ing hazardous experiments and visionary resorts-passed safely through the ordeal, and left to his successor no harder task than that he had himself assumed when taking the office. President Lincoln selected Hon. Hugh McCulloch, of Indiana, to fill the place made vacant by Senator Fessenden's resignation-an appointment not only promptly confirmed by the Senate, but cordially approved by the people. Judge McCulloch had organized the Currency bureau, and perfected the working of the National Bank system originated by Gov. Chase; and his later labors, as Secretary of the Treasury, have been attended with such marked success as to insure him a reputation in the office scarcely inferior to that of either of his predecessors under Mr. Lincoln's Administration.

This appointment of another Cabinet officer from Indiana, led to the resignation of Mr. Usher as Secretary of the Interior, to take effect on the 15th of May. Mr. Lincoln appointed Hon. James Harlan, a Senator from Iowa, to fill this vacancy, and his nomination, which was eminently satisfactory to the country, was at once confirmed by the Senate, on the 9th of March, in advance of the time at which he was to enter upon his duties at the head of the Department of the Interior. No other changes occurred in the constitution of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, at his entrance upon his second term of office.

The called session of the Senate terminated on the 11th of March. A large proportion of the nominations sent into that body, during this brief session, were promotions in the army and navy. Few changes were made in civil offices, the Presiident having determined to adopt no general system of "rotation." The Executive Mansion was, however, thronged by unusual numbers, during the first two or three weeks, and his time continually occupied with visitors, on manifold business, the variety and amount of which was such as no President before him ever grappled with, or would have conceived as within the range of possible attention. Much of this tax upon his time and vital energy was levied for the mere personal interests of either the visitor himself, or some importunate friend or constituent. Mr. Lincoln was uniformly indulgent to such appeals, when made in no offensive manner; and a

positive element of the wasting weariness which these incessant calls occasioned him, was the sympathetic regret he felt for the many whom he was daily compelled to disappoint, whom yet he would gladly have gratified. Much of this "pressure" related to other matters than official appointments. Most of it was, perhaps, as unavoidable by the visitor, as it was deemed to be by the President. But it was not, on this account, any the less exhausting. These, and other cares of graver sort, were manifestly telling upon his physical condition. For some days prior to the 15th of March, he was obliged to deny himself to visitors altogether. To those who had the opportunity of occasionally meeting him, when in his office, this change was doubtless generally apparent. It may be readily seen by all who compare his photographic likenesses, taken in the early part of the year 1864, with those of February and March, 1865. Not a little of this change was probably due to the anxieties he had continuously felt, and to the labors he had undergone, in connection with the great military campaigns of the past twelve-month, which were now near a final consummation.

On the 17th of March, Mr. Lincoln was present at the presentation to Gov. Morton, of Indiana, of a flag captured at Fort Anderson, near Wilmington, by Indiana troops. The ceremony occurred at the National Hotel, and the President, responding to the request of those present, made the following memorable speech from the balcony:

FELLOW CITIZENS: It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky; raised in Indiana, and live in Illinois [laughter], and I now am here, where it is my business to be, to care equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on this day able to present this captured flag to the Governor of the State of Indiana. I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, for all have done equally well.

There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not said or written something, whereby my own views might be made known. There is one: the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are sometimes called [laughter], to employ the negro to fight for them. I have

neither written nor made a speech upon that subject, because that was their business and not mine; and if I had a wish upon the subject, I had not the power to introduce it or make it effective.

The great question with them was, whether the negro, being put into the army, will fight for them. I do not know, and, therefore can not decide. [Laughter.] They ought to know better than we, and do know. I have in my life-time heard many arguments why the negro ought to be a slave; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery it will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that ought to be a slave. [Applause]. They have concluded, at last, to take one out of four of the slaves and put him in the army; and that one out of the four, who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a slave himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be; and, next to them, those white men who argue in favor of making other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men to try it for themselves. [Applause.]

I will say one thing with regard to the negro being employed to fight for them that I do know. I know he can not fight and stay at home and make bread too. [Laughter and applause.] And as one is about as important as the other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of

having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, and I wish I could send my vote over the river, so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. [Applause.] But they can not fight and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them, they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources, and we can now see the bottom. [Applause]. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. [Applause.] I have said now more than I intended to, and will therefore bid you good-by.

Partly to break away from the throngs at the White House, and to recuperate his strength, but perhaps still more from the impulse which had several times before induced him to visit the army at important crises, Mr. Lincoln determined to pass some time at the headquarters of Gen. Grant, at Petersburg. It is scarcely necessary to say that his presence with the army in the field, was not, in this or any other instance,

for the purpose of assuming any supervision of military affairs. He found a relief in an interchange of views with the commanding general, perhaps often not without profit to the latter, and a satisfaction in gaining such an exact knowledge of affairs as could only be obtained on the ground. More hopeful of an carly consummation of decisive results than at any previous hour, his mind was now, in spite of all distracting influences, intently fixed on the chief work of disarming treason and ending the deplorable work of war..

It was a period of joyous hope to the whole country, now cagerly watching the culmination of a series of widely-extended, but harmonious movements. From New Orleans, and from points above, on the Mississippi river, expeditions were penetrating the Gulf States eastward-partly cavalry raids, and partly detachments for the occupation of State capitals or other prominent towns in the great cotton region. Sherman, having already overrun Georgia and the Carolinas, was uniting with the armies of Schofield and Terry, at Goldsboro, N. C., and preparing to occupy Raleigh, as well as to envelop and crush the army of Johnston. Sheridan's cavalry force was sweeping down from the Shenandoah Valley, by Charlottsville, thoroughly breaking the Virginia Central Railroad, destroying the James river canal, isolating Lynchburg, and cutting off all communications further west, as, while moving down upon Richmond, creating universal panic there, as he passed around to join Grant and Meade. Ord's army was holding its advance line, in the positions so gallantly carried at Fort Harrison and Chapin's Farm, months before.

The army under Gen. Meade, which had constantly occupied Lee, giving his forces no release through the winter, while all the remoter and more active operations were going forward, and while events were rapidly sweeping on to a central consummation, was now ready to strike the final blows for which it had awaited the fitting time. From the moment that Grant assumed the general control, the enemy had had no moment's respite. Neither summer's heat, nor winter's cold; neither drenching rains, nor "horrible" roads; neither insufficiency of supplies, nor the want of re-enforcements; neither heavy losses,

nor temporary disappointments; no difficulty, no hazard, no subterfuge had prevented the irresistible onward tread and ceaseless pressure of our glorious legions upon the chief armies and the vital centers of the rebellion. For once, Mr. Lincoln's purpose had been fairly carried out. The Rebels had been given no coveted season for recuperation. The damage inflicted, they were allowed no leisure to repair. And thus the end was at hand.

President Lincoln was present at the memorable interview at Gen. Grant's Headquarters, at City Point, on the evening of the 27th of March, when the final movements in Virginia and North Carolina were arranged. Generals Meade, Sherman, Sheridan and Ord were among the leading commanders who participated in this conference. The terms to be made with the enemy, when decisively conquered, were, it may be presumed, incidentally considered, and Mr. Lincoln's policy, as definitely announced in the dispatch of Gen. Grant, of the 3d of March, already given, was left in full force. The military commanders were given no authority in making peace or establishing a basis of State re-organization, beyond the mere act of disarming and disbanding the Rebel forces. In regard to the conditions of surrender, a liberal course was deemed advisable, as may be inferred from the subsequent action of Gen. Grant.

It is not even alleged by Gen. Sherman, whose subsequent action was inconsistent with that of Gen. Grant, and with Mr. Lincoln's order of March 3d, that any authority was delegated to the military commanders, at this interview, or any other time, to enter into negotiations for peace. When examined before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, he explains his action in at first recognizing the Rebel State government of North Carolina, by stating that President Lincoln encouraged him to a similar course with the Governor of Georgia, when he (Sherman) was at Atlanta. He says he had " never received one word of instruction, advice or counsel, as to the plan or policy of the Government, looking to a restoration of peace on the part of the Rebel States of the South." In another part of his testimony, however, while still conceding that, at the time of his armistice with Johnston, he "did not