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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, by John T. Morse
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II
+
+Author: John T. Morse
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2004 [EBook #12801]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VOL. II ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Stephen A. Douglas]
+
+
+American Statesmen
+
+STANDARD LIBRARY EDITION
+
+
+[Illustration: _The Home of Abraham Lincoln_]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+BY
+
+JOHN T. MORSE, JR.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES
+
+VOL. II.
+
+1899
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I. EMANCIPATION AND POLITICS
+    II. THE SECOND ACT OF THE MCCLELLAN DRAMA
+   III. THE THIRD AND CLOSING ACT OF THE MCCLELLAN DRAMA
+    IV. THE AUTUMN ELECTIONS OF 1862, AND THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION
+     V. BATTLES AND SIEGES: DECEMBER, 1862-DECEMBER, 1863
+    VI. SUNDRIES
+   VII. THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+  VIII. RECONSTRUCTION
+    IX. RENOMINATION
+     X. MILITARY SUCCESSES, AND THE REËLECTION OF THE PRESIDENT
+    XI. THE END COMES INTO SIGHT: THE SECOND INAUGURATION
+   XII. EMANCIPATION COMPLETED
+  XIII. THE FALL OF RICHMOND, AND THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN
+
+        INDEX
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
+
+From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at
+Washington.
+
+Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library.
+
+The vignette of Mr. Lincoln's home, corner Eighth and Jackson streets,
+Springfield, Ill., is from a photograph.
+
+
+SIMON CAMERON
+
+From a photograph by Mr. Le Rue Lemer, Harrisburg, Pa.
+
+Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library.
+
+
+LINCOLN SUBMITTING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION TO HIS CABINET
+
+From the painting by Carpenter in the Capitol at Washington.
+
+
+ISAAC N. ARNOLD
+
+From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at
+Washington.
+
+Autograph from one furnished by his daughter, Mrs. Mary A. Scudder,
+Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+MONTGOMERY BLAIR
+
+From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at
+Washington.
+
+Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EMANCIPATION AND POLITICS
+
+
+During the spring and summer of 1861 the people of the North presented
+the appearance of a great political unit. All alleged emphatically that
+the question was simply of the Union, and upon this issue no Northerner
+could safely differ from his neighbors. Only a few of the more
+cross-grained ones among the Abolitionists were contemptuously allowed
+to publish the selfishness of their morality, and to declare that they
+were content to see the establishment of a great slave empire, provided
+they themselves were free from the taint of connection with it. If any
+others let Southern proclivities lurk in the obscure recesses of their
+hearts they were too prudent to permit these perilous sentiments to
+appear except in the masquerade of dismal presagings. So in appearance
+the Northern men were united, and in fact were very nearly so--for a
+short time.
+
+This was a fortunate condition, which the President and all shrewd
+patriots took great pains to maintain. It filled the armies and the
+Treasury, and postponed many jeopardies. But too close to the surface to
+be long suppressed lay the demand that those who declared the Union to
+be the sole issue should explain how it came about that the Union was
+put in issue at all, why there was any dissatisfaction with it, and why
+any desire anywhere to be rid of it. All knew the answer to that
+question; all knew that if the war was due to disunion, disunion in turn
+was due to slavery. Unless some makeshift peace should be quickly
+patched up, this basic cause was absolutely sure to force recognition
+for itself; a long and stern contest must inevitably wear its way down
+to the bottom question. It was practical wisdom for Mr. Lincoln in his
+inaugural not to probe deeper than secession; and it was well for
+multitudes to take arms and contribute money with the earnest
+asseveration that they were fighting and paying only for the integrity
+of the country. It was the truth, or rather it was _a_ truth; but there
+was also another and a deeper truth: that he who fought for the
+integrity of the country, also, by a necessity inherent in the case and
+far beyond the influence of his volition, fought for the destruction of
+slavery. Just as soon as this second truth came up and took distinct
+shape beside the other, angry political divisions sundered the
+Unionists. Abolition of slavery never displaced Union as a purpose of
+the war; but the two became mingled, in a duality which could not
+afterward be resolved into its component parts so that one could be
+taken and the other could be left. The union of the two issues meant the
+disunion of the people of the Middle and even of the Northern States.
+
+In the Border States a considerable proportion of the people was both
+pro-slavery and pro-Union. These men wished to retain their servile
+laborers under their feet and the shelter of the Union over their heads.
+At first they did not see that they might as well hope to serve both God
+and Mammon. Yet for the moment they seemed to hold the balance of power
+between the contestants; for had all the pro-slavery men in the Border
+States gone over in a mass to the South early in the war, they might
+have settled the matter against the North in short order. The task of
+holding and conciliating this important body, with all its Northern
+sympathizers, became a controlling purpose of the President, and caused
+the development of his famous "border-state policy," for which he
+deserved the highest praise and received unlimited abuse.
+
+The very fact that these men needed, for their comfort, reiterated
+assurances of a policy not hostile to slavery indicated the jeopardy of
+their situation. The distinct language of the President alleviated their
+anxiety so far as the Executive was concerned, but they desired to
+commit the legislative branch to the same doctrine. Among all those who
+might have been Secessionists, but were not, no other could vie in
+respect and affection with the venerable and patriotic John J.
+Crittenden of Kentucky. This distinguished statesman now became the
+spokesman for the large body of loyal citizens who felt deeply that the
+war ought not to impinge in the least upon the great institution of the
+South. In the extra session of Congress, convened in July, 1861, he
+offered a resolution pledging Congress to hold in mind: "That this war
+is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any
+purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor with any purpose of overthrowing
+or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those [the
+revolted] States; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the
+Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality,
+and rights of the several States unimpaired." After the example of the
+Constitution, this resolution was carefully saved from the contamination
+of a certain offensive word; but every one knew its meaning and its
+purpose; and with this knowledge all the votes save two in the House of
+Representatives, and all save five in the Senate, were given for it.[1]
+"It was," says Mr. Blaine, "a fair reflection of the popular sentiment
+throughout the North." So Mr. Lincoln's inaugural was ratified.
+
+But events control. The Northern armies ran against slavery immediately.
+Almost in the very hours when the resolution of Mr. Crittenden was
+gliding so easily through the House, thousands of slaves at Manassas
+were doing the work of laborers and servants, and rendering all the
+whites of the Southern army available for fighting. The handicap was so
+severe and obvious that it immediately provoked the introduction of a
+bill freeing slaves belonging to rebels and used for carrying on the
+war. The Democrats and the men of the Border States generally opposed
+the measure, with very strong feeling. No matter how plausible the
+reason, they did not wish slavery to be touched at all. They could not
+say that this especial bill was wrong, but they felt that it was
+dangerous. Their protests against it, however, were of no avail, and it
+became law on August 6. The extreme anti-slavery men somewhat
+sophistically twisted it into an assistance to the South.
+
+The principle of this legislation had already been published to the
+country in a very fortunate way by General Butler. In May, 1861, being
+in command at Fortress Monroe, he had refused, under instructions from
+Cameron, to return three fugitive slaves to their rebel owner, and he
+had ingeniously put his refusal on the ground that they were "contraband
+of war." The phrase instantly became popular. General Butler says that,
+"as a lawyer, [he] was never very proud of it;" but technical inaccuracy
+does not hurt the force of an epigram which expresses a sound principle.
+"Contraband" underlay the Emancipation Proclamation.
+
+Thus the slaves themselves were forcing the issue, regardless of
+polities and diplomacy. With a perfectly correct instinctive insight
+into the true meaning of the war, they felt that a Union camp ought to
+be a place of refuge, and they sought it eagerly and in considerable
+numbers. Then, however, their logical owners came and reclaimed them,
+and other commanders were not so apt at retort as General Butler was.
+Thus it came to pass that each general, being without instructions,
+carried out his own ideas, and confusion ensued. Democratic commanders
+returned slaves; Abolitionist commanders refused to do so; many were
+sadly puzzled what to do. All alike created embarrassing situations for
+the administration.
+
+General Fremont led off. On August 30, being then in command of the
+Western Department, he issued an order, in which he declared that he
+would "assume the administrative powers of the State." Then, on the
+basis of this bold assumption, he established martial law, and
+pronounced the slaves of militant or active rebels to be "free men." The
+mischief of this ill-advised proceeding was aggravated by the "fires of
+popular enthusiasm which it kindled." The President wrote to Fremont,
+expressing his fear that the general's action would "alarm our Southern
+Union friends, and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair
+prospect in Kentucky." Very considerately he said: "Allow me, therefore,
+to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as
+to conform to" the Act of August 6. Fremont replied, in substance, that
+the President might do this, but that he himself would not! Thereupon
+Mr. Lincoln, instead of removing the insubordinate and insolent general,
+behaved in his usual passionless way, and merely issued an order that
+Fremont's proclamation should be so modified and construed as "to
+conform with and not to transcend" the law. By this treatment, which
+should have made Fremont grateful and penitent, he was in fact rendered
+angry and indignant; for he had a genuine belief in the old proverb
+about laws being silent in time of war, and he really thought that
+documents signed in tents by gentlemen wearing shoulder-straps were
+deserving of more respect, even by the President, than were mere Acts of
+Congress. This was a mistaken notion, but Fremont never could see that
+he had been in error, and from this time forth he became a vengeful
+thorn in the side of Mr. Lincoln.
+
+Several months later, on May 9, 1862, General Hunter proclaimed martial
+law in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, and said: "Slavery and
+martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible. The persons
+in these States, heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared
+forever free." At once, though not without reluctance, Mr. Lincoln
+revoked this order, as unauthorized. He further said that, if he had
+power to "declare the slaves of any State or States free," the propriety
+of exercising that power was a question which he reserved exclusively to
+himself. These words he fully made good. The whole country, wild with
+excitement and teeming with opinions almost co-numerous with its
+citizens, threatened to bury him beneath an avalanche of advice. But
+while all talked and wrote madly and endlessly, he quietly held his
+peace, did what he chose when he chose, and never delegated any portion
+of his authority over this most important business to any one. He took
+emancipation for his own special and personal affair; it was a matter
+about which he had been doing much thinking very earnestly for a long
+while, and he had no notion of forming now any partnership for managing
+it.
+
+The trend, however, was not all in one direction. While Butler, Fremont,
+and Hunter were thus befriending the poor runaways, Buell and Hooker
+were allowing slave-owners to reclaim fugitives from within their lines;
+Halleck was ordering that no fugitive slave should be admitted within
+his lines or camp, and that those already there should be put out; and
+McClellan was promising to crush "with an iron hand" any attempt at
+slave insurrection. Amid such confusion, some rule of universal
+application was sorely needed. But what should it be?
+
+Secretary Cameron twice nearly placed the administration in an
+embarrassing position by taking very advanced ground upon the negro
+question. In October, 1861, he issued an order to General Sherman, then
+at Port Royal, authorizing him to employ negroes in any capacity which
+he might "deem most beneficial to the service." Mr. Lincoln prudently
+interlined the words: "This, however, not to mean a general arming of
+them for military service." A few weeks later, in the Report which the
+secretary prepared to be sent with the President's message to Congress,
+he said: "As the labor and service of their slaves constitute the chief
+property of the rebels, they should share the common fate of war.... It
+is as clearly a right of the government to arm slaves, when it becomes
+necessary, as it is to use gunpowder taken from the enemy. Whether it is
+expedient to do so is purely a military question." He added more to the
+same purport. He then had his report printed, and sent copies, by mail,
+to many newspapers throughout the country, with permission to publish it
+so soon as the telegraph should report the reading before Congress. At
+the eleventh hour a copy was handed to Mr. Lincoln, to accompany his
+message; and then, for the first time, he saw these radical passages.
+Instantly he directed that all the postmasters, to whose offices the
+printed copies had been sent on their way to the newspaper editors,
+should be ordered at once to return these copies to the secretary. He
+then ordered the secretary to make a change, equivalent to an omission,
+of this inflammatory paragraph. After this emasculation the paragraph
+only stated that "slaves who were abandoned by their owners on the
+advance of our troops" should not be returned to the enemy.
+
+When the Thirty-seventh Congress came together for the regular session,
+December 2, 1861, anti-slavery sentiment had made a visible advance.
+President Lincoln, in his message, advised recognizing the independence
+of the negro states of Hayti and Liberia. He declared that he had been
+anxious that the "inevitable conflict should not degenerate into a
+violent and remorseless revolutionary struggle," and that he had,
+therefore, "thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union
+prominent as the primary object of the contest on our part." Referring
+to his enforcement of the law of August 6, he said: "The Union must be
+preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed." The
+shadow which pro-slavery men saw cast by these words was very slightly,
+if at all, lightened by an admission which accompanied it,--that "we
+should not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme measures,
+which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable."
+Further he said that already, by the operation of the Act of August 6,
+numbers of persons had been liberated, had become dependent on the
+United States, and must be provided for. He anticipated that some of the
+States might pass similar laws for their own benefit; in which case he
+recommended Congress to "provide for accepting such persons from such
+States, according to some mode of valuation, in lieu, _pro tanto_, of
+direct taxes, or upon some other plan to be agreed on." He desired that
+these negroes, being "at once deemed free," should be colonized in some
+"climate congenial to them," and he wished an appropriation for
+acquiring territory for this purpose. Thus he indicated with sufficient
+clearness the three cardinal points of his own theory for emancipation:
+voluntary action of the individual slave States by the exercise of their
+own sovereign power; compensation of owners; and colonization. Congress
+soon showed that it meant to strike a pace much more rapid than that set
+by the President; and the friends of slavery perceived an atmosphere
+which made them so uneasy that they thought it would be well to have the
+Crittenden resolution substantially reaffirmed. They made the effort,
+and they failed, the vote standing 65 yeas to 71 nays. All which this
+symptom indicated as to the temper of members was borne out during the
+session by positive and aggressive legislation. Only a fortnight had
+passed, when Henry Wilson, senator from Massachusetts, introduced a bill
+to emancipate the slaves in the District of Columbia, and to pay a
+moderate compensation to owners. The measure, rightly construed as the
+entering point of the anti-slavery wedge, gave rise to bitter debates in
+both houses. The senators and representatives from the slave States
+manifested intense feeling, and were aided with much spirit by the
+Democrats of the free States. But resistance was useless; the bill
+passed the Senate by a vote of 29 to 14, and the House by 92 to 38. On
+April 16 the President signed it, and returned it with a message, in
+which he said: "If there be matters within and about this Act which
+might have taken a course or shape more satisfactory to my judgment, I
+do not attempt to specify them. I am gratified that the two principles
+of compensation and colonization are both recognized and practically
+applied in the Act." It was one of the coincidences of history that by
+his signature he now made law that proposition which, as a member of the
+House of Representatives in 1849, he had embodied in a bill which then
+hardly excited passing notice as it went on its quick way to oblivion.
+
+The confused condition concerning the harboring and rendition of
+fugitive slaves by military commanders, already mentioned, was also
+promptly taken in hand. Various bills and amendments offered in the
+Senate and in the House were substantially identical in the main purpose
+of making the recovery of a slave from within the Union lines
+practically little better than impossible. The shape which the measure
+ultimately took was the enactment of an additional article of war,
+whereby all officers in the military service of the United States were
+"prohibited from using any portion of the forces under their respective
+commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor;"
+any officer who should violate the article was to be dismissed from the
+service. Again the men from the Border States, rallying their few
+Democratic allies from the North to their assistance, made vehement
+opposition, and again they were overwhelmed beneath an irresistible
+majority: 83 to 42 in the House, 29 to 9 in the Senate. The President
+signed the bill on March 13, 1862, and thereafter "nigger hunting" was a
+dangerous sport in the Union camps.
+
+On March 24, Mr. Arnold[2] of Illinois introduced a bill ambitiously
+purporting "to render freedom national and slavery sectional." It
+prohibited slavery wherever Congress could do so, that is to say, in all
+Territories, present and future, in all forts, arsenals, dockyards,
+etc., in all vessels on the high seas and on all national highways
+beyond the territory and jurisdiction of the several States. Both by its
+title and by its substance it went to the uttermost edge of the
+Constitution and, in the matter of Territories, perhaps beyond that
+edge. Mr. Arnold himself supported it with the bold avowal that slavery
+was in deadly hostility to the national government, and therefore must
+be destroyed. Upon a measure so significant and so defended, debate
+waxed hot, so that one gentleman proposed that the bill should be sent
+back to the committee with instructions not to report it back "until the
+cold weather." The irritation and alarm of the Border States rendered
+modification necessary unless tact and caution were to be wholly thrown
+to the winds. Ultimately, therefore, the offensive title was exchanged
+for the simple one of "An Act to secure freedom to all persons within
+the Territories of the United States," and the bill, curtailed to accord
+with this expression, became law by approval of the President on June
+19.
+
+A measure likely in its operation to affect a much greater number of
+persons than any other of those laws which have been mentioned was
+introduced by Senator Trumbull of Illinois. This was "for the
+confiscation of the property of rebels, and giving freedom to the
+persons they hold in slavery." It made the slaves of all who had taken
+up arms against the United States "forever thereafter free." It came up
+for debate on February 25, and its mover defended it as "destroying to a
+great extent the source and origin of the rebellion, and the only thing
+which had ever seriously threatened the peace of the Union." The men of
+the Border States, appalled at so general a manumission, declared that
+it would produce intolerable conditions in their States, leading either
+to reënslavement or extermination. So strenuous an anti-slavery man as
+Senator Hale also suggested that the measure was unconstitutional.
+Similar discussion upon similar propositions went forward
+contemporaneously in the House. For once, in both bodies, the Democrats
+won in many skirmishes. Ultimately, as the outcome of many amendments,
+substitutes, recommitments, and conferences, a bill was patched up,
+which passed by 27 to 12 in the Senate and 82 to 42 in the House, and
+was approved by the President July 17. It was a very comprehensive
+measure; so much so, that Mr. Blaine has said of it: "Even if the war
+had ended without a formal and effective system of emancipation, it is
+believed that this statute would have so operated as to render the slave
+system practically valueless."
+
+The possibility of enlisting negroes as soldiers received early
+consideration. Black troops had fought in the Revolution; why, then,
+should not black men now fight in a war of which they themselves were
+the ultimate provocation? The idea pleased the utilitarian side of the
+Northern mind and shocked no Northern prejudice. In fact, as early as
+the spring of 1862 General Hunter, in the Department of the South,
+organized a negro regiment. In July, 1862, pending consideration of a
+bill concerning calling forth the militia, reported by the Senate
+Committee on Military Affairs, amendments were moved declaring that
+"there should be no exemption from military service on account of
+color," permitting the enlistment of "persons of African descent," and
+making "forever thereafter free" each person so enlisted, his mother,
+his wife, and his children. No other measure so aroused the indignation
+of the border-state men. Loyalty to the Union could not change their
+opinion of the negro. To put arms into the hands of slaves, or
+ex-slaves, was a terrible proposition to men who had too often vividly
+conceived the dread picture of slave insurrection. To set black men
+about the business of killing white men, to engage the inferior race to
+destroy the superior race, seemed a blasphemy against Nature. A few
+also of the Northerners warmly sympathized with this feeling. Black men
+shooting down white men was a spectacle which some who were friends of
+the black men could not contemplate without a certain shudder. Also many
+persons believed that the white soldiers of the North would feel
+degraded by having regiments of ex-slaves placed beside them in camp and
+in battle. Doubts were expressed as to whether negroes would fight,
+whether they would not be a useless charge, and even a source of peril
+to those who should depend upon them. Language could go no farther in
+vehemence of protest and denunciation than the words of some of the
+slave-state men in the House and Senate. Besides this, Garrett Davis of
+Kentucky made a very effective argument when he said: "There is not a
+rebel in all Secessia whose heart will not leap when he hears that the
+Senate of the United States is originating such a policy. It will
+strengthen his hopes of success by an ultimate union of all the slave
+States to fight such a policy to the death." It was, however, entirely
+evident that, in the present temper of that part of the country which
+was represented in Congress, there was not much use in opposing any
+anti-slavery measure by any kind of argument whatever; even though the
+special proposition might be distasteful to many Republicans, yet at
+last, when pressed to the issue, they all faithfully voted Yea. In this
+case the measure, finally so far modified as to relate only to slaves
+of rebel owners, was passed and was signed by the President on July 17.
+Nevertheless, although it thus became law, the certainty that, by taking
+action under it, he would alienate great numbers of loyalists in the
+Border States induced him to go very slowly. At first actual authority
+to enlist negroes was only extorted from the administration with much
+effort. On August 25 obstinate importunity elicited an order permitting
+General Saxton, at Hilton Head, to raise 5,000 black troops; but this
+was somewhat strangely accompanied, according to Mr. Wilson, with the
+suggestive remark, that it "must never see daylight, because it was so
+much in advance of public sentiment." After the process had been on
+trial for a year, however, Mr. Lincoln said that there was apparent "no
+loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment,
+none in our white military force,--no loss by it anyhow or anywhere." On
+the other hand, it had brought a reinforcement of 130,000 soldiers,
+seamen, and laborers. "And now," he said, "let any Union man who
+complains of this measure test himself by writing down in one line that
+he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that
+he is for taking these 130,000 men from the Union side, and placing them
+where they would be best for the measure he condemns." Yet so
+ineradicable was the race prejudice that it was not until the spring of
+1864, after all efforts for action by Congress had failed, that the
+attorney-general declared black soldiers to be entitled to the same pay
+as white soldiers. Regarding a soldier merely as a marketable commodity,
+doubtless the white was worth more money; yet life was about the same to
+each, and it was hard to see why one should be expected to sell his life
+for fewer dollars than satisfied the other.
+
+Besides these measures, Congress gave evidence of its sentiments by
+passing an act for appointing diplomatic representatives to Hayti and
+Liberia; also further evidence by passing certain legislation against
+the slave trade.
+
+The recital of all these doings of the legislators sufficiently
+indicates the hostility of Congress towards slavery. In fact, a large
+majority both in the Senate and in the House had moved out against it
+upon nearly every practicable line to the extremity of the
+constitutional tether. Neither arguments, nor the entreaties of the
+border-state men, nor any considerations of policy, had exercised the
+slightest restraining influence. It is observable that this legislation
+did not embody that policy which Mr. Lincoln had suggested, and to which
+he had become strongly attached. On the contrary, Congress had done
+everything to irritate, where the President wished to do everything to
+conciliate; Congress made that compulsory which the President hoped to
+make voluntary. Mr. Lincoln remained in 1862, as he had been in 1858,
+tolerant towards the Southern men who by inheritance, tradition, and
+the necessity of the situation, constituted a slaveholding community. To
+treat slave-ownership as a crime, punishable by confiscation and ruin,
+seemed to him unreasonable and merciless. Neither does he seem ever to
+have accepted the opinion of many Abolitionists, that the negro was the
+equal of the white man in natural endowment. There is no reason to
+suppose that he did not still hold, as he had done in the days of the
+Douglas debates, that it was undesirable, if not impossible, that the
+two races should endeavor to abide together in freedom as a unified
+community. In the inevitable hostility and competition he clearly saw
+that the black man was likely to fare badly. It was by such feelings
+that he was led straight to the plan of compensation of owners and
+colonization of freedmen, and to the hope that a system of gradual
+emancipation, embodying these principles, might be voluntarily
+undertaken by the Border States under the present stress. If the
+executive and the legislative departments should combine upon the policy
+of encouraging and aiding such steps as any Border State could be
+induced to take in this direction, the President believed that he could
+much more easily extend loyalty and allegiance among the people of those
+States,--a matter which he valued far more highly than other persons
+were inclined to do. Such were his views and such his wishes. To discuss
+their practicability and soundness would only be to wander in the
+unprofitable vagueness of hypothesis, for in spite of all his efforts
+they were never tested by trial. It must be admitted that general
+opinion, both at that day and ever since, has regarded them as
+visionary; compensation seemed too costly, colonization probably was
+really impossible.
+
+After the President had suggested his views in his message he waited
+patiently to see what action Congress would take concerning them. Three
+months elapsed and Congress took no such action. On the contrary,
+Congress practically repudiated them. Not only this, it was
+industriously putting into the shape of laws many other ideas, which
+were likely to prove so many embarrassments and obstructions to that
+policy which the President had very thoughtfully and with deep
+conviction marked out for himself. He determined, therefore, to present
+it once more, before it should be rendered forever hopeless. On March 6,
+1862, he sent to Congress a special message, recommending the adoption
+of a joint resolution: "That the United States ought to cooperate with
+any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such
+State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to
+compensate for the inconvenience, both public and private, produced by
+such change of system." The first paragraph in the message stated
+briefly the inducements to the North: "The Federal government would find
+its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient
+means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection
+entertain the hope that this government will ultimately be forced to
+acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and
+that all the slave States north of such part will then say: 'The Union
+for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with
+the Southern section.' To deprive them of this hope substantially ends
+the rebellion; and the initiation of Emancipation completely deprives
+them of it as to all the States initiating it. The point is that ... the
+more northern [States] shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the
+more southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in
+their proposed Confederacy. I say 'initiation,' because in my judgment
+gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere
+financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census
+tables and Treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how
+very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair
+valuation, all the slaves in any named State."
+
+The second paragraph hinted at that which it would have been poor tact
+to state plainly,--the reasons which would press the Border States to
+accept the opportunity extended to them. "If resistance continues, the
+war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the
+incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. Such
+as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency
+toward ending the struggle, must and will come. The proposition now
+made, though an offer only, I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask
+whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value
+to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and
+property in it, in the present aspect of affairs." The suggestion,
+between the lines, to the border slave-owners could not be
+misunderstood: that they would do better to sell their slaves now than
+to be deprived of them later. The President's proposition was not
+cordially received. Pro-slavery men regarded it as an underhand movement
+against the institution. Mr. Crittenden expressed confidence in the
+President personally, but feared that the resolution "would stir up an
+emancipation party" in the loyal slave States. Thus the truth was made
+plain that emancipation, by any process, was not desired. In a debate
+upon a cognate measure, another Kentuckian said that there was "no
+division of sentiment on this question of emancipation, whether it is to
+be brought about by force, by fraud, or by purchase of slaves out of the
+public treasury." Democrats from Northern States, natural allies of the
+border-state men, protested vehemently against taxing their constituents
+to buy slave property in other States. Many Republicans also joined the
+Democracy against Mr. Lincoln, and spoke even with anger and insult.
+Thaddeus Stevens, the fierce and formidable leader of the Radicals, gave
+his voice against "the most diluted milk-and-water gruel proposition
+that had ever been given to the American nation." Hickman of
+Pennsylvania, until 1860 a Democrat, but now a Republican, with the
+characteristic vehemence of a proselyte said: "Neither the message nor
+the resolution is manly and open. They are both covert and insidious.
+They do not become the dignity of the President of the United States.
+The message is not such a document as a full-grown, independent man
+should publish to the nation at such a time as the present, when
+positions should be freely and fully defined." In the Senate, Mr. Powell
+of Kentucky translated the second paragraph into blunt words. He said
+that it held a threat of ultimate coercion, if the cooperative plan
+should fail; and he regarded "the whole thing" as "a pill of arsenic,
+sugar-coated."
+
+But, though so many insisted upon uttering their fleers in debate, yet,
+when it came to voting, they could not well discredit their President by
+voting down the resolution on the sole ground that it was foolish and
+ineffectual. So, after it had been abused sufficiently, it was passed by
+about the usual party majority: 89 to 34 in the House; 32 to 10 in the
+Senate. Thus Congress somewhat sneeringly handed back to the President
+his bantling, with free leave to do what he could with it.
+
+Not discouraged by such grudging and unsympathetic permission, Mr.
+Lincoln at once set about his experiment. He told Lovejoy and Arnold,
+strenuous Abolitionists, but none the less his near friends, that they
+would live to see the end of slavery, if only the Border States would
+cooperate in his project. On March 10, 1862, he gathered some of the
+border-state members and tried to win them over to his views. They
+listened coldly; but he was not dismayed by their demeanor, and on July
+12 he again convened them, and this time laid before them a written
+statement. This paper betrays by its earnestness of argument and its
+almost beseeching tone that he wrote it from his heart. The reasons
+which he urged were as follows:--
+
+"Believing that you of the Border States hold more power for good than
+any other equal number of members, I felt it a duty which I cannot
+justifiably waive to make this appeal to you.
+
+"I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my
+opinion, if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual
+emancipation message of last March, the war would now be substantially
+ended.
+
+"And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift
+means of ending it. Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely
+and certainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join
+their proposed Confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the
+contest. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you
+with them as long as you show a determination to perpetuate the
+institution within your own States; beat them at election as you have
+overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as
+their own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that
+lever before their faces, and they can shake you no more forever. Most
+of you have treated me with kindness and consideration; and I trust you
+will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively your own,
+when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask: can you, for your
+States, do better than to take the course I urge? Discarding punctilio
+and maxims adapted to more manageable times, and looking only to the
+unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in any
+possible event? You prefer that the constitutional relation of the
+States to the nation shall be practically restored without disturbance
+of the institution; and if this were done, my whole duty in this respect
+under the Constitution and my oath of office would be performed. But it
+is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by war.
+
+"The incidents of the war cannot be avoided. If the war continues long,
+as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in your
+States will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion,--by the mere
+incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing
+valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How much
+better for you and your people to take the step which at once shortens
+the war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to
+be wholly lost in any other event. How much better to thus save the
+money which else we sink forever in the war. How much better to do it
+while we can, lest the war erelong render us pecuniarily unable to do
+it. How much better for you, as seller, and the nation, as buyer, to
+sell out and buy out that without which the war never could have been,
+than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting
+one another's throats. I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a
+decision at once to emancipate gradually."
+
+He closed with an ardent appeal to his hearers, as "patriots and
+statesmen," to consider his proposition, invoking them thereto as they
+"would perpetuate popular government for the best people in the world."
+
+Thirty gentlemen listened to this paper and took two days to consider
+it. Then twenty of them signed a response which was, in substance, their
+repudiation of the President's scheme. They told him that hitherto they
+had been loyal "under the most discouraging circumstances and in face of
+measures most distasteful to them and injurious to the interests they
+represented, and in the hearing of doctrines, avowed by those who
+claimed to be his friends, most abhorrent to themselves and their
+constituents." They objected that the measure involved "interference
+with what exclusively belonged to the States;" that perhaps it was
+unconstitutional; that it would involve an "immense outlay," beyond what
+the finances could bear; that it was "the annunciation of a sentiment"
+rather than a "tangible proposition;" they added that the sole purpose
+of the war must be "restoring the Constitution to its legitimate
+authority." Seven others of the President's auditors said politely, but
+very vaguely, that they would "ask the people of the Border States
+calmly, deliberately, and fairly to consider his recommendations."
+Maynard, of the House, and Henderson, of the Senate, alone expressed
+their personal approval.
+
+Even this did not drive all hope out of Mr. Lincoln's heart. His
+proclamation, rescinding that order of General Hunter which purported to
+free slaves in certain States, was issued on May 19. In it he said that
+the resolution, which had been passed at his request, "now stands an
+authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and
+people most interested in the subject-matter. To the people of these
+States I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue; I beseech you to make the
+arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the
+signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of
+them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics.
+This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no
+reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it
+contemplates would come gently as the dews from Heaven, not rending or
+wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been
+done by one effort in all past time as in the providence of God it is
+now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament
+that you have neglected it!"
+
+This eloquent and beautiful appeal sounds deeply moving in the ears of
+those who read it in these days, so remote from the passions and
+prejudices of a generation ago; but it stirred little responsive feeling
+and no responsive action in 1862. In fact, the scheme was not
+practicable.
+
+It may be--it probably must be--believed that compensated emancipation
+and colonization could never have been carried out even if Northern
+Republicans had been willing to pay the price and Southern slave-owners
+had been willing to accept it, and if both had then cordially united in
+the task of deporting the troublesome negro from the country. The vast
+project was undoubtedly visionary; it was to be criticised, weighed, and
+considered largely as a business enterprise, and as such it must be
+condemned. But Mr. Lincoln, who had no capacity for business, was never
+able to get at this point of view, and regarded his favorite plan
+strictly in political and humanitarian lights. Yet even thus the general
+opinion has been that the unfortunate negroes, finding themselves amid
+the hard facts which must inevitably have attended colonization, would
+have heartily regretted the lost condition of servitude. Historically
+the merits of the experiment, which the Southern Unionists declined to
+have put to the test of trial, are of no consequence; it is only as the
+scheme throws light upon the magnanimity of Mr. Lincoln's temperament
+and upon certain limitations of his intellect, that the subject is
+interesting. That he should rid himself of personal vindictiveness and
+should cherish an honest and intense desire to see the question, which
+had severed the country, disposed of by a process which would make
+possible a sincere and cordial reunion, may be only moderately
+surprising; but it is most surprising to note the depth and earnestness
+of his faith that this condition could really be reached, and that it
+could be reached by the road which he had marked out. This confidence
+indicated an opinion of human nature much higher than human nature has
+yet appeared entitled to. It also anticipated on the part of the
+Southerners an appreciation of the facts of the case which few among
+them were sufficiently clear-minded to furnish. It is curious to observe
+that Lincoln saw the present situation and foresaw the coming situation
+with perfect clearness, at the same time that he was entirely unable to
+see the uselessness of his panacea; whereas, on the other hand, those
+who rejected his impracticable plan remained entirely blind to those
+things which he saw. It seems an odd combination of traits that he
+always recognized and accepted a fact, and yet was capable of being
+wholly impractical.
+
+In connection with these efforts in behalf of the slaveholders, which
+show at least a singular goodness of heart towards persons who had done
+everything to excite even a sense of personal hatred, it may not be
+seriously out of place to quote a paragraph which does not, indeed,
+bear upon slavery, but which does illustrate the remarkable temper which
+Mr. Lincoln maintained towards the seceding communities. In December,
+1861, in his annual message to this Congress, whose searching
+anti-slavery measures have just been discussed, he said:--
+
+"There are three vacancies on the bench of the Supreme Court.... I have
+so far forborne making nominations to fill these vacancies for reasons
+which I will now state. Two of the outgoing judges resided within the
+States now overrun by revolt; so that if successors were appointed in
+the same localities, they could not now serve upon their circuits; and
+many of the most competent men there probably would not take the
+personal hazard of accepting to serve, even here, upon the Supreme
+Bench. I have been unwilling to throw all the appointments northward,
+thus disabling myself from doing justice to the South on the return of
+peace; although I may remark that to transfer to the North one which has
+heretofore been in the South would not, with reference to territory and
+population, be unjust."[3] To comment upon behavior and motives so
+extraordinary is, perhaps, as needless as it is tempting.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Also in the House Thaddeus Stevens and Lovejoy, and in the Senate
+Sumner, did not vote.
+
+[2] Lincoln's intimate personal and political friend, and afterward his
+biographer.
+
+[3] Annual Message to Congress, December, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SECOND ACT OF THE MCCLELLAN DRAMA
+
+
+It is time now to return to the theatre of war in Virginia, where, it
+will be remembered, we left the Confederate forces in the act of rapidly
+withdrawing southward from the line of intrenchments which they had so
+long held at Manassas. This unexpected backward movement upon their part
+deprived the Urbana route, which McClellan had hitherto so strenuously
+advocated, of its chief strategic advantages, and therefore reopened the
+old question which had been discussed between him and Mr. Lincoln. To
+the civilian mind a movement after the retreating enemy along the direct
+line to Richmond, now more than ever before, seemed the natural scheme.
+But to this McClellan still remained unalterably opposed. In the letter
+of February 3 he had said: "The worst coming to the worst, we can take
+Fort Monroe as a base and operate with complete security, although with
+less celerity and brilliancy of results, up the Peninsula." This route,
+low as he had then placed it in order of desirability, he now adopted as
+the best resource, or rather as the only measure; and his judgment was
+ratified upon March 13 by unanimous approval on the part of his four
+corps commanders. They however made their approval dependent upon
+conditions, among which were: that, before beginning the advance along
+this line, the new rebel ram Merrimac (or Virginia), just finished at
+Norfolk on the James River, should be neutralized, and that a naval
+auxiliary force should silence, or be ready to aid in silencing, the
+rebel batteries on the York River. In fact, and very unfortunately, the
+former of these conditions was not fulfilled until the time of its
+usefulness for this specific purpose was over, and the latter condition
+was entirely neglected. It was also distinctly stipulated that "the
+force to be left to cover Washington shall be such as to give an entire
+feeling of security for its safety from menace." Keyes, Heintzelman and
+McDowell conceived "that, with the forts on the right bank of the
+Potomac fully garrisoned, and those on the left bank occupied, a
+covering force, in front of the Virginia line, of 25,000 men would
+suffice." Sumner said: "A total of 40,000 for the defense of the city
+would suffice."[4] On the same day Stanton informed McClellan that the
+President "made no objection" to this plan, but directed that a
+sufficient force should be left to hold Manassas Junction and to make
+Washington "entirely secure." The closing sentence was: "At all events,
+move ... at once in pursuit of the enemy by some route." Thus at last
+two important facts were established: that the route up the Peninsula
+should be tried; and that the patience of the administration was
+exhausted.
+
+Though the enemy upon his retreat was burning bridges and destroying
+railroads behind him, and making his possible return towards Washington
+a slow, difficult process, which he obviously had no mind to undertake,
+still this security of the capital rested as weightily as ever upon
+Lincoln's mind. His reiteration and insistence concerning it made
+perfectly plain that he was still nervous and disquieted about it,
+though now certainly with much less reason than heretofore. But with or
+against reason, it was easy to see that he was far from resting in the
+tranquillity of conviction that Washington could never be so safe as
+when the army of Virginia was far away upon the Peninsula. Nevertheless,
+after the condition in its foregoing shape had been so strenuously
+imposed by Mr. Lincoln and tacitly accepted by McClellan, the matter was
+left as if definitely settled; and the President never demanded[5] from
+the general any distinct statement concerning the numerical or specific
+allotment of the available forces between the two purposes. The neglect
+was disastrous in its consequences; and must also be pronounced both
+blameworthy and inexplicable, for the necessity of a plain understanding
+on the subject was obvious.
+
+The facts seem to be briefly these: in his letter of February 3,
+McClellan estimated the force necessary to be taken with him for his
+campaign at 110,000 to 140,000 men, and said: "I hope to use the latter
+number by bringing fresh troops into Washington." On April 1 he
+reported[6] the forces left behind him as follows:--
+
+  At Warrenton, there is to be            7,780 men
+  At Manassas, there is to be            10,859 men
+  In the Valley of the Shenandoah        35,467 men
+  On the Lower Potomac                    1,350 men
+  -------------------------------------------------
+  In all                                 55,456 men
+
+He adds: "There will thus be left for the garrisons, and the front of
+Washington, under General Wadsworth, 18,000 men, exclusive of the
+batteries under instruction." New levies, nearly 4,000 strong, were also
+expected. He considered all these men as properly available "for the
+defense of the national capital and its approaches." The President, the
+politicians, and some military men were of opinion that only the 18,000
+ought to be considered available for the capital. It was a question
+whether it was proper to count the corps of Banks in the Shenandoah
+Valley. McClellan's theory was that the rebels, by the circumstances
+attendant upon their present retreating movement, had conclusively
+annulled any chance of their own return by way of Manassas. Banks
+greatly outnumbered Stonewall Jackson, who had only about 15,000 men, or
+less, in the Shenandoah Valley. Also Washington was now entirely
+surrounded by satisfactory fortifications. McClellan, therefore, was
+entirely confident that he left everything in good shape behind him. In
+fact, it was put into even better shape than he had designed; for on
+March 31 the President took from him Blenker's division of 10,000 men in
+order to strengthen Fremont, who was in the mountain region westward of
+the Shenandoah Valley. "I did so," wrote Mr. Lincoln, "with great
+pain.... If you could know the full pressure of the case, I am confident
+that you would justify it." It was unfortunate that the President could
+not stand against this "pressure," which was not military, but
+political. Fremont could do, and did, nothing at all, and to reinforce
+him was sheer absurdity.[7] Against it McClellan protested almost
+indignantly, but was "partially relieved by the President's positive and
+emphatic assurance" that no more troops "should in any event be taken
+from" him, or "in any way detached from [his] command."
+
+Orders had been issued on February 27, to Mr. Tucker, assistant
+secretary of war, to prepare means of transporting down the Potomac,
+troops, munitions, artillery, horses, wagons, food, and all the vast
+paraphernalia of a large army. He showed a masterly vigor in this
+difficult task, and by March 17 the embarkation began. On April 2
+McClellan arrived at Fortress Monroe. On the very next day he was
+disturbed by the revocation of the orders which had left him in command
+of that place and had allowed him to "draw from the troops under General
+Wool a division of about 10,000 men, which was to be assigned to the
+First Corps." Another and a serious disappointment also occurred at
+once; he found that the navy could not be utilized for assisting in an
+attack on Yorktown, or for running by it so as to land forces in rear of
+it. He must therefore depend wholly upon his army to force a way up the
+Peninsula. This he had stated to be an unsatisfactory alternative,
+because it involved delay at Yorktown. Nevertheless, having no choice,
+he began his advance on April 4. He had with him only 58,000 men; but
+more were on the way, and McDowell's corps was to be brought forward to
+join him as rapidly as transportation would permit. His total nominal
+force was smaller than the minimum which, on February 3, he had named as
+necessary; yet it was a fine body of troops, and he had lately said to
+them: "The army of the Potomac is now a real army, magnificent in
+material, admirable in discipline, excellently equipped and armed. Your
+commanders are all that I could wish."
+
+In two days he was before the fortifications which the rebels had
+erected at Yorktown, and which stretched thence across the Peninsula to
+the James River. He estimated the force behind these intrenchments,
+commanded by General Magruder, at 15,000 to 20,000 men, easily to be
+reinforced; in fact, it was much less. Thereupon, he set about elaborate
+preparations for a siege of that city, according to the most thorough
+and approved system of military science. He was afterward severely
+blamed for not endeavoring to force his way through some point in the
+rebel lines by a series of assaults.[8] This was what Mr. Lincoln wished
+him to do, and very nearly ordered him to do; for on April 6 he sent
+this telegram: "You now have over 100,000 troops with you.... I think
+you better break the enemy's line from Yorktown to Warwick River at
+once." An entry in McClellan's "Own Story," under date of April 8,
+comments upon this message and illustrates the unfortunate feeling of
+the writer towards his official superior: "I have raised an awful row
+about McDowell's corps. The President very coolly telegraphed me
+yesterday that he thought I had better break the enemy's lines at once!
+I was much tempted to reply that he had better come and do it himself."
+Thus is made evident the lamentable relationship between the President,
+who could place no confidence in the enterprise and judgment of the
+military commander, and the general, who had only sneers for the
+President's incapacity to comprehend warfare. It so happened, however,
+that the professional man's sarcasm was grossly out of place, and the
+civilian's proposal was shrewdly right, as events soon plainly proved.
+In fact what Mr. Lincoln urged was precisely what General Johnston
+anticipated and feared would be done, because he knew well that if it
+were done it would be of fatal effect against the Confederates. But, on
+the other hand, even after the clear proof had gone against him,
+McClellan was abundantly supplied with excuses, and the vexation of the
+whole affair was made the greater by the fact that these excuses really
+seemed to be good. His excuses always were both so numerous and so
+satisfactory, that many reasonably minded persons knew not whether they
+had a right to feel so angry towards him as they certainly could not
+help doing. The present instance was directly in point. General Keyes
+reported to him that no part of the enemy's line could "be taken by
+assault without an enormous waste of life;" and General Barnard, chief
+engineer of the army, thought it uncertain whether they could be carried
+at all. Loss of life and uncertainty of result were two things so
+abhorred by McClellan in warfare, that he now failed to give due weight
+to the consideration that the design of the Confederates in interposing
+an obstacle at this point was solely to delay him as much as possible,
+whereas much of the merit of his own plan of campaign lay in rapid
+execution at the outset. The result was, of course, that he did not
+break any line, nor try to, but instead thereof "presented plausible
+reasons" out of his inexhaustible reservoir of such commodities. It was
+unfortunate that the naval coöperation, which McClellan had expected,[9]
+could not be had at this juncture; for by it the Yorktown problem would
+have been easily solved without either line-breaking or reason-giving.
+
+Precisely at this point came into operation the fatal effect of the lack
+of understanding between the President and the general as to the
+division of the forces. In the plan of campaign, it had been designed to
+throw the corps of McDowell into the rear of Yorktown by such route as
+should seem expedient at the time of its arrival, probably landing it at
+Gloucester and moving it round by West Point. This would have made
+Magruder's position untenable at once, long before the natural end of
+the siege. But at the very moment when McClellan's left, in its advance,
+first came into actual collision with the enemy, he received news that
+the President had ordered McDowell to retain his division before
+Washington--"the most infamous thing that history has recorded," he
+afterward wrote.[10] Yet the explanation of this surprising news was so
+simple that surprise was unjustifiable. On April 2, immediately after
+McClellan's departure, the President inquired as to what had been done
+for the security of Washington. General Wadsworth, commanding the
+defenses of the city, gave an alarming response: 19,000 or 20,000
+entirely green troops, and a woeful insufficiency of artillery. He said
+that while it was "very improbable" that the enemy would attack
+Washington, nevertheless the "numerical strength and the character" of
+his forces rendered them "entirely inadequate to and unfit for their
+important duty." Generals Hitchcock and Thomas corroborated this by
+reporting that the order to leave the city "entirely secure" had "not
+been fully complied with." Mr. Lincoln was horror-struck. He had a right
+to be indignant, for those who ought to know assured him that his
+reiterated and most emphatic command had been disobeyed, and that what
+he chiefly cared to make safe had not been made safe. He promptly
+determined to retain McDowell, and the order was issued on April 4.
+Thereby he seriously attenuated, if he did not quite annihilate, the
+prospect of success for McClellan's campaign. It seems incredible and
+unexplainable that amid this condition of things, on April 3, an order
+was issued from the office of the secretary of war, to stop recruiting
+throughout the country!
+
+This series of diminutions, says McClellan, had "removed nearly 60,000
+men from my command, and reduced my force by more than one third.... The
+blow was most discouraging. It frustrated all my plans for impending
+operations. It fell when I was too deeply committed to withdraw.... It
+was a fatal error."
+
+Error or not, it was precisely what McClellan ought to have foreseen as
+likely to occur. He had not foreseen it, however, and nothing mitigated
+the disappointment. Unquestionably the act was of supreme gravity. Was
+Mr. Lincoln right or wrong in doing it? The question has been answered
+many times both Yea and Nay, and each side has been maintained with
+intense acrimony and perfect good faith. It is not likely that it will
+ever be possible to say either that the Yeas have it, or that the Nays
+have it.[11] For while it is certain that what actually _did_ happen
+coincided very accurately with McClellan's expectations; on the other
+hand, it can never be known what _might have_ happened if Lincoln had
+not held McDowell, and if, therefore, facts had not been what they were.
+
+So far as Mr. Lincoln is concerned, the question, what military judgment
+was correct,--that is, whether the capital really was, or was not,
+absolutely secure,--is of secondary consequence. The valuation which he
+set on that safety was undeniably correct; it certainly was of more
+importance than McClellan's success. If he had made a mistake in letting
+McClellan go without a more distinct understanding, at least that
+mistake was behind him. Before him was the issue whether he should rest
+satisfied with the deliberate judgment given by McClellan, or whether,
+at considerable cost to the cause, he should make the assurance greater
+out of deference to other advice. He chose the latter course. In so
+doing, if he was not vacillating, he was at least incurring the evils of
+vacillation. It would have been well if he could have found some quarter
+in which permanently to repose his implicit faith, so that one
+consistent plan could have been carried out without interference. Either
+he had placed too much confidence in McClellan in the past, or he was
+placing too little in him now. If he could not accept McClellan's
+opinion as to the safety of Washington, in preference to that of
+Wadsworth, Thomas, and Hitchcock, then he should have removed McClellan,
+and replaced him with some one in whom he had sufficient confidence to
+make smooth coöperation a possibility. The present condition of things
+was illogical and dangerous. Matters had been allowed to reach a very
+advanced stage upon the theory that McClellan's judgment was
+trustworthy; then suddenly the stress became more severe, and it seemed
+that in the bottom of his mind the President did not thus implicitly
+respect the general's wisdom. Yet he did not displace him, but only
+opened his ears to other counsels; whereupon the buzz of contradictory,
+excited, and alarming suggestions which came to him were more than
+enough to unsettle any human judgment. General Webb speaks well and with
+authority to this matter: "The dilemma lay here,--whose plans and advice
+should he follow, where it was necessary for him to approve and
+decide?... Should he lean implicitly on the general actually in command
+of the armies, placed there by virtue of his presumed fitness for the
+position, or upon other selected advisers? We are bold to say that it
+was doubt and hesitation upon this point that occasioned many of the
+blunders of the campaign. Instead of one mind, there were many minds
+influencing the management of military affairs." A familiar culinary
+proverb was receiving costly illustration.
+
+But, setting the dispute aside, an important fact remains: shorn as he
+was, McClellan was still strong enough to meet and to defeat his
+opponents. If he had been one of the great generals of the world he
+would have been in Richmond before May Day; but he was at his old trick
+of exaggerating the hostile forces and the difficulties in his way. On
+April 7 he thought that Johnston and the whole Confederate army were at
+Yorktown; whereas Johnston's advance division arrived there on the 10th;
+the other divisions came several days later, and Johnston himself
+arrived only on the 14th.
+
+On April 9 Mr. Lincoln presented his own view of the situation in this
+letter to the general:--
+
+"Your dispatches complaining that you are not properly sustained, while
+they do not offend me, do pain me very much.
+
+... "After you left I ascertained that less than 20,000 unorganized men,
+without a single field battery, were all you designed to be left for the
+defense of Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even was
+to go to General Hooker's old position. General Banks's corps, once
+designed for Manassas Junction, was diverted and tied up on the line of
+Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing
+the upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented,
+or would present, when McDowell and Sumner should be gone, a great
+temptation to the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack
+Washington. My implicit order that Washington should, by the judgment of
+all the commanders of army corps, be left entirely secure, had been
+neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell.
+
+"I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave
+Banks at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was broken up, and
+nothing was substituted for it, of course I was constrained to
+substitute something for it myself. And allow me to ask, do you really
+think I should permit the line from Richmond, via Manassas Junction, to
+this city, to be entirely open, except what resistance could be
+presented by less than 20,000 unorganized troops? This is a question
+which the country will not allow me to evade.
+
+"There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now with you.
+When I telegraphed you on the 6th, saying you had over a hundred
+thousand with you, I had just obtained from the secretary of war a
+statement taken, as he said, from your own returns, making 108,000 then
+with you and en route to you. You now say you will have but 85,000 when
+all en route to you shall have reached you. How can the discrepancy of
+23,000 be accounted for?
+
+"As to General Wool's command,[12] I understand it is doing for you
+precisely what a like number of your own would have to do if that
+command was away.
+
+"I suppose the whole force which has gone forward for you is with you by
+this time. And if so, I think it is the precise time for you to strike a
+blow. By delay the enemy will relatively gain upon you,--that is, he
+will gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than you can by
+reinforcements alone. And once more let me tell you, it is indispensable
+to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do
+me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in
+search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only
+shifting, and not surmounting, a difficulty; that we would find the same
+enemy, and the same or equal intrenchments, at either place. The country
+will not fail to note, is now noting, that the present hesitation to
+move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.
+
+"I beg to assure you that I have never written you or spoken to you in
+greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to
+sustain you, so far as, in my most anxious judgment, I consistently can.
+But you must act."
+
+McClellan, in consternation and almost despair at the repeated pruning
+of his force, now begged for at least a part of McDowell's corps, which,
+he said on April 10, was "indispensable;" "the fate of our cause depends
+upon it." Accordingly Franklin's division was sent to him; and then,
+after all this palaver, he kept it a fortnight on shipboard, until
+Yorktown was evacuated!
+
+On May 1 the President, tortured by the political gadflies in
+Washington, and suffering painfully from the weariness of hope so long
+deferred, telegraphed: "Is anything to be done?" A pitiful time of it
+Mr. Lincoln was having, and it called for a patient fortitude surpassing
+imagination. Yet one little bit of fruit was at this moment ripe for the
+plucking! After about four weeks of wearisome labor the general had
+brought matters to that condition which was so grateful to his cautious
+soul. At the beginning of May he had reduced success to a certainty, so
+that he expected to open fire on May 5, and to make short work of the
+rebel stronghold. But it so happened that another soldier also had at
+the same time finished his task. General Magruder had delayed the Union
+army to the latest possible hour, he had saved a whole valuable month;
+and now, quite cheerfully and triumphantly, in the night betwixt May 3
+and May 4, he quietly slipped away. As it had happened at Manassas, so
+now again the Federals marched unopposed into deserted intrenchments;
+and a second time the enemy had so managed it that their retreat seemed
+rather to cast a slur upon Union strategy than to bring prestige to the
+Union arms.
+
+McClellan at once continued his advance, with more or less fighting, the
+rebels steadily drawing back without offering battle on a large scale,
+though there was a sharp engagement at Williamsburg. He had not even the
+smaller number of men which he had originally named as his requirement,
+and he continued pertinaciously to demand liberal reinforcements. The
+President, grievously harassed by these importunate appeals, declared to
+McClellan that he was forwarding every man that he could, while to
+friends nearer at hand he complained that sending troops to McClellan
+was like shoveling fleas across a barnyard; most of them didn't get
+there! At last he made up his mind to send the remainder of McDowell's
+corps; not because he had changed his mind about covering Washington,
+but because the situation had become such that he expected to arrange
+this matter by other resources.
+
+The fight at Williamsburg took place on May 5. McClellan pushed after
+the retiring enemy, too slowly, as his detractors said, yet by roads
+which really were made almost impassable by heavy rains. Two days later,
+May 7, Franklin's force disembarked and occupied West Point. This
+advance up the Peninsula now produced one important result which had
+been predicted by McClellan in his letter of February 3. On May 8 news
+came that the Confederates were evacuating Norfolk, and two days later a
+Union force marched into the place. The rebels lost many heavy guns,
+besides all the advantages of the navy yard with its workshops and
+stores; moreover, their awe-inspiring ram, the Merrimac, alias the
+Virginia, was obliged to leave this comfortable nestling-place, whence
+she had long watched and closed the entrance to the James River. Her
+commander, Tatnall, would have taken her up that stream, but the pilots
+declared it not possible to float her over the shoals. She was therefore
+abandoned and set on fire; and early in the morning of May 11 she blew
+up, leaving the southern water-way to Richmond open to the Union
+fleet.[13] It was a point of immense possible advantage. Later McClellan
+intimated that, if he had been left free to act upon his own judgment,
+he would probably have availed himself of this route; and some writers,
+with predilections in his favor, have assumed that he was prevented from
+doing so by certain orders, soon to be mentioned, which directed him to
+keep the northerly route for the purpose of effecting a junction with
+McDowell. But this notion seems incorrect; for though he doubtless had
+the James River route under consideration, yet dates are against the
+theory that he wished to adopt it when at last it lay open. On the
+contrary, he continued his advance precisely as before. On May 16 his
+leading columns reached White House; headquarters were established
+there, and steps were immediately taken to utilize it as a depot and
+base of supplies. The York River route was thus made the definitive
+choice. Also the advance divisions were immediately pushed out along
+the York River and Richmond Railroad, which they repaired as they went.
+On May 20 Casey's division actually crossed the Chickahominy at Bottom's
+Bridge, and the next day a large part of the army was in position upon
+the north bank of that stream. Obviously these operations, each and all,
+ruled out the James River route, at least as a part of the present plan.
+Yet it was not until they were well under way, viz., on May 18, that the
+intelligence reached McClellan, on the strength of which he and others
+afterward assumed that he had been deprived of the power to select the
+James River route. What this intelligence was and how it came to pass
+must now be narrated.
+
+By this time, the advance along the Peninsula had so completely
+"relieved the front of Washington from pressure," that Mr. Lincoln and
+his advisers, reassured as to the safety of that city, now saw their way
+clear to make McDowell's corps, strengthened to a force of 41,000 men,
+contribute actively to McClellan's assistance. They could not, indeed,
+bring themselves to move it by water, as McClellan desired; but the
+President ordered McDowell to move down from Fredericksburg, where he
+now lay, towards McClellan's right wing, which McClellan was ordered to
+extend to the north of Richmond in order to meet him. But, in the words
+of the Comte de Paris, "an absurd restriction revealed the old mistrusts
+and fears." For McDowell was strictly ordered not to uncover the
+capital; also, with a decisive emphasis indicative of an uneasy
+suspicion, McClellan was forbidden to dispose of McDowell's force in
+contravention of this still primary purpose. Whether McDowell was under
+McClellan's control, or retained an independent command, was left
+curiously vague, until McClellan forced a distinct understanding.
+
+Although McClellan, writing to Lincoln, condemned rather sharply the
+method selected for giving to him the aid so long implored, yet he felt
+that, even as it came to him, he could make it serve his turn. Though he
+grumbled at the President's unmilitary ways, he afterward admitted that
+the "cheering news" made him "confident" of being "sufficiently strong
+to overpower the large army confronting" him. There was no doubt of it.
+He immediately extended his right wing; May 24, he drove the
+Confederates out of Mechanicsville; May 26, General Porter took position
+at Hanover Junction only fifteen miles from McDowell's head of column,
+which had advanced eight miles out of Fredericksburg. The situation was
+not unpromising; but unfortunately that little interval of fifteen miles
+was never to be closed up.
+
+May 24, Mr. Lincoln wrote to McClellan, and after suggesting sundry
+advisable movements, he said: "McDowell and Shields[14] both say they
+can, and positively will, move Monday morning." Monday was the 26th. In
+point of fact, McDowell, feeling time to be of great value, urged the
+President to let him move on the morning of Sunday, the 25th; but Mr.
+Lincoln positively refused; the battle of Bull Run had been fought on a
+Sunday, and he dreaded the omen.[15] This feeling which he had about
+days was often illustrated, and probably the reader has observed that he
+seemed to like dates already marked by prestige or good luck; thus he
+had convened Congress for July 4, and had ordered the general advance of
+the armies for February 22; it was an indication of the curious thread
+of superstition which ran through his strange nature,--a remnant of his
+youth and the mysterious influence of the wilderness. But worse than a
+superstitious postponement arrived before nightfall on Saturday. A
+dispatch from Lincoln to McClellan, dated at four o'clock that
+afternoon, said: "In consequence of General Banks's critical position, I
+have been compelled to suspend General McDowell's movements to join you.
+The enemy are making a desperate push upon Harper's Ferry, and we are
+trying to throw General Fremont's force and part of General McDowell's
+in their rear." The brief words conveyed momentous intelligence. It is
+necessary to admit that Mr. Lincoln was making his one grand blunder,
+for which there is not even the scant salvation of possible doubt. All
+that can be said in palliation is, that he was governed, or at least
+strongly impelled, by the urgent advice of the secretary of war, whose
+hasty telegrams to the governors of several States show that he was
+terror-stricken and had lost his head. Mr. Blaine truly says that
+McDowell, thus suddenly dispatched by Mr. Lincoln upon a "fruitless
+chase," "was doing precisely what the President of the Confederate
+States would have ordered, had he been able to issue the orders of the
+President of the United States." There is no way to mitigate the painful
+truth of this statement, made by a civilian, but amply sustained by the
+military authorities on both sides.[16]
+
+The condition was this. The retention of McDowell's corps before
+Washington published the anxiety of the administration. The Confederate
+advantage lay in keeping that anxiety alive and continuing to neutralize
+that large body of troops. Strategists far less able than the Southern
+generals could not have missed so obvious a point, neither could they
+have missed the equally obvious means at their disposal for achieving
+these purposes. At the upper end of the valley of the Shenandoah
+Stonewall Jackson had an army, raised by recent accretions to nearly or
+quite 15,000 men. The Northern generals erelong learned to prognosticate
+Jackson's movements by the simple rule that at the time when he was
+least expected, and at the place where he was least wanted, he was sure
+to turn up.[17] The suddenness and speed with which he could move a body
+of troops seemed marvelous to ordinary men. His business now was to make
+a vigorous dashing foray down the valley. To the westward, Fremont lay
+in the mountains, with an army which checked no enemy and for the
+existence of which in that place no reasonable explanation could be
+given. In front was Banks, with a force lately reduced to about 5,000
+men. May 14, Banks prudently fell back and took position in
+Strasburg.[18] Suddenly, on May 23, Jackson appeared at Front Royal; on
+the next day he attacked Banks at Winchester, and of course defeated
+him; on the 25th Banks made a rapid retreat to the Potomac, and Jackson
+made an equally rapid pursuit to Halltown, within two miles of Harper's
+Ferry. The news of this startling foray threw the civilians of
+Washington into a genuine panic, by which Mr. Lincoln was, at least for
+a few hours, not altogether unaffected.[19] Yet, though startled and
+alarmed, he showed the excellent quality of promptitude in decision and
+action; and truly it was hard fortune that his decision and his action
+were both for the worst. He at once ordered McDowell to move 20,000
+troops into the Shenandoah Valley, and instructed Fremont also to move
+his force rapidly into the valley, with the design that the two should
+thus catch Jackson in what Mr. Lincoln described as a "trap."[20]
+McDowell was dismayed at such an order. He saw, what every man having
+any military knowledge at once recognized with entire certainty, and
+what every military writer has since corroborated, that the movement of
+Jackson had no value except as a diversion, that it threatened no
+serious danger, and that to call off McDowell's corps from marching to
+join McClellan in order to send it against Jackson was to do exactly
+that thing which the Confederates desired to have done, though they
+could hardly have been sanguine enough to expect it. It was swallowing a
+bait so plain that it might almost be said to be labeled. For a general
+to come under the suspicion of not seeing through such a ruse was
+humiliating. In vain McDowell explained, protested, and entreated with
+the utmost vehemence and insistence. When Mr. Lincoln had made up his
+mind, no man could change it, and here, as ill fortune would have it,
+he had made it up. So, with a heavy heart, the reluctant McDowell set
+forth on his foolish errand, and Fremont likewise came upon his,--though
+it is true that he was better employed thus than in doing nothing,--and
+Jackson, highly pleased, and calculating his time to a nicety, on May 31
+slipped rapidly between the two Union generals,--the closing jaws of Mr.
+Lincoln's "trap,"--and left them to close upon nothing.[21] Then he led
+his pursuers a fruitless chase towards the head of the valley,
+continuing to neutralize a force many times larger than his own, and
+which could and ought to have been at this very time doing fatal work
+against the Confederacy. Presumably he had saved Richmond, and therewith
+also, not impossibly, the chief army of the South. The chagrin of the
+Union commanders, who had in vain explained the situation with entire
+accuracy, taxes the imagination.
+
+There is no use in denying a truth which can be proved. The blunder of
+Mr. Lincoln is not only undeniable, but it is inexcusable. Possibly for
+a few hours he feared that Washington was threatened. He telegraphed to
+McClellan May 25, at two o'clock P.M., that he thought the movement down
+the valley a "general and concerted one," inconsistent with "the purpose
+of a very desperate defense of Richmond;" and added, "I think the time
+is near when you must either attack Richmond, or give up the job and
+come to the defense of Washington." How reasonable this view was at the
+moment is of little consequence, for within a few hours afterward the
+character of Jackson's enterprise as a mere foray became too palpable to
+be mistaken. Nevertheless, after the President was relieved from such
+fear for the capital as he might excusably have felt for a very brief
+period, his cool judgment seemed for once in his life, perhaps for the
+only time, to be disturbed. The truth is that Mr. Lincoln was a sure and
+safe, almost an infallible thinker, when he had time given him; but he
+was not always a quick thinker, and on this occasion he was driven to
+think quickly. In consequence he not only erred in repudiating the
+opinions of the best military advisers, but even upon the basis of his
+own views he made a mistake. The very fact that he was so energetic in
+the endeavor to "trap" Jackson in retreat indicates his understanding of
+the truth that Jackson had so small a force that his prompt retreat was
+a necessity. This being so, he was in the distinct and simple position
+of making a choice between two alternatives, viz.: either to endeavor to
+catch Jackson, and for this object to withhold what was needed by and
+had been promised to McClellan for his campaign against Richmond; or,
+leaving Jackson to escape with impunity, to pursue with steadiness that
+plan which it was Jackson's important and perfectly understood errand to
+interrupt. It is almost incredible that he chose wrong. The statement of
+the dilemma involved the decision. Yet he took the little purpose and
+let the great one go. Nor even thus did he gain this lesser purpose. He
+had been warned by McDowell that Jackson could not be caught, and he was
+not. Yet even had this been otherwise, the Northerners would have got
+little more than the shell while losing the kernel. Probably Richmond,
+and possibly the Southern army, fell out of the President's hand while
+he tried without success to close it upon Jackson and 15,000 men.
+
+The result of this civilian strategy was that McClellan, with his
+projects shattered, was left with his right wing and rear dangerously
+exposed. Jackson remained for a while a mysterious _bête noire_, about
+whose force, whereabouts, and intentions many disturbing rumors flew
+abroad; at last, on June 26, he settled these doubts in his usual sharp
+and conclusive way by assailing the exposed right wing and threatening
+the rear of the Union army, thus achieving "the brilliant conclusion of
+the operations which [he] had so successfully conducted in the Valley of
+Virginia."
+
+Simultaneously with the slipping of Jackson betwixt his two pursuers on
+May 31, General Johnston made an attack upon the two corps[22] which lay
+south of the Chickahominy, in position about Seven Pines and Fair Oaks.
+Battle was waged during two days. Each side claimed a victory; the
+Southerners because they had inflicted the heavier loss, the
+Northerners because ultimately they held their original lines and foiled
+Johnston's design of defeating and destroying the Northern army in
+detail. The result of this battle ought to have proved to McClellan two
+facts: that neither in discipline nor in any other respect were the
+Southern troops more formidable than his own; also that the Southerners
+were clearly not able to overwhelm him with such superior numbers as he
+had supposed; for in two days they had not been able to overwhelm much
+less than half of his army. These considerations should have encouraged
+him to energetic measures. But no encouragement could counteract the
+discouragement inflicted by the loss of McDowell's powerful corps and
+the consequent wrecking of his latest plan. Nearly to the end of June he
+lay immovable. "June 14, midnight. All quiet in every direction,"--thus
+he telegraphed to Stanton in words intended to be reassuring, but in
+fact infinitely vexatious. Was he, then, set at the head of this great
+and costly host of the nation's best, to rest satisfied with preserving
+an eternal quietude,--like a chief of police in a disorderly quarter?
+Still he was indefatigable in declaring himself outnumbered, and in
+demanding more troops; in return he got assurances, with only the slight
+fulfillment of McCall's division. Every two or three days he cheeringly
+announced to the administration that he was on the verge of advancing,
+but he never passed over the verge. Throughout a season in which
+blundering seemed to become epidemic, no blunder was greater than his
+quiescence at this time.[23] As if to emphasize it, about the middle of
+June General Stuart, with a body of Confederate cavalry, actually rode
+all around the Union army, making the complete circuit and crossing its
+line of communication with White House without interruption. The foray
+achieved little, but it wore the aspect of a signal and unavenged
+insult.
+
+In Washington the only powerful backing upon which McClellan could still
+rely was that of the President, and he was surely wearing away the
+patience of his only friend by the irritating attrition of promises ever
+reiterated and never redeemed. No man ever kept his own counsel more
+closely than did Mr. Lincoln, and the indications of his innermost
+sentiments concerning McClellan at this time are rare. But perhaps a
+little ray is let in, as through a cranny, by a dispatch which he sent
+to the general on June 2: "With these continuous rains I am very anxious
+about the Chickahominy,--so close in your rear, and crossing your line
+of communication. Please look to it." This curt prompting on so obvious
+a point was a plain insinuation against McClellan's military competence,
+and suggests that ceaseless harassment had at last got the better of
+Lincoln's usually imperturbable self-possession; for it lacked little of
+being an insult, and Mr. Lincoln, in all his life, never insulted any
+man. As a spot upon a white cloth sets off the general whiteness, so
+this dispatch illustrates Lincoln's unweariable patience and
+long-suffering without parallel. McClellan, never trammeled by respect,
+retorted sharply: "As the Chickahominy has been almost the only obstacle
+in my way for several days, your excellency may rest assured that it has
+not been overlooked." When finally the general became active, it was
+under the spur of General Jackson, not of President Lincoln. Jackson
+compelled him to decide and act; and the result was his famous southward
+movement to the James River. Some, adopting his own nomenclature, have
+called this a change of base; some, less euphemistically, speak of it as
+a retreat. According to General Webb, it may be called either the one or
+the other with equal propriety, for it partook of the features of
+each.[24] It is no part of the biographer of Lincoln to narrate the
+suffering and the gallantry of the troops through those seven days of
+continuous fighting and marching, during which they made their painful
+way, in the face of an attacking army, through the dismal swamps of an
+unwholesome region, amid the fierce and humid heats of the Southern
+summer. On July 1 they closed the dread experience by a brilliant
+victory in the desperate, prolonged, and bloody battle of Malvern Hill.
+
+In the course of this march a letter was sent by McClellan to Stanton
+which has become famous. The vindictive lunge, visibly aimed at the
+secretary, was really designed, piercing this lesser functionary, to
+reach the President. Even though written amid the strain and stress of
+the most critical and anxious moment of the terrible "Seven Days," the
+words were unpardonable. The letter is too long to be given in full, but
+the closing sentences were:--
+
+"I know that a few thousand more men would have changed this battle[25]
+from a defeat to a victory. As it is, the government must not and cannot
+hold me responsible for the result. I feel too earnestly to-night. I
+have seen too many dead and wounded comrades to feel otherwise than that
+the government has not sustained this army. If you do not do so now, the
+game is lost. If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no
+thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your
+best to sacrifice this army."[26] It was safe to write thus to Mr.
+Lincoln, whose marvelous magnanimity was never soiled by a single act
+of revenge; but the man who addressed such language to Stanton secured a
+merciless and unscrupulous enemy forever.
+
+Though, at the close of this appalling week, the troops at last were
+conquerors on the banks of the James, they were in a position not
+permanently tenable, and before they could rest they had to fall back
+another march to Harrison's Landing. The rear guard reached this haven
+on the night of July 3, and the army, thus at last safely placed and in
+direct communication with the fleet and the transports, was able to
+recuperate,[27] while those in authority considered of the future.
+Certain facts were established: first, concerning the army,--that before
+it met the baptism of heavy fighting it had been brought into a splendid
+condition of drill and efficiency, and that by that baptism, so severe
+and so long continued, it had come as near as volunteers could come to
+the excellence of veterans and regulars; also that it was at least a
+match for its opponents; and, finally, strange to say, it was very
+slightly demoralized, would soon again be in condition for an advance,
+and felt full confidence and strong affection for its commander.
+Brilliant and enthusiastic tributes have been paid to these men for
+their endurance amid disease and wounds and battle; but not one word too
+much has been said. It is only cruel to think of the hideous price
+which they had paid, and by which they had bought only the capacity to
+endure further perils and hardship. Second, concerning McClellan; it was
+to be admitted that his predictions as to points of strategy had been
+fulfilled; that he had managed his retreat, or "change of base," with
+skill, and had shown some qualities of high generalship; but it was also
+evident that he was of a temperament so unenterprising and apprehensive
+as to make him entirely useless in an offensive campaign. Yet the burden
+of conducting a successful offense lay upon the North. Must Mr. Lincoln,
+then, finally accept the opinion of those who had long since concluded
+that McClellan was not the man for the place?
+
+A collateral question was: What should be done next? McClellan,
+tenacious and stubborn, was for persisting in the movement against Lee's
+army and Richmond. He admitted no other thought than that, having paused
+to gather reinforcements and to refresh his army, he should assume the
+offensive, approaching the city by the south and southwest from the
+James River base. Holding this purpose, he was impolitic in sending very
+dolorous dispatches on July 4 and 7, intimating doubts as to his power
+to maintain successfully even the defensive. Two or three days later,
+however, he assumed a better tone; and on July 11 and 12 he reported
+"all in fine spirits," and urged that his army should be "promptly
+reinforced and thrown again upon Richmond. If we have a little more
+than half a chance, we can take it." He continued throughout the month
+to press these views by arguments which, though overruled at the time,
+have since been more favorably regarded. Whether or not they were
+correct is an item in the long legacy of questions left by the war to be
+disputed over by posterity; in time, one side or the other may desist
+from the discussion in weariness, but, from the nature of the case,
+neither can be vanquished.
+
+Whether McClellan was right or wrong, his prestige, fresh as it still
+remained with his devoted troops, was utterly gone at Washington, where
+the political host was almost a unit against him. The Committee on the
+Conduct of the War had long been bitterly denouncing him; and he had so
+abused the secretary of war that even the duplicity of Mr. Stanton was
+unequal to the strain of maintaining an appearance of good
+understanding. New military influences also fell into the same scale.
+General Pope, the latest "favorite," now enjoying his few weeks of
+authority, endeavored to make it clear to Mr. Lincoln that to bring
+McClellan back from the Peninsula was the only safe and intelligent
+course. Further, on July 11, President Lincoln appointed General Halleck
+general-in-chief. It may be said, in passing, that the appointment
+turned out to be a very bad mistake; for Halleck was as dull a man as
+ever made use of grand opportunities only to prove his own
+incompetence. Now, however, he came well recommended before Lincoln,
+and amid novel responsibilities the merit of any man could only be known
+by trial. Halleck did not arrive in Washington till near the end of the
+month, then he seemed for a while in doubt, or to be upon both sides of
+the question as to whether the army should be advanced or withdrawn; but
+ultimately, in the contemptuous language of Mr. Swinton, he "added his
+strident voice in favor of the withdrawal of the army from the
+Peninsula." This settled the matter; for the President had decided to
+place himself under the guidance of his new military mentor; and,
+moreover, his endurance was worn out.
+
+In the way of loyalty the President certainly owed nothing further to
+the general. All such obligations he had exhaustively discharged. In
+spite of the covert malicious suggestions and the direct injurious
+charges which tortured the air of the White House and vexed his
+judgment, he had sustained McClellan with a constancy which deserved
+warm gratitude. This the general never gave, because he could never
+forgive Mr. Lincoln for refusing to subordinate his own views to those
+of such a military expert as himself. This point, it is true, Lincoln
+never reached; but subject only to this independence of opinion and
+action, so long as he retained McClellan in command, he fulfilled toward
+him every requirement of honor and generosity. The movement across the
+Peninsula, whatever construction might possibly be put upon it, seemed
+in Washington a retreat, and was for the President a disappointment
+weighty enough to have broken the spirit of a smaller man. Yet Lincoln,
+instead of sacrificing McClellan as a scapegoat, sent to him on July 1
+and 2 telegrams bidding him do his best in the emergency and save his
+army, in which case the people would rally and repair all losses; "we
+still have strength enough in the country and will bring it out," he
+said,--words full of cheering resolution unshaded by a suspicion of
+reproach, words which should have come like wine to the weary. The next
+day, July 3, he sent a dispatch which even McClellan, in his formal
+report, described as "kind:" "I am satisfied that yourself, officers,
+and men have done the best you could. All accounts say better fighting
+was never done. Ten thousand thanks for it." But when it came to
+judgment and action the President could not alleviate duty with
+kindness. To get information uncolored by passage through the minds of
+others, he went down to Harrison's Landing on July 7, observed all that
+he could see, and talked matters over. Prior to this visit it is
+supposed that he had leaned towards McClellan's views, and had inclined
+to renew the advance. Nor is it clearly apparent that he learned
+anything during this trip which induced him to change his mind. Rather
+it seems probable that he maintained his original opinion until General
+Halleck had declared against it, and that then he yielded to General
+Halleck as he had before yielded to General McClellan, though certainly
+with much less reluctance. At the same time the question was not
+considered wholly by itself, but was almost necessarily complicated with
+the question of deposing McClellan from the command. For the
+inconsistency of discrediting McClellan's military judgment and
+retaining him at the head of the army was obvious.
+
+Thus at last it came about that McClellan's plan lost its only remaining
+friend, and on August 3 came the definite order for the removal of the
+army across the Peninsula to Acquia Creek. The campaign against Richmond
+was abandoned. McClellan could not express his indignation at a policy
+"almost fatal to our cause;" but his strenuous remonstrances had no
+effect; his influence had passed forever. The movement of the army was
+successfully completed, the rear guard arriving at Yorktown on August
+20. Thus the first great Peninsula campaign came to its end in
+disappointment and almost in disaster, amid heart-burnings and
+criminations. It was, says General Webb, "a lamentable failure,--nothing
+less." There was little hope for the future unless some master hand
+could control the discordant officials who filled the land with the din
+of their quarreling. The burden lay upon the President. Fortunately his
+good sense, his even judgment, his unexcitable temperament had saved him
+from the appearance or the reality of partisanship and from any
+entangling or compromising personal commitments.
+
+In many ways and for many reasons, this story of the Peninsula has been
+both difficult and painful to write. To reach the truth and sound
+conclusions in the many quarrels which it has provoked is never easy,
+and upon some points seems impossible; and neither the truth nor the
+conclusions are often agreeable. Opinion and sympathy have gradually but
+surely tended in condemnation of McClellan and in favor of Lincoln. The
+evidence is conclusive that McClellan was vain, disrespectful, and
+hopelessly blind to those non-military but very serious considerations
+which should have been allowed to modify the purely scientific strategy
+of the campaign. Also, though his military training was excellent, it
+was his misfortune to be placed amid exigencies for which neither his
+moral nor his mental qualities were adapted. Lincoln, on the other hand,
+displayed traits of character not only in themselves rare and admirable,
+but so fitted to the requirements of the times that many persons have
+been tempted to conceive him to have been divinely led. But against this
+view, though without derogating from the merits which induce it, is to
+be set the fact that he made mistakes hardly consistent with the theory
+of inspiration by Omniscience. He interfered in military matters; and,
+being absolutely ignorant of military science, while the problems before
+him were many and extremely perplexing, he blundered, and on at least
+one occasion blundered very badly. After he has been given the benefit
+of all the doubt which can be suggested concerning the questions which
+he disposed of, the preponderance of expert authority shows a residuum
+of substantial certainty against him. It is true that many civilian
+writers have given their judgments in favor of the President's strategy,
+with a tranquil assurance at least equal to that shown by the military
+critics. But it seems hardly reasonable to suppose that Mr. Lincoln
+became by mere instinct, and instantly, a master in the complex science
+of war, and it is also highly improbable that in the military criticism
+of this especial campaign, the civilians are generally right and the
+military men are generally wrong. On the whole it is pleasanter as well
+as more intelligent to throw out this foolish notion of miraculous
+knowledge suddenly illuminating Mr. Lincoln with a thorough mastery of
+the art of war. It is better not to believe that he became at once
+endowed with acquirements which he had never had an opportunity to
+attain, and rather to be content with holding him as a simple human
+being like the rest of us, and so to credit our common humanity with the
+inspiring excellence of the moral qualities displayed by him in those
+months of indescribable trial.
+
+How much of expectation had been staked upon that army of the Potomac!
+All the Northern people for nearly a year kept their eyes fastened with
+aching intensity upon it; good fortunes which befell elsewhere hardly
+interrupted for a moment the absorption in it. The feeling was well
+illustrated by the committee of Congress, which said that in the
+history of this army was to be found all that was necessary for framing
+a report on the Conduct of the War; and truly added that this army had
+been "the object of special care to every department of the government."
+It occurred to many who heard this language, that matters would have
+gone better with the army if the political and civil departments had
+been less lavish of care and attention. None the less the fact remained
+that the interest and anticipation of the whole loyal part of the nation
+were concentrated in the Virginia campaign. Correspondingly cruel was
+the disappointment at its ultimate miscarriage. Probably, as a single
+trial, it was the most severe that Mr. Lincoln ever suffered. Hope then
+went through the painful process of being pruned by failure, and it was
+never tortured by another equal mutilation. Moreover, the vastness of
+the task, the awful cost of success, were now, for the first time,
+appreciated. The responsibility of a ruler under so appalling a destiny
+now descended with a weight that could never become greater upon the
+shoulders of that lonely man in the White House. A solitary man, indeed,
+he was, in a solitude impressive and painful to contemplate. Having none
+of those unofficial counselors, those favorites, those privy confidants
+and friends, from whom men in chief authority are so apt to seek relief,
+Mr. Lincoln secretively held his most important thoughts in his own
+mind, wrought out his conclusions by the toil of his own brain, carried
+his entire burden wholly upon his own shoulders, and in every part and
+way met the full responsibility of his office in and by himself alone.
+It does not appear that he ever sought to be sustained or comforted or
+encouraged amid disaster, that he ever endeavored to shift upon others
+even the most trifling fragment of the load which rested upon himself;
+and certainly he never desired that any one should ever be a sharer in
+any ill repute attendant upon a real or supposed mistake. Silent as to
+matters of deep import, self-sustained, facing alone all grave duties,
+solving alone all difficult problems, and enduring alone all
+consequences, he appears a man so isolated from his fellow men amid such
+tests and trials, that one is filled with a sense of awe, almost beyond
+sympathy, in the contemplation.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] This language was too vague to make known to us now what Sumner's
+demand was; for one of the questions bitterly in dispute soon became:
+what forces were properly to be regarded as available "for the defense
+of the city."
+
+[5] McClellan says that he offered to General Hitchcock, "who at that
+time held staff relations with his excellency, the President, and the
+secretary of war," to submit a list of troops, to be left for the
+defense of Washington, with their positions; but Hitchcock replied that
+McClellan's judgment was sufficient in the matter. McClellan's _Report_,
+683. VOL. II.
+
+[6] By letter to the adjutant-general, wherein he requested the
+transmission of the information to the secretary of war. _Report of
+Comm. on Conduct of the War_, ii. pt. i. 13. The addition in the
+_Report_ is erroneous, being given as 54,456 instead of 55,456.
+
+[7] See Comte de Paris, _Civil War in America_, i. 626, 627.
+
+[8] See discussion by Swinton, _Army of Potomac_, 108 _et seq._
+
+[9] Perhaps he was not justified in counting upon it with such apparent
+assurance as he had done. Webb, _The Peninsula_, 37-42.
+
+[10] General Webb says that this question is "the leading point of
+dispute in the campaign and may never be satisfactorily set at rest."
+But he also says: "To allow the general to remain in command, and then
+cut off the very arm with which he was about to strike, we hold to have
+been inexcusable and unmilitary to the last degree." Swinton condemns
+the withholding McDowell (_Army of the Potomac_, 104), adding, with fine
+magnanimity, that it is not necessary to impute any "really unworthy
+motive" to Mr. Lincoln!
+
+[11] It seems to me that military opinion, so far as I can get at it,
+inclines to hold that the government, having let McClellan go to the
+Peninsula with the expectation of McDowell's corps, ought to have sent
+it to him, and not to have repaired its own oversight at his cost. But
+this does not fully meet the position that, oversight or no oversight,
+Peninsula-success or Peninsula-defeat, blame here or blame there, when
+the President had reason to doubt the safety of the capital, he was
+resolved, and rightly resolved, to put that safety beyond _possibility
+of question_, by any means or at any cost. The truth is that to the end
+of time one man will think one way, and another man will think another
+way, concerning this unendable dispute.
+
+[12] General Wool was in command at Fortress Monroe. It had been
+originally arranged that General McClellan should draw 10,000 men from
+him. But this was afterward countermanded. The paragraph in the
+President's letter has reference to this.
+
+[13] A slight obstruction by a battery at Drury's Bluff must have been
+abandoned instantly upon the approach of a land force.
+
+[14] Whose command had been added to McDowell's.
+
+[15] Colonel Franklin Haven, who was on General McDowell's staff at the
+time, is my authority for this statement. He well remembers the reason
+given by Mr. Lincoln, and the extreme annoyance which the general and
+his officers felt at the delay.
+
+[16] "The expediency of the junction of this [McD.'s] large corps with
+the principal army was manifest," says General Johnston. _Narr. 131._
+
+[17] Jackson used to say: "Mystery, mystery, is the secret of success."
+
+[18] The Comte de Paris is very severe, even to sarcasm, in his comments
+on the President's orders to Banks (_Civil War in America_, ii. 35, 36,
+and see 44); and Swinton, referring to the disposition of the armies,
+which was well known to have been made by Mr. Lincoln's personal orders,
+says: "One hardly wishes to inquire by whose crude and fatuous
+inspiration these things were done." _Army of Potomac_, 123. Later
+critics have not repeated such strong language, but have not taken
+different views of the facts.
+
+[19] Observe the tone of his two dispatches of May 25 to McClellan.
+McClellan's _Report_, 100, 101.
+
+[20] The Comte de Paris prefers to call it a "chimerical project."
+_Civil War in America_, ii. 45. Swinton speaks of "the skill of the
+Confederates and the folly of those who controlled the operations of the
+Union armies." _Army of Potomac_, 122.
+
+[21] Yet, if Fremont had not blundered, the result might have been
+different. Comte de Paris, _Civil War in America_, ii. 47.
+
+[22] The Third, under Heintzelman, and the Fourth, under Keyes.
+
+[23] Even his admirer, Swinton, says that any possible course would have
+been better than inaction. _Army of Potomac_, 140, 141.
+
+[24] _The Peninsula_, 188. Swinton seems to regard it in the same light.
+_Army of Potomac_, 147.
+
+[25] Gaines's Mill, contested with superb courage and constancy by the
+Fifth Corps, under Porter, against very heavy odds.
+
+[26] McClellan's _Report_, 131, 132. See, also, his own comments on this
+extraordinary dispatch; _Own Story_, 452. He anticipated, not without
+reason, that he would be promptly removed. The Comte de Paris says that
+the two closing sentences were suppressed by the War Department, when
+the documents had to be laid before the Committee on the Conduct of the
+War. _Civil War in America_, ii. 112. Another dispatch, hardly less
+disrespectful, was sent on June 25. See McClellan's _Report_, 121.
+
+[27] For a vivid description of the condition to which heat, marching,
+fighting, and the unwholesome climate had reduced the men, see statement
+of Comte de Paris, an eye-witness. _Civil War in America,_ ii. 130.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE THIRD AND CLOSING ACT OF THE MCCLELLAN DRAMA
+
+
+As it seems probable that Mr. Lincoln did not conclusively determine
+against the plan of McClellan for renewing the advance upon Richmond by
+way of Petersburg, until after General Halleck had thus decided, so it
+is certain that afterward he allowed to Halleck a control almost wholly
+free from interference on his own part. Did he, perchance, feel that a
+lesson had been taught him, and did he think that those critics had not
+been wholly wrong who had said that he had intermeddled ignorantly and
+hurtfully in military matters? Be this as it might, it was in accordance
+with the national character to turn the back sharply upon failure and
+disappointment, and to make a wholly fresh start; and it was in
+accordance with Lincoln's character to fall in with the popular feeling.
+Yet if a fresh start was intrinsically advisable, or if it was made
+necessary by circumstances, it was made in unfortunate company. One does
+not think without chagrin that Grant, Sherman, Sheridan lurked
+undiscovered among the officers at the West, while Halleck and Pope were
+pulled forth to the light and set in the high places. Halleck was
+hopelessly incompetent, and Pope was fit only for subordinate command;
+and by any valuation which could reasonably be put upon McClellan, it
+was absurd to turn him out in order to bring either of these men in. But
+it was the experimental period. No man's qualities could be known except
+by testing them; and these two men came before Lincoln with records
+sufficiently good to entitle them to trial. The successes at the West
+had naturally produced good opinions of the officers who had achieved
+them, and among these officers John Pope had been as conspicuous as any
+other. For this reason he was now, towards the close of June, 1862,
+selected to command the "Army of Virginia," formed by uniting the corps
+of Fremont, McDowell, and Banks.[28] Fremont resigned, in a pet at
+having an officer who was his junior in the service placed over his
+head; but he was no loss, since his impetuous temperament did not fit
+him for the duties of a corps commander. He was succeeded by General
+Sigel. The fusing of these independent commands, whose separate
+existence had been a wasteful and jeopardizing error, was an excellent
+measure.
+
+General Pope remained in Washington a few weeks, in constant
+consultation with the administration. How he impressed Lincoln one would
+gladly know, but cannot. He had unlimited self-confidence, and he gave
+it to be understood at once that he was a fighting man; but it showed an
+astounding lack of tact upon his part that, in notifying the troops of
+this, his distinguishing characteristic, he also intimated that it would
+behoove them to turn over a new leaf now that he had come all the way
+from the West in order to teach Eastern men how to win victories! The
+manifesto which he issued has become famous by its folly; it was
+arrogant, bombastic, little short of insulting to the soldiers of his
+command, and laid down principles contrary to the established rules of
+war. Yet it had good qualities, too; for it was designed to be
+stimulating; it certainly meant fighting; and fortunately, though Pope
+was not a great general, he was by no means devoid of military knowledge
+and instincts, and he would not really have committed quite such
+blunders as he marked out for himself in his rhetorical enthusiasm. On
+the whole, however, the manifesto did harm; neither officers nor
+soldiers were inclined to receive kindly a man who came presumably on
+trial with the purpose of replacing McClellan, whom they loved with deep
+loyalty; therefore they ridiculed part of his address and took offense
+at the rest of it. Mr. Lincoln could hardly have been encouraged; but he
+gave no sign.
+
+On July 29 Pope left Washington and joined his army, near Culpepper. He
+had not quite 45,000 men, and was watched by Jackson, who lay near
+Gordonsville with a scant half of that number. On August 9 Banks was
+pushed forward to Cedar Mountain, where he encountered Jackson and
+attacked him. In "a hard-fought battle, fierce, obstinate, sanguinary,"
+the Federals were worsted; and such consolation as the people got from
+the gallantry of the troops was more than offset by the fact, which
+became obvious so soon as the whole story was known, that our generals
+ought to have avoided the engagement and were outgeneraled both in the
+bringing it on and in the conducting it.
+
+Greatly as Jackson was outnumbered by Pope, he could hope for no
+reinforcements from Lee so long as McClellan, at Harrison's Landing,
+threatened Richmond. But when gratifying indications showed the purpose
+to withdraw the Northern army from the Peninsula the Southern general
+ventured, August 13, to dispatch General Longstreet northward with a
+strong force. Soon afterward he himself followed and took command. Then
+for two or three days ensued a sharp matching of wits betwixt the two
+generals. By one of those audacious plans which Lee could dare to make
+when he had such a lieutenant as Jackson to carry it out, Jackson was
+sent upon a rapid march by the northward, around the army of Pope, to
+cut its communications. He did it brilliantly; but in doing it he
+necessarily offered to Pope such an opportunity for fighting the
+Southern forces in detail as is rarely given by a good general to an
+adversary whom he fears. Pope would fain have availed himself of the
+chance, and in the effort to do so he hurried his troops hither and
+thither, mingled wise moves with foolish ones, confused his
+subordinates, fatigued his men, and finally accomplished nothing.
+Jackson retired safely from his dangerous position, rejoined the rest of
+the Southern army, and then the united force had as its immediate
+purpose to fight Pope before he could receive reinforcements from
+McClellan's army, now rapidly coming forward by way of Washington. _E
+converso_, Pope's course should have been to retire a day's march across
+Bull Run and await the additional troops who could at once join him
+there. Unfortunately, however, he still felt the sting of the ridicule
+which his ill-starred manifesto had called forth, and was further
+irritated by the unsatisfactory record of the past few days, and
+therefore was in no temper to fall back. So he did not, but stayed and
+fought what is known as the second battle of Bull Run. In the conflict
+his worn-out men showed such constancy that the slaughter on both sides
+was great. Again, however, the bravery of the rank and file was the only
+feature which the country could contemplate without indignation. The
+army was beaten; and retired during the evening of August 30 to a safe
+position at Centreville, whither it should have been taken without loss
+two days earlier.[29] Thus was fulfilled, with only a trifling
+inaccuracy in point of time, the prediction made by McClellan on August
+10, that "Pope will be badly thrashed within ten days."[30]
+
+In all this manoeuvring and fighting the commanding general had shown
+some capacity, but very much less than was indispensable in a commander
+who had to meet the generals of the South. Forthwith, also, there broke
+out a series of demoralizing quarrels among the principal officers as to
+what orders had been given and received, and whether or not they had
+been understood or misunderstood, obeyed or disobeyed. Also the enemies
+of General McClellan tried to lay upon him the whole responsibility for
+the disaster, on the ground that he had been dilatory, first, in moving
+his army from Harrison's Landing, and afterward, in sending his troops
+forward to join Pope; whereas, they said, if he had acted promptly, the
+Northern army would have been too strong to have been defeated,
+regardless of any incompetence in the handling of it. Concerning the
+former charge, it may be said that dispatches had flown to and fro
+between Halleck and McClellan like bullets between implacable duelists;
+Halleck ordered the army to be transported, and McClellan retorted that
+he was given no transports; it is a dispute which cannot be discussed
+here. Concerning the other charge, it was also true that the same two
+generals had been for some days exchanging telegrams, but had been
+entirely unable to understand each other. Whose fault it was cannot
+easily be determined. The English language was giving our generals
+almost as much trouble as were the Southerners at this time; so that in
+a few short weeks material for endless discussion was furnished by the
+orders, telegrams, and replies which were bandied between Pope and
+Porter, McClellan and Halleck. A large part of the history of the period
+consists of the critical analysis and construing of these documents.
+What did each in fact mean? What did the writer intend it to mean? What
+did the recipient understand it to 'mean? Did the writer make his
+meaning sufficiently clear? Was the recipient justified in his
+interpretation? Historians have discussed these problems as theologians
+have discussed puzzling texts of the New Testament, with not less
+acerbity and with no more conclusive results. Unquestionably the
+capacity to write two or three dozen consecutive words so as to
+constitute a plain, straightforward sentence would have been for the
+moment a valuable adjunct to military learning.
+
+The news of the defeat brought dismay, but not quite a panic, to the
+authorities in Washington. In fact, there was no immediate danger for
+the capital. The army from the Peninsula was by this time distributed at
+various points in the immediate neighborhood; and a force could be
+promptly brought together which would so outnumber the Confederate army
+as to be invincible. Yet the situation demanded immediate and vigorous
+action. Some hand must seize the helm at once, and Pope's hand would not
+do; so much at least was entirely certain. He had been given his own
+way, without interference on the part of President or secretary, and he
+had been beaten; he was discredited before the country and the army;
+nothing useful could now be done with him. Halleck was utterly
+demoralized, and was actually reduced to telegraphing to McClellan: "I
+beg of you to assist me, in this crisis, with your ability and
+experience." It was the moment for a master to take control, and the
+President met the occasion. There was only one thing to be done, and
+circumstances were such that not only must that thing be done by him,
+but also it must be done by him in direct opposition to the strenuous
+insistence of all his official and most of his self-constituted
+advisers. It was necessary to reinstate McClellan.
+
+It was a little humiliating to be driven to this step. McClellan had
+lately been kept at Alexandria with no duty save daily to disintegrate
+his own army by sending off to Washington and to the camp of his own
+probable successor division after division of the troops whom he had so
+long commanded. Greatly mortified, he had begged at least to be
+"permitted to go to the scene of battle." But he was ignored, as if he
+were no longer of any consequence whatsoever. In plain truth it was made
+perfectly obvious to him and to all the world that if General Pope could
+win a victory the administration had done with General McClellan. Mr.
+Lincoln described the process as a "snubbing." Naturally those who were
+known to be the chief promoters of this "snubbing," and to have been
+highly gratified by it, now looked ruefully on the evident necessity of
+suddenly cutting it short, and requesting the snubbed individual to
+assume the role of their rescuer. McClellan's more prominent enemies
+could not and would not agree to this. Three members of the cabinet even
+went so far as formally to put in writing their protest against
+restoring him to the command of any army at all; while Stanton actually
+tried to frighten the President by a petty threat of personal
+consequences. But this was foolish. The crisis was of the kind which
+induced Mr. Lincoln to exercise power, decisively. On this occasion his
+impersonal, unimpassioned temperament left his judgment free to work
+with evenness and clearness amid the whirl of momentous events and the
+clash of angry tongues. No one could say that he had been a partisan
+either for or against McClellan, and his wise reticence in the past gave
+him in the present the privilege of untrammeled action. So he settled
+the matter at once by ordering that McClellan should have command
+within the defenses of Washington.
+
+By this act the President gave extreme offense to the numerous and
+strenuous band with whom hatred of the Democratic general had become a
+sort of religion; and upon this occasion even Messrs. Nicolay and Hay
+seem more inclined to apologize for their idol than to defend him. In
+point of fact, nothing can be more misplaced than either apology or
+defense, except criticism. Mr. Lincoln could have done no wiser thing.
+He was simply setting in charge of the immediate business the man who
+could do that especial business best. It was not a question of a battle
+or a campaign, neither of which was for the moment imminent; but it was
+a question of reorganizing masses of disorganized troops and getting
+them into shape for battles and campaigns in the future. Only the
+intensity of hatred could make any man blind to McClellan's capacity for
+such work; and what he might be for other work was a matter of no
+consequence just now. Lincoln simply applied to the instant need the
+most effective help, without looking far afield to study remote
+consequences. Two remarks, said to have been made by him at this time,
+indicate his accurate appreciation of the occasion and the man: "There
+is no one in the army who can man these fortifications and lick these
+troops of ours into shape half so well as he can." "We must use the
+tools we have; if he cannot fight himself, he excels in making others
+ready to fight."
+
+On September 1 Halleck verbally instructed McClellan to take command of
+the defenses of Washington, defining this to mean strictly "the works
+and their garrisons." McClellan says that later on the same day he had
+an interview with the President, in which the President said that he had
+"always been a friend" of the general, and asked as a favor that the
+general would request his personal friends among the principal officers
+of the army to give to General Pope a more sincere and hearty support
+than they were supposed to be actually rendering.[31] On the morning of
+September 2, McClellan says, "The President informed me that Colonel
+Keelton had returned from the front; that our affairs were in a bad
+condition; that the army was in full retreat upon the defenses of
+Washington, the roads filled with stragglers, etc. He instructed me to
+take steps at once to stop and collect the stragglers; place the works
+in a proper state of defense, and go out to meet and take command of the
+army, when it approached the vicinity of the works, then to place the
+troops in the best position,--committing everything to my hands." By
+this evidence, Mr. Lincoln intrusted the fate of the country and with it
+his own reputation absolutely to the keeping of McClellan.
+
+McClellan was in his element in fusing into unity the disjointed
+fragments of armies which lay about in Virginia like scattered ruins.
+His bitterest tractors have never denied him the gift of organization,
+and admit that he did excellent service just now for a few days. But
+circumstances soon extended his field of action, and gave detraction
+fresh opportunities. General Lee, in a bold and enterprising mood,
+perhaps attributable to the encouraging inefficiency of his Northern
+opponents, moved up the banks of the Potomac and threatened an irruption
+into Maryland and even Pennsylvania. It was absolutely necessary to
+watch and, at the right moment, to fight him. For this purpose McClellan
+was ordered to move along the north bank of the river, but under strict
+injunctions at first to go slowly and cautiously and not to uncover
+Washington. For General Halleck had not fully recovered his nerve, and
+was still much disquieted, especially concerning the capital. Thus the
+armies drew slowly near each other, McClellan creeping forward, as he
+had been bidden, while Lee, with his usual energy, seemed able to do
+with a thousand men more than any Northern general could do with thrice
+as many, and ran with exasperating impunity those audacious risks which,
+where they cannot be attributed to ignorance on the part of a commander,
+indicate contempt for his opponent. This feeling, if he had it, must
+have received agreeable corroboration from the clumsy way in which the
+Federals just at this time lost Harper's Ferry, with General Miles's
+garrison. The Southern troops, who had been detailed against it, rapidly
+rejoined General Lee's army; and again the people saw that the South
+had outmarched and outgeneraled the North.
+
+With all his troops together, Lee was now ready to fight at the
+convenience or the pleasure of McClellan, who seemed chivalrously to
+have deferred his attack until his opponent should be prepared for it!
+The armies were in presence of each other near where the Antietam
+empties into the Potomac, and here, September 17, the bloody conflict
+took place.
+
+The battle of Antietam has usually been called a Northern victory. Both
+the right and the left wings of the Northern army succeeded in seizing
+advanced positions and in holding them at the end of the fight; and Lee
+retreated to the southward, though it is true that before doing so he
+lingered a day and gave to his enemy a chance, which was not used, to
+renew the battle. His position was obviously untenable in the face of an
+outnumbering host. But though upon the strength of these facts a victory
+could be claimed with logical propriety, yet the President and the
+country were, and had a right to be, indignant at the very
+unsatisfactory proportion of the result to the means. Shortly before the
+battle McClellan's troops, upon the return to them of the commander whom
+they idolized, had given him a soul-stirring reception, proving the
+spirit and confidence with which they would fight under his orders; and
+they went into the fight in the best possible temper and condition. On
+the day of the battle the Northern troops outnumbered the Southerners
+by nearly two to one; in fact, the Southern generals, in their reports,
+insisted that they had been simply overwhelmed by enormous odds against
+which it was a marvel of gallantry for their men to stand at all. The
+plain truth was that in the first place, by backwardness in bringing on
+the battle, McClellan had left Lee to effect a concentration of forces
+which ought never to have been permitted. Next, the battle itself had
+not been especially well handled, though perhaps this was due rather to
+the lack of his personal attention during its progress than to errors in
+his plan. Finally, his failure, with so large an army, of which a part
+at least was entirely fresh, to pursue and perhaps even to destroy the
+reduced and worn-out Confederate force seemed inexplicable and was
+inexcusable.
+
+The South could never be conquered in this way. It had happened, on
+September 12, that President Lincoln heard news apparently indicating
+the withdrawal of Lee across the Potomac. He had at once sent it forward
+to McClellan, adding: "Do not let him get off without being hurt." Three
+days later, he telegraphed: "Destroy the rebel army if possible." But
+McClellan had been too self-restrained in his obedience. He had, indeed,
+hurt Lee, but he had been very careful not to hurt him too much; and as
+for destroying the rebel army, he seemed unwilling to enter so lightly
+on so stupendous an enterprise. The administration and the country
+expected, and perfectly fairly expected, to see a hot pursuit of
+General Lee. They were disappointed; they saw no such thing, but only
+saw McClellan holding his army as quiescent as if there was nothing more
+to be done, and declaring that it was in no condition to move!
+
+It was intolerably provoking, unintelligible, and ridiculous that a
+ragged, ill-shod, overworked, under-fed, and beaten body of Southerners
+should be able to retreat faster than a great, fresh, well-fed,
+well-equipped, and victorious body of Northerners could follow. Jackson
+said that the Northern armies were, kept in too good condition; and
+declared that he could whip any army which marched with herds of cattle
+behind it. But the North preferred, and justly, to attribute the
+inefficiency of their troops to the unfortunate temperament of the
+commander. Mr. Lincoln looked at the unsatisfactory spectacle and held
+his hand as long as he could, dreading perhaps again to seem too forward
+in assuming control of military affairs. Patience, however, could not
+endure forever, nor common sense be always subservient to technical
+science. Accordingly, on October 6, he ordered McClellan to cross the
+Potomac, and either to "give battle to the enemy, or to drive him
+south." McClellan paid no attention to the order. Four days later the
+Confederate general, Stuart, with 2000 cavalry and a battery, crossed
+into Maryland and made a tour around the Northern army, with the same
+insolent success which had attended his like enterprise on the
+Peninsula. On October 13 the President wrote to McClellan a letter, so
+admirable both in temper and in the soundness of its suggestions that it
+should be given entire:--
+
+
+
+"MY DEAR SIR,--You remember my speaking to you of what I called your
+over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you
+cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be
+at least his equal in prowess, and act upon the claim?
+
+"As I understand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you cannot
+subsist your army at Winchester, unless the railroad from Harper's Ferry
+to that point be put in working order. But the enemy does now subsist
+his army at Winchester at a distance nearly twice as great from railroad
+transportation as you would have to do without the railroad last named.
+He now wagons from Culpepper Court House, which is just about twice as
+far as you would have to do from Harper's Ferry. He is certainly not
+more than half as well provided with wagons as you are. I certainly
+should be pleased for you to have the advantage of the railroad from
+Harper's Ferry to Winchester; but it wastes all the remainder of autumn
+to give it to you, and, in fact, ignores the question of _time_, which
+cannot and must not be ignored.
+
+"Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is 'to operate
+upon the enemy's communications as much as possible without exposing
+your own.' You seem to act as if this applies _against_ you, but cannot
+apply in your _favor_. Change positions with the enemy, and think you
+not he would break your communication with Richmond within the next
+twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsylvania. But if he does
+so in full force, he gives up his communication to you absolutely, and
+you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin him; if he does so with
+less than full force, fall upon and beat what is left behind, all the
+easier.
+
+"Exclusive of the water line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy
+is, by the route that you _can_, and he _must_ take. Why can you not
+reach there before him, unless you admit that he is more than your equal
+on a march? His route is the arc of a circle, while yours is the chord.
+The roads are as good on yours as on his.
+
+"You know I desired, but did not order you, to cross the Potomac below,
+instead of above, the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. The idea was that this
+would at once menace the enemy's communications, which I would seize, if
+he would permit. If he should move northward, I would follow him
+closely, holding his communications. If he should prevent our seizing
+his communications, and move towards Richmond, I would press closely to
+him, fight him if a favorable opportunity should present, and at least
+try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I say, try; if we never
+try, we shall never succeed. If he makes a stand at Winchester, moving
+neither north nor south, I would fight him there, on the idea that if
+we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of coming to us, we never
+can when we bear the wastage of going to him. This proposition is a
+simple truth, and is too important to be lost sight of for a moment. In
+coming to us, he tenders us an advantage which we should not waive. We
+should not so operate as to merely drive him away. As we must beat him
+somewhere, or fail finally, we can do it, if at all, easier near to us
+than far away. If we cannot beat the enemy where he now is, we never
+can, he again being within the intrenchments of Richmond.
+
+"Recurring to the idea of going to Richmond on the inside track, the
+facility for supplying from the side away from the enemy is remarkable,
+as it were by the different spokes of a wheel extending from the hub
+towards the rim; and this, whether you moved directly by the chord or on
+the inside arc, hugging the Blue Ridge more closely. The chord line, as
+you see, carries you by Aldie, Haymarket, and Fredericksburg, and you
+see how turnpikes, railroads, and finally the Potomac, by Acquia Creek,
+meet you at all points from Washington. The same, only the lines
+lengthened a little, if you press closer to the Blue Ridge part of the
+way. The Gaps through the Blue Ridge, I understand to be about the
+following distances from Harper's Ferry, to wit: Vestala, five miles;
+Gregory's, thirteen; Snicker's, eighteen; Ashby's, twenty-eight;
+Manassas, thirty-eight; Chester, forty-five; and Thornton's,
+fifty-three. I should think it preferable to take the route nearest the
+enemy, disabling him to make an important move without your knowledge,
+and compelling him to keep his forces together for dread of you. The
+Gaps would enable you to attack if you should wish. For a great part of
+the way you would be practically between the enemy and both Washington
+and Richmond, enabling us to spare you the greatest number of troops
+from here. When, at length, running for Richmond ahead of him enables
+him to move this way, if he does so, turn and attack him in rear. But I
+think he should be engaged long before such point is reached. It is all
+easy if our troops march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say
+they cannot do it. This letter is in no sense an order."
+
+
+
+A general who failed to respond to such a spur as this was not the man
+for offensive warfare; and McClellan did not respond. Movement was as
+odious to him now as it ever had been, and by talking about shoes and
+overcoats, and by other dilatory pleas, he extended his delay until the
+close of the month. It was actually the second day of November before
+his army crossed the Potomac. Another winter of inaction seemed about to
+begin. It was simply unendurable. Though it was true that he had
+reorganized the army with splendid energy and skill, and had shown to
+the Northern soldiers in Virginia the strange and cheerful spectacle of
+the backs of General Lee's soldiers, yet it became a settled fact that
+he must give place to some new man. He and Pope were to be succeeded by
+a third experiment. Therefore, on November 5, 1862, the President
+ordered General McClellan to turn over the command of the army to
+General Burnside; and on November 7 this was done.
+
+This action, taken just at this time, called forth a much more severe
+criticism than would have attended it if the removal had been made
+simultaneously with the withdrawal from the Peninsula. By what motive
+was Mr. Lincoln influenced? Not very often is the most eager search
+rewarded by the sure discovery of his opinions about persons. From what
+we know that he did, we try to infer why he did it, and we gropingly
+endeavor to apportion the several measures of influence between those
+motives which we choose to put by our conjecture into his mind; and
+after our toilful scrutiny is over we remain painfully conscious of the
+greatness of the chance that we have scarcely even approached the truth.
+Neither diary nor letters guide us; naught save reports of occasional
+pithy, pointed, pregnant remarks, evidence the most dubious, liable to
+be colored by the medium of the predilections of the hearer, and to be
+reshaped and misshaped by time, and by attrition in passing through many
+mouths. The President was often in a chatting mood, and then seemed not
+remote from his companion. Yet while this was the visible manifestation
+on the surface, he was the most reticent of men as to grave questions,
+and no confidant often heard his inmost thoughts. Especially it would
+be difficult to name an instance in which he told one man what he
+thought of another; a trifling criticism concerning some single trait
+was the utmost that he ever allowed to escape him; a full and careful
+estimate, never.
+
+Such reflections come with peculiar force at this period in his career.
+What would not one give for his estimate of McClellan! It would be worth
+the whole great collection of characters sketched by innumerable friends
+and enemies for that much-discussed general. While others think that
+they know accurately the measure of McClellan's real value and
+usefulness, Lincoln really knew these things; but he never told his
+knowledge. We only see that he sustained McClellan for a long while in
+the face of vehement aspersions; yet that he never fully subjected his
+own convictions to the educational lectures of the general, and that he
+seemed at last willing to see him laid aside; then immediately in a
+crisis restored him to authority in spite of all opposition; and shortly
+afterward, as if utterly weary of him, definitively displaced him.
+Still, all these facts do not show what Lincoln thought of McClellan.
+Many motives besides his opinion of the man may have influenced him. The
+pressure of political opinion and of public feeling was very great, and
+might have turned him far aside from the course he would have pursued if
+it could have been neglected. Also other considerations have been
+suggested as likely to have weighed with him,--that McClellan could do
+with the army what no other man could do, because of the intense
+devotion of both officers and men to him; and that an indignity offered
+to McClellan might swell the dissatisfaction of the Northern Democracy
+to a point at which it would seriously embarrass the administration.
+These things may have counteracted, or may have corroborated, Mr.
+Lincoln's views concerning the man himself. He was an extraordinary
+judge of men in their relationship to affairs; moreover, of all the men
+of note of that time he alone was wholly dispassionate and non-partisan.
+Opinions tinctured with prejudices are countless; it is disappointing
+that the one opinion that was free from prejudice is unknown.[32]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[28] The consolidation, and the assignment of Pope to the command, bore
+date June 26, 1862.
+
+[29] This campaign of General Pope has been the topic of very bitter
+controversy and crimination. In my brief account I have eschewed the
+view of Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, who seem to me if I may say it, to have
+written with the single-minded purpose of throwing everybody's blunders
+into the scale against McClellan, and I have adopted the view of Mr.
+John C. Ropes in his volume on _The Army under Pope_, in the Campaigns
+of the Civil War Series. In his writing it is impossible to detect
+personal prejudice, for or against any one; and his account is so clear
+and convincing that it must be accepted, whether one likes his
+conclusions or not.
+
+[30] _Own Story_, 466.
+
+[31] Pope retained for a few days command of the army in camp outside
+the defenses.
+
+[32] McClure says: "I saw Lincoln many times during the campaign of
+1864, when McClellan was his competitor for the presidency. I never
+heard him speak of McClellan in any other than terms of the highest
+personal respect and kindness." _Lincoln and Men of War-Times_, 207.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE AUTUMN ELECTIONS OF 1862, AND THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION
+
+
+The chapter which has been written on "Emancipation and Politics" shows
+that while loyalty to the Union operated as a bond to hold together the
+people of the North, slavery entered as a wedge to force them asunder.
+It was not long before the wedge proved a more powerful force than the
+bond, for the wedge was driven home by human nature; and it was
+inevitable that the men of conservative temperament and the men of
+progressive temperament should erelong be easily restored to their
+instinctive antagonism. Of those who had been stigmatized as "Northern
+men with Southern principles," many soon found their Southern
+proclivities reviving. These men, christened "Copperheads," became more
+odious to loyal Northerners than were the avowed Secessionists. In
+return for their venomous nickname and the contempt and hatred with
+which they were treated, they themselves grew steadily more rancorous,
+more extreme in their feelings. They denounced and opposed every measure
+of the government, harangued vehemently against the war and against all
+that was done to prosecute it, reviled with scurrilous and passionate
+abuse every prominent Republican, filled the air with disheartening
+forecasts of defeat, ruin, and woe, and triumphed whenever the miserable
+prophecies seemed in the way of fulfillment. General Grant truly
+described them as auxiliaries to the Confederate army, and said that the
+North would have been much better off with a hundred thousand of these
+men in the Southern ranks, and the rest of their kind at home thoroughly
+subdued, as the Unionists were at the South, than was the case as the
+struggle was actually conducted. In time the administration found itself
+forced, though reluctantly, to arrest and imprison many of the
+ringleaders in this Northern disaffection. Yet all the while the
+Copperheads resolutely maintained their affiliations with the Democratic
+party, and though they brought upon it much discredit which it did not
+deserve, yet they could not easily be ejected from it. Differences of
+opinion shaded into each other so gradually that to establish a line of
+division was difficult.
+
+Impinging upon Copperheadism stood the much more numerous body of those
+who persistently asserted their patriotism, but with equal persistence
+criticised severely all the measures of the government. These men
+belonged to that well-known class which is happily described as being
+"for the law, but ag'in the enforcement of it." They were for the Union,
+but against saving it. They kept up a disapproving headshaking over
+pretty much everything that the President did. With much grandiloquent
+argument, in the stately, old-school style, they bemoaned the breaches
+which they charged him with making in the Constitution. They also hotly
+assumed the role of champions of General McClellan, and bewailed the
+imbecility of an administration which thwarted and deposed him.
+Protesting the purest and highest patriotism, they were more evasive
+than the outspoken Copperheads, and as their disaffection was less
+conspicuous and offensive, so also it was more insidious and almost
+equally hurtful. They constituted the true and proper body of Democracy.
+
+In a fellowship, which really ought not to have existed, with these
+obstructionists, was the powerful and respectable body of war Democrats.
+These men maintained a stubborn loyalty to the old party, but prided
+themselves upon being as hearty and thorough-going war-men as any among
+the Republicans. A large proportion of the most distinguished generals,
+of the best regimental officers, of the most faithful soldiers in the
+field, were of this political faith. The only criticism that Republicans
+could reasonably pass upon them was, that they did not, in a political
+way, strengthen the hands of the government, that they would not uphold
+its authority by swelling its majorities, nor aid its prestige by giving
+it their good words.
+
+Over against this Democracy, with its two very discordant wings, was
+arrayed the Republican party, which also was disturbed by the ill-will
+of those who should have been its allies; for while the moderate
+Abolitionists generally sustained the President, though only imperfectly
+satisfied with him, the extreme Abolitionists refused to be so
+reasonable. They were a very provoking body of pure moralists. They
+worried the President, condemned his policy, divided the counsels of the
+government, and introduced injurious personal enmities and partisanship
+with reckless disregard of probable consequences. To a considerable
+extent they had the same practical effect as if they had been avowed
+opponents of the Republican President. They wished immediately to place
+the war upon the footing of a crusade for the abolition of slavery.
+Among them were old-time Abolitionists, with whom this purpose was a
+religion, men who had hoped to see Seward the Republican President, and
+who said that Lincoln's friends in the nominating convention had
+represented a "superficial and only half-hearted Republicanism." Beside
+these men, though actuated by very different and much less honorable
+motives, stood many recruits, some even from the Democracy, who were so
+vindictive against the South that they desired to inflict abolition as a
+punishment.
+
+All these critics and dissatisfied persons soon began to speak with
+severity, and sometimes with contempt, against the President. He had
+said that the war was for the Union; but they scornfully retorted that
+this was to reduce it to "a mere sectional strife for ascendency;" that
+"a Union, with slavery spared and reinstated, would not be worth the
+cost of saving it." It was true that to save the Union, without also
+removing the cause of disunion, might not be worth a very great price;
+yet both Union and abolition were in serious danger of being thrown away
+forever by these impetuous men who desired to pluck the fruit before it
+was ripe, or rather declared it to be ripe because they so wanted to
+pluck it.
+
+It is not, here and now, a question of the merits and the usefulness of
+these men; undoubtedly their uncompromising ardor could not have been
+dispensed with in the great anti-slavery struggle; it was what the steam
+is to the engine, and if the motive power had been absent no one can say
+how long the United States might have lain dormant as a slave-country.
+But the question is of their present attitude and of its influence and
+effect in the immediate affairs of the government. Their demand was for
+an instant and sweeping proclamation of emancipation; and they were
+angry and denunciatory against the President because he would not give
+it to them. Of course, by their ceaseless assaults they hampered him and
+weakened his hands very seriously. It was as an exercise of the
+President's war-power that they demanded the proclamation; and the
+difficulty in the way of it was that Mr. Lincoln felt, and the great
+majority of Northern men were positive in the opinion, that such a
+proclamation at this time would not be an honest and genuine exercise of
+the war-power, that it would be only falsely and colorably so called,
+and that in real truth it would be a deliberate and arbitrary change of
+the war from a contest for Union to a contest for abolition. Mr. Lincoln
+could not _make_ it a war measure merely by _calling_ it so; it was no
+mere matter of political christening, but distinctly a very grave and
+substantial question of fact. It may be suspected that very many even of
+the Abolitionists themselves, had they spoken the innermost conviction
+of their minds, would have admitted that the character of the measure as
+a wise military transaction, pure and simple, was very dubious. It was
+certain that every one else in all the country which still was or ever
+had been the United States would regard it as an informal and misnamed
+but real change of base for the whole war. No preamble, no _Whereas_, in
+Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, reciting as a fact and a motive that which
+he would have known, and ninety-nine out of every hundred loyal men
+would have believed, not to be the true fact and motive, could make the
+rest of his proclamation lawful, or his act that of an honest ruler.
+Accordingly no pressure could drive him to the step; he preferred to
+endure, and long did endure, the abuse of the extreme Abolitionists, and
+all the mischief which their hostility could inflict upon his
+administration. Yet, in truth, there was not in the North an
+Abolitionist who thought worse of the institution of slavery than did
+the man who had repeatedly declared it to be "a moral, a social, and a
+political evil." Referring to these times, and the behavior of the
+Abolitionists, he afterward wrote:[33]--
+
+"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
+I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never
+understood that the presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right
+to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I
+took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and
+defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the
+office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an
+oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood,
+too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
+practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question
+of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways.
+And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere
+deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did
+understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the
+best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every
+indispensable means, that government,--that nation, of which that
+Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and
+yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be
+protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a
+life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures,
+otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming
+indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the
+preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and
+now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had
+even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery or any
+minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and
+Constitution all together. When, early in the war, General Fremont
+attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then
+think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General
+Cameron, then secretary of war, suggested the arming of the blacks, I
+objected because I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity.
+When, still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I
+again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable
+necessity had come."
+
+None could deny that the North could abolish slavery in the South only
+by beating the South in the pending war. Therefore, by his duty as
+President of the Union and by his wishes as an anti-slavery man, Mr.
+Lincoln was equally held to win this fight. Differing in opinion from
+the Abolitionists, he believed that to turn it, at an early stage, into
+a war for abolition rather than to leave it a war for the Union would be
+to destroy all hope of winning. The step would alienate great numbers at
+the North. The "American Society for promoting National Unity" had
+lately declared that emancipation "would be rebellion against Providence
+and destruction to the colored race in our land;" and it was certain
+that this feeling was still widely prevalent in the loyal States. In
+July, 1862, General McClellan said, warningly, that a declaration of
+radical views on the slavery question would rapidly disintegrate and
+destroy the Union armies. Finally, it seemed hardly doubtful that fatal
+defections would take place in the Border States, even if they should
+not formally go over to the Confederacy. No man saw the value of those
+Border States as Mr. Lincoln did. To save or to lose them was probably
+to save or lose the war; to lose them and the war was to establish a
+powerful slave empire. Where did abolition come in among these events?
+It was not there!
+
+[Illustration: Simon Cameron]
+
+Painfully, therefore, untiringly, with all the skill and tact in his
+power, Mr. Lincoln struggled to hold those invaluable, crucial States.
+His "border-state policy" soon came to be discussed as the most
+interesting topic of which men could talk wherever they came together.
+Savage were the maledictions which emancipationists uttered against it,
+and the intensity of their feeling is indicated by the fact that, though
+that policy was carried out, and though the nation, in due time,
+gathered the ripe and perfect fruit of it both in the integrity of the
+country and the abolition of slavery, yet even at the present day many
+old opponents of President Lincoln, survivors of the Thirty-seventh
+Congress, remain unshaken in the faith that his famous policy was "a
+cruel and fatal mistake."
+
+By the summer of 1862 the opinions and the action of Mr. Lincoln in all
+these matters had brought him into poor standing in the estimation of
+many Republicans. The great majority of the politicians of the party and
+sundry newspaper editors, that is to say, those persons who chiefly make
+the noise and the show before the world, were busily engaged in
+condemning his policy. The headquarters of this disaffection were in
+Washington. It had one convert even within the cabinet, where the
+secretary of the treasury was thoroughly infected with the notion that
+the President was fatally inefficient, laggard, and unequal to the
+occasion. The feeling was also especially rife in congressional circles.
+Mr. Julian, than whom there can be no better witness, says: "No one at a
+distance could have formed any adequate conception of the hostility of
+Republican members toward Mr. Lincoln at the final adjournment [the
+middle of July], while it was the belief of many that our last session
+of Congress had been held in Washington. Mr. Wade said the country was
+going to hell, and that the scenes witnessed in the French Revolution
+were nothing in comparison with what we should see here." If most of the
+people at the North had not had heads more cool and sensible than was
+the one which rested upon the shoulders of the ardent "Ben" Wade, the
+alarming prediction of that lively spokesman might have been fulfilled.
+Fortunately, however, as Mr. Julian admits, "the feeling in Congress was
+far more intense than [it was] throughout the country." The experienced
+denizens of the large Northern cities read in a critical temper the
+tirades of journalist critics, who assumed to know everything. The
+population of the small towns and the village neighborhoods, though a
+little bewildered by the echoes of denunciation which reached them from
+the national capital, yet by instinct, or by a divine guidance, held
+fast to their faith in their President. Thus the rank and file of the
+Republican party refused to follow the field officers in a revolt
+against the general. No better fortune ever befell this very fortunate
+nation. If the anti-slavery extremists had been able to reinforce their
+own pressure by the ponderous impact of the popular will, and so had
+pushed the President from his "border-state policy" and from his general
+scheme of advancing only very cautiously along the anti-slavery line, it
+is hardly conceivable either that the Union would have been saved or
+that slavery would have been destroyed.
+
+On August 19, 1862, the good, impulsive, impractical Horace Greeley
+published in his newspaper, the New York "Tribune," an address to the
+President, to which he gave an awe-inspiring title, "The Prayer of
+20,000,000 of People." It was an extremely foolish paper, and its title,
+like other parts of it, was false. Only those persons who were agitators
+for immediate emancipation could say amen to this mad prayer, and they
+were far from being even a large percentage of "20,000,000 of people."
+Yet these men, being active missionaries and loud preachers in behalf of
+a measure in which they had perfect faith, made a show and exerted an
+influence disproportioned to their numbers. Therefore their prayer,[34]
+though laden with blunders of fact and reasoning, fairly expressed
+malcontent Republicanism. Moreover, multitudes who could not quite join
+in the prayer would read it and would be moved by it. The influence of
+the "Tribune" was enormous. Colonel McClure truly says that by means of
+it Mr. Greeley "reached the very heart of the Republican party in every
+State in the Union;" and perhaps he does not greatly exaggerate when he
+adds that through this same line of connection the great Republican
+editor "was in closer touch with the active loyal sentiment of the
+people than [was] even the President himself." For these reasons it
+seemed to Mr. Lincoln worth while to make a response to an assault
+which, if left unanswered, must seriously embarrass the administration.
+He therefore wrote:--
+
+
+
+"DEAR SIR,--I have just read yours of the 19th instant, addressed to
+myself through the New York 'Tribune.'
+
+"If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may
+know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
+
+"If there be any inferences which I believe to be falsely drawn, I do
+not now and here argue against them.
+
+"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I
+waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always
+supposed to be right.
+
+"As to the policy 'I seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant
+to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in
+the shortest way under the Constitution.
+
+"The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union
+will be,--the Union as it was.
+
+"If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at
+the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.
+
+"If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at
+the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.
+
+"_My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or
+destroy slavery_.
+
+"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.
+And if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if
+I could save it by freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would also
+do that.
+
+"What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it
+helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
+believe it would help to save the Union.
+
+"I shall do less whenever I believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and
+shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause.
+
+"I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall
+adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
+
+"I have here stated my purpose, according to my view of official duty,
+and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish, that all
+men everywhere could be free."
+
+
+
+This reply, placing the Union before all else, did "more to steady the
+loyal sentiment of the country in a very grave emergency than anything
+that ever came from Lincoln's pen." It was, very naturally,
+"particularly disrelished by anti-slavery men," whose views were not
+modified by it, but whose temper was irritated in proportion to the
+difficulty of meeting it. Mr. Greeley himself, enthusiastic and
+woolly-witted, allowed this heavy roller to pass over him, and arose
+behind it unaware that he had been crushed. He even published a retort,
+which was discreditably abusive. A fair specimen of his rhetoric was his
+demand to be informed whether Mr. Lincoln designed to save the Union "by
+recognizing, obeying, and enforcing the laws, or by ignoring,
+disregarding, and in fact defying them." Now the precise fact which so
+incensed Mr. Greeley and all his comrades was that the President was
+studiously and stubbornly insisting upon "recognizing, obeying, and
+enforcing the laws;" and the very thing which they were crying for was a
+step which, according to his way of thinking, would involve that he
+should "ignore, disregard, and defy" them. They had not shrunk from
+taking this position, when pushed toward it. They had contemned the
+Constitution, and had declared that it should not be allowed to stand in
+the way of doing those things which, in their opinion, ought to be done.
+Their great warrior, the chieftain of their forces in the House of
+Representatives, Thaddeus Stevens, was wont to say, in his defiant
+iconoclastic style, that there was no longer any Constitution, and that
+he was weary of hearing this "never-ending gabble about the sacredness
+of the Constitution." Yet somewhat inconsistently these same men held as
+an idol and a leader Secretary Chase; and he at the close of 1860 had
+declared: "At all hazards and against all opposition, the laws of the
+Union should be enforced.... The question of slavery should not be
+permitted to influence my action, one way or the other." Later, perhaps
+he and his allies had forgotten these words. Still many persons hold to
+the opinion that the emancipationists did not give Mr. Lincoln fair
+play.[35]
+
+On September 13 a body of clergymen from Chicago waited upon Mr. Lincoln
+to urge immediate and universal emancipation. The occasion was made
+noteworthy by his remarks to them.
+
+"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by
+religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the Divine
+will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in
+that belief, and perhaps, in some respect, both. I hope it will not be
+irreverent for me to say that, if it is probable that God would reveal
+his will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it might be
+supposed He would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more
+deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the
+will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is, I will
+do it! These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it
+will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must
+study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible,
+and learn what appears to be wise and right. The subject is difficult,
+and good men do not agree.
+
+... "What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do,
+especially as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a document
+that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the
+Pope's bull against the comet! Would my word free the slaves, when I
+cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? Is there a
+single court, or magistrate, or individual that would be influenced by
+it there? And what reason is there to think it would have any greater
+effect upon the slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved,
+and which offers protection and freedom to the slaves of rebel masters
+who come within our lines? Yet I cannot learn that that law has caused a
+single slave to come over to us.
+
+... "Now, then, tell me, if you please, what possible result of good
+would follow the issuing of such a proclamation as you desire?
+Understand, I raise no objections against it on legal or constitutional
+grounds, for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, in time of
+war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue
+the enemy; nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in view of
+possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at the South. I view
+this matter as a practical war measure, to be decided on according to
+the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the
+rebellion.
+
+... "Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned these objections.
+They indicate the difficulties that have thus far prevented my action in
+some such way as you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation
+of liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter under advisement. And I
+can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and night, more
+than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will I will do. I
+trust that in the freedom with which I have canvassed your views I have
+not in any respect injured your feelings."
+
+Whether or not the clerical advisers winced under the President's irony,
+at least they must have appreciated the earnestness and sincerity with
+which he considered the subject.
+
+All this while that newspaper writers, religious teachers, members of
+Congress, and political busy-bodies generally were tirelessly
+enlightening Mr. Lincoln concerning what was right, what was wise, what
+was the will of the people, even what was the will of God, he was again
+quietly making good that shrewd Southerner's prophecy: he was "doing his
+own thinking;" neither was he telling to anybody what this thinking was.
+Throngs came and went, and each felt called upon to leave behind him
+some of his own wisdom, a precept, advice, or suggestion, for the use of
+the President; perhaps in return he took away with him a story which was
+much more than full value for what he had given; but no one found out
+the working of the President's mind, and no one could say that he had
+influenced it. History is crowded with tales of despots, but it tells of
+no despot who thought and decided with the tranquil, taciturn
+independence which was now marking this President of the free American
+Republic. It is a little amusing for us, to-day, to know that while the
+emancipationists were angrily growling out their disgust at the ruler
+who would not abolish slavery according to their advice, the rough draft
+of the Emancipation Proclamation had already been written. It was
+actually lying in his desk when he was writing to Greeley that letter
+which caused so much indignation. It had been communicated to his
+cabinet long before he talked to those Chicago clergymen, and showed
+them that the matter was by no means so simple as they, in their
+one-sided, unworldly way, believed it to be.
+
+It is said to have been on July 8 that the President wrote this rough
+draft, on board the steamboat which was bringing him back from his visit
+to McClellan at Harrison's Landing. He then laid it away for the days
+and events to bring ripeness. By his own statement he had for some time
+felt convinced that, if compensated emancipation should fail,
+emancipation as a war measure must ensue. Compensated emancipation had
+now been offered, urged, and ill received; therefore the question in his
+mind was no longer _whether_, but _when_ he should exercise his power.
+This was more a military than a political question. His right to
+emancipate slaves was strictly a war-power; he had the right to exercise
+it strictly for the purpose of weakening the enemy or strengthening his
+own generals; he had not the right to exercise it in the cause of
+humanity, if it would not either weaken the enemy or strengthen his own
+side. If by premature exercise he should alienate great numbers of
+border-state men, while the sheet of paper with his name at its foot
+would be ineffectual to give actual liberty of action to a single black
+man in the Confederacy, he would aid the South and injure the
+North,--that is to say, he would accomplish precisely the reverse of
+that which alone could lawfully form the basis of his action. The
+question of _When_, therefore, was a very serious one. At what stage of
+the contest would a declaration of emancipation be hurtful to the
+Southern and beneficial to the Northern cause?
+
+Schuyler Colfax well said that Mr. Lincoln's judgment, when settled,
+"was almost as immovable as the eternal hills." A good illustration of
+this was given upon a day about the end of July or beginning of August,
+1862, when Mr. Lincoln called a cabinet meeting. To his assembled
+secretaries he then said, with his usual simple brevity, that he was
+going to communicate to them something about which he did not desire
+them to offer any advice, since his determination was taken; they might
+make suggestions as to details, but nothing more. After this imperious
+statement he read the preliminary proclamation of emancipation. The
+ministers listened in silence; not one of them had been consulted; not
+one of them, until this moment, knew the President's purpose; not even
+now did he think it worth while to go through any idle form of asking
+the opinion of any one of them.[36] He alone had settled the matter, and
+simply notified them that he was about to do the most momentous thing
+that had ever been done upon this continent since thirteen British
+colonies had become a nation. Such a presentation of "one-man-power"
+certainly stood out in startling relief upon the background of popular
+government and the great free republican system of the world!
+
+One or two trifling verbal alterations were made. The only important
+suggestion came from Mr. Seward, who said that, in the "depression of
+the public mind consequent upon our repeated adverses," he feared that
+so important a step might "be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted
+government, a cry for help; the government stretching forth its hands to
+Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the
+government." He dreaded that "it would be considered our last shriek on
+the retreat." Therefore he thought it would be well to postpone issuing
+the proclamation till it could come before the country with the support
+of some military success. Mr. Lincoln, who had not committed himself
+upon the precise point of time, approved this idea. In fact, he had
+already had in mind this same notion, that a victory would be an
+excellent companion for the proclamation. In July Mr. Boutwell had said
+to him that the North would not succeed until the slaves were
+emancipated, and Mr. Lincoln had replied: "You would not have it done
+now, would you? Had we not better wait for something like a victory?"
+This point being accordingly settled to the satisfaction of all, the
+meeting then dissolved, with the understanding that the secret was to be
+closely kept for the present; and Mr. Lincoln again put away his paper
+to await the coming of leaden-footed victory.
+
+For the moment the prospects of this event were certainly sufficiently
+gloomy. Less than three weeks, however, brought the battle of Antietam.
+As a real "military success" this was, fairly speaking, unsatisfactory;
+but it had to serve the turn; the events of the war did not permit the
+North to be fastidious in using the word victory; if the President had
+imprudently been more exacting, the Abolitionists would have had to wait
+for Gettysburg. News of the battle reached Mr. Lincoln at the Soldiers'
+Home. "Here," he says, "I finished writing the second draft. I came to
+Washington on Saturday, called the cabinet together to hear it, and it
+was published on the following Monday, the 22d of September, 1862."
+
+The proclamation was preliminary or monitory only, and it did not
+promise universal emancipation. It stated that, on January 1, 1863, "all
+persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State,
+the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
+States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;" also, that "the
+Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation,
+designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people
+thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United
+States."
+
+The measure was entirely Mr. Lincoln's own. Secretary Chase reports that
+at the cabinet meeting on September 22 he said: "I must do the best I
+can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I feel I
+ought to take." It has been said that he acted under a severe specific
+pressure, emanating from the calling of the famous conference of
+governors at Altoona. This, however, is not true. On September 14
+Governor Curtin invited the governors of loyal States to meet on
+September 24 to discuss the situation and especially the emergency
+created by the northward advance of General Lee. But that this meeting
+was more than a coincidence, or that the summons to it had any influence
+in the matter of the proclamation, is disproved by all that is known
+concerning it.[37] The connection with the battle is direct, avowed, and
+reasonable; that with the gubernatorial congress is supposititious and
+improbable. Governor Curtin says distinctly that the President, being
+informed by himself and two others that such a conference was in
+preparation, "did not attempt to conceal the fact that we were upon the
+eve of an emancipation policy," in response to which statement he
+received from his auditors the "assurance that the Altoona conference
+would cordially indorse such a policy." As matter of fact, at the
+meeting, most of the governors, in a sort of supplementary way, declared
+their approval of the proclamation; but the governors of New Jersey,
+Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri would not unite in this
+action. If further evidence were needed upon this point, it is furnished
+by the simple statement of President Lincoln himself. He said: "The
+truth is, I never thought of the meeting of the governors at all. When
+Lee came over the Potomac I made a resolve that, if McClellan drove him
+back, I would send the proclamation after him. The battle of Antietam
+was fought Wednesday, but I could not find out until Saturday whether we
+had won a victory or lost a battle. It was then too late to issue it on
+that day, and on Sunday I fixed it up a little, and on Monday I let them
+have it." Secretary Chase, in his Diary, under date of September 22,
+1862, gives an account in keeping with the foregoing sketch, but casts
+about the proclamation a sort of superstitious complexion, as if it were
+the fulfillment of a religious vow. He says that at the cabinet meeting
+the President said: "When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined,
+as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation
+of emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said
+nothing to any one; but I made the promise to myself, and (hesitating a
+little) to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to
+fulfill that promise." About an event so important and so picturesque
+small legends will cluster and cling like little barnacles on the solid
+rock; but the rock remains the same beneath these deposits, and in this
+case the fact that the proclamation was determined upon and issued at
+the sole will and discretion of the President is not shaken by any
+testimony that is given about it. He regarded it as a most grave
+measure, as plainly it was; to a Southerner, who had begged him not to
+have recourse to it, he replied: "You must not expect me to give up this
+government without playing my last card."[38] So now, on this momentous
+twenty-second day of September, the President, using his own judgment in
+playing the great game, cast what he conceived to be his ace of trumps
+upon the table.
+
+The measure took the country by surprise. The President's secret had
+been well kept, and for once rumor had not forerun execution. Doubtless
+the reader expects now to hear that one immediate effect was the
+conciliation of all those who had been so long reproaching Mr. Lincoln
+for his delay in taking this step. It would seem right and natural that
+the emancipationists should have rallied with generous ardor to sustain
+him. They did not. They remained just as dissatisfied and distrustful
+towards him as ever. Some said that he had been _forced_ into this
+policy, some that he had drifted with the tide of events, some that he
+had waited for popular opinion at the North to give him the cue, instead
+of himself guiding that opinion. To show that he was false to the
+responsibility of a ruler, there were those who cited against him his
+own modest words: "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess
+plainly that events have controlled me." Others, however, put upon this
+language the more kindly and more honest interpretation, that Mr.
+Lincoln appreciated that both President and people were moved by the
+drift of events, which in turn received their own impulse from an agency
+higher than human and to which they must obediently yield. But whatever
+ingenious excuses were devised by extremists for condemning the man who
+had done the act, the Republican party faithfully supported the act
+itself. In the middle of December the House passed a resolution
+ratifying the President's policy as "well adapted to hasten the
+restoration of peace," and "well chosen as a war measure."
+
+The President himself afterward declared his "conviction" that, had the
+proclamation been issued six months earlier, it would not have been
+sustained by public opinion; and certainly it is true that
+contemporaneous political occurrences now failed to corroborate the
+soundness of those assertions by which the irreconcilable
+emancipationist critics of Mr. Lincoln had been endeavoring to induce
+him to adopt their policy earlier. They themselves, as Mr. Wilson
+admits, "had never constituted more than an inconsiderable fraction" of
+the whole people at the North. He further says: "At the other extreme,
+larger numbers received it [the proclamation] with deadly and outspoken
+opposition; while between these extremes the great body even of Union
+men doubted, hesitated.... Its immediate practical effect did perhaps
+more nearly answer the apprehensions of the President than the
+expectations of those most clamorous for it. It did, as charged, very
+much 'unite the South and divide the North.'"
+
+In the autumn of 1862 there took place the elections for Representatives
+to the Thirty-eighth Congress. The most ingenious sophist could hardly
+maintain that strenuous anti-slavery voters, who had been angry with the
+government for backwardness in the emancipation policy, ought now to
+manifest their discontent by voting the Democratic ticket. If there
+should be a Democratic reaction at the polls it could not possibly be
+construed otherwise than as a reaction against anti-slavery; it would
+undeniably indicate that Congress and the administration had been too
+hostile rather than too friendly towards that cause of the strife, that
+they had outstripped rather than fallen behind popular sympathy. It soon
+became evident that a formidable reaction of this kind had taken place,
+that dissatisfaction with the anti-slavery measures and discouragement
+at the military failures, together, were even imperiling Republican
+ascendency. Now all knew, though some might not be willing to say, that
+the loss of Republican ascendency meant, in fact, the speedy settlement
+of the war by compromise; and the South was undoubtedly in earnest in
+declaring that there could be no compromise without disunion. Therefore,
+in those elections of the autumn months in 1862 the whole question of
+Union or Disunion had to be fought out at the polls in the loyal States,
+and there was an appalling chance of its going against the Unionist
+party. "The administration," says Mr. Blaine, "was now subjected to a
+fight for its life;" and for a while the fortunes of that mortal combat
+wore a most alarming aspect.
+
+The Democracy made its fight on the ground that the anti-slavery
+legislation of the Republican majority in the Thirty-seventh Congress
+had substantially made abolition the ultimate purpose of the war. Here,
+then, they said, was a change of base; were or were not the voters of
+the loyal States willing to ratify it? Already this ground had been
+taken in the platforms of the party in the most important Northern
+States, before Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation. Was it unreasonable
+to fear that this latest and most advanced step would intensify that
+hostility, stimulate the too obvious reaction, and aggravate the danger
+which, against his judgment,[39] as it was understood, Congress had
+created? Was it not probable that Mr. Blair was correct when he warned
+the President that the proclamation would "cost the administration the
+fall elections"? Naturally it will be asked: if this was a reasonable
+expectation, why did the President seize this critical moment to ally
+the administration with anti-slavery? Mr. Blaine furnishes a probable
+explanation: "The anti-slavery policy of Congress had gone far enough to
+arouse the bitter hostility of all Democrats, who were not thoroughly
+committed to the war, and yet not far enough to deal an effective blow
+against the institution." The administration stood at a point where
+safety lay rather in defying than in evading the ill opinion of the
+malcontents, where the best wisdom was to commit itself, the party, and
+the nation decisively to the "bold, far-reaching, radical, and
+aggressive policy," from which it would be impossible afterward to turn
+back "without deliberately resolving to sacrifice our nationality."
+Presumably the President wished to show the people that their only
+choice now lay between slavery on the one hand and nationality on the
+other, so that, of the two things, they might take that one which they
+deemed the more worthy. The two together they could never again have.
+This theory tallies with the well-known fact that Mr. Lincoln was always
+willing to trust the people upon a question of right and wrong. He never
+was afraid to stake his chance upon the faith that what was
+intrinsically right would prove in the long run to be politically safe.
+While he was a shrewd politician in matters of detail, he had the wisdom
+always in a great question to get upon that side where the inherent
+morality lay. Yet, unfortunately, it takes time--time which cannot
+always be afforded--for right to destroy prejudice; the slow-grinding
+mill of God grinds sometimes so slowly that man cannot help fearing that
+for once the stint will not be worked out; and in this autumn of 1862
+there was one of these crises of painful anxiety among patriots at the
+North.
+
+Maine held her election early in September, and upon the vote for
+governor a Republican majority, which usually ranged from 10,000 to
+19,000, was this year cut down to a little over 4000; also, for the
+first time in ten years, a Democrat secured a seat in the national House
+of Representatives. Then came the "October States." In that dreary month
+Ohio elected 14 Democrats and 5 Republicans; the Democrats casting, in
+the total, about 7000 more votes than the Republicans. Indiana sent 8
+Democrats, 3 Republicans. In Pennsylvania the congressional delegation
+was divided, but the Democrats polled the larger vote by about 4000;
+whereas Mr. Lincoln had had a majority in the State of 60,000! In New
+York the famous Democratic leader, Horatio Seymour, was elected governor
+by a majority of nearly 10,000. Illinois, the President's own State,
+showed a Democratic majority of 17,000, and her congressional delegation
+stood 11 Democrats to 3 Republicans. New Jersey turned from
+Republicanism to Democracy. Michigan reduced a Republican majority from
+20,000 to 6000. Wisconsin divided its delegation evenly.[40] When the
+returns were all in, the Democrats, who had had only 44 votes in the
+House in the Thirty-seventh Congress, found that in its successor they
+would have 75. Even if the non-voting absentees in the army[41] had been
+all Republicans, which they certainly were not, such a reaction would
+have been appalling.
+
+Fortunately some other Northern States--New England's six, and Iowa,
+Kansas, Minnesota, California, and Oregon--held better to their
+Republican faith. But it was actually the border slave States which, in
+these dark and desperate days, came gallantly to the rescue of the
+President's party. If the voters of these States had seen in him a
+radical of the stripe of the anti-slavery agitators, it is not
+imaginable that they would have helped him as they now did. Thus was his
+much maligned "border-state policy" at last handsomely vindicated; and
+thanks to it the frightened Republicans saw, with relief, that they
+could command a majority of about twenty votes in the House. Mr. Lincoln
+had saved the party whose leaders had turned against him.
+
+Beneath the dismal shadow of these autumnal elections the
+Thirty-seventh Congress came together for its final session, December 1,
+1862. The political situation was peculiar and unfortunate. There was
+the greatest possible need for sympathetic coöperation in the Republican
+party; but sympathy was absent, and coöperation was imperfect and
+reluctant. The majority of the Republican members of Congress
+obstinately maintained their alienation from the Republican President;
+an enormous popular defection from Republicanism had taken place in its
+natural strongholds; and Republican domination had only been saved by
+the aid of States in which Republican majorities had been attainable
+actually because a large proportion of the population was so disaffected
+as either to have enlisted in the Confederate service, or to have
+refrained from voting at elections held under Union auspices. Therefore,
+whether Mr. Lincoln looked forth upon the political or the military
+situation, he beheld only gloomy prospects. But having made fast to what
+he believed to be right, he would not, in panic, cast loose from it. In
+the face of condemnation he was not seen to modify his course in order
+to conciliate any portion of the people; but, on the contrary, in his
+message he returned to his plan which had hitherto been so coldly
+received, and again strenuously recommended appropriations for gradual,
+compensated emancipation and colonization. The scheme had three especial
+attractions for him: 1. It would be operative in those loyal States and
+parts of States in which military emancipation would not take effect.
+2. In its practical result it would do away with slavery by the year
+1900, whereas military emancipation would now free a great number of
+individuals, but would leave slavery, as an institution, untouched and
+liable to be revived and reinvigorated later on. 3. It would make
+emancipation come as a voluntary process, leaving a minimum of
+resentment remaining in the minds of slaveholders, instead of being a
+violent war measure never to be remembered without rebellious anger.
+This last point was what chiefly moved him. He intensely desired to have
+emancipation effected in such a way that good feeling between the two
+sections might be a not distant condition; the humanity of his
+temperament, his passion for reasonable dealing, his appreciation of the
+mischief of sectional enmity in a republic, all conspired to establish
+him unchangeably in favor of "compensated emancipation."
+
+For the accomplishment of his purpose he now suggested three articles of
+amendment to the Constitution. He spoke earnestly; for "in times like
+the present," he said, "men should utter nothing for which they would
+not willingly be responsible through time and eternity." Beneath the
+solemnity of this obligation he made for his plan a very elaborate
+argument. Among the closing sentences were the following:--
+
+"The plan would, I am confident, secure peace more speedily, and
+maintain it more permanently, than can be done by force alone; while
+all it would cost, considering amounts, and manner of payment, and times
+of payment, would be easier paid than will be the additional cost of the
+war, if we rely solely upon force. It is much, very much, that it would
+cost no blood at all.
+
+... "Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would
+shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood?
+Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national
+prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we
+here--Congress and Executive--can secure its adoption? Will not the good
+people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they,
+by any other means so certainly or so speedily assure these vital
+objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'Can _any_ of us
+_imagine_ better?' but; 'Can we _all do_ better?' Object whatsoever is
+possible, still the question recurs, 'Can we do better?' The dogmas of
+the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is
+piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our
+case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall
+ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
+
+"Fellow citizens, _we_ cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and
+this administration, will [shall] be remembered in spite of ourselves.
+No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another
+of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in
+honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We _say_ we are for the
+Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save
+the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even _we
+here_--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In _giving_ freedom
+to the _slave_ we _assure_ freedom to the _free_,--honorable alike in
+what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose,
+the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not
+fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just,--a way which, if
+followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
+
+Beautiful and impressive as was this appeal, it persuaded few or none.
+In fact, no effort on the President's part now, or at any time, could
+win much approval for his plan. Not many were ever pleased by it; but
+afterward, in the winter of 1863, many members of the Thirty-eighth
+Congress were willing, without believing in it, to give him a chance to
+try it in Missouri. Accordingly a bill then passed the House
+appropriating $10,000,000 to compensate slave-owners in that State, if
+abolition of slavery should be made part of its organic law. The Senate
+made the sum $15,000,000 and returned the bill to the House for
+concurrence. But the representatives from Missouri were tireless in
+their hostility to the measure, and finally killed it by parliamentary
+expedients of delay.
+
+This was a great disappointment to Mr. Lincoln. While the measure was
+pending he argued strenuously with leading Missourians to induce them to
+put their State in the lead in what he hoped would then become a
+procession of slave States. But these gentlemen seemed to fear that, if
+they should take United States bonds in payment, they might awake some
+morning in these troublous times to find their promiser a bankrupt or a
+repudiationist. On the other hand, such was the force of habit that a
+slave seemed to them very tangible property. Mr. Lincoln shrewdly
+suggested that, amid present conditions, "_bonds_ were better than
+_bondsmen_," and "two-legged property" was a very bad kind to hold. Time
+proved him to be entirely right; but for the present his argument,
+entreaty, and humor were all alike useless. Missouri would have nothing
+to do with "compensated emancipation;" and since she was regarded as a
+test case, the experiment was not tried elsewhere. So it came to pass
+afterward that the slaveholders parted with their slaves for nothing
+instead of exchanging them for the six per cent. bonds of the United
+States.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first day of January, 1863, arrived, and no event had occurred to
+delay the issue of the promised proclamation. It came accordingly. By
+virtue of his power as commander-in-chief, "in time of actual armed
+rebellion,... and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing
+said rebellion," the President ordered that all persons held as slaves
+in certain States and parts of States, which he designated as being then
+in rebellion, should be thenceforward free, and declared that the
+Executive, with the army and navy, would "recognize and maintain the
+freedom of said persons." The word "maintain" was inserted at Seward's
+suggestion, and somewhat against Mr. Lincoln's wish. He said that he had
+intentionally refrained from introducing it, because it was not his way
+to promise what he was not entirely _sure_ that he could perform. The
+sentence invoking the favor of God was contributed by Secretary Chase.
+The paper was signed after the great public reception of New Year's Day.
+Mr. Lincoln, as he took the pen, remarked to Mr. Seward that his
+much-shaken hand was almost paralyzed, so that people who, in time to
+come, should see that signature would be likely to say: "He hesitated,"
+whereas, in fact, his whole soul was in it. The publication took place
+late in the day, and the anti-slavery critics grumbled because it was
+not sent out in the morning.
+
+The people at large received this important step with some variety of
+feeling and expression; but, upon the whole, approval seems to have far
+outrun the dubious prognostications of the timid and conservative class.
+For the three months which had given opportunity for thinking had
+produced the result which Mr. Lincoln had hoped for. It turned out that
+the mill of God had been grinding as exactly as always. Very many who
+would not have advised the measure now heartily ratified it. Later,
+after men's minds had had time to settle and the balance could be fairly
+struck, it appeared undeniable that the final proclamation had been of
+good effect; so Mr. Lincoln himself said.
+
+It is worth noting that while many Englishmen spoke out in generous
+praise, the rulers of England took the contrary position. Earl Russell
+said that the measure was "of a very strange nature," "a very
+questionable kind," an act of "vengeance on the slave-owner," and that
+it did no more than "profess to emancipate slaves, where the United
+States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality." But the English
+people were strongly and genuinely anti-slavery, and the danger of
+English recognition of the Confederacy was greatly diminished when the
+proclamation established the policy of the administration.
+
+The proclamation contained a statement that ex-slaves would be "received
+into the armed service of the United States." Up to this time not much
+had been done in the way of enlisting colored troops. The negroes
+themselves had somewhat disappointed their friends by failing to take
+the initiative, and it became evident that they must be stirred by
+influences outside their own race. The President now took the matter in
+hand, and endeavored to stimulate commanders of Southern departments to
+show energy concerning it. By degrees successful results were obtained.
+The Southerners formally declared that they would not regard either
+negro troops or their officers as prisoners of war; but that they would
+execute the officers as ordinary felons, and would hand over the negroes
+to be dealt with by the state authorities as slaves in insurrection.
+Painful and embarrassing questions of duty were presented by these
+menaces. To Mr. Lincoln the obvious policy of retaliation seemed
+abhorrent, and he held back from declaring that he would adopt it, in
+the hope that events might never compel him to do so. But on July 30 he
+felt compelled, in justice to the blacks and those who led them, to
+issue an order that for every Union soldier killed in violation of the
+laws of war a rebel soldier should be executed; and for every one
+enslaved a rebel soldier should be placed at hard labor on the public
+works. Happily, however, little or no action ever became necessary in
+pursuance of this order. The Southerners either did not in fact wreak
+their vengeance in fulfillment of their furious vows, or else covered
+their doings so that they could not be proved. Only the shocking
+incident of the massacre at Fort Pillow seemed to demand stern
+retaliatory measures, and even this was, too mercifully, allowed
+gradually to sink away into neglect.[42]
+
+[Illustration: Lincoln Submitting the Emancipation Proclamation to His
+Cabinet.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] To A.G. Hodges, April 4, 1864, N. and H. vi. 430; and see Lincoln
+to Chase, September 2, 1863; _ibid._ 434.
+
+[34] "It was," says Mr. Arnold, "full of errors and mistaken inferences,
+and written in ignorance of many facts which it was the duty of the
+President to consider." _Life of Lincoln_, 254. But, _per contra_, Hon.
+George W. Julian says: "It was one of the most powerful appeals ever
+made in behalf of justice and the rights of man." _Polit. Recoil._ 220.
+Arnold and Julian were both members of the House, and both
+thorough-going Abolitionists. Their difference of opinion upon this
+letter of Mr. Greeley illustrates well the discussions which, like the
+internecine feuds of Christian sects, existed between men who ought to
+have stood side by side against the heretics and unbelievers.
+
+[35] For views contrary to mine, see Julian, _Polit. Recoil._ 221.
+
+[36] The story that some members of the cabinet were opposed to the
+measure was distinctly denied by the President. Carpenter, _Six Months
+in the White House_, 88.
+
+[37] For interesting statements about this Altoona conference see
+McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War-Times_, 248-251.
+
+[38] Blaine, i. 439.
+
+[39] It was understood that he had not favored the principal
+anti-slavery measures of the Thirty-seventh Congress, on the ground
+measures of the Thirty-seventh Congress, on the ground that they were
+premature.
+
+[40] The foregoing-statistics have been taken from Mr. Elaine, _Twenty
+Years of Congress_, i. 441-444.
+
+[41] Later, legislation enabled the soldiers in the field to vote; but
+at this time they could not do so.
+
+[42] For account of these matters of retaliation and protection of
+negroes, see N. and H. vol. vi. ch. xxi.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BATTLES AND SIEGES: DECEMBER, 1862-DECEMBER, 1863
+
+
+The clouds of gloom and discouragement, which shut so heavily about the
+President in the autumn of 1862, did not disperse as winter advanced.
+That dreary season, when nearly all doubted and many despaired, is
+recognized now as an interlude between the two grand divisions of the
+drama. Before it, the Northern people had been enthusiastic, united, and
+hopeful; after it, they saw assurance of success within reach of a
+reasonable persistence. But while the miserable days were passing, men
+could not see into the mysterious future. Not only were armies beaten,
+but the people themselves seemed to be deserting their principles. The
+face and the form of the solitary man, whose position brought every part
+of this sad prospect fully within the range of his contemplation, showed
+the wear of the times. The eyes went deeper into their caverns, and
+seemed to send their search farther than ever away into a receding
+distance; the furrows sank far into the sallow face; a stoop bent the
+shoulders, as if the burden of the soul had even a physical weight. Yet
+still he sought neither counsel, nor strength, nor sympathy from any
+one; neither leaned on any friend, nor gave his confidence to any
+adviser; the problems were his and the duty was his, and he accepted
+both wholly. "I need success more than I need sympathy," he said; for it
+was the cause, not his own burden, which absorbed his thoughts. The
+extremists, who seemed to have more than half forgotten to hate the
+South in the intensity of their hatred of McClellan, had apparently
+cherished a vague faith that, if this procrastinating spirit could be
+exorcised, the war might then be trusted to take care of itself. But
+after they had accomplished their purpose they were confronted by facts
+which showed that in this matter, as in that of emancipation, the
+President's deliberation was not the unpardonable misdoing which they
+had conceived it to be. In spite of McClellan's insolent arrogance and
+fault-finding, his unreasonable demands, and his tedious squandering of
+invaluable time, Mr. Lincoln, being by nature a man who contemplated the
+consequence of an action, did not desire to make a vacancy till he could
+fill it with a better man. "I certainly have been dissatisfied," he
+said, "with Buell and McClellan; but before I relieved them I had great
+fears I should not find successors to them who would do better; and I am
+sorry to add I have seen little since to relieve those fears." One
+bloody and costly experiment had already failed at Manassas. Two others
+were soon to result even more disastrously; and still another leader
+was to be superseded, before the "man of destiny" came. McClellan had
+thrown away superb opportunities; but to turn him out was not to fill
+his place with an abler man.
+
+On the evening of November 7, 1862, the dispatch came which relieved
+McClellan and put Burnside in command. The moment was not well chosen.
+McClellan seemed in an unusually energetic temper. He had Lee's army
+divided, and was conceivably on the verge of fighting it in detail.[43]
+On the other hand, Burnside assumed the charge with reluctance and
+self-distrust. A handsome, popular gentleman, of pleasing manners and
+with the prestige of some easily won successes, he had the misfortune to
+be too highly esteemed.
+
+The change of commanders brought a change of scheme, which was now to
+advance upon Richmond by way of Fredericksburg. When this was submitted
+to the President he said that it might succeed if the movement was
+rapid, otherwise not. The half of this opinion which concerned success
+was never tested; the other half was made painfully good. Instead of
+rapidity there was great delay, with the result that the early days of
+December found Lee intrenching strongly upon the heights behind
+Fredericksburg on the south bank of the Rappahannock, having his army
+now reunited and reinforced to the formidable strength of 78,288 men
+"present for duty." Burnside lay upon the north bank, with 113,000 men,
+but having exchanged the promising advantages which had existed when he
+took command for very serious disadvantages. He had the burden of
+attacking a position which he had allowed his enemy not only to select
+but to fortify. Happily it is not our task to describe the cruel and
+sanguinary thirteenth day of December, 1862, when he undertook this
+desperate task. When that night fell at the close of a fearful combat,
+which had been rather a series of blunders than an intelligent plan,
+10,208 Federal soldiers were known to be lying killed or wounded, while
+2145 more were "missing." Such was the awful price which the brave
+Northern army had paid, and by which it had bought--nothing! Nothing,
+save the knowledge that General Burnside's estimate of his capacity for
+such high command was correct. Even the mere brutal comparison of
+"killed and wounded" showed that among the Confederates the number of
+men who had been hit was not quite half that of the Federal loss. The
+familiar principle, that in war a general should so contrive as to do
+the maximum of injury to his adversary with a minimum of injury to
+himself, had been directly reversed; the unfortunate commander had done
+the maximum of injury to himself with the minimum of injury to his foe.
+
+The behavior of Burnside in so bitter a trial was such as to attract
+sympathy. Yet his army had lost confidence in his leadership, and
+therefore suffered dangerously in morale. Many officers whispered their
+opinions in Washington, and, as usual, Congress gave symptoms of a
+desire to talk. Influenced by these criticisms and menacings, on
+December 30 the President ordered Burnside not to enter again upon
+active operations without first informing him. Burnside, much surprised,
+hastened to see Mr. Lincoln, and learned what derogatory strictures were
+in circulation. After brief consideration he proposed to resign. But Mr.
+Lincoln said: "I do not yet see how I could profit by changing the
+command of the army of the Potomac; and, if I did, I should not wish to
+do it by accepting the resignation of your commission." So Burnside
+undertook further manoeuvres. These, however, did not turn out well, and
+he conceived that a contributing cause lay in the half-heartedness of
+some of his subordinates. Thereupon he designed against them a defensive
+or retaliatory move in the shape of an order dismissing from the service
+of the United States four generals, and relieving from command four
+others, and one colonel. This wholesale decapitation was startling, yet
+was, in fact, soundly conceived. In the situation, either the general,
+or those who had lost faith in the general, must go. Which it should be
+was conclusively settled by the length of the list of condemned. The
+President declined to ratify this, and Burnside's resignation inevitably
+followed. His successor was the general whose name led the list of those
+malcontent critics whom he had desired to displace, and was also the
+same who had once stigmatized McClellan as "a baby." Major-General
+Joseph Hooker, a graduate of West Point, was now given the opportunity
+to prove his own superiority.
+
+The new commander was popularly known as "Fighting Joe." There was
+inspiration in the nickname, and yet it was not quite thus that a great
+commander, charged with weighty responsibility, should be appropriately
+described. Upon making the appointment, January 26, 1863, the President
+wrote a letter remarkable in many points of view:--
+
+
+
+"GENERAL,--I have placed you at the head of the army of the Potomac. Of
+course, I have done this upon what appears to me to be sufficient
+reasons; and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some
+things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe
+you to be a brave and skillful soldier,--which, of course, I like. I
+also believe you do not mix politics with your profession,--in which you
+are right. You have confidence in yourself,--which is a valuable, if not
+an indispensable quality. You are ambitious,--which, within reasonable
+bounds, does good rather than harm; but I think that, during General
+Burnside's command of the army, you have taken counsel of your ambition
+and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to
+the country, and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I
+have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that
+both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course, it was
+not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command.
+Only those generals who gain successes can set up as dictators. What I
+now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
+The government will support you to the utmost of its ability,--which is
+neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I
+much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army,
+of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will
+now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down.
+Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out
+of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of
+rashness. Beware of rashness, but, with energy and sleepless vigilance,
+go forward and give us victories."
+
+
+
+Hooker was of that class of generals who show such capacity as
+lieutenants that they are supposed to be capable of becoming independent
+chiefs, until their true measure is ascertained by actual trial. In two
+months he had restored to good shape an army which he had found
+demoralized and depleted by absenteeism, and at the end of April he had
+under him about 124,500 men. He still lay on the north bank of the
+Potomac, facing Lee's army in its intrenchments about Fredericksburg.
+His plan of campaign, says General Doubleday, was "simple, efficacious,
+and should have been successful." Diverting the attention of Lee, he
+threw the chief part of his army across the Rappahannock several miles
+above Fredericksburg; then, marching rapidly to Chancellorsville, he
+threatened the left flank and rear of the Confederates. Pushing a short
+distance out upon the three roads which led from Chancellorsville to
+Fredericksburg, he came to the very edge and brink, as it were, of
+beginning a great battle with good promise of success. But just at this
+point his generals at the front were astounded by orders to draw back to
+Chancellorsville. Was it that he suddenly lost nerve in the crisis of
+his great responsibility?[44] Or was it possible that he did not
+appreciate the opportunity which he was throwing away? No one can say.
+Only the fact can be stated that he rejected the chance which offended
+Fortune never offers a second time. Back came the advanced columns, and
+took position at Chancellorsville, while Lee, who had not the Northern
+habit of repudiating fair opportunity, pressed close upon them.
+
+On May 1 manoeuvring for position and some fighting took place. On
+Saturday, May 2, a brilliant flanking movement by "Stonewall" Jackson
+wrecked the Federal right. But the dangerous Southerner, accidentally
+shot by his own soldiers, was carried from the field a dying man. Upon
+Sunday, May 3, there was a most sanguinary conflict. "The Federals
+fought like devils at Chancellorsville," said Mahone. Still it was again
+the sad and wearisome story of brave men so badly handled that their
+gallantry meant only their own slaughter. The President had expressly
+urged Hooker to be sure to get all his troops at work. Yet he actually
+let 37,000 of them stand all day idle, not firing a shot, while their
+comrades were fighting and falling and getting beaten. On May 4, Hooker,
+whose previous "collapse" had been aggravated by a severe personal hurt,
+"seemed disposed to be inactive;" and Lee seized the chance to turn upon
+Sedgwick, who was coming up in the rear of the Confederates, and to
+drive him across the river. General Hooker now made up his mind that he
+had been beaten; and though a majority of his corps commanders were
+otherwise minded and were for renewing the conflict, he returned to the
+northern bank, leaving behind him his wounded soldiers, 14 guns, and
+20,000 stand of arms. Another ghastly price had been paid to settle
+another experiment and establish the value of another general. The North
+lost in killed and wounded 12,197 men, with 5000 others "missing," and
+found out that General Hooker was not the man to beat General Lee. The
+Confederate loss was 10,266 killed and wounded, 2753 missing.
+
+The days in which the news from Chancellorsville was spreading among the
+cities and villages of the North were the darkest of the war. In those
+countless households, by whose generous contributions the armies had
+been recruited, the talk began to be that it was folly, and even
+cruelty, to send brave and patriotic citizens to be slaughtered
+uselessly, while one leader after another showed his helpless
+incompetence. The disloyal Copperheads became more bodeful than ever
+before; while men who would have hanged a Copperhead as gladly as they
+would have shot a Secessionist felt their hearts sink before the
+undeniable Southern prestige. But the truth was that Pope and Burnside
+and Hooker, by their very defeats, became the cause of victory; for the
+elated Southerners, beginning to believe that their armies were
+invincible, now clamored for "invasion" and the capture of Washington.
+Apparently General Lee, too, had drunk the poison of triumph, and
+dreamed of occupying the national capital, Baltimore, and Philadelphia,
+and dictating the terms of peace to a disheartened North. The
+fascinating scheme--the irretrievable and fatal blunder--was determined
+upon.
+
+To carry out this plan Swell's corps was covertly moved early in June
+into the Shenandoah Valley. Hooker, anticipating some such scheme, had
+suggested to Mr. Lincoln that, if it were entered upon, he should like
+to cross the river and attack the Southern rear corps in Fredericksburg.
+The President suggested that the intrenched Southerners would be likely
+to worst the assailants, while the main Southern army "would in some way
+be getting an advantage northward." "In one word," he wrote, "I would
+not take any risk of being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped
+half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs front and rear, without
+a fair chance to gore one way or kick the other." Yet, very soon, when
+the attenuation of Lee's line became certain, Lincoln sent to Hooker one
+of his famous dispatches: "If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg,
+and the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and
+Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not
+break him?" But the "animal" was moving rapidly, and the breaking
+process did not take place.
+
+Hooker now conceived a plan seductive by its audacity and its possible
+results. He proposed by a sudden movement to capture Richmond,
+presumably garrisoned very scantily, and to get back before Lee could
+make any serious impression at the North. It _might_ have been done,
+and, if done, it would more than offset all the dreary past; yet the
+risk was great, and Mr. Lincoln could not sanction it. He wrote: "I
+think Lee's army, and not Richmond, is your sure objective point. If he
+comes towards the Upper Potomac, follow on his flank and on his inside
+track, shortening your lines while he lengthens his; fight him, too,
+when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, _fret him, and fret
+him_."
+
+This was good strategy and was adopted for the campaign. Ewell's corps
+crossed the Upper Potomac, and on June 22 was in Pennsylvania. The
+corps of Longstreet and Hill quickly followed, and Lee's triumphant
+army, at least 70,000 strong, marched through the Cumberland Valley to
+Chambersburg and Carlisle, gathering rich booty of herds and grain as
+they went, with Harrisburg as an immediate objective, Philadelphia in no
+remote distance, Baltimore and Washington in a painfully distinct
+background. The farmers of western Pennsylvania, startled by the
+spectacle of gray-coated cavalry riding northward towards their state
+capital, cumbered the roads with their wagons. The President called from
+the nearest States 120,000 militia. General Hooker, released from his
+waiting attitude by the development of his adversary's plan, manoeuvred
+well. He crossed the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry, June 25-26, and drew his
+forces together at Frederick. It was then decided to move northward and
+to keep Lee as well to the westward as possible, thereby reserving, for
+the bearing of future events, the questions of cutting the Confederate
+communications or bringing on a battle.
+
+An unfortunate element in these critical days was that Halleck and
+Hooker disliked each other, and that their ideas often clashed. Mr.
+Lincoln was at last obliged to say to Hooker: "To remove all
+misunderstanding, I now place you in the strict military relation to
+General Halleck of a commander of one of the armies to the
+general-in-chief of all the armies. I have not intended differently; but
+as it seems to be differently understood, I shall direct him to give
+you orders, and you to obey them." At the same time he wrote him a
+"private" letter, endeavoring to allay the ill-feeling. He closed it
+with words of kindness, of modesty, and with one of his noble appeals
+for subjection of personal irritation and for union of effort on behalf
+of the country:--
+
+"I believe you are aware that, since you took command of the army, I
+have not believed you had any chance to effect anything till now. As it
+looks to me, Lee's now returning towards Harper's Ferry gives you back
+the chance that I thought McClellan lost last fall. Quite possibly I was
+wrong both then and now; but, in the great responsibility resting upon
+me, I cannot be entirely silent. Now, all I ask is that you will be in
+such mood that we can get into our action the best cordial judgment of
+yourself and General Halleck, with my poor mite added, if, indeed, he
+and you shall think it entitled to any consideration at all."
+
+The breach, however, could not be closed. Hooker, finding his army
+seriously weakened by the withdrawal of the two years' and the nine
+months' troops, asked for the garrison of Harper's Ferry, which seemed
+useless where it was. Halleck refused it, and, June 27, Hooker requested
+to be relieved of the command. His request was instantly granted, and
+Major-General George G. Meade was appointed in his place. Swinton says
+that command was given to Meade "without any lets or hindrances, the
+President expressly waiving all the powers of the executive and the
+Constitution, so as to enable General Meade to make, untrammeled, the
+best dispositions for the emergency." One would like to know the
+authority upon which so extraordinary a statement is based; probably it
+is a great exaggeration, and the simple fact would prove to be that,
+since the situation was such that new developments were likely to occur
+with much suddenness, the President wisely and even necessarily placed
+the general in full control, free from requirements of communication and
+consultation. But to represent that Mr. Lincoln abdicated his
+constitutional functions is absurd! Be this as it may, the fact is that
+the appointment brought no change of plan. For three days the armies
+manoeuvred and drew slowly together. Finally it was betwixt chance and
+choice that the place and hour of concussion were determined. The place
+was the village of Gettysburg, and the time was the morning of July 1.
+
+Then ensued a famous and most bloody fight! During three long, hot days
+of midsummer those two great armies struggled in a desperate grapple,
+and with not unequal valor, the Confederates fiercely assailing, the
+Federals stubbornly holding, those historic ridges, and both alike,
+whether attacking or defending, whether gaining or losing ground, always
+falling in an awful carnage of dead and wounded. It was the most
+determined fighting that had yet taken place at the East, and the names
+of Cemetery Ridge, Little Round Top, and Culp's Hill are written deep
+in blood in American memories. When the last magnificent charge of the
+Southerners was hurled back in the afternoon of July 3, the victory was
+decided. The next day Lee began to send away his trains, his wounded and
+prisoners. It is indeed true that during the day he held his army in
+position on Seminary Ridge, hoping that Meade would attack, and that,
+with an exchange of their relative parts of assailants and defenders, a
+change of result also might come about. But Meade made no advance, and
+with the first hours of darkness on the evening of July 4 the Southern
+host began its retreat.
+
+The losses at Gettysburg were appalling. The estimate is 2834 killed,
+13,709 wounded, 6643 missing, a total of 23,186 on the Federal side; the
+figures were only a trifle less on the Confederate side. But if such
+bloodshed carried grief into many a Northern household, at least there
+was not the cruel thought that life and limb, health and usefulness, had
+been sacrificed through incompetence and without advantage to the cause.
+It was true that the Northern general ought to have won, for he
+commanded more troops,[45] held a very strong defensive position, and
+fought a strictly defensive battle. But such had been the history of the
+war that when that which _ought_ to be done _was_ done, the people felt
+that it was fair cause for rejoicing. Later there was fault-finding and
+criticism; but that during so many days so many troops on unfamiliar
+ground should be handled in such a manner that afterward no critic can
+suggest that something might have been done better, hardly falls among
+possibilities. The fact was sufficient that a most important and
+significant victory had been won. On the battlefield a stone now
+undertakes to mark the spot and to name the hour where and when the
+flood tide of rebellion reached its highest point, and where and when it
+began its slow and sure ebb. Substantially that stone tells the truth.
+Nevertheless the immediately succeeding days brought keen, counteracting
+disappointment. Expectation rose that the shattered army of Lee would
+never cross the Potomac; and the expectation was entirely reasonable,
+and ought to have been fulfilled. But Meade seemed to copy McClellan
+after Antietam. Spurred on by repeated admonitions from the President
+and General Halleck, he did, on July 10, catch up with the retreating
+army, which was delayed at Williamsport on the north bank of the river
+by the unusually high water. He camped close by it, and received
+strenuous telegrams urging him to attack. But he did not,[46] and on
+the night of July 13 the Southern general successfully placed the
+Potomac between himself and his too tardy pursuer. Bitter then was the
+resentment of every loyal man at the North. For once the President
+became severe and sent a dispatch of such tenor that General Meade
+replied by an offer to resign his command. This Mr. Lincoln did not
+accept. Yet he was too sorely pained not to give vent to words which in
+fact if not in form conveyed severe censure. He was also displeased
+because Meade, in general orders, spoke of "driving the invaders from
+our soil;" as if the whole country was not "_our soil_"! Under the
+influence of so much provocation, he wrote to General Meade a letter
+reproduced from the manuscript by Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. It is true
+that on cooler reflection he refrained from sending this missive, but it
+is in itself sufficiently interesting to deserve reading:--"I have just
+seen your dispatch to General Halleck, asking to be relieved of your
+command because of a supposed censure of mine. I am very grateful to you
+for the magnificent success you gave the cause of the country at
+Gettysburg; and I am sorry now to be the author of the slightest pain to
+you. But I was in such deep distress myself that I could not restrain
+some expression of it. I have been oppressed nearly ever since the
+battle of Gettysburg by what appeared to be evidences that yourself and
+General Couch and General Smith were not seeking a collision with the
+enemy, but were trying to get him across the river without another
+battle. What these evidences were, if you please, I hope to tell you at
+some time when we shall both feel better. The case, summarily stated, is
+this: You fought and beat the enemy at Gettysburg; and, of course, to
+say the least, his loss was as great as yours. He retreated; and you did
+not, as it seemed to me, pressingly pursue him; but a flood in the river
+detained him till, by slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at
+least twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as many more
+raw ones within supporting distance, all in addition to those who fought
+with you at Gettysburg, while it was not possible that he had received a
+single recruit; and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges be
+built, and the enemy move away at his leisure without attacking him. And
+Couch and Smith,--the latter left Carlisle in time, upon all ordinary
+calculation, to have aided you in the last battle at Gettysburg, but he
+did not arrive. At the end of more than ten days, I believe twelve,
+under constant urging, he reached Hagerstown from Carlisle, which is not
+an inch over fifty-five miles, if so much; and Couch's movement was very
+little different.
+
+"Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude
+of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy
+grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other
+late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged
+indefinitely. If you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, how can
+you possibly do so south of the river, when you can take with you very
+few more than two thirds of the force you then had in hand? It would be
+unreasonable to expect, and I do not expect [that] you can now effect
+much. Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably
+because of it.
+
+"I beg you will not consider this a prosecution or persecution of
+yourself. As you had learned that I was dissatisfied, I have thought it
+best to kindly tell you why."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was an odd coincidence during this momentous first week in July.
+During the preceding winter Mr. Lincoln had been exceedingly bothered by
+certain Democrats, notably that gentleman of unsavory repute, Fernando
+Wood, who had urged upon him all sorts of foolish schemes for
+"compromising" or "settling the difficulties,"--phrases which were
+euphemisms of the peace Democracy to disguise a concession of success to
+the South. The President endured these sterile suggestions with his
+wonted patience. But toward the close of June, Alexander H. Stephens,
+Vice-President of the Confederacy, was seized with the notion that, if
+he should go to Washington on a personal mission to Mr. Lincoln,
+purporting to be about prisoners of war, he might then "indirectly ...
+turn attention to a general adjustment." Accordingly he set forth on his
+way to Fortress Monroe; but very inopportunely for his purposes it fell
+out that the days of his journey were the very days in which General
+Lee was getting so roughly worsted at Gettysburg. So it happened that it
+was precisely on the day of the Southern retreat, July 4, that he
+notified the admiral in Hampton Roads that he was the "bearer of a
+communication in writing from Jefferson Davis, commander-in-chief of the
+land and naval forces of the Confederate States, to Abraham Lincoln,
+commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces of the United States;"
+and he asked for leave to proceed to Washington. But his ingenious
+phraseology was of no avail. Mr. Lincoln said: "The request of A.H.
+Stephens is inadmissible. The customary agents and channels are adequate
+for all needful communication and conference between the United States
+forces and the insurgents." Thus the shrewd instinct of the Northerner
+brought to naught a scheme conceived in the spirit of the old-time
+Southern politics, a scheme which was certainly clever, but which,
+without undue severity, may also be called a little artful and
+insidious; for Mr. Stephens himself afterward confessed that it had, for
+its ulterior purpose, "not so much to act upon Mr. Lincoln and the then
+ruling authorities at Washington as through them, when the
+correspondence should be published, upon the great mass of the people in
+the Northern States." The notion, disseminated among the people, that
+Mr. Lincoln would not listen to proposals for peace, would greatly help
+malcontents of the Fernando Wood school.
+
+It is necessary now to turn from the Eastern field of operations to the
+Middle and Western parts of the country, where, however, the control
+exercised by Mr. Lincoln was far less constant than at the East. After
+the series of successes which culminated at Corinth, the Federal good
+fortune rested as if to recuperate for a while. A large part of the
+powerful army there gathered was carried away by Buell, and was soon
+given occupation by General Bragg. For Jefferson Davis had long chosen
+to fancy that Kentucky was held in an unwilling subjection to the Union,
+and from this thralldom he now designed to relieve her, and to make the
+Ohio River the frontier of Secession. Accordingly cavalry raids in
+considerable force were made, Cincinnati was threatened, and General
+Bragg, with a powerful army, started northward from Gainesville. At the
+same time the Federals left Murfreesboro', and the two armies raced for
+Louisville. Bragg, with a handsome start, should have won, but on
+September 29, 1862, Buell entered the city ahead. The winning of the
+goal, however, was not the end. Two hostile armies, which had come so
+far and got so close together, were bound to have a fight. This took
+place at Perryville, October 8, with the result that on the next day
+Bragg began a rapid retreat. He had brought 20,000 stand of arms for the
+Kentuckians who were to flock to his camp; but they had not flocked, and
+the theory of Kentuckian disloyalty was no longer tenable.
+
+So soon as Bragg was out of Kentucky, Halleck, probably at the
+instigation of the President, recurred to the project of a campaign in
+Eastern Tennessee. Buell said that it was not feasible, and since by
+this opinion he placed himself at odds with the authorities at
+Washington, he asked to be relieved from his command. At the close of
+October, Major-General William S. Rosecrans succeeded him. But the new
+commander would not, any more than his predecessor, fall in with
+Halleck's schemes, and what Cist contemptuously describes as "Halleck's
+brilliant paper campaign into East Tennessee" did not take place.
+
+General Rosecrans took command of the army at Bowling Green, November 2,
+1862. Bragg fell back to Murfreesboro', in Tennessee, and the city of
+Nashville, now in Federal possession, became the gage of battle. On
+December 26 Rosecrans moved out from that city towards Murfreesboro',
+and on January 2, 1863, the battle of Stone's River took place. It was
+desperately contested, and the losses were heavy. At the close of the
+day the advantage rested with the Confederates; but it was
+inconsiderable, and both sides considered the battle only begun. On the
+next day, however, Bragg found such dangerous demoralization among his
+troops that he decided to withdraw. Although he always persisted in
+describing himself as the victor in the engagement, yet he now left his
+wounded in the hospitals, and fell back to Shelbyville. In these
+positions, not far apart, the two armies lay for a long while watching
+each other; there were a few raids and small encounters, but
+substantially, during the first six months of 1863, quietude reigned in
+the region which they dominated.
+
+But quietude was not what the government wished, and Mr. Lincoln and
+General Halleck soon fell into much the same relationship with Rosecrans
+which they had previously occupied towards McClellan. Whenever Rosecrans
+had taken the field he had shown himself a skillful strategist and an
+able commander in battle; but his propensity seemed to be to remain in
+quarters, and thence to present extravagant exactions, and to conduct
+endless disputes with the President and the general-in-chief. He seemed
+like a restive horse, the more he was whipped and spurred the more
+immovably he retained his balking attitude. Mr. Lincoln was sorely tried
+by this obstinacy, and probably had been pushed nearly to the limits of
+his patience, when at last Rosecrans stirred. It was on June 24 that he
+set his army in motion to settle with Bragg those conclusions which had
+been left open for half a year. With this purpose he moved upon
+Shelbyville, but when he arrived there he found that Bragg had gone back
+to Tullahoma; and when he pushed on to Tullahoma, Bragg had left there
+also. Thus it came to pass that on the same famous Fourth of July on
+which Lee started to get out of Pennsylvania, Bragg in like manner was
+getting over the southern boundary line of Tennessee and putting the
+mountain range between himself and the pursuing Federal commander. The
+converging lines of Federal good luck came together on this great day of
+the nation, in a way that touches the superstitious chord; for still
+farther west another and a momentous event was taking place.
+
+General Grant, at Corinth, had been pondering a great scheme which he
+meant to undertake so soon as his scanty army should be sufficiently
+reinforced. If Richmond had an artificial value as a token of final
+triumph, the Mississippi River had scarcely less value of a practical
+character. Vicksburg and Port Hudson cut out a mid-section of about 200
+miles of the great stream, which section still remained under
+Confederate control. Vicksburg was General Grant's objective point. Even
+to conceive the capture of this stronghold seemed in itself evidence of
+genius; no mere pedant in warfare could have had the conception. Every
+difficulty lay in the way of the assailant. The Confederates had spared
+no skill, no labor, no expense in fortifying the town; yet after all had
+been done that military science could do, human achievement counted for
+little in comparison with the surpassing arrangements of Nature. If what
+she intended could be inferred from what she had done, she clearly had
+designed this town to be through all time a veritable "virgin fortress;"
+she had made for its resting-place a great bluff, which jutted
+insolently out into the channel of the Mississippi River, and upon the
+summit of which the cluster of buildings resembled rather an eyrie of
+eagles than a place of human habitation; the great stream, as if
+confounded by the daring obstruction, before it could recover its
+interrupted course spread itself far over the surrounding country in a
+tangle of bayous and a vast expanse of unwholesome, impassable swamp;
+the high ridges which lay inland around the place were intersected by
+frequent long, deep, and precipitous ravines, so that by this side also
+hostile approach had apparently been rendered impossible. Nevertheless,
+that one of the Northern generals to whom nothing ever seemed
+impossible, having cast the eye of desire upon this especial spot, now
+advanced upon it, and began operations in his silent, enduring,
+pertinacious way, which no men and no intrenchments could permanently
+withstand. His lieutenant, Sherman, made one desperate assault,--not, as
+it seemed, because there was a possibility of taking the place, but
+rather to demonstrate that it could not be taken. Then slower and more
+toilsome methods were tried. It was obvious that a siege must be
+resorted to; yet it was not easy to get near enough even to establish a
+siege.
+
+General Grant had early decided that the city would remain impregnable
+until by some means he could get below it on the river and approach it
+from the landward side. Ingenious schemes of canals were tried, and
+failed. Time passed; the month of April was closing, and all that had
+been done seemed to amount to nothing better than an accumulation of
+evidence that the Confederacy had one spot which the Federals could
+never touch. At last ingenuity was laid aside for sheer daring. The
+fleet, under Admiral Porter, transported the army down-stream, athwart
+the hostile batteries, and set it ashore on the east bank, below the
+fortifications. Yet this very success seemed only to add peril to
+difficulty. The Confederates, straining every nerve to save the place,
+were gathering a great force in the neighborhood to break up the
+besieging army. With a base of supplies which was substantially useless,
+in a hostile country, with a powerful army hovering near him, and an
+unapproachable citadel as his objective, Grant could save himself from
+destruction only by complete and prompt success. Desperate, indeed, was
+the occasion, yet all its exorbitant requirements were met fully,
+surely, and swiftly by the commander and the gallant troops under him.
+In the task of getting a clear space, by driving the Confederates from
+the neighborhood for a considerable distance around, the army penetrated
+eastward as far as Jackson, fighting constantly and living off the
+country. Then, returning westward, they began the siege, which, amid
+hardship and peril and infinite difficulty, was pushed with the
+relentless vigor of the most relentless and most vigorous leader of the
+war. At last, on July 3, General Pemberton, commanding within the city,
+opened negotiations for a surrender. He knew that an assault would be
+made the next day, and he knew that it must succeed; he did not want to
+illustrate the Fourth of July by so terrible a Confederate loss, so
+magnificent a Federal gain. Yet he haggled over the terms, and by this
+delay brought about a part of that which he had wished to avoid. It was
+due to his fretfulness about details, that the day on which the Southern
+army marched out and stacked their arms before the fortifications of
+Vicksburg, and on which the Northern army, having generously watched the
+operation without a cheer, then marched in and took possession of the
+place, was that same Fourth of July on which two other defeated generals
+were escaping from two other victorious Northern armies.
+
+In a military point of view this campaign and siege have been pronounced
+by many competent critics the greatest achievement of the war; but the
+magnificent and interesting story must, with regret, be yielded to the
+biographer of Grant; it does not belong to the biographer of Lincoln.
+The whole enterprise was committed to Grant to be handled by him without
+let or hindrance, and it was conducted by him from beginning to end
+without interference, and almost even without suggestion. Yet this very
+fact was greatly to the credit of the administration. In the outset the
+President passed judgment upon the man; and it was a correct judgment.
+Afterward he stood to it gallantly. In the middle of the business, when
+the earlier expedients went wrong, a great outcry against Grant arose.
+Editors and politicians, even the secretary of the treasury himself,
+began to hound the President with importunate demands for the
+displacement of a general whom they fervently alleged to be another of
+the incompetents; in short, there was the beginning of just such a
+crusade as that which had been made against McClellan. But by this time
+the President had had opportunity to measure the military capacity of
+editors and politicians, and he was not now so much disquieted by their
+clamor as he once had been. He simply, in his quiet way, paid no
+attention to them whatsoever. Only when one of them reiterated the
+gossip about Grant being drunk at Shiloh, he made his famous reply, that
+he should like to send to some other generals a barrel of the whiskey
+which Grant drank. In a word, the detractors of the silent general made
+little impression on the solitary President, who told them shortly and
+decisively: "I can't spare this man; he fights." They wholly failed to
+penetrate the protecting fence which the civilian threw around the
+soldier, and within the shelter of which that soldier so admirably
+performed the feat which more than any other illustrates the national
+arms. Certainly the President comes in for his peculiar share of the
+praise. When the news came to Mr. Lincoln he wrote to General Grant this
+letter:--
+
+
+
+"July 16, 1863.
+
+"My DEAR GENERAL,--I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.
+I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost
+inestimable services you have done the country.
+
+"I wish to say a word further. When you reached the vicinity of
+Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally did,--march the
+troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus
+go below; and I never had any faith, except in a general hope that you
+knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like would
+succeed.
+
+"When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I
+thought you should go down the river and join General Banks; and when
+you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake.
+I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were right and I
+was wrong."
+
+
+
+Immediately after the ceremony of surrender was over Sherman marched
+away with a strong force to find and fight Johnston's army. But that
+general, shunning the conflict, moved so far southward into Mississippi
+that pursuit was imprudent during the hot season.
+
+While Grant was finishing the siege of Vicksburg, General Banks was
+besieging Port Hudson, which lay at the southern end of the rebel
+section of the river. The fall of the northern post rendered the
+southern one untenable, and it was surrendered on July 9. Henceforth the
+great river was a safe roadway for unarmed craft flying the stars and
+stripes.
+
+It is time now to go back to Tennessee. By the close of the first week
+in July, 1863, the Confederate force was established in Chattanooga, and
+thus the hostile armies were "placed back in the relative positions
+occupied by them prior to Bragg's advance into Kentucky, a little less
+than one year previous." But though the Southern general had reached his
+present position by a retreat at the end of a disappointing enterprise,
+the issue of final success was still an open one between him and
+Rosecrans, with many advantages on his side. He had a large army in the
+heart of a mountainous region, with the opportunity to post it in
+positions which ought to be impregnable. Moreover, he received fresh
+troops under Johnston; and later the inaction of Meade in Virginia
+encouraged Lee to send to him a considerable force under Longstreet,
+himself no small reinforcement. These arrived just on the eve of the
+impending battle.
+
+Meantime Mr. Lincoln was sorely exercised at his inability to make his
+generals carry out his plans. He desired that Burnside should move down
+from the north and unite with Rosecrans, and that then the combined
+force should attack Bragg promptly. But Rosecrans lay still for about
+six weeks, to repair losses and fatigue, and again played the part of
+the restive steed, responding to the President's spur only with
+fractious kickings. It was August 16 when he moved, but then he showed
+his usual ability in action. The march was difficult; yet, on September
+6, he had his whole force across the Tennessee and in the mountains
+south of Chattanooga. Burnside, meanwhile, had advanced to Knoxville,
+but had stopped there, and was now, greatly to Mr. Lincoln's
+bewilderment and annoyance, showing activity in every direction except
+precisely that in which he was directed to move.
+
+At last, after much fruitless manoeuvring, the collision took place, and
+for two days there was fierce and stubborn fighting on the famous
+battlefield of Chickamauga. On the second day, September 20, Longstreet,
+commanding the Confederate left, thoroughly defeated the Federal right
+and centre and sent them in precipitate flight to Chattanooga.
+Rosecrans, overwhelmed amid the rush of fugitives, and thinking that all
+was lost, also hastened thither to take charge of the fragments. In
+truth all would have been lost, had it not been for Thomas. This able
+and resolute commander won in this fight the rhetorical but well merited
+name of "the Rock of Chickamauga." Under him the Federal left stood
+immovable, though furiously assailed by odds, and tried by the rout of
+their comrades. At nightfall these troops, still in position, covered
+the withdrawal to Chattanooga.
+
+Rosecrans, badly demoralized, gave the President to understand that
+there had been a terrible disaster, and the President, according to his
+custom in such trying moments, responded with words of encouragement and
+an instant effort to restore morale. Mr. Lincoln always cheered his
+generals in the hour of disaster, which he seemed to regard only as the
+starting-point for a new advance, the incentive to a fresh exertion.
+Yet, in fact, there had not been a disaster, but only a moderate
+worsting of the Federal army, resulting in its retirement a trifling
+distance to the place whence its opponents had just marched out. The
+issue between the two generals was still as open after Rosecrans's
+misfortune as it had been after the previous misfortunes of Bragg.
+Already there was a new question, who would win that coming battle which
+plainly was close at hand. The curtain had only gone down on an act; the
+drama itself had not been played out.
+
+Bragg advanced to besiege Chattanooga, and Rosecrans's communications
+were so imperfect that his troops were put on short rations. On the
+other hand, Mr. Lincoln bestirred himself vigorously. He promptly sent
+Sherman from the West, and Hooker from the East, each with considerable
+reinforcements, en route for the beleaguered town. Also he saw plainly
+that, whether by fault or misfortune, the usefulness of Rosecrans was
+over, and on October 16 he put Thomas in place of Rosecrans,[47] and
+gave to General Grant the command of the Military Division of the
+Mississippi, including the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and
+the Tennessee. Grant at once telegraphed to Thomas to hold Chattanooga
+at all hazards; to which Thomas replied: "We will hold the town till we
+starve!" Grant well knew that they were already getting very hungry. He
+showed his usual prompt energy in relieving them; and a little fighting
+soon opened a route by which sufficient food came into the place.
+
+It was now obvious that the decisive conflict between the two armies,
+which had so long been striving for the advantage of strategic position,
+and fighting in hostile competition, was at last to occur. Each had its
+distinctive advantage. The Federals were led by Grant, with Sherman,
+Thomas, Sheridan, and Hooker as his lieutenants,--a list which may
+fairly recall Napoleon and his marshals. On the other hand, the
+Southerners, lying secure in intrenched positions upon the precipitous
+sides and lofty summits of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, seemed
+invulnerably placed. It does not belong to this narrative to describe
+the terrific contest in which these two combatants furiously locked
+horns on November 24 and 25. It was Hooker's brave soldiers who
+performed the conspicuous feat which was conclusive of victory. Having,
+by command, stormed the first line of rifle-pits on the ascent, upon the
+Confederate left, they suddenly took the control into their own hands;
+without orders they dashed forward, clambered upward in a sudden and
+resistless access of fighting fury, and in an hour, emerging above the
+mists which shrouded the mid-mountain from the anxious view of General
+Grant, they planted the stars and stripes on top of Lookout Mountain.
+They had fought and won what was poetically christened "the battle above
+the clouds." Sherman, with seven divisions, had meanwhile been making
+desperate and bloody assaults upon Missionary Ridge, and had gained the
+first hilltop; but the next one seemed impregnable. It was, however, not
+necessary for him to renew the costly assault; for Hooker's victory,
+which was quickly followed by a handsome advance by Sheridan, on
+Sherman's right, so turned the Confederate position as to make it
+untenable.
+
+The Northerners were exasperated to find, among the Confederate troops
+who surrendered as captives in these two battles, prisoners of war taken
+at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, who had been paroled and never exchanged.
+
+On the eve of this battle Longstreet had started northward to cut off
+and destroy Burnside in Knoxville, and no sooner was the actual fighting
+over than Grant sent Sherman in all haste to Burnside's assistance.
+Thereupon Longstreet fell back towards Virginia, and came to a
+resting-place midway, where he afterward lay unharmed and unharming for
+many months. Thus at last the long-deferred wish of the President was
+fulfilled, and the chief part of East Tennessee was wrested from
+Confederate occupation. Among the loyal inhabitants the great rejoicing
+was in proportion to the sufferings which they had so long been
+undergoing.
+
+Meanwhile, since Gettysburg, no conspicuous event had attracted
+attention in Virginia. The President had been disappointed that Meade
+had not fought at Williamsport, but soon afterward he gave decisive
+advice against forcing a fight at a worse place in order to cure the
+blunder of having let go the chance to fight at the right place. About
+the middle of September, however, when Lee had reduced his army by
+leaves of absence and by dispatching Longstreet to reinforce Bragg, Mr.
+Lincoln thought it a good time to attack him. Meade, on the other hand,
+now said that he did not feel strong enough to assault, and this
+although he had 90,000 men "between him and Washington," and by his
+estimate the whole force of the enemy, "stretching as far as Richmond,"
+was only 60,000. "For a battle, then," wrote Mr. Lincoln, "General Meade
+has three men to General Lee's two. Yet, it having been determined that
+choosing ground and standing on the defensive gives so great advantage
+that the three cannot safely attack the two, the three are left simply
+standing on the defensive also. If the enemy's 60,000 are sufficient to
+keep our 90,000 away from Richmond, why, by the same rule, may not
+40,000 of ours keep their 60,000 away from Washington, leaving us 50,000
+to put to some other use?... I can perceive no fault in this statement,
+unless we admit we are not the equal of the enemy man for man." But
+when, a few days later, Stanton proposed to detach 30,000 men from Meade
+to Rosecrans, Mr. Lincoln demurred, and would agree only to let go
+13,000, whom Hooker took with him to Chattanooga. Probably he did not
+wish to diminish the Federal strength in Virginia.
+
+Late in October, Lee, overestimating the number of troops thus
+withdrawn, endeavored to move northward; but Meade outmanoeuvred and
+outmarched him, and he fell back behind the Rapidan. General Meade next
+took his turn at the aggressive. Toward the close of November he crossed
+the Rapidan with the design of flanking and attacking Lee. But an
+untoward delay gave the Southerners time to intrench themselves so
+strongly that an attack was imprudent, and Meade returned to the north
+bank of the stream. The miscarriage hurt his reputation with the people,
+though he was not to blame for it.
+
+Now, as the severe season was about to begin, all the armies both of the
+North and of the South, on both sides of the mountain ranges, turned
+gladly into winter quarters. Each had equal need to rest and recuperate
+after hard campaigns and bloody battles. For a while the war news was
+infrequent and insignificant; and the cessation in the thunder of cannon
+and the rattle of musketry gives opportunity again to hear the voices of
+contending politicians. For a while we must leave the warriors and give
+ear to the talkers.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[43] Palfrey, _The Antietam and Fredericksburg_, 132.
+
+[44] Swinton says: "The moment he confronted his antagonist he seemed to
+suffer a collapse of all his powers." _Army of Potomac_, 280.
+
+[45] But, says Swinton, there was less disproportion than usual; for the
+great army which Hooker had had before Chancellorsville had been greatly
+reduced, both by casualties and by the expiration of terms of service.
+On May 13 he reported that his "marching force of infantry" was "about
+80,000 men." A little later the cavalry was reported at 4677. _Army of
+Potomac_, 310.
+
+[46] Swinton says that whether Meade should have attacked or not, "will
+probably always remain one of those questions about which men will
+differ." He inclines to think that Meade was right. _Army of Potomac_,
+369, 370.
+
+[47] Grant disliked Rosecrans, and is said to have asked for this
+change.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SUNDRIES
+
+
+It has been pleasant to emerge from the dismal winter of 1862-63 into
+the sun-gleam of the Fourth of July of the latter year. But it is
+necessary to return for a while into that dusky gloom, for the career of
+a "war president" is by no means wholly a series of campaigns. Domestic
+politics, foreign relations, finance, make their several demands.
+
+Concerning one of these topics, at least, there is little to be said.
+One day, in a period of financial stress, Mr. Chase expressed a wish to
+introduce to the President a delegation of bankers, who had come to
+Washington to discuss the existing condition with regard to money.
+"Money!" exclaimed Mr. Lincoln, "I don't know anything about 'money'! I
+never had enough of my own to fret me, and I have no opinion about it
+any way." Accordingly, throughout his administration he left the whole
+subject in the hands of the secretary of the treasury. The tariffs and
+internal revenue bills, the legal tender notes, the "five-twenties," the
+"ten-forties," and the "seven-thirties," all the loans, the national
+banking system, in short, all the financial schemes of the
+administration were adopted by Mr. Lincoln upon the recommendation of
+Mr. Chase, with little apparent study upon his own part. Satisfied of
+the ability of his secretary, he gave to all the Treasury measures his
+loyal support. In return, he expected the necessary funds to be
+forthcoming; for he had implicit confidence in the willingness of the
+people to pay the bills of the Union; and he expected the secretary to
+arrange methods by which they could do so with reasonable convenience.
+Mr. Chase was cast for the role of magician, familiar with those
+incantations which could keep the Treasury ever full. It was well thus,
+for in fact no word or incident in Mr. Lincoln's life indicates that he
+had any capacity whatsoever in financiering. To live within his income
+and pay his dues with a minute and careful punctuality made the limit of
+his dealings and his interest in money matters.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Foreign affairs, less technical, could not in like easy manner be
+committed to others, and in these Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward labored
+together. The blackest cloud was the Trent affair, yet after that had
+passed the sky by no means became clear. In the spring of 1862 the Oreto
+went out from Liverpool to become the rebel privateer Florida. Before
+her departure Mr. Adams complained concerning her to the English
+government, but was assured that the vessel was designed for the
+Sicilian fruit trade! As it is not diplomatic to say that gentlemen in
+office are telling lies, the American minister could push the matter no
+farther. The Florida, therefore, escaped, not to conduct commerce with
+Sicily, but to destroy the commerce of the United States. At the same
+time that she was fitting out, a mysterious craft, oddly known only as
+the "290," was also building in the Liverpool docks, and against her Mr.
+Adams got such evidence that the queen's ministers could not help
+deciding that she must be detained. Unfortunately, however, and by a
+strange, if not a significant chance, they reached this decision on the
+day after she had sailed! She became the notorious Alabama. Earl Russell
+admitted that the affair was "a scandal," but this did not interfere
+with the career of Captain Semmes. In these incidents there was both
+cause and provocation for war, and hot-headed ones cried out for it,
+while prudent men feared it. But the President and the secretary were
+under the bonds of necessity to keep their official temper. Just at this
+juncture England would have found it not only very easy, but also very
+congenial to her real sympathies, to play for the South a part like that
+which France had once played for certain thirteen revolted colonies, and
+thereby to change a rebellion into a revolution. So Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
+Seward, not willing to give the unfriendly power this opportunity, only
+wrote down in the national ledger sundry charges against Great Britain,
+which were afterward paid, not promptly, yet in full!
+
+Another provoking thing was the placing of
+
+Confederate loans in London. This could not be interfered with. The
+only comfort was that the blockaded South had much difficulty in laying
+hands upon the proceeds of the bonds which English friends of the Slave
+Empire were induced to buy. Yet time, always the faithful auxiliary of
+the North, took care of this matter also. When the news of Gettysburg
+and Vicksburg came, the investors, who had scarcely finished writing the
+cheques with which to pay their subscriptions, were obliged to face a
+drop of thirty per cent, in the market price of their new securities.
+For many years after the war was over British strong boxes wasted space
+in accommodating these absurd documents, while the idea of their
+worthlessness was slowly filtering through the minds of their owners.
+
+Another thing, which did no harm at all, but was exceedingly vexatious,
+was the constant suggestion of European mediation. For a couple of
+years, at least, the air was full of this sort of talk. Once, in spite
+of abundant discouragement, the French emperor actually committed the
+folly of making the proposal. It came inopportunely on February 3, 1863,
+after the defeat of Fredericksburg, like a carrion bird after a battle.
+It was rejected very decisively, and if Napoleon III. appreciated Mr.
+Seward's dispatch, he became aware that he had shown gross lack of
+discernment. Yet he was not without some remarkable companions in this
+incapacity to understand that which he was observing, as if from aloft,
+with an air of superior wisdom. One would think that the condition of
+feeling in the United States which had induced Governor Hicks, in the
+early stage of the rebellion, to suggest a reference to Lord Lyons, as
+arbitrator, had long since gone by. But it had not; and it is the
+surprising truth that Horace Greeley had lately written to M. Mercier,
+the French minister at Washington, suggesting precisely the step which
+the emperor took; and there were other less conspicuous citizens who
+manifested a similar lack of spirit and intelligence.
+
+All this, however, was really of no serious consequence. Talk about
+mediation coming from American citizens could do little actual injury,
+and from foreigners it could do none. If the foreigners had only been
+induced to offer it by reason of a friendly desire to help the country
+in its hour of stress, the rejection might even have been accompanied
+with sincere thanks. Unfortunately, however, it never came in this
+guise; but, on the contrary, it always involved the offensive assumption
+that the North could never restore the integrity of the Union by force.
+Northern failure was established in advance, and was the unconcealed, if
+not quite the avowed, basis of the whole transaction. Now though mere
+unfriendliness, not overstepping the requirements of international law,
+could inflict little substantial hurt, yet there was something very
+discouraging in the unanimity and positiveness with which all these
+experienced European statesmen assumed the success of the Confederacy
+as the absolutely sure outcome; and in this time of extreme trial to
+discourage was to injure. Furthermore, the undisguised pleasure with
+which this prospect was contemplated was sorely trying to men oppressed
+by the burdens of anxiety and trouble which rested on the President and
+his ministers. The man who had begun life as a frontiersman had need of
+much moral courage to sustain him in the face of the presagings, the
+condemnations, and the hostility of nearly all the sage and well-trained
+statesmen of Europe. In those days the United States had not yet fully
+thrown off a certain thralldom of awe before European opinion.
+Nevertheless, at whatever cost in the coin of self-reliance, the
+President and the secretary maintained the courage of their opinions,
+and never swerved or hesitated in the face of foreign antipathy or
+contempt. The treatment inflicted upon them was only so much added to
+the weight under which they had to stand up.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rebellion and foreign ill-will, even Copperheadism, presented
+difficulties and opposition which were in a certain sense legitimate;
+but that loyal Republicans should sow the path of the administration
+thick with annoyances certainly did seem an unfair trial. Yet, on sundry
+occasions, some of which have been mentioned, these men did this thing,
+and they did it in the very uncompromising and exasperating manner which
+is the natural emanation from conscientious purpose and intense
+self-faith. An instance occurred in December, 1862. The blacker the
+prospect became, the more bitter waxed the extremists. Such is the
+fashion of fanatics, who are wont to grow more warm as their chances
+seem to grow more desperate; and some of the leaders of the anti-slavery
+wing of the Republican party were fanatics. These men by no means
+confined their hostility to the Democratic McClellan; but extended it to
+so old and tried a Republican as the secretary of state himself. It had
+already come to this, that the new party was composed of, if not split
+into, two sections of widely discordant views. The conservative body
+found its notions expressed in the cabinet by Seward; the radical body
+had a mouthpiece in Chase. The conservatives were not aggressive; but
+the radicals waged a genuine political warfare, and denounced Seward,
+not, indeed, with the vehemence which was considered to be appropriate
+against McClellan, yet very strenuously. Finally this hostility reached
+such a pass that, at a caucus of Republican senators, it was actually
+voted to demand the dismission of this long-tried and distinguished
+leader in the anti-slavery struggle. Later, in place of this blunt vote,
+a more polite equivalent was substituted, in the shape of a request for
+a reconstruction of the cabinet. Then a committee visited the President
+and pressed him to have done with the secretary, whom they thought
+lukewarm. Meanwhile, Seward had heard of what was going forward, and,
+in order to free Mr. Lincoln from embarrassment, he had already tendered
+his resignation before the committee arrived.
+
+The crisis was serious. The recent elections indicated that even while,
+as now, the government represented all the sections of Republicanism,
+still the situation was none too good; but if it was to be controlled by
+the extremist wing of a discordant party, the chance that it could
+endure to the end the tremendous strain of civil war was reduced almost
+to hopelessness. The visitors who brought this unwelcome suggestion to
+the President received no immediate response or expression of opinion
+from him, but were invited to come again in the evening; they did so,
+and were then much surprised to meet all the members of the cabinet
+except Mr. Seward. An outspoken discussion ensued, in which Mr. Chase
+found his position embarrassing, if not equivocal. On the following
+morning, he, with other members of the cabinet, came again for further
+talk with the President; in his hand he held a written resignation of
+his office. He "tendered" it, yet "did not advance to deliver it,"
+whereupon the President stepped forward and took it "with alacrity."[48]
+
+Having now in his hands the resignations of the chiefs of the two
+principal factions of the party, the President had made the first step
+towards relieving the situation of dangerous one-sidedness. At once he
+took the next step by sending to each this note:--
+
+
+
+December 20, 1862.
+
+HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD and HON. SALMON P. CHASE:
+
+_Gentlemen_,--You have respectively tendered me your resignations as
+secretary of state and secretary of the treasury of the United States. I
+am apprised of the circumstances which render this course personally
+desirable to each of you; but, after most anxious consideration, my
+deliberate judgment is, that the public interest does not admit of it.
+
+I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your
+departments respectively.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+The next morning Mr. Seward wrote briefly: "I have cheerfully resumed
+the functions of this department, in obedience to your command." Mr.
+Chase seemed to hesitate. On December 20, in the afternoon, he had
+written a letter, in which he had said that he thought it desirable that
+his resignation should be accepted. He gave as his reason that recent
+events had "too rudely jostled the unity" of the cabinet; and he
+intimated that, with both himself and Seward out of it, an improved
+condition might be reached. He had not, however, actually dispatched
+this, when the President's note reached him. He then, though feeling
+his convictions strengthened, decided to hold back the letter which he
+had prepared and "to sleep on" the matter. Having slept, he wrote, on
+the morning of December 22, a different letter, to the effect that,
+though reflection had not much, if at all, changed his original opinion
+as to the desirability of his resignation, yet he would conform to the
+judgment and wishes of the President. If Mr. Chase was less gracious
+than Mr. Seward in this business, it is to be remembered that he was
+very much more dissatisfied with the President's course than was Mr.
+Seward, who, indeed, for the most part was not dissatisfied at all.
+
+Thus a dangerous crisis was escaped rather than overcome. For though
+after the relief given by this plain speaking the situation did not
+again become quite so strained as it had previously been, yet
+disagreement between men naturally prudent and men naturally extremist
+was inevitable. Nevertheless it was something that the two sections had
+encountered each other, and that neither had won control of the
+government. The President had restrained dissension within safe limits
+and had saved himself from the real or apparent domination of a faction.
+When it was all over, he said: "Now I can ride; I have got a pumpkin in
+each end of my bag." Later on he repeated: "I do not see how it could
+have been done better. I am sure it was right. If I had yielded to that
+storm and dismissed Seward, the thing would all have slumped over one
+way, and we should have been left with a scanty handful of supporters."
+Undoubtedly he had managed very skillfully a very difficult affair, but
+he ought never to have been compelled to arrange such quarrels in the
+camp of his own party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Those counties of Virginia which lay west of the Alleghanies contained a
+population which was, by an overwhelming majority, strenuously loyal.
+There had long been more of antagonism than of friendship between them
+and the rest of the State, and now, as has been already mentioned, the
+secession of Virginia from the Union stimulated them, in turn, to secede
+from Virginia. In the summer of 1861 they took measures to form
+themselves into a separate State; and in April, 1862, they adopted a
+state Constitution by a vote of 18,862 yeas against 514 nays. A bill for
+the admission of "West Virginia" was passed by the Senate in July, and
+by the House in December, and was laid before the President for
+signature. There were nice questions of constitutional law about this,
+and some doubt also as to whether the move was altogether well advised.
+Mr. Lincoln asked the opinions of the cabinet as to whether he should
+sign the bill. Three said Yea, and three Nay; and it was noteworthy that
+the three who thought it expedient also thought it constitutional, and
+that the three who thought it inexpedient also thought it
+unconstitutional. Mr. Lincoln, not much assisted, then decided in the
+affirmative, and signed the bill December 31, 1862. A statement of the
+reasons[49] which led him to this decision concludes thus: "It is said
+that the admission of West Virginia is secession, and tolerated only
+because it is _our_ secession. Well, if we call it by that name, there
+is still difference enough between secession against the Constitution
+and secession in favor of the Constitution." Mr. Elaine says that the
+creation of this State was sustained by "legal fictions;" and Thaddeus
+Stevens declared that it was a measure entirely outside of any provision
+of the Constitution, yet said that he should vote for it in accordance
+with his general principle: that none of the States in rebellion were
+entitled to the protection of the Constitution. The Republicans
+themselves were divided in their views as to the lawfulness of the
+measure. However the law may have stood, it is evident to us, looking
+backward, that for practical purposes the wisdom of the President's
+judgment cannot be impugned. The measure was the amputation of so much
+territory from that which the Confederates, if they should succeed,
+could claim as their own; and it produced no inconvenience at all when,
+instead of succeeding, they failed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many causes conspired to induce an obstreperous outbreak of
+"Copperheadism" in the spring of 1863. The Democratic successes in the
+elections of the preceding autumn were in part a premonition of this,
+in part also a cause. Moreover, reaction was inevitable after the
+intense outburst of patriotic enthusiasm which had occurred during the
+earlier part of the war. But more than all this, Mr. Lincoln wrote, and
+every one knew, that, "if the war fails, the administration fails," and
+thus far the war had been a failure. So the grumblers, the malcontents,
+and the Southern sympathizers argued that the administration also, at
+least so far as it had gone, had been a failure; and they fondly
+conceived that their day of triumph was dawning.
+
+That which was due, punctually arrived. There now came into prominence
+those secret societies which, under a shifting variety of names,
+continued to scheme and to menace until the near and visible end of the
+war effected their death by inanition. The Knights of the Golden Circle,
+The Order of American Knights, the Order of the Star, The Sons of
+Liberty, in turn enlisted recruits in an abundance which is now
+remembered with surprise and humiliation,--sensations felt perhaps most
+keenly by the sons of those who themselves belonged to the
+organizations. Mr. Seward well said: "These persons will be trying to
+forget, years hence, that they ever opposed this war." These societies
+gave expression to a terrible blunder, for Copperheadism was even more
+stupid than it was vicious. But the fact of their stupidity made them
+harmless. Their very names labeled them. Men who like to enroll
+themselves in Golden Circles and in Star galaxies seldom accomplish much
+in exacting, especially in dangerous, practical affairs. Mr. Lincoln
+took this sensible view of these associations. His secretaries, who
+doubtless speak from personal knowledge, say that his attitude "was one
+of good-humored contempt."
+
+As a rule these "Knights" showed their valor in the way of mischief,
+plotting bold things, but never doing them. They encouraged soldiers to
+desert; occasionally they assassinated an enrolling officer; they
+maintained communications with the Confederates, to whom they gave
+information and occasionally also material aid; they were tireless in
+caucus work and wire-pulling; in Indiana, in 1863, they got sufficient
+control of the legislature to embarrass Governor Morton quite seriously;
+they talked much about establishing a Northwestern Confederacy; a few of
+them were perhaps willing to aid in those cowardly efforts at
+incendiarism in the great Northern cities, also in the poisoning of
+reservoirs, in the distribution of clothing infected with disease, and
+in other like villainies which were arranged by Confederate emissaries
+in Canada, and some of which were imperfectly carried out in New York
+and elsewhere; they also made great plans for an uprising and for the
+release of Confederate prisoners in Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. But no
+actual outbreak ever occurred; for when they had come close to the
+danger line, these associates of mediaeval tastes and poetic
+appellatives always stopped short.
+
+The President was often urged to take decisive measures against these
+devisers of ignoble treasons. Such men as Governor Morton and General
+Rosecrans strove to alarm him. But he said that the "conspiracy merited
+no special attention, being about an equal mixture of puerility and
+malice." He had perfect information as to all the doings and plottings,
+and as to the membership, of all the societies, and was able to measure
+accurately their real power of hurtfulness; he never could be induced to
+treat them with a severity which was abundantly deserved, but which
+might not have been politic and would certainly have added to the labor,
+the expense, and the complications of the government. "Nothing can make
+me believe," he once charitably said, "that one hundred thousand Indiana
+Democrats are disloyal!" His judgment was proved to be sound; for had
+many of these men been in grim earnest in their disloyalty, they would
+have achieved something. In fact these bodies were unquestionably
+composed of a small infusion of genuine traitors, combined with a vastly
+larger proportion of bombastic fellows who liked to talk, and foolish
+people who were tickled in their shallow fancy by the element of secrecy
+and the fineness of the titles.
+
+The man whose name became unfortunately preeminent for disloyalty at
+this time was Clement L. Vallandigham, a Democrat, of Ohio. General
+Burnside was placed in command of the Department of the Ohio, March 25,
+1863, and having for the moment no Confederates to deal with, he turned
+his attention to the Copperheads, whom he regarded with even greater
+animosity. His Order No. 38, issued on April 13, brought these hornets
+about his ears in impetuous fury; for, having made a long schedule of
+their favorite offenses, which he designed for the future severely to
+proscribe, he closed it by saying that "the habit of declaring sympathy
+for the enemy will not be allowed in this Department;" and he warned
+persons with treasonable tongues that, unless they should keep that
+little member in order, they might expect either to suffer death as
+traitors, or to be sent southward within the lines of "their friends."
+Now Mr. Vallandigham had been a member of Congress since 1856, and was
+at present a prominent candidate for any office which the Democrats of
+his State or of the United States might be able to fill; he was the
+popular and rising leader of the Copperhead wing of the Democracy. Such
+was his position that it would have been ignominious for him to allow
+any Union general to put a military gag in his mouth. Nor did he. On the
+contrary, he made speeches which at that time might well have made
+Unionists mad with rage, and which still seem to have gone far beyond
+the limit of disloyalty which any government could safely tolerate.
+Therefore on May 4 he was arrested by a company of soldiers, brought to
+Cincinnati, and thrown into jail. His friends gathered in anger, and a
+riot was narrowly avoided. At once, by order of General Burnside, he was
+tried by a military commission. He was charged with "publicly expressing
+sympathy for those in arms against the government of the United States,
+and declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions, with the object and
+purpose of weakening the power of the government in its efforts to
+suppress an unlawful rebellion." Specifications were drawn from a speech
+delivered by him on or about May 1. The evidence conclusively sustained
+the indictment, and the officers promptly pronounced him guilty,
+whereupon he was sentenced by Burnside to confinement in Fort Warren. An
+effort to obtain his release by a writ of habeas corpus was ineffectual.
+
+The rapidity of these proceedings had taken every one by surprise. But
+the Democrats throughout the North, rapidly surveying the situation,
+seized the opportunity which perhaps had been too inconsiderately given
+them. The country rang with plausible outcries and high-sounding oratory
+concerning military usurpation, violation of the Constitution, and
+stifling freedom of speech. It was painfully obvious that this
+combination of rhetoric and argument troubled the minds of many
+well-affected persons. If the President had been consulted in the
+outset, it is thought by some that he would not have allowed matters to
+proceed so far. Soon afterward, in his reply to the New York Democrats,
+he said: "In my own discretion, I do not know whether I would have
+ordered the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham." On the other hand, Mr. Blaine
+states that Burnside "undoubtedly had confidential instructions in
+regard to the mode of dealing with the rising tide of disloyalty which,
+beginning in Ohio, was sweeping over the West."
+
+In a very short time the violence of the fault-finding reached so
+excessive a measure that Burnside offered his resignation; but Mr.
+Lincoln declined to accept it, saying that, though all the cabinet
+regretted the necessity for the arrest, "some perhaps doubting there was
+a real necessity for it, yet, being done, all were for seeing you
+through with it." This seems to have been his own position. In fact it
+was clear that, whether what had been done was or was not a mistake, to
+undo it would be a greater mistake. Accordingly Mr. Lincoln only showed
+that he felt the pressure of the criticism and denunciation by commuting
+the sentence, and directing that Vallandigham should be released from
+confinement and sent within the Confederate lines,--which was, indeed, a
+very shrewd and clever move, and much better than the imprisonment.
+Accordingly the quasi rebel was tendered to and accepted by a
+Confederate picket, on May 25. He protested vehemently, declared his
+loyalty, and insisted that his character was that of a prisoner of war.
+But the Confederates, who had no objection whatsoever to his peculiar
+methods of demonstrating "loyalty" to their opponents, insisted upon
+treating him as a friend, the victim of an enemy common to themselves
+and him; and instead of exchanging him as a prisoner, they facilitated
+his passage through the blockade on his way to Canada. There he arrived
+in safety, and thence issued sundry manifestoes to the Democracy. On
+June 11 the Democratic Convention of Ohio nominated him as their
+candidate for governor, and it seems that for a while they really
+expected to elect him.
+
+In the condition of feeling during the months in which these events were
+occurring, they undeniably subjected the government to a very severe
+strain. They furnished the Democrats with ammunition far better than any
+which they had yet found, and they certainly used it well. Since the
+earliest days of the war there had never been quite an end of the
+protestation against arbitrary military arrests and the suspension of
+the sacred writ of habeas corpus, and now the querulous outcry was
+revived with startling vehemence. Crowded meetings were held everywhere;
+popular orators terrified or enraged their audiences with pictures of
+the downfall of freedom, the jeopardy of every citizen; resolutions and
+votes without number expressed the alarm and anger of the great
+assemblages; learned lawyers lent their wisdom to corroborate the
+rhetoricians, and even some Republican newspapers joined the croaking
+procession of their Democratic rivals. Erelong the assaults appeared to
+be producing effects so serious and widespread that the President was
+obliged to enter into the controversy. On May 16 a monster meeting of
+"the Democrats of New York" was told by Governor Seymour that the
+question was: "whether this war is waged to put down rebellion at the
+South, or to destroy free institutions at the North." Excited by such
+instigation, the audience passed sundry damnatory resolutions and sent
+them to the President.
+
+Upon receiving these, Mr. Lincoln felt that he must come down into the
+arena, without regard to official conventionality. On June 12 he replied
+by a full presentation of the case, from his point of view. He had once
+more to do the same thing in response to another address of like
+character which was sent to him on June 11 by the Democratic State
+Convention of Ohio. In both cases the documents prepared by the
+remonstrants were characterized, to more than the usual degree, by that
+dignified and _ore rotundo_ phraseology, that solemnity in the
+presentation of imposing generalities, which are wont to be so dear to
+committees charged with drafting resolutions. The replies of the
+President were in striking contrast to this rhetorical method alike in
+substance and in form; clear, concise, and close-knit, they were models
+of good work in political controversy, and like most of his writing they
+sorely tempt to liberal transcription, a temptation which must
+unfortunately be resisted, save for a few sentences. The opening
+paragraph in the earlier paper was cleverly put:--
+
+"The resolutions are resolvable into two propositions,--first, the
+expression of a purpose to sustain the cause of the Union, to secure
+peace through victory, and to support the administration in every
+constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the rebellion; and,
+secondly, a declaration of censure upon the administration for supposed
+unconstitutional action, such as the making of military arrests. And,
+from the two propositions, a third is deduced, which is, that the
+gentlemen composing the meeting are resolved on doing their part to
+maintain our common government and country, despite the folly or
+wickedness, as they may conceive, of any administration. This position
+is eminently patriotic, and, as such, I thank the meeting, and
+congratulate the nation for it. My own purpose is the same, so that the
+meeting and myself have a common object, and can have no difference,
+except in the choice of means or measures for effecting that object."
+
+Later on followed some famous sentences:--
+
+"Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on the part of the
+Union; and his arrest was made because he was laboring, with some
+effect, to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage desertion from
+the army, and to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force
+to suppress it. He was not arrested because he was damaging the
+political prospects of the administration or the personal interests of
+the commanding general, but because he was damaging the army, upon the
+existence and vigor of which the life of the Nation depends....
+
+"I understand the meeting whose resolutions I am considering to be in
+favor of suppressing the rebellion by military force, by armies. Long
+experience has shown that armies cannot be maintained unless desertion
+shall be punished by the severe penalty of death.
+
+"The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction, this
+punishment. Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while
+I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?
+This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or
+brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his
+feelings until he is persuaded to write the soldier boy that he is
+fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible
+government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I
+think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy,
+is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy."
+
+The Ohio Democrats found themselves confronted with this:--
+
+"Your nominee for governor ... is known to you and to the world to
+declare against the use of an army to suppress the rebellion. Your own
+attitude therefore encourages desertion, resistance to the draft, and
+the like, because it teaches those who incline to desert and to escape
+the draft to believe it is your purpose to protect them, and to hope
+that you will become strong enough to do so."
+
+The arguments of the President called out retort rather than reply, for
+in fact they really could not be answered, and they were too accurately
+put to be twisted by sophistry; that they reached the minds of the
+people was soon made evident. The Democratic managers had made a fatal
+blunder in arraying the party in a position of extreme hostility to the
+war. Though there were at the North hosts of grumblers who were
+maliciously pleased at all embarrassments of the administration, and who
+were willing to make the prosecution of the war very difficult, there
+were not hosts who were ready to push difficulty to the point of
+impossibility. On the other hand the fight was made very shrewdly by the
+Union men of Ohio, who nominated John Brough, a "war Democrat," as their
+candidate. Then the scales fell from the eyes of the people; they saw
+that in real fact votes for Brough or for Vallandigham were,
+respectively, votes for or against the Union. The campaign became a
+direct trial of strength on this point. Freedom of speech, habeas
+corpus, and the kindred incidents of the Vallandigham case were laid
+aside as not being the genuine and fundamental questions. It was one of
+those instances in which the common sense of the multitude suddenly
+takes control, brushes away confusing details, and gets at the great and
+true issue. The result was that Vallandigham was defeated by a majority
+of over 100,000 votes; and thus a perilous crisis was well passed. This
+incident had put the Republican ascendency in extreme peril, but when
+the administration emerged from the trial with a success so brilliant,
+it was thereafter much stronger than if the test had never been made.
+The strain was one of that kind to which the war was subjecting the
+whole nation, a strain which strengthens rather than weakens the body
+which triumphantly encounters it. The credit for the result was
+generally admitted to be chiefly due to Mr. Lincoln's effective
+presentation of the Republican position.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the second year of the war drew towards its close, the administration
+had to face a new and grave difficulty in the recruitment of the army.
+Serious errors which had been made in calling and enlisting troops now
+began to bear fruit. Under the influence of the first enthusiasm a large
+proportion of the adult male population at the North would readily have
+enlisted "for the war;" but unfortunately that opportunity had not been
+seized by the government, and it soon passed, never to return. That the
+President and his advisers had been blameworthy can hardly be said; but
+whether they had been blameworthy or excusable became an immaterial
+issue, when they found that the terms of enlistment were soon to expire,
+and also that just when the war was at its hottest, the patriotism of
+the people seemed at its coldest. Defeats in the field and Copperheadism
+at home combined in their dispiriting and deadly work. Voluntary
+enlistment almost ceased. Thereupon Congress passed an act "for
+enrolling and calling out the national forces." All able-bodied
+citizens between twenty and forty-five years of age were to "perform
+military duty in the service of the United States, when called on by the
+President for that purpose."[50] This was strenuous earnest, for it
+portended a draft.
+
+The situation certainly was not to be considered without solicitude
+when, in a war which peculiarly appealed to patriotism, compulsion must
+be used to bring involuntary recruits to maintain the contest. Yet the
+relaxation of the patriotic temper was really not so great as this fact
+might seem to indicate. Besides many partial and obvious explanations,
+one which is less obvious should also be noted. During two years of war
+the people, notoriously of a temperament readily to accept new facts and
+to adapt themselves thereto, had become accustomed to a state of war,
+and had learned to regard it as a _condition_, not normal and permanent,
+yet of indefinite duration. Accordingly they were now of opinion that
+the government must charge itself with the management of this condition,
+that is to say, with the conduct of the war, as a strict matter of
+business, to be carried on like all other public duties and functions.
+In the first months of stress every man had felt called upon to
+contribute, personally, his own moral, financial, and even physical
+support; but that crisis had passed, and it was now conceived that the
+administration might fairly be required to arrange for getting men and
+money and supplies in the systematic and business-like fashion in which,
+as history taught, all other governments had been accustomed to get
+these necessaries in time of war.
+
+At any rate, however it was to be explained or commented upon, the fact
+confronted Mr. Lincoln that he must institute enrollment and drafting.
+The machinery was arranged and the very disagreeable task was entered
+upon early in the summer of 1863. If it was painful in the first
+instance for the President to order this, the process was immediately
+made as hateful as possible for him. Even loyal and hearty
+"war-governors" seemed at once to accept as their chief object the
+protection of the people of their respective States from the operation
+of the odious law. The mercantile element was instantly and fully
+accepted by them. The most patriotic did not hesitate to make every
+effort to have the assigned quotas reduced; they drew jealous
+comparisons to show inequalities; and they concocted all sorts of
+schemes for obtaining credits. Not marshaling recruits in the field, but
+filling quotas upon paper, seemed a legitimate purpose; for the matter
+had become one of figures, of business, of competition, and all the
+shrewdness of the Yankee mind was at once aroused to gain for one's
+self, though at the expense of one's neighbors. Especially the
+Democratic officials were viciously fertile in creating obstacles. The
+fact that the Act of Congress was based on the precedent of an Act of
+the Confederate Congress, passed a year before, did not seem in the
+least to conciliate the Copperheads. Governor Seymour of New York
+obtained a discreditable preeminence in thwarting the administration. He
+gathered ingenious statistics, and upon them based charges of dishonest
+apportionments and of fraudulent discrimination against Democratic
+precincts. He also declared the statute unconstitutional, and asked the
+President to stay all proceedings under it until it could be passed upon
+by the Supreme Court of the United States,--an ingenuous proposition,
+which he neglected to make practicable by arranging with General Lee to
+remain conveniently quiescent while the learned judges should be
+discussing the methods of reinforcing the Northern armies.
+
+In a word, Mr. Lincoln was confronted by every difficulty that
+Republican inventiveness and Democratic disaffection could devise. Yet
+the draft must go on, or the war must stop. His reasonableness, his
+patience, his capacity to endure unfair trials, received in this
+business a demonstration more conspicuous than in any other during his
+presidency. Whenever apportionments, dates, and credits were questioned,
+he was liberal in making temporary, and sometimes permanent allowances,
+preferring that any error in exactions should be in the way of
+moderation. But in the main business he was inflexible; and at last it
+came to a direct issue between himself and the malcontents, whether the
+draft should go on or stop. In the middle of July the mob in New York
+city tested the question. The drafting began there on Saturday morning,
+July 11. On Monday morning, July 13, the famous riot broke out. It was
+an appalling storm of rage on the part of the lower classes; during
+three days terror and barbarism controlled the great city, and in its
+streets countless bloody and hideous massacres were perpetrated. Negroes
+especially were hanged and otherwise slain most cruelly. The governor
+was so inefficient that he was charged, of course extravagantly, with
+being secretly in league with the ringleaders. A thousand or more lives,
+as it was roughly estimated, were lost in this mad and brutal fury,
+before order was again restored. The government gave the populace a
+short time to cool, and then sent 10,000 troops into the city and
+proceeded with the business without further interruption. A smaller
+outbreak took place in Boston, but was promptly suppressed. In other
+places it was threatened, but did not occur. In spite of all, the
+President continued to execute the law. Yet although by this means the
+armies might be kept full, the new men were very inferior to those who
+had responded voluntarily to the earlier calls. Every knave in the
+country adopted the lucrative and tolerably safe occupation of
+"bounty-jumping," and every worthless loafer was sent to the front,
+whence he escaped at the first opportunity to sell himself anew and to
+be counted again. The material of the army suffered great depreciation,
+which was only imperfectly offset by the improvement of the military
+machine, whereby a more effective discipline, resembling that of
+European professionalism, was enforced.[51]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] N. and H. vi. 268; this account is derived from their twelfth
+chapter.
+
+[49] N. and H. vi. 309, from MS.
+
+[50] The act was signed by the President, March 3, 1863.
+
+[51] Concerning the deterioration of the army, in certain particulars,
+see an article, "The War as we see it now," by John C. Ropes,
+_Scribner's Magazine_, June, 1891.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+
+The winter of 1862-63 was for the Rebellion much what the winter of
+Valley Forge was for the Revolution. It passed, however, and the nation
+still clung fast to its purpose. The weak brethren who had become
+dismayed were many, but the people as a whole was steadfast. This being
+so, ultimate success became assured. Wise and cool-headed men, in a
+frame of mind to contemplate the situation as it really was, saw that
+the tide was about at its turning, and that the Union would not drift
+away to destruction in this storm at any rate. They saw that the North
+_could_ whip the South, if it chose; and it was now sufficiently evident
+that it would choose,--that it would endure, and would finish its task.
+It was only the superficial observers who were deceived by the Virginian
+disasters, which rose so big in the foreground as partially to conceal
+the real fact,--that the Confederacy was being at once strangled and
+starved to death. The waters of the Atlantic Ocean and of the Gulf of
+Mexico were being steadily made more and more inaccessible, as one
+position after another along the coast gradually passed into Federal
+hands. The Mississippi River, at last a Union stream from its source to
+its mouth, now made a Chinese wall for the Confederacy on the west. Upon
+the north the line of conflict had been pushed down to the northern
+borders of Mississippi and Georgia, and the superincumbent weight of the
+vast Northwest lay with a deadly pressure upon these two States.
+
+It was, therefore, only in Virginia that the Confederates had held their
+own, and here, with all their victories, they had done no more than just
+hold their own. They had to recognize, also, that from such battlefields
+as Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville they gathered no sustenance,
+however much they might reap in the way of glory. Neither had they
+gained even any ground, for the armies were still manoeuvring along the
+same roads over which they had been tramping and swaying to and fro for
+more than two years. By degrees the Southern resources in the way of
+men, money, food, and supplies generally, were being depleted. The
+Confederacy was like a lake, artificially inclosed, which was fed by no
+influx from outside, while it was tapped and drained at many points.
+
+On the other hand, within the North, affairs were coming into a more
+satisfactory condition. It was true that all the military successes of
+July had not discouraged the malcontents; and during the summer they had
+been busily preparing for the various state elections of the autumn,
+which they hoped would strongly corroborate their congressional triumphs
+of 1862. But when the time came they were exceedingly disappointed. The
+law now, fairly enough, permitted soldiers in the field to vote, and
+this was, of course, a reinforcement for the Republican party; but even
+among the voters at home the Democratic reaction of the preceding year
+had spent its force. In October Pennsylvania gave Governor Curtin, the
+Republican candidate for reëlection, a majority of 15,000. In the same
+month, under the circumstances described in the preceding chapter, Ohio
+buried Vallandigham under a hostile majority of more than 100,000. The
+lead thus given by the "October States" was followed by the "November
+States." In New York no governor was to be elected; but the Republican
+state ticket showed a majority of 30,000, whereas the year before
+Seymour had polled a majority of 10,000. The Northwest fell into the
+procession, though after a hard fight. A noteworthy feature of the
+struggle, which was fierce and for a time doubtful in Illinois, was a
+letter from Mr. Lincoln. He was invited to attend a mass meeting at
+Springfield, and with reluctance felt himself obliged to decline; but in
+place of a speech, which might not have been preserved, the good fortune
+of posterity caused him to write this letter:--
+
+
+
+August 26, 1863.
+
+HON. JAMES C. CONKLING:
+
+_My dear Sir_,--Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of
+unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois, on the
+third day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable
+for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now
+be absent from here as long as a visit there would require.
+
+The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to
+the Union, and I am sure my old political friends will thank me for
+tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men whom
+no partisan malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation's life.
+
+There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: you
+desire peace, and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we
+attain it? There are but three conceivable ways: First, to suppress the
+rebellion by force of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for it? If
+you are, so far we are agreed. If you are not for it, a second way is to
+give up the Union. I am against this. Are you for it? If you are, you
+should say so plainly. If you are not for _force_, nor yet for
+_dissolution_, there only remains some imaginable _compromise_.
+
+I do not believe that any compromise embracing the maintenance of the
+Union is now possible. All that I learn leads to a directly opposite
+belief. The strength of the rebellion is its military, its army. That
+army dominates all the country and all the people within its range. Any
+offer of terms made by any man or men within that range, in opposition
+to that army, is simply nothing for the present; because such man or men
+have no power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one
+were made with them.
+
+To illustrate: suppose refugees from the South and peace men of the
+North get together in convention, and frame and proclaim a compromise
+embracing a restoration of the Union. In what way can that compromise be
+used to keep Lee's army out of Pennsylvania? Meade's army can keep Lee's
+army out of Pennsylvania, and, I think, can ultimately drive it out of
+existence. But no paper compromise, to which the controllers of Lee's
+army are not agreed, can at all affect that army. In an effort at such
+compromise we would [should] waste time, which the enemy would improve
+to our disadvantage, and that would be all.
+
+A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who
+control the rebel army, or with the people, first liberated from the
+domination of that army by the success of our own army. Now, allow me to
+assure you that no word or intimation from that rebel army, or from any
+of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever
+come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the
+contrary are deceptive and groundless. And I promise you that if any
+such proposition shall hereafter come, it shall not be rejected and kept
+a secret from you. I freely acknowledge myself to be the servant of the
+people, according to the bond of service, the United States
+Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them. But to be
+plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Quite likely there
+is a difference of opinion between you and myself upon that subject. I
+certainly wish that all men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not.
+Yet I have neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not
+consistent with even your views, provided that you are for the Union. I
+suggested compensated emancipation, to which you replied: you wished not
+to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy
+negroes, except in such a way as to save you from greater taxation to
+save the Union exclusively by other means.
+
+You dislike the emancipation proclamation, and perhaps would have it
+retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. I think
+the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief with all the law of war
+in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves
+are property. Is there, has there ever been, any question that by the
+law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when
+needed? And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the enemy?
+Armies, the world over, destroy enemies' property when they cannot use
+it, and even destroy their own to keep it from the enemy.
+
+... But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If it
+is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is valid, it cannot be
+retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some of you
+profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for the Union.
+Why better after the retraction than before the issue? There was more
+than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the
+proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under
+an explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in revolt
+returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as
+favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. I know,
+as fully as one can know the opinion of others, that some of the
+commanders of our armies in the field, who have given us our most
+important victories, believe the emancipation policy and the use of
+colored troops constitute the heaviest blows yet dealt to the rebellion,
+and that at least one of those important successes could not have been
+achieved, when it was, but for the aid of black soldiers.
+
+Among the commanders who hold these views are some who have never had an
+affinity with what is called "abolitionism," or with "Republican party
+politics," but who hold them purely as military opinions. I submit their
+opinions as entitled to some weight against the objections often urged
+that emancipation and arming the blacks are unwise as military measures,
+and were not adopted as such in good faith.
+
+You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem
+willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to
+save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in
+saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to
+the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting it will be an apt
+time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I
+thought that, in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the
+negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the
+enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently?
+
+I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves
+just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it
+appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon
+motives. Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for
+them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the
+strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being
+made, must be kept.
+
+The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the
+sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to them. Three
+hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey,
+hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors
+than one, also lent a helping hand. On the spot their part of the
+history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national
+one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. And
+while those who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even
+that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely
+or well done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro', Gettysburg, and on many
+fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all
+the watery margins they have been present, not only on the deep sea, the
+broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy bayou, and
+wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their
+tracks. Thanks to all. For the great Republic,--for the principle it
+lives by and keeps alive,--for man's vast future,--thanks to all.
+
+Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon,
+and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future
+time. It will then have been proved that among free men there can be no
+successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take
+such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will
+be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched
+teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind
+on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white men
+unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they
+have striven to hinder it.
+
+Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be
+quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a
+just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+This was a fair statement of past facts and of the present condition;
+and thus the plain tokens of the time showed that the menace of
+disaffection had been met and sufficiently conquered. The President had
+let the nation see the strength of his will and the immutability of his
+purpose. He had faced bullying Republican politicians, a Democratic
+reaction, Copperheadism, and mob violence, and by none of these had he
+been in the least degree shaken or diverted from his course. On the
+contrary, from so many and so various struggles he had come out the
+victor, a real ruler of the country. He had shown that whenever and by
+whomsoever, and in whatever part of the land he was pushed to use power,
+he would use it. Temporarily the great republic was under a "strong
+government," and Mr. Lincoln was the strength. Though somewhat cloaked
+by forms, there was for a while in the United States a condition of
+"one-man power," and the people instinctively recognized it, though they
+would on no account admit it in plain words. In fact every malcontent
+knew that there was no more use in attempting to resist the American
+President than in attempting to resist a French emperor or a Russian
+czar; there was even less use, for while the President managed on one
+plausible ground or another to have and to exercise all the power that
+he needed, he was sustained by the good-will and confidence of a
+majority of the people, which lay as a solid substratum beneath all the
+disturbance on the surface. It was well that this was so, for a war
+conducted by a cabinet or a congress could have ended only in disaster.
+This peculiar character of the situation may not be readily admitted; it
+is often convenient to deny and ignore facts in order to assert popular
+theories; and that there was a real _master_ in the United States is a
+proposition which many will consider it highly improper to make and very
+patriotic to contradict. None the less, however, it is true, and by the
+autumn of 1863 every intelligent man in the country _felt_ that it was
+true. Moreover, it was because this was true, and because that master
+was immovably persistent in the purpose to conquer the South, that the
+conquest of the South could now be discerned as substantially a
+certainty in the future.
+
+Some other points should also be briefly made here. The war is to be
+divided into two stages. The first two years were educational;
+subsequently the fruits of that education were attained. The men who had
+studied war as a profession, but had had no practical experience, found
+much to learn in warfare as a reality after the struggle began. But
+before the summer of 1863 there were in the service many generals, than
+whom none better could be desired. "Public men" were somewhat slow in
+discovering that their capacity to do pretty much everything did not
+include the management of campaigns. But by the summer of 1863 these
+"public" persons made less noise in the land than they had made in the
+days of McClellan; and though political considerations could never be
+wholly suppressed, the question of retaining or displacing a general no
+longer divided parties, or superseded, and threatened to wreck, the
+vital question of the war. Moreover, as has been remarked in another
+connection, the nation began to appreciate that while war was a science
+so far as the handling of armies in the field was concerned, it was
+strictly a business in its other aspects. By, and in fact before, the
+summer of 1863 this business had been learned and was being efficiently
+conducted.
+
+Time and experience had done no less for the President than for others.
+A careful daily student of the topography of disputed regions, of every
+proposed military movement, of every manoeuvre, every failure, every
+success, he was making himself a skillful judge in the questions of the
+campaigns. He had also been studying military literature. Yet as his
+knowledge and his judgment grew, his modesty and his abstention from
+interference likewise grew. He was more and more chary of endeavoring to
+control his generals. The days of such contention as had thwarted the
+plans of McClellan without causing other plans to be heartily and fully
+adopted had fortunately passed, never to return. Of course, however,
+this was in part due to the fact that the war had now been going on long
+enough to enable Mr. Lincoln to know pretty well what measure of
+confidence he could place in the several generals. He had tried his
+experiments and was now using his conclusions. Grant, Sherman,
+Sheridan, Thomas, Hancock, and Meade were no longer undiscovered
+generals; while Fremont, McClellan, Halleck--and perhaps two or three
+more might be named--may be described in a counter-phrase as generals
+who were now quite thoroughly discovered. The President and the country
+were about to get the advantage of this acquired knowledge.
+
+A consequence of these changed conditions, of the entrance upon this new
+stage of the war, becomes very visible in the life of Mr. Lincoln. The
+disputation, the hurly-burly, the tumultuous competition of men,
+opinions, and questions, which made the first eighteen months of his
+presidency confusing and exciting as a great tempest on the sea, have
+gone by. For the future his occupation is rather to keep a broad,
+general supervision, to put his controlling touch for the moment now
+here, now there. He ceases to appear as an individual contestant; his
+personality, though not less important, is less conspicuous; his
+influence is exerted less visibly, though not less powerfully. In short,
+the business-like aspect affects him and his functions as it does all
+else that concerns the actual conduct of the war; he too feels, though
+he may not formulate, the change whereby a crisis has passed into a
+condition. This will be seen from the character of the remainder of this
+narrative. There are no more controversies which call for other chapters
+like those which told of the campaigns of McClellan. There are no more
+fierce intestine dissensions like those which preceded the Proclamation
+of Emancipation,--at least not until the matter of reconstruction comes
+up, and reconstruction properly had not to do with the war, but with the
+later period. In a word, the country had become like the steed who has
+ceased fretfully to annoy the rider, while the rider, though exercising
+an ever-watchful control, makes less apparent exertion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By one of the odd arrangements of our governmental machine, it was not
+until December 7, 1863, that the members of the Thirty-eighth Congress
+met for the first time to express those political sentiments which had
+been in vogue more than a year before that time, that is to say during
+the months of October and November, 1862, when these gentlemen had been
+elected, at the close of the summer's campaign. It has been said and
+shown that a very great change in popular feeling had taken place and
+made considerable advance during this interval. The autumn of 1863 was
+very different from the autumn of 1862! A Congress coming more newly
+from the people would have been much more Republican in its complexion.
+Still, even as it was, the Republicans had an ample working majority,
+and moreover were disturbed by fewer and less serious dissensions among
+themselves than had been the case occasionally in times past. McClellan
+and the Emancipation Proclamation had not quite yet been succeeded by
+any other questions of equal potency for alienating a large section of
+the party from the President. Not that unanimity prevailed by any means;
+that was impossible under the conditions of human nature. The extremists
+still distrusted Mr. Lincoln, and regarded him as an obstruction to
+sound policies. Senator Chandler of Michigan, a fine sample of the
+radical Republican, instructed him that, by the elections, Conservatives
+and traitors had been buried together, and begged him not to exhume
+them, since they would "smell worse than Lazarus did after he had been
+buried three days." Apparently he ranked Seward among these defunct and
+decaying Conservatives; certainly he regarded the secretary as a
+"millstone about the neck" of the President.[52] Still, in spite of such
+denunciations, times were not in this respect so bad as they had been,
+and the danger that the uncompromising Radicals would make wreck of the
+war was no longer great.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another event, occurring in this autumn of 1863, was noteworthy because
+through it the literature of our tongue received one of its most
+distinguished acquisitions. On November 19 the national military
+cemetery at Gettysburg was to be consecrated; Edward Everett was to
+deliver the oration, and the President was of course invited as a guest.
+Mr. Arnold says that it was actually while Mr. Lincoln was "in the cars
+on his way from the White House to the battlefield" that he was told
+that he also would be expected to say something on the occasion; that
+thereupon he jotted down in pencil the brief address which he delivered
+a few hours later.[53] But that the composition was quite so
+extemporaneous seems doubtful, for Messrs. Nicolay and Hay transcribe
+the note of invitation, written to the President on November 2 by the
+master of the ceremonies, and in it occurs this sentence: "It is the
+desire that, after the oration, you, as Chief Executive of the Nation,
+formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use, by a few
+appropriate remarks." Probably, therefore, some forethought went to the
+preparation of this beautiful and famous "Gettysburg speech." When Mr.
+Everett sat down, the President arose and spoke as follows:[54]--
+
+"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
+continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
+proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
+great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
+and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of
+that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final
+resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
+live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in
+a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
+hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here
+have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The
+world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can
+never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be
+dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
+thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
+the great task remaining before us;--that from these honored dead, we
+take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
+measure of devotion;--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
+not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new
+birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for
+the people, shall not perish from the earth."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[52] N. and H. vii. 389.
+
+[53] Arnold, _Lincoln_, 328. This writer gives a very vivid description
+of the delivery of the speech, derived in part from Governor Dennison,
+afterward the postmaster-general, who was present on the occasion.
+
+[54] Mr. Arnold says that in an unconscious and absorbed manner, Mr.
+Lincoln "adjusted his spectacles" and read his address.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RECONSTRUCTION
+
+
+In his inaugural address President Lincoln said: "The union of these
+States is perpetual.... No State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully
+get out of the Union; resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally
+void." In these words was imbedded a principle which later on he showed
+his willingness to pursue to its logical conclusions concerning the
+reconstruction of the body politic. If no State, by seceding, had got
+itself out of the Union, there was difficulty in maintaining that those
+citizens of a seceding State, who had not disqualified themselves by
+acts of treason, were not still lawfully entitled to conduct the public
+business and to hold the usual elections for national and state
+officials, so soon as the removal of hostile force should render it
+physically possible for them to do so. Upon the basis of this principle,
+the resumption by such citizens of a right which had never been lost,
+but only temporarily interfered with by lawless violence, could
+reasonably be delayed by the national government only until the loyal
+voters should be sufficient in number to relieve the elections from the
+objection of being colorable and unreal. This philosophy of
+"reconstruction" seemed to Mr. Lincoln to conform with law and good
+sense, and he was forward in meeting, promoting, almost even in creating
+opportunities to apply it. From the beginning of the war he had been of
+opinion that the framework of a state government, though it might be
+scarcely more than a skeleton, was worth preservation. It held at least
+the seed of life. So after West Virginia was admitted into statehood,
+the organization which had been previously established by the loyal
+citizens of the original State was maintained in the rest of the State,
+and Governor Pierpoint was recognized as the genuine governor of
+Virginia, although few Virginians acknowledged allegiance to him, and
+often there were not many square miles of the Old Dominion upon which
+the dispossessed ruler could safely set his foot. For the present he
+certainly was no despot, but in the future he might have usefulness. He
+preserved continuity; by virtue of him, so to speak, there still was a
+State of Virginia.
+
+Somewhat early in the war large portions of Tennessee, Louisiana, and
+Arkansas were recovered and kept by Union forces, and beneath such
+protection a considerable Union sentiment found expression. The
+President, loath to hold for a long time the rescued parts of these
+States under the sole domination of army officers, appointed "military
+governors."[55] The anomalous office found an obscure basis among those
+"war powers" which, as a legal resting-place, resembled a quicksand, and
+as a practical foundation were undeniably a rock; the functions and
+authority of the officials were as uncertain as anything, even in law,
+possibly could be. Legal fiction never reached a droller point than when
+these military governorships were defended as being the fulfillment by
+the national government "of its high constitutional obligation to
+guarantee to every State in this Union _a republican form of
+government_!"[56] Yet the same distinguished gentleman, who dared
+gravely to announce this ingenious argument, drew a picture of facts
+which was in itself a full justification of almost any scheme of
+rehabilitation; he said: "The state government has disappeared. The
+Executive has abdicated; the Legislature has dissolved; the Judiciary is
+in abeyance." In this condition of chaos Mr. Lincoln was certainly bound
+to prevent anarchy, without regard to any comicalities which might creep
+into his technique. So these hermaphrodite officials, with civil duties
+and military rank, were very sensibly and properly given a vague
+authority in the several States, as from time to time these were in part
+redeemed from rebellion by the Union armies. So soon as possible they
+were bidden, in collaboration with the military commanders in their
+respective districts, to make an enrollment of loyal citizens, with a
+view to holding elections and organizing state governments in the
+customary form. The President was earnest, not to say pertinacious, in
+urging forward these movements. On September 11, 1863, immediately after
+the battle of Chattanooga, he wrote to Andrew Johnson that it was "the
+nick of time for reinaugurating a loyal state government" in Tennessee;
+and he suggested that, as touching this same question of "time when," it
+was worth while to "remember that it cannot be known who is next to
+occupy the position I now hold, nor what he will do." He warned the
+governor that reconstruction must not be so conducted "as to give
+control of the State, and its representation in Congress, to the enemies
+of the Union.... It must not be so. You must have it otherwise. Let the
+reconstruction be the work of such men only as can be trusted for the
+Union. Exclude all others; and trust that your government, so organized,
+will be recognized here as being the one of republican form to be
+guaranteed to the State."[57]
+
+At the same time these expressions by no means indicated that the
+President intended to have, or would connive at, any sham or colorable
+process. Accordingly, when some one suggested a plan for setting up as
+candidates in Louisiana certain Federal officers, who were not citizens
+of that State, he decisively forbade it, sarcastically remarking to
+Governor Shepley: "We do not particularly want members of Congress from
+there to enable us to get along with legislation here. What we do want
+is the conclusive evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are
+willing to be members of Congress, and to swear support to the
+Constitution, and that other respectable citizens there are willing to
+vote for them and send them. To send a parcel of Northern men here as
+representatives, elected, as would be understood (and perhaps really
+so), at the point of the bayonet, would be disgraceful and outrageous."
+Again he said that he wished the movement for the election of members of
+Congress "to be a movement of the people of the district, and not a
+movement of our military and quasi-military authorities there. I merely
+wish our authorities to give the people a chance,--to protect them
+against secession interference." These instructions were designed as
+genuine rules of action, and were not to be construed away. Whatever
+might be said against the theory which the President was endeavoring to
+establish for state restoration, no opponent of that theory was to be
+given the privilege of charging that the actual conduct of the
+proceedings under it was not rigidly honest. In December, 1862, two
+members of Congress were elected in Louisiana, and in February, 1863,
+they were admitted to take seats in the House for the brief remnant of
+its existence. This was not done without hesitation, but the fact that
+it was done at all certainly was in direct line with the President's
+plan. Subsequently, however, other candidates for seats, coming from
+rehabilitated States, were not so fortunate.
+
+As reorganizations were attempted the promoters generally desired that
+the fresh start in state life should be made with new state
+Constitutions. The conventions chosen to draw these instruments were
+instructed from Washington that the validity of the Emancipation
+Proclamation and of all the legislation of Congress concerning slavery
+must be distinctly admitted, if their work was to receive recognition.
+Apart from this, so strenuous were the hints conveyed to these bodies
+that they would do well to arrange for the speedy abolition of slavery,
+that no politician would have been so foolish as to offer a
+constitution, or other form of reorganization, without some provision of
+this sort. This practical necessity sorely troubled many, who still
+hoped that some happy turn of events would occur, whereby they would be
+able to get back into the Union with the pleasant and valuable group of
+their slaves still about them, as in the good times of yore. Moreover,
+in other matters there were clashings between the real military
+commanders and the quasi-military civilian officials; and it was
+unfortunately the case that, in spite of Mr. Lincoln's appeal to loyal
+men to "eschew cliquism" and "work together," there were abundant
+rivalries and jealousies and personal schemings. All these vexations
+were dragged before the President to harass him with their pettiness
+amid his more conspicuous duties; they gave him infinite trouble, and
+devoured his time and strength. Likewise they were obstacles to the
+advancement of the business itself, and, coming in addition to the
+delays inevitable upon elections and deliberations, they ultimately kept
+all efforts towards reconstruction dallying along until a late period in
+the war. Thus it was February 22, 1864, when the state election was held
+in Louisiana; and it was September 5 in the same year when the new
+Constitution, with an emancipation clause, was adopted. It was not until
+January, 1865, that, in Tennessee, a convention made a constitution, for
+purposes of reconstruction, and therein abolished slavery.
+
+Pending these doings and before practical reconstruction had made
+noticeable progress, Mr. Lincoln sent in, on December 8, 1863, his third
+annual message to Congress. To this message was appended something which
+no one had anticipated,--a proclamation of amnesty. In this the
+President recited his pardoning power and a recent act of Congress
+specially confirmatory thereof, stated the wish of certain repentant
+rebels to resume allegiance and to restore loyal state governments, and
+then offered, to all who would take a prescribed oath, full pardon
+together with "restoration of all rights and property, except as to
+slaves, and ... where rights of third parties shall have intervened."
+The oath was simply to "support, protect, and defend" the Constitution
+and the Union, and to abide by and support all legislation and all
+proclamations concerning slavery made during the existing rebellion.
+There were, of course, sundry exceptions of persons from this amnesty;
+but the list of those excepted was a moderate and reasonable one. He
+also proclaimed that whenever in any seceded State "a number of persons
+not less than one tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the
+presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
+and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since
+violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the
+State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and
+excluding all others, shall reëstablish a state government which shall
+be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be
+recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall
+receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which
+declares that 'the United States shall guarantee to every State in this
+Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them
+against invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or the
+executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic
+violence.'"
+
+Also further: "that any provision that may be adopted by such state
+government, in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall
+recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their
+education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement,
+with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless
+class, will not be objected to by the national executive. And it is
+suggested as not improper that, in constructing a loyal state government
+in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the
+constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be
+maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the
+conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not
+contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those
+framing the new state government."
+
+Concerning this proclamation, the message which communicated it noted:
+that it did not transcend the Constitution; that no man was coerced to
+take the oath; and that to make pardon conditional upon taking it was
+strictly lawful; that a test of loyalty was necessary, because it would
+be "simply absurd" to guarantee a republican form of government in a
+State "constructed in whole, or in preponderating part, from the very
+element against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected;"
+that the pledge to maintain the laws and proclamations as to slavery was
+a proper condition, because these had aided and would further aid the
+Union cause; also because "to now abandon them would be not only to
+relinquish a lever of power, but would also be a cruel and astounding
+breach of faith."
+
+He continued: "But why any proclamation, now, upon the subject? This
+question is beset with the conflicting views that the step might be
+delayed too long or be taken too soon. In some States the elements for
+resumption seem ready for action, but remain inactive, apparently for
+want of a rallying point,--a plan of action. Why shall A adopt the plan
+of B rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how can they
+know but that the general government here will reject their plan? By the
+proclamation a plan is presented which may be accepted by them as a
+rallying point, and which they are assured in advance will not be
+rejected here. This may bring them to act sooner than they otherwise
+would.
+
+"The objection to a premature presentation of a plan by the national
+executive consists in the danger of committals on points which could be
+more safely left to further developments.
+
+"Care has been taken to so shape the document as to avoid embarrassments
+from this source. Saying that, on certain terms, certain classes will be
+pardoned, with rights restored, it is not said that other classes or
+other terms will never be included. Saying that reconstruction will be
+accepted if presented in a specified way, it is not said it will never
+be accepted in any other way.
+
+"The movements, by state action, for emancipation in several of the
+States, not included in the emancipation proclamation, are matters of
+profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I have
+heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject, my general views and
+feelings remain unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair
+opportunity of aiding these important steps to a great consummation.
+
+"In the midst of other cares, however important, we must not lose sight
+of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that power
+alone we can look yet for a time, to give confidence to the people in
+the contested regions, that the insurgent power will not again overrun
+them. Until that confidence shall be established, little can be done
+anywhere for what is called reconstruction.
+
+"Hence our chiefest care must be directed to the army and navy, who have
+thus far borne their harder part so nobly and well. And it may be
+esteemed fortunate that in giving the greatest efficiency to these
+indispensable arms, we do also honorably recognize the gallant men, from
+commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom, more than to
+others, the world must stand indebted for the home of freedom
+disenthralled, regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated."
+
+This step, this offer of amnesty and pardon, and invitation to state
+reconstruction, took every one by surprise. As usual the President had
+been "doing his own thinking," reaching his own conclusions and acting
+upon them with little counsel asked from any among the multitudes of
+wise men who were so ready to furnish it. For a moment his action
+received a gratifying welcome of praise and approval. The first
+impulsive sentiment was that of pleasure because the offer was in so
+liberal, so conciliatory, so forgiving a spirit; moreover, people were
+encouraged by the very fact that the President thought it worth while to
+initiate reconstruction; also many of the more weak-kneed, who desired
+to see the luring process tried, were gratified by a generous measure.
+Then, too, not very much thought had yet been given, at least by the
+people in general, to actual processes of reconstruction; for while many
+doubted whether there would ever be a chance to reconstruct at all, very
+few fancied the time for it to be nearly approaching. Therefore the
+President occupied vacant ground in the minds of most persons.
+
+But in a short time a very different temper was manifested among members
+of Congress, and from them spread forth and found support among the
+people. Two reasons promoted this. One, which was avowed with the
+frankness of indignation, was a jealousy of seeing so important a
+business preempted by the executive department. The other was a natural
+feeling of mingled hostility and distrust towards rebels, who had caused
+so much blood to be shed, so much cost to be incurred. In this point of
+view, the liberality which at first had appeared admirable now began to
+be condemned as extravagant, unreasonable, and perilous.
+
+Concerning the first of these reasons, it must be admitted that it was
+entirely natural that Congress should desire to take partial or, if
+possible, even entire charge of reconstruction. Which department had the
+better right to the duty, or how it should be distributed between the
+legislative and executive departments, was uncertain, and could be
+determined only by inference from the definite functions of each as
+established by the Constitution. The executive unquestionably had the
+power to pardon every rebel in the land; yet it was a power which might
+conceivably be so misused as to justify impeachment. The Senate and the
+House had the power to give or to refuse seats to persons claiming to
+have been elected to them. Yet they could not dare to exercise this
+power except for a cause which was at least colorable in each case.
+Furthermore, the meaning of "recognition" was vague. Exactly what was
+"recognition" of a state government, and by what specific process could
+it be granted or withheld? The executive might recognize statehood in
+some matters; Congress might refuse to recognize it in other matters.
+Every one felt that disagreement between the two departments would be
+most unfortunate and even dangerous; yet it was entirely possible; and
+what an absurd and alarming condition might be created, if the
+President, by a general amnesty, should reinstate the ex-rebels of a
+State as citizens with all their rights of citizenship, and Congress
+should refuse to seat the senators and representatives elected by these
+constituents on the alleged ground of peril to the country by reason of
+their supposed continuing disloyalty. Even worse still might be the
+case; for the Senate and the House might disagree. There was nothing in
+law or logic to make this consummation impossible.
+
+People differed much in feeling as well as opinion upon this difficult
+subject, this problem which was solved by no law. Treason is a crime and
+must be made odious, said Andrew Johnson, sternly uttering the
+sentiments of many earnest and strenuous men in Congress and in the
+country. Others were able to eliminate revengefulness, but felt that it
+was not safe in the present, nor wise for the future, to restore to
+rebels all the rights of citizenship upon the moment when they should
+consent to abandon rebellion, more especially when all knew and admitted
+that the abandonment was made not in penitence but merely in despair of
+success. It was open to extremists to argue that the whole seceded area
+might logically, as conquered lands, be reduced to a territorial
+condition, to be recarved into States at such times and upon such
+conditions as should seem proper. But others, in agreement with the
+President, insisted that if no State could lawfully secede, it followed
+that no State could lawfully be deprived of statehood. These persons
+reinforced their legal argument with the sentimental one that lenity was
+the best policy. As General Grant afterward put it: "The people who had
+been in rebellion must necessarily come back into the Union, and be
+incorporated as an integral part of the nation. Naturally the nearer
+they were placed to an equality with the people who had not rebelled,
+the more reconciled they would feel with their old antagonists, and the
+better citizens they would be from the beginning. They surely would not
+make good citizens if they felt that they had a yoke around their
+necks." The question, in what proportions mercy and justice should be,
+or safely could be, mingled, was clearly one of discretion. In the wide
+distance betwixt the holders of extreme opinions an infinite variety of
+schemes and theories was in time broached and held. Very soon the
+gravity of the problem was greatly enhanced by its becoming complicated
+with proposals for giving the suffrage to negroes. Upon this Mr. Lincoln
+expressed his opinion that the privilege might be wisely conferred upon
+"the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in
+our ranks," though apparently he intended thus to describe no very large
+percentage. Apparently his confidence in the civic capacity of the negro
+never became very much greater than it had been in the days of the joint
+debates with Douglas.
+
+Congress took up the matter very promptly, and with much display of
+feeling. Early in May, 1864, Henry Winter Davis, a vehement opponent of
+the President, introduced a bill, of which the anti-rebel preamble was
+truculent to the point of being amusing. His first fierce _Whereas_
+declared that the Confederate States were waging a war so glaringly
+unjust "that they have no right to claim the mitigation of the extreme
+rights of war, which are accorded by modern usage to an enemy who has a
+right to consider the war a just one." But Congress, though hotly
+irritated, was not quite willing to say, in terms, that it would eschew
+civilization and adopt barbarism, as its system for the conduct of the
+war; and accordingly it rejected Mr. Davis's fierce exordium. The words
+had very probably only been used by him as a sort of safety valve to
+give vent to the fury of his wrath, so that he could afterward approach
+the serious work of the bill in a milder spirit; for in fact the actual
+effective legislation which he proposed was by no means unreasonable.
+After military resistance should be suppressed in any rebellious State,
+the white male citizens were to elect a convention for the purpose of
+reëstablishing a state government. The new organization must
+disfranchise prominent civil and military officers of the Confederacy,
+establish the permanent abolition of slavery, and prohibit the payment
+by the new State of any indebtedness incurred for Confederate purposes.
+After Congress should have expressed its assent to the work of the
+convention, the President was to recognize by proclamation the
+reorganized State. This bill, of course, gave to the legislative
+department the whole valuable control in the matter of recognition,
+leaving to the President nothing more than the mere empty function of
+issuing a proclamation, which he would have no right to hold back; but
+in other respects its requirements were entirely fair and
+unobjectionable, from any point of view, and it finally passed the House
+by a vote of 74 to 59. The Senate amended it, but afterward receded from
+the amendment, and thus the measure came before Mr. Lincoln on July 4,
+1864. Congress was to adjourn at noon on that day, and he was at the
+Capitol, signing bills, when this one was brought to him. He laid it
+aside. Zachariah Chandler, senator from Michigan, a dictatorial
+gentleman and somewhat of the busybody order, was watchfully standing
+by, and upon observing this action, he asked Mr. Lincoln, with some show
+of feeling, whether he was not going to sign that bill. Mr. Lincoln
+replied that it was a "matter of too much importance to be swallowed in
+that way." Mr. Chandler warned him that a veto would be very damaging at
+the Northwest, and said: "The important point is that one prohibiting
+slavery in the reconstructed States." "This is the point," said Mr.
+Lincoln, "on which I doubt the authority of Congress to act." "It is no
+more than you have done yourself," said the senator. "I conceive,"
+replied Mr. Lincoln, "that I may in an emergency do things on military
+grounds which cannot be done constitutionally by Congress." A few
+moments later he remarked to the members of the cabinet: "I do not see
+how any of us now can deny and contradict what we have always said: that
+Congress has no constitutional power over slavery in the States.... This
+bill and the position of these gentlemen seem to me, in asserting that
+the insurrectionary States are no longer in the Union, to make the fatal
+admission that States, whenever they please, may of their own motion
+dissolve their connection with the Union. Now we cannot survive that
+admission, I am convinced. If that be true, I am not President; these
+gentlemen are not Congress. I have laboriously endeavored to avoid that
+question ever since it first began to be mooted.... It was to obviate
+this question that I earnestly favored the movement for an amendment to
+the Constitution abolishing slavery.... I thought it much better, if it
+were possible, to restore the Union without the necessity for a violent
+quarrel among its friends as to whether certain States have been in or
+out of the Union during the war,--a merely metaphysical question, and
+one unnecessary to be forced into discussion."[58] So the bill remained
+untouched at his side.
+
+A few days after the adjournment, having then decided not to sign the
+bill, he issued a proclamation in which he said concerning it, that he
+was "unprepared by a formal approval of [it] to be inflexibly committed
+to any single plan of restoration;" that he was also "unprepared to
+declare that the free-state constitutions and governments, already
+adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana, [should] be set aside
+and held for naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal
+citizens, who have set up the same, as to further effort;" also that he
+was unprepared to "declare a constitutional competency in Congress to
+abolish slavery in the States." Yet he also said that he was fully
+satisfied that the system proposed in the bill was "_one_ very proper
+plan" for the loyal people of any State to adopt, and that he should be
+ready to aid in such adoption upon any opportunity. In a word, his
+objection to the bill lay chiefly in the fact that it established one
+single and exclusive process for reconstruction. The rigid exclusiveness
+seemed to him a serious error. Upon his part, in putting forth his own
+plan, he had taken much pains distinctly to keep out this
+characteristic, and to have it clearly understood that his proposition
+was not designed as "a procrustean bed, to which exact conformity was to
+be indispensable;" it was not _the only_ method, but only _a_ method.
+
+So soon as it was known that the President would not sign the bill, a
+vehement cry of wrath broke from all its more ardent friends. H.W. Davis
+and B.F. Wade, combative men, and leaders in their party, who expected
+their opinion to be respected, published in the New York "Tribune" an
+address "To the Supporters of the Government." In unbridled language
+they charged "encroachments of the executive on the authority of
+Congress." They even impugned the honesty of the President's purpose in
+words of direct personal insult; for they said: "The President, by
+preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of
+the rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition.... If
+electors for president be allowed to be chosen in either of those States
+[Louisiana or Arkansas], a sinister light will be cast on [his]
+motives." They alleged that "a more studied outrage on the legislative
+authority of the people has never been perpetrated." They stigmatized
+this "rash and fatal act" as "a blow at the friends of the
+administration, at the rights of humanity, and at the principles of
+republican government." They warned Mr. Lincoln that, if he wished the
+support of Congress, he must "confine himself to his executive
+duties,--to obey and execute, not make the laws; to suppress by arms
+armed rebellion, and leave political reorganization to Congress." If
+they really meant what they said, or any considerable part of it, they
+would have been obliged to vote "Guilty" had the House of
+Representatives seen fit to put these newspaper charges of theirs into
+the formal shape of articles of impeachment against the President.
+
+To whatever "friends" Mr. Lincoln might have dealt a "blow," it is
+certain that these angry gentlemen, whether "friends" or otherwise, were
+dealing him a very severe blow at a very critical time; and if its
+hurtfulness was diminished by the very fury and extravagance of their
+invective, they at least were entitled to no credit for the salvation
+thus obtained. They were exerting all their powerful influence to
+increase the chance, already alarmingly great, of making a Democrat the
+next President of the United States. Nevertheless Mr. Lincoln, with his
+wonted imperturbable fixedness when he had reached a conviction, did not
+modify his position in the slightest degree.
+
+Before long this especial explosion spent its force, and thereafter very
+fortunately the question smouldered during the rest of Mr. Lincoln's
+lifetime, and only burst forth into fierce flame immediately after his
+death, when it became more practical and urgent as a problem of the
+actually present time. The last words, however, which he spoke in
+public, dealt with the matter. It was on the evening of April 11, and he
+was addressing in Washington a great concourse of citizens who had
+gathered to congratulate him upon the brilliant military successes, then
+just achieved, which insured the immediate downfall of the Confederacy.
+In language as noteworthy for moderation as that of his assailants had
+been for extravagance, he then reviewed his course concerning
+reconstruction and gave his reasons for still believing that he had
+acted for the best. Admitting that much might justly be said against the
+reorganized government of Louisiana, he explained why he thought that
+nevertheless it should not be rejected. Concede, he said, that it is to
+what it should be only what the egg is to the fowl, "we shall sooner
+have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it." He conceived
+that the purpose of the people might be fairly stated to be the
+restoration of the proper practical relations between the seceded
+States and the Union, and he therefore argued that the question properly
+took this shape: Whether Louisiana could "be brought into proper
+practical relation with the Union _sooner_ by _sustaining_ or by
+_discarding_ her new state government."[59]
+
+By occurrences befalling almost immediately after Mr. Lincoln's death
+his opinions were again drawn into debate, when unfortunately he could
+neither explain nor develop them further than he had done. One of the
+important events of the war was the conference held on March 28, 1865,
+at Hampton Roads, between the President, General Grant, General Sherman,
+and Admiral Porter, and at which no other person was present. It is
+sufficiently agreed that the two generals then declared that one great
+final battle must yet take place; and that thereupon Mr. Lincoln, in
+view of the admitted fact that the collapse of the rebellion was
+inevitably close at hand, expressed great aversion and pain at the
+prospect of utterly useless bloodshed, and asked whether it could not by
+some means be avoided. It is also tolerably certain that Mr. Lincoln
+gave very plainly to be understood by his remarks, and also as usual by
+a story, his desire that Jefferson Davis and a few other of the leading
+rebels should not be captured, but rather should find it possible to
+escape from the country. It is in other ways well known that he had
+already made up his mind not to conclude the war with a series of
+hangings after the historic European fashion of dealing with traitors.
+He preferred, however, to evade rather than to encounter the problem of
+disposing of such embarrassing captives, and a road for them out of the
+country would be also a road for him out of a difficulty. What else was
+said on this occasion, though it soon became the basis of important
+action, is not known with accuracy; but it may be regarded as beyond a
+doubt that, in a general way, Mr. Lincoln took a very liberal tone
+concerning the terms and treatment to be accorded to the rebels in the
+final arrangement of the surrendering, which all saw to be close at
+hand. It is beyond doubt that he spoke, throughout the conference, in
+the spirit of forgetting and forgiving immediately and almost entirely.
+
+From this interview General Sherman went back to his army, and received
+no further instructions afterward, until, on April 18, he established
+with General Johnston the terms on which the remaining Confederate
+forces should be disbanded. This "Memorandum or basis of agreement,"[60]
+then entered into by him, stipulated for "the recognition by the
+executive of the United States, of the several state governments, on
+their officers and legislatures taking the oaths prescribed by the
+Constitution of the United States;" also that the inhabitants of the
+Southern States should "be guaranteed, so far as the executive can,
+their political rights and franchises, as well as their rights of person
+and property;" also that the government would not "disturb any of the
+people by reason of the late war," if they should dwell quiet for the
+future; and, in short, that there should be "a general amnesty," so far
+as it was within the power of the executive of the United States to
+grant it, upon the return of the South to a condition of peace.
+
+No sooner were these engagements reported in Washington than they were
+repudiated. However they might have accorded with, or might have
+transcended, the sentiments of him who had been president only a few
+days before, they by no means accorded with the views of Andrew Johnson,
+who was president at that time, and still less with the views of the
+secretary of war, who well represented the vengeful element of the
+country. Accordingly Mr. Stanton at once annulled them by an order,
+which he followed up by a bulletin containing ten reasons in support of
+the order. This document was immediately published in the newspapers,
+and was so vituperative and insulting towards Sherman[61] that the
+general, who naturally did not feel himself a fitting object for
+insolence at this season of his fresh military triumphs, soon afterward
+showed his resentment; at the grand parade of his army, in Washington,
+he conspicuously declined, in the presence of the President and the
+notabilities of the land, to shake the hand which Secretary Stanton did
+not hesitate then and there to extend to him,--for Stanton had that
+peculiar and unusual form of meanness which endeavors to force a
+civility after an insult. But however General Sherman might feel about
+it, his capitulation had been revoked, and another conference became
+necessary between the two generals, which was followed a little later by
+still another between Generals Schofield and Johnston. At these meetings
+the terms which had been established between Generals Grant and Lee were
+substantially repeated, and by this "military convention" the war came
+to a formal end on April 26, 1865.
+
+By this course of events General Sherman was, of course, placed in a
+very uncomfortable position, and he defended himself by alleging that
+the terms which he had made were in accurate conformity with the
+opinions, wishes, and programme expressed by Mr. Lincoln on March 28. He
+reiterates this assertion strongly and distinctly in his "Memoirs," and
+quotes in emphatic corroboration Admiral Porter's account of that
+interview.[62] The only other witness who could be heard on this point
+was General Grant; he never gave his recollection of the expressions of
+President Lincoln concerning the matters in dispute; but on April 21 he
+did write to General Sherman that, after having carefully read the terms
+accorded to Johnston he felt satisfied that they "could not possibly be
+approved."[63] He did not, however, say whether or not they seemed to
+him to contravene the policy of the President, as he had heard or
+understood that policy to be laid down in the famous interview. In the
+obscurity which wraps this matter, individual opinions find ample room
+to wander; it is easy to believe that what General Sherman undertook to
+arrange was in reasonable accordance with the broad purposes of the
+President; but it certainly is not easy to believe that the President
+ever intended that so many, so momentous, and such complex affairs
+should be conclusively disposed of, with all the honorable sacredness
+attendant upon military capitulations, by a few hasty strokes of General
+Sherman's pen. The comprehensiveness of this brief and sudden document
+of surrender was appalling! Mr. Lincoln had never before shown any
+inclination to depute to others so much of his own discretionary
+authority; his habit was quite the other way.
+
+It is not worth while to discuss much the merits or demerits of
+President Lincoln's schemes for reconstruction. They had been only
+roughly and imperfectly blocked out at the time of his death; and in
+presenting them he repeatedly stated that he did not desire to rule out
+other schemes which might be suggested; on the contrary, he distinctly
+stated his approval of the scheme developed in the bill introduced by
+Senator Davis and passed by Congress. Reconstruction, as it was actually
+conducted later on, was wretchedly bungled, and was marked chiefly by
+bitterness in disputation and by clumsiness in practical arrangements,
+which culminated in that miserable disgrace known as the regime of the
+"carpet-baggers." How far Lincoln would have succeeded in saving the
+country from these humiliating processes, no one can say; but that he
+would have strenuously disapproved much that was done is not open to
+reasonable doubt. On the other hand, it is by no means certain that his
+theories, at least so far as they had been developed up to the time of
+his death, either could have been, or ought to have been carried out.
+This seems to be generally agreed. Perhaps they were too liberal;
+perhaps he confided too much in a sudden change of heart, an immediate
+growth of loyalty, among persons of whom nearly all were still
+embittered, still believed that it was in a righteous cause that they
+had suffered a cruel defeat.
+
+But if the feasibility of Mr. Lincoln's plan is matter of fruitless
+disputation, having to do only with fancied probabilities, and having
+never been put to the proof of trial, at least no one will deny that it
+was creditable to his nature. A strange freak of destiny arranged that
+one of the most obstinate, sanguinary wars of history should be
+conducted by one of the most humane men who ever lived, and that blood
+should run in rivers at the order of a ruler to whom bloodshed was
+repugnant, and to whom the European idol of military glory seemed a
+symbol of barbarism. During the war Lincoln's chief purpose was the
+restoration of national unity, and his day-dream was that it should be
+achieved as a sincere and hearty reunion in feeling as well as in fact.
+As he dwelt with much earnest aspiration upon this consummation, he
+perhaps came to imagine a possibility of its instant accomplishment,
+which did not really exist. His longing for a genuinely reunited country
+was not a pious form of expression, but an intense sentiment, and an end
+which he definitely expected to bring to pass. Not improbably this frame
+of mind induced him to advance too fast and too far, in order to meet
+with welcoming hand persons who were by no means in such a condition of
+feeling that they could grasp that hand in good faith, or could fulfill
+at once the obligations which such a reconciliation would have imposed
+upon them, as matter of honor, in all their civil and political
+relations. The reaction involved in passing from a state of hostilities
+to a state of peace, the deep gratification of seeing so mortal a
+struggle determined in favor of the national life, may have carried him
+somewhat beyond the limitations set by the hard facts of the case, and
+by the human nature alike of the excited conquerors and the impenitent
+conquered. On the other hand, however, it is dangerous to say that Mr.
+Lincoln made a mistake in reading the popular feeling or in determining
+a broad policy. If he did, he did so for the first time. Among those
+suppositions in which posterity is free to indulge, it is possible to
+fancy that if he, whom all now admit to have been the best friend of the
+South living in April, 1865, had continued to live longer, he might have
+alleviated, if he could not altogether have prevented, the writing of
+some very painful chapters in the history of the United States.
+
+
+
+NOTE.--In writing this chapter, I have run somewhat ahead of the
+narrative in point of time; but I hope that the desirability of treating
+the topic connectedly, as a whole, will be obvious to the reader.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[55] These appointments were as follows: Andrew Johnson, Tennessee,
+February 23, 1862; Edward Stanley, North Carolina, May 19, 1862; Col.
+G.F. Shepley, Louisiana, June 10, 1862.
+
+[56] So said Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee, March 18,
+1862.
+
+[57] In a contest in which emancipation was indirectly at stake, in
+Maryland, he expressed his wish that "all loyal qualified voters" should
+have the privilege of voting.
+
+[58] N. and H. ix. 120-122, quoting from the diary of Mr. John Hay.
+
+[59] He had used similar language in a letter to General Canby, December
+12, 1864; N. and H. ix. 448; also in his letter to Trumbull concerning
+the Louisiana senators, January 9, 1865; _ibid._ 454. Colonel McClure,
+on the strength of conversations with Lincoln, says that his single
+purpose was "the speedy and cordial restoration of the dissevered
+States. He cherished no resentment against the South, and every theory
+of reconstruction that he ever conceived or presented was eminently
+peaceful and looking solely to reattaching the estranged people to the
+government." _Lincoln and Men of War-Times_, 223.
+
+[60] Sherman, _Memoirs_, ii. 356.
+
+[61] Grant stigmatizes this as "cruel and harsh treatment ...
+unnecessarily ... inflicted," _Mem._ ii. 534, and as "infamous," Badeau,
+_Milit. Hist. of Grant_, iii. 636 n.
+
+[62] Sherman, _Memoirs_, ii. 328. The admiral says that, if Lincoln had
+lived, he "would have shouldered all the responsibility" for Sherman's
+action, and Secretary Stanton would have "issued no false telegraphic
+dispatches." See also Senator Sherman's corroborative statement;
+McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War-Times_, 219 n.
+
+[63] Sherman, _Memoirs_, ii. 360.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+RENOMINATION
+
+
+In a period of fervid political feeling it was natural that those
+Republicans who were dissatisfied with President Lincoln should begin,
+long before the close of his term of office, to seek consolation by
+arrangements for replacing him by a successor more to their taste.
+Expressions of this purpose became definite in the autumn of 1863. Mr.
+Arnold says that the coming presidential election was expected to bring
+grave danger, if not even anarchy and revolution.[64] Amid existing
+circumstances, an opposition confined to the legitimate antagonism of
+the Democracy would, of course, have brought something more than the
+customary strain inherent in ordinary times in government by party; and
+it was unfortunate that, besides this, an undue gravity was imported
+into the crisis by the intestinal dissensions of the Republicans
+themselves. It seemed by no means impossible that these disagreements
+might give to the friends of peace by compromise a victory which they
+really ought not to have. Republican hostility to Mr. Lincoln was
+unquestionably very bitter in quality, whatever it might be in quantity.
+It was based in part upon the discontent of the radicals and extremists,
+in part upon personal irritation. In looking back upon those times there
+is now a natural tendency to measure this opposition by the weakness
+which it ultimately displayed when, later on, it was swept out of sight
+by the overwhelming current of the popular will. But this weakness was
+by no means so visible in the winter of 1863-64. On the contrary, the
+cry for a change then seemed to come from every quarter, and to come
+loudly; for it was echoed back and forth by the propagandists and
+politicians, and as these persons naturally did most of the talking and
+writing in the country, so they made a show delusively out of proportion
+to their following among the people.
+
+The dislike toward the President flourished chiefly in two places, and
+with two distinct bodies of men. One of these places was Missouri, which
+will be spoken of later on. The other was Washington, where the class of
+"public men" was for the most part very ill-disposed towards him.[65]
+Mr. Julian, himself a prominent malcontent, bears his valuable testimony
+to the extent of the disaffection, saying that, of the "more earnest and
+thorough-going Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not one
+in ten really favored"[66] the renomination of Mr. Lincoln. In fact,
+there were few of them whom the President had not offended. They had
+brought to him their schemes and their policies, had made their
+arguments and demands, and after all had found the President keeping his
+counsel to himself and acting according to his own judgment. This seemed
+exasperatingly unjustifiable in a country where anybody might happen to
+be president without being a whit abler than any other one who had not
+happened to fall into the office. In a word, the politicians had, and
+hated, a master. Mr. Chase betrayed this when he complained that there
+was no "administration, in the true sense of the word;" by which he
+understood, "a president conferring with his cabinet and _taking their
+united judgments_." The existence of that strange moat which seems to
+isolate the capital and the political coteries therein gathered, and to
+shut out all knowledge of the feelings of the constituent people, is
+notorious, and certainly was never made more conspicuous than in this
+business of selecting the Republican candidate for the campaign of 1864.
+When Congress came together the political scheming received a strong
+impetus. Everybody seemed to be opposed to Mr. Lincoln. Thaddeus
+Stevens, the impetuous leader of the House of Representatives, declared
+that, in that body, Arnold of Illinois was the only member who was a
+political friend of the President; and the story goes that the President
+himself sadly admitted the fact. Visitors at Washington, who got their
+impressions from the talk there, concluded that Mr. Lincoln's chance of
+a second term was small.
+
+This opposition, which had the capital for its headquarters and the
+politicians for its constituents, found a candidate ready for use.
+Secretary Chase was a victim to the dread disease of presidential
+ambition. With the usual conventional expressions of modesty he admitted
+the fact. Thereupon general talk soon developed into political
+organization; and in January, 1864, a "Committee of prominent Senators,
+Representatives, and Citizens," having formally obtained his approval,
+set about promoting his interests in business-like fashion.
+
+The President soon knew what was going forward; but he gave no sign of
+disquietude; on the contrary, he only remarked that he hoped the country
+would never have a worse president than Mr. Chase would be. Not that he
+was indifferent to renomination and reëlection. That would have been
+against nature. His mind, his soul, all that there was of force and
+feeling in him had been expended to the uttermost in the cause and the
+war which were still pending. At the end of that desperate road, along
+which he had dared stubbornly and against so much advice to lead the
+nation, he seemed now to discern the goal. That he should be permitted
+to guide to the end in that journey, and that his judgment and
+leadership should receive the crown of success and approval, was a
+reward, almost a right, which he must intensely desire and which he
+could not lose without a disappointment that outruns expression. Yet he
+was so self-contained that, if he had cared not at all about the issue,
+his conduct would have been much the same that it was.
+
+[Illustration: Isaac N. Arnold]
+
+Besides his temperament, other causes promoted this tranquillity. What
+Mr. Lincoln would have been had his career fallen in ordinary times,
+amid commonplace political business, it is difficult to say. The world
+never saw him as the advocate or assailant of a tariff, or other such
+affair. From the beginning he had bound himself fast to a great moral
+purpose, which later became united with the preservation of the national
+life. Having thus deliberately exercised his judgment in a question of
+this kind, he seemed ever after content to have intrusted his fortunes
+to the movement, and always to be free from any misgiving as to its
+happy conclusion. Besides this, it is probable that he accurately
+measured the narrow limits of Mr. Chase's strength. No man ever more
+shrewdly read the popular mind. A subtle line of communication seemed to
+run between himself and the people. Nor did he know less well the
+politicians. His less sagacious friends noted with surprise and anxiety
+that he let the work of opposition go on unchecked. In due time,
+however, the accuracy of his foresight was vindicated; for when the
+secretary's friends achieved a sufficient impetus they tumbled over, in
+manner following:--
+
+Mr. Pomeroy, senator from Kansas, was vindictive because the President
+had refused to take his side in certain quarrels between himself and his
+colleague. Accordingly, early in 1864, he issued a circular, stating
+that the efforts making for Mr. Lincoln's nomination required counter
+action on the part of those unconditional friends of the Union who
+disapproved the policy of the administration. He said that Mr. Lincoln's
+reëlection was "practically impossible;" that it was also undesirable,
+on account of the President's "manifest tendency towards compromises and
+temporary expedients of policy," and for other reasons. Therefore, he
+said, Mr. Chase's friends had established "connections in all the
+States," and now invited "the hearty coöperation of all those in favor
+of the speedy restoration of the Union upon the basis of universal
+freedom." The document, designed to be secret, of course was quickly
+printed in the newspapers.[67] This was awkward; and Mr. Chase at once
+wrote to the President a letter, certainly entirely fair, in which he
+expressed his willingness to resign. Mr. Lincoln replied kindly. He said
+that he had heard of the Pomeroy circular, but had not read it, and did
+not expect to do so. In fact, he said, "I have known just as little of
+these things as my friends have allowed me to know." As to the proposed
+resignation, that, he said, "is a question which I will not allow myself
+to consider from any standpoint other than my judgment of the public
+service, and in that view I do not perceive occasion for a change."
+There was throughout a quiet undertone of indifference to the whole
+business, which was significant enough to have puzzled the secretary,
+had he noticed it; for it was absolutely impossible that Mr. Lincoln
+should be really indifferent to dangerous competition. The truth was
+that the facts of the situation lay with the President, and that the
+enterprise, which was supposed by its friends to be only in its early
+stage, was really on the verge of final disposition. Mr. Chase had said
+decisively that he would not be a candidate unless his own State, Ohio,
+should prefer him. To enlighten him on this point the Republican members
+of the Ohio legislature, being in much closer touch with the people than
+were the more dignified statesmen at Washington, met on February 25, and
+in the name of the people and the soldiers of their State renominated
+Mr. Lincoln. The nail was driven a stroke deeper into the coffin by
+Rhode Island. Although Governor Sprague was Mr. Chase's son-in-law, the
+legislature of that State also made haste to declare for Mr. Lincoln. So
+the movement in behalf of Mr. Chase came suddenly and utterly to an end.
+Early in May he wrote that he wished no further consideration to be
+given to his name; and his wish was respected. After this collapse Mr.
+Lincoln's renomination was much less opposed by the politicians of
+Washington. Being naturally a facile class, and not so narrowly wedded
+to their own convictions as to be unable to subordinate them to the
+popular will or wisdom, they now for the most part gave their
+superficial and uncordial adhesion to the President. They liked him no
+better than before, but they respected a sagacity superior to their own,
+bowed before a capacity which could control success, and, in presence of
+the admitted fact of his overwhelming popularity, they played the part
+which became wise men of their calling.
+
+However sincerely Mr. Chase might resolve to behave with magnanimity
+beneath his disappointment, the disappointment must rankle all the same.
+It was certainly the case that, while he professed friendship towards
+Mr. Lincoln personally, he was honestly unable to appreciate him as a
+president. Mr. Chase's ideal of a statesman had outlines of imposing
+dignity which Mr. Lincoln's simple demeanor did not fill out. It was now
+inevitable that the relationship between the two men should soon be
+severed. The first strain came because Mr. Lincoln would not avenge an
+unjustifiable assault made by General Blair upon the secretary. Then Mr.
+Chase grumbled at the free spending of the funds which he had succeeded
+in providing with so much skill and labor. "It seems as if there were no
+limit to expense.... The spigot in Uncle Abe's barrel is made twice as
+big as the bung-hole," he complained. Then ensued sundry irritations
+concerning appointments in the custom-houses, one of which led to an
+offer of resignation by the secretary. On each occasion, however, the
+President placated him by allowing him to have his own way. Finally, in
+May and June, 1864, occurred the famous imbroglio concerning the choice
+of a successor to Mr. Cisco, the assistant treasurer at New York. Though
+Mr. Chase again managed to prevail, yet he was made so angry by the
+circumstances of the case, that he again sent in his resignation, which
+this time was accepted. For, as Mr. Lincoln said: "You and I have
+reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official relation, which
+it seems cannot be overcome or longer sustained consistently with the
+public service." This occurrence, taking place on June 29-30, at the
+beginning of the difficult political campaign of that anxious summer,
+alienated from the President's cause some friends in a crisis when all
+the friends whom he could muster seemed hardly sufficient.
+
+The place of Mr. Chase was not easy to fill. Mr. Lincoln first nominated
+David Tod of Ohio. This was very ill received; but fortunately the
+difficulty which might have been caused by it was escaped, because
+Governor Tod promptly declined. The President then named William Pitt
+Fessenden, senator from Maine, and actually forced the office upon him
+against that gentleman's sincere wish to escape the honor. A better
+choice could not have been made. Mr. Fessenden was chairman of the
+Committee on Finance, and had filled the position with conspicuous
+ability; every one esteemed him highly; the Senate instantly confirmed
+him, and during his incumbency in office he fully justified these
+flattering opinions.
+
+There were other opponents of the President who were not so easily
+diverted from their purpose as the politicians had been. In Missouri an
+old feud was based upon his displacement of Fremont; the State had ever
+since been rent by fierce factional quarrels, and amid them this
+grievance had never been forgotten or forgiven. Emancipation by state
+action had been chief among the causes which had divided the Union
+citizens into Conservatives and Radicals. Their quarrel was bitter, and
+in vain did Mr. Lincoln repeatedly endeavor to reconcile them. The
+Radicals claimed his countenance as a matter of right, and Mr. Lincoln
+often privately admitted that between him and them there was close
+coincidence of feeling. Yet he found their specific demands
+inadmissible; especially he could not consent to please them by removing
+General Schofield. So they, being extremists, and therefore of the type
+of men who will have every one against them who is not for them, turned
+vindictively against him. They found sympathizers elsewhere in the
+country, sporadic instances of disaffection rather than indications of
+an epidemic; but in their frame of mind they easily gained faith in the
+existence of a popular feeling which was, in fact, the phantasm of
+their own heated fancy. As spring drew on they cast out lines of
+affiliation. Their purpose was not only negatively against Lincoln, but
+positively for Fremont. Therefore they made connection with the Central
+Fremont Club, a small organization in New York, and issued a call for a
+mass convention at Cleveland on May 31. They expressed their disgust for
+the "imbecile and vacillating policy" of Mr. Lincoln, and desired the
+"immediate extinction of slavery ... by congressional action,"
+contemning the fact that Congress had no power under the Constitution to
+extinguish slavery. Their call was reinforced by two or three others, of
+which one came from a "People's Committee" of St. Louis, representing
+Germans under the lead of B. Gratz Brown.
+
+The movement also had the hearty approval of Wendell Phillips, who was
+very bitter and sweeping in his denunciations of an administration which
+he regarded "as a civil and military failure." Lincoln's reëlection, he
+said, "I shall consider the end of the Union in my day, or its
+reconstruction on terms worse than disunion." But Mr. Phillips's
+friendship ought to have been regarded by the Fremonters as ominous, for
+it was his custom always to act with a very small minority. Moreover he
+had long since ceased to give voice to the intelligence of his party or
+even fairly to represent it. How far it had ever been proper to call the
+Abolitionists a party may be doubted; before the war they had been
+compressed into some solidity by encompassing hostility; but they would
+not have been Abolitionists at all had they not been men of exceptional
+independence both in temper and in intellect. They had often dared to
+differ from each other as well as from the mass of their fellow
+citizens, and they had never submitted to the domination of leaders in
+the ordinary political fashion. The career of Mr. Lincoln had of course
+been watched by them keenly, very critically, and with intense and
+various feeling. At times they had hopefully applauded him, and at times
+they had vehemently condemned what had seemed to them his halting,
+half-hearted, or timid action. As the individual members of the party
+had often changed their own minds about him, so also they had sometimes
+and freely disagreed with each other concerning his character, his
+intentions, his policies. In the winter and spring of 1864, however, it
+seemed that, by slow degrees, observation, their own good sense, and the
+development of events had at last won the great majority of the party to
+repose a considerable measure of confidence in him, both in respect of
+his capacity and of his real anti-slavery purposes. Accordingly in the
+present discussions such men as Owen Lovejoy,[68] William Lloyd
+Garrison, and Oliver Johnson came out fairly for him,--not, indeed,
+because he was altogether satisfactory to them, but because he was in
+great part so; also because they easily saw that as matter of fact his
+personal triumph would probably lead to abolition, that he was the only
+candidate by whom the Democracy could be beaten, and that if the
+Democracy should not be beaten, abolition would be postponed beyond
+human vision. Lovejoy said that, to his personal knowledge, the
+President had "been just as radical as any of his cabinet," and in view
+of what the Abolitionists thought of Chase, this was a strong
+indorsement. The old-time charge of being impractical could not properly
+be renewed against these men, now that they saw that events which they
+could help to bring about were likely to bring their purpose to the
+point of real achievement in a near future. In this condition of things
+they were found entirely willing to recognize and accept the best
+practical means, and their belief was clear that the best practical
+means lay in the renomination and reëlection of Abraham Lincoln. Their
+adhesion brought to him a very useful assistance, and beyond this it
+also gave him the gratification of knowing that he had at last won the
+approval of men whose friendly sympathy he had always inwardly desired.
+Sustained by the best men in the party, he could afford to disregard the
+small body of irreconcilable and quarrelsome fault-finders, who went
+over to Fremont, factious men, who were perhaps unconsciously controlled
+more by mere contradictoriness of temperament than by the higher motives
+which they proclaimed.
+
+At Cleveland on the appointed day the "mass convention" assembled, only
+the mass was wanting. It nominated Fremont for the presidency and
+General John Cochrane for the vice-presidency; and thus again the
+Constitution was ignored by these malcontents; for both these gentlemen
+were citizens of New York, and therefore the important delegation from
+that State could lawfully vote for only one of them. Really the best
+result which the convention achieved was that it called forth a bit of
+wit from the President. Some one remarked to him that, instead of the
+expected thousands, only about four hundred persons had assembled. He
+turned to the Bible which, say Nicolay and Hay, "commonly lay on his
+desk,"[69] and read the verse: "And every one that was in distress, and
+every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented,
+gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and
+there were with him about four hundred men."[70]
+
+The Fremonters struck no responsive chord among the people. The
+nomination was received by every one with the same tranquil
+indifference, tinged with ridicule, which the President had shown. In
+vain did Fremont seek to give to his candidacy a serious and dignified
+character. Very few persons cared anything about it, except the
+Democrats, and their clamorous approval was as unwelcome as it was
+significant. Under this humiliation the unfortunate candidate at last
+decided to withdraw, and so notified his committee about the middle of
+September. He still stood by his principles, however, and asserted that
+Mr. Lincoln's administration had been "politically, militarily, and
+financially a failure;" that the President had paralyzed the generous
+unanimity of the North; and that, by declaring that "slavery should be
+protected," he had "built up for the South a strength which otherwise
+they could have never attained." The nation received the statement
+placidly and without alarm.
+
+A feeble movement in New York to nominate General Grant deserves
+mention, chiefly for the purpose of also mentioning the generous manner
+in which the general decisively brushed it aside. Mr. Lincoln quietly
+said that if Grant would take Richmond he might also have the
+presidency. But it was, of course, plain to every one that for the
+present it would be ridiculous folly to take Grant out of his tent in
+order to put him into the White House.
+
+During this same troubled period a few of the Republican malcontents
+went so far as to fancy that they could put upon Mr. Lincoln a pressure
+which would induce him to withdraw from the ticket. They never learned
+the extreme absurdity of their design, for they never got enough
+encouragement to induce them to push it beyond the stage of preliminary
+discussion.
+
+All these movements had some support from newspapers in different parts
+of the country. Many editors had the like grievance against Mr. Lincoln
+which so many politicians had. For they had told him what to do, and too
+often he had not done it. Horace Greeley, it is needless to say, was
+conspicuous in his unlimited condemnation of the President.
+
+The first indications of the revolt of the politicians and the radicals
+against Mr. Lincoln were signals for instant counteracting activity
+among the various bodies which more closely felt the popular impulse.
+State conventions, caucuses, of all sizes and kinds, and gatherings of
+the Republican members of state legislatures, overstepped their regular
+functions to declare for the renomination of Mr. Lincoln. Clubs and
+societies did the same. Simon Cameron, transmitting to the President a
+circular of this purport, signed by every Unionist member of the
+Pennsylvania legislature, said: "Providence has decreed your
+reëlection;" and if it is true that the _vox populi_ is also the _vox
+Dei_, this statement of the political affiliations of Providence was
+entirely correct. Undoubtedly the number of the President's adherents
+was swelled by some persons who would have been among the disaffected
+had they not been influenced by the reflection that a change of
+administration in the present condition of things must be disastrous.
+This feeling was expressed in many metaphors, but in none other so
+famous as that uttered by Mr. Lincoln himself: that it was not wise to
+swap horses while crossing the stream. The process was especially
+dangerous in a country where the change would involve a practical
+interregum of one third of a year. The nation had learned this lesson,
+and had paid dearly enough for the schooling, too, in the four months of
+its waiting to get rid of Buchanan, after it had discredited him and all
+his ways. In the present crisis it was easy to believe that to leave Mr.
+Lincoln to carry on for four months an administration condemned by the
+people, would inflict a mortal injury to the Union cause. Nevertheless,
+though many persons not wholly satisfied with him supported him for this
+reason, the great majority undeniably felt implicit faith and intense
+loyalty towards him. He was the people's candidate, and they would not
+have any other candidate; this present state of popular feeling, which
+soon became plain as the sun in heaven, settled the matter.
+
+Thereupon, however, the malcontents, unwilling to accept defeat,
+broached a new scheme. The Republican nominating convention had been
+summoned to meet on June 7, 1864; the opponents of Mr. Lincoln now
+sought to have it postponed until September. William Cullen Bryant
+favored this. Mr. Greeley also artfully said that a nomination made so
+early would expose the Union party to a dangerous and possibly a
+successful flank movement. But deception was impossible; all knew that
+the postponement itself was a flank movement, and that it was desired
+for the chance of some advantage turning up for those who now had
+absolutely nothing to lose.
+
+Mr. Lincoln all the while preserved the same attitude which he had held
+from the beginning. He had too much honesty and good sense to commit the
+vulgar folly of pretending not to want what every one knew perfectly
+well that he did want very much. Yet no fair enemy could charge him with
+doing any objectionable act to advance his own interests. He declined to
+give General Schurz leave of absence to make speeches in his behalf.
+"Speaking in the North," he said, "and fighting in the South at the same
+time are not possible; nor could I be justified to detail any officer to
+the political campaign during its continuance, and then return him to
+the army." When the renomination came to him, he took it with clean
+hands and a clear conscience; and it did come surely and promptly. The
+postponers were quenched by general disapproval; and promptly on the
+appointed day, June 7, the Republican Convention met at Baltimore. As
+Mr. Forney well said: the body had not to originate, but simply to
+republish, a policy; not to choose a candidate, but only to adopt the
+previous choice of the people. Very wisely the "Radical-union," or
+anti-Lincoln, delegation from Missouri was admitted, as against the
+contesting pro-Lincoln delegates. The delegations from Tennessee,
+Arkansas and Louisiana were also admitted. The President had desired
+this. Perhaps, as some people charged, he thought that it would be a
+useful precedent for counting the votes of these States in the election
+itself, should the Republican party have need to do so. The platform,
+besides many other things, declared against compromise with the rebels;
+advocated a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery; and praised the
+President and his policy. The first ballot showed 484 for Lincoln, 22
+for Grant. The Missouri radicals had cast the vote for Grant; they rose
+and transferred it to Lincoln, and thus upon the first ballot he was
+nominated unanimously.
+
+There was some conflict over the second place. A numerous body felt, and
+very properly, that Mr. Hamlin deserved the approval of renomination.
+But others said that policy required the selection of a war Democrat.
+The President's advice was eagerly and persistently sought. Messrs.
+Nicolay and Hay allege that he not only ostensibly refused any response,
+but that he would give no private hint; and they say that therefore it
+was "with minds absolutely untrammeled by even any knowledge of the
+President's wishes, that the convention went about its work of selecting
+his associate on the ticket." Others assert, and, as it seems to me,
+strongly sustain their assertion, that the President had a distinct and
+strong purpose in favor of Andrew Johnson,--not on personal, but on
+political grounds,--and that it was due to his skillful but occult
+interference that the choice ultimately fell upon the energetic and
+aggressive war Democrat of Tennessee.[71] The first ballot showed for
+Mr. Johnson 200, for Mr. Hamlin 150, and for Daniel S. Dickinson, a war
+Democrat of New York, 108. The nomination of Mr. Johnson was at once
+made unanimous.
+
+To the committee who waited upon Mr. Lincoln to notify him formally of
+his nomination, he replied briefly. His only noteworthy remark was made
+concerning that clause in the platform which proposed the constitutional
+abolition of slavery; of which he said, that it was "a fitting and
+necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause."
+
+During the ensuing summer of 1864 the strain to which the nation was
+subjected was excessive. The political campaign produced intense
+excitement, and the military situation caused profound anxiety. The
+Democrats worked as men work when they anticipate glorious triumph; and
+even the Republicans conceded that the chance of their opponents was
+alarmingly good. The frightful conflict which had devoured men and money
+without stint was entering upon its fourth year, and the weary people
+had not that vision which enabled the leaders from their watch-tower to
+see the end. Wherefore the Democrats, stigmatizing the war policy as a
+failure, and crying for peace and a settlement, held out an alluring
+purpose, although they certainly failed to explain distinctly their plan
+for achieving this consummation without sacrificing the Union.
+Skillfully devoting the summer to assaults on the Republicans, they
+awaited the guidance of the latest phase of the political situation
+before making their own choice. Then, at the end of August, their
+convention nominated General George B. McClellan. At the time it seemed
+probable that the nomination was also the gift of the office. So
+unpromising was the outlook for the Republicans during these summer
+months that many leaders, and even the President himself, felt that
+their only chance of winning in November lay in the occurrence before
+that time of some military success great enough to convince the people
+that it was not yet time to despair of the war.
+
+It was especially hard for the Republicans to make head against their
+natural enemies, because they were so severely handicapped by the bad
+feeling and division among themselves. Mr. Wade, Henry Winter Davis,
+Thaddeus Stevens, and a host more, could not do otherwise than accept
+the party nominee; yet with what zeal could they work for the candidate
+when they felt that they, the leaders of the party, had been something
+worse than ignored in the selection of him? And what was their influence
+worth, when all who could be reached by it knew well their extreme
+hostility and distrust towards Mr. Lincoln? Stevens grudgingly admitted
+that Lincoln would not be quite so bad a choice as McClellan, yet let no
+chance go by to assail the opinions, measures, and policy of the
+Republican President. In this he was imitated by others, and their
+reluctant adhesion in the mere matter of voting the party ticket was
+much more than offset by this vehemence in condemning the man in whose
+behalf they felt it necessary to go to the polls. In a word the
+situation was, that the common soldiers of the party were to go into the
+fight under officers who did not expect, and scarcely desired, to win.
+Victory is rare under such circumstances.
+
+The opposition of the Democratic party was open and legitimate; the
+unfriendliness of the Republican politicians was more unfortunate than
+unfair, because it was the mistake of sincere and earnest men. But in
+the way of Mr. Lincoln's success there stood still other opponents whose
+antagonism was mischievous, insidious, and unfair both in principle and
+in detail. Chief in this band appeared Horace Greeley, with a following
+and an influence fluctuating and difficult to estimate, but
+considerable. His present political creed was a strange jumble of
+Democratic and Republican doctrines. No Democrat abused the
+administration or cried for "peace on almost any terms" louder than he
+did; yet he still declaimed against slavery, and proposed to buy from
+the South all its slaves for four hundred millions of dollars.
+Unfortunately those of his notions which were of importance in the
+pending campaign were the Democratic ones. If he had come out openly as
+a free lance, which was his true character, he would have less seriously
+injured the President's cause. This, however, he would not do, but
+preferred to fight against the Republicans in their own camp and
+wearing their own uniform, and in this guise to devote all his capacity
+to embarrassing the man who was the chosen president and the candidate
+of that party. Multitudes in the country had been wont to accept the
+editorials of the "Tribune" as sound political gospels, and the present
+disaffected attitude of the variable man who inspired those vehement
+writings was a national disaster. He created and led the party of peace
+Republicans. Peace Democracy was a legitimate political doctrine; but
+peace Republicanism was an illogical monstrosity. It lay, with the
+mortal threat of a cancer, in the political body of the party. It was
+especially unfortunate just at this juncture that clear thinking was not
+among Mr. Greeley's gifts. In single-minded pursuit of his purpose to
+destroy Mr. Lincoln by any possible means, he had at first encouraged
+the movement for Fremont, though it was based on views directly contrary
+to his own. But soon losing interest in that, he thereafter gave himself
+wholly to the business of crying aloud for immediate peace, which he
+continued to do throughout the presidential campaign, always
+unreasonably, sometimes disingenuously, but without rest, and with
+injurious effect. The vivid picture which he loved to draw of "our
+bleeding, bankrupt, and almost dying country," longing for peace and
+shuddering at the "prospect of new rivers of human blood," scared many
+an honest and anxious patriot.
+
+In July and August Mr. Greeley was misled into lending himself to the
+schemes of some Southerners at Niagara Falls, who threw out intimations
+that they were emissaries from the Confederacy and authorized to treat
+for peace. He believed these men, and urged that negotiations should be
+prosecuted with them. By the publicity which he gave to the matter he
+caused much embarrassment to Mr. Lincoln, who saw at once that the whole
+business was certainly absurd and probably treacherous. The real purpose
+of these envoys, he afterwards said, was undoubtedly "to assist in
+selecting and arranging a candidate and a platform for the Chicago
+Convention." Yet clearly as he understood this false and hollow scheme,
+he could not altogether ignore Greeley's demands for attention to it
+without giving too much color to those statements which the editor was
+assiduously scattering abroad, to the effect that the administration did
+not desire peace, and would not take it when proffered. So there were
+reasons why this sham offer must be treated as if it were an honest one,
+vexatious as the necessity appeared to the President. Perhaps he was
+cheered by the faith which he had in the wisdom of proverbs, for now,
+very fortunately, he permitted himself to be guided by a familiar one;
+and he decided to give to his annoyer liberal rope. Accordingly he
+authorized Mr. Greeley himself to visit in person these emissaries, to
+confer with them, and even to bring them to Washington in case they
+should prove really to have from Jefferson Davis any written
+proposition "for peace, embracing the restoration of the Union and
+abandonment of slavery." It was an exceedingly shrewd move, and it
+seriously discomposed Mr. Greeley, who had not counted upon being so
+frankly met, and whose disquietude was amusingly evident as he
+reluctantly fluttered forth to Niagara upon his mission of peace, less
+wise than a serpent and unfortunately much less harmless than a dove.
+
+There is no room here to follow all the intricacies of the ensuing
+"negotiations." The result was an utter fiasco, fully justifying the
+President's opinion of the fatuity of the whole business. The so-called
+Southern envoys had no credentials at all; they appeared to be mere
+adventurers, and members of that Southern colony in Canada which became
+even more infamous by what it desired to do than mischievous by what it
+actually did during the war. If they had any distinct purpose on this
+occasion, it was to injure the Republican party by discrediting its
+candidate in precisely the way in which Mr. Greeley was aiding them to
+do these things. But he never got his head sufficiently clear to
+appreciate this, and he faithfully continued to play the part for which
+he had been cast by them, but without understanding it. He persistently
+charged the responsibility for his bootless return and ignominious
+situation upon Mr. Lincoln; and though his errand proved conclusively
+that the South was making no advances,[72] and though no man in the
+country was more strictly affected with personal knowledge of this fact
+than he was, yet he continued to tell the people, with all the weight of
+his personal authority, that the President was obstinately set against
+any and all proffers of peace. Mr. Lincoln, betwixt mercy and policy,
+refrained from crushing his antagonist by an ungarbled publication of
+all the facts and documents; and in return for his forbearance he long
+continued to receive from Mr. Greeley vehement assurances that every
+direful disaster awaited the Republican party. The cause suffered much
+from these relentless diatribes of the "Tribune's" influential manager,
+for nothing else could make the administration so unpopular as the
+belief that it was backward in any possible exertion to secure an
+honorable peace.
+
+If by sound logic the Greeley faction should have voted with the
+Democrats,--since in the chief point in issue, the prosecution of the
+war, they agreed with the Democracy,--so the war Democrats, being in
+accord with the Republicans, upon this same overshadowing issue should,
+at the coming election at least, have voted with that party. Many of
+them undoubtedly did finally prefer Lincoln, coupled with Andrew
+Johnson, to McClellan. But they also had anxieties, newly stirred, and
+entirely reasonable in men of their political faith. It was plain to
+them that Mr. Lincoln had been finding his way to the distinct position
+that the abolition of slavery was an essential condition of peace. Now
+this was undeniably a very serious and alterative graft upon the
+original doctrine that the war was solely for the restoration of the
+Union. The editor of a war-Democratic newspaper in Wisconsin sought
+information upon this point. In the course of Mr. Greeley's negotiatory
+business Mr. Lincoln had offered to welcome "any proposition which
+embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and
+the abandonment of slavery." Now this, said the interrogating editor,
+implies "that no steps can be taken towards peace ... unless accompanied
+with an abandonment of slavery. This puts the whole war question on a
+new basis and takes us war Democrats clear off our feet, leaving us no
+ground to stand upon. If we sustain the war and war policy, does it not
+demand the changing of our party politics?" Nicolay and Hay print the
+draft of a reply by Mr. Lincoln which, they say, was "apparently
+unfinished and probably never sent." In this he referred to his past
+utterances as being still valid. But he said that no Southerner had
+"intimated a willingness for a restoration of the Union in any event or
+on any condition whatever.... If Jefferson Davis wishes for himself, or
+for the benefit of his friends at the North, to know what I would do if
+he were to offer peace and reunion, saying nothing about slavery, let
+him try me." It must be admitted that this was not an answer, but was a
+clear waiver of an answer. The President could not or would not reply
+categorically to the queries of the editor. Perhaps the impossibility of
+doing so both satisfactorily and honestly may explain why the paper was
+left unfinished and unsent. It was not an easy letter to write; its
+composition must have puzzled one who was always clear both in thought
+and in expression. Probably Mr. Lincoln no longer expected that the end
+of the war would leave slavery in existence, nor intended that it should
+do so; and doubtless he anticipated that the course of events would
+involve the destruction of that now rotten and undermined institution,
+without serious difficulty at the opportune moment. The speeches made at
+the Republican nominating convention had been very outspoken, to the
+effect that slavery must be made to "cease forever," as a result of the
+war. Yet a blunt statement that abolition would be a _sine qua non_ in
+any arrangements for peace, emanating directly from the President, as a
+declaration of his policy, would be very costly in the pending campaign,
+and would imperil rather than advance the fortunes of him who had this
+consummation at heart, and would thereby also diminish the chance for
+the consummation itself. So at last he seems to have left the war
+Democrats to puzzle over the conundrum, and decide as best they could.
+Of course the doubt affected unfavorably the votes of some of them.
+
+A measure of the mischief which was done by these suspicions and by
+Greeley's assertions that the administration did not desire peace, may
+be taken from a letter, written to Mr. Lincoln on August 22 by Mr. Henry
+J. Raymond, chairman of the National Executive Committee of the
+Republican party. From all sides, Mr. Raymond says, "I hear but one
+report. The tide is setting strongly against us." Mr. Washburne, he
+writes, despairs of Illinois, and Mr. Cameron of Pennsylvania, and he
+himself is not hopeful of New York, and Governor Morton is doubtful of
+Indiana; "and so of the rest." For this melancholy condition he assigns
+two causes: the want of military successes, and the belief "that we are
+not to have peace in any event under this administration until slavery
+is abandoned. In some way or other the suspicion is widely diffused that
+we can have peace with union, if we would." Then even this stanch
+Republican leader suggests that it might be good policy to sound
+Jefferson Davis on the feasibility of peace "on the sole condition of
+acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution,--all other questions to
+be settled in a convention of the people of all the States." The
+President might well have been thrown into inextricable confusion of
+mind, betwixt the assaults of avowed enemies, the denunciations and
+predictions of inimical friends, the foolish advice of genuine
+supporters. It is now plain that all the counsel which was given to him
+was bad, from whatsoever quarter it came. It shows the powerfulness of
+his nature that he retained his cool and accurate judgment, although
+the crisis was such that even he also had to admit that the danger of
+defeat was imminent. To Mr. Raymond's panic-stricken suggestions he made
+a very shrewd response by drafting some instructions for the purpose of
+sending that gentleman himself on the mission to Mr. Davis. It was the
+same tactics which he had pursued in dispatching Mr. Greeley to meet the
+Southerners in Canada. The result was that the fruitlessness of the
+suggestion was admitted by its author.
+
+As if all hurtful influences were to be concentrated against the
+President, it became necessary just at this inopportune time to make
+good the terrible waste in the armies caused by expiration of terms of
+service and by the bloody campaigns of Grant and Sherman. Volunteering
+was substantially at an end, and a call for troops would have to be
+enforced by a draft. Inevitably this would stir afresh the hostility of
+those who dreaded that the conscription might sweep into military
+service themselves or those dear to them. It was Mr. Lincoln's duty,
+however, to make the demand, and to make it at once. He did so;
+regardless of personal consequences, he called for 500,000 more men.
+
+Thus in July and August the surface was covered with straws, and every
+one of them indicated a current setting strongly against Mr. Lincoln.
+Unexpectedly the Democratic Convention made a small counter-eddy; for
+the peace Democrats, led by Vallandigham, were ill advised enough to
+force a peace plank into the platform. This was at once repudiated by
+McClellan in his letter of acceptance, and then again was reiterated by
+Vallandigham as the true policy of the party. Thus war Democrats were
+alarmed, and a split was opened. Yet it was by no means such a chasm as
+that which, upon the opposite side, divided the radicals and politicians
+from the mass of their Republican comrades. It might affect ratios, but
+did not seem likely to change results. In a word, all political
+observers now believed that military success was the only medicine which
+could help the Republican prostration, and whether this medicine could
+be procured was very doubtful.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[64] Arnold, _Lincoln_, 384, 385. Nicolay and Hay seem to me to go too
+far in belittling the opposition to Mr. Lincoln within the Republican
+party.
+
+[65] See Arnold, _Lincoln_, 385. But the fact is notorious among all who
+remember those times.
+
+[66] _Polit. Recoll. 243 et seq._ Mr. Julian here gives a vivid sketch
+of the opposition to Mr. Lincoln.
+
+[67] In the _National Intelligencer_, February 22, 1864.
+
+[68] Lovejoy had generally stood faithfully by the President.
+
+[69] N. and H. ix. 40.
+
+[70] I Samuel xxii. 2.
+
+[71] See, more especially, McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War-Times_,
+chapter on "Lincoln and Hamlin," 104-118. This writer says (p. 196) that
+Lincoln's first selection was General Butler.
+
+[72] Further illustration of this unquestionable fact was furnished by
+the volunteer mission of Colonel Jaquess and Mr. Gilmore to Richmond in
+July. N. and H. vol. ix. ch. ix.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MILITARY SUCCESSES, AND THE REËLECTION OF THE PRESIDENT
+
+
+It is necessary now to return to military matters, and briefly to set
+forth the situation. No especial fault was found with General Meade's
+operations in Virginia; yet it was obvious that a system quite different
+from that which had hitherto prevailed must be introduced there. To
+fight a great battle, then await entire recuperation of losses, then
+fight again and wait again, was a process of lingering exhaustion which
+might be prolonged indefinitely. In February, 1864, Congress passed,
+though with some reluctance, and the President much more readily signed,
+a bill for the appointment of a lieutenant-general, "authorized, under
+the direction and during the pleasure of the President, to command the
+armies of the United States."[73] All understood that the place was made
+for General Grant, and it was at once given to him by Mr. Lincoln. On
+March 3 the appointment was confirmed by the Senate. By this Halleck was
+substantially laid aside; his uselessness had long since become so
+apparent, that though still holding his dignified position, he seemed
+almost forgotten by every one.
+
+Grant came to Washington,[74] arriving on March 8, and there was induced
+by what he heard and saw to lay aside his own previous purpose and the
+strenuous advice of Sherman, and to fall in with Mr. Lincoln's wishes;
+that is to say, to take personal control of the campaign in Virginia. He
+did this with his usual promptness, and set Sherman in command in the
+middle of the country, the only other important theatre of operations.
+It is said that Grant, before accepting the new rank and taking Virginia
+as his special province, stipulated that he was to be absolutely free
+from all interference, especially on the part of Stanton. Whether this
+agreement was formulated or not, it was put into practical effect. No
+man hereafter interfered with General Grant. Mr. Lincoln occasionally
+made suggestions, but strictly and merely as suggestions. He distinctly
+and pointedly said that he did not know, and did not wish to know, the
+general's plans of campaign.[75] When the new commander had duly
+considered the situation, he adopted precisely the same broad scheme
+which had been previously devised by Mr. Lincoln and General McClellan;
+that is to say, he arranged a simultaneous vigorous advance all along
+the line. It was the way to make weight and numbers tell; and Grant had
+great faith in weight and numbers; like Napoleon, he believed that
+Providence has a shrewd way of siding with the heaviest battalions.
+
+On April 30, all being ready for the advance, the President sent a note
+of God-speed to the general. "I wish to express," he said, "my entire
+satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I
+understand it. The particulars of your plan I neither know, nor seek to
+know.... If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give,
+do not fail to let me know it." The general replied in a pleasant tone:
+"I have been astonished at the readiness with which everything asked for
+has been yielded, without even an explanation being asked. Should my
+success be less than I desire and expect, the least I can say is, the
+fault is not with you." When the President read these strange words his
+astonishment must have far exceeded that expressed by the general. Never
+before had he been thus addressed by any commander in Virginia!
+Generally he had been told that a magnificent success was about to be
+achieved, which he had done nothing to promote and perhaps much to
+retard, but which would nevertheless be secured by the ability of a
+general in spite of unfriendly neglect by a president.
+
+On May 4 General Grant's army started upon its way, with 122,146 men
+present for duty. Against them General Lee had 61,953. The odds seemed
+excessive; but Lee had inside lines, the defensive, and intrenchments,
+to equalize the disparity of numbers. At once began those bloody and
+incessant campaigns by which General Grant intended to end, and finally
+did end, the war. The North could afford to lose three men where the
+South lost two, and would still have a balance left after the South had
+spent all. The expenditure in this proportion would be disagreeable; but
+if this was the inevitable and only price, Grant was willing to pay it,
+justly regarding it as cheaper than a continuation of the process of
+purchase by piecemeal. In a few hours the frightful struggle in the
+Wilderness was in progress. All day on the 5th, all day on the 6th, the
+terrible slaughter continued in those darksome woods and swamps. "More
+desperate fighting has not been witnessed on this continent," said
+Grant. The Union troops could not force their way through those tangled
+forests. Thereupon, accepting the situation in his imperturbable way, he
+arranged to move, on May 7, by the left flank southerly towards
+Spottsylvania. Lee, disappointed and surprised that Grant was advancing
+instead of falling back, could not do otherwise than move in the same
+course; for, in fact, the combatants were locked together in a grappling
+campaign. Then took place more bloody and determined fighting. The Union
+losses were appalling, since the troops were attacking an army in
+position. Yet Grant was sanguine; it was in a dispatch of May 11 that
+he said that he had been getting the better in the struggle, and that he
+proposed to fight it out on that line if it took all summer. The result
+of the further slaughter at Spottsylvania was not a victory for either
+leader, but was more hurtful to Lee because he could less well afford to
+have his men killed and wounded. Grant, again finding that he could not
+force Lee out of his position, also again moved by the left flank,
+steadily approaching Richmond and dragging Lee with him. The Northern
+loss had already reached the frightful total of 37,335 men; the
+Confederate loss was less, but enormous. Amid the bloodshed, however,
+Grant scented success. On May 26 he wrote: "Lee's army is really
+whipped.... Our men feel that they have gained the morale over the
+enemy.... I may be mistaken, but I feel that our success over Lee's army
+is already assured." He even gratified the President by again
+disregarding all precedent in Virginian campaigns, and saying that the
+promptness with which reinforcements had been forwarded had contributed
+largely to the promising situation! But almost immediately after this
+the North shuddered at the enormous and profitless carnage at Cold
+Harbor. Concurrently with all this bloodshed, there also took place the
+famous and ill-starred movement of General Butler upon Richmond, which
+ended in securely shutting up him and his forces at Bermuda Hundred, "as
+in a bottle strongly corked."
+
+Such was the Virginian situation early in June. By a series of most
+bloody battles, no one of which had been a real victory, Grant had come
+before the defenses of Richmond, nearly where McClellan had already
+been. And now, like McClellan, he proposed to move around to the
+southward and invest the city. It must be confessed that in all this
+there was nothing visible to the inexperienced vision of the citizens at
+home which made much brighter in their eyes the prestige of Mr.
+Lincoln's war policy. Nor could they see, as that summer of the
+presidential campaign came and went, that any really great change or
+improvement was effected.
+
+On the other hand, there took place in July what is sometimes lightly
+called General Early's raid against Washington. In fact, it was a
+genuine and very serious campaign, wherein that general was within a few
+hours of capturing the city. Issuing out of that Shenandoah Valley
+whence, as from a cave of horrors rather than one of the loveliest
+valleys in the world, so much of terror and mischief had so often burst
+out against the North, Early, with 17,000 veteran troops, moved straight
+and fast upon the national capital. On the evening of July 10 Mr.
+Lincoln rode out to his summer quarters at the Soldiers' Home. But the
+Confederate troops were within a few miles, and Mr. Stanton insisted
+that he should come back. The next day the Confederates advanced along
+the Seventh Street road, in full expectation of marching into the city
+with little opposition. There was brisk artillery firing, and Mr.
+Lincoln, who had driven out to the scene of action, actually came under
+fire; an officer was struck down within a few feet of him.
+
+The anticipation of General Early was sanguine, yet by no means ill
+founded. The veterans in Washington were a mere handful, and though the
+green troops might have held the strong defenses for a little while, yet
+the Southern veterans would have been pretty sure to make their way. It
+was, in fact, a very close question of time. Grant had been at first
+incredulous of the reports of Early's movements; but when he could no
+longer doubt, he sent reinforcements with the utmost dispatch. They
+arrived none too soon. It was while General Early was making his final
+arrangements for an attack, which he meant should be irresistible, that
+General Wright, with two divisions from the army of the Potomac, landed
+at the river wharves and marched through the city to the threatened
+points. With this the critical hours passed away. It had really been a
+crisis of hours, and might have been one of minutes. Now Early saw that
+the prize had slipped through his fingers actually as they closed upon
+it, and so bitter was his disappointment that--since he was
+disappointed--even a Northerner can almost afford him sympathy. So, his
+chance being gone, he must go too, and that speedily; for it was he who
+was in danger now. Moving rapidly, he saved himself, and returned up
+the Shenandoah Valley. He had accomplished no real harm; but that the
+war had been going on for three years, and that Washington was still
+hardly a safe place for the President to live in, was another point
+against the war policy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sherman had moved out against Johnston, at Dalton, at the same time that
+Grant had moved out against Lee, and during the summer he made a record
+very similar to that of his chief. He pressed the enemy without rest,
+fought constantly, suffered and inflicted terrible losses, won no signal
+victory, yet constantly got farther to the southward. Fortunately,
+however, he was nearer to a specific success than Grant was, and at last
+he was able to administer the sorely needed tonic to the political
+situation. Jefferson Davis, who hated Johnston, made the steady retreat
+of that general before Sherman an excuse for removing him and putting
+General Hood in his place. The army was then at Atlanta. Hood was a
+fighting man, and immediately he brought on a great battle, which
+happily proved to be also a great mistake; for the result was a
+brilliant and decisive victory for Sherman and involved the fall of
+Atlanta. This was one of the important achievements of the war; and
+when, on September 3, Sherman telegraphed, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly
+won," the news came to the President like wine to the weary. He hastened
+to tender the "national thanks" to the general and his gallant soldiers,
+with words of gratitude which must have come straight and warm from his
+heart. There was a chance now for the Union cause in November.
+
+About ten days before this event Farragut, in spite of forts and
+batteries, iron-clads and torpedoes, had possessed himself of Mobile Bay
+and closed that Gulf port which had been so useful a mouth to the hungry
+stomach of the Confederacy. No efficient blockade of it had ever been
+possible. Through it military, industrial, and domestic supplies had
+been brought in, and invaluable cotton had gone out to pay for them.
+Now, however, the sealing of the South was all but hermetical. As a
+naval success the feat was entitled to high admiration, and as a
+practical injury to the Confederacy it could not be overestimated.
+
+Achievements equally brilliant, if not quite so important, were quickly
+contributed by Sheridan. In spite of objections on the part of Stanton,
+Grant had put this enterprising fighter in command of a strong force of
+cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley, where Lee was keeping Early as a
+constant menace upon Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Three
+hard-fought battles followed, during September and October. In each the
+Federals were thoroughly victorious. The last of the three was that
+which was made famous by "Sheridan's ride." He had been to Washington
+and was returning on horseback, when to his surprise he encountered
+squads of his own troops hurrying back in disorderly flight from a
+battle which, during his brief absence, had unexpectedly been delivered
+by Early. Halting them and carrying them back with him, he was relieved,
+as he came upon the field, to find a part of his army still standing
+firm and even pressing the Confederates hard. He communicated his own
+spirit to his troops, and turned partial defeat into brilliant victory.
+By this gallant deed was shattered forever the Confederate Army of the
+Valley; and from that time forth there issued out of that fair
+concealment no more gray-uniformed troopers to foray Northern fields or
+to threaten Northern towns. For these achievements Lincoln made Sheridan
+a major-general, dictating the appointment in words of unusual
+compliment.
+
+Late as the Democrats were in holding their nominating convention, they
+would have done well to hold it a little later. They might then have
+derived wisdom from these military and naval events, and not improbably
+they would have been less audacious in staking their success upon the
+issue that the war was a failure, and would have so modified that craven
+proposition as to make it accord with the more patriotic sentiment of
+their soldier candidate. But the fortunes alike of the real war and of
+the political war were decidedly and happily against them. Even while
+they were in session the details of Farragut's daring and victorious
+battle in Mobile Bay were coming to hand. Scarcely had they adjourned
+when the roar of thunderous salvos in every navy yard, fort, and
+arsenal of the North hailed the triumph of Sherman at Atlanta. Before
+these echoes had died away the people were electrified by the three
+battles in Virginia which Sheridan fought and won in style so brilliant
+as to seem almost theatrical. Thus from the South, from the West, and
+from the East came simultaneously the fierce contradiction of this
+insulting Copperhead notion, that the North had failed in the war. The
+political blunder of the party was now much more patent than was any
+alleged military failure on the part of its opponents. In fact the
+Northerners were beholding the sudden turning over of a great page in
+the book of the national history, and upon the newly exposed side of it,
+amid the telegrams announcing triumphs of arms, they read in great plain
+letters the reëlection of Mr. Lincoln. Before long most persons conceded
+this. He himself had said, a few months earlier, that the probabilities
+indicated that the presidential campaign would be a struggle between a
+Union candidate and a Disunion candidate. McClellan had sought to give
+to it a complexion safer for his party and more honorable for himself,
+but the platform and events combined to defeat his wise purpose. In
+addition to these difficulties the South also burdened him with an
+untimely and compromising friendship. The Charleston "Courier," with
+reckless frankness, declared that the armies of the Confederacy and the
+peace-men at the North were working together for the procurement of
+peace; and said: "Our success in battle insures the success of
+McClellan. Our failure will inevitably lead to his defeat." No words
+could have been more imprudent; the loud proclamation of such an
+alliance was the madness of self-destruction. In the face of such talk
+the Northerners could not but believe that the issue was truly made up
+between war and Union on the one side, peace and disunion on the other.
+If between the two, when distinctly formulated, there could under any
+circumstances have been doubt, the successes by sea and land turned the
+scale for the Republicans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the spring and summer many prominent Republicans strenuously
+urged Mr. Lincoln to remove the postmaster-general, Montgomery Blair,
+from the cabinet. The political purpose was to placate the Radicals,
+whose unnatural hostility within the party greatly disturbed the
+President's friends. Many followers of Fremont might be conciliated by
+the elimination of the bitter and triumphant opponent of their beloved
+chieftain; and besides this leader, the portentous list of those with
+whom the postmaster was on ill terms included many magnates,--Chase,
+Seward, Stanton, Halleck, and abundance of politicians. Henry Wilson
+wrote to the President: "Blair every one hates. Tens of thousands of men
+will be lost to you, or will give a reluctant vote, on account of the
+Blairs." Even the Republican National Convention had covertly assailed
+him; for a plank in the platform, declaring it "essential to the
+general welfare that harmony should prevail in the national councils,"
+was known to mean that he should no longer remain in the cabinet. Yet to
+force him out was most distasteful to the President, who was always slow
+to turn against any man. Replying to a denunciatory letter from Halleck
+he said: "I propose continuing to be myself the judge as to when a
+member of the cabinet shall be dismissed." He made a like statement,
+curtly and decisively, in a cabinet meeting. Messrs. Nicolay and Hay say
+that he did not yield to the pressure until he was assured of his
+reëlection, and that then he yielded only because he felt that he ought
+not obstinately to retain an adviser in whom the party had lost
+confidence. On September 23 he wrote to Mr. Blair a kindly note: "You
+have generously said to me more than once that whenever your resignation
+could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The time has come. You
+very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with
+you, personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been
+unsurpassed by that of any friend." Mr. Blair immediately relieved the
+President from the embarrassing situation, and he and his family behaved
+afterward with honorable spirit, giving loyal support to Mr. Lincoln
+during the rest of the campaign. Ex-Governor Dennison of Ohio was
+appointed to the vacant office.
+
+[Illustration: M. Blair]
+
+Many and various were the other opportunities which the President was
+urged to seize for helping both himself and other Republican
+candidates. But he steadfastly declined to get into the mud of the
+struggle. It was a jest of the campaign that Senator King was sent by
+some New York men to ask whether Lincoln meant to support the Republican
+ticket. He did: he openly admitted that he believed his reëlection to be
+for the best interest of the country. As an honest man he could not
+think otherwise. "I am for the regular nominee in all cases," he bluntly
+said, in reply to a request for his interference concerning a member of
+Congress; and the general principle covered, of course, his own case. To
+the postmaster of Philadelphia, however, whose employees displayed
+suspicious Republican unanimity, he administered a sharp and imperious
+warning. He even would not extend to his close and valued friend, Mr.
+Arnold, assistance which that gentleman too sorely needed. More
+commendable still was his behavior as to the draft. On July 18, as has
+been said, he issued a call for 500,000 men, though at that time he
+might well have believed that by so doing he was burying beyond
+resurrection all chance of reëlection. Later the Republican leaders
+entreated him, with earnest eloquence and every melancholy presage, to
+suspend the drafting under this call for a few weeks only. It seemed to
+him, however, that the army could not wait a few weeks. "What is the
+presidency worth to me, if I have no country?" he said; and the storm of
+persuasion could not induce him to issue the postponing order.
+
+Campaign slanders were rife as usual. One of them Mr. Lincoln cared to
+contradict. Some remarks made by Mr. Seward in a speech at Auburn had
+been absurdly construed by Democratic orators and editors to indicate
+that Mr. Lincoln, if defeated at the polls, would use the remainder of
+his term for doing what he could to ruin the government. This vile
+charge, silly as it was, yet touched a very sensitive spot. On October
+19, in a speech to some serenaders, and evidently having this in mind,
+he said:--
+
+"I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am
+struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.... Whoever
+shall be constitutionally elected in November shall be duly installed as
+President on the fourth of March.... In the interval I shall do my
+utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start
+with the best possible chance to save the ship. This is due to the
+people both on principle and under the Constitution.... If they should
+deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their
+country and their liberty, I know [have?] not the power or the right to
+resist them. It is their business, and they must do as they please with
+their own."
+
+In this connection it is worth while to recall an incident which
+occurred on August 26, amid the dark days. Anticipating at that time
+that he might soon be compelled to encounter the sore trial of
+administering the government during four months in face of its near
+transmission to a successor all whose views and purposes would be
+diametrically opposite to his own, and desiring beforehand clearly to
+mark out his duty in this stress, Mr. Lincoln one day wrote these
+words:--
+
+"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that
+this administration will not be reëlected. Then it will be my duty to so
+cooperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the
+election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on
+such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards."
+
+He then closed the paper so that it could not be read, and requested
+each member of the cabinet to sign his name on the reverse side.
+
+In the end, honesty was vindicated as the best policy, and courage as
+the soundest judgment. The preliminary elections in Vermont and Maine in
+September, the important elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana in
+October, showed that a Republican wave was sweeping across the North. It
+swept on and gathered overwhelming volume in the brief succeeding
+interval before November 8. On that momentous day, the voting in the
+States showed 2,213,665 Republican votes, to which were added 116,887
+votes of soldiers in the field, electing 212 presidential electors;
+1,802,237 Democratic votes, to which were added 33,748 votes of soldiers
+in the field, electing 21 presidential electors. Mr. Lincoln's plurality
+was therefore 494,567; and it would have been swelled to over half a
+million had not the votes of the soldiers of Vermont, Kansas, and
+Minnesota arrived too late to be counted, and had not those of Wisconsin
+been rejected for an informality. Thus were the dreary predictions of
+the midsummer so handsomely confuted that men refused to believe that
+they had ever been deceived by them.
+
+On the evening of election day Mr. Lincoln went to the War Department,
+and there stayed until two o'clock at night, noting the returns as they
+came assuring his triumph and steadily swelling its magnitude. Amid the
+good news his feelings took on no personal complexion. A crowd of
+serenaders, meeting him on his return to the White House, demanded a
+speech. He told them that he believed that the day's work would be the
+lasting advantage, if not the very salvation, of the country, and that
+he was grateful for the people's confidence; but, he said, "if I know my
+heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not
+impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to
+triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this
+evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the
+rights of humanity." A hypocrite would, probably enough, have said much
+the same thing; but when Mr. Lincoln spoke in this way, men who were
+themselves honest never charged him with hypocrisy. On November 10 a
+serenade by the Republican clubs of the District called forth this:--
+
+"It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too
+strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain
+its own existence in great emergencies. On this point the present
+rebellion brought our republic to a severe test, and a presidential
+election occurring in regular course during the rebellion added not a
+little to the strain. If the loyal people united were put to the utmost
+of their strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and
+partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But the
+election was a necessity. We cannot have free government without
+elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a
+national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and
+ruined us. The strife of the election is but human nature practically
+applied to the facts of the case. What has occurred in this case must
+ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future
+great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as
+weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us,
+therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom
+from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. But the election, along
+with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good, too. It has
+demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election
+in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not been known to
+the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound and
+how strong we still are. It shows that, even among candidates of the
+same party, he who is most devoted to the Union and most opposed to
+treason can receive most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the
+extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war
+began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, patriotic men are
+better than gold.
+
+"But the rebellion continues; and, now that the election is over, may
+not all having a common interest reunite in a common effort to save our
+common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to
+avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I
+have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply
+sensible to the high compliment of a reëlection, and duly grateful, as I
+trust, to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right
+conclusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to my
+satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or pained by the
+result.
+
+"May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this
+same spirit towards those who have? And now let me close by asking three
+hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and
+skillful commanders."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The unfortunate disputes about reconstruction threatened to cause
+trouble at the counting of the votes in Congress. Of the States which
+had seceded, two, Arkansas and Tennessee, had endeavored to reconstruct
+themselves as members of the Union; and their renewed statehood had
+received some recognition from the President. He, however, firmly
+refused to listen to demands, which were urgently pushed, to obtain his
+interference in the arrangements made for choosing presidential
+electors. To certain Tennesseeans, who sent him a protest against the
+action of Governor Johnson, he replied that, "by the Constitution and
+the laws, the President is charged with no duty in the conduct of a
+presidential election in any State; nor do I in this case perceive any
+military reason for his interference in the matter.... It is scarcely
+necessary to add that if any election shall be held, and any votes shall
+be cast, in the State of Tennessee, ... it will belong not to the
+military agents, nor yet to the executive department, but exclusively to
+another department of the government, to determine whether they are
+entitled to be counted, in conformity with the Constitution and laws of
+the United States." His prudent abstention from stretching his official
+authority afterward saved him from much embarrassment in the turn which
+this troublesome business soon took. In both Arkansas and Tennessee
+Republican presidential electors were chosen, who voted, and sent on to
+Washington the certificates of their votes to be counted in due course
+with the rest. But Congress jealously guarded its position on
+reconstruction against this possible flank movement, and in January,
+1865, passed a joint resolution declaring that Virginia, North and South
+Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas,
+Arkansas, and Tennessee were in such a condition on November 8 that no
+valid election of presidential electors was held in any of them, and
+that therefore no electoral votes should be received or counted from any
+of them. When this resolution came before Mr. Lincoln for his signature
+it placed him in an embarrassing position, because his approval might
+seem to be an implied contradiction of the position which he had taken
+concerning the present status of Tennessee and Arkansas. It was not
+until February 8, the very day of the count, that he conquered his
+reluctance, and when at last he did so and decided to sign the
+resolution, he at the same time carefully made his position plain by a
+brief message. He said that he conceived that Congress had lawful power
+to exclude from the count any votes which it deemed illegal, and that
+therefore he could not properly veto a joint resolution upon the
+subject; he disclaimed "all right of the executive to interfere in any
+way in the matter of canvassing or counting electoral votes;" and he
+also disclaimed that, by signing the resolution, he had "expressed any
+opinion on the recitals of the preamble, or any judgment of his own upon
+the subject of the resolution." That is to say, the especial matter
+dealt with in this proceeding was _ultra vires_ of the executive, and
+the formal signature of the President was affixed by him without
+prejudice to his official authority in any other business which might
+arise concerning the restored condition of statehood.
+
+When the counting of the votes began, the members of the Senate and
+House did not know whether Mr. Lincoln had signed the resolution or not;
+and therefore, in the doubt as to what his action would be, the famous
+twenty-second joint rule, regulating the counting of electoral votes,
+was drawn in haste and passed with precipitation.[76] It was an instance
+of angry partisan legislation, which threatened trouble afterward and
+was useless at the time. No attempt was made to present or count the
+votes of Arkansas and Tennessee, and the president of the Senate acted
+under the joint resolution and not under the joint rule. Yet the vote of
+West Virginia was counted, and it was not easy to show that her title
+was not under a legal cloud fully as dark as that which shadowed
+Arkansas and Tennessee.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Mr. Lincoln said concerning his reëlection, that the element of
+personal triumph gave him no gratification, he spoke far within the
+truth. He was not boasting of, but only in an unintentional way
+displaying, his dispassionate and impersonal habit in all political
+relationships,--a distinguishing trait, of which history is so chary of
+parallels that perhaps no reader will recall even one. A striking
+instance of it occurred in this same autumn. On October 12, 1864, the
+venerable Chief Justice Taney died, and at once the friends of Mr. Chase
+named him for the succession. There were few men whom Mr. Lincoln had
+less reason to favor than this gentleman, who had only condescended to
+mitigate severe condemnation of his capacity by mild praise of his
+character, who had hoped to displace him from the presidency, and who,
+in the effort to do so, had engaged in what might have been stigmatized
+even as a cabal. Plenty of people were ready to tell him stories
+innumerable of Chase's hostility to him, and contemptuous remarks about
+him; but to all such communications he quietly refused to give ear. What
+Mr. Chase thought or felt concerning him was not pertinent to the
+question whether or no Chase would make a good chief justice. Yet it was
+true that Montgomery Blair would have liked the place, and the President
+had many personal reasons for wishing to do a favor to Blair. It was
+also true that the opposition to Mr. Chase was so bitter and came from
+so many quarters, and was based on so many alleged reasons, that had the
+President chosen to prefer another to him, it would have been impossible
+to attribute the preference to personal prejudice. In his own mind,
+however, Mr. Lincoln really believed that, in spite of all the
+objections which could be made, Mr. Chase was the best man for the
+position; and his only anxiety was that one so restless and ambitious
+might still scheme for the presidency to the inevitable prejudice of his
+judicial duties. He had some thought of speaking frankly with Chase on
+this subject, perhaps seeking something like a pledge from him; but he
+was deterred from this by fear of misconstruction. Finally having, after
+his usual fashion, reached his own conclusion, and communicated it to no
+one, he sent the nomination to the Senate, and it received the honor of
+immediate confirmation without reference to a committee.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[73] The rank had been held by Washington; also, but by brevet only, by
+Scott.
+
+[74] For curious account of his interview with Mr. Lincoln, see N. and
+H. viii. 340-342.
+
+[75] In this connection, see story of General Richard Taylor, and
+contradiction thereof, concerning choice of route to Richmond, N. and H.
+viii. 343.
+
+[76] This was the rule which provided that if, at the count, any
+question should arise as to counting any vote offered, the Senate and
+House should separate, and each should vote on the question of receiving
+or not receiving the vote; and it should not be received and counted
+except by concurrent assent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE END COMES INTO SIGHT: THE SECOND INAUGURATION
+
+
+When Congress came together in December, 1864, the doom of the
+Confederacy was in plain view of all men, at the North and at the South.
+If General Grant had sustained frightful losses without having won any
+signal victory, yet the losses could be afforded; and the nature of the
+man and his methods in warfare were now understood. It was seen that,
+with or without victory, and at whatever cost, he had moved relentlessly
+forward. His grim, irresistible persistence oppressed, as with a sense
+of destiny, those who tried to confront it; every one felt that he was
+going to "end the job." He was now beleaguering Petersburg, and few
+Southerners doubted that he was sure of taking it and Richmond. In the
+middle country Sherman, after taking Atlanta, had soon thereafter
+marched cheerily forth on his imposing, theatrical, holiday excursion to
+the sea, leaving General Thomas behind him to do the hard fighting with
+General Hood. The grave doubt as to whether too severe a task had not
+been placed upon Thomas was dispelled by the middle of the month, when
+his brilliant victory at Nashville so shattered the Southern army that
+it never again attained important proportions. In June preceding, the
+notorious destroyer, the Alabama, had been sunk by the Kearsarge. In
+November the Shenandoah, the last of the rebel privateers, came into
+Liverpool, and was immediately handed over by the British authorities to
+Federal officials; for the Englishmen had at last found out who was
+going to win in the struggle. In October, the rebel ram Albemarle was
+destroyed by the superb gallantry of Lieutenant Cushing. Thus the rebel
+flag ceased to fly above any deck. Along the coast very few penetrable
+crevices could still be found even by the most enterprising
+blockade-runners; and already the arrangements were making which brought
+about, a month later, the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington.
+
+Under these circumstances the desire to precipitate the pace and to
+reach the end with a rush possessed many persons of the nervous and
+eager type. They could not spur General Grant, so they gave their
+vexatious attention to the President, and endeavored to compel him to
+open with the Confederate government negotiations for a settlement,
+which they believed, or pretended to believe, might thus be attained.
+But Mr. Lincoln was neither to be urged nor wheedled out of his simple
+position. In his message to Congress he referred to the number of votes
+cast at the recent election as indicating that, in spite of the drain of
+war, the population of the North had actually increased during the
+preceding four years. This fact shows, he said, "that we are not
+exhausted nor in process of exhaustion; that we are _gaining_ strength,
+and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely. This as to men.
+Material resources are now more complete and abundant than ever. The
+natural resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe,
+inexhaustible. The public purpose to reëstablish and maintain the
+national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. The
+manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful
+consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no
+attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any
+good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the
+Union,--precisely what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to
+this effect are explicit and oft-repeated. He does not attempt to
+deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot
+voluntarily re-accept the Union; we cannot voluntarily yield it. Between
+him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue
+which can only be tried by war, and decided by victory. If we yield, we
+are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is beaten. Either way,
+it would be the victory and defeat following war.
+
+"What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause is not
+necessarily true of those who follow. Although he cannot re-accept the
+Union, they can; some of them, we know, already desire peace and
+reunion. The number of such may increase. They can at any moment have
+peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the national
+authority under the Constitution.
+
+"After so much, the government could not, if it would, maintain war
+against them. The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If
+questions should remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of
+legislation, conference, courts, and votes, operating only in
+constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain, and other possible,
+questions are, and would be, beyond the executive power to adjust,--as,
+for instance, the admission of members into Congress, and whatever might
+require the appropriation of money.
+
+"The executive power itself would be greatly diminished by the cessation
+of actual war. Pardons and remissions of forfeitures, however, would
+still be within executive control. In what spirit and temper this
+control would be exercised can be fairly judged of by the past."
+
+If rebels wished to receive, or any Northerners wished to extend, a
+kindlier invitation homeward than this, then such rebels and such
+Northerners were unreasonable. Very soon the correctness of Mr.
+Lincoln's opinion was made so distinct, and his view of the situation
+was so thoroughly corroborated, that all men saw clearly that no
+reluctance or unreasonable demands upon his part contributed to delay
+peace. Mr. Francis P. Blair, senior, though in pursuit of a quite
+different object, did the service of setting the President in the true
+and satisfactory light before the people. This restless politician was
+anxious for leave to seek a conference with Jefferson Davis, but could
+not induce Mr. Lincoln to hear a word as to his project. On December 8,
+however, by personal insistence, he extorted a simple permit "to pass
+our lines, go South, and return." He immediately set out on his journey,
+and on January 12 he had an interview with Mr. Davis at Richmond and
+made to him a most extraordinary proposition, temptingly decorated with
+abundant flowers of rhetoric. Without the rhetoric, the proposition was:
+that the pending war should be dropped by both parties for the purpose
+of an expedition to expel Maximilian from Mexico, of which tropical
+crusade Mr. Davis should be in charge and reap the glory! So ardent and
+so sanguine was Mr. Blair in his absurd project, that he fancied that he
+had impressed Mr. Davis favorably. But in this undoubtedly he deceived
+himself, for in point of fact he succeeded in bringing back nothing more
+than a short letter, addressed to himself, in which Mr. Davis expressed
+willingness to appoint and send, or to receive, agents "with a view to
+secure peace to the two countries." The last two words lay in this rebel
+communication like the twin venom fangs in the mouth of a serpent, and
+made of it a proposition which could not safely be touched. It served
+only as distinct proof that the President had correctly stated the
+fixedness of Mr. Davis.
+
+Of more consequence, however, than this useless letter was the news
+which Mr. Blair brought: that other high officials in Richmond--"those
+who follow," as Mr. Lincoln had hopefully said--were in a temper far
+more despondent and yielding than was that of their chief. These men
+might be reached. So on January 18, 1865, Mr. Lincoln wrote a few lines,
+also addressed to Mr. Blair, saying that he was ready to receive any
+Southern agent who should be informally sent to him, "with the view of
+securing peace to the people of our one common country." The two
+letters, by their closing words, locked horns. Yet Mr. Davis nominated
+Alexander H. Stephens, R.M.T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell, as informal
+commissioners, and directed them, "in conformity with the letter of Mr.
+Lincoln," to go to Washington and informally confer "for the purpose of
+securing peace to the two countries." This was disingenuous, and so
+obviously so that it was also foolish; for no conference about "two
+countries" was "in conformity" with the letter of Mr. Lincoln. By reason
+of the difficulty created by this silly trick the commissioners were
+delayed at General Grant's headquarters until they succeeded in
+concocting a note, which eliminated the obstacle by the simple process
+of omitting the objectionable words. Then, on January 31, the President
+sent Mr. Seward to meet them, stating to him in writing "that three
+things are indispensable, to wit: 1. The restoration of the national
+authority throughout all the States. 2. No receding by the executive of
+the United States on the slavery question from the position assumed
+thereon in the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding
+documents. 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and
+the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government. You will inform
+them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the above,
+will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality.
+You will hear all they may choose to say, and report it to me. You will
+not assume to definitely consummate anything."
+
+The following day Mr. Lincoln seemed to become uneasy at being
+represented by any other person whomsoever in so important a business;
+for he decided to go himself and confer personally with the Southerners.
+Then ensued, and continued during four hours, on board a steamer in
+Hampton Roads, the famous conference between the President and his
+secretary of state on the one side and the three Confederate
+commissioners on the other. It came to absolutely nothing; nor was there
+at any time pending its continuance any chance that it would come to
+anything. Mr. Lincoln could neither be led forward nor cajoled sideways,
+directly or indirectly, one step from the primal condition of the
+restoration of the Union. On the other hand, this was the one
+impossible thing for the Confederates. The occasion was historic, and
+yet, in fact, it amounted to nothing more than cumulative evidence of a
+familiar fact, and really its most interesting feature is that it gave
+rise to one of the best of the "Lincoln stories." The President was
+persisting that he could not enter into any agreement with "parties in
+arms against the government;" Mr. Hunter tried to persuade him to the
+contrary, and by way of doing so, cited precedents "of this character
+between Charles I. of England and the people in arms against him." Mr.
+Lincoln could not lose such an opportunity! "I do not profess," he said,
+"to be posted in history. On all such matters I will turn you over to
+Seward. All I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I. is,
+_that he lost his head_!" Then silence fell for a time upon Mr. Hunter.
+
+Across the wide chasm of the main question the gentlemen discussed the
+smaller topics: reconstruction, concerning which Mr. Lincoln expressed
+his well-known, most generous sentiments; confiscation acts, as to which
+also he desired to be, and believed that Congress would be, liberal; the
+Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment, concerning
+which he said, that the courts of law must construe the proclamation,
+and that he personally should be in favor of appropriating even so much
+as four hundred millions of dollars to extinguish slavery, and that he
+believed such a measure might be carried through. West Virginia, in his
+opinion, must continue to be a separate State. Yet there was little
+practical use in discussing, and either agreeing or disagreeing, about
+all these dependent parts; they were but limbs which it was useless to
+set in shape while the body was lacking. Accordingly the party broke up,
+not having found, nor having ever had any prospect of finding, any
+common standing-ground. The case was simple; the North was fighting for
+Union, the South for disunion, and neither side was yet ready to give up
+the struggle. Nevertheless, it is not improbable that Mr. Lincoln, so
+far as he personally was concerned, brought back from Hampton Roads all
+that he had expected and precisely what he had hoped to bring. For in
+the talk of those four hours he had recognized the note of despair, and
+had seen that Mr. Davis, though posing still in an imperious and
+monumental attitude, was, in fact, standing upon a disintegrated and
+crumbling pedestal. It seemed not improbable that the disappointed
+supporters of the rebel chief would gladly come back to the old Union if
+they could be fairly received, although at this conference they had felt
+compelled by the exigencies of an official situation and their
+representative character to say that they would not. Accordingly Mr.
+Lincoln, having no idea that a road to hearty national re-integration
+either should or could be overshadowed by Caudine forks, endeavored to
+make as easy as possible the return of discouraged rebels, whether
+penitent or impenitent. If they were truly penitent, all was as it
+should be. If they were impenitent, he was willing to trust to time to
+effect a change of heart. Accordingly he worked out a scheme whereby
+Congress should empower him to distribute between the slave States
+$400,000,000, in proportion to their respective slave populations, on
+condition that "all resistance to the national authority [should] be
+abandoned and cease on or before the first day of April next;" one half
+the sum to be paid when such resistance should so cease; the other half
+whenever, on or before July 1 next, the Thirteenth Amendment should
+become valid law. So soon as he should be clothed with authority, he
+proposed to issue "a proclamation looking to peace and reunion," in
+which he would declare that, upon the conditions stated, he would
+exercise this power; that thereupon war should cease and armies be
+reduced to a peace basis; that all political offenses should be
+pardoned; that all property, except slaves, liable to confiscation or
+forfeiture, should be released therefrom (except in cases of intervening
+interests of third parties); and that liberality should be recommended
+to Congress upon all points not lying within executive control. On the
+evening of February 5 he submitted to his cabinet a draft covering these
+points. His disappointment may be imagined when he found that not one of
+his advisers agreed with him; that his proposition was "unanimously
+disapproved." "There may be such a thing," remarked Secretary Welles,
+"as so overdoing as to cause a distrust or adverse feeling." It was also
+said that the measure probably could not pass Congress; that to attempt
+to carry it, without success, would do harm; while if the offer should
+really be made, it would be misconstrued by the rebels. In fact scarcely
+any Republican was ready to meet the rebels with the free and ample
+forgiveness which Lincoln desired to offer; and later opinion seems to
+be that his schemes were impracticable.
+
+The fourth of March was close at hand, when Mr. Lincoln was a second
+time to address the people who had chosen him to be their ruler. That
+black and appalling cloud, which four years ago hung oppressively over
+the country, had poured forth its fury and was now passing away. His
+anxiety then had been lest the South, making itself deaf to reason and
+to right, should force upon the North a civil war; his anxiety now was
+lest the North, hardening itself in a severe if not vindictive temper,
+should deal so harshly with a conquered South as to perpetuate a
+sectional antagonism. To those who had lately come, bearing to him the
+formal notification of his election, he had remarked: "Having served
+four years in the depths of a great and yet unended national peril, I
+can view this call to a second term in no wise more flattering to myself
+than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a
+difficult work, in which I have labored from the first, than could any
+one less severely schooled to the task." Now, mere conquest was not, in
+his opinion, a finishing of the difficult work of restoring a Union.
+
+The second inaugural was delivered from the eastern portico of the
+Capitol, as follows:--
+
+
+
+"FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,--At this second appearing to take the oath of the
+presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than
+there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in detail, of a
+course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration
+of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly
+called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still
+absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little
+that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all
+else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and
+it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With
+high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
+
+"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were
+anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it,--all
+sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from
+this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war,
+insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without
+war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation.
+Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than
+let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let
+it perish. And the war came.
+
+"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
+generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it.
+These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that
+this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
+perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
+insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government
+claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement
+of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
+which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the
+conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should
+cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental
+and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and
+each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men
+should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from
+the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not
+judged. The prayers of both could not be answered,--that of neither has
+been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the
+world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but
+woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that
+American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of
+God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed
+time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South
+this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
+shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
+which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we
+hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily
+pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled
+by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be
+sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by
+another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so
+still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
+altogether.'
+
+"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
+right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
+work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
+shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan,--to do
+all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
+ourselves, and with all nations."
+
+
+
+This speech has taken its place among the most famous of all the written
+or spoken compositions in the English language. In parts it has often
+been compared with the lofty portions of the Old Testament. Mr.
+Lincoln's own contemporaneous criticism is interesting. "I expect it,"
+he said, "to wear as well as, perhaps better than, anything I have
+produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not
+flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose
+between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case is to
+deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I
+thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation there is in it
+falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to
+tell it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANCIPATION COMPLETED
+
+
+On January 1, 1863, when the President issued the Proclamation of
+Emancipation, he stepped to the uttermost boundary of his authority in
+the direction of the abolition of slavery. Indeed a large proportion of
+the people believed that he had trespassed beyond that boundary; and
+among the defenders of the measure there were many who felt bound to
+maintain it as a legitimate exercise of the war power, while in their
+inmost souls they thought that its real basis of justification lay in
+its intrinsic righteousness. Perhaps the President himself was somewhat
+of this way of thinking. He once said: "I felt that measure, otherwise
+unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the
+preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the
+Union.... I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of
+either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of
+laying strong hand upon the colored element." Time, however, proved that
+the act had in fact the character which Mr. Lincoln attributed to it as
+properly a war measure. It attracted the enlistment of negroes, chiefly
+Southern negroes, in the army; and though to the end of the war the
+fighting value of negro troops was regarded as questionable, yet they
+were certainly available for garrisons and for many duties which would
+otherwise have absorbed great numbers of white soldiers. Thus, as the
+President said, the question became calculable mathematically, like
+horse-power in a mechanical problem. The force of able-bodied Southern
+negroes soon reached 200,000, of whom most were in the regular military
+service, and the rest were laborers with the armies. "We have the men,"
+said Mr. Lincoln, "and we could not have had them without the measure."
+Take these men from us, "and put them in the battlefield or cornfield
+against us, and we should be compelled to abandon the war in three
+weeks."
+
+But the proclamation was operative only upon certain individuals. The
+President's emancipatory power covered only those persons (with,
+perhaps, their families) whose freedom would be a military loss to the
+South and a military gain to the North in the pending war. He had no
+power to touch the _institution of slavery_. That survived, for the
+future, and must survive in spite of anything that he alone, as
+President, could do. Nevertheless, in designing movements for its
+permanent destruction he was not less earnest than were the radicals and
+extremists, though he was unable to share their contempt for legalities
+and for public opinion. It has been shown how strong was his desire
+that legislative action for abolition should be voluntarily initiated
+among the border slave States themselves. This would save their pride,
+and also would put a decisive end to all chance of their ever allying
+themselves with the Confederacy. He was alert to promote this purpose
+whenever and wherever he conceived that any opportunity offered for
+giving the first impulse. In time rehabilitated governments of some
+States managed with more or less show of regularity to accomplish the
+reform. But it was rather a forced transaction, having behind it an
+uncomfortably small proportion of the adult male population of the
+several States; and by and by the work, thus done, might be undone; for
+such action was lawfully revocable by subsequent legislatures or
+conventions, which bodies would be just as potent at any future time to
+reëstablish slavery as the present bodies were now potent to
+disestablish it. It was entirely possible that reconstruction would
+leave the right of suffrage in such shape that in some States
+pro-slavery men might in time regain control.
+
+In short, the only absolute eradicating cure was a constitutional
+amendment;[77] and, therefore, it was towards securing this that the
+President bent all his energies. He could use, of course, only personal
+influence, not official authority; for the business, as such, lay with
+Congress. In December, 1863, motions for such an amendment were
+introduced in the House; and in January, 1864, like resolutions were
+offered in the Senate. The debate in the Senate was short; it opened on
+March 28, and the vote was taken April 8; it stood 38 ayes, 6 noes. This
+was gratifying; but unfortunately the party of amendment had to face a
+very different condition of feeling in the House. The President, says
+Mr. Arnold, "very often, with the friends of the measure, canvassed the
+House to see if the requisite number could be obtained, but we could
+never count a two-thirds vote." The debate began on March 19; not until
+June 15 was the vote taken, and then it showed 93 ayes, 65 noes, being a
+discouraging deficiency of 27 beneath the requisite two thirds.
+Thereupon Ashley of Ohio changed his vote to the negative, and then
+moved a reconsideration, which left the question to come up again in the
+next session. Practically, therefore, at the adjournment of Congress,
+the amendment was left as an issue before the people in the political
+campaign of the summer of 1864; and in that campaign it was second only
+to the controlling question of peace or war.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, taking care to omit no effort in this business, sent for
+Senator Morgan, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, which
+was to make the Republican nomination for the presidency and to frame
+the Republican platform, and said to him: "I want you to mention in your
+speech, when you call the convention to order, as its keynote, and to
+put into the platform, as the keystone, the amendment of the
+Constitution abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever." Accordingly
+the third plank in that platform declared that slavery was the cause and
+the strength of the rebellion, that it was "hostile to the principle of
+republican government," and that the "national safety demanded its utter
+and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic," and that to
+this end the Constitution ought to be so amended as to "terminate and
+forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits or the
+jurisdiction of the United States." Thus at the special request of the
+President the issue was distinctly presented to the voters of the
+country. The Copperheads, the conservatives, and reactionaries, and many
+of the war Democrats, promptly opened their batteries against both the
+man and the measure.
+
+The Copperhead Democracy, as usual, went so far as to lose force; they
+insisted that the Emancipation Proclamation should be rescinded, and all
+ex-slaves restored to their former masters. This, in their opinion,
+would touch, a conciliatory chord in Southern breasts, and might lead to
+pacification. That even pro-slavery Northerners should urgently advocate
+a proposition at once so cruel and so disgraceful is hardly credible.
+Yet it was reiterated strenuously, and again and again Mr. Lincoln had
+to repeat his decisive and indignant repudiation of it. In the message
+to Congress, December, 1863, he said that to abandon the freedmen now
+would be "a cruel and astounding breach of faith.... I shall not attempt
+to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return
+to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or
+by any of the acts of Congress." In May, 1864, he spurned the absurdity
+of depending "upon coaxing, flattery, and concession to get them [the
+Secessionists] back into the Union." He said: "There have been men base
+enough to propose to me to return to slavery our black warriors of Port
+Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they fought.
+Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come
+what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe." He meant never to
+be misunderstood on this point. Recurring to it after the election, in
+his message to Congress in December, 1864, he quoted his language of the
+year before and added: "If the people should, by whatever mode or means,
+make it an executive duty to reinslave such persons, another, and not I,
+must be their instrument to perform it." All this was plain and
+spirited. But it is impossible to praise Mr. Lincoln for contemning a
+course which it is surprising to find any person sufficiently ignoble to
+recommend. It was, nevertheless, recommended by many, and thus we may
+partly see what extremities of feeling were produced by this most
+debasing question which has ever entered into the politics of a
+civilized nation.
+
+The anxieties of the war Democrats, who feared that Mr. Lincoln was
+making abolition an essential purpose of the war, have already been set
+forth. In truth he was not making it so, but by the drifting of events
+and the ensnarlment of facts it had practically become so without his
+responsibility. His many utterances which survive seem to indicate that,
+having from the beginning hoped that the war would put an end to
+slavery, he now knew that it must do so. He saw that this conclusion lay
+at the end of the natural course of events, also that it was not a goal
+which was set there by those to whom it was welcome, or which could be
+taken away by those to whom it was unwelcome. It was there by the
+absolute and uncontrollable logic of facts. His function was only to
+take care that this natural course should not be obstructed, and this
+established goal should not be maliciously removed away out of reach.
+When he was asked why his expressions of willingness to negotiate with
+the Confederate leaders stipulated not only for the restoration of the
+Union but also for the enfranchisement of all slaves, he could only
+reply by intimating that the yoking of the two requirements was
+unobjectionable from any point of view, because he was entirely assured
+that Mr. Davis would never agree to reunion, either with or without
+slavery. Since, therefore, Union could not be had until after the South
+had been whipped, it would be just as well to demand abolition also; for
+the rebels would not then be in a position to refuse it, and we should
+practically buy both in one transaction. To him it seemed an appalling
+blunder to pay the price of this great war simply in order to cure this
+especial outbreak of the great national malady, and still to leave
+existing in the body politic that which had induced this dissension and
+would inevitably afterward induce others like unto it. The excision of
+the cause was the only intelligent action. Yet when pushed to the point
+of declaring what he would do in the supposed case of an opportunity to
+restore the Union, with slavery, he said: "My enemies pretend I am now
+carrying on the war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I am
+President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the
+Union." The duty of his official oath compelled him to say this, but he
+often and plainly acknowledged that he had no fear of ever being brought
+face to face with the painful necessity of saving both the Union and
+slavery.
+
+It is worth noticing that the persons who charged upon the President
+that he would never assent to a peace which was not founded upon the
+abolition of slavery as one of its conditions or stipulations, never
+distinctly stated by what right he could insist upon such a condition or
+stipulation, or by what process he could establish it or introduce it
+into a settlement. Mr. Lincoln certainly never had any thought of
+negotiating with the seceded States as an independent country, and
+making with them a treaty which could embody an article establishing
+emancipation and permanent abolition. He had not power to enter with
+them into an agreement of an international character, nor, if they
+should offer to return to the Union, retaining their slave institutions,
+could he lawfully reject them. The endeavor would be an act of
+usurpation, if it was true that no State could go out. The plain truth
+was that, from any save a revolutionary point of view, the
+constitutional amendment was the only method of effecting the
+consummation permanently. When, in June, 1864, Mr. Lincoln said that
+abolition of slavery was "a fitting and necessary condition to the final
+success of the Union cause," he was obviously speaking of what was
+logically "fitting and necessary," and in the same sentence he clearly
+specified a constitutional amendment as the practical process. There is
+no indication that he ever had any other scheme.
+
+In effect, in electing members of Congress in the autumn of 1864, the
+people passed upon the amendment. Votes for Republicans were votes for
+the amendment, and the great Republican gain was fairly construed as an
+expression of the popular favor towards the measure. But though the
+elections thus made the permanent abolition of slavery a reasonably sure
+event in the future, yet delay always has dangers. The new Congress
+would not meet for over a year. In the interval the Confederacy might
+collapse, and abolition become ensnarled with considerations of
+reconciliation, of reconstruction, of politics generally. All friends
+of the measure, therefore, agreed on the desirability of disposing of
+the matter while the present Congress was in the way with it, if this
+could possibly be compassed. That it could be carried only by the aid of
+a contingent of Democratic votes did not so much discourage them as
+stimulate their zeal; for such votes would prevent the mischief of a
+partisan or sectional aspect. In his message to Congress, December 6,
+1864, the President referred to the measure which, after its failure in
+the preceding session, was now to come up again, by virtue of that
+shrewd motion for reconsideration. Intelligibly, though not in terms, he
+appealed for Democratic help. He said:--
+
+"Although the present is the same Congress and nearly the same members,
+and without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in
+opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and passage of
+the measure at the present session. Of course the abstract question is
+not changed; but an intervening election shows, almost certainly, that
+the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is
+only a question of _time_ as to when the proposed amendment will go to
+the States for their action; and as it is so to go, at all events, may
+we not agree that the sooner the better. It is not claimed that the
+election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their
+votes, any further than, as an additional element to be considered,
+their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now
+for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis
+like ours unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very
+desirable,--almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity
+is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the
+majority. In this case the common end is the maintenance of the Union,
+and among the means to secure that end, such will, through the election,
+is more clearly declared in favor of such a constitutional amendment."
+
+In the closing sentence the word "maintenance" is significant. So far as
+the _restoration_ of Union went, the proclamation had done nearly all
+that could be done. This amendment was to insure the future
+_maintenance_ of the Union by cutting out the cause of disunion.
+
+The President did not rest content with merely reiterating sentiments
+which every man had long known that he held. Of such influence as he
+could properly exert among members of the House he was not chary. The
+debate began on January 6, 1865, and he followed it closely and eagerly.
+On the 27th it was agreed that the voting should take place on the
+following day. No one yet felt sure of the comparative strength of the
+friends and opponents of the measure, and up to the actual taking of the
+vote the result was uncertain. We knew, says Arnold, "we should get some
+Democratic votes; but whether enough, none could tell." Ex-Governor
+English of Connecticut, a Democrat, gave the first Aye from his party;
+whereupon loud cheers burst forth; then ten others followed his example.
+Eight more Democrats gave their indirect aid by being absent when their
+names were called. Thus both the great parties united to establish the
+freedom of all men in the United States. As the roll-call drew to the
+end, those who had been anxiously keeping tally saw that the measure had
+been carried. The speaker, Mr. Colfax, announced the result; ayes 119,
+noes 56, and declared that "the joint resolution is passed." At once
+there arose from the distinguished crowd an irrepressible outburst of
+triumphant applause; there was no use in rapping to order, or trying to
+turn to other business, and a motion to adjourn, "in honor of this
+immortal and sublime event," was promptly made and carried. At the same
+moment, on Capitol Hill, artillery roared loud salutation to the edict
+of freedom.
+
+The crowds poured to the White House, and Mr. Lincoln, in a few words,
+of which the simplicity fitted well with the grandness of the occasion,
+congratulated them, in homely phrase, that "the great job is ended."
+Yet, though this was substantially true, he did not live to see the
+strictly legal completion. Ratification by the States was still
+necessary, and though this began at once, and proceeded in due course as
+their legislatures came into session, yet the full three quarters of the
+whole number had not passed the requisite resolutions at the time of
+his death. This, however, was mere matter of form. The question was
+really settled when Mr. Colfax announced the vote of the
+representatives.[78]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[77] A constitutional amendment requires for its passage a two thirds
+vote in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and ratification by
+three fourths of the States.
+
+[78] Thirteenth Amendment. _First_: Neither slavery nor involuntary
+servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
+been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
+subject to their jurisdiction. _Second_: Congress shall have power to
+enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FALL OF RICHMOND, AND THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN
+
+
+From the Capitol, where he had spoken his inaugural on March 4, 1865,
+Mr. Lincoln came back to the White House with less than five weeks of
+life before him; yet for those scant weeks most men would have gladly
+exchanged their full lifetimes. To the nation they came fraught with all
+the intoxicating triumph of victory; but upon the President they laid
+the vast responsibility of rightly shaping and using success; and it was
+far less easy to end the war wisely than it had been to conduct it
+vigorously. Two populations, with numbers and resources amply enough for
+two powerful nations, after four years of sanguinary, relentless
+conflict, in which each side had been inspired and upheld by a faith
+like that of the first crusaders, were now to be reunited as fellow
+citizens, and to be fused into a homogeneous body politic based upon
+universal suffrage. As if this did not verge closely enough on the
+impossible, millions of people of a hitherto servile race were suddenly
+established in the new status of freedom. It was very plain that the
+problems which were advancing with approaching peace were more
+perplexing than those which were disappearing with departing war. Much
+would depend upon the spirit and terms of the closing of hostilities.
+
+If the limits of the President's authority were vague, they might for
+that very reason be all the more extensive; and, wherever they might be
+set, he soon made it certain that he designed to part with no power
+which he possessed. On the evening of March 3 he went up, as usual, to
+the Capitol, to sign bills during the closing hours of the last session
+of the Thirty-eighth Congress. To him thus engaged was handed a telegram
+from General Grant, saying that General Lee had suggested an interview
+between himself and Grant in the hope that, upon an interchange of
+views, they might reach a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy
+difficulties through a military convention. Immediately, exchanging no
+word with any one, he wrote:--
+
+"The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have no
+conference with General Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of
+General Lee's army, or on some minor or purely military matter. He
+instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon
+any political questions. Such questions the President holds in his own
+hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions.
+Meanwhile, you are to press to the utmost your military advantages."
+
+This reply he showed to Seward, then handed it to Stanton and ordered
+him to sign and dispatch it at once.
+
+About this same time General Lee notified Mr. Davis that Petersburg and
+Richmond could not be held many more days. Indeed, they would probably
+have been evacuated at once, had not the capital carried so costly a
+freight of prestige as well as of pride. It was no surprising secret
+which was thus communicated to the chief rebel; all the common soldiers
+in the Confederate army had for a long while known it just as well as
+the general-in-chief did; and they had been showing their appreciation
+of the situation by deserting and coming within the Union lines in such
+increasing numbers that soon General Grant estimated that the
+Confederate forces were being depleted by the equivalent of nearly a
+regiment every day. The civilian leaders had already suggested the last
+expedients of despair,--the enrolling of boys of fourteen years and old
+men of sixty-five, nay, even the enlistment of slaves. But there was no
+cure for the mortal dwindling. The Confederacy was dying of anaemia.
+
+Grant understood the situation precisely as his opponents did. That
+Petersburg and Richmond were about to be his was settled. But he was
+reaching out for more than only these strongholds, and that he could get
+Lee's army also was by no means settled. As March opened he lay down
+every night in the fear that, while he was sleeping, the evacuation
+might be furtively, rapidly, in progress, and the garrison escaping. He
+dreaded that, any morning, he might awake to find delusive picket lines,
+guarding nothing, while Lee and his soldiers were already well in the
+lead, marching for the South. For him, especially, it was a period of
+extreme tension. Since the capture of Savannah and the evacuation of
+Charleston several weeks ago, Sherman with his fine army had been moving
+steadily northward. In front of Sherman was Johnston, with a
+considerable force which had been got together from the remnants of
+Hood's army and other sources. At Bentonsville a battle took place,
+which resulted in Johnston's falling back, but left him still
+formidable. General Grant had not yet been able to break the Richmond
+and Danville Railroad, which ran out from Richmond in a southwesterly
+direction; and the danger was that by this and the "South Side"
+railroad, Lee might slip out, join Johnston, and overwhelm Sherman
+before Grant could reach him. In time, this peril was removed by the
+junction of Schofield's army, coming from Wilmington, with that of
+Sherman at Goldsboro. Yet, even after this relief, there remained a
+possibility that Lee, uniting with Johnston, and thus leading a still
+powerful army of the more determined and constant veterans, might
+prolong the war indefinitely.
+
+Not without good reason was Grant harassed by this thought, for in fact
+it was precisely this thing that the good soldier in Petersburg was
+scheming to do. The closing days of the month brought the endeavor and
+the crisis. To improve his chances Lee made a desperate effort to
+demoralize, at least temporarily, the left or western wing of the Union
+army, around which he must pass in order to get away, when he should
+actually make his start. March 25, therefore, he made so fierce an
+assault, that he succeeded in piercing the Union lines and capturing a
+fort. But it was a transitory gleam of success; the Federals promptly
+closed in upon the Confederates, and drove them back, capturing and
+killing 4000 of them. In a few hours the affair was all over; the
+Northern army showed the dint no more than a rubber ball; but the
+Confederates had lost brave men whom they could not spare.
+
+On March 22 Mr. Lincoln went to City Point; no one could say just how
+soon important propositions might require prompt answering, and it was
+his purpose to be ready to have any such business transacted as closely
+as possible in accordance with his own ideas. On March 27 or 28, the
+famous conference[79] was held on board the River Queen, on James River,
+hard by Grant's headquarters, between the President, General Grant,
+General Sherman, who had come up hastily from Goldsboro, and Admiral
+Porter. Not far away Sheridan's fine body of 13,000 seasoned cavalrymen,
+fresh from their triumphs in the Shenandoah Valley, was even now
+crossing the James River, on their way into the neighborhood of
+Dinwiddie Court House, which lies southwest of Richmond, and where they
+could threaten that remaining railroad which was Lee's best chance of
+escape. General Sherman reported that on April 10 he should be ready to
+move to a junction with Grant. But Grant, though he did not then
+proclaim it, did not mean to wait so long; in fact he had the secret
+wish and purpose that the Eastern army, which had fought so long and so
+bloodily in Virginia, should have all to itself the well-deserved glory
+of capturing Richmond and conquering Lee, a purpose which Mr. Lincoln,
+upon suggestion of it, accepted.[80] The President then returned to City
+Point, there to stay for the present, awaiting developments.
+
+On April 1 General Sheridan fought and won the important battle at Five
+Forks. Throughout that night, to prevent a too vigorous return-assault
+upon Sheridan, the Federal batteries thundered all along the line; and
+at daybreak on the morning of April 2 the rebel intrenchments were
+fiercely assaulted. After hard fighting the Confederates were forced
+back upon their inner lines. Then General Grant sent a note to City
+Point, saying: "I think the President might come out and pay us a visit
+to morrow;" and then also General Lee, upon his part, sent word to
+Jefferson Davis that the end had come, that Petersburg and Richmond must
+be abandoned immediately.
+
+The news had been expected at any moment by the Confederate leaders,
+but none the less it produced intense excitement. Away went Mr. Davis,
+in hot haste, also the members of his cabinet and of his congress, and
+the officials of the rebel State of Virginia, and, in short, every one
+who felt himself of consequence enough to make it worth his while to run
+away. The night was theirs, and beneath its friendly shade they escaped,
+with archives and documents which had suddenly become valuable chiefly
+for historical purposes. Grant had ordered that on the morning of April
+3 a bombardment should begin at five o'clock, which was to be followed
+by an assault at six o'clock. But there was no occasion for either; even
+at the earlier hour Petersburg was empty, and General Grant and General
+Meade soon entered it undisturbed. A little later Mr. Lincoln joined
+them, and they walked through streets in which neither man nor animal,
+save only this little knot, was to be seen.[81]
+
+At quarter after eight o'clock, that same morning, General Weitzel, with
+a few attendants, rode into the streets of Richmond. That place,
+however, was by no means deserted, but, on the contrary, it seemed
+Pandemonium. The rebels had been blowing up and burning warships and
+stores; they had also gathered great quantities of cotton and tobacco
+into the public storehouses and had then set them on fire. More than 700
+buildings were feeding a conflagration at once terrible and magnificent
+to behold, and no one was endeavoring to stay its advance. The negroes
+were intoxicated with joy, and the whites with whiskey; the convicts
+from the penitentiary had broken loose; a mob was breaking into houses
+and stores and was pillaging madly. Erelong the Fifth Massachusetts
+Cavalry, a negro regiment under Colonel C.F. Adams, Jr., paraded
+through the streets, and then the Southern whites hid themselves within
+doors to shun the repulsive spectacle. It may be that armed and hostile
+negroes brought to them the dread terror of retaliation and massacre in
+the wild hour of triumph. But if so, their fear was groundless; the
+errand of the Northern troops was, in fact, one of safety and charity;
+they began at once to extinguish the fires, to suppress the riot, and to
+feed the starving people.
+
+On the following day President Lincoln started on his way up the river
+from City Point, upon an excursion to the rebel capital. Obstructions
+which had been placed in the stream stopped the progress of his steamer;
+whereupon he got into a barge and was rowed to one of the city wharves.
+He had not been expected, and with a guard of ten sailors, and with four
+gentlemen as comrades, he walked through the streets, under the guidance
+of a "contraband," to the quarters of General Weitzel. This has been
+spoken of as an evidence of bravery; but, regarded in this light, it
+was only superfluous evidence of a fact which no one ever doubted; it
+really deserves better to be called foolhardiness, as Captain Penrose,
+who was one of the party, frankly described it in his Diary. The walk
+was a mile and a half long, and this gentleman says: "I never passed a
+more anxious time than in this walk. In going up [the river] ... we ran
+the risk of torpedoes and the obstructions; but I think the risk the
+President ran in going through the streets of Richmond was even greater,
+and shows him to have great courage. The streets of the city were filled
+with drunken rebels, both officers and men, and all was confusion.... A
+large portion of the city was still on fire." Probably enough the
+impunity with which this great risk was run was due to the dazing and
+bewildering effect of an occasion so confused and exciting. Meantime,
+Lee, abandoning Petersburg, but by no means abandoning "the Cause,"
+pushed his troops with the utmost expedition to gain that southwestern
+route which was the slender thread whence all Confederate hope now
+depended. His men traveled light and fast; for, poor fellows, they had
+little enough to carry! But Grant was an eager pursuer. Until the sixth
+day that desperate flight and chase continued. Lee soon saw that he
+could not get to Danville, as he had hoped to do, and thereupon changed
+his plan and struck nearly westward, for open country, via Appomattox
+Court House. All the way, as he marched, Federal horsemen worried the
+left flank of his columns, while the infantry came ever closer upon the
+rear, and kept up a ceaseless skirmishing. It had become "a life and
+death struggle with Lee to get south to his provisions;" and Grant was
+struggling with not less stern zeal, along a southerly line, to get
+ahead of him in this racing journey. The Federal troops, sanguine and
+excited, did their part finely, even marching a whole day and night
+without rations. On April 6 there was an engagement, in which about 7000
+Southerners, with six general officers, surrendered; and perhaps the
+captives were not deeply sorry for their fate. Sheridan telegraphed: "If
+the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender." Grant repeated
+this to the President, who replied: "Let the thing be pressed,"--not
+that there was any doubt about it! Yet, April 7, General Lee was cheered
+by an evanescent success in an engagement. It was trifling, however, and
+did not suffice to prevent many of his generals from uniting to advise
+him to capitulate. Grant also sent to him a note saying that resistance
+was useless, and that he desired to shift from himself the
+responsibility of further bloodshed by asking for a surrender. Lee
+denied the hopelessness, but asked what terms would be offered. At the
+same time he continued his rapid retreat. On April 8, about sunset, near
+Appomattox Station, his advance encountered Sheridan's cavalry directly
+across the road. The corral was complete. Nevertheless, there ensued a
+few critical hours; for Sheridan could by no means stand against Lee's
+army. Fortunately, however, these hours of crisis were also the hours of
+darkness, in which troops could march but could not fight, and at dawn,
+on April 9, the Southerners saw before them a great force of Federal
+soldiery abundantly able to hold them in check until Grant's whole army
+could come up. "A sharp engagement ensued," says General Grant, "but Lee
+quickly set up a white flag." He then notified Sheridan, in his front,
+and Meade, in his rear, that he had sent a note to General Grant with a
+view to surrender, and he asked a suspension of hostilities. These
+commanders doubted a ruse, and reluctantly consented to hold their
+troops back for two hours. That was just enough; pending the recess
+Grant was reached by the bearer of the dispatch, and at once rode in
+search of Lee.
+
+The two met at the house of a villager and easily came to terms, for
+Grant's offer transcended in liberality anything which Lee could fairly
+have expected. General Grant hastily wrote it out in the form of a
+letter to Lee: The Confederates, officers and men, were to be paroled,
+"not to take up arms against the government of the United States until
+properly exchanged;" arms, artillery, and public property were to be
+turned over to the Federals except the side-arms of the officers, their
+private horses, and baggage. "This done, each officer and man will be
+allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States
+authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws in force
+where they may reside." This closing sentence practically granted
+amnesty to all persons then surrendering, not excluding even the rebel
+general-in-chief. It was afterward severely criticised as trenching upon
+the domain of the President, and perhaps, also, on that of Congress. For
+it was practically an exercise of the pardoning power; and it was, or
+might be, an element in reconstruction. Not improbably the full force of
+the language was not appreciated when it was written; but whether this
+was so or not, and whether authority had been unduly assumed or not, an
+engagement of General Grant was sure to be respected, especially when it
+was entirely in harmony with the spirit of the President's policy,
+though it happened to be contrary to the letter of his order.
+
+General Lee had no sooner surrendered than he asked for food for his
+starving troops; and stated, by way of estimate, that about twenty-five
+thousand rations would be needed. The paroles, as signed, showed a total
+of 28,231. To so trifling a force had his once fine army been reduced by
+the steady drain of battles and desertions.[82] The veterans had long
+since understood that their lives were a price which could buy nothing,
+and which therefore might as well be saved.
+
+The fall of Richmond and the surrender of Lee were practically the end
+of the war. Remnants of secession indeed remained, of which Mr. Lincoln
+did not live to see the disposition. Johnston's army was still in the
+field; but on learning that there really was no longer either a
+Confederacy or a cause to fight for, it surrendered on April 26.
+Jefferson Davis also arranged for himself[83] the most effectual of all
+amnesties by making himself ridiculous; for though some persons had
+designed a serious punishment for this dethroned ruler, they recognized
+that this became impossible after he had put himself into petticoats. It
+was hardly fair that Mr. Lincoln was robbed of the amusement which he
+would have gathered from this exploit.
+
+On April 11, in the evening, a multitude gathered before the White
+House, bringing loud congratulations, and not to be satisfied without a
+speech from the President. Accordingly he came out and spoke to the
+cheering crowd, and by a few simple, generous words, turned over the
+enthusiastic acclamation, which seemed to honor him, to those "whose
+harder part" had given the cause of rejoicing. "Their honors," he said,
+"must not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the front, and
+had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but
+no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To General Grant,
+his skillful officers and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood
+ready, but was not in reach to take an active part." He then at once
+turned to the subject of reconstruction, and the last words which he
+addressed to the people were mingled of argument and appeal in behalf of
+the humane and liberal policy which he had inaugurated in Louisiana,
+which was still in the experimental stage, yet which had already excited
+the bitter denunciations of the politicians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So soon as it was known in the autumn of 1860 that Abraham Lincoln was
+to be the next president of the United States, he was at once beset by
+two pests: the office-seekers, and the men who either warned him to fear
+assassination or anonymously threatened him with it. Of the two, the
+office-seekers annoyed him by far the more; they came like the plague of
+locusts, and devoured his time and his patience. His contempt and
+disgust towards them were unutterable; he said that the one purpose in
+life with at least one half of the nation seemed to be that they should
+live comfortably at the expense of the other half. But it was the
+fashion of the people, and he was obliged to endure the affliction,
+however it might stir his indignation and contempt. The matter of
+assassination he was more free to treat as he chose. A curious incident,
+strangely illustrating the superstitious element in his nature, was
+narrated by him as follows:--
+
+"It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in
+thick and fast all day, and there had been a great 'hurrah boys!' so
+that I was well tired out and went home to rest, throwing myself upon a
+lounge in my chamber. Opposite to where I lay was a bureau with a
+swinging glass upon it; and, in looking in that glass, I saw myself
+reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two
+separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about
+three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps
+startled, and got up and looked in the glass; but the illusion vanished.
+On lying down again I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than
+before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler--say
+five shades--than the other. I got up and the thing melted away; and I
+went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about
+it,--nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up,
+and give me a little pang, as though something uncomfortable had
+happened. When I went home, I told my wife about it; and a few days
+after I tried the experiment again, when, sure enough, the thing came
+back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that,
+though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was
+worried about it somewhat. She thought it was 'a sign' that I was to be
+elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the
+faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term."
+
+From this time forth anonymous threats and friendly warnings came thick
+and fast up to the fatal day when the real event befell. Some of these
+he kept, and after his death they were found in his desk, labeled
+"Assassination Letters." Before he left Springfield for his journey to
+Washington, many ingenious fears were suggested to him; but, except for
+his change of route toward the close of his journey, none of these
+presagings visibly influenced him, and his change of purpose concerning
+the passage through Baltimore was never afterward recalled by him
+without vexation. From that time forth he resolutely ignored all danger
+of this kind. During most of the time that he was in office any one
+could easily call upon him, unguarded, at the White House; he moved
+through the streets of Washington like any private citizen; and he drove
+about the environs, and habitually in the warm season took the long
+drive to and from the Soldiers' Home, with substantially no protection.
+When, at last, a guard at the White House and an escort upon his drives
+were fairly forced upon him by Mr. Stanton (who was declared by the
+gossip of the unfriendly to be somewhat troubled with physical
+timidity), he rebelled against these incumbrances upon his freedom, and
+submitted, when he had to do so, with an ill grace. To those who
+remonstrated with him upon his carelessness he made various replies.
+Sometimes, half jocosely, he said that it was hardly likely that any
+intelligent Southerner would care to get rid of him in order to set
+either Vice-President Hamlin or, later, Vice-President Johnson, in his
+place. At other times he said: "What is the use of setting up the _gap_,
+when the fence is down all round?" or, "I do not see that I can make
+myself secure except by shutting myself up in an iron box, and in that
+condition I think I could hardly satisfactorily transact the business of
+the presidency." Again he said: "If I am killed, I can die but once; but
+to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again." This
+was an obvious reflection, easy enough of suggestion for any one who was
+not within the danger line; but to live every day in accordance with it,
+when the danger was never absent, called for a singular tranquillity of
+temperament, and a kind of courage in which brave men are notoriously
+apt to be deficient.
+
+On April 9 the President was coming up the Potomac in a steamer from
+City Point; the Comte de Chambrun was of the party and relates that, as
+they were nearing Washington, Mrs. Lincoln, who had been silently gazing
+toward the town, said: "That city is filled with our enemies;" whereupon
+Mr. Lincoln "somewhat impatiently retorted: 'Enemies! we must never
+speak of that!'" For he was resolutely cherishing the impossible idea
+that Northerners and Southerners were to be enemies no longer, but that
+a pacification of the spirit was coming throughout the warring land
+contemporaneously with the cessation of hostilities,--a dream romantic
+and hopelessly incapable of realization, but humane and beautiful.
+Since he did not live to endeavor to transform it into a fact, and
+thereby perhaps to have his efforts cause even seriously injurious
+results, it is open to us to forget the impracticability of the fancy
+and to revere the nature which in such an hour could give birth to such
+a purpose.
+
+The fourteenth day of April was Friday,--Good Friday. Many religious
+persons afterward ventured to say that if the President had not been at
+the theatre upon that sacred day, the awful tragedy might never have
+occurred at all. Others, however, not less religiously disposed, were
+impressed by the coincidence that the fatal shot was fired upon that day
+which the Christian world had agreed to adopt as the anniversary of the
+crucifixion of the Saviour of mankind. General Grant and his wife were
+in Washington on that day and the President invited them to go with him
+to see the play at Ford's theatre in the evening, but personal
+engagements called them northward. In the afternoon the President drove
+out with his wife, and again the superstitious element comes in; for he
+appeared in such good spirits, as he chatted cheerfully of the past and
+the future, that she uneasily remarked to him: "I have seen you thus
+only once before; it was just before our dear Willie died." Such a frame
+of mind, however, under the circumstances at that time must be regarded
+as entirely natural rather than as ominous.
+
+About nine o'clock in the evening the President entered his box at the
+theatre; with him were his wife, Major Rathbone, and a lady; the box
+had been decorated with an American flag, of which the folds swept down
+to the stage. Unfortunately it had also been tampered with, in
+preparation for the plans of the conspirators. Between it and the
+corridor was a small vestibule; and a stout stick of wood had been so
+arranged that it could in an instant be made to fasten securely, on the
+inside, the door which opened from the corridor into this vestibule.
+Also in the door which led from the vestibule into the box itself a hole
+had been cut, through which the situation of the different persons in
+the box could be clearly seen. Soon after the party had entered, when
+the cheering had subsided and the play was going forward, just after ten
+o'clock, a man approached through the corridor, pushed his visiting card
+into the hands of the attendant who sat there, hastily entered the
+vestibule, and closed and fastened the door behind him. A moment later
+the noise of a pistol shot astounded every one, and instantly a man was
+seen at the front of the President's box; Major Rathbone sprang to
+grapple with him, but was severely slashed in the arm and failed to
+retard his progress; he vaulted over the rail to the stage, but caught
+his spur in the folds of the flag, so that he did not alight fairly upon
+his feet; but he instantly recovered himself, and with a visible limp in
+his gait hastened across the stage; as he went, he turned towards the
+audience, brandished the bloody dagger with which he had just struck
+Rathbone, and cried "_Sic semper tyrannis!_" Some one recognized John
+Wilkes Booth, an actor of melodramatic characters. The door at the back
+of the theatre was held open for him by Edward Spangler, an employee,
+and in the alley hard by a boy, also employed about the theatre, was
+holding the assassin's horse, saddled and bridled. Booth kicked the boy
+aside, with a curse, climbed into the saddle with difficulty,--for the
+small bone of his leg between the knee and ankle had been broken in his
+fall upon the stage,--and rode rapidly away into the night. Amid the
+confusion, no efficient pursuit was made.
+
+The President had been shot at the back of the head, on the left side;
+the bullet passed through the brain, and stopped just short of the left
+eye. Unconsciousness of course came instantaneously. He was carried to a
+room in a house opposite the theatre, and there he continued to breathe
+until twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock in the morning, at which
+moment he died.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The man Booth, who had done this deed of blood and madness, was an
+unworthy member of the family of distinguished actors of that name. He
+was young, handsome, given to hard drinking, of inordinate vanity, and
+of small capacity in his profession; altogether, he was a disreputable
+fellow, though fitted to seem a hero in the eyes of the ignorant and
+dissipated classes. Betwixt the fumes of the brandy which he so freely
+drank and the folly of the melodramatic parts which he was wont to act,
+his brain became saturated with a passion for notoriety, which grew into
+the very mania of egotism. His crime was as stupid as it was barbarous;
+and even from his own point of view his achievement was actually worse
+than a failure. As an act of revenge against a man whom he hated, he
+accomplished nothing, for he did not inflict upon Mr. Lincoln so much as
+one minute of mental distress or physical suffering. To the South he
+brought no good, and at least ran the risk of inflicting upon it much
+evil, since he aroused a vindictive temper among persons who had the
+power to carry vindictiveness into effect; and he slew the only sincere
+and powerful friend whom the Southerners had among their conquerors. He
+passed a miserable existence for eleven days after the assassination,
+moving from one hiding-place to another, crippled and suffering, finding
+concealment difficult and escape impossible. Moreover, he had the
+intense mortification to find himself regarded with execration rather
+than admiration, loathed as a murderer instead of admired as a hero, and
+charged with having wrought irreparable hurt to those whom he had
+foolishly fancied that he was going to serve conspicuously. It was a
+curious and significant fact that there was among the people of the
+North a considerable body of persons who, though undoubtedly as shocked
+as was every one else at the method by which the President had been
+eliminated from the political situation, were yet well pleased to see
+Andrew Johnson come into power;[84] and these persons were the very ones
+who had been heretofore most extreme in their hostility to slavery, most
+implacable towards the people of the Confederacy. There were no persons
+living to whom Booth would have been less willing to minister
+gratification than to these men. Their new President, it is true, soon
+disappointed them bitterly, but for the moment his accession was
+generally regarded as a gain for their party.
+
+Late on April 25 a squad of cavalry traced Booth to a barn in Virginia;
+they surrounded it, but he refused to come out; thereupon they set fire
+to it, and then one of them, Boston Corbett, contrary to orders, thrust
+his musket through a crevice and fired at Booth. Probably he hit his
+mark, though some think that the hunted wretch at this last desperate
+moment shot himself with his own revolver. Be this as it may, the
+assassin was brought forth having a bullet in the base of his brain, and
+with his body below the wound paralyzed. He died on the morning of April
+26.
+
+While the result of Booth's shot secured for him that notoriety which he
+loved, the enterprise was in fact by no means wholly his own. A
+conspiracy involving many active members, and known also to others, had
+been long in existence. For months plans had been laid and changed, and
+opportunities had been awaited and lost. Had the plot not been thus
+delayed, its success might have done more practical mischief. Now, in
+addition to what the plotters lost by reason of this delay, only a part
+of their whole great scheme was carried out. At the same time that the
+tragedy was enacting at Ford's Theatre an assault was perpetrated upon
+Mr. Seward, who was then confined to his bed by hurts lately received in
+an accident. The assassin gained admission into the house under pretense
+of bringing medicine; thus he reached the bedroom, and at once threw
+himself upon the secretary, whom he stabbed about the face and neck;
+then encountering in turn two sons of Mr. Seward and two men nurses, he
+wounded them all more or less seriously, and escaped. But much as had
+been done, as much or more was left undone; for there can be little
+doubt that the plot also included the murder of the Vice-President,
+General Grant, and Secretary Stanton; the idea being, so far as there
+was any idea or any sense at all in the villainy, that the sudden
+destruction of all these men would leave the government with no lawful
+head, and that anarchy would ensue.
+
+Not many days elapsed before the government had in custody seven men,
+Herold, Spangler, Payne, O'Laughlin, Arnold, Atzerodt, and Mudd, and
+one woman, Mary E. Surratt, all charged with being concerned in the
+conspiracy. But though they had been so happily caught, there was much
+difficulty in determining just how to deal with them. Such was the force
+of secession feeling in the District of Columbia that no jury there
+could be expected to find them guilty, unless the panel should be packed
+in a manner which would be equally against honesty and good policy.
+After some deliberation, therefore, the government decided to have
+recourse to a military commission, provided this were possible under the
+law, and the attorney-general, under guise of advising the
+administration, understood distinctly that he must find that it was
+possible. Accordingly he wrote a long, sophistical, absurd opinion, in
+which he mixed up the law of nations and the "laws of war," and emerged
+out of the fog very accurately at the precise point at which he was
+expected to arrive. Not that fault should be found with him for
+performing this feat; it was simply one of many instances, furnished by
+the war, of the homage which necessity pays to law and which law repays
+to necessity. That which must be done must also be stoutly and
+ingeniously declared to be legal. It was intolerable that the men should
+escape, yet their condemnation must be accomplished in a respectable
+way. So the Military Commission was promptly convened, heard the
+evidence which could be got together at such short notice, and found
+all the accused guilty, as undoubtedly they were. The men were a
+miserable parcel of fellows, belonging in that class of the community
+called "roughs," except only Mudd, who was a country doctor. Mrs.
+Surratt was a fit companion for such company. Herold, Atzerodt and Payne
+were hanged on July 7; O'Laughlin, Spangler, Arnold, and Mudd were sent
+to the Dry Tortugas, there to be kept at hard labor in the military
+prison for life, save Spangler, whose term was six years. Mrs. Surratt
+was also found guilty and condemned to be hanged. Five members of the
+commission signed a petition to President Johnson to commute this
+sentence, but he refused, and on July 7 she also met the fate which no
+one could deny that she deserved. John H. Surratt escaped for the time,
+but was apprehended and tried in the District of Columbia, in 1867; he
+had then the advantage of process under the regular criminal law, and
+the result was that on September 22, 1868, a _nolle prosequi_ was
+entered, and he was set free, to swell the multitude of villains whose
+impunity reflects no great credit upon our system of dealing with crime.
+
+Besides those who have been named, the government also charged several
+other persons with complicity in the plot. Among these were Jefferson
+Davis and some members of that notorious colony of Confederates who, in
+the wholesome and congenial safety of Canada, had been plotting mean
+crimes during the war. Of course, since these men could not be captured
+and actually placed upon trial, there was little object in seeking
+evidence against them, and only so much was produced as came to the
+possession of the government incidentally in the way of its endeavor to
+convict those prisoners who were in its possession. Under these
+circumstances there was not sufficient evidence to prove that any one of
+them aided or abetted, or had a guilty knowledge of, the conspiracy; yet
+certainly there was evidence enough to place them under such suspicion,
+that, if they were really innocent, they deserve commiseration for their
+unfortunate situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is startling to contemplate the responsibility so lightly taken by
+the mad wretch who shortly and sharply severed the most important life
+which any man was living on the fourteenth day of April, 1865. Very
+rarely, in the course of the ages, have circumstances so converged upon
+a single person and a special crisis as to invest them with the
+importance which rested upon this great leader at this difficult time.
+Yet, in the briefest instant that can be measured, an ignoble tippler
+had dared to cut the life-thread from which depended no small portion of
+the destinies of millions of people. How the history of this nation
+might have been changed, had Mr. Lincoln survived to bear his
+influential part in reconstructing and reuniting the shattered country,
+no man can tell. Many have indulged in the idle speculation, though to
+do so is but to waste time. The life which he had already lived gives
+food enough for reflection and for study without trying to evolve out of
+arbitrary fancy the further things which might have been attempted by
+him, which might have been of wise or of visionary conception, might
+have brilliantly succeeded or sadly failed.
+
+It is only forty years since Abraham Lincoln became of much note in the
+world, yet in that brief time he has been the subject of more varied
+discussion than has been expended upon any other historical character,
+save, perhaps, Napoleon; and the kind of discussion which has been
+called forth by Lincoln is not really to be likened to that which has
+taken place concerning Napoleon or concerning any other person
+whomsoever. The great men of the various eras and nations are
+comprehensible, at least upon broad lines. The traits to which each owes
+his peculiar power can be pretty well agreed upon; the capacity of each
+can be tolerably well expressed in a formula; each can be intelligibly
+described in fairly distinct phrases; and whether this be in the spirit
+of admiration or of condemnation will, in all cases which admit of
+doubt, be largely a question of the personal sympathies of the observer.
+But Lincoln stands apart in striking solitude,--an enigma to all men.
+The world eagerly asks of each person who endeavors to write or speak of
+him: What illumination have you for us? Have you solved the mystery? Can
+you explain this man? The task has been essayed many times; it will be
+essayed many times more; it never has been, and probably it never will
+be entirely achieved. Each biographer, each writer or speaker, makes his
+little contribution to the study, and must be content to regard it
+merely as a contribution. For myself, having drawn the picture of the
+man as I see him, though knowing well that I am far from seeing him all,
+and still farther from seeing inwardly through him, yet I know that I
+cannot help it by additional comments. Very much more than is the case
+with other men, Lincoln means different things to different persons, and
+the aspect which he presents depends to an unusual degree upon the moral
+and mental individuality of the observer. Perhaps this is due to the
+breadth and variety of his own nature. As a friend once said to me:
+Lincoln was like Shakespeare, in that he seemed to run through the whole
+gamut of human nature. It was true. From the superstition of the
+ignorant backwoodsman to that profoundest faith which is the surest
+measure of man's greatness, Lincoln passed along the whole distance. In
+his early days he struck his roots deep down into the common soil of the
+earth, and in his latest years his head towered and shone among the
+stars. Yet his greatest, his most distinctive, and most abiding trait
+was his humanness of nature; he was the expression of his people; at
+some periods of his life and in some ways it may be that he expressed
+them in their uglier forms, but generally he displayed them in their
+noblest and most beautiful developments; yet, for worse or for better,
+one is always conscious of being in close touch with him as a fellow
+man. People often call him the greatest man who ever lived; but, in
+fact, he was not properly to be compared with any other. One may set up
+a pole and mark notches upon it, and label them with the names of Julius
+Caesar, William of Orange, Cromwell, Napoleon, even Washington, and may
+measure these men against each other, and dispute and discuss their
+respective places. But Lincoln cannot be brought to this pole, he cannot
+be entered in any such competition. This is not necessarily because he
+was greater than any of these men; for, before this could be asserted,
+the question would have to be settled: How is greatness to be estimated?
+One can hardly conceive that in any age of the world or any combination
+of circumstances a capacity and temperament like that of Caesar or
+Napoleon would not force itself into prominence and control. On the
+other hand, it is easy to suppose that, if precisely such a great moral
+question and peculiar crisis as gave to Lincoln his opportunity had not
+arisen contemporaneously with his years of vigor, he might never have
+got farther away from obscurity than does the ordinary member of
+Congress. Does this statement limit his greatness, by requiring a rare
+condition to give it play? The question is of no serious consequence,
+since the condition existed; and the discussion which calls it forth is
+also of no great consequence. For what is gained by trying to award him
+a number in a rank-list of heroes? It is enough to believe that probably
+Lincoln alone among historical characters could have done that especial
+task which he had to do. It was a task of supreme difficulty, and like
+none which any other man ever had to undertake; and he who was charged
+with it was even more distantly unlike any other man in both moral and
+mental equipment. We cannot force lines to be parallel, for our own
+convenience or curiosity, when in fact they are not parallel. Let us not
+then try to compare and to measure him with others, and let us not
+quarrel as to whether he was greater or less than Washington, as to
+whether either of them, set to perform the other's task, would have
+succeeded with it, or, perchance, would have failed. Not only is the
+competition itself an ungracious one, but to make Lincoln a competitor
+is foolish and useless. He was the most individual man who ever lived;
+let us be content with this fact. Let us take him simply as Abraham
+Lincoln, singular and solitary, as we all see that he was; let us be
+thankful if we can make a niche big enough for him among the world's
+heroes, without worrying ourselves about the proportion which it may
+bear to other niches; and there let him remain forever, lonely, as in
+his strange lifetime, impressive, mysterious, unmeasured, and unsolved.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[79] See _ante_, pp. 237-241 (chapter on Reconstruction).
+
+[80] Grant, _Memoirs_, ii. 460.
+
+[81] Grant, _Memoirs_, ii. 459. This differs from the statement of N.
+and H. x. 216, that "amid the wildest enthusiasm, the President again
+reviewed the victorious regiments of Grant, marching through Petersburg
+in pursuit of Lee." Either picture is good; perhaps that of the silent,
+deserted city is not the less effective.
+
+[82] Between March 29 and the date of surrender, 19,132 Confederates had
+been captured, a fate to which it was shrewdly suspected that many were
+not averse.
+
+[83] May 11, 1865.
+
+[84] Hon. George W. Julian says: "I spent most of the afternoon in a
+political caucus, held for the purpose of considering the necessity for
+a new cabinet and a line of policy less conciliatory than that of Mr.
+Lincoln; and while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling was
+nearly universal that the accession of Johnson to the presidency would
+prove a godsend to the country." _Polit. Recoll._ 255.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+[**Transcriber's Note: The index covers volume I and volume II of the
+work. For every term, the individual entries are arranged in order of
+appearance in the two volumes. Index entries are therefore marked with
+"see vol. i.", and "see vol. ii." accordingly. References that have no
+mark refer to the same volume as the last entry with a mark.]
+
+
+
+Abolitionists,
+  denounced by Illinois legislature, see vol. i.;
+  disapprove emancipation with compensation;
+  wish to induce Lincoln to join them;
+  unpopular at North;
+  difference of Lincoln from;
+  refuse to support Lincoln in 1860;
+  urge peaceful secession in 1861;
+  denounce Lincoln for not making war an anti-slavery crusade,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  demand a proclamation of emancipation;
+  unwisdom of their course;
+  unappeased, even after emancipation proclamation;
+  their small numbers;
+  their attitude toward Lincoln.
+
+Adams, Charles Francis,
+  letter of Seward to, on impossibility of war, see vol. i.;
+  appointed minister to England;
+  instructions;
+  complains to England of privateers, see vol. ii.;
+  complains of the Alabama.
+
+Adams, Charles F., Jr.,
+  enters Richmond with negro cavalry regiment, see vol. ii.
+
+Adams, John Quincy,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Alabama,
+  not ready to secede, but opposed to coercion, see vol. i.;
+  wishes Southern convention;
+  secedes.
+
+Alabama,
+  Confederate privateer, see vol. ii.;
+  sunk by Kearsarge.
+
+Albert, Prince,
+  revises Palmerston's dispatch on Trent affair, see vol. i.
+
+Anderson, Robert,
+  signs Lincoln's certificate of discharge in Black Hawk war, see vol. i.;
+  commands at Fort Moultrie in 1860;
+  moves forces to Sumter;
+  asks instructions in vain;
+  appeals to Lincoln;
+  refuses to surrender Sumter.
+
+Andrew, Governor John A.,
+  prepares Massachusetts militia, see vol. i.;
+  asks United States for muskets;
+  sends on troops.
+
+Anthony, Henry B.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Antietam,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Arkansas,
+  refuses to furnish Lincoln troops, see vol. i.;
+  at first Unionist, finally secedes;
+  campaign of Curtis in;
+  reconstructed, see vol. ii.;
+  chooses electors.
+
+Armstrong, Jack,
+  his wrestling match with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  his later friendship with Lincoln;
+  aids him in politics.
+
+Arnold, Isaac N.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  describes drilling of Army of Potomac;
+  on importance of Lincoln's action in Trent case;
+  introduces bill abolishing slavery under federal jurisdiction,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  on composition of Gettysburg address;
+  dreads danger in election of 1864;
+  Lincoln's only supporter in Congress;
+  refusal of Lincoln to help in campaign;
+  on Lincoln's attempt to push thirteenth amendment through Congress;
+  on second vote on thirteenth amendment.
+
+Arnold, Samuel,
+  accomplice of Booth, tried and condemned, see vol. ii.
+
+Ashley, James M.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  moves to reconsider thirteenth amendment, see vol. ii.
+
+Ashmun, George,
+  presides over Republican Convention of 1860, see vol. i.
+
+Assassination of Lincoln,
+  plot of 1861, see vol. i.;
+  threats during term of office, see vol. ii.;
+  successful plot of 1865;
+  death of Booth;
+  trial and punishment of other persons concerned.
+
+Atlanta,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Atzerodt, Geo. A.,
+  accomplice of Booth, tried and condemned, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Baker, Edward D.,
+ in Illinois campaign of 1838;
+ at Illinois bar;
+ candidate for Congress;
+ elected;
+ his agreement with Lincoln and others;
+ introduces Lincoln at inauguration;
+ killed at Ball's Bluff;
+ responsible for disaster.
+
+Ball's Bluff,
+  battle of, see vol. i.
+
+Banks, Nathaniel P.,
+  in Federal army, see vol. i.;
+  his corps in 1862, see vol. ii.;
+  defeated by Jackson;
+  takes Port Hudson.
+
+Barnard, General John G.,
+  opposes McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.;
+  on impossibility of taking Yorktown, see vol. ii.
+
+Bates, Edward,
+  candidate for Republican nomination, see vol. i.;
+  favored by Greeley;
+  his chances as a moderate candidate;
+  vote for;
+  attorney-general;
+  opposes reinforcing Sumter.
+
+Bayard, James A.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Beauregard, General P.G.T.,
+  commands at Charleston, see vol. i.;
+  notified by Lincoln of purpose to reinforce Sumter;
+  requests surrender of Sumter;
+  commands bombardment;
+  commands Confederate army at Manassas;
+  at battle of Bull Run;
+  at battle of Shiloh;
+  evacuates Corinth.
+
+Bell, John,
+  candidate of Constitutional Union party, see vol. i.;
+  vote for.
+
+Benjamin, Judah P.,
+  denounces Buchanan, see vol. i.;
+  in Confederate cabinet.
+
+Bentonsville,
+   battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Berry, Wm. F.,
+  his partnership with Lincoln, and failure, see vol. i.
+
+Big Bethel,
+  battle of, see vol. i.
+
+Black, Jeremiah S.,
+  in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.;
+  succeeds Cass in State Department;
+  after vacillation turns toward coercion;
+  forces Buchanan to alter reply to South Carolina commissioners.
+
+Black Hawk war, see vol. i.
+
+Blaine, James G.,
+  on purpose of war, see vol. ii.;
+  on Lincoln's order to McDowell to pursue Jackson;
+  on crisis in congressional elections of 1862;
+  on admission of West Virginia;
+  on Vallandigham case.
+
+Blair, F.P., Jr.,
+  tries to keep Lee in Union army, see vol. i.;
+  leads Unionist party in Missouri;
+  in House in 1861;
+  confers with Davis, see vol. ii.
+
+Blair, Montgomery,
+  in Lincoln's cabinet, see vol. i.;
+  wishes to relieve Sumter;
+  at council of war;
+  favors McClellan's plan of war;
+  visits Missouri to investigate Fremont;
+  arrested by Fremont;
+  warns Lincoln that emancipation proclamation will lose fall elections,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  hated by radicals;
+  his dismissal urged;
+  upheld by Lincoln;
+  resigns at Lincoln's request;
+  wishes chief-justiceship.
+
+Blenker, General Louis,
+  favors McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.;
+  sent to strengthen Fremont, see vol. ii.
+
+Booth, John Wilkes,
+  murders Lincoln, see vol. ii.;
+  his character;
+  his end.
+
+Border States,
+  necessity of retaining in Union, see vol. i.;
+  dealings of Lincoln with, in 1861;
+  their neutrality policy explained in annual message;
+  both pro-slavery and Unionist, see vol. ii.;
+  desire to conciliate controls Lincoln's policy;
+  with their slave property guaranteed by North;
+  oppose bill freeing slaves used in war;
+  oppose other anti-slavery bills;
+  irritated by congressional policy;
+  urged by Lincoln to agree to emancipation;
+  refuse to approve;
+  Lincoln's policy toward, denounced by Abolitionists;
+  their support in 1862 saves Lincoln.
+
+Boutwell, George S.,
+  urges emancipation upon Lincoln, see vol. ii.
+
+Bragg, General Braxton,
+  invades Kentucky, see vol. ii.;
+  outmarched by Buell;
+  at battle of Stone's River;
+  retreats;
+  reinforced;
+  at battle of Chickamauga;
+  besieges Chattanooga;
+  defeated by Grant.
+
+Breckenridge, John C.,
+  elected Vice-President, see vol. i.;
+  nominated by South for President;
+  carries Southern States;
+  announces election of Lincoln;
+  expelled from Senate.
+
+Bright, Jesse D.,
+  expelled from Senate, see vol. i.
+
+Brooks, Preston S.,
+  assaults Sumner, see vol. i.;
+  praised at the South.
+
+Brough, John,
+  nominated for governor in Ohio and elected, see vol. ii.
+
+Brown, Aaron V.,
+  in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+Brown, B. Gratz,
+  supports Fremont against Lincoln in 1864, see vol. ii.
+
+Brown, Mayor Geo. W.,
+  thinks Maryland will secede, see vol. i.;
+  burns bridges and cuts wires north of Baltimore.
+
+Browning, O.H.,
+  at Illinois bar, see vol. i.
+
+Bryant, William Cullen,
+  introduces Lincoln in New York, see vol. i.;
+  favors postponement of Republican convention in 1864, see vol. ii.
+
+Buchanan, James,
+  nominated by Democrats, see vol. i.;
+  elected President, his character;
+  refers to Dred Scott decision in inaugural address;
+  his recognition of Lecompton Constitution in Kansas;
+  despised by Douglas;
+  accused by Lincoln of plotting to make slavery national;
+  his hard situation in 1860;
+  distracted in body and mind;
+  receives secession commissioners of South Carolina;
+  a Unionist in feeling;
+  his message on secession;
+  wishes to shirk responsibility;
+  declares coercion unconstitutional;
+  ridiculed by Republicans;
+  excuse for his position;
+  declines to receive Southern commissioners;
+  virtually abdicates power to cabinet;
+  denounced by South;
+  forced to appoint Dix to Treasury Department;
+  calls extra session of Senate to aid Lincoln;
+  his futile policy towards Fort Sumter.
+
+Buckner, General Simon B.,
+  surrenders Fort Donelson, see vol. i.
+
+Buell, General D.C.,
+  his resemblance in character to McClellan, see vol. i.;
+  refuses to seize East Tennessee;
+  snubbed by McClellan;
+  recommended by Halleck for promotion;
+  takes Nashville;
+  saves battle of Shiloh;
+  allows slave-owners to reclaim fugitives, see vol. ii.;
+  seizes Louisville before Bragg;
+  opposes Halleck's plan to invade Tennessee;
+  resigns.
+
+Bull Run,
+  first battle of, see vol. i.;
+  second battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Burlingame, Anson D.,
+  hopes that Douglas will join Republicans, see vol. i.
+
+Burns, Anthony,
+  seized as a slave in Boston, see vol. i.
+
+Burnside, General Ambrose E.,
+  commands in North Carolina, see vol. i.;
+  given command of Army of Potomac, see vol. ii.;
+  at Fredericksburg;
+  loses confidence of army;
+  ordered by Lincoln to do nothing without informing him;
+  offers to resign;
+  wishes to dismiss several generals;
+  resigns;
+  his campaign in East Tennessee;
+  relieved by Sherman;
+  alarmed at Copperheads;
+  commands in Ohio;
+  issues order threatening traitors;
+  tries and condemns Vallandigham;
+  comment of Lincoln on;
+  offers resignation.
+
+Butler, Benjamin F.,
+  takes possession of hill commanding Baltimore, see vol. i.;
+  commands at Fortress Monroe;
+  commands at New Orleans;
+  keeps slaves as "contraband of war", see vol. ii.;
+  "bottled" at Bermuda Hundred.
+
+Butterfield, Justin,
+  at Illinois bar, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Cadwalader, General George,
+  refuses to liberate Merryman on Taney's writ, see vol. i.
+
+Calhoun, John,
+  appoints Lincoln deputy surveyor, see vol. i.
+
+Calhoun, John C.,
+  his speech on Compromise of 1850, see vol. i.
+
+California,
+  annexed, see vol. i.;
+  gold fever in;
+  asks admission as State;
+  prohibits slavery;
+  refusal of South to admit;
+  admitted.
+
+Cameron, Simon,
+  candidate for Republican presidential nomination in 1860, see vol. i.;
+  sells his vote for promise of a place in cabinet;
+  willing to sacrifice anything to save Union;
+  secretary of war;
+  difficulty over his appointment;
+  opposes relieving Fort Sumter;
+  refuses muskets to Massachusetts militia;
+  wishes to leave War Department;
+  appointed minister to Russia;
+  instructs Butler not to return slaves, see vol. ii.;
+  authorizes Sherman to use negroes;
+  suggests arming slaves in annual report;
+  his report suppressed by Lincoln;
+  supports Lincoln for reëlection.
+
+Campbell, Judge John A.,
+  acts as intermediary between Seward and Confederate commissioners,
+      see vol. i.;
+  on Confederate Peace Commission, see vol. ii.
+
+Cartwright, Peter,
+  defeated by Lincoln for Congress, see vol. i.;
+  his character as itinerant preacher.
+
+Cass, Lewis,
+  attacked by Lincoln in Congress, see vol. i.;
+  in Buchanan's cabinet;
+  wishes to coerce South;
+  resigns when Buchanan refuses to garrison Southern forts.
+
+Caucus,
+  denounced by Whigs in Illinois, see vol. i.
+
+Cedar Mountain,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Chambrun, Comte de,
+  on Lincoln's magnanimity, see vol. ii.
+
+Chancellorsville,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Chandler, Zachariah,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  denounces conservatives, see vol. ii.;
+  threatens Lincoln.
+
+Chase, Salmon P.,
+  in debate on Compromise, see vol. i.;
+  candidate for Republican nomination in 1860;
+  secretary of treasury;
+  objected to by Pennsylvania protectionists;
+  wishes to reinforce Sumter;
+  dislikes subordination to Lincoln;
+  wishes McClellan to advance;
+  asks him his plans and is snubbed;
+  favors Lincoln's plan of campaign;
+  on ease of a victory;
+  considers Lincoln inefficient, see vol. ii.;
+  leader of discontented Republicans;
+  on Lincoln's responsibility for emancipation proclamation;
+  suggests an addition to it;
+  wishes to present bankers to Lincoln;
+  left undisturbed in control of Treasury;
+  his resignation taken by Lincoln;
+  letter of Lincoln to;
+  hesitates to withdraw resignation;
+  finally does so;
+  irritated by Lincoln's independence;
+  becomes candidate for Republican nomination;
+  not feared by Lincoln;
+  his offer to resign declined;
+  fails to obtain support;
+  withdraws name;
+  continues to dislike Lincoln;
+  frequently offers resignation;
+  finally leaves office;
+  on bad terms with Blair;
+  appointed chief justice.
+
+Chestnut, James,
+  defies North in 1860, see vol. i.
+
+Chickamauga,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Chittenden, L.E.,
+  on danger of a recognition of Confederacy by England, see vol. i.
+
+Cisco, John J.,
+  quarrel over appointment of his successor, see vol. ii.
+
+Clay, Henry,
+  admired by Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  less admired after his visit at Ashland;
+  offers Compromise of 1850.
+
+Clinton, George,
+  denounced in New York for calling secession "rebellion", see vol. i.
+
+Cobb, Howell,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  on "making better terms out of the Union than in it";
+  in Buchanan's cabinet;
+  candidate for presidency of South;
+  resigns from cabinet.
+
+Cochrane, General John,
+  nominated for Vice-President, see vol. ii.
+
+Cold Harbor,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Colfax, Schuyler,
+  expects Douglas to join Republicans, see vol. i.;
+  in House in 1861;
+  on Lincoln's tenacity, see vol. ii.;
+  announces passage of thirteenth amendment.
+
+Collamer, Jacob,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  vote for, in Republican Convention of 1860;
+  in Senate in 1861.
+
+Colonization,
+  favored by Lincoln, see vol. i., see vol. ii.
+
+Compromise of 1850,
+  history of, see vol. i.
+
+Confederate States,
+  formed by convention, see vol. i.;
+  organization of;
+  sends commissioners to United States;
+  its envoys rejected by Lincoln;
+  prepares to seize Fort Sumter;
+  amused at Lincoln's call for volunteers;
+  receives Virginia;
+  belligerency of, recognized by England and France;
+  refusal of Lincoln to receive Stephens embassy from, see vol. ii.;
+  sells bonds in England;
+  dealings of supposed emissaries from, with Greeley;
+  refusal of Lincoln to negotiate with;
+  dealings of Blair with;
+  sends commissioners;
+  conference of Lincoln and Seward with commissioners of;
+  government of, collapses.
+
+Congress,
+  proposes amendment to Constitution to protect slavery, see vol. i.;
+  counts electoral votes;
+  extra session called;
+  votes to support Lincoln;
+  creates Committee on Conduct of War;
+  discusses battle of Shiloh;
+  passes Crittenden resolution disavowing slavery as cause of war,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  passes bill freeing slaves used in war;
+  refuses to reaffirm Crittenden resolution;
+  passes bill for emancipation in District;
+  prohibits officers to return fugitive slaves;
+  abolishes slavery in Territories, etc.;
+  passes act freeing slaves of rebels;
+  passes act to arm negroes;
+  fails to provide equal pay;
+  ignores Lincoln's wishes to conciliate Border States;
+  passes resolution to cooperate with States adopting emancipation;
+  unpopularity of Lincoln with;
+  continues in 1862 to oppose Lincoln;
+  fails to pass bill offering compensated emancipation to Missouri;
+  character of, in 1863;
+  accepts Representatives from reconstructed Louisiana;
+  jealous of Lincoln's plan of reconstruction;
+  desires to control matter itself;
+  passes reconstruction bill;
+  wishes to supplant Lincoln by Chase;
+  creates lieutenant-general;
+  refuses to recognize electors from Southern reconstructed States;
+  fails to adopt thirteenth amendment;
+  after election of 1864, passes amendment.
+
+Conkling, James C.,
+  letter of Lincoln to, see vol. ii.
+
+Conkling, Roscoe,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Constitution,
+  slavery compromises in, see vol. i.;
+  in relation to doctrine of non-intervention;
+  in relation to slavery in States;
+  in relation to emancipation;
+  in relation to popular sovereignty and Dred Scott decision;
+  attitude of Abolitionists and Republicans toward;
+  its relation to secession, Buchanan's view;
+  proposal to amend, in 1861;
+  its relation to secession, Lincoln's view;
+  in relation to blockade;
+  strained by civil war;
+  war powers of, used by Lincoln;
+  in connection with suspension of habeas corpus;
+  makes President commander-in-chief;
+  in relation to act abolishing slavery in Territories, see vol. ii.;
+  desire of Abolitionists to ignore;
+  Lincoln's view of, as forcing issue of war to be the Union;
+  in relation to emancipation proclamation;
+  strained by admission of West Virginia;
+  really in abeyance;
+  in relation to reconstruction;
+  justifies "military governors";
+  in regard to relative powers of executive and Congress in reconstruction;
+  as to power of Congress over electoral count;
+  proposal to amend so as to abolish slavery;
+  passage of thirteenth amendment by Congress.
+
+Constitutional Union party,
+  its origin and aims, see vol. i.;
+  its subsequent fate;
+  its vote in 1860.
+
+"Copperheads,"
+  developed in second year of war, see vol. ii.;
+  their principles and policy;
+  active after Chancellorsville;
+  organization of, to oppose war;
+  feared in Indiana;
+  fail to accomplish anything;
+  despised by Lincoln;
+  led by Vallandigham;
+  attempt to put down;
+  Lincoln's opinion of;
+  demand revocation of emancipation proclamation.
+
+Corbett, Boston,
+  kills Booth, see vol. ii.
+
+Covode, John,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Cox, Samuel S.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Crittenden, John J.,
+  offers compromise in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  in House in 1861;
+  offers resolution that war is not against slavery, see vol. ii.;
+  opposes Lincoln's plan of emancipation in Kentucky.
+
+Curtin, Governor Andrew G.,
+  invites governors to meet at Altoona, see vol. ii.;
+  on connection of conference with emancipation proclamation;
+  reflected.
+
+Curtis, Benjamin R.,
+  his opinion in Dred Scott case, see vol. i.
+
+Curtis, General Samuel R.,
+  his campaign in Missouri and Arkansas, see vol. i.
+
+Cushing, Lieutenant William B.,
+  destroys the Albemarle, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Davis, David,
+  at Illinois bar, see vol. i.;
+  disgusted at election of Trumbull in 1855;
+  Lincoln's manager in convention of 1860.
+
+Davis, Garrett,
+  succeeds Breckenridge in Senate, see vol. i.;
+  his plea against arming negroes, see vol. ii.
+
+Davis, Henry Winter,
+  introduces reconstruction bill, see vol. ii.;
+  issues address denouncing Lincoln for vetoing bill;
+  obliged to support Lincoln rather than McClellan.
+
+Davis, Jefferson,
+  advocates extension of Missouri Compromise in 1850, see vol. i.;
+  sneers at attempted compromise in 1861;
+  elected President of Confederate States;
+  defies North;
+  hopes to entrap Seward into debate with commissioners;
+  urged by South to do something;
+  prefers to make North aggressor;
+  tries to win over Kentucky;
+  offers to issue "letters of marque and reprisal";
+  when secretary of war, sent McClellan to Europe;
+  sends troops to seize East Tennessee;
+  wishes to free Kentucky, see vol. ii.;
+  his escape wished by Lincoln;
+  replaces Johnston by Hood;
+  proposition of Blair to;
+  expresses willingness to treat for peace;
+  nominates commissioners to treat for peace with independence;
+  notified by Lee of approaching fall of Richmond;
+  escapes from city;
+  makes himself ridiculous and escapes punishment;
+  suspected of complicity in Booth's plot.
+
+Dawson,----,
+  leads Lincoln in vote for legislature in 1834.
+
+Dayton, William L.,
+  nominated by Republicans in 1856, see vol. i.;
+  candidate for nomination in 1860.
+
+Democratic party,
+  controls Illinois, see vol. i.;
+  wins in 1852;
+  factions in;
+  elects Buchanan in 1856;
+  in. Illinois, nominates Douglas for Senate;
+  torn with factions;
+  breaks up in 1860 into Northern and Southern wings;
+  nominates two sets of candidates;
+  campaign of, in 1860;
+  attempts to reunite;
+  in North, members of, become Union men;
+  effort of Lincoln to placate, by giving recognition in cabinet;
+  Copperhead and other factions of, see vol. ii.;
+  "War Democrats";
+  makes campaign in 1862 on opposition to anti-slavery legislation;
+  gains in Congressional elections;
+  wishes Lincoln to compromise;
+  denounces seizure of Vallandigham;
+  agitates against military tyranny;
+  commits error in opposing war;
+  loses ground in 1863;
+  applauds Fremont's candidacy;
+  hopes for success in 1864;
+  denounces war as failure and nominates McClellan;
+  war faction of, hesitates to vote for Lincoln, on slavery grounds;
+  divided over peace plank;
+  damaged by Federal military successes;
+  hurt by Southern approval;
+  defeated in election;
+  members of, in Congress, aid in passage of thirteenth amendment.
+
+Dennison, William,
+  succeeds Blair as postmaster-general, see vol. ii.
+
+Dickinson, Daniel S.,
+  candidate for vice-presidential nomination, see vol. ii.
+
+Diplomatic history,
+  Seward's proposed foreign wars to prevent disunion, see vol. i.;
+  recognition of Southern belligerency by England and France;
+  instructions of Seward to Adams;
+  difficulties over English privateers;
+  message of Lincoln on foreign relations;
+  the Trent affair;
+  the Oreto affair, see vol. ii.;
+  the Alabama affair.
+
+District of Columbia,
+  bill to emancipate slaves in, advocated by Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  slave trade in, abolished;
+  abolition in, favored by Lincoln;
+  emancipation in, carried, see vol. ii.
+
+Dix, John A.,
+  on possible secession of New York, see vol. i.;
+  appointed to Treasury Department;
+  his order to protect American flag.
+
+Dixon, Archibald,
+  offers amendment repealing Missouri Compromise, see vol. i.
+
+Donelson, Andrew J.,
+  nominated for presidency by Whigs and Know-Nothings, see vol. i.
+
+Donelson, Fort,
+  battle of, see vol. i.
+
+Doolittle, James R.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Doubleday, General Abner,
+  on Hooker's plan in Chancellorsville campaign, see vol. ii.
+
+Douglas, Stephen A.,
+  meets Lincoln in 1835, see vol. i.;
+  encounters him in campaign of 1840;
+  Lincoln's rival in love affair;
+  his position at Illinois bar;
+  charges Lincoln with lacking patriotism in opposing Mexican war;
+  introduces Kansas-Nebraska Bill;
+  mobbed in Chicago;
+  debates with Lincoln in campaign of 1854;
+  proposes a truce;
+  candidate for Democratic nomination in 1856;
+  opposes Lecompton Constitution;
+  leading figure in public life;
+  his character and ability;
+  his doctrine of "popular sovereignty";
+  avoids consequences of Dred Scott decision;
+  defies Buchanan;
+  his conduct in Lecompton case dictated by desire to secure reëlection
+      to Senate;
+  attacks "English Bill" as unfair;
+  his candidacy for reëlection gives Lincoln opportunity;
+  renominated by Democrats;
+  denounced by South;
+  opposed by administration;
+  accepts Lincoln's challenge to joint debates;
+  his attacks upon Lincoln;
+  accused by Lincoln of a plot to make slavery national;
+  denies any plot;
+  on status of negro under Declaration of Independence;
+  sneered at by Lincoln;
+  keeps temper with difficulty;
+  attempts to reconcile Dred Scott decision with popular sovereignty;
+  fails to satisfy South;
+  cornered by Lincoln;
+  gains reëlection;
+  on difficulty of debating with Lincoln;
+  speaks in Ohio;
+  in debate ignores secession;
+  nominated by Democrats in 1860;
+  reasons why repudiated by South;
+  his vigorous canvass in 1860;
+  vote for;
+  offers to aid Lincoln after fall of Sumter;
+  value of his assistance.
+
+Dred Scott case,
+  decision in, see vol. i.;
+  equivocal attitude of Douglas toward;
+  discussed by Lincoln.
+
+Duane, Captain,
+  escorts Lincoln at inauguration, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Early, General Jubal A.,
+  tries to capture Washington, see vol. ii.;
+  repulsed;
+  retreats;
+  defeated by Sheridan.
+
+East,
+  ignorant of Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  led to respect Lincoln by his speeches.
+
+Edwards, Ninian W.,
+  in frontier political debates, see vol. i.;
+  member of Illinois bar.
+
+Emancipation,
+  Lincoln's plan for, in 1849, see vol. i.;
+  compensation for, wished by Lincoln;
+  again proposed by Lincoln with compensation and colonization,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  discussion of Lincoln's proposal;
+  demanded instantly by Abolitionists;
+  question of its constitutionality;
+  opposition to, in North;
+  demanded by clergymen;
+  gradual decision of Lincoln to proclaim;
+  reasons for caution in issuing proclamation;
+  delay urged by Seward;
+  preliminary declaration of, after battle of Antietam;
+  not influenced by Altoona conference;
+  its effect upon North;
+  urged again, with compensation, by Lincoln;
+  repudiated by Missouri;
+  final proclamation of, issued;
+  condemned by rulers of England, though approved by people;
+  renewed scheme of Lincoln to gain, by compensation.
+
+England,
+  ignorance of, in West, see vol. i.;
+  its aid hoped by South;
+  its sympathy expected by North;
+  its upper classes dislike America;
+  rejoices in anticipated destruction of United States;
+  recognizes belligerency of South;
+  attitude of Seward toward;
+  later dealings with;
+  acquiesces in blockade;
+  enraged at Trent affair;
+  demands reparation;
+  admitted by Lincoln to be in the right;
+  reply of Seward;
+  Northern hatred of;
+  wisdom of Lincoln's attitude toward;
+  people of, gratified by emancipation proclamation, see vol. ii.;
+  fails to detain Oreto and Alabama;
+  subscribes to Confederate loan.
+
+English, James E.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  votes for thirteenth amendment, see vol. ii.
+
+Ericsson, John,
+  designs the Monitor, see vol. i.
+
+Evarts, William M.,
+  moves to make Lincoln's nomination unanimous, see vol. i.
+
+Everett, Edward,
+  nominated for Vice-President by Constitutional Union party, see vol. i.;
+  delivers oration at Gettysburg, see vol. ii.
+
+Ewell, General R.S.,
+  enters Shenandoah Valley, see vol. ii.;
+  enters Pennsylvania.
+
+Ewing,----,
+  defeats Lincoln for speakership in Illinois legislature, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Farragut, Captain D.G.,
+  takes New Orleans, see vol. i.;
+  his campaign on Mississippi;
+  takes Mobile, see vol. ii.
+
+Fell, J.W.,
+  asks Lincoln concerning his ancestry, see vol. i.;
+  urges Lincoln to seek presidential nomination.
+
+Felton, Samuel M.,
+  fears plot to assassinate Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  has wires cut to avoid sending news.
+
+Fenton, Reuben E.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Fessenden, William P.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  reluctantly accepts Treasury Department, see vol. ii.;
+  his success.
+
+Fillmore, Millard,
+  nominated for presidency by Know-Nothings and Whigs in 1856, see vol. i.
+
+Financial history,
+  Chase's conduct of Treasury, see vol. ii.
+
+Five Forks,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Florida,
+   ready to secede in 1860, see vol. i.;
+  secedes.
+
+Florida,
+  Confederate privateer, see vol. ii.
+
+Floyd, John B.,
+  in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.;
+  wishes secession delayed;
+  sends arms into South;
+  involved in defalcation;
+  quarrels on question of reinforcing Sumter and resigns;
+  runs away from Fort Donelson.
+
+Foote, Admiral Andrew H.,
+  his operations in 1862, see vol. i.;
+  captures Fort Henry.
+
+Ford, Governor,
+  remark on Lincoln's political luck, see vol. i.
+
+Forney, John W.,
+  on Republican Convention of 1864, see vol. ii.
+
+Forquer, George,
+  taunts Lincoln with youth, see vol. i.;
+  retort of Lincoln to.
+
+Fox, G.V.,
+  his plan to relieve Fort Sumter, see vol. i.
+
+Franklin, General William B.,
+  summoned by Lincoln to consultation, see vol. i.;
+  does not tell McClellan;
+  favors McClellan's plan of attack;
+  his division sent to McClellan, but not used, see vol. ii.;
+  his force occupies West Point.
+
+Fremont, Mrs. Jessie Benton,
+  her interview with Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Fremont, John C.,
+  nominated for presidency by Republicans, see vol. i.;
+  appointed to command in Missouri;
+  his quarrelsomeness and inefficiency;
+  arrests Blair;
+  the idol of Abolitionists;
+  removed;
+  declares slaves of rebels free in Missouri, see vol. ii.;
+  asked by Lincoln to modify order;
+  refuses, and becomes enemy of Lincoln;
+  reinforced by Lincoln under political pressure;
+  commands force in West Virginia;
+  ordered to catch Jackson;
+  fails;
+  resigns;
+  upheld by Lincoln's enemies in Missouri, as rival for presidency;
+  nominated for presidency;
+  failure of his candidacy;
+  withdraws;
+  his followers hate Blair.
+
+France,
+  recognizes belligerency of South, see vol. i.;
+  would have joined England in case of war;
+  proposes mediation, see vol. ii.
+
+Fredericksburg,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Free Soil party,
+  origin of, see vol. i.
+
+Fugitive Slave Law,
+  passed, see vol. i.;
+  Lincoln's opinion of.
+
+
+
+Garrison, William Lloyd,
+  disapproves of Republican party, see vol. i.;
+  supports Lincoln in 1864, see vol. ii.
+
+Georgia,
+  not ready for secession, see vol. i.;
+  wishes a Southern convention;
+  how led to secede;
+  Union minority in.
+
+Gettysburg,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.;
+  Lincoln's address at.
+
+Giddings, Joshua R.,
+  favors Lincoln's emancipation bill in 1849, see vol. i.;
+  member of Republican Convention of 1860.
+
+Gilmer, John A.,
+  refuses to enter Lincoln's cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+Gist,
+  governor of South Carolina, sends circular letter asking about secession
+      feeling in South, see vol. i.
+
+Grant, Ulysses S.,
+  his operations in 1862, see vol. i.;
+  captures Forts Henry and Donelson;
+  recommended by Halleck for promotion;
+  condemned by Halleck and relieved from command;
+  reinstated;
+  advances to Pittsburg Landing;
+  attacked by Johnston;
+  does not admit defeat at Shiloh;
+  on severity of battle;
+  his conduct of battle criticised;
+  harassed by Halleck, asks to be relieved;
+  on Halleck's mistakes;
+  on Copperheads, see vol. ii.;
+  forms plan to take Vicksburg;
+  tries to approach city from south;
+  besieges and takes Vicksburg;
+  his credit for campaign;
+  his relations with Lincoln;
+  accused of drunkenness;
+  congratulated by Lincoln;
+  given command of the West;
+  orders Thomas to hold Chattanooga;
+  relieves siege;
+  wins battle of Chattanooga;
+  sends Sherman to relieve Burnside;
+  on reconstruction;
+  his conference with Lincoln;
+  movement to nominate for President in 1864;
+  appointed lieutenant-general;
+  given free control;
+  prepares plan of campaign;
+  correspondence with Lincoln;
+  his campaigns in Virginia;
+  sends force to hold Washington against Early;
+  sends Sheridan against Early;
+  character of his military methods;
+  reports proposal of Lee for a conference;
+  ordered by Lincoln to refuse;
+  on desertions from Lee's army;
+  his plan to entrap Lee's army;
+  wishes to capture Lee without Sherman's aid;
+  enters Petersburg;
+  pursues Lee;
+  urges Lee to surrender;
+  his liberal terms to Lee;
+  praised by Lincoln;
+  unable to accept Lincoln's invitation to theatre the evening of his
+      assassination.
+
+Greeley, Horace,
+  prefers Douglas to Lincoln in 1858, see vol. i.;
+  in convention of 1860, works against Seward;
+  his influence used against Lincoln;
+  willing to admit peaceable secession;
+  on comparative strength of North and South;
+  suddenly denounces compromise;
+  a secessionist in 1861;
+  publishes address to President, see vol. ii.;
+  his influence;
+  answered by Lincoln;
+  his abusive retort;
+  suggests French mediation;
+  condemns Lincoln in 1864;
+  on movement to delay nomination;
+  his political creed;
+  claims to be a Republican while denouncing Lincoln;
+  favors Fremont;
+  wishes peace at any price;
+  wishes to treat with Confederates;
+  authorized to do so by Lincoln;
+  conditions named by Lincoln;
+  abuses Lincoln for causing failure of negotiations.
+
+Green, Duff,
+  tries to induce Lincoln to support Buchanan, see vol. i.
+
+Greene, Bolin,
+  lends Lincoln money, see vol. i.
+
+Grimes, James W.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Grow, Galusha A.,
+  speaker of House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Habeas Corpus,
+  suspension of, by Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Hale, John P.,
+  sums up Buchanan's secession doctrine, see vol. i.;
+  in Senate in 1861;
+  denounces administration in Trent affair.
+
+Halleck, General Henry W.,
+  letter of Lincoln to, on plan of war, see vol. i.;
+  commands in Missouri;
+  sends news of capture of Fort Donelson and asks for command in West;
+  assumes command;
+  complains of Grant;
+  drives Grant to request to be relieved;
+  his slow advance upon Corinth;
+  refuses to fight;
+  enters Corinth unopposed;
+  fails to use powerful army;
+  appointed general-in-chief, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  compared with McClellan, see vol. i.;
+  gains advancement because unopposed and unnoticed by politicians;
+  expels slaves from camp, see vol. ii.;
+  favors recall of McClellan from Peninsula;
+  allowed free hand by Lincoln;
+  inferior to McClellan;
+  his telegraphic dispute with McClellan;
+  begs McClellan's assistance after Pope's defeat;
+  instructs McClellan to command defences of Washington;
+  alarmed over safety of capital;
+  has friction with Hooker;
+  refuses to give Hooker garrison of Harper's Ferry;
+  urges Meade to attack after Gettysburg;
+  wishes Buell and Rosecrans to invade Tennessee;
+  superseded by Grant;
+  on bad terms with Blair.
+
+Hamlin, Hannibal,
+  nominated for Vice-President, see vol. i.;
+  reasons why not renominated, see vol. ii.
+
+Hanks, John,
+  aids Lincoln to split rails, see vol. i.;
+  on Lincoln's first sight of slavery;
+  brings rails split by Lincoln into Republican Convention.
+
+Hanks, Nancy,
+  mother of Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  descends from a "poor white" family;
+  her character;
+  marries Thomas Lincoln;
+  her death.
+
+Hardin, Colonel John J.,
+  defeats Lincoln and Baker for Congress, see vol. i.;
+  defeated by Lincoln.
+
+Harlan, James,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Harrison, W.H.,
+  campaign for, in 1840, see vol. i.
+
+Hawkins, George S.,
+  opposes compromise in 1861 as futile, see vol. i.
+
+Hayti,
+  recognized, see vol. ii.
+
+Heintzelman, General Samuel P.,
+  opposes McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.;
+  appointed corps commander;
+  on force necessary to protect Washington, see vol. ii.
+
+Henderson, John B.,
+  approves Lincoln's emancipation scheme, see vol. ii.
+
+Henry, Fort,
+  captured, see vol. i.
+
+Herndon, William H.,
+  law partner of Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  prevents Lincoln from association with Abolitionists;
+  aids Lincoln in organizing Republican party;
+  visits East to counteract Greeley's influence against Lincoln.
+
+Herold, David E.,
+  tried for assassination of Lincoln, see vol. ii.;
+  hanged.
+
+Hickman, John,
+  calls Lincoln's emancipation scheme unmanly, see vol. ii.
+
+Hicks, Governor Thomas H.,
+  opposed to secession, see vol. i.;
+  suggests referring troubles to Lord Lyons as arbitrator.
+
+"Higher Law,"
+  Seward's doctrine of, see vol. i.
+
+Hitchcock, General Ethan A.,
+  considers Washington insufficiently protected, see vol. ii.
+
+Holt, Joseph,
+  succeeds Floyd in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.;
+  joins Black and Stanton in coercing Buchanan;
+  fears attempt of South to seize Washington.
+
+Hood, General John Bell,
+  succeeds Johnston, see vol. ii.;
+  defeated by Sherman.
+
+Hooker, General Joseph,
+  allows slave owners to reclaim fugitives, see vol. ii.;
+  replaces Burnside in command;
+  letter of Lincoln to;
+  his abilities;
+  in Chancellorsville campaign;
+  throws away chance of success;
+  fails to use all of troops;
+  orders retreat;
+  wishes to resume attack;
+  first prevented, then urged by Lincoln;
+  wishes to capture Richmond;
+  follows Lee to North;
+  instructed by Lincoln to obey Halleck;
+  irritated by Halleck, resigns;
+  sent to aid Rosecrans;
+  storms Lookout Mountain.
+
+House of Representatives,
+  election of Lincoln to, and career in, see vol. i.;
+  members of;
+  debates Mexican war;
+  struggles in, over Wilmot proviso;
+  refuses to pass Lincoln's emancipation bill of 1849;
+  settles question of admission of Kansas;
+  proposes Constitutional amendment in 1861;
+  rejects plan of Peace Congress;
+  leaders of, in 1861;
+  thanks Captain Wilkes;
+  approves emancipation proclamation, see vol. ii.;
+  fails to pass thirteenth amendment;
+  later passes amendment.
+
+Houston, Samuel,
+  opposes secession in Texas, see vol. i.
+
+Hunter, General David,
+  asked by Lincoln to aid Fremont, see vol. i.;
+  succeeds Fremont;
+  proclaims martial law and abolishes slavery in Georgia, Florida, and
+      South Carolina, see vol. ii.;
+  his order revoked;
+  organizes a negro regiment.
+
+Hunter, R.M.T.,
+  on Confederate peace commission, see vol. ii.;
+  retort of Lincoln to.
+
+Hyer, Tom,
+  hired by Seward's supporters in Republican Convention, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Illinois,
+  early settlers and society of, see vol. i.;
+  in Black Hawk war;
+  early politics in,;
+  land speculation in;
+  career of Lincoln in legislature of;
+  the career of "Long Nine" in;
+  internal improvement craze in;
+  adopts resolutions condemning Abolitionists and emancipation in the
+      District;
+  suffers from financial collapse;
+  carried by Van Buren against Harrison;
+  legal profession in;
+  carried by Democrats in 1844;
+  upholds Mexican war;
+  denounces Kansas-Nebraska Act;
+  senatorial election of 1855 in;
+  popular feeling in, concerning Kansas;
+  in campaign of 1856;
+  political situation in, during 1858;
+  prestige of Douglas in;
+  senatorial campaign in;
+  carried by Douglas;
+  movement in, to nominate Lincoln for President;
+  carried by Democrats in 1862, see vol. ii.
+
+Indiana,
+  carried by Democrats in 1862, see vol. ii.;
+  Copperheads in.
+
+Internal improvements,
+  craze over, in Western States, see vol. i.
+
+Iverson, Alfred,
+  works in Georgia for secession, see vol. i.;
+  threatens Houston with assassination;
+  wishes to keep Washington as capital of Confederacy.
+
+
+
+Jackson, Andrew,
+  popularity of, in Illinois, see vol. i.;
+  attitude of Lincoln toward.
+
+Jackson, Thomas Jonathan, "Stonewall",
+  commands at Harper's Ferry, see vol. i.;
+  in Shenandoah valley, see vol. ii.;
+  his raid down valley in 1862;
+  escapes pursuing forces;
+  joins Johnston and attacks McClellan;
+  compels McClellan to retreat to James River;
+  defeats Banks;
+  reinforced;
+  marches around Pope;
+  on too good condition of Federal armies;
+  breaks Federal right at Chancellorsville;
+  accidentally shot by his own soldiers.
+
+Johnson, Andrew,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  in Senate in 1861;
+  instructed by Lincoln to reorganize government in Tennessee,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  stern opinion of treason;
+  repudiates Sherman's terms with Johnston;
+  his nomination for vice-presidency aided by Lincoln;
+  protested against, by Tennesseeans;
+  his accession to presidency welcomed by radicals;
+  refuses to commute Mrs. Surratt's sentence.
+
+Johnson, Bushrod R.,
+  captured at Fort Donelson, see vol. i.
+
+Johnson, Herschel V.,
+  nominated for Vice-President in 1860, see vol. i.;
+  votes against secession in 1860.
+
+Johnson, Oliver,
+  supports Lincoln in 1864, see vol. ii.
+
+Johnston, General A.S.,
+  plans to crush Grant and Buell in detail, see vol. i.;
+  commands at battle of Shiloh;
+  killed.
+
+Johnston, Joseph
+  succeeds Jackson at Harper's Ferry, see vol. i.;
+  aids Beauregard at Bull Run;
+  on condition of Confederate army;
+  evacuates Manassas;
+  fears that McClellan will storm Yorktown, see vol. ii.;
+  begins attack on McClellan;
+  retreats from Sherman after Vicksburg;
+  terms of Sherman with, in 1865;
+  campaign against Sherman in 1864;
+  removed by Davis;
+  campaign against Sherman in Carolinas;
+  plan of Lee to join;
+  surrenders.
+
+Johnston, Sally,
+  marries Thomas Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  her character.
+
+Jones, Abraham,
+  ancestor of Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Judd, N.B.,
+  asked by Lincoln to help his canvass in 1860, see vol. i.;
+  urges Lincoln to avoid danger of assassination.
+
+Julian, George W.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  on Republican dissatisfaction with Lincoln, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Kane, Marshal Geo. P.,
+  telegraphs for Southern aid to oppose passage of troops through
+      Baltimore, see vol. i.
+
+Kansas,
+  struggle in, between free and slave-state men, see vol. i.;
+  rival constitutions of;
+  admission of, under Lecompton Constitution, urged by Buchanan;
+  opposed by Douglas;
+  attempt of Congress to bribe into acceptance of Lecompton Constitution;
+  rejects offer;
+  speeches of Lincoln in.
+
+Kansas-Nebraska bill,
+  introduced, see vol. i.;
+  repeals Missouri Compromise.
+
+Keitt, Lawrence M.,
+  his fight with Grow, see vol. i.
+
+Kellogg, Win. Pitt,
+  letter of Lincoln to, on extension of slavery, see vol. i.
+
+Kentucky,
+  desire of Lincoln to retain in Union, see vol. i.;
+  refuses to furnish troops;
+  attempt of Secessionists to carry;
+  wishes to be neutral;
+  thereby intends to aid South;
+  skillful dealings of Lincoln with;
+  remains in Union;
+  saved by State loyalty;
+  its neutrality violated by South, joins North;
+  campaign of Grant in;
+  invaded by Bragg, see vol. ii.
+
+Keyes, General Erasmus D.,
+  favors McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.;
+  appointed corps commander;
+  on force necessary to protect Washington, see vol. ii.;
+  on impossibility of taking Yorktown.
+
+Know-Nothings,
+  their career in 1854-1856, see vol. i.;
+  attempt to draw out Lincoln in 1860.
+
+
+
+Lamon, Colonel Ward H.,
+  connection with assassination story, see vol. i.
+
+Lane, James H.,
+  senator from Kansas, see vol. i.
+
+Lane, Joseph,
+  nominated for Vice-President on Breckinridge ticket in 1860, see vol. i.
+
+Lee, Robert E.,
+  offered command of Union army, see vol. i.;
+  opposes secession;
+  resigns from army and accepts command of State troops;
+  becomes Confederate general;
+  commands against Pope, see vol. ii.;
+  prepares to invade Maryland;
+  his contempt for McClellan;
+  at Antietam;
+  at Fredericksburg;
+  outmanoeuvred by Hooker;
+  at Chancellorsville;
+  hopes to conquer a peace;
+  enters Pennsylvania;
+  retreats after Gettysburg;
+  sends reinforcements to Bragg;
+  campaign in Virginia against Meade;
+  his campaign against Grant;
+  suggests a conference with Grant;
+  notifies Davis that Richmond must fall;
+  his chance of escape;
+  attacks Federal lines;
+  tries to escape;
+  surrenders at Appomattox;
+  asks for food.
+
+Liberia,
+  recognized, see vol. ii.
+
+Lincoln, Abraham,
+  his ignorance concerning his ancestry, see vol. i.;
+  sensitive regarding it;
+  his own statements;
+  anxious to appear of respectable stock;
+  his genealogy as established later;
+  his reputed illegitimacy;
+  his birth;
+  his references to his mother;
+  his childhood;
+  befriended by his step-mother;
+  his education;
+  early reading;
+  early attempts at humorous writing;
+  storytelling;
+  youthful exploits;
+  let out by his father;
+  helps his father settle in Sangamon County, Ill.;
+  works for himself;
+  his trip to New Orleans for Offut;
+  impressed with slavery;
+  in Offut's store;
+  fights Armstrong;
+  later friendship with Armstrong;
+  borrows a grammar;
+  his honesty;
+  loses situation;
+  involved in border quarrels;
+  his temperance considered eccentric;
+  careless habits of dress;
+  in the country groceries;
+  coarseness of speech;
+  his sympathetic understanding of the people;
+  his standards dependent on surroundings;
+  enlists in Black Hawk war;
+  chosen captain;
+  his services.
+
+  _Frontier Politician_.
+  Announces himself a candidate for the legislature;
+  a "Clay man";
+  his campaign and defeat;
+  enters grocery store, fails;
+  pays off debt;
+  studies law;
+  postmaster at New Salem;
+  settles account with government;
+  surveyor;
+  elected to legislature;
+  borrows money to ride to capital;
+  his career in legislature;
+  love affair with Ann Rutledge;
+  his gloom;
+  its inexplicable character;
+  affair with Mary Owens;
+  again a candidate, his platform;
+  calms excitement in campaign;
+  his fairness;
+  his retort to Forquer;
+  elected as one of "Long Nine";
+  favors unlimited internal improvements;
+  acknowledges his blunder;
+  his skill as log-roller;
+  gains popularity in county;
+  protests against anti-abolition resolutions;
+  admitted to bar, settles in Springfield;
+  partnership with Stuart;
+  studies debating;
+  political ambitions;
+  shows evidences of high ideals;
+  incidents of his canvass in 1838;
+  opposes repudiation, in legislature;
+  reflected in 1840, unsuccessful candidate for speaker;
+  jumps out of window to break a quorum;
+  in campaign of 1840;
+  his courtship of Mary Todd;
+  fails to appear on wedding day;
+  married;
+  character of his married life;
+  quarrels with Shields;
+  later ashamed of it;
+  improves prospects by a partnership with Logan;
+  later joins with Herndon;
+  his competitors at the bar;
+  considers law secondary to politics;
+  his legal ability;
+  a "case lawyer";
+  his ability as jury lawyer;
+  refuses to conduct a bad case;
+  on Whig electoral ticket in 1844;
+  later disillusioned with Clay;
+  fails to get nomination to Congress;
+  alleged understanding with Baker and others;
+  renews candidacy in 1846;
+  nominated;
+  elected, his vote.
+
+  _In Congress_.
+  Agrees with Whig programme on Mexican war;
+  introduces "Spot Resolutions" against Polk;
+  his speech;
+  his doctrine of right of revolution;
+  votes for Ashmun's amendment condemning war;
+  defends himself from charge of lack of patriotism;
+  his honesty;
+  damages Whigs in Illinois;
+  favors candidacy of Taylor;
+  his speech in House for Taylor against Cass;
+  votes for Wilmot Proviso;
+  his bill to prohibit slave trade in District of Columbia;
+  obtains support of Giddings;
+  fails to obtain commissionership in Land Office;
+  declines governorship of Oregon.
+
+  _Candidate for Senate_.
+  Accepts compromise although recognizing its futility;
+  favors Scott in 1852;
+  answers Douglas's defense of Nebraska bill;
+  escapes connection with Abolitionists;
+  renews attack upon Douglas;
+  candidate for Senate;
+  leads in first ballots;
+  injured by Abolitionist praise;
+  urges friends to secure election of Trumbull;
+  his alleged bargain with Trumbull;
+  receives vote for Vice-President in Republican National Convention;
+  his surprise;
+  his opinion of Kansas question;
+  delivers speech at organization of Republican party;
+  meets disapproval at Springfield;
+  in campaign of 1856;
+  encounters hostility of Greeley in the East;
+  journey of Herndon in his behalf;
+  nominated by State Convention for senatorship;
+  damaged by Whig support of Douglas;
+  prepares letter of acceptance;
+  reads paragraph on situation to friends;
+  alarms advisers by his plainness of utterance;
+  insists on asserting the irrepressible conflict;
+  statesmanship of his course;
+  challenges Douglas to joint debate;
+  misrepresentations of his position on slavery;
+  his appeal to "the fathers";
+  his accusation against the South;
+  his crucial question to Douglas;
+  Douglas's reply;
+  his position on Dred Scott decision;
+  accused of duplicity;
+  his views as to slavery under the Constitution considered;
+  on Abolitionists;
+  on negro race;
+  his freedom from animosity toward opponents or slaveholders;
+  does not denounce slaveholders;
+  his fairness a mental trait;
+  on popular sovereignty;
+  convicts Douglas of ambiguity;
+  alleged purpose to discredit Douglas as presidential candidate;
+  feels himself upholder of a great cause;
+  his moral denunciation of slavery;
+  his literary form;
+  elevation of tone;
+  disappointed at defeat by Douglas;
+  exhausted by his efforts;
+  asked to contribute to campaign fund.
+
+  _Candidate for Presidency_.
+  Makes speeches in Ohio;
+  calls Douglas pro-slavery;
+  invited to speak in New York, prepares address;
+  journey through Kansas;
+  his New York address;
+  states the situation;
+  praised by newspapers;
+  tour in New England;
+  comprehensive nature of his speeches;
+  ignores disunion;
+  by dwelling on wrong of slavery, makes disunion wrong;
+  slow to admit publicly a desire for presidency;
+  enters field in 1859;
+  nominated as candidate by Illinois Republican Convention;
+  his managers at National Convention;
+  yelled for by hired shouters;
+  supposed to be more moderate than Seward;
+  his own statement of principles;
+  votes secured for, by bargains;
+  nominated on third ballot;
+  accepts nomination in dejection;
+  his nomination a result of "availability";
+  little known in country at large;
+  anxious to avoid discussion of side issues;
+  opposed by Abolitionists;
+  supported by Giddings;
+  elected;
+  the choice of a minority.
+
+  _President-elect_.
+  His trying position during interregnum;
+  his election the signal for secession;
+  damaged by persistent opposition of New York "Tribune";
+  his opinion of the proposed constitutional amendment to guarantee
+      slavery;
+  declared elected by electoral count;
+  alleged plot to assassinate;
+  maintains silence during winter;
+  privately expresses dislike of compromise;
+  declares against interfering with slavery;
+  pronounces for coercing seceded States;
+  his journey to Washington;
+  warned of plot against;
+  speeches in Pennsylvania;
+  induced to avoid danger;
+  accused of cowardice;
+  his own opinion as to plot;
+  question of his real danger;
+  visited by Peace Congress;
+  impresses visitors by his appearance;
+  inauguration of;
+  his address;
+  states intention to enforce laws;
+  repeats opposition to extension only of slavery;
+  his previous denunciations remembered by South;
+  shows statesmanship in emphasizing Union.
+
+  _President_--_First Term_.
+  Appears tranquil after entering office;
+  not over-confident, but resolved on doing his duty;
+  disheartened by lack of support at North;
+  not trusted by leaders of Republican party;
+  feels isolation;
+  his cabinet;
+  seeks representatives of all views;
+  prefers individual strength to unity in cabinet;
+  criticised by radical Republicans;
+  has difficulties in satisfying Cameron;
+  dissuades Seward from refusing to join cabinet;
+  his statement of purpose to Virginia commissioners;
+  annoys South by failing to notice it;
+  irritates Northern extremists;
+  asks opinion of Scott as to relieving Sumter;
+  asks advice of cabinet;
+  promises South to take no action without warning;
+  again asks cabinet;
+  forms plan to relieve Fort Pickens;
+  spoils plan to relieve Sumter by sending Powhatan to Pensacola;
+  announces intention to provision Sumter;
+  admits blame for failure;
+  question of his fault in delaying to relieve fort;
+  issues proclamation calling for volunteers for three months;
+  his purpose;
+  expects Northerners to equal Southerners as fighters;
+  calls Congress for special session;
+  wishes to gain Kentucky;
+  dreads effect of Baltimore riot on Border States;
+  offers to send troops around Baltimore;
+  soothes Maryland;
+  cut off from North for a week;
+  tries in vain to prevent Virginia from seceding;
+  tries to secure Lee;
+  successful in his policy for retaining Kentucky in Union;
+  unable to reach North Carolina, Tennessee, or Arkansas;
+  tries to aid Missouri loyalists;
+  confident in efficiency of North;
+  his capacities unknown to people;
+  question of his "inspiration";
+  his masterfulness not realized;
+  question as to his relations with advisers;
+  obliged to restrain Chase and Seward;
+  his relations with Chase;
+  receives Seward's "Thoughts";
+  his reply to Seward;
+  realizes his own responsibility and accepts it;
+  receives absurd advice;
+  proclaims blockade of Southern ports;
+  advised to "close" ports;
+  sees necessity of admitting war;
+  decides to act efficiently without regard to Constitution;
+  instructs Scott to watch Maryland legislature;
+  issues order to arrest Maryland secessionists;
+  orders Scott to suspend writ of habeas corpus;
+  denounced by Taney;
+  issues proclamation authorizing further suspension;
+  states his argument to Congress;
+  calls for more volunteers;
+  takes pains with message which he sends to Congress;
+  on neutrality of Kentucky;
+  on blockade;
+  on secession;
+  appeals for ample means to end war;
+  appoints McClellan to command Army of Potomac;
+  avoids connection with Ball's Bluff affair;
+  appoints McClellan to succeed Scott;
+  sees that popular demand for action must be followed;
+  puzzled by McClellan's refusal to move;
+  forced to bear military responsibility;
+  his freedom from self-seeking;
+  urges McClellan to advance;
+  discouraged by McClellan's illness, consults McDowell and Franklin;
+  consults McClellan;
+  exasperates McClellan by his action;
+  appoints Stanton to succeed Cameron;
+  his lack of personal feeling against Stanton;
+  his patience toward Stanton;
+  his letter to Halleck;
+  wishes a direct attack;
+  accused by McClellan's friends of meddling;
+  decides to force action;
+  issues General War Order No.;
+  its purpose political rather than military;
+  orders McClellan to move South;
+  asks McClellan to justify his plan;
+  calls council of generals;
+  accepts McClellan's plan;
+  insists on preservation of capital;
+  political reasons for his anxiety to hold Washington;
+  reasons why his plan should have been adopted;
+  never convinced of superiority of McClellan's scheme;
+  issues General War Order to secure Washington;
+  unmoved by abuse of McClellan's enemies;
+  relieves McClellan of general command;
+  forced by Congress to divide Army of Potomac into corps;
+  appreciates importance of Western operations;
+  urges on Western generals;
+  unable to supply troops;
+  appoints Fremont to command Department of West;
+  tries to guide Fremont;
+  appealed to by Mrs. Fremont;
+  removes Fremont, his reasons;
+  sees military importance of Cumberland Gap;
+  urges construction of a railroad there;
+  urges Buell on;
+  annoyed by Buell's refusal to move;
+  death of his son;
+  discusses plan to capture New Orleans;
+  suddenly obliged to consider foreign affairs;
+  his corrections on Seward's instructions to Adams;
+  his statement of foreign relations in message of December, 1861;
+  avoids either timidity or defiance;
+  objects from beginning to seizure of Mason and Slidell;
+  proposes to arbitrate the matter;
+  thinks England's claim just;
+  wisdom of his course in surrendering the envoys;
+  unable to prevent slavery from entering into war, see vol. ii.;
+  disapproves of Fremont's order freeing slaves of rebels;
+  by rescinding it, makes an enemy of Fremont;
+  revokes order of Hunter freeing slaves;
+  takes responsibility of matter upon himself;
+  prevents Cameron from urging arming of negroes;
+  advises recognition of Hayti and Liberia;
+  in message suggests compensated emancipation and colonization;
+  approves bill abolishing slavery, with compensation, in District;
+  signs bill prohibiting return of fugitive slaves;
+  signs bill abolishing slavery in United States Territories;
+  signs bill to emancipate slaves of rebels;
+  slow to execute bill to enlist slaves;
+  finally recognizes value of black troops;
+  his conciliatory policy not followed by Congress;
+  his reasons for advocating compensated emancipation;
+  hopes to induce Border States to emancipate voluntarily;
+  sends special message urging gradual emancipation;
+  practically warns Border State men;
+  denounced by both sides;
+  tries in vain to persuade Border State representatives;
+  his plans repudiated;
+  repeats appeal in proclamation;
+  his scheme impracticable, but magnanimous;
+  sees future better than others;
+  refrains from filling vacancies on Supreme Bench with Northern men;
+  agrees to McClellan's peninsular campaign;
+  still worried over safety of capital;
+  neglects to demand any specific force to protect it;
+  forced to detach troops from McClellan to reinforce Fremont;
+  nearly orders McClellan to attack;
+  his plan better than McClellan's;
+  orders McDowell to return to Washington;
+  alarmed at condition of defenses of capital;
+  question of his error in retaining McDowell;
+  shows apparent vacillation;
+  explains situation in letter to McClellan;
+  urges him to strike;
+  annoyed by politicians;
+  tries to forward troops;
+  orders McDowell to join McClellan without uncovering capital;
+  criticised by McClellan;
+  refuses to let McDowell move in time;
+  sends McDowell to rescue Banks;
+  loses his head;
+  insists on McDowell's movement;
+  his blunder a fatal one;
+  not a quick thinker;
+  ruins McClellan's campaign;
+  begins to lose patience with McClellan's inaction;
+  appoints Halleck commander-in-chief;
+  his constancy in support of McClellan;
+  does not sacrifice McClellan as scapegoat;
+  visits Harrison's Landing;
+  avoids any partisanship in whole affair;
+  appears better than McClellan in campaign;
+  yet makes bad blunders;
+  stands alone in failure;
+  remains silent;
+  allows Halleck a free hand;
+  his reasons for appointing Halleck and Pope;
+  decides to reappoint McClellan;
+  shows sound judgment;
+  places everything in McClellan's hands;
+  indignant at slight results from Antietam;
+  urges McClellan to pursue;
+  his order ignored by McClellan;
+  writes McClellan a blunt letter insinuating sluggishness or cowardice;
+  replaces McClellan by Burnside;
+  his extreme reticence as to his motives;
+  attacked by Copperheads;
+  criticised by defenders of the Constitution;
+  harassed by extreme Abolitionists;
+  denounced for not issuing a proclamation of emancipation;
+  his reasons for refusing;
+  explains his attitude as President toward slavery;
+  struggles to hold Border States;
+  general dissatisfaction with, in 1862;
+  held inefficient by Chase;
+  and by Congressmen;
+  but believed in by people;
+  addressed by Greeley with "Prayer of 20,000,000";
+  his reply to Greeley;
+  his reply to Abolitionist clergymen;
+  points out folly of a mere proclamation;
+  thinks silently for himself under floods of advice;
+  writes draft of Emancipation Proclamation;
+  questions expediency of issuing;
+  reads proclamation to cabinet;
+  adopts Seward's suggestion to postpone until a victory;
+  issues preliminary proclamation after Antietam;
+  takes entire responsibility;
+  not influenced by meeting of governors;
+  fails to appease extremists;
+  supported by party;
+  thinks an earlier proclamation would not have been sustained;
+  warned that he will cause loss of fall elections;
+  always willing to trust people on a moral question;
+  supported by Border States in election;
+  renews proposals for compensated emancipation;
+  favors it as a peaceful measure;
+  his argument;
+  fails to persuade Missouri to accept plan;
+  issues definite proclamation;
+  his remark on signing;
+  tries to stimulate enlistment of blacks;
+  threatens retaliation for Southern excesses;
+  shows signs of care and fatigue;
+  never asks for sympathy;
+  slow to displace McClellan until sure of a better man;
+  doubtful as to Burnside's plan of attack;
+  refuses to accept Burnside's resignation after Fredericksburg;
+  declines to ratify Burnside's dismissals;
+  his letter to Hooker;
+  suggestions to Hooker after Chancellorsville;
+  opposes plan to dash at Richmond;
+  directs Hooker to obey Halleck;
+  appoints Meade to succeed Hooker;
+  urges Meade to attack Lee after Gettysburg;
+  angry at Meade's failure;
+  his letter to Meade;
+  annoyed by Democratic proposals for peace;
+  refuses to receive Stephens.;
+  annoyed by inaction of Rosecrans;
+  urged to remove Grant;
+  refuses to disturb him;
+  his letter to Grant after Vicksburg;
+  wishes Rosecrans to unite with Burnside;
+  tries to encourage Rosecrans after Chickamauga;
+  sends aid to Rosecrans;
+  replaces him by Thomas and puts Grant in command in West;
+  wishes Meade to attack in Virginia;
+  refuses to interfere in finances;
+  his attitude in Alabama affair;
+  refuses foreign arbitration;
+  asked by radicals to dismiss Seward;
+  secures resignations of Chase and Seward, and then urges them to
+      resume duties;
+  his wisdom in avoiding a rupture;
+  asks opinion of cabinet on admission of West Virginia;
+  his reasons for signing bill;
+  not alarmed by Copperhead societies;
+  his relation to Vallandigham case;
+  supports Burnside;
+  sends Vallandigham within Confederate lines;
+  replies to addresses condemning martial law;
+  obliged to begin draft;
+  insists upon its execution;
+  his letter to Illinois Union Convention;
+  shows necessity of war;
+  impossibility of compromise;
+  justifies emancipation;
+  points to successes;
+  really controls government autocratically;
+  able to, because supported by people;
+  gains military experience;
+  has measure of generals;
+  henceforward supervises rather than specifically orders;
+  begged by Chandler to disregard conservatives;
+  prepares address for Gettysburg;
+  the address;
+  his theory of "reconstruction";
+  recognizes a state government of Virginia;
+  appoints military governors for conquered States;
+  urges them to organize state governments;
+  wishes only Union men to act;
+  wishes bona fide elections;
+  instructs new State organizers to recognize emancipation;
+  fails to prevent quarrels;
+  issues amnesty proclamation;
+  proposes reconstruction by one tenth of voters;
+  at first generally applauded;
+  later opposed by Congress;
+  on negro suffrage;
+  doubts power of Congress over slavery in States;
+  refuses to sign reconstruction bill;
+  denounced by radicals;
+  defends his course;
+  his conference with Sherman, Grant, and Porter;
+  wishes to let Davis escape;
+  his authority appealed to by Sherman later;
+  question of practicability of his plan;
+  its generosity and humanity.
+
+  _Reëlection_.
+  Opposition to his reëlection in Republican party;
+  exasperates Congressmen by his independence;
+  not disquieted by Chase's candidacy;
+  desires reëlection;
+  trusts in popular support;
+  letter of Pomeroy against;
+  refuses Chase's resignation;
+  renominated by Ohio and Rhode Island Republicans;
+  opposition to, collapses;
+  relations with Chase strained;
+  accepts Chase's resignation;
+  nominates as successor, Tod, who declines;
+  forces Fessenden to accept Treasury;
+  angers Missourians by refusing to remove Schofield;
+  denounced by them and by Phillips;
+  gradually wins support of Abolitionists;
+  witty remark on Fremont's nomination;
+  remark on Grant's candidacy;
+  generally supported by local party organizations;
+  the "people's candidate";
+  refuses to interfere actively to secure renomination;
+  desires admission of delegates from South;
+  nominated;
+  question of his having dictated nomination of Johnson;
+  accepts nomination;
+  feels need of some military success;
+  assailed by Greeley;
+  embarrassed by Greeley's dealings with Confederate emissaries;
+  authorizes Greeley to confer;
+  charged by Greeley with failure;
+  asked if he intends to insist on abolition;
+  for political reasons, does not reply;
+  renews call for soldiers;
+  waits for military success;
+  appoints Grant lieutenant-general;
+  agrees not to interfere with Grant;
+  wishes Grant success;
+  astonished by a civil reply;
+  under fire during Early's attack on Washington;
+  discredited by fact of Washington's being still in danger;
+  thanks Sherman for victory of Atlanta;
+  rewards Sheridan for defeating Early;
+  his election secured by these successes;
+  urged by radicals to remove Blair;
+  refuses at first, later does so;
+  refuses to interfere in campaign;
+  refuses to postpone call for more troops;
+  refutes campaign slanders;
+  prepares for defeat;
+  re-elected easily;
+  his remarks on election;
+  refuses to intervene to secure counting of electoral votes of Border
+      States;
+  signs bill rejecting elections in Southern States, his reasons;
+  shows magnanimity in appointing Chase chief justice;
+  refuses to try to hasten matters;
+  refuses to negotiate with Davis;
+  permits Blair to see Davis;
+  sends Seward to confer with Southern peace commissioners;
+  later himself confers with them;
+  insists on complete submission;
+  other positions;
+  recognizes decline of Confederacy;
+  wishes to hasten peace by offer of money compensation and an amnesty
+      proclamation;
+  his scheme disapproved by cabinet;
+  his second inaugural address.
+
+  _Second Term_.
+  Possibly thinks Emancipation Proclamation unconstitutional;
+  on its practical results;
+  unable to touch institution of slavery;
+  wishes a constitutional amendment;
+  wishes it mentioned in Republican platform;
+  on impossibility of renewing slavery;
+  led to make war on slavery by situation;
+  sees necessity of its abolition to secure results of war;
+  unable to treat with seceded States;
+  renews appeal for Constitutional amendment in 1864;
+  exerts influence with Congressmen;
+  congratulates crowd on passage of amendment;
+  his responsibility in last weeks of war;
+  forbids Grant to treat with Lee on political matters;
+  conference with Grant, Sherman, and Porter;
+  enters Petersburg;
+  visits Richmond;
+  speech on returning to White House;
+  his disgust with office-seekers;
+  superstitious concerning assassination;
+  receives threats, but ignores them;
+  persuaded to accept a guard;
+  his remarks;
+  refuses to consider Americans as his enemies;
+  visits theatre, is assassinated;
+  effect of his death upon history;
+  general view of his character.
+
+  _Personal Characteristics_.
+  General view, see vol. ii.;
+  unfriendly views, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  abstemiousness, see vol. i.;
+  ambition, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  business inefficiency, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  coarseness, see vol. i.;
+  coolness, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  courage, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  development through life, see vol. i.;
+  education, see vol. i.;
+  eloquence, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  far-sightedness, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  honesty, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  humor, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  kindliness, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  legal ability, see vol. i.;
+  loyalty, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  magnanimity, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  masterfulness, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  melancholy, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  military ability, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  modesty, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  morbidness, see vol. i.;
+  patience, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  physical strength, see vol. i.;
+  popular insight, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  reticence, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  shrewdness, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  superstition, see vol. ii.;
+  tenacity, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  unselfishness, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  women, relations with, see vol. i.
+
+  _Political Opinions_.
+  Blockade, see vol. i.;
+  Border State policy, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  Compromise of 1850, see vol. i.;
+  Constitution, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  Copperheads, see vol. ii.;
+  disunion, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  draft, see vol. ii.;
+  Dred Scott case, see vol. i.;
+  emancipation, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  England, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  finance, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  habeas corpus, suspension of, see vol. i.;
+  "house divided against itself", see vol. i.;
+  internal improvements, see vol. i.;
+  Kansas-Nebraska Bill, see vol. i.;
+  Mexican war, see vol. i.;
+  military events of war of Rebellion, see vol. ii.;
+  negro soldiers, see vol. ii.;
+  negro suffrage, see vol. ii.;
+  office-seekers, see vol. ii.;
+  party management, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  peace, terms of, see vol. ii.;
+  reconstruction, see vol. ii.;
+  slavery, see vol. i., see vol. ii.;
+  Southern policy, see vol. i.;
+  States' rights, see vol. i.;
+  suffrage, see vol. i.;
+  Trent affair, see vol. i.;
+  war, purpose of, see vol. ii.;
+  Wilmot Proviso, see vol. i.
+
+Lincoln, Abraham,
+  grandfather of Lincoln, emigrates to Kentucky, see vol. i.;
+  his marriage;
+  shot by Indians.
+
+Lincoln, John,
+  son of Mordecai, inherits property in New Jersey, see vol. i.;
+  moves to Virginia;
+  his descendants.
+
+Lincoln, Mordecai,
+  son of Samuel, lives in Scituate, Mass., see vol. i.;
+  his descendants.
+
+Lincoln, Mordecai,
+  son of Mordecai, moves to Pennsylvania, see vol. i.;
+  his property.
+
+Lincoln, Mordecai,
+  son of Abraham, saves life of Thomas Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Lincoln, Samuel,
+  ancestor of Lincoln, emigrates to New England, see vol. i.
+
+Lincoln, Solomon,
+  establishes Lincoln's pedigree, see vol. i.
+
+Lincoln, Thomas,
+  father of Abraham, see vol. i.;
+  life saved from Indians;
+  denies Puritan or Quaker ancestry;
+  his parentage of Abraham denied;
+  marries Nancy Hanks;
+  his children;
+  moves from Kentucky to Indiana;
+  marries again;
+  moves to Illinois;
+  later relations with Abraham;
+  his manner of fighting.
+
+Logan, Stephen T.,
+  partnership with, and influence upon, Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  leader of Illinois bar;
+  agrees with Lincoln to receive election to House in turn;
+  defeated for Congress;
+  manages Lincoln's candidacy in Republican Convention of 1860.
+
+Longstreet, General James,
+  sent to reinforce Jackson, see vol. ii.;
+  enters Pennsylvania;
+  sent to reinforce Bragg;
+  at battle of Chickamauga;
+  sent to crush Burnside;
+  retreats from Sherman.
+
+Louisiana,
+  not ready for secession, see vol. i.;
+  but prepared to resist coercion;
+  plan of Lincoln to reconstruct, see vol. ii.
+
+Lovejoy, Elijah P.,
+  killed at Alton, see vol. i.
+
+Lovejoy, Owen,
+  tries to commit Lincoln to joining Abolitionists, see vol. i.;
+  prevents Lincoln's election as senator;
+  in House in 1861;
+  his rage after Trent affair;
+  supports Lincoln in 1864, see vol. ii.
+
+Lyons, Lord,
+  suggested by Hicks as arbitrator between North and South, see vol. i.;
+  instructed to insist on instant reply in Trent affair;
+  confers with Seward.
+
+
+
+McCall, General George A.,
+  favors McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.;
+  his division sent to aid McClellan, see vol. ii.
+
+McClellan, George B.,
+  given command of Army of Potomac, see vol. i.;
+  his record prior to 1861;
+  his organizing ability;
+  promoted to succeed Scott;
+  his arrogance and contempt for civilians;
+  causes discontent by inactivity;
+  considers army unfit to move;
+  unwilling from temperament to take any risks;
+  fails to appreciate political situation;
+  overestimates preparations of Confederates;
+  overestimates Confederate numbers;
+  wishes to end war by a crushing campaign;
+  ignores Lincoln's suggestion to move;
+  falls ill;
+  hearing of conferences, becomes well and makes appearance;
+  snubs McDowell and Chase;
+  objects to a direct attack on Confederates;
+  his plan;
+  his opponents become a recognized faction;
+  his scheme repudiated by Lincoln;
+  protests and explains views;
+  liberality of Lincoln towards;
+  thinks politicians plot to destroy him;
+  his plan accepted by Lincoln;
+  discussion of its merit;
+  makes mistake in insisting on his plan against Lincoln's wish;
+  hampered by Lincoln's detaching men to protect Washington;
+  discredited by Johnston's evacuation of Manassas;
+  denounced Committee on Conduct of War;
+  begins advance;
+  annoyed at being relieved from general command;
+  exasperated at action of Lincoln in forming corps and appointing
+      commanders;
+  authorizes Halleck to arrest Grant;
+  approves Buell's plan;
+  his career compared with Halleck's;
+  promises to put down any slave insurrection, see vol. ii.;
+  in spite of evacuation of Manassas, insists on Peninsular campaign;
+  approved by corps commanders;
+  estimate of forces needed to defend Washington;
+  fears no danger from Manassas;
+  protests against removal of Blenker's brigade;
+  begins campaign at Fortress Monroe;
+  besieges Yorktown;
+  sneers at Lincoln's suggestion of storming it;
+  his excuses always good;
+  exasperated at retention of McDowell before Washington;
+  question of his responsibility;
+  not really trusted by Lincoln;
+  still outnumbers enemy;
+  letter of Lincoln to, answering his complaints;
+  takes Yorktown;
+  advances slowly;
+  predicts Confederate evacuation of Norfolk;
+  continues advance;
+  forbidden to use McDowell so as to uncover Washington;
+  protests;
+  follows Lincoln's plan and extends right wing to meet McDowell;
+  informed by Lincoln of withdrawal of McDowell to pursue Jackson;
+  attacked by Johnston and Jackson;
+  refuses to move for two weeks;
+  wears out Lincoln's patience by delay;
+  retorts sharply to suggestions;
+  retreats to James River;
+  writes bitter letter to Stanton;
+  proves his incapacity to attack;
+  wishes to resume offensive by James River;
+  his prestige ruined at Washington;
+  his recall demanded by Pope and Halleck;
+  supported by Lincoln in spite of attacks;
+  finally ordered to retreat;
+  discussion of his conduct;
+  beloved by army;
+  predicts defeat of Pope;
+  accused of failing to support Pope;
+  exchanges telegrams with Halleck;
+  his aid asked by Halleck after Pope's defeat;
+  kept inactive during Pope's campaign;
+  appointed by Lincoln, in spite of protests, to command in Washington;
+  his fitness to reorganize army;
+  describes steps taken to put him in command;
+  cautious attitude toward Lee;
+  at Antietam;
+  welcomed by troops;
+  fails to use advantages;
+  urged by Lincoln to pursue;
+  disappoints country by inaction;
+  ordered by Lincoln to advance;
+  letter of Lincoln to;
+  fails to move;
+  relieved from command;
+  conduct of Lincoln towards;
+  praised by conservative Democrats;
+  endangers of emancipation;
+  nominated for President;
+  repudiates peace plank;
+  his election hoped for by South.
+
+McClernand, General John A.,
+  letter of Lincoln to, on difficulties of equipping armies, see vol. i.
+
+McClure, A.K.,
+  on influence of New York "Tribune", see vol. ii.
+
+McDougall, James A.,
+  in Congress in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+McDowell, General Irwin,
+  commands Federal army, see vol. i.;
+  obliged to attack;
+  at battle of Bull Run;
+  summoned by Lincoln to consultation;
+  does not tell McClellan;
+  describes McClellan's appearance at conference;
+  favors Lincoln's plan of campaign;
+  appointed to command a corps;
+  on force necessary to defend Washington, see vol. ii.;
+  his corps retained at Washington;
+  reasons of Lincoln for retaining;
+  again ordered to support McClellan;
+  ordered not to uncover Washington;
+  prevented from advancing by Lincoln's superstition;
+  ordered to turn and pursue Jackson;
+  protests vigorously;
+  obliged to abandon McClellan;
+  foretells that Jackson will escape.
+
+McLean, John,
+  candidate for Republican nomination in 1860, see vol. i.
+
+Magruder, General J.B.,
+  confronts McClellan at Yorktown, see vol. ii.;
+  evacuates Yorktown.
+
+Maine,
+  Democratic gains in, during 1862, see vol. ii.
+
+Mallory, S.R.,
+  in Confederate cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+Malvern Hill,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Maryland,
+  passage of troops through, see vol. i.;
+  effect of Baltimore conflict upon;
+  danger of its secession;
+  determines to stand neutral;
+  importance of its action;
+  furnishes South with troops;
+  military arrests in, to prevent secession;
+  Lee's invasion of, see vol. ii.
+
+Mason, James M.,
+  captured by Wilkes, see vol. i.;
+  imprisoned in Port Warren;
+  surrendered.
+
+Massachusetts,
+  prepared for war by Governor Andrew, see vol. i.;
+  sends troops to front.
+
+Matteson, Governor Joel A.,
+  Democratic candidate for Senator in Illinois, see vol. i.
+
+Maynard, Horace,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  approves Lincoln's emancipation scheme, see vol. ii.
+
+Meade, General George G.,
+  on McClellan's organizing ability, see vol. i.;
+  replaces Burnside in command, see vol. ii.;
+  question of his powers;
+  at Gettysburg;
+  fails to attack;
+  irritation of Lincoln with;
+  offers to resign;
+  urged in vain by Lincoln to attack;
+  "campaign in mud";
+  enters Petersburg;
+  at Appomattox.
+
+Meigs, General Montgomery C.,
+  at Lincoln's council of war in January, 1862, see vol. i.
+
+Memminger, C.G.,
+  in Confederate cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+Mercer, Captain, Samuel,
+  superseded by Porter under Lincoln's orders, see vol. i.
+
+Mercier, M. Henri,
+  letter of Greeley to, see vol. ii.
+
+Merryman, John,
+  arrested in Maryland, see vol. i.;
+  attempt of Taney to liberate.
+
+Mexican war,
+  denounced by Whigs, see vol. i.;
+  character of.
+
+Mexico,
+  driven into war, see vol. i.;
+  abolishes slavery.
+
+Michigan,
+  Republican losses in election of 1862, see vol. ii.
+
+Miles, Colonel Dixon S.,
+  at Harper's Ferry, see vol. ii.
+
+Miller, Mrs. Nancy,
+  bargains with Lincoln to make a pair of trousers, see vol. i.
+
+Mississippi,
+  not ready to secede, see vol. i.;
+  secedes;
+  sends commissioner to persuade North Carolina.
+
+Missouri,
+  refuses to furnish Lincoln with troops, see vol. i.;
+  Unionist and Southern elements in;
+  civil war in;
+  refuses to secede;
+  Fremont's career in;
+  saved from South by General Curtis;
+  refuses compensated emancipation, see vol. ii.;
+  factional quarrels in;
+  declares for Fremont against Lincoln;
+  delegates from, in Republican Convention.
+
+Missouri Compromise,
+  its sacred character, see vol. i.;
+  its extension demanded in 1850;
+  questioned by South;
+  repealed.
+
+Morgan, Edwin D.,
+  urged by Lincoln to put emancipation plank in Republican platform,
+      see vol. ii.
+
+Morton, Governor Oliver P.,
+  harassed by Copperheads, see vol. ii.;
+  tries to alarm Lincoln.
+
+Mudd, Samuel,
+  accomplice of Booth, tried and condemned, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Naglee, General Henry M.,
+  favors McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.
+
+Napoleon I.,
+  Lincoln contrasted with, see vol. ii.
+
+Napoleon III.,
+  agrees with Earl Russell to recognize belligerency of South, see vol. i.;
+  offers mediation, see vol. ii.;
+  his course suggested by Greeley.
+
+Negroes,
+  equality of, Lincoln's feeling toward, see vol. i.
+
+Nesmith, James W.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+New England,
+  speeches of Lincoln in, see vol. i.
+
+New Jersey,
+  carried by Democrats in 1862, see vol. ii.
+
+New Mexico,
+  plan of South to occupy as slave territory, see vol. i.;
+  urged by Taylor to ask for admission as a State;
+  organized as a Territory.
+
+New York,
+  Lincoln's speech in, see vol. i.;
+  secession threatened in;
+  carried by Democrats in 1862, see vol. ii.;
+  tries to evade draft;
+  draft riots in.
+
+North,
+  surpasses South in development, see vol. i.;
+  begins to oppose spread of slavery;
+  denounces Kansas-Nebraska Act;
+  anti-Southern feeling in;
+  enraged at Dred Scott decision;
+  annoyed at both Secessionists and Abolitionists;
+  effect of Lincoln's "House divided" speech upon;
+  effect of Lincoln's speeches in;
+  its attitude toward slavery the real cause of secession;
+  carried by Republicans in 1860;
+  its condition between Lincoln's election and his inauguration;
+  panic in, during 1860;
+  urged to let South secede in peace;
+  proposals in, to compromise with South;
+  led by Lincoln to oppose South on grounds of union, not slavery;
+  irritated at inaction of Lincoln;
+  effect of capture of Fort Sumter upon;
+  rushes to arms;
+  compared with South infighting qualities;
+  responds to Lincoln's call for troops;
+  military enthusiasm;
+  doubtful as to Lincoln's ability;
+  wishes to crush South without delay;
+  forces McDowell to advance;
+  enlightened by Bull Run;
+  impatient with slowness of McClellan to advance;
+  expects sympathy of England;
+  annoyed at recognition of Southern belligerency by England;
+  rejoices at capture of Mason and Slidell;
+  its hatred of England;
+  unity of, in 1861, see vol. ii.;
+  inevitably led to break on slavery question;
+  depressed by Peninsular campaign;
+  opponents of the war in;
+  public men of, condemn Lincoln;
+  popular opinion supports him;
+  effect of Emancipation Proclamation upon;
+  forced by Lincoln to choose between emancipation and failure of war;
+  depressed after Chancellorsville;
+  discouraged by European offers of mediation;
+  adjusts itself to war;
+  waning patriotism in;
+  tries to evade draft;
+  draft riots in;
+  bounty-jumping in;
+  Republican gains in;
+  really under Lincoln's dictatorship;
+  relieved from gloom by successes of 1864;
+  rejoicings in 1865.
+
+North Carolina,
+  not at first in favor of secession, see vol. i.;
+  ready to oppose coercion;
+  urged by Mississippi to secede;
+  refuses to furnish Lincoln troops;
+  finally secedes;
+
+
+
+Offut, Denton, sends Lincoln to New Orleans with a cargo, see vol. i.;
+  makes Lincoln manager of a store;
+  brags of Lincoln's abilities;
+  fails and moves away.
+
+Oglesby, Governor R.J.,
+  presides over Illinois Republican Convention, see vol. i.
+
+Ohio,
+  campaign of 1858 in, see vol. i.;
+  carried by Democrats in 1862, see vol. ii.;
+  career of Vallandigham in;
+  reply of Lincoln to Democrats of;
+  election of 1863 in;
+  renominates Lincoln in 1864.
+
+O'Laughlin, Michael,
+  accomplice of Booth, tried and condemned, see vol. ii.
+
+Ordinance of 1787,
+  its adoption and effect, see vol. i.
+
+Owens, Mary,
+  rejects Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Pain, John,
+  Lincoln's only hearer at "mass meeting" to organize Republican party,
+      see vol. i.
+
+Palmerston, Lord,
+  drafts British ultimatum in Mason and Slidell case, see vol. i.;
+  shows it to Queen.
+
+Paris, Comte de,
+  on condition of Union army in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  on McDowell's advance from Washington to aid McClellan, see vol. ii.
+
+Patterson, General Robert,
+  commands force in Pennsylvania, see vol. i.;
+  fails to watch Johnston.
+
+Payne, Lewis,
+  accomplice of Booth, tried and hanged, see vol. ii.
+
+Peace Congress,
+  its composition and action, see vol. i.;
+  repudiated by South.
+
+Pea Ridge,
+  battle of, see vol. i.
+
+Pemberton, General John C.,
+  surrenders Vicksburg, see vol. ii.
+
+Pendleton, George H.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Pennsylvania,
+  carried by Democrats in 1862, see vol. ii.;
+  regained by Republicans;
+  renominates Lincoln.
+
+Penrose, Captain----,
+  on Lincoln's rashness in entering Richmond, see vol. ii.
+
+Perryville,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Peters,----,
+  refuses to trust a Republican, see vol. i.
+
+Phillips, Wendell,
+  remark on nomination of Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  denounces Lincoln;
+  welcomes secession;
+  upholds right of South to secede;
+  opposes Lincoln's renomination, see vol. ii.
+
+Pickens, Fort,
+  relief of, in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Pickens, Governor F.W.,
+  sends commissioners to Buchanan regarding dissolution of Union by
+      South Carolina, see vol. i.
+
+Pierce, Franklin,
+  elected President, see vol. i.;
+  defeated for renomination.
+
+Pierpoint, Francis H.,
+  recognized as governor of Virginia, see vol. ii.
+
+Pillow, Fort,
+  massacre at, see vol. ii.
+
+Pillow, General Gideon J.,
+  runs away from Fort Donelson, see vol. i.
+
+Pinkerton, Allan,
+  discovers plot to assassinate Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Plug Uglies,
+  feared in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  mob Massachusetts troops.
+
+Polk, James K.,
+  carries Illinois in 1844, see vol. i.;
+  brings on Mexican war;
+  his policy attacked by Lincoln's "Spot Resolutions";
+  asks for two millions to buy territory.
+
+Pomeroy, Samuel C.,
+  senator from Kansas, see vol. i.;
+  an enemy of Lincoln, see vol. ii.;
+  urges Chase's friends to organize to oppose Lincoln's renomination.
+
+Pope, General John,
+  recommended by Halleck for promotion, see vol. i.;
+  prevented by Halleck from fighting;
+  urges recall of McClellan from Peninsula, see vol. ii.;
+  his military abilities;
+  commands Army of Virginia;
+  shows arrogance and lack of tact;
+  fails to cut off Jackson from Lee;
+  insists on fighting;
+  beaten at Bull Run;
+  discredited.
+
+Popular sovereignty,
+  doctrine of, in Compromise of 1850, see vol. i.;
+  used by Douglas to justify repeal of Missouri Compromise;
+  theory of, destroyed by Dred Scott decision;
+  attempt of Douglas to reconcile, with Dred Scott case.
+
+Porter, General Andrew,
+  favors McClellan's
+  plan of campaign, see vol. i.
+
+Porter, David D.,
+  takes Powhatan under Lincoln's orders, see vol. i.;
+  refuses to obey Seward's order;
+  aids Grant at Vicksburg, see vol. ii.;
+  confers with Lincoln;
+  upholds Sherman in referring to Lincoln as authorizing Johnston's
+      terms of surrender.
+
+Porter, General Fitz-John,
+  favors McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.;
+  sent to meet McDowell, see vol. ii.
+
+Powell, L.W.,
+  denounces Lincoln's emancipation scheme, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Rathbone, Major Henry R.,
+  at Lincoln's assassination, see vol. ii.
+
+Raymond, Henry J.,
+  warns Lincoln of danger done to Republican party by emancipation
+      policy, see vol. ii.;
+  reply of Lincoln to.
+
+Reagan, J.H.,
+  in Confederate cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+Reconstruction,
+  constitutional theory of, see vol. ii.;
+  begun by appointment of military governors;
+  Lincoln's plan for;
+  blocked by refusal of Congress to receive representatives;
+  usually associated with new constitutions;
+  method laid down in amnesty proclamation;
+  difficulties in way of;
+  extremist proposals concerning;
+  Reconstruction bill passed;
+  bill for, vetoed by Lincoln;
+  later statements of Lincoln concerning;
+  involved in Sherman's terms of surrender given to Johnston;
+  Lincoln's scheme discussed;
+  problem of, in 1865;
+  intention of Lincoln to keep, in his own control.
+
+Republican party,
+  its origin, see vol. i.;
+  in campaign of 1856;
+  organized in Illinois;
+  defined by Lincoln;
+  its programme put forth by Lincoln;
+  in Illinois, nominates Lincoln for presidency;
+  convention of, in 1860;
+  candidates before;
+  balloting, in convention;
+  nominates Lincoln;
+  chooses Lincoln because available;
+  its campaign methods;
+  denounced by Abolitionists;
+  elects Lincoln;
+  its moral attitude toward slavery the real cause of secession;
+  its legal position on slavery;
+  its leaders distrust Lincoln;
+  dissatisfied with Lincoln's cabinet;
+  dissatisfied with Lincoln's emancipation policy, see vol. ii.;
+  torn by factions;
+  Abolitionist members of, denounce Lincoln;
+  leaders of, condemn Lincoln;
+  majority of, continues to support him;
+  influence of Greeley upon;
+  upholds Emancipation Proclamation;
+  loses in congressional elections of 1862;
+  radical wing of, demands dismissal of Seward;
+  regains ground in 1863;
+  extreme faction of, still distrusts Lincoln and Seward;
+  members of, denounce Lincoln for vetoing reconstruction bill;
+  movement in, to nominate Chase;
+  movement in, to nominate Fremont;
+  masses of, adhere to Lincoln;
+  fails to postpone nominating convention;
+  nominates Lincoln;
+  nominates Johnson for Vice-President;
+  receives reluctant support of radicals;
+  damaged by Greeley's denunciations of Lincoln;
+  dreads defeat in summer of 1864;
+  damaged by draft;
+  radical element of, forces dismissal of Blair;
+  conduct of campaign by;
+  gains election in 1864;
+  makes thirteenth amendment a plank in platform;
+  radical members of, rejoice at accession of Johnson after murder of
+      Lincoln.
+
+Reynolds, Governor,
+  calls for volunteers in Black Hawk war, see vol. i.
+
+Rhode Island,
+  renominates Lincoln, see vol. ii.
+
+Richardson, W.A.,
+  remark on congressional interference with armies, see vol. i.
+
+Rives, W.C.,
+  remark of Lincoln to, on coercion, see vol. i.
+
+Rosecrans, General William S.,
+  succeeds Buell, see vol. ii.;
+  disapproves Halleck's plan to invade East Tennessee;
+  fights battle of Stone's River;
+  reluctant to advance;
+  drives Bragg out of Tennessee;
+  refuses to move;
+  finally advances to Chattanooga;
+  defeated at Chickamauga;
+  unnerved after Chickamauga;
+  cheered by Lincoln;
+  besieged in Chattanooga;
+  relieved by Grant.
+
+Russell, Earl, his prejudices in favor of South, see vol. i.;
+  recognizes belligerency of South, see vol. i.;
+  revises Palmerston's dispatch in Trent affair;
+  condemns Emancipation Proclamation, see vol. ii.;
+  calls Alabama affair a scandal.
+
+Rutledge, Ann, love affair of Lincoln with, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Saulsbury, Willard,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Saxton, General Rufus, permitted to raise negro troops, see vol. ii.
+
+Schofield, General John M.,
+  treats with Johnston, see vol. ii.;
+  his removal from Missouri refused by Lincoln.
+
+Schurz, General Carl,
+  refused permission by Lincoln
+  to leave army to support his canvass, see vol. ii.
+
+Scott, Winfield,
+  in Mexican war, see vol. i.;
+  supported by Lincoln for President;
+  suggests division of country into four parts;
+  his help expected by Secessionists;
+  advises reinforcement of Southern garrisons;
+  threatens Southerners with violence;
+  warns Lincoln of plot to murder;
+  his military preparations;
+  thinks Sumter must be abandoned;
+  assembles troops at Washington;
+  wishes to induce Lee to command Northern army;
+  instructed to watch Maryland legislature;
+  authorized to suspend writ of habeas corpus;
+  has difficulties with McClellan;
+  retires.
+
+Seaton, William W.,
+  promises to help Lincoln's emancipation bill, see vol. i.
+
+Secession,
+  mention of, avoided by Douglas and Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  question of its justification in 1860;
+  process of, in 1860-61;
+  discussed by Buchanan;
+  admitted by Northern leaders;
+  threatened by New York Democrats;
+  Lincoln's view of;
+  Southern theory of;
+  its success makes union, not slavery, the issue at stake;
+  renewed by Border States;
+  recognized as not the ultimate cause of war, see vol. ii.;
+  again asserted by Lincoln to be cause of war.
+
+Sedgwick, General John,
+  beaten at Chancellorsville, see vol. ii.
+
+Semmes, Captain Raphael,
+  his career with the Alabama, see vol. ii.
+
+Senate of United States,
+  proposes "Union-saving devices", see vol. i.;
+  defeats Crittenden compromise;
+  rejects plan of Peace Congress;
+  leaders of, in 1861;
+  passes thirteenth amendment, see vol. ii.
+
+Seward, Frederick,
+  warns Lincoln of plot in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Seward, W.H.,
+  appeals to higher law, see vol. i.;
+  candidate for Republican nomination to presidency;
+  opposed by Greeley;
+  methods of his supporters;
+  considered too radical;
+  defeated by a combination;
+  deserves the nomination;
+  adopts conciliatory attitude in 1860;
+  sends son to warn Lincoln;
+  meets Lincoln at Washington;
+  his theory of irrepressible conflict;
+  wishes to submit to South;
+  secretary of state;
+  tries to withdraw consent;
+  attempt of Davis to involve, in discussion with Confederate
+      commissioners;
+  refuses to receive them;
+  announces that Sumter will be evacuated;
+  reproached by commissioners;
+  opposes reinforcing Sumter;
+  authorized to inform Confederates that Lincoln will not act without
+      warning;
+  makes mistake in order concerning Powhatan;
+  said to have led Lincoln to sign papers without understanding contents;
+  made to feel subordination by Lincoln;
+  submits thoughts for President's consideration;
+  wishes foreign war;
+  offers to direct the government;
+  reasons for his actions;
+  repressed by Lincoln;
+  advises against a paper blockade;
+  wishes to maintain friendly relations with England;
+  angered at Russell's conduct;
+  writes menacing instructions to Adams;
+  his attitude in Mason and Slidell affair;
+  drafts reply to England's ultimatum;
+  disavows Wilkes's act and surrenders envoys;
+  advises Lincoln to withhold Emancipation Proclamation until after a
+      victory, see vol. ii.;
+  suggests promise to maintain freedom of slaves;
+  dealings with England;
+  rejects offer of French mediation;
+  denounced by radicals;
+  plan to force his resignation;
+  offers resignation;
+  withdraws it at Lincoln's request;
+  on Copperhead societies;
+  denounced by Chandler;
+  on bad terms with Blair;
+  his remarks used against Lincoln;
+  sent by Lincoln to confer with Confederate peace commission,
+      his instructions;
+  shown Lincoln's dispatch to Grant;
+  attempt to assassinate.
+
+Seymour, Horatio,
+  elected governor of New York, see vol. ii.;
+  denounces tyranny of Lincoln;
+  tries to prevent draft;
+  asks Lincoln to delay enforcement until Supreme Court gives judgment;
+  inefficient at time of draft riots.
+
+Shackford, Samuel,
+  investigates Lincoln's ancestry, see vol. i.
+
+Shellabarger, Samuel,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Shepley, Governor G.F.,
+  remark of Lincoln to, see vol. ii.
+
+Sheridan, General Philip H.,
+  at battle of Chattanooga, see vol. ii.;
+  his campaign against Early;
+  plans to cut off Lee;
+  wins Five Forks;
+  at Appomattox.
+
+Sherman, John,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Sherman, General W.T.,
+  unappreciated by Halleck, see vol. i.;
+  authorized by Cameron to use slaves, see vol. ii.;
+  assaults Vicksburg;
+  pursues Johnston;
+  sent to reinforce Rosecrans;
+  storms Missionary Ridge;
+  relieves Burnside;
+  confers with Lincoln;
+  his terms to Johnston in 1865 involve political reconstruction;
+  his terms annulled by Stanton;
+  shows resentment toward Stanton;
+  makes terms with Johnston;
+  refers to Lincoln as authority;
+  his terms disapproved by Grant;
+  appointed to command in West;
+  drives Johnston southward;
+  defeats Hood at Atlanta;
+  thanked by Lincoln;
+  marches to the sea;
+  marches north through Carolinas;
+  ready to join Grant.
+
+Shields, General James A.,
+  paper duel of Lincoln with, see vol. i.;
+  loses reëlection to Senate;
+  his force joined to McDowell's, see vol. ii.
+
+Shipley, Mary,
+  ancestor of Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Short, James,
+  lends Lincoln money, see vol. i.
+
+Sickles, Daniel E.,
+  threatens secession of New York city, see vol. i.
+
+Sigel, General Franz,
+  replaces Fremont, see vol. ii.
+
+Slavery,
+  its entrance into politics described, see vol. i.;
+  compromises concerning, in Constitution;
+  settled by Missouri Compromise;
+  attitude of South toward;
+  necessity of extending area of, in order to preserve;
+  Lincoln's description of struggle over;
+  attitude of Lincoln toward;
+  moral condemnation of, by North, the real cause of secession;
+  wisdom of Lincoln in passing over, as cause of war;
+  forced to front as real cause of war, see vol. ii.;
+  comes into question through action of Federal generals;
+  attempts of Fremont and Hunter to abolish, revoked by Lincoln;
+  acts of Congress affecting;
+  Emancipation Proclamation against;
+  regard for, hinders War Democrats from supporting Lincoln;
+  not touched as an institution by Emancipation Proclamation;
+  necessity of a constitutional amendment to abolish;
+  desire of Copperheads to reëstablish.
+
+Slaves,
+  during Civil War, called "contraband" by Butler, see vol. ii.;
+  escape to Northern armies;
+  declared free by Fremont;
+  this declaration revoked by Lincoln;
+  declared free by Hunter;
+  inconsistent attitude of generals toward;
+  proposal of Cameron to arm, cancelled by Lincoln;
+  protected from return to owners by Congress;
+  armed;
+  not paid equally with whites until 1864;
+  armed in 1863;
+  threatened with death by South.
+
+Slidell, John,
+  seized by Wilkes, see vol. i.;
+  imprisoned in Fort Warren;
+  released.
+
+Smith, Caleb B.,
+  delivers votes to Lincoln in convention of 1860, see vol. i.;
+  secretary of interior;
+  opposes relieving Sumter.
+
+Smith, General C.W.,
+  praised by Halleck, see vol. i.
+
+Smith, General W.F.,
+  favors McClellan's plan of campaign, see vol. i.
+
+Smoot, Coleman,
+  lends Lincoln money, see vol. i.
+
+South,
+  its early sectionalism, see vol. i.;
+  demands political equality with North;
+  its inferior development;
+  gains by annexation of Texas;
+  enraged at organization of California as a free State;
+  threatens disunion;
+  demands Fugitive Slave Law;
+  asserts doctrine of non-intervention in Territories;
+  not satisfied with Compromise of 1850;
+  fails to secure Kansas;
+  applauds Brooks for his assault on Sunnier;
+  enraged at Douglas's opposition to Lecompton Constitution.;
+  reads Douglas out of party;
+  its policy described by Lincoln;
+  fairness of Lincoln toward;
+  demands that North cease to call slavery wrong;
+  question of its justification in seceding;
+  its delegates disrupt Democratic party;
+  scatters vote in 1860;
+  process of secession in;
+  agitation of dis-unionists in;
+  State loyalty in;
+  justified by Greeley and others;
+  threatens North;
+  repudiates Peace Congress;
+  its leaders in Congress remain to hamper government;
+  forms Confederacy;
+  expects Scott to aid;
+  wishes to seize Washington;
+  impressed by Lincoln's inaugural;
+  its real grievance the refusal of North to admit validity of slavery;
+  its doctrine of secession;
+  "Union men" in;
+  makes secession, not slavery, the ground of war;
+  irritated at failure of secession to affect North;
+  purpose of Lincoln to put in the wrong;
+  rejoices over capture of Sumter;
+  compared with North in fighting qualities;
+  elated over Bull Bun;
+  its strength overestimated by McClellan;
+  expects aid from Northern sympathizers;
+  hopes of aid from England disappointed;
+  after Chancellorsville, wishes to invade North and conquer a peace,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  welcomes Vallandigham;
+  economically exhausted in 1863;
+  reconstruction in;
+  applauds McClellan;
+  evidently exhausted in 1864;
+  hopes of Lincoln to make its surrender easy.
+
+South Carolina,
+  desires secession, see vol. i.;
+  suggests it to other States;
+  secedes;
+  sends commissioners to treat for division of property with United States;
+  refusal of Buchanan to receive;
+  refuses to participate in Peace Congress;
+  besieges Fort Sumter.
+
+Spangler, Edward,
+  aids Booth to escape, see vol. ii.;
+  tried by court martial;
+  condemned.
+
+Speed, Joshua,
+  letter of Lincoln to, on slavery, see vol. i.;
+  goes with Lincoln to Kentucky.
+
+Spottsylvania,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Sprague, Governor William,
+  of Rhode Island, see vol. ii.
+
+Stanton, Edwin M.,
+  attorney-general under Buchanan, see vol. i.;
+  joins Black in forcing Buchanan to alter reply to South Carolina
+      Commissioners;
+  share in Stone's punishment;
+  appointed secretary of war;
+  his previous insulting attitude toward Lincoln;
+  discussion of his qualities, good and bad;
+  an efficient secretary;
+  sneers at generals who favor McClellan's plans;
+  shows incompetence in organizing army;
+  praises Wilkes for capturing Mason and Slidell;
+  communicates Lincoln's approval to McClellan, see vol. ii.;
+  loses head during Jackson's raid;
+  bitter letter of McClellan to;
+  becomes McClellan's merciless enemy;
+  tries to prevent reappointment of McClellan;
+  wishes to take troops from Meade for Rosecrans;
+  repudiates Sherman's terms with Johnston;
+  insults Sherman;
+  his relations with Grant;
+  at time of Early's attack on Washington;
+  on bad terms with Blair;
+  persuades Lincoln to use an escort;
+  plan to assassinate.
+
+Stephens, Alexander H.,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  on reasons for Georgia's secession;
+  opposes secession;
+  elected Vice-President of Confederate States;
+  denies plot to seize Washington;
+  letter of Lincoln to;
+  wishes to treat for peace with Lincoln, see vol. ii.;
+  his attempt foiled by Lincoln;
+  admits desire to place Lincoln in false position;
+  nominated by Davis on peace commission.
+
+Stevens, Thaddeus,
+  leader of House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  denounces Lincoln's emancipation scheme, see vol. ii.;
+  considers Constitution destroyed;
+  on admission of West Virginia;
+  on unpopularity of Lincoln in Congress;
+  admits Lincoln to be better than McClellan.
+
+Stone, General Charles P.,
+  commands at Ball's Bluff, see vol. i.;
+  his punishment.
+
+Stuart, John T.,
+  law partnership of Lincoln with, see vol. i.
+
+Stuart, General J.E.B.,
+  rides around Federal army, see vol. ii.;
+  repeats feat after Antietam.
+
+Sumner, Charles,
+  assaulted by Brooks, see vol. i.;
+  in Senate in 1861.
+
+Sumner, General Edwin V.,
+  objects to Lincoln's trying
+  to avoid murder plot, on ground of cowardice, see vol. i.;
+  opposes plan of Peninsular campaign;
+  appointed corps commander;
+  on force necessary to protect Washington, see vol. ii.
+
+Sumter, Fort,
+  question of its retention in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+Supreme Court,
+  left to determine status of slavery in Territories, see vol. i.;
+  in Dred Scott case;
+  in Merryman case;
+  reluctance of Lincoln to fill, exclusively with Northern men,
+      see vol. ii.;
+  Chase appointed chief justice of.
+
+Surratt, John H.,
+  escapes punishment for complicity in assassination plot, see vol. ii.
+
+Surratt, Mary E.,
+  accomplice of Booth, tried and executed, see vol. ii.
+
+Swinton, William,
+  on McClellan's self-sufficiency, see vol. i.;
+  on campaign of 1862;
+  on extraordinary powers given Meade, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Tanet, Roger B.,
+  his opinion in Dred Scott case discussed, see vol. i.;
+  administers inaugural oath to Lincoln;
+  attempts to liberate Merryman by habeas corpus;
+  denounces Lincoln's action as unconstitutional;
+  succeeded by Chase, see vol. ii.
+
+Tatnall, Captain Josiah,
+  destroys Merrimac, see vol. ii.
+
+Taylor, Dick,
+  amusingly tricked by Lincoln, see vol. i.
+
+Taylor, General Zachary,
+  his victories in Mexican war, see vol. i.;
+  supported by Lincoln for President;
+  urges New Mexico to apply for admission as a State.
+
+Tennessee,
+  refuses to furnish Lincoln with troops, see vol. i.;
+  at first opposed to secession;
+  eastern counties of, Unionist;
+  forced to secede;
+  desire of Lincoln to save eastern counties of;
+  prevented from Northern interference by Kentucky's "neutrality";
+  seized by South;
+  plan of Halleck to invade, see vol. ii.;
+  eastern counties freed from Confederates;
+  plan of Lincoln to reconstruct;
+  chooses presidential electors.
+
+Texas,
+  its rebellion and annexation, see vol. i.;
+  claims New Mexico;
+  compensated;
+  secedes.
+
+Thomas, General George H.,
+  considers Washington insufficiently protected, see vol. ii.;
+  at Chickamauga;
+  replaces Rosecrans;
+  prepares to hold Chattanooga;
+  defeats Hood at Nashville, see vol. ii.
+
+Thomas, Philip F.,
+  succeeds Cobb in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.;
+  resigns from Treasury Department.
+
+Thompson, Jacob,
+  in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.;
+  acts as Mississippi commissioner to persuade Georgia to secede;
+  claims Buchanan's approval;
+  resigns.
+
+Thompson, Colonel Samuel,
+  in Black Hawk war, see vol. i.
+
+Tod, David,
+  declines offer of Treasury Department, see vol. ii.
+
+Todd, Mary,
+  her character, see vol. i.;
+  morbid courtship of, by Lincoln;
+  marries Lincoln;
+  her married life with Lincoln;
+  involves Lincoln in quarrel with Shields.
+
+Toombs, Robert,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  works for secession in 1860;
+  declares himself a rebel in the Senate;
+  secretary of state under Jefferson Davis.
+
+Toucey, Isaac,
+  in Buchanan's cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+"Tribune," New York;
+  See Greeley, Horace.
+
+Trumbull, Lyman,
+  leader of Illinois bar, see vol. i.;
+  elected senator from Illinois through Lincoln's influence;
+  said to have bargained with Lincoln;
+  in Senate in 1861;
+  introduces bill to confiscate slaves of rebels, see vol. ii.
+
+Tucker, John,
+  prepares for transportation of Army of Potomac to Fortress Monroe,
+      see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Utah,
+  organized as a Territory, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Vallandigham, Clement L.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  his speeches in 1863, see vol. ii.;
+  tried and condemned for treason;
+  imprisoned in Fort Warren;
+  sent by Lincoln to Confederate lines;
+  goes to Canada, nominated for governor in Ohio;
+  opinion of Lincoln on;
+  defeated;
+  forces peace plank into National Democratic platform.
+
+Vicksburg,
+  siege of, see vol. ii.
+
+Virginia,
+  at first opposed to secession, see vol. i.;
+  carried by Secessionists;
+  makes military league with Confederate States;
+  becomes member of Confederacy;
+  northwestern counties of, secede from;
+  comment of Lincoln on;
+  nominal State government of, see vol. ii.
+
+Voorhees, Daniel W.,
+  in House in 1861, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+Wade, Benjamin F.,
+  in Senate in 1861, see vol. i.;
+  thinks country ruined in 1862, see vol. ii.;
+  issues address denouncing Lincoln for veto of reconstruction bill;
+  obliged to support Lincoln rather than McClellan.
+
+Wadsworth, General James S.,
+  commands forces to protect Washington, see vol. ii.;
+  considers troops insufficient.
+
+Walker, L.P.,
+  in Confederate cabinet, see vol. i.
+
+Walworth, Chancellor R.H.,
+  denounces coercion, see vol. i.
+
+War of Rebellion,
+  first call for volunteers, see vol. i.;
+  protection of Washington;
+  passage of Massachusetts troops through Baltimore;
+  proclamation of blockade;
+  naval situation;
+  second call for volunteers, army increased;
+  military episodes of 1861;
+  campaign of Bull Run;
+  character and organization of Northern armies;
+  McClellan commander-in-chief;
+  civilian officers in;
+  attempt to force McClellan to advance;
+  administration of War Department by Stanton;
+  Lincoln's plan for;
+  debate as to plan of Virginia campaign;
+  General War Order No. I;
+  adoption of McClellan's plan;
+  discussion of McClellan's and Lincoln's plans;
+  evacuation of Manassas;
+  removal of McClellan from chief command;
+  creation of army corps;
+  character of Western military operations;
+  Northern successes along the coast;
+  campaign in Missouri and Arkansas;
+  operations in Kentucky;
+  campaign of Forts Henry and Donelson;
+  capture of New Madrid and Island No.;
+  career of the ram Merrimac;
+  battle of Merrimac and Monitor;
+  capture of New Orleans;
+  battle of Memphis;
+  cruise of Farragut on Mississippi;
+  Halleck commander in West;
+  advance of Grant and Buell on Corinth;
+  battle of Shiloh;
+  Halleck's advance on Corinth;
+  part played in war by politics;
+  question of protection of Washington, see vol. ii.;
+  reinforcement of Fremont;
+  Peninsular campaign;
+  transportation to Fortress Monroe;
+  Yorktown;
+  retention of McDowell before Washington;
+  advance of McClellan;
+  Jackson's raid on Harper's Ferry;
+  McDowell ordered to pursue Jackson;
+  criticism of Lincoln's orders;
+  Seven Pines and Fair Oaks;
+  halt and retreat of McClellan;
+  Malvern Hill;
+  retreat continued;
+  discussion of campaign;
+  Halleck commander-in-chief;
+  abandonment of campaign;
+  Army of Virginia formed under Pope;
+  Pope's campaign in Virginia;
+  Cedar Mountain;
+  second battle of Bull Run;
+  quarrels between officers;
+  reinstatement of McClellan;
+  reorganization of army;
+  Lee's campaign in Maryland;
+  Antietam;
+  McClellan fails to pursue Lee;
+  Lincoln's proposals;
+  McClellan superseded by Burnside;
+  Fredericksburg campaign;
+  quarrels in army;
+  Burnside succeeded by Hooker;
+  Chancellorsville campaign;
+  failure of Hooker to fight Lee in detail;
+  Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania;
+  Hooker replaced by Meade;
+  battle of Gettysburg;
+  failure of Meade to pursue Lee;
+  Bragg's invasion of Kentucky;
+  battle of Perryville;
+  Buell replaced by Rosecrans;
+  battle of Stone's River;
+  Rosecrans drives Bragg out of Tennessee;
+  siege and capture of Vicksburg;
+  fall of Port Hudson;
+  Rosecrans' Chattanooga campaign;
+  battle of Chickamauga;
+  siege of Chattanooga;
+  Rosecrans replaced by Thomas, Grant given command of West;
+  battle of Chattanooga;
+  liberation of East Tennessee;
+  Meade's campaign in mud;
+  steps leading to draft;
+  diminishing influence of politicians in;
+  Grant made lieutenant-general;
+  new plan of campaign;
+  Grant's Virginia campaign;
+  battle of Wilderness;
+  battle at Spottsylvania;
+  battle of Cold Harbor;
+  Butler "bottled up";
+  Early's raid against Washington;
+  Sherman's Atlanta campaign;
+  capture of Mobile;
+  Sheridan's Valley campaign;
+  Sherman's march to the sea;
+  Thomas's destruction of Hood's army;
+  sinking of the Alabama and of the Albemarle;
+  decay of Confederate army in 1865;
+  siege of Petersburg;
+  march of Sherman through Carolinas;
+  Bentonsville;
+  attempts of Lee to escape;
+  Five Forks;
+  abandonment of Petersburg and Richmond;
+  flight of Lee to Southwest;
+  Appomattox;
+  surrender of Lee;
+  surrender of Johnston.
+
+Washburne, Elihu B.,
+  letters of Lincoln to, on senatorial election of 1855, see vol. i.;
+  on compromise in 1861;
+  meets Lincoln at Washington;
+  in House in 1861.
+
+Washington, George,
+  futility of attempt to compare Lincoln with, see vol. ii.
+
+Webb, General A.S.,
+  on effects of politics in Virginia campaigns, see vol. i.;
+  on the consequences of Lincoln's relation to McClellan, see vol. ii.;
+  on McClellan's change of base.
+
+Webster, Daniel,
+  his 7th of March speech, see vol. i.
+
+Weed, Thurlow,
+  advocates revision of Constitution in 1860, see vol. i.
+
+Weitzel, General Godfrey,
+  enters Richmond, see vol. ii.
+
+Welles, Gideon,
+  secretary of navy, see vol. i.;
+  opposes relieving Sumter;
+  changes opinion;
+  not told by Lincoln of plan to relieve Pensacola;
+  learns that Lincoln has spoiled his plan to relieve Sumter;
+  wishes Lincoln to close Southern ports by proclamation;
+  disapproves of Lincoln's scheme of amnesty, see vol. ii.
+
+West,
+  social characteristics of frontier life in, see vol. i.;
+  democracy in;
+  vagrants in;
+  violence and barbarity of;
+  manners and customs;
+  grows in civilization;
+  economic conditions of;
+  frontier law and politics;
+  popular eloquence in;
+  its ignorance of foreign countries.
+
+West Virginia,
+  origin of, see vol. i.;
+  campaign of McClellan in;
+  forms a state Constitution, see vol. ii.;
+  question of its admission;
+  its vote counted in 1864.
+
+Whigs,
+  character of, in Illinois, see vol. i.;
+  support Lincoln for speaker;
+  fail to carry Illinois in 1840;
+  and in 1844;
+  elect Lincoln to Congress;
+  oppose Mexican war;
+  elect Taylor;
+  defeated in 1852;
+  join Know-Nothings in 1856.
+
+White, Hugh L.,
+  supported by Lincoln in 1836, see vol. i.
+
+Whiteside, General Samuel,
+  in Black Hawk war, see vol. i.
+
+Wigfall, Lewis T.,
+  jeers at North in 1860, see vol. i.
+
+Wilderness,
+  battle of, see vol. ii.
+
+Wilkes, Captain Charles,
+  seizes Mason and Slidell, see vol. i.;
+  applauded in North;
+  condemned by Lincoln.
+
+Wilmot, David,
+  in Congress with Lincoln, see vol. i.;
+  in Senate in 1861.
+
+Wilson, Henry,
+  hopes that Douglas will become Republican in 1858, see vol. i.;
+  in Senate in 1861;
+  introduces bill to emancipate slaves in District, see vol. ii.;
+  on negro troops;
+  admits small number of radical emancipationists;
+  denounces Blair to Lincoln.
+
+Winthrop, Robert C.,
+  chosen speaker of House, see vol. i.
+
+Wisconsin,
+  admitted as free State to balance Texas, see vol. i.;
+  Democratic gains in, see vol. ii.
+
+Wood, Fernando,
+  advocates secession of New York City, see vol. i.;
+  wishes Lincoln to compromise, see vol. ii.
+
+Wool, General John E.,
+  commands at Fortress Monroe, see vol. ii.
+
+
+
+Yorktown,
+  siege of, see vol. ii.
+
+Yulee, David L.,
+  remains in Senate in 1861 to embarrass government, see vol. i.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, by John T. Morse
+
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