The Commissionership


with Lincoln. He was detailed to watch the President's food supply
when Lincoln was threatened with poisoning. He also became a
confidant of Mrs. Lincoln, who sometimes abused her charge ac-
counts at the stores, and he carried out the ticklish business of
interceding in her behalf with the President.
 Criticism of Newton-As Commissioner, Newton became the
center of a storm of controversy; some considered him a person
of wisdom, others thought him unlearned and incompetent. The
farm journals of the time criticized him viciously. Earlier, they
had been highly critical of the agricultural activities of the Patent
Office. Now they looked upon the increased dissemination of agri-
cultural information and free seed as competition from the
government, in what they considered their own special province.
Probably only Newton's death, due to sunstroke while super-
vising work at the experimental farm, prevented his dismissal by
President Johnson. The substantial objections to Newton were
based on his political scheming and on his failure to appreciate
the needs of scientific specialists under him.
 During his term as Commissioner from 1862 until his death
in 1867, Newton worked hard to carry out the provisions of the
act establishing the Department of Agriculture. These aims were:
first, to educate the public by collecting and presenting agri-
cultural information, and second, to collect valuable plant
materials at home and abroad for distribution under the postal
franking privilege. Foreign ministers, consuls, merchants, mis-
sionaries, travelers, and naval officers were urged to collect
materials from foreign countries.
 Plans for the South-The war with the South, and "postwar"
plans for the reconstruction of its agriculture after the North
should conquer, gave Newton the opportunity to plan a modifica-
tion of the South's dependence on its staple agricultural crops.
Newton realized that the agricultural possibilities of the South
were yet to be exploited. Tropical and sub-tropical plants as well
as the cereals, grasses, fruits, and vegetables of the temperate zone
offered a wide variety of potential crops for the South. Solving
the food problems of this area might help to create entire new
crop industries. The great staples would continue to be grown,
Newton thought, but the notoriously limited diet of the South
could be varied by the production there of an abundance of every
kind of food. Newton believed that smaller farms, managed by
intelligent and interested labor, would make it feasible to produce