

Bates resigned after becoming increasingly detached from his work. He had little influence in the administration; Lincoln didn’t request his counsel very often, and Bates didn’t offer it.14

Chase was convinced that he deserved the presidency more than Lincoln, whom he considered his inferior. He clashed with Lincoln repeatedly and, more than once, threatened to resign unless his demands were met. Eventually Lincoln called Chase’s bluff and accepted his resignation, telling a friend later, “I could not stand it any longer.”15

Seward was a partial exception to this pattern. He stuck around for Lincoln’s entire time in office and became a trusted friend and advisor. On more than one occasion, he changed Lincoln’s mind about something important. But Seward came around only after months of undermining Lincoln’s authority behind his back and trying to wrest political power for himself.

It’s a testament to Lincoln’s equanimity that he was able to work with his rivals at all, and it may well have been a sensible move for him politically. But it’s not a great example of the value of exposing yourself to dissenting views. Dissent isn’t all that useful from people you don’t respect or from people who don’t even share enough common ground with you to agree that you’re supposed to be on the same team.