tience were needed to complete his task; many months-and in less than a year there would be a presidential election, and he might be obliged to leave his task unfinished. He did not hesitate to say frankly that he wanted the opportunity to finish it. Among the leaders of the Republican party were a few conservatives who, in the fall of 1863, supported Lincoln in his desire for a second term; but there were more who doubted his ability and who were secretly looking for an abler man. At the same time, a strong and open opposition to his re-election had developed in the radical wing of the party.

The real cause of this opposition was Lincoln's unswervable purpose to use emancipation purely as a military measure. The earliest active form this opposition took was probably under the direction of Horace Greeley. In the spring of 1863, Mr. Greeley had become thoroughly disheartened by the slow progress of the war and the meager results of the Emancipation Proclamation. He was looking in every direction for some one to replace Lincoln, and eventually he settled on General Rosecrans, who at that moment was the most successful general before the country. Greeley, after consulting with a number of Republican leaders, decided that some one should go to Rosecrans and sound him. James R. Gilmore (“ Edmund Kirke ") was chosen for this mission. Mr. Gilmore recounts, in his "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln," as an evidence of the extent of the discontent with Lincoln, that when he started on his mission, Mr. Greeley gave him letters to Rosecrans from about all the more prominent Republican leaders except Roscoe Conkling, Charles Sumner, and Henry Wilson.

Mr. Greeley's idea was, as he instructed Mr. Gilmore, to find out, first, if Rosecrans was "sound on the goose" (political slang for sound on the anti-slavery policy), and, secondly, if he would consider the nomination to the presi

dency. If Mr. Gilmore found Rosecrans satisfactory, Greeley declared that he would force Lincoln to resign, put Hamlin in his place, and compel the latter to give Rosecrans the command of the whole army. His idea was, no doubt, that the war would then be finished promptly and Rosecrans would naturally be the candidate in 1864.

Mr. Gilmore went on his mission. Rosecrans seemed to him to fulfil Mr. Greeley's ideas, and finally he laid the case before him. The General replied very promptly: "My place is here. The country gave me my education, and so has a right to my military services." He also declared that Mr. Greeley was wrong in his estimate of Lincoln and that time would show it.

Lincoln knew thoroughly the feeling of the radicals at this time; he knew the danger there was to his hopes of a second term in opposing them; but he could be neither persuaded nor frightened into modifying his policy. The most conspicuous example of his firmness was in the case of the Missouri radicals.

The radical party in Missouri was composed of men of great intelligence and perfect loyalty; but they were men of the Frémont type, idealists, incapable of compromise and impatient of caution. They had been in constant conflict with the conservatives of the State since the breaking out of the war, and by the spring of 1863, the rupture had become almost a national affair. Both sides claimed to be Union men and to believe in emancipation; but while the conservatives believed in gradual emancipation, the radicals demanded that it be immediate. The fight became so bitter that, as Lincoln said to one of the radicals who came to him early in 1863, begging his interference: "Either party would rather see the defeat of their adversary than that of Jefferson Davis. You ought to have your heads knocked together," he added in his exasperation.

From a photograph by Brady, and kindly loaned by Mr. Noah Brooks for this reproduction.

Finally, he determined that he must break up somehow what he called their "pestilent, factional quarrel," and sent a new military governor, General J. M. Schofield, to Missouri. The advice he gave him was this:

Let your military measures be strong enough to repel the invader and keep the peace, and not so strong as to unnecessarily harass and persecute the people. It is a difficult rôle, and so much greater will be the honor if you perform it well. If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other.

General Schofield was not able to live up to Lincoln's counsel. He incurred the suspicion and dislike of the radicals, and they determined that he must be removed. September 1, a great convention was held, and a committee of seventy persons was appointed to go to Washington and demand from Mr. Lincoln a redress of grievances. The convention of course had the sympathy of the radical anti-slavery element of the whole North in its undertaking, and when the Committee of Seventy started for Washington they received an ovation in almost every State through which they passed. Arrived in Washington, they became the centre of the town's interest, and a great reception was given them in Union League Hall, at which eminent men denounced the conservatives of Missouri and demanded immediate emancipation.

Mr. Lincoln did not receive the Committee at once but sent for their Secretary, Dr. Emil Preetorius, a leading German Radical. Mr. Preetorius says:

"In response to a request from the President himself I immediately, in company with Senator Jim' Lane, called at the White House. Mr. Lane soon excused himself and left me alone with the President. I had a long talk with him,