of it was called for than might be included in a vigorous and successful prosecution of the war. Everybody saw the point clearly, and not a few were intelligent enough to perceive and say that the politicians had a great deal more time on their hands for that kind of political work than had the over-wearied toiler in the map-strewn room in the White House. They had all the time, indeed, that was used in the premises. Mr. Lincoln gave the matter no attention whatever, except when somebody forced it upon him. The real intriguers talked much and worked hard and failed for a long time to discover what a mere skeleton of a faction they really were. It consisted almost altogether of "leading men," and the further they went the greater became the gap between them and the vote-casting masses of the Union.

CHAPTER LI.

THE SECOND NOMINATION.

Lieutenant-General Grant-The First Great Relief-Dealing with Guerillas -Condensation of the Confederacy-The Double National Convention -The Administration Formally Approved.

THE military events of the winter of 1863-4, intensely interesting as they were, belong exclusively to the history of the They were such as enabled Mr. Lincoln to move steadily forward along the line he had so distinctly marked out.

war.

The grade of Lieutenant-General, previously created solely for the purpose of conferring an honor upon General Scott, was revived by Act of Congress, February 29, 1864, and the President fulfilled his own previous purpose concerning it when he complied with the popular acclamation which named Ulysses S. Grant as the man for the place. It was equally a matter of course that the President and the Lieutenant-General should instantly agree upon General W. T. Sherman as Grant's successor in the West.

General Grant received his new commission on the 9th of March, 1864, at the hands of the President in person, at the Executive Mansion, in the presence of the Cabinet and General Halleck. The occasion was made somewhat ceremonial, but the words spoken on either side were few and very much to the point. The appointment of an officer outranking all others was an affair of momentous importance. So far as the Army was concerned, only the President and, through him, the Secretary of War held higher commissions. Still it should be borne in mind that the new rank of General Grant did not necessarily affect

or change or reduce the rank of any other officer in any of the armies. General Meade remained as before, for instance, in direct command of the Army of the Potomac, which afterwards received Grant's orders through Meade. General Halleck did not cease to be the President's military counselor because Mr. Lincoln had at last obtained an arm of iron wherewith to deal the blows he had so longed to deal, but in vain.

General Grant at once entered upon the discharge of his duties, taking up his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, on the 10th of March; and it was not long before the President began to experience an unwonted feeling of relief. The tremendous burden which he had borne so long and so patiently began to slip away a little. He could with difficulty realize it at first, the situation was so new and so agreeable. A few weeks later, in April, a personal friend came into his office on Sunday forenoon. The President lay upon the sofa, seeming more than usually fatigued but cheerful. He did not rise at first, but chatted freely upon several topics. At last his visitor remarked:

"Now, Mr. Lincoln, what sort of a man is Grant? I've never even seen him. He has taken hold here while I have been laid up. What do you think of him?"

The President half arose, and laughed silently, as he replied: “Well, I hardly know what to think of him, alto

gether. He's the quietest little fellow you ever saw.”

"How is that?"

"Why, he makes the least fuss of any man you ever knew. I believe two or three times he has been in this room a minute or so before I knew he was here. It's about so all around. The only evidence you have that he's in any place is that he makes things git! Wherever he is, things move!”

He grew energetic as he talked, and there was almost a glow upon his face. He was describing the man he had been longing for. Other questions and answers followed, until the visitor inquired:

"But how about Grant's generalship? Is he going to be the

man ?"

Mr. Lincoln again half arose, and emphasized his reply with his long forefinger:

Grant is the first general I've had! He's a general !” "How do you mean, Mr. Lincoln ?" "Well, I'll tell you what I mean. You know how it's been with all the rest. As soon as I put a man in command of the army, he'd come to me with a plan of a campaign and about as much as say, 'Now, I don't believe I can do it, but if you say so I'll try it on,' and so put the responsibility of success or failure on me. They all wanted me to be the general. Now it isn't so with Grant. He hasn't told me what his plans are. I don't know, and I don't want to know. I'm glad to find a man that can go ahead without me:"

A slightly critical reply brought the President bolt upright. "You see,, when any of the rest set out on a campaign, they'd look over matters and pick out some one thing they were short of and they knew I couldn't give 'em, and tell me they couldn't hope to win unless they had it,-and it was most generally cavalry." He paused for one of his quiet, long, peculiar laughs and went on. "Now, when Grant took hold, I was waiting to see what his pet impossibility would be, and I reckoned it would be cavalry, as a matter of course, for we hadn't horses enough to mount even what men we had. There were fifteen thousand, or thereabouts, up near Harper's Ferry, and no horses to put them on. Well, the other day Grant sends to me about those very men, just as I expected; but what he wanted to know was whether he should make infantry of 'em or disband 'em. He doesn't ask impossibilities of me, and he's the first general I've had that didn't."

Somewhat carelessly and half grotesquely he had sketched some of his most trying responsibilities, such as had pressed upon him from before the firing of the Sumter gun. Men of all other sorts, as well as generals in command of armies, had demanded

impossibilities of him, and some had hated and denounced him because be performed no miracle. He might weli rejoice also, as he did, in the arrival of a man who would require no urging, but who would be sure to strike again, after every battle, with supreme indifference to the semblance which that battle might bear to either victory or defeat. That part of the load could be confidently laid aside: but what remained was still overheavy for mortal shoulders.

The work of restoring order in the reoccupied States was going bravely forward, and the severest measures for the suppression of guerilla warfare and neighborhood revenges were enforced with the President's full approval. That is to say, with his full approval of as much as he knew of the precise manner of the enforcement, for a good deal of bloody work was done whereof no report went up. The merciful side of his nature inclined him, in this important matter, to extend all possible protection to undefended homes and women and children. The continuous record of atrocities committed was an all-sufficient justification. He took all reasonable means, at the same time, for maintaining and defending the rights of colored soldiers in the ranks of Union armies, East and West.

Not taking into specific consideration operations on the sea, nor sea-coast defenses, nor detached commands, the military situation in the spring of the year 1864 may be summed up in outline as follows:

The dimensions and the strength of the Confederacy had been materially reduced, but the latter had been in a manner concentrated for its last despairing struggle. Its armies were composed largely of veterans, and were led by generals of unquestionable capacity. It had massed the greater part of these in two main bodies with their branches. One, under Lee, defended its old ground in Virginia. The other, under Johnston, held northwestern Georgia, and with it the railway connections and topographical advantages which made that position the key to all that remained to the Rebellion of the cotton-growing