CHAP. III. out the nation. When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume it afterwards, elected to stand out, such amendment to the Constitution as is now proposed became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now the unconditional Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect.

Mc

Pherson, "History of the

Rebellion," p. 408.

June 9, 1864.

cause.

On the same day a committee of the Union League presented themselves to inform him of the action taken the night before. The President answered them more informally, saying that he did not allow himself to suppose that either the Convention or the League had concluded that he was either the greatest or the best man in America, but rather that they had decided that it was not best "to swap horses while crossing the river." All day the throngs of shouting and congratulating delegates filled the approaches to the Executive Mansion. In a brief speech at night, in answer to a serenade from citizens of Ohio, the President said: "What we want, still more than Baltimore conventions or Presidential elections, is success under General Grant. I propose that you constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that point." He then proposed three cheers for General Grant and the officers and soldiers with him, and, swinging his own hat, led off in the cheering.

The more formal notification of the Convention CHAP. III. was made in a letter written by George William Curtis of New York, in which he paraphrased the platform and expressed the sentiment of the Convention and of the people of the country with his usual elegance and force. "They have watched your official course with unflagging attention; and amid the bitter taunts of eager friends and the fierce denunciation of enemies, now moving too fast for some, now too slowly for others, they have seen you throughout this tremendous contest patient, sagacious, faithful, just; leaning upon the heart of the great mass of the people, and satisfied to be moved by its mighty pulsations. It is for this reason that, long before the Convention met, the popular instinct had plainly indicated you as its candidate, and the Convention therefore merely recorded the popular will. Your character and career prove your unswerving fidelity to the cardinal principles of American liberty and of the American Constitution. In the name of that liberty and Constitution, sir, we earnestly request your acceptance of this nomination, reverently commending our beloved country, and you, its Chief Magistrate, with all its brave sons who, on sea and land, are faithfully defending the good old American cause of equal rights, to the blessing of Almighty God."

In accepting the nomination the President observed the same wise rule of brevity which he had followed four years before. He made but one specific reference to any subject of discussion. While he accepted the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican government upon the West

Committee to Lincoln, June 14, 1864. MS.

CHAP. III.

ern continent, he gave the Convention and the country distinctly to understand that he stood by the action already adopted by himself and the Secretary of State. He said: "There might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Department and approved and indorsed by the Convention among the measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so long as Committee, the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent 1864. Ms. and applicable."

Lincoln to

June 27,

CHAPTER IV

AFTE

THE RESIGNATION OF MR. CHASE

1864.

FTER Mr. Chase's withdrawal from his hopeless CHAP. IV. contest for the Presidency, his sentiments towards Mr. Lincoln, as exhibited in his letters and his diary, took on a tinge of bitterness which gradually increased until their friendly association in the public service became no longer possible. There was something almost comic in the sudden collapse of his candidacy; and the American people, who are quick to detect the ludicrous in any event, could not help smiling when the States of Rhode Island and Ohio ranged themselves among the first on the side of the President. This was intolerable to Mr. Chase, who, with all his great and noble qualities, was deficient in humor. His wounded self-love could find no balm in these circumstances, except in the preposterous fiction which he constructed for himself that, through "the systematic operation of the Postmaster-General and those holding office under him a preference for the reelection of Mr. Lincoln was created." Absurd as this fancy was, he appears firmly to have believed it; and the Blairs, whom he never liked, now appeared to him in the light of powerful enemies. An incident which occurred in Congress in April increased this impression to a degree which was almost

Chase to
General
Blunt,

May 4, 1864.

Warden, "Life of

Salmon P.

Chase," p. 583.

1864.

CHAP. IV. maddening to the Secretary. The quarrel between General Francis P. Blair, Jr., and the radicals in Missouri had been transferred to Washington; and one of the Missouri members having made charges against him of corrupt operations in trade permits, he demanded an investigation, which resulted, of course, in his complete exoneration from such imputations.

It was a striking instance of the bewildering power of factious hatred that such charges should ever have been brought. Any one who knew Blair, however slightly, should have known that personal dishonesty could never have offered him the least temptation. In defending himself on the floor of Congress the natural pugnacity of his disposition led him to what soldiers call an offensive return,in fact, Frank Blair always preferred to do his fighting within the enemy's lines,- and believing the Secretary of the Treasury to be in sympathy, at least, with the assault which had been made upon his character, he attacked him with equal vigor and injustice by way of retaliation. As we have seen in another chapter, before this investigation was begun the President had promised when Blair should resign his seat in the House to restore him to the command in the Western army which he had relinquished on coming to Washington. Although he greatly disapproved of General Blair's attack upon Mr. Chase, the President did not think that he was justified on this account in breaking his word; and doubtless reasoned that sending Blair back to the army would not only enable him to do good service in the field, but would quiet an element of discord in Congress.