ton Roads, between President Lincoln and the three Confederate Commissioners, one of them, Mr. Hunter, insisted that the recognition of the power of President Jefferson Davis to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace. He referred to the correspondence between Charles I. and his Parliament as a trustworthy precedent of a constitutional ruler dealing with rebels.

Mr. Lincoln put on an expression of grim, sarcastic humor as as he replied:

"Upon questions of history, I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't pretend to be bright. My only distinct recollection of the matter is that Charles lost his head."

Not a great while before Mr. Lincoln's second nomination, a friend

mentioned to him the well-known fact that a member of the Cabinet was also a probable presidential candidate :

"You were brought up on a farm, were you not?" he replied. "Then you know what a 'chin-fly' is. My brother and I and I were once ploughing on an Illinois farm. I was driving the horse and he was holding the plough. The horse was lazy; but on one occasion he rushed across the field so that I with my long legs could scarcely keep up with him. On reaching the end of the furrow, I found an enormous chin-fly fastened on him and knocked it off. My brother asked me what I did that for. I told him I didn't want the old horse bitten in that way. Why,' said my brother, 'that's all that made him go! Now if Mr. has a presidential chin-fly biting him, I'm not going

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to knock it off, if it will only make his Department go."

Among the European soldiers who from time to time came over and offered to serve in the Union armies was one young man who, on receiving his commission as lieutenant, assured the President that he belonged to the oldest nobility of Germany. "Oh!" replied Mr. Lincoln. "Never mind that. You will not find that to be an obstacle to your advancement."

Mr. Lincoln was one day asked: "How many men do you suppose the Confederates have now in the field?"

"Twelve hundred thousand, according to the best authority," was the prompt reply.

"Good Heavens!" exclaimed the inquirer.

"Yes, sir, twelve hundred thousand. No doubt of it. You see, all our generals, when they get whipped, say the enemy outnumbers them from three or five to one, and I must believe them. We have four hundred thousand in the field and three times four makes twelve. Don't you see it?"

The result of the great conflict seemed to be in more doubt than ever, just after the Emancipation Proclamation. Mr. Lincoln expressed his own view of the situation with: "We are a good deal like whalers who have been long on a chase. At last we have got our harpoon fairly into the monster; but we must look out how we steer, or with one flop of his tail he will yet send us all into eternity!"

During one of the long periods

of inaction of the Army of the Potomac, the President remarked to a corps-commander and another gentleman with whom he was discussing military matters :

"If something is not done pretty soon, the bottom will fall out of the whole affair, and if General McClellan doesn't want. to use the army, I'd like to borrow it of himprovided I could see how it could be made to do something."

While General Grant's ability as a commander was yet in doubt, a storm of criticisms assailed him. At one time during the siege of Vicksburg, a delegation of his critics. waited upon the President and vigorously demanded the substitution of some other general.

"Well, well," responded Mr. Lincoln, "but why should Grant be removed?"