CHAPTER XXXVI.

PRESIDENT AND GENERAL.

The Army of the Potomac-Newspaper Acrobats-The President's MailWork of the Private Secretaries-Army Organization-An Advance which was Not Made-Offensive and Defensive War.

THE routine of Mr. Lincoln's office-work, during this first summer and autumn, as afterwards, was varied by occasional visits to the camps and forts, where he was always welcomed with enthusiasm. The personal attachment for him among the rank and file of the army grew faster and became stronger than his critics and enemies were at all willing to believe.

His evenings at home were also varied now not unfrequently by visits at the house of the general in command of the Army of the Potomace, when McClellan happened to be in the city. The President's course and personal relations with him for a time were, as nearly as might be, those of a confiding and familiar friend. The entire mass of the written correspondence between them bears witness to such a state of things. In the eyes of Mr. Lincoln's nearest advisers he seemed even too indifferent to all rules of military etiquette, and also to a very apparent assumption and arrogance in act and manner on the part of his brilliant subordinate. These were as yet of minor consequence, and the main thing, after all, was that the work in hand should be done.

There were great things going on in those days in the West and elsewhere; and of these we shall take due note farther on. But at the present juncture we have to do with matters which then chiefly engaged Mr. Lincoln's attention, and that

of the country at large throughout the Atlantic States. To the minds of people at Washington the Army of the Potomac was the Army of the United States. It was very important, certainly; and its splendid commander with his glittering staff dashing through the streets like a small earthquake-in-newuniform were a wonder which must, men thought, dazzle the eyes of all the millions who were not there to see. The country at large was but moderately dazzled, and the President not at all. He knew that the area of the war extended beyond the picket-lines of that one army, for he was watching the swift fluctuations of success and disaster to the farthest frontier. He was also studying the rapid changes of thought and purpose among the people, and knew what a continual battle there was in the souls of men and women all over the North. He grew more and more absorbed in his work and more difficult of approach upon any but needful business.

Nevertheless it was during these months that he almost entirely gave up any attempt at reading the newspapers. He at one time instructed one of his private secretaries to make a daily digest of the attitude of the leading journals as editorially expressed.

It was actually so done for about a week. The President glanced at the digest once or twice, during that time, but he discovered how little he really cared for it all, and told the young man to return to more useful work. There were too many sudden "revolutions," perhaps, in the attitudes assumed by the journalists, while there was really but one with which he or the people had anything to do.

The mail of the Executive Mansion, always large, had now grown to a volume which was, probably, not afterwards increased. Its very size shut out all probability of its examination by Mr. Lincoln himself. Counting packages of documents as one "letter," the number of letters of all kinds varied from two hundred to two hundred and fifty each day. The range of subjects treated by the writers was about as wide as

the human imagination. It is possible that three per cent of these communications, including subsequent references, were at some time seen by the President. About half were sure to relate to business belonging to bureaus of the several executive departments and were at once forwarded to the proper places. The other half might contain a few which required filing in the President's own office for reference. The secretary's wastebasket received the mass remaining, of advice, abuse, fault-finding, insanity, egotism, and threats of personal violence. A careful estimate shows that of all the letters sent by mail to Mr. Lincoln, at this time, he saw and read, at the time of their arrival, about one in a hundred: less rather than more. The fact illustrates forcibly the absorption of his mind and the pressure upon his time and energies, for it had been his lifelong habit to examine with care every paper that came to him from any source, however humble. Even when some epistle of uncommon importance prompted the secretary in charge to urge its contents upon him, the response was sure to be, "Well, what is it?" and a digest in brief was expected unless the letter itself were of the briefest.

It

With the more persistently intrusive official and legislative multitude it was not possible to deal in a similar way. was out of the question to put the most selfish of men into a waste-basket, nor was it easy to transfer such a person to his proper bureau. Nevertheless, the secretaries in charge of the matter did succeed in performing, for the throngs of callers, a process analogous in some of its results to that employed upon the mails.

Mr. Lincoln's time and strength were saved for him to the extent of their very good ability, and they protected him from untold annoyances. It was a good while before the President's patience gave way and he came, at last, to their assistance. Embodied pertinacities would succeed in getting in their "cards" and securing interviews to which they were not entitled.

Very much this state of things continued, to the end. Time

did but perfect the simple and unostentatious machinery with which the President performed his duties. He did but put himself continually into more complete connection with and relations to the vast and complicated organism of national administration which was fast assuming shape and efficiency.

In every corner of the country, all imaginable interests were adjusting their relations to the government, or discovering that they had any, mainly through the varied means by which they were induced to take upon them some share of the public burdens or were able to derive profit from the public expenditures.

Of all the formative processes, in all their ramifications, no other man knew or could know so much as did Mr. Lincoln. No better example can be given, perhaps, than the creation of the first Army of the Potomac. The credit of this has been generally accorded to McClellan, and the President is himself a witness that his first commander did zealously and well the part that by nature and assignment belonged to him. There is a sense in which it was the part of a truly great Orderly Sergeant, and ignorance only can underestimate or despise a work so vitally important.

The men who were to form that army had been gathered by Mr. Lincoln, as has been seen, and they were now in the service of the United States under due form of law. The selections of regimental officers had been made under State authorities.

The appointment of brigade, division, and corps commanders was in the hands of the President. So of all appointments in the Ordnance, Commissary, and Quartermaster services; and the connection of these with the War Office continued to be more or less direct, even after they were ordered to duty. Their efficiency depended largely upon that of their specific official superiors, and these were practically on the staff of the President. The latter had, therefore, not only an intimate knowledge of the conditions of the army, but an especial respon

sibility concerning its operations. It was this which gave him the right to complain when after all had been done except the duty of the field-commander, performance failed to follow preparations and so vast and costly a machine remained comparatively unemployed.

This, as hinted above, grew to be Mr. Lincoln's chief care during that momentous winter of 1861-2. As is well known, an "advance" of the Army of the Potomac had been planned, and, by an order issued by the President on the 27th of January, it was to take place on the 22d of February. Every effort had been made that there should by that time be at least a show presented to the nation of something to come of all the sacrifices it was making. The President knew but too well the profoundly disturbed and irritated state of public feeling. He knew how much of justice was in the eager popular demand for "action," and had been uttering it continually in every form of speech and writing. He had studied and planned and provided, toiling by day and night that nothing required should be lacking. He was intensely, absorbingly interested, and had been positively assured that the ordered advance would be duly made. He was not in any manner undeceived until a day or two before the date assigned. He was alone in his room when an officer of General McClellan's staff was announced by the door-keeper and was admitted. The President turned in his chair to hear, and was informed, in respectful set terms, that the advance movement could not be made.

"Why?" he curtly demanded.

"The pontoon trains are not ready—"

"Why in hell and damnation ain't they ready?"

The officer could think of no satisfactory reply, but turned very hastily and left the room. Mr. Lincoln also turned to the table and resumed the work before him, but wrote at about double his ordinary speed.

Little apology is called for by the precise manner of his expression; entirely at variance from his habit of speech, it was