is very popular in Washington. The old general is said to think well of his military capacities; but he is said to be wavering in his idea of duty, whether it is to his country or his State. When any Southern officer of the army or navy does this, it is safe to count him against us.

"Of the older officers of the rank of General I remember General Wool, and the old commander himself, Winfield Scott, who, if he were no more aged and worn than he was through the Mexican War, would be, by all odds, the most competent leader of our armies to-day; but his time for the campaigns of war has gone. He has been one of the powers of the Government for more than a generation, and is a patriotic man among treacherous swarms, whom a hundred Virginias could not turn against his country. He is man and soldier yet, and, though old and passing to a better reward, is one of the mightiest men in the land, a patriot whose sword, as his name, will never be soiled with a cloud or taint of treason.

"I know General Wool, Colonels Robert Anderson, E. Sumner, and several younger men of our small military force, and a few officers of our smaller, but more widelyscattered navy. These I believe will be a nucleus prepared and ready, around which will grow the strongest, most intelligent, therefore the most reliable, military and naval forces which the world has seen for centuries. The American is among the best-informed, the most daring and venturesome, and the most capable of all the races of men, as I learned from a personal inspection of the armies and navies of Europe only a few years since.

"I know that, under the favor of God, the grandsons of the Revolutionary patriots will not see our country separated or dismembered until they are not only beaten, but destroyed, in war; and I feel as certain that hosts as brave as those honored sires or those who saved liberty under Cromwell, or that perished by thousands around the old

Iron Duke at Waterloo, will not suffer the Union to perish or let a single State be torn or wrested from us, and will gather in thousands from the Atlantic to the Pacific under the old flag.

"If they only knew it, these hot-tempered Southern leaders are preparing for the most terrible killing, loss of life, ruin, and destruction of property the world has known in a thousand years. I have been blamed and denounced almost without limit for making concessions to them, which I have done in the hope that it would lead to a peaceful settlement of our differences. Doing so, I have gone to the verge of danger, where I could go no farther without a sacrifice of the liberties of our people, and where it would be cowardly to go farther.

"We are now, it seems, where nothing but bloody war or ruin will quench their rising fury, where, because I must, I say: 'Come on with your reeking cohorts, and we will meet you with thousands and hundreds of thousands of as brave men as ever lived, who know they have but once to die, that no other death is so welcome as to go down heroically contending for the rights and liberties of men, which our forefathers baptized in their blood and left us as a heritage. Come on; I am ready, and our great State will send legions who will open the great river to the Gulf alone, if necessary.'

"I have great faith in President Lincoln. I have known him a lifetime. While we have disputed, antagonized, and stoutly contended with each other, we have lived in and believed in one country. I have done what I could to avert the coming and threatening struggle. I have been in it to the extent of my ability long before him, when now I am pleased-yes, joyful-that he so sincerely appreciates and understands my real position.

"When I recover a little, as God spares me, I will return to the contest and go into the strife wherever I can

do the most service. If personal sacrifice of any kind will aid in saving our country, it shall be freely given. To you personally I am thankful for your and your father's friendship, and so to all-to those who have and those who have not voted for me. We are one body of men for our country now. And, in closing, I am more than thankful to know that I could not have served a better, more intelligent, braver, or more patriotic people. I go with your interest in my heart, as I do with your prayers for my early recovery."

He was with us at Springfield almost two days, during which he saw and counseled with more than a thousand friends and acquaintances. It was a time when the people were in a state of great tension and anxiety. The war had actually begun. The madness was in progress. Fort Sumter had fallen. The flag of freedom had gone down in shocking disaster, humiliated, torn, and dishonored at the hands of some of our own people, turned to parricides and destroyers of their own liberties. All were pleased and overjoyed, not only in our own State, but wherever the Republic had friends, to know of the brave counsel and heroic stand of Douglas, that filled their lives with new hopes for our country.

He stirred up more than a million able-bodied men, able to fight-as brave Americans as ever lived-to a full sense of their duty and the priceless value of our free institutions. As he folded his mantle about him to lay himself down to rest, after his twenty years' continuing contest, he saw these springing to the front lines for the desperate strife, in serried lines, for duty, with Grant, Logan, McClernand, Oglesby, Wyman, Fouke, Morrison, Coler, and a hundred other gallant leaders in our own and other States. To all the parting was sad, mingled with the best hope of the people for his welfare and recovery. To many of us it was as if one of our own household had passed away.

W

CHAPTER XLIX.

HEN Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated and his Cabinet approved without mishap or unfriendly demonstra

tion of any kind, it was a great relief to meet and pass the notable events without jar or disturbance. There was no trouble because timely and ample means had been provided to prevent it.

With a Republican President legally installed, with the certain support of the loyal Democracy of the free States, the time and opportunity was at hand for the successful inauguration of the principles and policies of the party which had elected its President and Vice-President. Both branches of Congress were Republican, as they had been from the retirement of the seceders in January and February. It was the almost invariable custom to introduce a new policy on the accession of a new or opposition party. On Mr. Lincoln's inauguration this rule was at once set aside. In place of organizing a party Government, he made it the chief purpose of his Administration to save the Nation from destruction. He did this as a work of high statesmanship, when danger was so imminent and probable from its well-organized foes. To this end he sought the help of all loyal men and party organizations.

President Lincoln's grasp of all there was in any subject was so instant and strong, his patience and attention to everything deserving his care were so tireless, that nothing of what he held or came to him as a duty was ever neglected. In illustration, his mastery of detail, during the Lincoln

and Douglas campaign of 1858, he knew the political standing of every State newspaper, daily or weekly, of which there were several hundred in the more than one hundred counties, and he had personal acquaintance with almost every one of their publishers, whom he could call by name, and knew his home and his paper on meeting them. In the summer of 1864, when the movement to nominate Secretary Chase against him for President was at its height, a good friend, in talking it over, said it was strong enough to need his attention, and was likely more than he believed it was. Mr. Lincoln said nothing at the time, but on meeting the friend some two weeks later, said: "I've been looking up Mr. Chase's campaign in his own State. I sent for a copy of every political newspaper published in Ohio. More than half of the Republican papers are for me, a quarter of the others are either careless or silent, and not quite one-fourth of them are for him. Of the Democratic press, several are friendly, and some quite pronounced in saying my re-election is the best thing that can be done. Not one of these favors Chase; but all are against him. Until they get his campaign in better fix at home, I don't think it will amount to much. It is too small a movement to fight hard, and I really believe that his daughter and the Cincinnati papers are about all there is of it. He surely does not expect success, and I do not intend to treat him as though he did."

When the condition of the country became the subject of so much dread and alarm, from the assembling of Congress in December, 1860, it is true that his situation at Springfield did not give him the facilities and opportunities for counsel and consideration he should have had through that perilous winter. All this he realized, but with the belief that he could do no better than patiently wait. He was a man who employed every resource and always prepared himself for his duties, so as to be ready for every emergency. In this preparation he held correspondence