"That will be impossible,' replied McClellan. 'We need time. The influences at Washington will be too strong for you, Mr. President. I will not be allowed the required time for preparation.

General McClellan then recalled the exact words of Lincoln in reply:

"General, I pledge myself to stand between you and harm."

"And I honestly believe," said General McClellan, "that the President meant every word he said, but that the influences at Washington were, as I predicted, too strong for him or for any living man."

In a conversation with General Sherman, I once asked him if he had ever heard the story that General Grant, at one important crisis, cut the telegraph wires between Washington and his headquarters in order to get rid of civil interference with his military operations.

"Did he?" said the General, laughing, "why, I did that! I never heard before that Grant did it!"

He spoke for some time of the serious obstacles to the prosecution of the war caused by political interferences, and added, "I could do more with one hundred thousand men free from political control, than with three hundred thousand near Washington."

In the better sense, Lincoln was, perhaps, some

what of a casuist in believing that the end sometimes sanctifies the means; but his masterly common sense was the guiding beacon in every stress and storm of events. He was so great in all the larger attributes of statesmanship that few, aside from those intimately associated with him, recognized his genius as a practical politician. He was ambitious, not merely because he knew his own great resources and aptitudes, but because he profoundly believed himself to be necessary to the country in the dire exigencies of the period. He alone had complete grasp of a situation unparalleled in our history; and this was the general conviction of the large majority of the loyal men of the North. There is no cause, then, to marvel that he should have greatly desired a re-election in 1864, because his second term would not only cover the close of the war drama which, for four years, had absorbed the attention of a watchful world, but also the still greater responsibilities of reconstructing the shattered Union.

Recognizing the fact that the anxiety of Lincoln for a second term was a far nobler passion than anything rooted in mere personal pride or ambition, and remembering his offer to Governor Seymour, we can easily understand how he could justify himself in bringing all his skill in practical politics to bear on the problem of re-election,

An incident, hitherto unpublished, will illustrate

this trait.

During the fall of 1864 it became evident that Pennsylvania was a "doubtful State." General McClellan, the candidate of the Democratic party, was not only popular there as a native Pennsylvanian, but, even among those loyal to the administration, he had a strong following and great sympathy, from the belief that he had been a much abused man. Lincoln was advised by the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania that the prospect was very uncertain. It was felt that, on the result in the Keystone State, hinged the fate of the national election. A gentleman belonging to the Republican Committee, then, as now, one of the leading politicians of the State, had a consultation with the President on the situation. He thus relates the interview:

"Mr. President," I said, "the only sure way to organize victory in this contest, is to have some fifteen thousand, or more, Pennsylvania soldiers furloughed and sent home to vote. While their votes in the field would count man for man, their presence at the polls at home would exert an influence not easily to be estimated, by exciting enthusiasm and building up party morale. I would advise you to send a private message to General Grant, to be given in an unofficial way, asking for such an issu

ance of furloughs to Pennsylvania, soldiers in the field."

Lincoln was silent for some moments and seemed to be pondering. Then he answered:

"I have never had any intimation from General Grant as to his feeling for me. I don't know how far he would be disposed to be my friend in the matter, nor do I think it would be safe to trust him."

The President's interlocutor responded with some heat, “And do you mean to say that the man at whose back you stood, in defiance of the clamor of the country, for whom you fought through thick and thin, would not stand by you now?"

"I don't know that General Grant would be my friend in this matter," reiterated the President.

"Then, let it be done through General Meade, the direct commander of the Army of the Potomacand General Sheridan, how about him?"

At this question, Lincoln's face grew sunny and bright. "I can trust Phil," he said; "he's all right!"

As a result of this conference, one of the assistant secretaries of war was sent to Petersburg with a strictly unofficial message to General Meade, and another agent was deputed to visit General Sheridan. Some 10,000 or more Pennsylvania soldiers went home to vote when the time came, and Penn

sylvania was carried by a handsome majority for the administration.

If statesmanship is a practical science, to be tested by the touch-stone of enduring success, then is Lincoln entitled to a place among the world's great statesmen. He was not of the rulers who seek only to impress their own will on the nation. He was not of the rulers who play for mere place in the great game of politics.

As, in the first instance, tyrants are the selfish masters, so, in the other, demagogues are the selfish servants. But, above them, stand the men who have sought power to hold it as a sacred trust, and whose ambition and conduct are regulated by an ardent purpose to serve great national interests. It seems not too much to say that among these was Lincoln.

He was pre-eminently a democratic ruler. Profoundly believing in a government of the people, by the people and for the people, however earnest his wish, as a man, to promote and enact justice between classes and races, he never went faster nor further than to enforce the will of the people that elected him. His strength as a President lay in his deep sympathy with the people, "the plain folks," as he loved to call them, and his intuitive knowledge of all their thoughts and aims, their prejudices and preferences, equally and alike. He was elected to save the Union, not to destroy slavery; and