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CHAPTER XXI.

SPRING OF 1864.

R. LINCOLN was entering upon the last year of the Presidential term, and people were thinking about his renomination. He had made enemies. The Peace Democrats opposed him because he was carrying on the war so persistently and for issuing the Proclamation of Emancipation. Opprobrious and insulting epithets were still applied to him. Those aggrieved at the removal of General McClellan said the President was an autocrat and tyrant. Men who had endeavored to use him to attain their own selfish ends, but whom he had foiled, said he was not fit to be President. Members of Congress turned against him. Earnest and impulsive men, who wanted to see the Rebellion crushed at once, said Mr. Lincoln was too slow. Conservatives maiutained he was going too fast. Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, was ambitious to be President. He wrote a letter to his friend, Mr.

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James C. Hall, of Toledo, O., formally announcing himself as a Jan. 18, candidate. A committee of Senators, representatives, and citizens was formed to bring about his nomination. (') A circular was issued by Senator Pomeroy and others advocating the selection of Mr. Chase. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, one of the most influential members of Congress, was opposed to the renomination of Mr. Lincoln. (2) A friend of Mr. Stevens visited the Capitol. "Introduce me to some of the members who are friendly to Mr. Lincoln,” he said.

Mr. Stevens took him to Isaac N. Arnold, member from Illinois.

"You are the only one I know," said Mr. Stevens, "who favors the renomination of Lincoln, and I have come to introduce my friend to you."

"Thank you," replied Mr. Arnold; "I know many members who want him renominated. I will present your friend to them." (")

"If the question could be submitted to the people," said Mr. Stevens, in a speech, "the majority of them would vote for General Benjamin F. Butler." (*)

People in foreign countries were watching the conflict between freedom and slavery with much interest. Count Gasparin, of France, published a volume entitled, "The Uprising of a Great People." He admired President Lincoln, and wrote a letter to a friend in the United States, in which the hope was expressed that he would be renominated. The letter was sent to Horace Greeley, who replied as follows:

"Those who know the least about the way things are managed in Washington want Mr. Lincoln renominated, and I presume they will have their way. I match their judg ment with that of Congress, whereof not one-third of the Unionists desire Mr. Lincoln's renomination, and not half can be constrained to seem to oppose it even by the terror of popular reprobation. Count Gasparin, 3500 miles away, is naturally even more decided and zealous than any one in Connecticut. Well, 10,000 miles away he would be still more so. I am not accustomed to allow majorities to dictate my opinion; if I were, I should be among the new converts to abolition and share their choice of President. But having seen and felt too much during the last three mournful years, it seems my duty to force the nomination of some one who will not go through Baltimore in disguise and darkness when he goes to be inaugurated, and who will cause the mayor of Baltimore and young Christians of that city to be kicked out of the White House whenever they shall dare propose that troops be forbidden to cross the territory of Maryland to defend the federal metropolis. Had the first general that proved treacherous or cowardly been shot on sight thereafter, we should long since have seen the end of the Rebellion.” (*)

A committee of the New York Working-men's Association visited Washington to inform Mr. Lincoln he had been elected honorary member of that organization. The President, thanking them for the honor, said:

"I think your association must comprehend that the existing Rebellion means more than the perpetuation of African slavery-that it is a war upon the rights of working people. The most notable feature of the disturbance in your city last year was the hanging of some working people by other working people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting all working people of all nations, tongues, and kindreds; nor should this lead to a war on property or owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor. It is desirable. It is a positive good to the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.” (*)

Ten months had passed since the battle of Chancellorsville and the publishing of the poem, "Abraham Lincoln, Give us a Man." The man

field.

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had been found, and the President had appointed him lieutenant-general-Ulysses S. Grant. He was to command all the troops in the He saw the country was divided into nineteen military departments, each with an independent commander who received orders March 1, direct from the War Department. It was like having a team with nineteen horses-liable to pull in different directions. The troops were widely scattered; he would concentrate them and consolidate the departments. The theory of General Halleck had been that when a section of the Confederacy was conquered it must be held to reestablish the authority of the United States. It seemed to General Grant that it would be far better to crush the Confederate armies. When all power of resistance was gone it would be an easy matter to restore the civil authority.

General Grant never had met the President, but was on his way to Washington in obedience to a summons. The Cabinet, Mr. Stanton, and E. B. Washburne were in the White House when he entered.

March 9.

"General Grant," said the President, "the nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to be done in the existing struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you lieutenant-general in the army of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon you a corresponding responsibility. As the country trusts in you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need add that with what I here speak for the nation goes my own hearty personal concurrence."

The words were spoken with trembling lips, so deep the feeling of Mr. Lincoln.

"Mr. President," General Grant replied, "I accept the commission for the high honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields of our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full responsibilities now devolving upon me; and I know that if they are met it will be due to those armies, and, above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads nations and men."

General Grant visited the Army of the Potomac at Culpeper, and made the acquaintance of General Meade, took a look at the soldiers in a quiet way, and returned to Washington. Mrs. Lincoln had prepared a grand dinner expressly in his honor.

"Mrs. Lincoln must excuse me," he said. "I must be in Tennessee at the earliest possible moment."