cerned that the country would hold him responsible for any failure which might attend the carrying out of the plan which most commended itself to his judgment. Neither McClellan, Naglee, or the division commanders acting with him foresaw that by forcing the President to accept their project the country would hold McClellan responsible. Naglee and Senators Rice and Latham devised the scheme to blind the President and save McClellan from removal. They did not know the colored slips of paper were on file in the pigeon-holes of the War Department, and that Secretary Stanton knew all that had been going on. (1)

McClellan had been in command of all the troops in the country.

The President issued an order relieving him from such control, Mar. 11. but continuing him as General of the Army of the Potomac.

General McClellan had not organized the army into corps, but divisions only, giving as a reason "that the mistakes of an incompetent division commander might be rectified, while those of a corps commander might prove fatal." After seeing what the division commanders were competent to do in battle, he might then divide the army into corps. The President had been studying authorities on military art. He thought an army organized into twelve divisions could not do the most effective work, and, without consulting McClellan, arranged the divisions into four corps, appointing Generals Sumner, Heintzelman, Keyes, and McDowell as commanders. This action of the President was very distasteful to McClellan. In his "Own Story" he says:

"It was the work of the President and the Secretary of War, probably urged by McDowell. It was issued without consulting me, and against my judgment."

The army was returning from Centreville. The withdrawal of the Confederates had left McClellan in a position where he must do some

thing. He called the four corps commanders to counsel with

Mar. 13. him. A plan for removing the army to York River, leaving enough to protect Washington, was agreed to unanimously. General Sumner said a total force of 40,000 should be left. Generals Keyes, Heintzelman, and McDowell said enough should be left to garrison the forts around the city, besides 25,000 men in front of it. The President reluctantly accepted the plan. Steamers at Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, also many sailing-vessels, were engaged to transport the army.

The operations of the Merrimac, together with information that the Confederates were likely to have gunboats from England, created

great uneasiness in New York, and a committee, representing moneyed men, hastened to Washington to see the President about protecting that city. Accordingly, fifty gentlemen called upon Mr. Lincoln, to duly impress him with the gravity of the situation. They said a British-built cruiser might suddenly appear in the harbor, destroy the shipping and bombard the city, or demand millions of dollars for its ransom. They represented $100,000,000. It was the imperative duty of the Government to protect them by sending a gunboat to that port. The President listened attentively to the earnest speech of the chairman.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I am, by the Constitution, commander - inchief of the army and navy of the United States, and, as a matter of law, I can order anything done that is practicable to be done; but, as a matter of fact, I am not in command of the ships of war. I do not know exactly where they are, but presume that they are actively engaged. It is impossible for me in the condition of things to furnish you a gunboat. The credit of the Government is at a low ebb. The currency is depreciating. Now, if I was worth half as much as you, gentlemen, are represented to be, and as badly frightened as you seem to be, I would build a gunboat and give it to the Government."

The gentlemen never had looked at it in that light. They saw they had cheapened themselves by making the request, and in not taking into account the fact that the Government was employing its utmost energies to save the nation. With profuse apologies for troubling the President they left the White House. (")

More agreeable news than that regarding the fitting out of war vessels came from England. Princess Alexandra, daughter of the King of Denmark, had been married to the Prince of Wales with much pomp and ceremony. Lord Lyons, the British Minister, was directed to notify the President of this most important event. Every nation must be duly informed. Lord Lyons was a bachelor, but ever maintained the embassy with true British dignity. He rode in state to the executive mansion at an appointed hour to present the Queen's letter.

"Mr. President," he said, "it will be my duty and my great pleasure to transmit to my most gracious sovereign Victoria whatever response it may please the President of the United States to make."

There is a merry twinkle in the eyes of Abraham Lincoln, as he takes the official letter and replies:

"Lyons, go and do thou likewise." (")

The dignity of the British realm was suddenly snuffed out. To the President the proceeding was farcical and ludicrous. He had relegated

it to the past, with the knee-breeches, ruffled shirts, and cocked hats of a by-gone age. It was perfectly proper for the Prince of Wales to get married; he had set Lord Lyons a good example; but to the millions of American people, who were themselves sovereigns, the event was of no more consequence than a marriage of a couple in a country village.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XVI.

(1) "Century Magazine," October, 1888.

(2) Ibid.

(3) George B. McClellan's "Own Story," p. 157.

(*) Ibid.

(*) J. W. Hutchinson to Author.

(*) Ibid.

(*) Donn Piatt, "Memories of Men who Saved the Union," p. 57.

(*) J. G. Holland, "Life of Abraham Lincoln," p. 435.

(°) Robert Lincoln was born August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846, died in infancy; William Wallace, December 21, 1850, died February, 1862; Thomas, April 4,

1853.

(10) F. B. Carpenter, "Six Months in the White House," p. 117.

(1) William D. Kelley, "Lincoln and Stanton,” p. 22.

(12)

"War Records," vol. v., series i., p. 727.

(13) L. E. Chittenden, "Recollections of President Lincoln," p. 209.

(14) William D. Kelley, "Lincoln and Stanton,” p. 40.

(15) Ibid.

(16) Ibid., p. 42.

(1) Ibid., p 43.

(18) Ibid., p. 33.

(19) Ibid., p. 41.

(20) Chauncey M. Depew, "Reminiscences of President Lincoln,” p. 433.

(21) Schuyler Colfax, "Reminiscences of President Lincoln," p. 346.

1862.

CHAPTER XVII.

PRELIMINARY TO EMANCIPATION.

ENERAL GRANT was encamped at Pittsburg Landing, on the west bank of the Tennessee. General Buell was leisurely moving from Nashville to join him. After the loss of Fort Donelson the Confederates concentrated at Corinth, twenty two miles from the April 6, position occupied by Grant. General Beauregard had been sent west by Jefferson Davis, to aid Albert Sidney Johnston in concentrating and organizing an army. They resolved to attack Grant, and crush him before the arrival of Buell. Though not expecting to be attacked, and although many of the men were asleep when the first volley of musketry broke the stillness of the morning, the Union soldiers did not flee, but fought obstinately through the day. (See "Drum-beat of the Nation.") General Nelson's troops of Buell's army arrived at sunset, and were placed in line of battle. Before morning other divisions joined them, and the Confederates suffered a disastrous defeat. General Grant had maintained the battle against a superior force during the first day of the conflict. He had displayed great ability at Donelson. Yet busy bodies were depreciating him; they informed the President that he drank intoxicating liquor.

"Are
you sure of it?" the President asked.
"So they say."

"Thank you. Now, if you will find out what kind of liquor he drinks, I'll send some of the same brand to other generals."

Gratifying news came from New Orleans: General Butler and Admiral Farragut were in possession of the city.

The negroes left behind by their masters on the Sea Islands of South Carolina were being fed and clothed by General Hunter, who

had been appointed to command a military department comprisMay, ing South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He issued a procla

1862.

mation, in which he said that slavery and martial law in a free country were incompatible. He declared that all slaves in his depart

ment were therefore entitled to their freedom. It greatly gratified those who desired to see the system destroyed.

"General Hunter ought to be sustained," said Secretary Chase to the President. (')

By what authority had Hunter issued this order? Solely that of military law. But the President was commander-in-chief.

"No commanding general shall do such a thing upon my responsibility without consulting me," his reply to Secretary Chase. An order was issued by Mr. Lincoln setting aside that of his personal friend, whom he knew to be loyal, honest, and true. Friendship did not have the weight of a feather in the decision.

"Whether it be competent for me," reads the order, "as commanderin-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case it shall beMay 19. come a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the Government to exercise such supposed powers, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field."

Once in the world's history, when a favored people gave themselves to wickedness, when violence and oppression ruled, when the dry and thirsty land was parched with summer heat, and the famine sore, a prophet of God sent up his supplication, and there appeared a cloud like a man's hand, as it were, above the sea-the sign of coming rain. So at an hour when the wickedness of the Rebellion was filling the country with woe; when the land was parched by the heat of war, red with human gore, lurid with the lightning of battle, resounding with the thunder of the cannonade; when supplications were ascending to God that the causes of the woe and anguish might be swept awayAbraham Lincoln, like the prophet of old, spoke the words which will ever remain as the sign of the coming of one of the greatest political and philanthropic events of all the ages: the gift of freedom to 4,000,000 bondmen.

Will

Yet there were those who could not discern the little cloud. iam Lloyd Garrison could not see it. He said, " All honor to General Hunter. With cheer upon cheer the welkin rings. Shame and confusion of face to the President for his halting, shuffling, backward policy. By his act he has dispirited and alienated the truest friends of freedom universally, and gratified the malignity of the enemies of his Administration, who at heart are traitors." (2)

Some of the newspapers failed to comprehend the meaning under