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“The Aptness Of Which Was Always Perfect”
He decided to hold two receptions a day, the first in the morning, the second in the late afternoon. The receptions were held in the Governor’s Room in the State House, a chamber far too small for the constant crush of visitors pushing their way through the narrow doorway, guided by Lincoln’s “clear voice and often ringing laughter.” NewYork Tribune correspondent Henry Villard, although initially skeptical of Lincoln’s qualifications to be president, observed that the president-elect “showed remarkable tact” with every caller. Listening patiently to each applicant, Lincoln revealed a quick-witted “adaptation to individual characteristics and peculiarities. He never evaded a proper question, or failed to give a fit answer.” What most impressed Villard was Lincoln’s remarkable ability to tell a humorous story or deliver an appropriate anecdote “to explain a meaning or enforce a point, the aptness of which was always perfect.”
By Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”，Goodwin-279-194-06
“He Was Oppressed With The Load Of Responsibility”
BY THE TIME LINCOLN got to bed, it was two o’clock. He was exhausted but could not sleep. “The excitement which had kept him up through the campaign had passed away,” he later recalled to Gideon Welles, “and he was oppressed with the load of responsibility that was upon him.” Outside his windows, he could hear the citizens of Springfield partying in the streets, laughing, singing, and marching until they could carry on no longer. With the arrival of dawn, they finally dispersed to their homes.
By Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”，Goodwin-279-194-01
“Not Returning the Salute of the Sentinel”
On the afternoon of October 22d, information reached me of a move ment up the Potomac in the vicinity of Poolsville. Accompanied by a fellow correspondent I hastened to McClellan s headquarters. We found President Lincoln seated in the anteroom.
I had met him on several occasions, and he was well acquainted with my friend. He greeted us cordially, but sat down quickly, rested his head upon his hand, and seemed to be unusually agitated. His eyes were sunken, his countenance haggard, his whole demeanour that of one who was in trouble.
” Will you please step in here, Mr. President,” said an orderly from an adjoining room, from whence came the click of the telegraph. He soon came out, with his hands clasped upon his breast, his head bowed, his body bent as if he were carrying a great burden. He took no notice of any one, but, with downcast eyes and faltering steps, passed into the street and towards the Executive mansion.
” We have met with a sad disaster. Fifteen hundred men lost, and Colonel Baker killed,” said General Marcy.
It was that which had overwhelmed the President. Colonel Baker was his personal friend. They had long been intimately acquainted. In speaking of that event afterwards, Mr. Lincoln said that it smote him like a whirlwind in a desert. Few men have been appointed of God to bear such burdens as were laid upon President Lincoln. A distracted country, a people at war, all the foundations of society broken up ; the cares, trials, and perplexities which came every day without cessation, disaster upon disaster, the loss of those he loved, — Ellsworth, Baker, and his own darling Willie.
Quoted in “The boys of ’61; or, Four years of fighting”,by Coffin, Charles Carleton, p. 31
War correspondent Charles Carlton Coffin recalled how President Lincoln learned of the death of his friend Edward D. Baker at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861:
The Army of the Potomac was in camp on Arlington Heights, and at Alexandria McClellan was having his weekly reviews. There was much parade but no action. ‘All quiet on the Potomac,’ sent nightly by the correspondents to their papers, had become a by-word. The afternoon was lovely – a rare October day. I learned early in the day that something was going on up the Potomac near Edwards’ Ferry, by the troops under General [Nathaniel Banks]. What was going on no one knew, even at McClellan’s head-quarters. It was near sunset when, accompanied by a fellow-correspondent, I went once more to ascertain what was taking place. We entered the anteroom and sent our cards to General McClellan. While waiting, President Lincoln came in, recognized us, reached out his hand, spoke of the beauty of the afternoon, while waiting for the return of the young lieutenant who had gone to announce his arrival. The lines were deeper in the President’s face than when I saw him in his own home, the cheeks were more sunken. They were lines of care and anxiety. For eighteen months he had borne a burden such as has fallen upon few men – a burden as weighty as that which rested upon the great law-giver of Israel.
‘Please to walk this way,’ said the lieutenant.
We could hear the click of the telegraph in the adjoining room, and low conversation between the President and General McClellan, succeeded by silence, excepting the click-click of the instrument, which went on with its tale of disaster.
Five minutes passed, and then Mr. Lincoln, unattended, with bowed head, and tears rolling down his furrowed cheeks, his face pale and wan, his heart heaving with emotion, passed through the room. He almost fell as he stepped into the street, and we sprang involuntarily from our seats to render assistance, but he did not fall. With both hands pressed upon his heart he walked down the street, not returning the salute of the sentinel pacing his beat before the door.
General McClellan came a moment later. ‘I have not much news to give you,’ he said. ‘There has been a movement of troops across the Potomac at Edwards’ Ferry, under General Stone, and Colonel Baker is reported killed. That is about all I can give you.”2
2 Allen Thorndike Rice, editor, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time, pp. 170-172.
“Letter to William H. Seward”
To William H. Seward
My dear Sir: In addition to the accompanying, and more formal note, inviting you to take charge of the State Department, I deem it proper to address you this. Rumors have got into the newspapers to the effect that the Department, named above, would be tendered you, as a compliment, and with the expectation that you would decline it. I beg you to be assured that I have said nothing to justify these rumors. On the contrary, it has been my purpose, from the day of the nomination at Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place in the administration. I have delayed so long to communicate that purpose, in deference to what appeared to me to be a proper caution in the case. Nothing has been developed to change my view in the premises; and I now offer you the place, in the hope that you will accept it, and with the belief that your position in the public eye, your integrity, ability, learning, and great experience, all combine to render it an appointment pre-eminently fit to be made.One word more. In regard to the patronage, sought with so much eagerness and jealousy, I have prescribed for myself the maxim, “Justice to all”; and I earnestly beseech your co-operation in keeping the maxim good.
Your friend, and obedient servant
A. Lincoln.
“He Joked And Made Light Of The Occurrence”
Riding was about his only exercise. He had a good seat, but was a hard rider, so that he tired out a lot of horses, and on his rides and drives he had to put up with the precautions of Stanton, who insisted on his being accompanied by a bodyguard. Sometimes, however, when the military situation was causing him great anxiety, or when the receipt of a disturbing telegram had made it impossible for him to sleep, he would — in summer, when he was staying at his country quarters — get up in the middle of the night and ride off unattended to the War Department. On such occasions, he was always exposed to the risk of assassination. One night iq August, at about eleven o’clock, the sentinel at the Soldiers’ Home heard a rifle shot, and soon afterwards approaching hoof beats. In two or three minutes a horse came dashing up, and the man recognized the President, arriving thus belated, and bareheaded. To the sentry, who took the horse’s bridle, Lincoln said, “He came pretty near getting away with me, didn’t he. He got the bit in his teeth before I could draw the rein.” The man asked him where Ms hat was. ” Somebody fired down at the foot of the hill. The horse bolted, and my hat was jerked off.” The sentry and a corporal went off in the direction of the shooting, and found the President’s hat, with a bullet hole through the crown. Next morning, when Lincoln saw the hat, he joked and made light of the occurrence, but added that he wished to have it kept quiet. Thenceforward he never rode alone.
By Emil Ludwig,”Abraham Lincoln: And the Times that Tried His Soul” ,Ludwig-416-03
“Preoccupied with Gloomy Thoughts”
When a fashionable portrait painter was sent to him by a snob, Lincoln at first declined to give another sitting, but at length agreed to do so. Next morning, at the appointed time, he threw himself into the chair which had been arranged for him, and sat there as if petrified, impenetrable in his abstraction, preoccupied with gloomy thoughts. The artist could see nothing but the rough features of a working man; he had had his mind filled with reports of Lincoln’s coarse manners and low stories; and believing he must speak to him in the vulgar tone to which Lincoln is accustomed, makes a flippant remark. Now Lincoln lifts his eye and looks at him with a wonderful expression – “a mingling of instant shrewd apprehension of the whole attitude of mind at back of my remark, pained disappointment at my misunderstanding of him, and patient tolerance. In a flash, I saw I had made a mistake.”
As in a tragic scene, motives and effects of two different charac- ters are developed here. The elegant painter who most likely left for Springfield with a joke on his lips to pavnt the curious fellow for the money of a rich man, cannot intrude into the mysteries of the frozen features, sees only his lowly origin, the only thing in which the great man may be his inferior. He concludes most superficially as to the character of his model and wants to seize his attention by some vulgar obscenity. The other at once perceives the thoughts of the artist; but instead of getting rid of him with a single movement, that human feeling of partnership arises in him, the old disappoint- ment about the abyss of misunderstanding, and he shoots a look at the stranger that humiliates the man but elevates the artist.
By Emil Ludwig,”Abraham Lincoln: And the Times that Tried His Soul” ,Ludwig-230-23
Lincoln Appointed Stanton as Secretary of War
Philadelphia Lawyer George F. Harding said:
“I had been retained by a group of reaper manufacturers East and West to resist McCormick’s charge of infringement. The interests at stake were large and there was money enough at our disposal to enable us to do whatever we thought would conduce to success. Watson, afterwards president of the Erie Railroad, was associated with me and had much to do, under my direction, in the preparation of the case, for which he was especially well qualified. The suit against Manny et al., pending in Illinois, was regarded as a test case. It was expected to be tried before Judge Drummond, and the Illinois defendants wished to bring in local counsel. I appreciated the advantage of having an associate who understood the judge and had his confidence, but felt that we were not likely to find a lawyer there who would be of real assistance in arguing such a case. Arnold, then Congressman from the Chicago District, was selected by me as probably the best for our purpose but we found he was not available because of some adverse retainer. Someone then suggested a Springfield lawyer whose name was given as ‘A. Lincoln’ or ‘Abe Lincoln.’ I was not inclined to have him brought into the case but, perhaps under some pressure from Illinois clients, Watson and I concluded to give the matter consideration and Watson went to Springfield to look Lincoln over, with authority to retain him if he concluded it was best. I had already expressed my preference for having Stanton as my associate in the argument, knowing him and having a high regard for his ability.
“Watson reached Springfield rather late in the day and found Lincoln was not at his office that evening but could probably be seen at his house. He went to the house, found it a small frame structure, not such as would indicate that its occupant was a lawyer of the standing required for this case. There was neither door bell nor knocker, and he rapped with his knuckles. A woman’s head came out of the window of the second floor, asking ‘Who is there?’ Watson explained that he was from a distance and wished to see Mr. Lincoln. Then came the question, ‘Business or politics?’ When told it was business, she (Mrs. Lincoln) indicated her satisfaction by the modified tone in which she shouted, ‘Abe, here is a man wants to see you on business’ (I am not certain whether she said ‘man’ or ‘fellow’). Steps were heard coming down the stairs and the door was opened by a very tall man having on neither coat nor vest, who said he was Lincoln and was just putting up a bed. He took Watson into the small, plainly furnished room, which evidently served, among other purposes, as the reception room. Watson was satisfied that he was not the associate we wanted, but, after some conversation, concluded that Lincoln had qualities which might be rather effective in that community, that it would be unwise to incur his hostility by turning him down after consulting him, and paid him a retainer (at which he seemed much surprised), arranged for quite a substantial fee to be paid at the close of the litigation, and left him under the impression that he was to make an argument and should prepare himself for it.
“Returning to Philadelphia, he reported to me what he had done and why, that he thought we should keep Lincoln in line but, without disabusing him, quietly employ Stanton, toward whom I had already been inclined, and ultimately find a way of sidetracking Lincoln. His description of Lincoln confirmed me in thinking that it would be quite out of the question to have him take part in the argument. We retained Stanton, but said nothing to Lincoln about super I seding him. The subsequent arrangement, by which the case was argued in Cincinnati before justice McLean, judge Drummond coming there to sit as associate, removed the principal object we had in employing Lincoln. He came to Cincinnati with his argument prepared, and without an intimation that other arrangements had been made. Stanton and I went there determined that he should be altogether dispensed with. We went together to the Burnet House, the principal Cincinnati Hotel, and there first saw Lincoln, standing on the platform at the head of the steps ascending from Third Street, a tall rawly boned, ungainly back woodsman, with coarse, ill-fitting clothing, his trousers hardly reaching his ankles, holding in his hands a blue cotton umbrella with a ball on the end of the handle. I can see distinctly now that umbrella and Lincoln standing there with it. He was introduced to Stanton and me. We barely exchanged salutations with him, and I proposed to Stanton that he and I go up to the court. Lincoln said, ‘Let’s go up in a gang.’ Stanton drew me aside, saying, ‘Let that fellow go with his gang. We’ll walk up together.’ We did. (I should here explain that the Federal Court was then just above the Burnet House, in the same block, and the Burnet House then had its principal entrance from Third Street up a high flight of stone steps.)
“Stanton managed to make it plain to Lincoln that we expected him to withdraw, and, upon his offering to do so, he was taken at his word instantly, and treated as no longer connected with the case. The hearing lasted about a week, and Lincoln was a close observer throughout. We were all at the same hotel. Neither of us ever conferred with him, ever had him at our table or sat with him, or asked him to our room, or walked to or from the court with him, or, in fact, had any intercourse with him. He sent to me, through Watson, a roll of manuscript which he said contained the argument he had intended to deliver, and which he wished me to make any use of I thought proper. I was so sure that it would be only trash on which I had no time to waste that I never glanced at it or even unrolled it. He afterwards asked Watson if I had read it, and when told that I had not, asked to have it returned to him, intimating that he wished to destroy it. It went back unopened.
“During the week Justice McLean entertained counsel on both sides at dinner in his fine residence at Clifton, one of the suburbs of Cincinnati. Lincoln was not invited. When we left for home, I think neither of us said goodbye to him. I heard afterwards that he had paid my argument the compliment you have mentioned.
“When the fees were paid for services in the Manny case, Watson disbursed the funds and sent Lincoln a check for the fee he was to have received for his argument. Lincoln returned it, saying he had made no argument, and was entitled to no pay beyond the original retainer. Watson returned the check to him, writing that he was there prepared to render the service and was as much entitled to the fee as if he had made the argument. It was then accepted, and I have heard that when it came back to him, he recognized it as a kind of provident provision for meeting the expenses of a campaign which he otherwise could not afford, and applied it accordingly. About this I have no direct knowledge.
“When Lincoln was named for President by the party to which I belonged, my disgust was such that I felt that I could not vote for him and I did not intend to, but the situation had become so ominous by election day that I finally took a Lincoln and Hamlin ballot, closed my eyes, and with great reluctance dropped it in the box. Stanton, a very pronounced Democrat, though an opponent of slavery, did his best to defeat Lincoln, taking the stump against him and attacking him savagely. When, early in the war, it became evident that Cameron must be superseded as Secretary of War and that the co-operation of Union Democrats must be recognized and encouraged, Watson, whose regard for Stanton dated from the case at Cincinnati, devoted himself to pressing Stanton for war secretary, and procured baskets full of petitions for his appointment. Lincoln had understood that Stanton was to blame for his humiliation at Cincinnati, and had so far acquitted me as to ask me to become Commissioner of Patents-an office which, of course, I declined at once. Stanton’s attack on him and ridicule of him during the campaign must have further exasperated him, and there was probably no man in the country towards whom he had reason to feel so much personal resentment. When convinced that the interest of the nation would be best served by bringing Stanton into his cabinet, he suppressed his personal resentment, as not many men could have done, and made the appointment.
Quoted in Abraham Lincoln quarterly. [Vol. 4, no. 3]
“Lincoln Stood Up For Cameron”
In this deadlock of depression, the scandal at the War Office had a certain ventilating effect. Cameron had unquestionably been too credulous in his dealings with army contractors, and many went so far as to say he was taking a share in the spoils. Socks that could be torn to pieces with a moderate pull, blankets that were too thin, knapsacks put together with glue instead of being stitched ; all were laid to the Secretary of War’s charge. A com- mittee of inquiry was appointed, but Lincoln stood up for Cameron, declaring that he himself and the cabinet were jointly responsible for anything that was amiss. Even in the case of this man of dubious character, this man who had been forced on him, he pre- ferred, without any need for it, to stake his own already much vilified name, and to bear his share of the blame for questionable machinations, rather than sacrifice a colleague when the battle was raging.
And this though he had a personal grievance against Cameron. The latter had, on his own initiative, come forward as an aboli- tionist, preparing in secret, almost simultaneously with the ripen- ing of the army-contracts scandal, a report in which he declared :
“Those who make war against the Government justly forfeit all rights of property, privilege, or security derived from the Constitution and laws against which they are in armed rebellion , and as the labor and service of their slaves constitute the chief property of the rebels, such property should share in the common fate of war.’
For the second time Lincoln contemplated the fulfillment of his wishes, and again he had to take an adverse line. At this New Year of 1862 it seemed to him that the time was not yet ripe ; nor was it. He had the pamphlet copies of the report recalled from the post offices by telegraph, and the controversial passage was deleted.
This is typical of Lincoln, who screens his secretary in personal difficulties, but disavows the same man in a matter where State policy is involved, although upon the latter question he is really in sympathy with Cameron, whereas in the former respect he is out of tune; and although the very reverse behavior in both in- stances would have been more favorable to his own reputation. How much importance he attaches to a cause and how little to personal concerns; how readily he can overlook a slight when he thinks an adversary can be useful to the imperiled nation, is strikingly proved at this juncture by his appointment of Stanton as Secretary of War.
Ludwig-294-19
“He Defends McClellan Against The Supervision”
And McClellan? What is our handsome friend doing, mean- while, beside the Potomac? During the last three months he has been training and grouping one hundred and seventy thousand men. Will he not attack now? Will the President order an advance, or discuss the matter with the general? McClellan does not want advice from any one, and least of all from Lincoln. He complains in private that the President’s frequent visits to the camp are a nuisance. He writes :
“I am becoming daily more disgusted with this administration — perfectly sick of it. . . . I was obliged to attend a meeting of the cabinet, and was bored and annoyed. There are some of the greatest geese in the cabinet I have ever seen.”
This is the way in which the man of the sword is apt to gird at the philosopher — but then why the devil does he not use his sword? Is the enemy too strong ? Only one to three ! McClellan does not believe this. His Napoleonic reputation has been acquired without his ever having fought a battle, and he fears to fritter it away in defeats. He perpetually demands troops, troops, troops; remains entrenched facing the enemy week after week, so that the morale of his inactive forces cannot but suffer ; and when the Southerners, fearing a surprise attack, withdraw, evacuating Manassas, he is content to follow them only a little way, and then digs himself in once more, reporting daily, “All quiet upon the Potomac.” The mood of the nation passes from uneasiness to anger, from anger to derision, from derision to mistrust. Does this Democrat cherish political ambitions; would he fain make his way to the highest office upon the field of inaction, rather than with renown on the battlefield?
Impossible, for the President promotes him. When the veteran Scott is now dismissed into honorable retirement, young McClellan is appointed commander in chief. Why? Lincoln has no one else for the job ! He even puts up with discourteous treatment from the general, allows himself to be kept waiting in the anteroom, so that the matter gets into the papers, and arouses angry comment. Is the President himself put out of humor ? Not in the least ! He does not trouble about personal dignity, for his sole concern is to win the war. “I will hold McClellan’s stirrup for him, if he will only win us victories.” At length, one day, the general, on return- ing to his quarters, finds that Lincoln and Seward are waiting for him ; he goes up to his room and sends down a message, saying he is sorry but is too tired to see them to-day. The Secretary of State is in a great rage, but the President remains unmoved. He pays no more visits to the general, however, and thenceforward his orders are curter.
The two men’s relations assume a sinister tone, have a hollow ring, as if the foundations were being mined. “The Waleck River grows worse, the longer one looks at it,” writes the general, who for six months now has been magnetized by the Potomac and its tributaries. Lincoln, when more troops are continually demanded, only to be swallowed up in the void, says it is “like shifting fleas across a barn floor with a shovel — not half of them ever get there/ ‘ Again, he remarks, ” Unless something is done soon, the bottom will drop out of the whole affair; and if General McClellan does not want to use the army, I should like to borrow it, if I could only see how it could be made to do something.” Nevertheless he defends McClellan against the supervision committee of Con- gress.
In the West, at the same time, everything is at a standstill. The President, upon whom incessant demands for reinforcements, munitions, horses, etc., pour in, does not know what to make of the matter, feels that he is being humbugged in some way or other, but cannot see how to intervene. Here is a man in supreme com- mand who knows nothing of the art of war, and a couple of generals who won’t fight.
Ludwig-294-13
“In This Matter Lincoln Is Too Easy-going”
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4.
To John C. Fremont
Private and confidential. Major General Fremont: Washington D.C. Sept. 2, 1861.
My dear Sir: Two points in your proclamation of August 30th give me some anxiety. First, [2] should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best man in their hands in retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is therefore my order that you allow no man to be shot, under the proclamation, without first having my approbation or consent.
Secondly, [3] I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property, and the liberating slaves of traiterous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends, and turn them against us—perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me therefore to ask, that you will as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of Congress, entitled, “An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,” approved August, 6th, 1861, and a copy of which act I herewith send you. This letter is written in a spirit of caution and not of censure.
I send it by a special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach you. Yours very truly A. LINCOLN
Here in St. Louis, likewise, there is a handsome general mounted on a fine horse and attended by a brilliant retinue ; but Fremont, at any rate, has a great past, or the legend of one. He is the Western pioneer, the pathfinder, the romantic figure, the man whom the newly formed Republican Party had nominated as its first presi- dential candidate, and for whom Lincoln had fought. Did all that happen only five years ago? Too recently for Fremont to have forgotten it himself; too long ago for the public to remember without fresh laurels. For the time being, however, he is prized by Lincoln and the cabinet. Glitter, the power of silence, and the lack of experience as a commander in the field are qualities he shares with his colleague beside the Potomac ; but he has worked out a specialty, creating a bodyguard, within which he ensconces him- self, secludes himself undiscoverably, and under whose protection he is tardy in answering letters and telegrams from the government – or will not answer them at all. In their contempt for Washing- ton and the government, the Eastern general and the Western make common cause ; only in this, however, for in other matters they seem determined to work against one another.
But in contradiction to the Eastern organizer, the Western war lord is inactive in respect of the peaceful doings of the army as well, while his vanity makes him an easy prey to fraudulent army contractors (who perhaps are not unknown to the Secretary of War as well), and his main industry is to appoint brigadiers on his own initiative and without consulting the President. Within a few weeks, despite the iron wall of silence with which he has surrounded himself, materials for grave accusations against Fre- mont make their w?^y to Washington. The man who was formerly an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency is said to aim at found- ing a Northwestern Union. The rumors lack foundation, and Lincoln does not credit them, but the fact that they are current serves to show what people regard as possible.
One morning in August, the President reads in a newspaper that General Fremont has issued a proclamation to the effect that the property of all Missourians who shall take up arms against the Union or shall in any other way help the South, will be confiscated forthwith, and their slaves, if they have any, will be declared free. What does Lincoln think and feel as he reads this ? With the self- restraint of a statesman, with the sense of responsibility proper to a reigning sovereign, in defiance of his natural sentiments and wishes, he has, since the beginning of the war, refrained from opening the slavery question, being convinced that his first business is not to free the slaves , but to save the Union. Only if the preservation of the Union remains his war cry, can he count upon a Democratic majority in the loyal States, and upon the neutrality of the border States. If by any war measures on behalf of the slaves he shows that this is a war for abolition and not a war for the maintenance of the Union, he will lose ground, and therewith lose the war; and even in the confiscation ordinances customary in war time he has been careful to avoid mentioning slaves. Now comes one of his generals thrust- ing clumsy fingers into this political web, completely ignoring the subordination of the military arm to the political ! Next day the dormant controversy has been reawakened all over the country. The radical press of the North applauds the bold soldier who has outdistanced the hesitating President. The border States, on the other hand, and Kentucky first of all, are infuriated at what is now, they say, openly disclosed as the purpose of the war, and once more they threaten to secede. Will not the general be cashiered ? Not a bit of it. Lincoln writes him a friendly letter : “I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph [of the proclamation] . . . will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of Congress. . . . This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send it by special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach you.” Amazing! In this matter Lincoln is too easy-going. His endeavor to avoid harsh measures against men whom he considers possessed of a wider national reputation than his own, his wish to repudiate the formal exercise of authority, lead him to be more complaisant than the risks of the situation justify. What is the upshot? First the general cannot be found; then he writes, asking the President himself to modify the relevant clause in the proclamation ; and he sends this letter by Mrs. Fremont, an able and ambitious woman who has been described as the real chief of staff.
No, this is not a burlesque ; things really happened that way !
The general’s lady, fearing lest her husband may be removed, determines to take the offensive. Arriving at midnight, she insists on seeing the President then and there, berates him, threatens him with the possibility of Fremont’s setting up an independent govern- ment. Will Lincoln pay her back in her own coin ? He is said to be half a farmer, mannerless and boorish. “I had to exercise all the rude tact that I possess to avoid quarreling with her,” he says afterwards. He does not want to use the iron hand; neither he nor the country is strong enough for that yet, and it is never his main purpose to seek popularity. He therefore proves accom- modating in a way that is most injurious to himself — agrees to modify the clause under his own name as Fremont has requested, and incurs the anger of hundreds of thousands of Northerners, who regard him as cowardly and the general as a hero. Some of the newspapers declare that it would be well if Fremont were to take Lincoln’s place, and one writer asks : “How many times are we to save Kentucky and lose our self-respect?”
In this matter, too, for Lincoln, policy outweighs ambition, and philosophy policy. Quite unconcerned, he ponders after his own fashion the underlying factors at work in this interlude :
“I have great respect for General Fremont and his abilities, but the fact is that the pioneer in any movement is not generally the best man to carry that movement to a successful issue. It was so in old times ; Moses began the emancipation of the Jews, but didn’t take Israel to the Promised Land after all. He had to make way for Joshua to complete the work. It looks as if the first reformer of a thing has to meet such a hard opposition and gets so battered and bespattered, that afterwards when people find they have to accept his reform they will accept it more easily from another man.”
Thereupon he writes asking General Hunter to go to Missouri : “He [Fremont] needs to have at his side a man of large experience. Will you not, for me, take that place ? Your rank is one grade too high to be ordered to it, but will you not serve the country and oblige me by taking it voluntarily?”
Hunter, however, achieves very little, and writes letters no less arrogant than Fremont’s. Thereupon he is reproved by his chief in this mild way :
“I am constrained to say it is difficult to answer so ugly a letter in good temper. I am as you intimate, losing much of the great confidence I placed in you, not from any act or omission of yours touching the public service . . . but from the flood of grumbling despatches and letters I have seen from you. … I have been and am sincerely your friend, and if, as such, I dare to make a suggestion, I would say that you are adopting the best possible way to ruin yourself. ‘Act well your part, there all the honor lies.’ ”
And when, in the end, he finds it necessary to recall Fremont, his messengers cannot at first get access to the general at all, upon whom the letter has to be forced by a stratagem.
Thus delicately and grotesquely must the President of the Union handle his army commanders.
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