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 THE JAMES VERNER SCAIFE 
 
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 CIVIL WAR LITERATURE 
 
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 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030995983 
 
WASHINGTON 
 IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
WASHINGTON 
 IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 BY 
 
 NOAH BROOKS 
 
 AUTHOK OF "AMERICAN STATESMEN" AND "AEEAHAM LINOOLN, 
 ANB THE DOWNFALL OF AMERICAN SLAVERY," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1896 
 
F 
 
 SOI 
 
 Copyright, 1894, 189s, by 
 The Century Co. 
 
 CL-f (^ j -'-c. fti: clCl 
 
 J V 
 
 THB DEVINNE PRESS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 * 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CAPITAL AS A CAMP page 
 
 LINCOLN'S GBEETING TO AN OLD FRIEND — MILI- 
 TARY HOSPITALS IN THE CITY— THE COMING OF 
 THE WOUNDED — FORTIFICATIONS OF WASHINGTON 
 
 — SOME FAMOUS CIVILIANS OF THE TIME ... 1 
 
 OHAPTEE II 
 
 GLIMPSES OF LINCOLN IN WAR TIME 
 THE CLOUDY CLOSE OF 1862— CHANGE OF COM- 
 MANDERS OF THE AEMY OF THE POTOMAC — THE 
 FREDERICKSBURG DEFEAT — A GLOOMY NEW YEAR'S 
 DAY IN WASHINGTON — REVIEWING HOOKER'S ARMY 
 
 — SOCIAL INCIDENTS IN WASHINGTON — LINCOLN'S 
 POWERS OF MEMORY 39 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 AFTER THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 
 
 THE NATIONAL CAPITAL UNDER THE INFLUENCE 
 OF GOOD NEWS — AFTER GETTYSBURG — LEE'S ES- 
 CAPE ACROSS THE POTOMAC AT FALLING WATERS, 
 MARYLAND — LINCOLN'S DISAPPOINTMENT ... 81 
 
 Tli 
 
VIU CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LINCOLN, CHASE, AND GRANT page 
 AMONG THE LAWMAKERS — DIFFICULT PEOGBESS 
 OF WAR LEGISLATION — LINCOLN, CHASE, AND 
 THEIR POLITICAL FRIENDS — THE RESIGNATION 
 OF SECRETARY CHASE — ENTER LIEUTENANT-GEN- 
 ERAL GRANT 97 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TWO WAR-TIME CONTENTIONS 
 LINCOLN'S SECOND NOMINATION — CONTENTION 
 OVER RECONSTRUCTION PLANS — THE DARK DATS 
 OF 1864 — MOCLELLAN'S nomination at CHICAGO 
 
 — CHASE ON THE SUPREME BENCH 150 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE DEATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 LAST CASE UNDER THE FUGITIVE-SLAVE LAWS 
 
 — ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF 
 COLUMBIA — COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION — PAS- 
 SAGE OF THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT — THRIL- 
 LING SCENES IN CONGRESS — COLORED PEOPLE IN 
 STREET-CARS 197 
 
 CHAPTER Vn 
 
 LINCOLN'S REELECTION 
 THE BEGINNING OF LINCOLN'S SECOND TERM — 
 THE PRESIDENT'S SHRE^VDNESS AT HAMPTON ROADS 
 — LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION 216 
 
CONTENTS IX 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE CLOSE OF LINCOLN'S CAREER page 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR DRAMA — THE GREAT 
 TRAGEDY — THE DOOM OF THE CONSPIRATORS . . 242 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 
 'mid war's ALARMS — THE BOY OF THE WHITE 
 HOUSE — THE PEST OF PLACE-HUNTERS — LIN- 
 COLN'S STORIES — SOME OF HIS LITERARY TENDEN- 
 CIES — FONDNESS FOR POETRY — HIS METHODICAL 
 HABITS 276 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE LAST GRAND REVIEW 
 A STRIKING AND MEMORABLE MILITARY PAGEANT 
 — THE FINAL MARCH OF GRANT'S AND SHERMAN'S 
 ARMIES THROUGH THE NATIONAL CAPITAL — SOME 
 OF THE FEATURES OF THE PARADE — A NOTE OF 
 PEACE AT LAST 307 
 
 INDEX 325 
 
WASHINGTON 
 IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CAPITAL AS A CAMP — LINCOLN'S GREETING TO 
 AN OLD FRIEND — HILITAUT HOSPITALS IN THE 
 CITY — THE COMING OP THE WOUNDED — FORTIPI- 
 CATIONS OF WASHINGTON — SOME FAMOUS CIVIL- 
 IANS OF THE TIME 
 
 I WENT to "Washington in 1862 as correspondent 
 of the " Sacramento Union," then the great news- 
 paper power of the Pacific coast. I remained there 
 until after the close of the Civil War, and saw 
 the beginning of the stormy presidential career of 
 Andrew Johnson. During that momentous and 
 interesting period of our national history I wi'ote 
 newspaper letters nearly every day; and these, 
 preserved in volumes of scrap-books, with other 
 materials carefully kept, form the basis of the 
 following reminiscences : 
 
 Several years before the war, while I was a resi- 
 dent of Illinois, I had made the acquaintance of 
 Abraham Lincoln, then regarded as a " rising prairie 
 lawyer," and living in Springfield. I had met him 
 at political assemblages, and he had occasional busi- 
 
2 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ness errands to the town of Dixon, Lee County, 
 where I lived. We formed an acquaintance wMch 
 later grew into something like intimacy, although 
 it should be said that Mr. Lincoln did not have in- 
 timate friends, unless we except a very few who, 
 like Edward D. Baker, were among his earliest as- 
 sociates and companions. 
 
 Naturally, my first thought, on arriving in Wash- 
 ington in 1862, was to see how far the President 
 resembled the Lincoln of Illinois before the war. 
 The change in his personal appearance was marked 
 and sorrowful. On the Sunday after my arrival 
 in Washington I took a long look at him from 
 the gallery of the New York Avenue Presbyterian 
 Church. His eyes were almost deathly in their 
 gloomy depths, and on his visage was an air of pro- 
 found sadness. His face was colorless and drawn, 
 and newly grown whiskers added to the agedness 
 of his appearance. When I had seen him last in 
 Illinois, his face, although always saUow, wore a 
 a tinge of rosiness in the cheeks, but now it was 
 pale and colorless. 
 
 Hearing from a friend that I was in the city, he 
 immediately sent word that he would like to see me, 
 " for old times' sake " ; and nothing could have been 
 more gratifying than the cordiality and bonhomie 
 of his greeting when I called at the White House, 
 "Do j^ou suppose I ever forget au old acquain- 
 tance ? I reckon not," he said, when we met. 
 
 Washington was then a military camp, a city of 
 barracks and hospitals. The first thing that im- 
 pressed the newly arrived stranger, especially if he 
 came, as I did, from the shores of the Peaceful Sea, 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 3 
 
 where the waves of war had not reached, was the 
 martial aspect of the capital. Long lines of army 
 wagons and artillery were continually rumbling 
 through the streets; at all hours of the day and 
 night the air was troubled by the clatter of gallop- 
 ing squads of cavalry ; and the clank of sabers, and 
 the measured beat of marching infantry, were ever 
 present to the ear. The city was under military gov- 
 ernment, and the wayfarer was liable to be halted 
 anywhere in public buildings, or on the outskirts 
 of the city, by an armed sentry, who curtly asked, 
 " What is your business here I " Army blue was 
 the predominating color on the sidewalks, sprinkled 
 here and there with the gold lace of officers. In 
 the galleries of the Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives, especially during the cold weather, — when 
 the well- warmed Capitol was a convenient refuge 
 for idle people, — great patches of the light blue 
 of military overcoats were to be marked among 
 more somber colors of the groups of visitors. It 
 was contrary to army regulations to supply sol- 
 diers with liquors, and in most bar-rooms cards were 
 conspicuous, bearing the legend, " Nothing sold to 
 soldiers." At some of the drinking-places, as if to 
 soften the severity of this dictum, was displayed 
 an artistically painted group of the three arms of 
 the military service, over which were printed the 
 words, " No liquors sold to." 
 
 Now and again, just after some great battle near 
 at hand, like that of Fredericksburg, or Chancellors- 
 ville, or G-rant's long struggles in the Wilderness, 
 the capital afforded a most distressful spectacle. 
 Then, if at no other time, the home-staying citi- 
 
4 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 zen realized sometlimg of the horrors of war. The 
 Washington hospitals were never empty, but at 
 such times they were crowded with the maimed 
 and wounded, who arrived by hundreds as long as 
 the waves of sorrow came streaming back from the 
 fields of slaughter. One occasionally met a grim 
 procession of the slightly wounded coming up from 
 the railway station at Alexandria or the steamboat 
 landing from Aquia Creek. They arrived in squads 
 of a hundred or more, bandaged and limping, rag- 
 ged and disheveled, blackened with smoke and 
 powder, and drooping with weakness. They came 
 groping, hobbling, and faltering, so faint and so 
 longing for rest that one's heart bled at the piteous 
 sight. Here and there were men left to make their 
 way as best they could to the hospital, and who 
 were leaning on the iron railings or sitting wearily 
 on the curbstones; but it was noticeable that all 
 maintained the genuine American pluck in the 
 midst of sorrow and suffering. As a rule, they 
 were silent and unmurmuring ; or if the j" spoke, it 
 was to utter a grim joke at their own expense. 
 
 At the height of the war there were twenty-one 
 hospitals in and about Washington. Some were 
 in churches, public halls, the Patent Office, and 
 other public buildings ; but many were temporary 
 wooden structures built for this special purpose. 
 One of the representative hospitals was that of 
 Harewood, erected by the government on the pri- 
 vate grounds of W. W. Corcoran, in the outskirts 
 of the city. There was a highly ornamented barn 
 filled with hospital stores, clothing, and sanitary 
 goods. A long row of cattle-sheds was boarded 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 5 
 
 in and transformed into a hospital bakery. The 
 temporary buildings constructed by the govern- 
 ment were one story high, arranged in the form 
 of a hollow square, row within row, and kept very 
 neat and clean. At most of the hospitals the female 
 nurses were supplied by the Roman Catholic Sisters 
 of Charity and the Protestant Sisters of Mercy, 
 working side by side. 
 
 At first the United States Sanitary Commission 
 was charged with the duty of examining all nurses, 
 male and female, before they were permitted to enter 
 the service; but later a board of competent persons, 
 organized by Miss Dorothea Dix, was authorized 
 by the Secretary of War to perform this highly 
 responsible duty. 
 
 The Sanitary Commission, whose labors can never 
 be overestimated or overpraised, was supported by 
 money and supplies from every loyal State in the 
 Union. It organized an independent system of 
 transportation, and was able, when a sudden emer- 
 gency arose on a battle-field, to anticipate the gov- 
 ernment service by many hours with medical stores, 
 bandages, lint, chloroform, and other requisites for 
 the suffering wounded whose primary operations 
 were attended to on the field. This was one of the 
 many ways in which private enterprise and private 
 means supplemented the authorities, whose ma- 
 chinery was inadequate to the sudden needs of war. 
 In the memorable week after the battle of Antie- 
 tam, twenty thousand dollars of the gold of Cali- 
 fornia were thus expended for the relief of the men 
 who suffered by the casualties of war. 
 
 In Washington we always looked for the regu- 
 
6 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 lar and inevitable flood of strangers that poured 
 into the city from the North after any great battle 
 fought in the fields of Virginia. This was one of 
 the fixed features of the strange life of the national 
 capital. These people came in quest of friends 
 who had been taken to the hospitals, or perhaps 
 left dead on the field. It was easy to recognize 
 them by their anxious and distressed faces, their 
 strangeness in the city, and their inquiries for hos- 
 pitals or the shortest routes to scenes made cele- 
 brated by some life-destroying fight. Occasionally 
 a detail of clerks was made from some one of the 
 executive departments of the government for the 
 first aid to the wounded on battle-fields not too far 
 from Washington. These hospital stewards were 
 volunteers, sent to the front for fifteen days each, 
 to get their first military experience of army dis- 
 cipline and regulations. 
 
 Convalescents who had been discharged from 
 the hospitals and who were not fit for military duty 
 were assembled at a rendezvous in Alexandria, 
 known as Camp Convalescent. This camp eventu- 
 ally became so crowded with the vast numbers of 
 those who had been discharged from the hospitals 
 or were stragglers from the army, that its con- 
 dition was properly characterized as "infamous." 
 More than ten thousand men, some of whom in 
 the depth of winter were obliged to sleep on the 
 cold ground, under canvas shelter and without fire 
 or suitable covering, were massed together there, 
 in the company of healthy reprobates who were 
 "bummers," deserters, and stragglers— the riffraff 
 of the Federal and Confederate armies. There 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 7 
 
 were two of these curious improvised institutions 
 — Camp Convalescent and Camp Straggle — both 
 of which were crammed full. 
 
 One of the most unique hospitals in Washington 
 was that organized in the museum of the Patent 
 Office. Each alcove was a well ventilated and 
 lighted ward. The tesselated marble floors were 
 covered here and there with clean matting, and the 
 general aspect of the place was pure and neat. 
 The President and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by- 
 Mrs. Doubleday (wife of Greneral Abner Doubleday) 
 and myself, were once visiting the Patent Office 
 hospital, and the two ladies, being a little in ad- 
 vance, left us lingering by the cot of a wounded 
 soldier. Just beyond us passed a well-dressed lady, 
 evidently a stranger, who was distributing tracts. 
 After she had gone, a patient picked up with 
 languid hand the leaflet dropped upon his cot, and, 
 glancing at the title, began to laugh. When we 
 reached him, the President said: " My good fellow, 
 that lady doubtless means you well, and it is hardly 
 fair for you to laugh at her gift." 
 
 "Well, Mr. President," said the soldier, who 
 recognized Mr. Lincoln, " how can I help laughing 
 a little? She has given me a tract on the ' Sin of 
 Dancing,' and both of my legs are shot off." 
 
 President Lincoln, who loved to hear stories of 
 the soldiers and their humorous pranks, told me of 
 a soldier who was being carried to the rear in a 
 severe engagement, seriously wounded, and Ukely to 
 die. He espied a sutler woman with leathery-look- 
 ing pies, driving her trade on " the dubious verge of 
 battle fought." The bleeding soldier grinned at the 
 
8 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ■woman, and said: "Say, old lady, are those pies 
 sewed or pegged?" 
 
 The Washington of the war was a very differ- 
 ent city from the present stately capital. Before 
 the war the city was as drowsy and as grass-grown 
 as any old New England town. Squalid negro 
 quarters hung on the flanks of fine old mansions, 
 and although in the centers of this " city of mag- 
 nificent distances" there were handsome public 
 buildings, with here and there a statue or some 
 other work of art, the general aspect of things was 
 truly rural. The war changed all that in a very 
 few weeks. Temporary hospitals and other rude 
 shelters arose as if by magic on every hand. The 
 streets were crowded by night and day, and the 
 continual passage of heavily loaded quartermas- 
 ters' trains, artillery, and vehicles of kinds before 
 unknown in Washington, churned the unpaved 
 streets into muddy thoroughfares in winter, or cut 
 them deep with impalpable dust in summer. It 
 was a favorite joke of Washingtonians that " real 
 estate was high in dry weather, as it was for the 
 most part aU in the aii*." 
 
 Over the flats of the Potomac rose the then unfin- 
 ished white obelisk of the Washington monument, 
 a truncated cone ; and in the weather-beaten sheds 
 around its base were stored the carved and orna- 
 mented blocks that had been conti-ibuted to the 
 structure by foreign governments, princes, poten- 
 tates, and political and social organizations. On its 
 hiU rose the unfinished dome of the Capitol, whose 
 bare ribs were darkly limned against the sky. It 
 was a feeling of pride, or perhaps of some tenderer 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 9 
 
 sentiment, that induced the government to insist 
 that work on the Capitol should go on in the midst 
 of the stress and strain of civil war, just as though 
 nothing had happened to hinder the progress of 
 the magnificent undertaking. It is no metaphor 
 to say that the sound of the workman's hammer 
 never ceased on that building, even in the dark 
 times when it was not certain that "Washington 
 was safe." The completion of the pediments of 
 the House and Senate wings went on without de- 
 lay during all these perilous times. The colossal 
 statue of Freedom which now adorns the apex of 
 the central dome (designed by Crawford and cast 
 in bronze by Clark Mills) was at first set up on a 
 temporary base in the Capitol grounds, where it 
 was an object of curiosity and interest to visitors. 
 
 When the bronze doors of the Capitol arrived, it 
 was suggested by a Congressional humorist — S. S. 
 Cox— that they be strapped on the back of the 
 Genius of Freedom, and the combination be known 
 as a representation of a female Samson carrying off 
 the gates of G-aza, which, he said, " would be scrip- 
 tural, if not classic," and would dispose of two 
 monumental works for which, apparently, no im- 
 mediate use was possible. 
 
 As a matter of record, it may be said that the 
 efiSgy of Freedom was finally put in its present 
 place on the top of the lantern of the dome of the 
 Capitol on December 2, 1863. The statue was con- 
 structed in sections, and the head and shoulders 
 of the bronze figure in one section were drawn 
 upward from the foot of the dome by a wire cable 
 running through a lofty pulley ; then, being swung 
 
10 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 lightly over the gleaming torso, it was settled into 
 place, a few strokes of a hammer rang out on 
 the air, and the thing was done. Then a star- 
 spangled banner was hoisted to the top of a flag- 
 staff that rose above the statue, and one hundred 
 guns, fired from the East Park, near the Capitol, 
 saluted the end of the work. The Capitol was 
 finished. Thereupon an unbleached son of free- 
 dom sprang out from the crowd below and shouted, 
 "Three cheers for the Groddess of Liberty!" which 
 were given with a hearty good will. The function 
 was simple enough; but the completion of the 
 building which was begun in the time of Daniel 
 Webster was a significant event in the history of 
 the republic. Of course artists and artisans con- 
 tinued to labor on the Capitol during the war, and 
 long afterward ; but the figure of Liberty, designed 
 and ordered during the administration of Jefferson 
 Davis in the War Department, was placed in posi- 
 tion on the apex of the national Capitol while 
 Davis was in arms against his government; and 
 the sound of ax and hammer did not cease while 
 the conflict lasted. 
 
 This was in the third year of the war, when 
 the Confederate flag could no longer be seen waving 
 from the Virginia heights across the Potomac ; but 
 for months before this the flag of the Union float- 
 ing over the Capitol had been challenged by the 
 stars and bars still visible on the other side of the 
 river. And later in the war, when Early came dash- 
 ing up to our gates, we saw for a brief season the 
 same defiant colors. 
 
 The line of circumvallation about Washington 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 11 
 
 was eventually made very strong. Within the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia there were about forty forts, mak- 
 ing a complete circle around the capital, their guns 
 being trained to sweep every road or possible route 
 leading into the city. Rifle-pits were cut from point 
 to point, making a continuous line of defense. If 
 the wayfarer or visitor desired a view of something 
 of real wai", other than that which might be had in 
 the painful glimpses of dying and wounded brought 
 from battle-fields, or of the grim lines of artillery 
 and troops marching through Washington, a mili- 
 tary pass, secured after many difficulties, would en- 
 able him to inspect the frowning line of fortifica- 
 tions that inclosed Washington as with a wall. 
 
 It is impossible in these days, so remote from the 
 excitements of the CivU War, to give readers of 
 this later generation any adequate idea of the 
 uneasiness that pervaded Washington, or of the 
 morbid sensationalism which characterized the con- 
 versation and conduct of the loyalists who were 
 constantly haunted by suspicions of secret plotting 
 all about them. One evening, while I was sitting 
 with the President in his cabinet. Professor Henry, 
 then in charge of the Smithsonian Institution, came 
 in for a social chat with the President. The con- 
 versation ran upon various unimportant themes, 
 and presently a card was brought in by the door- 
 keeper, who said that the man in waiting was ex- 
 tremely urgent to see the President, as he had 
 matters of pressing importance to communicate. 
 He was brought into the room, and proved to be a 
 modest shopkeeper whose home was not far from 
 the Smithsonian Institution. Grlancing uneasily at 
 
12 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 the President's two visitors, whom lie evidently did 
 not know, he said his business was very important 
 and should be kept secret. The President assured 
 him that Professor Henry and myself were to be 
 trusted with any business of state, however secret 
 it might be; and he genially encouraged his visitor 
 to speak out without fear of being betrayed in case 
 the weighty matter which he carried in his mind 
 was of an explosive character. The man then went 
 on to say that he had frequently observed lights 
 shown from one of the towers of the Smithsonian 
 Institution late at night. He had noticed that these 
 lights invariably made their appearance about the 
 same time (at midnight), and he was confident that 
 the person displaying them was carrying on a con- 
 traband correspondence with the rebels by means 
 of signals. The President, with great gravity, 
 closely examined the witness, but elicited nothing 
 more from him than the fact that the lights were 
 actually shown. 
 
 The President said, " Do you suspect anybody in 
 the Smithsonian Institution?" 
 
 " No," replied the witness, " I do not know any- 
 body inside of that institution. But I have heard 
 that Professor Henry is a Southern man and a rebel 
 sympathizer." 
 
 With that the President turned to Professor 
 Henry, and, with admirable command of counte- 
 nance, said, " This is Professor Henry ; perhaps he 
 will be able to answer for himself." The look of 
 dismay on the countenance of the visiting witness 
 was so comic that the President could not re- 
 strain his laughter. Professor Henry, who was 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 13 
 
 somewliat disturbed by this expression of suspicion 
 on the part of the well-meaning but mistaken Union- 
 ist, very briefly disposed of his tale. He explained 
 that the scientific instruments used to ascertain the 
 direction and force of the wind, temperature, etc., 
 were examined at certain hours of the day and 
 night for the purpose of taking their record, and 
 that the supposed signal-light in the Smithsonian 
 tower was the lantern carried to the observatory at 
 midnight by the attendant who made those obser- 
 vations. Somewhat crestfallen, the visitor with- 
 drew, the President thanking him for his vigilance 
 and well-meant promptness in reporting this inci- 
 dent, and adding, as the man departed, "If you 
 should see any indications of a rebel conspiracy in 
 Washington, you will do the country real service by 
 reporting at once to headquarters." 
 
 The frequent appearance in Washington of pa- 
 roled rebel officers, who usually wore theii' own 
 uniform with evident pride and pleasure, and some- 
 times with a swagger, generally threw loyalists into 
 a fever of excitement. More than once I saw ultra- 
 loyal newsboys or boot-blacks throw a lump of mud, 
 or a brickbat, at the passing Confederate. One of 
 these officers, a Lieutenant Garnett, being on pa- 
 role, sent in his card to Representative Wickliffe, 
 of Kentucky, and was by him introduced upon the 
 floor of the House, where he attracted attention, as 
 weU as indignation, from the members present. Pres- 
 ently a wave of excitement seemed to sweep over 
 the galleries, the spectators being visibly affected 
 by the appearance of an officer in full Confederate 
 uniform sitting on one of the sofas of the House of 
 
14 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Representatives. This was intensified when a door- 
 keeper spoke to the visitor, who rose from his seat, 
 gave a profound and sweeping bow, and withdrew 
 to the outer corridor. It appeared that the door- 
 keeper had told the Confederate that it was con- 
 trary to the rules of the House for him to be present. 
 One of the most interesting side incidents of the 
 war during the winter of 1862-63, in Washington, 
 was the court-martial that tried General Fitz-John 
 Porter for alleged disobedience of orders. Another 
 interesting and attractive military tribunal was that 
 convoked at the request of Greneral McDowell to 
 inquire into the conduct of that officer after General 
 McClellan assumed command of the Army of the 
 Potomac. The mean little room in which the court 
 of inquiry was held was usually crowded whenever 
 any prominent general officer was summoned before 
 it. About the middle of December, 1862, General 
 McClellan, who not long before had been relieved 
 from command of the Army of the Potomac, was a 
 " star witness " before the eotu't. There was a great 
 rush of sightseers, anxious to see " Little Mac," to 
 hear his voice, and to feel the magnetism of his 
 presence. So great was the crowd of visitors that 
 the single orderly who kept the door was at his wit's 
 end to provide a channel of ingress for the ex-oom- 
 mander-in-chief of the Ai-my of the Potomac. TVhen 
 he finally arrived, IMeClellan, who wore an undress 
 uniform and a short military cloak, slipped in 
 through the crowd without attracting much atten- 
 tion, and great was the disappointment of the mob 
 at the door to find that they had missed seeing 
 him. General McClellan was rather dapper, trimly 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 15 
 
 built, with round, full outlines of face and figure, 
 light hair and mustache, and an easy and gra- 
 cious manner. He answered the questions put to 
 him in a quick, clear, low voice, keeping his light- 
 gray eyes intently fixed upon the questioner ; and 
 his mouth almost constantly wore a pleasant and 
 winning smile. Every one in the crowded and un- 
 comfortable court-room seemed to feel the attrac- 
 tiveness of his face and manner, and it was curious 
 to note the admiring, half-loving, half-pitying ex- 
 pression which moved over the unconscious coun- 
 tenances of the intently gazing spectators as they 
 bent forward to catch the slightest look and into- 
 nation of the ex-commander. The progress of busi- 
 ness in the McDowell court of inquiry was tediously 
 slow. McDowell wrote each of his questions on a 
 slip of paper. The clerk took it from him, and read 
 it to the witness, who answered it ; then the clerk 
 wrote down the answer, and question and answer 
 were wafered on a sheet. McDowell, who sat op- 
 posite McClellan, had a full face, a commanding 
 military figure, and certainly was " the General," 
 so far as looks were concerned, compared with 
 McClellan. McDowell's manner was dignified, de- 
 cisive, and at times almost solemn. 
 
 Just before the battle of Chancellorsville, I visited 
 the Army of the Potomac, its headquarters being 
 then at Falmouth, in President Lincoln's company. 
 We were detained on the way by a storm, and spent 
 one night on board the steamer anchored in the 
 Potomac. In the course of conversation that even- 
 ing, the President was communicative and in a con- 
 fidential mood, and discussed the military situation 
 
16 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 with much freedom. Speaking of McClellan, he 
 said, " I kept McClellan in command after I had 
 expected that he would win victories, simply be- 
 cause I knew that his dismissal would provoke 
 popular indignation and shake the faith of the 
 people in the final success of the war." Very soon 
 after the battle of Chancellorsville, and before the 
 battle of G-ettysburg was fought, the old rumor of 
 McClellan's recall once more got upon its legs, to the 
 great consternation of many of Lincoln's friends 
 in Washington. This report was- more than usu- 
 ally vigorous and plausible. Hooker's failure at 
 Chancellorsville, and the blow which his military 
 prestige had suffered in consequence, gave public 
 opinion a decidedly sharp fiUip. One evening, 
 while this rumor was gaining strength, I chanced 
 to be in the family sitting-room at the White House, 
 where the President, Mrs. Lincoln, and several call- 
 ers were assembled, when an indiscreet young lady 
 directly attacked Lincoln with the extraordinary 
 question : " Mr. President, is INIcClellan going to be 
 recalled to the command of the Army of the Po- 
 tomac?" The President good-naturedly parried 
 this home-thrust, but gave no satisfactory answer. 
 Afterward joining in the conversation, I intimated 
 to the President that as he had not settled the mat- 
 ter, there probably might be some ground for the 
 general suspicion that McClellan would be recalled. 
 Lincoln, who sat near me, assumed a very severe 
 look, and turning, said in an undertone, "And you, 
 too ? " I instantly recalled our conversation on the 
 steamer, and apologized for my lack of faith. He 
 then added, " I see you remember the talk we had 
 on the Carrie Marti )i.^^ 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 17 
 
 It is curious to note how the names of many of 
 the men who were prominent in the political his- 
 tory of the Civil War have now well nigh vanished 
 from the minds of our people. Thaddeus Stevens, 
 of Pennsylvania, at his post of chairman of the 
 House 'Committee of Ways and Means, was for a 
 long time the leader of the House, and the most 
 conspicuous figure of the Republican party in that 
 branch of Congress. He was the oldest and the 
 ablest man in congressional life. He was sturdy, 
 well built, with dark-blue and dull-looking eyes, 
 overhanging brow, thin, stern lips, a smooth-shaven 
 face, and he wore a dark-brown wig. He walked with 
 a limp, one of his feet being deformed. "Thad" 
 Stevens was never tender-hearted, winning, or con- 
 ciHatory. He was argumentative, sardonic, and 
 grim. When he rose to speak, it was his usual 
 custom to lock his hands loosely before him, mak- 
 ing but few gestures. He spoke with great calm- 
 ness and deliberation, dropping his sentences as 
 though each one weighed a ton ; his voice was low, 
 but distinct, and he launched his anathemas at his 
 opponents as coolly as if he were bandying compli- 
 ments. While he wore "the very front of Jove 
 himself," he had a certain repose of manner that 
 was particularly exasperating to his adversaries. 
 Nor did he spare his own political associates if they 
 happened to differ with him. On one occasion, a 
 New York representative, who had a curious way 
 of dividing himself on each side of nearly every 
 question, iriitated Mr. Stevens by his perverse con- 
 duct, and was thus rebuked by the old leader: " The 
 gentleman from New York has more privileges here 
 
18 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 than belong to him. He has the advantage of being 
 able to pair off with himself on every question." 
 On another occasion, Mr. Stevens, being tempora- 
 rily in the seat of Vallandigham, heard a Repub- 
 lican member make an appeal to the Constitution 
 of the United States. Rising with grim humor in 
 the place of the distinguished Copperhead from 
 Ohio, Stevens said: "How dare you, sir, mention the 
 Constitution of the United States in this House!" 
 
 Henry Winter Davis was another eloquent and 
 able man, but, except for his record as a persistent 
 and violent critic of Lincoln's reconstruction pol- 
 icy, he has not left any lasting trace of his pub- 
 lic career. At that time he was about forty-five 
 years of age, light in complexion, with a round, 
 boyish head, sandy hair and mustache. He had a 
 high, clear, ringing voice, and a manner of speak- 
 ing which was peculiar in its sharpness and firm- 
 ness. He was a brilliant speaker, but not a ready 
 debater ; and he had a compact and direct way of 
 putting things which always commanded close at- 
 tention whenever he spoke. Garfield once said of 
 him that his eloquence was "clear and cold, like 
 starlight." In the Thirty-sixth Congress Davis 
 gave the casting vote which dissolved a tie, and 
 elected Pennington, of New Jersey, Republican 
 Speaker of the House. 
 
 Clement L. Yallandigham of Ohio was the lead- 
 ing spirit in the mischievous Peace faction on the 
 Democratic side of the House. He was well built, 
 and was then about forty years of age, with a 
 small head, regular and somewhat delicate features, 
 and dark hair slightly sprinkled with grav. His 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 19 
 
 complexion was fresh and fair, and his manner 
 was agreeable and prepossessing. He dressed with 
 great neatness, and, as he sat at his desk, turning 
 over his papers, occasionally smiling at the petty 
 discussions raised by Holman, the small jokes of 
 Cox, or the grumblings of Wickliffe of Kentucky, 
 he was altogether a personable man. He was a 
 good speaker — smooth, plausible, and polished; 
 and in private life he was a most agreeable and 
 delightful talker. I think of him now, with real 
 regret (notwithstanding his political record), as a 
 genial and pleasant companion, a steadfast friend, 
 and a man well versed in literature, history, and 
 politics; he died in the prime of his manhood. 
 When he made a set speech he often became 
 greatly excited, his face wore an expression at 
 times almost repulsive, and his voice rose with a 
 wild shriek ; his hands fluttered convulsively in the 
 air, and the manner of the man underwent a 
 physical transformation. His power over his party 
 in the House was complete when "filibustering" 
 tactics were going on. At a word from him, or a 
 wave of his hand, the Peace Democrats would in- 
 continently scud into the lobbies or cloakrooms; 
 or his signal would bring them aU back when they 
 were needed in their seats. 
 
 Fernando Wood succeeded to the leadership of 
 the Peace Democrats in the Thirty-eighth Congress, 
 Vallandigham not having been returned to the 
 House. A more marked contrast between two men 
 can hardly be imagined. Wood was always calm, 
 cool, and collected. His hair and mustache were 
 dyed black, and his thin, spare face, elegant man- 
 
20 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ners, and precise method of speech, gave him the 
 appearance of a refined and scholarly man. He 
 never lost his temper, was always agreeable, polite, 
 and even courtly. He did not like VaUandigham, 
 and on more than one occasion he held long con- 
 versations with President Lincoln in regard to the 
 then notorious Ohio Copperhead. He was especially 
 anxious that the President should not make a 
 martyr of VaUandigham, of whom he expressed a 
 most contemptuous opinion, and of whom he said 
 that, if he were let alone, he would speedily sink 
 out of sight. 
 
 Another conspicuous representative was James 
 A. Garfield, who came into the House at the be- 
 ginning of the first session of the Thirty-eighth 
 Congress. He had been chief-of-staff to Greneral 
 Eosecrans, and the day before he was sworn in, 
 when he was introduced to his future associates, 
 he wore a brigadier-general's uniform. The next 
 day he appeared in citizen's garb, and took his seat 
 in the House. His disposition to literary and 
 bookish allusions is weU known. Once in a whUe 
 his colleague, Samuel S. Cox (who then also repre- 
 sented an Ohio district), would rally Garfield on 
 his pedantry, or sarcastically allude to him as " the 
 learned gentleman from Ohio." Garfield's manner 
 was rather boyish, even when in public view. He 
 would sometimes wind his arm round the waist of 
 one of his associates in the House, and walk him 
 up and down in the space behind the seats of the 
 members, apparently oblivious to the fact that 
 hundreds of people were regarding him with 
 amusement. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 21 
 
 Schuyler Colfax was a prime favorite with the 
 members of the House, and with the newspaper 
 men. He had a youthful face and manner, and 
 was somewhat under the medium height. Colfax 
 was versatile, indefatigably industrious, and was 
 one of the readiest debaters on the Union side. He 
 was light-haii'ed and blue-eyed, and usually wore 
 an expression so engaging and genial that unpleas- 
 ant people sometimes called him " Smiler " Colfax. 
 Before he was elected Speaker, he was chairman of 
 the House Committee on Post-OflBees, and in that 
 place he exercised a great influence in the readjust- 
 ment of the mail service of the country after the 
 secession of the Southern States. It is impossible 
 for any one who knew Colfax intimately to recall 
 his long and prosperous career as a public man 
 without a pang of regret. As I have said, he was a 
 general favorite, and his affability, his readiness to 
 do a good turn for friend and foe alike, his skill 
 and ability in parliamentary usages, commended 
 him to the admiration and esteem of thousands of 
 people. In an evil hour for him, his reputation 
 was clouded, and his personality disappeared from 
 public life. His manner as a presiding officer left 
 something to be desired. He was too rapid to be 
 dignified, and his devotion to the public business 
 often betrayed him into neglect of the proprieties. 
 Ben Perley Poore, the cynical observer of Congress, 
 said that Colfax presided over the House " like an 
 auctioneer" ; and it was a cause of mortification to 
 some that when the President's private secretary 
 appeared at the door of the House with a message, 
 he was invariably addressed by the Speaker as 
 
22 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 " Mr. Sekkertary." Colfax was greatly beloved by 
 his constituents, and was frequently honored with 
 complimentary testimonials of his popularity. He 
 was entertained at a banquet by the newspaper 
 correspondents in Washington on his election to 
 the Speakership, and, at another time, a hand- 
 some service of silver was presented to him by his 
 Indiana friends in Washington. 
 
 No sketch of the House of Eepresentatives of 
 those days would be complete without a note con- 
 cerning Thaddeus Morris, the Speaker's special 
 page. When Mr. Orr, of South Carolina, was 
 Speaker, he discovered in this young man, then a 
 mere boy, a remarkable knowledge of parliamen- 
 tary law combined with an extraordinary memory 
 for names and dates. Orr at once attached Morris 
 to the Speaker's chair, where he kept his place un- 
 til his death in March, 1864. Probably few strangers 
 ever noticed the tall, slim young man who leaned 
 negligently on a corner of the Speaker's marble 
 desk, apparently but slightly interested in the pro- 
 ceedings of the house, but reaUy regarding all 
 that passed with the most watchful vigilance. The 
 youngster kept track of the mazy confusion of 
 business, and could disentangle for the sometimes 
 bewildered Speaker the most labyrinthine compli- 
 cation. Whenever a knotty question of parlia- 
 mentary law or precedence arose, Morris would 
 solve the difficulty with amazing facility. While 
 the Speaker was addressing the House in a per- 
 functory way, stating the question at issue in order 
 to consume the time needed by Morris to gather 
 his authorities, the young man would silently place 
 
WASHIKGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 23 
 
 before the Speaker reference-book after reference- 
 book, with chapter and verse duly marked, perhaps 
 taken from the records of the earliest years of the 
 government, and collated for use as precedents in 
 just such a case as that under consideration. The 
 mute prompter's hand was the compass that en- 
 abled the tempest-tossed Speaker to steer clear of 
 rocks and shoals on which he might have wrecked 
 his reputation as a presiding officer. Morris's death 
 was a real loss to the house, but possibly some of 
 the hair-splitting debaters who had failed to trip 
 the Speaker when they " rose to a question of or- 
 der" did not regard with unmitigable grief the 
 place left vacant at the corner of the Speaker's 
 desk. 
 
 In the Senate, of course, were many men whose 
 names are as intimately connected with the history 
 of those times as any in the House of Represen- 
 tatives. On the Eepublican side, Henry Wilson, of 
 Massachusetts, was conspicuous as the chairman of 
 the Senate Military Committee. He was stout, 
 florid, dark-haired, and of a portly figure. In man- 
 ner he was entirely unlike his colleague, Mr. Sum- 
 ner. Wilson was rather loose and ramshackle in 
 his manner of speech ; his enunciation was not dis- 
 tinct, his deliveiy was slipshod, and he was neither 
 precise nor fortunate in his choice of words to ex- 
 press ideas. He impressed one as a man of great 
 mental force not well schooled. Sumner, on the 
 other hand, was a model of forensic elegance, 
 scholarly culture, and precision. His manner of 
 statement was emphatic, even oracular. Some of 
 his unfriendly critics said he was dogmatic; and 
 
24 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 he spoke with a certain fastidiousness in the choice 
 of language which provoked injurious comments. 
 Speaking to me of these comments, which had 
 reached his ears, Sumner once said that when he 
 addressed the Senate, even on matters of mere 
 routine, he thought he ought to be as accurate and 
 as fastidious as if he were engaged in high debate ; 
 and he cited an anecdote of Daniel Webster, who, 
 when asked concerning his custom of wearing his 
 best and most elaborate dress on the public plat- 
 form, reproachfully asked his interlocutor if he 
 should not present his best thoughts, his best man- 
 ner, his best garb, when he addressed his fellow- 
 men. 
 
 Wilson was always genial, coneihatory; Sumner's 
 bearing was apt to be dictatorial and unduly impres- 
 sive, even on occasions of slight importance. Sum- 
 ner's figure was tail, well-knit, and handsome. He 
 had a noble head, a profusion of dark-brown hau', 
 which was arranged with an appearance of studied 
 negligence, and his presence was always command- 
 ing and dignified. He was one of the few men whom 
 visitors to the Senate galleries first asked to have 
 pointed out for them. 
 
 He affected a picturesque style of dress, wearing 
 colors brighter than those which predominated in 
 the senatorial togas of the period. His favorite 
 costume was a brown coat and light waistcoat, lav- 
 ender-colored or cheeked trousers, and shoes with 
 English gaiters. His appearance in his seat in 
 the Senate Chamber was studiously dignified. He 
 once told me that he never allowed himself, even 
 in the privacy of his own chamber, to fall into a 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 25 
 
 position which he would not take in his chair in 
 the Senate. "Habit," he said, "is everything." 
 This being repeated to jolly Senator Nesmith of 
 Oregon, he said: "I wonder how Sumner would 
 look in his night-shirt ? " During the greater part 
 of my stay in Washington I occupied the rooms 
 on New York Avenue which had previously been 
 tenanted by Mr. Sumner. Mr. D. A. Gardner, the 
 aged custodian of the house, whom we facetiously 
 dubbed " The Ancient," once told me that his family 
 always knew when Sumner was preparing to make 
 a set speech in the Senate, weeks before it was 
 known to the general public. In the rear of Sum- 
 ner's apartment was a gallery from which the in- 
 terior of the rooms could be viewed. The younger 
 members of the Gardner family, with a curiosity 
 natural to youth, would be attracted by the sound 
 of the Senator's magnificent voice rehearsing his 
 speech, and from the gallery they could look in and 
 see him before a pier-glass, fixed between the front 
 windows, studying the effect of his gestures by the 
 light of lamps placed at each side of the mirror. 
 It is very likely that this entirely natural practice 
 of the senator became known to his enemies, who 
 magnified it, sneeringly saying that " the senator 
 from Massachusetts was in the habit of rehearsing 
 his speeches before a looking-glass, with a nigger 
 holding a lamp on each side of him." 
 
 " Bluff Ben Wade " of Ohio, as he was familiarly 
 known to his friends and admirers, was one of the 
 most notable figures in the Senate during the war 
 times. He was in person the embodiment of the 
 high qualities that he possessed — manliness, cour- 
 
26 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 age, vehemence, and a certain bulldog obdui'acy 
 truly masterful. His figure was stout, sturdy, and 
 muscular, a little above the medium height, and in- 
 dicative of great physical endurance. His iron-gray 
 hair, sharp bright eyes, and firm-set jaw were char- 
 acteristic of the alert and combative statesman that 
 he was. Nevertheless, Wade was a tender-hearted, 
 gracious, and lovable man. His impatience with the 
 apparent sluggishness of Lincoln's administration 
 betrayed him into frequent exhibitions of bad tem- 
 per, and his intense radicalism too often hurried 
 him into complications with the more conservative 
 Union politicians in Yf ashington ; and he did not 
 always extricate himself from these entanglements 
 with credit to himself. 
 
 William Pitt Fessenden of Maine was chairman 
 of the Senate Committee on Finance during the 
 greater part of the war and up to the time of his 
 translation to the chair of the Treasury Department, 
 made vacant by the sudden resignation of Secretary 
 Chase. Fessenden was a tall, spare man, with angu- 
 lar features and figure, and a pale, intellectual face, 
 from which the iron-gray hair was carefully brushed 
 backward. His manner was cold, dry, and severe. 
 His humor was acrid and biting. Remonstrating 
 with a member of the House who had championed 
 a bill for the abolition of the franking privilege, 
 but who wanted it quietly strangled in the Senate, 
 Fessenden grimly said : " My dear fellow, you can't 
 make the reputation of a statesman with fourpence- 
 ha'peuny tricks like that." Another politician — a 
 gentleman from Nevada— approached Fessenden 
 to secure his aid in putting through the Senate 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 27 
 
 a bill appropriating money to establish, a United 
 States branch mint in Carson, Nevada. Among 
 other arguments to move the senator's objection 
 that the Territory was too young and too small to 
 amount to anything, the Nevada man said: "All 
 that the Territory needs to make it a good State is 
 a little more water, and a little better society." 
 " That 's all that hell wants," was the Maine sena- 
 tor's discouraging reply. 
 
 " Zack " Chandler of Michigan, tall, saturnine, at 
 times grim and at times jocular, was one of the 
 senators who attracted the attention of visitors to 
 the Capitol ; his bold and sometimes reckless au- 
 dacity, his perfect self-control, and his wonderful 
 familiarity with the ins and outs of politics, made 
 him a most interesting personality in the Senate. 
 
 Occasionally a cabinet minister would stray into 
 the sacred precincts of the Senate, or Hooker, Burn- 
 side, or Meade would be seen sitting in the corner 
 of the chamber consulting with Senator Wilson, or 
 some other Republican leader identified with the 
 conduct of the war. 
 
 Secretary Seward was slight and small in stature, 
 light-haired, and oddly hostile to all attempts at 
 taking his likeness. His manner in public was ele- 
 gant and courtly, and he was one of the few men I 
 ever knew in Washington who made a practice of 
 bowing to apparent strangers who looked at him as 
 if they knew who he was. He usually wore a dark- 
 colored frock-coat and light trousers, and his figure 
 was erect and alert. He was affable and courteous 
 in address, and was seldom excited or outwardly 
 ruffled. Like Lincoln, he was fond of good stories, 
 
28 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 and he was himself a capital story-teller as well as 
 a good smoker; and his cigars were famous for 
 their high quality. Rightly or wrongly, he was 
 popularly regarded as friendly to McClellan, and 
 for that and other reasons was disliked by Mrs. Lin- 
 coln, who would have been glad if the President had 
 put Mr. Seward out of the State Department, and 
 put in his place Mr. Sumner, whom she greatly 
 admired. 
 
 Once I saw Secretary Seward engaged in a case 
 before the United States Supreme Court. This was 
 probably his only appearance before that tribunal 
 during his term of office in the State Department. 
 It was in the celebrated Albany bridge case, which 
 had been carried over from a period before Mr. 
 Seward's appointment. His manner at that time 
 was not impressive. He spoke with great delibera- 
 tion ; he frequently fumbled with a big red sUk 
 handkerchief that lay on the table before him, and 
 occasionally he blew a tremendous blast on his 
 very large nose, as if he were in the habit of taking 
 snuff. 
 
 Secretary Stanton was not often seen outside the 
 War Department building. He apparently spent 
 his days and nights in that musty old barrack. 
 His customary position in his office was standing at 
 a high, long desk, facing the principal entrance to 
 the room, and open to all who had the right of au- 
 dience ; for he shunned every semblance of privacy 
 in office. From that awful tribunal, so well remem- 
 bered by all who had occasion to approach the gi'eat 
 War Secretary on matters of public importance, 
 were issued many orders of supreme moment. He 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 29 
 
 was opinionated, almost immovable in Ms judg- 
 ments ; yet absolutely just, when not led astray by 
 bis impetuous temper, as be was apt to be at times 
 in tbe prodigious rush of official cares. Unlike 
 nearly all his associates in the cabinet, Stanton 
 was never accused of having any ambitions for a 
 higher place than his own. He lived in handsome 
 style, entertained generously, and was desperately 
 hated by the newspaper men, some of whom ap- 
 peared to regard him as a fiend incarnate. Cer- 
 tainly, Stanton's terrific earnestness in the prosecu- 
 tion of the war and the maintenance of the discipline 
 of the mihtary service, made him regardless of many 
 of the minor graces of life which might have en- 
 deared him to a generation of men who held him 
 in the highest respect for his patriotism, great pub- 
 lic services, and wonderful talent for administra- 
 tion. His spectacled face, with full black whiskers 
 grizzled with gray, and a peculiar silvery streak on 
 the chin, is familiar to thousands of Americans who 
 have seen his portrait on the paper currency of the 
 nation. 
 
 Lincoln appeared to have not only a great respect 
 for Secretary Stanton's abilities, but a certain dif- 
 fidence about any attempt to thwart the Secretary 
 in any way. I doubt very much if he ever said — 
 as was reported of him — that he " had no influence 
 with this administration," the War Department be- 
 ing especially referred to ; but I know that he dis- 
 liked to contradict or interfere with the Secretary 
 if it could be avoided. On more than one occasion, 
 however, the Secretary's iron will had to give way 
 before a decisive order. An amusing, and yet strik- 
 
30 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ing, illustration of the qualities of mind of the Presi- 
 dent and Secretary was afforded in the case of 
 Captain T. T. Eckert, then superintendent of the 
 military telegraph bureau that had been created in 
 the War Department (and now president of the 
 Western Union Telegraph Company). Captain 
 Eckert was a man of indomitable industry, an in- 
 cessant worker, and he was so over-burdened with 
 labor that he seldom left his narrow quarters, where 
 he was " cribbed, cabined, and confined " near the 
 War Department building, even for needful rest and 
 sleep. Much to Eckert's amazement and chagrin, 
 Captain Sanford, also attached to the military ser- 
 vice as a special officer (and afterward well known as 
 president of an express company), was detailed to 
 take his place as superintendent of the bureau. 
 Captain Sanford was reluctant to displace Captain 
 Eckert, especially as he was not familiar with the 
 practical working of the telegraph. Accordingly, 
 Sanford took occasion to let Eckert know that he 
 was to be relieved " for neglect of duty," by the 
 order of the Secretary of War. An allegation so 
 unjust wounded and surprised the hard-working 
 and harassed officer, who was conscious that he 
 had done his full duty by the government. The 
 upshot of the business was that Captain Eckert, 
 after he had succeeded in sending in his resignation 
 before an order of dismissal could reach him, was 
 permitted to face the War Secretary for the first 
 time since he had been on duty. It appeared that 
 Captain Eckert had originally been ordered to re- 
 port to G-eneral McClellan, and those orders had 
 never been changed or revoked. Stanton had for- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 31 
 
 gotten this, or did not know it ; and he had charged 
 to the remissness of Captain Eckert's bureau the 
 currency on the streets of Washington of militarj^ 
 intelligence, which had really leaked out from 
 McClellan's headquarters. The Secretary learned 
 for the first time, in reply to questions propounded 
 by him with almost brutal sternness, that Captain 
 Eckert's orders required him to report to General 
 McClellan, and not to the Secretary of War, nor 
 even to the President. While this harsh catechism 
 was going on, the tall form of the President ap- 
 peared in the doorway behind the captain, and Lin- 
 coln, lingering for a moment as he entered, heard 
 some portions of the talk. Then, striding forward, 
 he cheerily addressed Eckert (who, by the way, had 
 been appointed from Ohio) with, " How now, my 
 Buckeye friend, what 's the trouble here ? " When 
 he was told that the captain was on the point of 
 being discharged for neglect of duty, the President 
 expressed his amazement, and said that he had long 
 been in the habit of going to Captain Eckert's of- 
 fice for news from the front, for encouragement 
 and comfort when he was anxious and depressed. 
 He had gone there, he said, at all hours of the day 
 and night, — two o'clock in the day, and two o'clock 
 in the morning, at midday, daybreak, and sunrise, — 
 and he had never found the captain absent from 
 his post of duty ; and that he should be guilty of 
 neglect of duty was simply incredible. The grim 
 Secretary relaxed his attitude of stern reproach, 
 and Captain Eckert was directed to return to his 
 post with the rank and pay of major, reporting 
 thereafter to the Secretary and the President. In 
 
32 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 due course of time, Major Eckert was appointed 
 Assistant Secretary of War, and before lie resigned 
 his commission at the close of the war, he bore the 
 rank and title of brevet brigadier-general. It was 
 this faithful officer, by the way, who was chosen to 
 carry to the Confederate commissioners at Hamp- 
 ton Eoads, later in the war, the President's reply to 
 their appeal, before the President made up his mind, 
 at Q-rant's suggestion, to go there in person. Lin- 
 coln's arrival on the scene when the captain was 
 " having it out " with the headstrong Secretary was 
 in the nature of a special providence. 
 
 Captain Gustavus V. Fox, a man east in the 
 mold of the indefatigable Secretary of War, but 
 agreeably affable and winning in his manner, was 
 the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and its in- 
 forming spirit. Once the President requested me 
 to go to the Navy- Department, and see what could 
 be done for a young friend of mine who had been 
 in the army, and who desired to get into the 
 navy, in order to keep his promise not to go back 
 into the military service. And as I was discussing 
 the ways and means, the President said, ''Here, 
 take this card to Captain Fox ; lie is the Na^y De- 
 partment." Captain Fox, although a hard woi-ker, 
 was rotund and rosy, the very picture of a good 
 liver who took life easy. But he was capable of 
 performing prodigious feats of labor, aud he was a 
 complete encyclopedia of facts and figures relating 
 to the naval serA^iee and its collateral branches, 
 and was ready to take up and dispose of any of the 
 multitudinous details of the Navy Department at a 
 moment's notice. He was a marvelously self -poised 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 33 
 
 and ready man; he was the life and soul of the 
 department. 
 
 Secretary Welles was not readily accessible to 
 anybody, civilian or military, and his gentle and 
 courteous manner, when he was reached, was rather 
 disappointing to the visitor. He appeared to be 
 vague and shadowy. One energetic and business- 
 like senator (Conness of California) was wont to 
 declare that the Secretary did not have a tangible 
 shape, and that one's arm could sweep through his 
 form. It is hardly necessary to add that the Sec- 
 retary of the Navy was disliked by the newspaper 
 people, and that he suffered accordingly. One of 
 the craft fancied that he saw in Mr. Welles's face 
 and profile a likeness to the ill-fated consort of 
 Louis XVI., as she is painted by one of the Diissel- 
 dorf artists, on her way to execution. And " Marie 
 Antoinette " the Secretary was called by the irrev- 
 erent newspaper men, who had a nickname for 
 every public man. 
 
 President Lincoln dearly loved a good story at 
 the expense of any one of the dignitaries of the 
 time, and he was accustomed to relate with much 
 amusement a tale that was told of the Secretary of 
 the Navy by one of the humorous scribes brought 
 forth by the literary opportunities of the war — 
 " Orpheus C. Kerr." The story ran that a dying 
 sailor in one of the Washington hospitals said he 
 was ready to go if he could see his old grandmother 
 at home before he died ; and the attendant at his 
 bedside, being directed to ask Secretary Welles if 
 he would personate that relative, the Secretary re- 
 plied that he would do it with pleasure — but he 
 
34 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 was then busy examining a model of Noah's ark 
 with a view of introducing it into the United States 
 navy. One autumnal evening, whUe the President 
 and his family were lingering at the Soldiers' 
 Home, near Washington, where the summer had 
 been passed, a little party from the city was being 
 
 entertained.. Among these was Mr. A- T , 
 
 of New Hampshire. The President, standing with 
 his back to the fire and his legs spread apart, re- 
 cited from memory the aforementioned invention, 
 appropriately illustrating it with gestures, much to 
 the amusement of those present. When he had 
 finished, he turned to me and said : " Now don't 
 let the Secretary know that I have been telling 
 these stories on him ; for he would be dreadfully 
 mortified if he knew it." Probably I showed some 
 surprise and vexation at this implied and unmerited 
 rebuke ; and when we were preparing to retire for 
 the night, the other visitors having departed, Lin- 
 coln took occasion to explain that he did not for a 
 moment suppose that I would violate any confi- 
 dence, but he had used me as a friend over whom to 
 
 hit Mr. T , who, as he expressed it, was a " leaky 
 
 vessel," and might go away and tell all that he had 
 heard, unless warned. 
 
 Of the other members of the cabinet, Attorney- 
 General Bates was a gentleman of the old school, 
 short in stature, gi-ay-haired, rather shy and re- 
 served in manner, and not much seen in Washing- 
 ton society. Mr. Bates was of a philosophic turn 
 of mind and a close observer of man and nature ; 
 and, when one had made his intimate acquaintance, 
 he was found to be a most delightful talker. In 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 35 
 
 Ms old-fashioned courtliness he resembled Mr. 
 Seward. Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General, 
 was rated as the best-read man in Lincoln's cabinet, 
 and he was well versed in literatui-e ancient and 
 contemporaneous ; but his manners were awkward 
 and unattractive. In politics he was a restless mis- 
 chief-maker, and, like his brother Frank, he was ap- 
 parently never so happy as when he was in hot 
 water or was making water hot for others. He 
 was the stormy petrel of the Lincoln administra- 
 tion. Although Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, Sec- 
 retary of the Interior, was one of the original 
 members of Lincoln's cabinet, his immediate suc- 
 cessor, John P. Usher, from the same State, is 
 generally regarded as the representative man in 
 the Interior Department during that administra- 
 tion : he held office from the time of Smith's resig- 
 nation in the autumn of 1862 to near the end of 
 Lincoln's life. Secretary Usher was a fair, florid, 
 well-nourished and comfortable man, an able law- 
 yer, a great worker, and generally accessible to the 
 newspaper men, who for that reason always had a 
 good word for the good-natured and kindly dis- 
 posed Secretary of the Interior. This habit of the 
 gentlemen of the press, who classed public men 
 rather by their personal qualities than by their 
 actual merits, appears to have survived the shock 
 of war. 
 
 During the time of his occupying the post of 
 confidential military adviser to the President, Gen- 
 eral Halleck had his office in the Winder building, 
 near the War Department, and his residence was 
 on Georgetown Heights. General Halleck's figure 
 
36 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 was tall and well proportioned, though somewhat 
 inclined to portliness. His face was exceedingly 
 grave and saturnine, his complexion sallow and 
 dark, and his habitual bearing was that of a man 
 sure of himself and distrustful of everybody else. 
 But in the privacy of his own house he could relax 
 to geniality; he liked a good story, and could tell 
 one with gusto. HaUeck was a close student of 
 human nature, and while his smoothly shaven face 
 was a complete mask for his own emotions and 
 thoughts, his large dark penetrating eyes looked 
 through one with searching thoroughness. It is 
 not true that President Lincoln was ruled com- 
 pletely by General Halleck, as so many ill-informed 
 people used to say. Lincoln liked to " talk strategy" 
 with Halleck, but was never very much under the 
 general's influence even in mihtary matters. He 
 had opinions of his own, and was often impatient 
 with Halleck's slowness and extreme caution. 
 
 One evening in the eai'ly summer of 1863, just 
 after the failui-e of the naval attack on Fort Sum- 
 ter, the President asked me to go with him to 
 Halleck's headquarters for a chat with the general. 
 Soon after our arrival, the President and Greneral 
 Halleck fell into a discussion as to the possibility 
 of landing a strong force of artillery and infantry 
 on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, under cover 
 of the gunboats, to cooperate with the navy in an 
 attack upon the rebel fortifications on Cummiugs 
 Point. The President said he thought that Fort 
 Sumter might be reduced in this way, and that, by 
 gradual approaches, we could get within range of 
 the city of Charleston. He illustrated his theory 
 
"WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 37 
 
 of gradual approaciies by means of tkree or four 
 lead-pencils and pen-handles, whicli he arranged in 
 parallels, sMfting them from time to time to show 
 how, according to his notion of military strategy, 
 our lines could be advanced in the desired direc- 
 tion. Halleck would not say that it was imprac- 
 ticable to land troops on the southeast end of the 
 island, but he insisted that they could do nothing 
 after they got there ; and he made a strong point 
 of the statement that the strip of land between 
 Fort "Wagner and the place of landing was so nar- 
 row that the zigzag parallel lines laid out by the 
 President, according to scientific rules, could not 
 be made. Assistant-Secretary Fox of the Navy 
 Department came in during the conference, and 
 the President appealed to him for his opinion. 
 Captain Fox agreed with Lincoln that the move- 
 ment could be made, but whenever the President 
 pressed this view upon Halleck, the general invari- 
 ably replied : " If it were practicable it would have 
 been done ; but the plan would be utterly futile for 
 the reason that there is not room enough for the 
 approaches which must be made." Halleck, al- 
 though he treated the suggestions of Lincoln with 
 great respect, evidently entertained profound con- 
 tempt for his military knowledge. When he went 
 away Lincoln (whose common-sense view of the 
 situation appeared to me, an amateur, to be sensible 
 and feasible) expressed himself as discouraged with 
 what he called " General Halleck's habitual atti- 
 tude of demur." 
 
 That night, as we walked back to the White House 
 through the grounds between the War Department 
 
38 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 buildings and the house, I fancied that I saw in the 
 misty moonlight a man dodging behind one of the 
 trees. My heart for a moment stood still, but, as 
 we passed in safety, I came to the conclusion that 
 the dodging figure was a creature of the imagina- 
 tion. Nevertheless, as I parted from the President 
 at the door of the White House, I could not help 
 saying that I thought his going to and fro in the 
 darkness of the night, as it was usually his custom, 
 often alone and unattended, was dangerous reck- 
 lessness. That night, in deference to his wife's 
 anxious appeal, he had provided himself with a 
 thick oaken stick. He laughed as he showed me 
 this slight weapon, and said, but with some serious- 
 ness : " I long ago made up my mind that if any- 
 body wants to kiU me, he will do it. If I wore 
 a shirt of mail, and kept myself surrounded by a 
 body-guard, it would be aU the same. There are a 
 thousand ways of getting at a man if it is desired 
 that he should be kiUed. Besides, in this case, it 
 seems to me the man who would come after me 
 would be just as objectionable to my enemies — if 
 I have any." 
 
 The oaken stick to which I have just referred 
 was fashioned from a bit of timliev from one of the 
 men-of-war sunk in the fight at Hampton Roads ; 
 the ferule was an iron bolt from the rebel ram 
 Merriiuac, and another bolt from the Monitor fur- 
 nished the head of the cane. After Mr. Lincoln's 
 death, Mrs. Lincoln gave me the stick, which had 
 been presented to the President by an officer of the 
 navy. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 GLIMPSES OF LINCOLN IN WAK TIME 
 
 THE CLOUDY CLOSE OF 1862 — CHANGE OF COMMAND- 
 ERS OF THE AKMY OF THE POTOMAC — THE FKEDER- 
 ICKSBUEG DEFEAT — A GLOOMY NEW YEAR'S DAY 
 IN WASHINGTON — REVIEWING HOOKER'S ARMY — 
 SOCIAL INCIDENTS IN WASHINGTON — LINCOLN'S 
 POWERS OF MEMORY. 
 
 IT would be impossible to give to one who was 
 not near the front in time of war a vivid idea 
 of the excitement that prevailed at the national 
 capital during the fighting around Fredericksburg, 
 Virginia, in December, 1862. And the depth of 
 the gloom that succeeded that disastrous attack is 
 equally indescribable. Although everybody ap- 
 peared to have kindly and generous feelings for 
 General Burnside, there was not much confidence 
 expressed in Washington when his movement 
 against Fredericksburg began. It seemed to us, 
 uninformed and ignorant civilians, a most difficult 
 and hazardous undertaking; and it is worthy of 
 remembrance that almost everybody had a convic- 
 tion that there was to be a supporting movement, 
 somehow and somewhere, when Burnside should 
 cross the Rappahannock and assault the heights of 
 Fredericksburg. I have never learned why such a 
 
 39 
 
40 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 belief was common at the capital; but sucb was 
 the fact. There was no such supporting or co- 
 operating movement. 
 
 Burnside's troops began crossing the river at 
 dawn on the 11th of December, 1862. The great 
 fight came on the 13th, when the Union forces 
 faced that dreadful hill, near the town, whose de- 
 clivity was a compact mass of artillery and mus- 
 ketry served by a brave and determined enemy. 
 The Union troops marched to certain death. The 
 Union loss in killed and wounded was 10,881. Af- 
 ter one or two spasmodic and ineffectual attempts 
 to renew the fight and carry the heights, the army 
 was withdrawn to the northern side of the river in 
 the midst of a storm which prevailed during the 
 evening of December 15th. 
 
 UNCHEEKFUL HOLIDAYS 
 
 Seveeal days passed before anybody in "Wash- 
 ington, outside of government circles, actually re- 
 alized that we had suffered a great and bloody 
 defeat. We hoped against hope ; for by that time 
 we had begun to learn that the news of a Union 
 victory was never long delayed nor ever under- 
 stated in detail. When ill news came, it leaked 
 out in driblets. This was when the direful ac- 
 counts of the Fredericksburg repulse slowly filtered 
 through the lines. And, so strict was the censbr- 
 ship in Washington, the general public outside of 
 that city did not receive all the truth until it had 
 been known and discussed in the national capital 
 for at least twenty-four hours. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 41 
 
 Althougli there was some fighting on the 12th 
 of the month, and a sanguinary struggle on the 
 13th, the last of the wounded were not received 
 at the Washington hospitals until the 29th. The 
 least severely wounded came fixst, and it was re- 
 marked that a major portion of these were dis- 
 abled by wounds on the upper part of their bodies 
 — heads and shoulders suffering most. They had 
 been shot at while climbing a hill. 
 
 Most uncheerful were the so-called holidays of 
 that season. The city was filled with wounded and 
 dying men; and multitudes of people from the 
 North, seeking lost, missing, or wounded relatives, 
 crowded the hotels. Nevertheless, with all these 
 signs of woe on every hand, and with the great 
 heart of the nation oppressed with discouragement 
 and anxiety, the customary and conventional fes- 
 tivities of Christmas and New Tear's day must be 
 observed. I made the rounds of the official resi- 
 dences in company with a California representative 
 in Congress, and we were struck with the artifici- 
 ality of the show. One or two of the members of 
 the President's cabinet did not receive caUs on 
 New Year's, but there was much elegance and pro- 
 fuseness of hospitality at the house of the Secre- 
 tary of War, and Mr. Stanton's face wore no sign 
 of the worry that must have distressed him on 
 that anxious, unfestive day. 
 
 Not so with the President. He received the dip- 
 lomatic corps at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, 
 and when these shining officials had duly congratu- 
 lated him and had been bowed out, the officers of 
 the army and navy who happened to be in town 
 
42 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 were received in the order of their rank. At twelve, 
 noon, the gates of the White House grounds were 
 flung wide open, and the sovereign people were ad- 
 mitted to the mansion in instalments. I had gone 
 to the house earlier, and now enjoyed the privilege 
 of contrasting the decorous quiet of the receptions 
 at the residences of lesser functionaries with the 
 wild, tumultuous rush into the White House. Some- 
 times the pressure and the disorder were almost ap- 
 palling; and it required no little engineering to 
 steer the throng, after it had met and engaged the 
 President, out of the great window from which a 
 temporary bridge had been constructed for an exit. 
 
 In the midst of this turmoil the good President 
 stood serene and even smiling. But as I watched 
 his face, I could see that he often looked over the 
 heads of the multitudinous strangers who shook 
 his hand with fei'vor and affection. "His eyes 
 were with his thoughts, and they were far away" 
 on the bloody and snowy field of Fredericksburg, 
 or with the defeated and worn Bui-nside, with whom 
 he had that very day had a long and most depress- 
 ing interview. In the intervals of his ceremonial 
 duties he had written a letter to Gleneral Halleck 
 which that officer construed as an intimation that 
 his resignation of the office of general-in-ehief 
 would be acceptable to the President. It was not 
 an occasion for cheer. 
 
 But when Congress reassembled in January, 1863, 
 after the holiday recess, the air was somewhat clari- 
 fied, and the hearts of Union senators and rep- 
 resentatives were cheered by military news from 
 the Southwest, where Roseerans and Sherman had 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 43 
 
 gained important victories ; new ardor was infused 
 into the drooping spirits of Unionists at the capi- 
 tal. The autumn elections of 1862 had been inter- 
 preted by the Peace Democrats as a rebuke of the 
 so-called " abolition policy " of the Lincoln admin- 
 istration, and the last previous session of Congress 
 (the Thirty-seventh) had met in December, 1862, 
 under circumstances of great depression. But in 
 January the effect of good news from the front was 
 clearly discernible on the faces of retui'ning legis- 
 lators. It was easy to see that they were far more 
 cheerful than they were when they adjourned for 
 the holiday recess. 
 
 One of the early incidents of the January session 
 was a strong war speech from Senator "Wright, of 
 Indiana, who occupied the seat vacated by the ex- 
 pulsion of Jesse D. Bright from the United States 
 Senate. He was a War Democrat, and took high 
 ground in favor of the President's policy of eman- 
 cipation. Among other things, to the great delight 
 of the Unionists, he said that he hoped to see the 
 time when a hundred thousand slaveholders would 
 be running one way and two millions of slaves 
 would be running in the opposite direction. In 
 spite of the hammering of the gavel of the presid- 
 ing officer, the galleries broke forth into thunderous 
 applause ; and this was renewed when, later on in 
 his speech, the Indiana senator said that he was 
 glad to know that there was at least one general 
 who was not fighting for the Presidency ; and he 
 had been heard of at the head, not the rear, of his 
 army, and had had two of his staff shot down by 
 his very side. This was an allusion to Rosecrans, 
 
44 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 who was then the favorite of the hour, and the ap- 
 plause that followed was so deafening and indecor- 
 ous that Senator Powell, of Kentucky, white with 
 wrath and shaking his fist at the galleries, demanded 
 that those seats be cleared. The senator was sec- 
 onded in his motion by Saulsbury, of Delaware; 
 but the hilarious crowd in the galleries, I am bound 
 to say, received these warnings with undisguised 
 contempt, and actually laughed at the speakers be- 
 low. The President of the Senate, however, sol- 
 emnly admonished the spectators that the rules of 
 the Senate must be enforced, and that a repetition 
 of their offense would be followed by a clearing of 
 the galleries ; and the speech-making went on with- 
 out further interruption. 
 
 Once more, when Burnside began his famous 
 "mud march," January 21st, Washington was ex- 
 cited with the high hopes which were inspired by 
 that hapless movement. Civilians came hurrying 
 to the capital to be on hand when the news of vic- 
 tory should arrive; and congressmen who were 
 believed to be within the inner circle of govern- 
 mental confidence were sure that great things were 
 soon to be forthcoming. Vain hope ! After a short 
 and costly struggle with the elements, the rain and 
 the mud conspiring to hinder the least progress of 
 the army, an attempt to cross the Rappahannock 
 at Banks's Ford was abandoned, and the Army of 
 the Potomac returned to its place of encampment. 
 
 But, although the fond expectations of the people 
 had been dashed by this renewed failure, the dis- 
 appointment was not nearly so great as that caused 
 by the Fredericksburg disaster. There was an ele- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 45 
 
 ment of the grotesque in the " mud march " which 
 diverted attention from its serious consequences. 
 The loss of material in that brief and inglorious 
 campaign was very large. 
 
 Burnside's usefulness as an army commander was 
 conceded to be over, and when he was replaced, a 
 few days later, by " Fighting Joe Hooker," popular 
 hope, so often disappointed, again rose high. At 
 last, it was felt, the man had come. The hour could 
 not be far off. 
 
 BEVIEWING HOOKEK'S ABMY 
 
 Eakly in April, 1863, I accompanied the Presi- 
 dent, Mrs. Lincoln, and their youngest son, " Tad," 
 on a visit to the Army of the Potomac — Hooker 
 then being in command, with headquarters on Pal- 
 mouth Heights, opposite Fredericksburg. Attorney- 
 Greneral Bates and an old friend of Mr. Lincoln — 
 Dr. A. Gr. Henry of Washington Territory — were 
 also of the party. The trip had been postponed for 
 several days on account of unfavorable weather, 
 and it began to snow furiously soon after the Presi- 
 dent's little steamer, the Carrie Martin, left the 
 Washington navy-yard. So thick was the weather, 
 and so difficult the navigation, that we were forced 
 to anchor for the night in a little cove in the Poto- 
 mac opposite Indian Head, where we remained un- 
 til the following morning. I could not help thinking 
 that if the rebels had made a raid on the Potomac 
 at that time, the capture of the chief magistrate of 
 the United States would have been a very simple 
 matter. So far as I could see, there were no guards 
 
46 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 on board the boat, and no precautions were taken 
 against a surprise. After the rest of tbe party bad 
 retired for the night, the President, Dr. Henry, and 
 I sat up untU long after midnight, telling stories 
 and discussing matters, political or military, in the 
 most free and easy way. During the conversation 
 after Dr. Henry had left us, Mr. Lincoln, dropping 
 his voice almost to a confidential whisper, said, 
 " How many of our ironclads do you suppose are 
 at the bottom of Charleston harbor?" This was 
 the first intimation I had had that the long-talked- 
 of naval attack on Fort Sumter was to be made that 
 day ; and the President, who had been jocular and 
 cheerful during the evening, began despondently to 
 discuss the probabilities of defeat. It was evident 
 that his mind was entirely prepared for the repulse, 
 the news of which soon after reached us. During 
 our subsequent stay at Hooker's headquai-ters, which 
 lasted nearly a week, Mr. Lincoln eagerly inquired 
 every day for the rebel newspapers that were brought 
 in through the picket-lines, and when these were re- 
 ceived he anxiously hunted through them for in- 
 formation from Charleston. It was not until we 
 returned to Washington, however, that a trust- 
 worthy and conclusive account of the failure of the 
 attack was received. 
 
 Our landing-place, when en route for Falmouth, 
 was at Aquia Creek, which we reached next morn- 
 ing, the untimely snow still falling. " The Creek," 
 as it was called, was a village of hastily constructed 
 warehouses, and its water-front was lined with 
 transports and government steamers; enormous 
 freight-trains were continually running from it to 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 47 
 
 the army encamped among the hills of Virginia ly- 
 ing between the Rappahannock and the Potomac. 
 As there were sixty thousand horses and mules to 
 be fed in the army, the single item of daily forage 
 was a considerable factor in the problem of trans- 
 portation. The President and his party were pro- 
 vided with an ordinary freight-car fitted up with 
 rough plank benches, and profusely decorated with 
 flags and bunting. A great crowd of army people 
 saluted the President Avith cheers when he landed 
 from the steamer, and with "three times three" 
 when his unpretentious railway carriage rolled 
 away. At Falmouth station, which was about five 
 miles east of the old town, two ambulances and an 
 escort of cavalry received the party, the honors be- 
 ing done by G-eneral Daniel Butterfield, who was 
 then Greneral Hooker's chief of staff. 
 
 At Hooker's headquarters we were provided with 
 three large hospital tents, floored, and furnished 
 with camp bedsteads and such rude appliances for 
 nightly occupation as were in reach. During our 
 stay with the army there were several grand re- 
 views, that of the entire cavalry corps of the Army 
 of the Potomac, on April 6, being the most impres- 
 sive of the whole series. The cavalry was now for 
 the first time massed as one corps instead of being 
 scattered around among the various army corps, 
 as it had been heretofore ; it was commanded by 
 General Stoneman. The entire cavalry force was 
 rated at 17,000 men, and Hooker proudly said that 
 it was the biggest army of men and horses ever 
 seen in the world, bigger even than the famous body 
 of cavalry commanded by Marshal Murat, 
 
48 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 The cavalcade on the way from headquarters to 
 the reviewing-fleld was a brilliant one. The Presi- 
 dent, wearing a high hat and riding like a veteran, 
 with General Hooker by his side, headed the flying 
 column ; next came several major-generals, a host 
 of brigadiers, staff-officers, and colonels, and lesser 
 functionaries innumerable. The flank of this long 
 train was decorated by the showy uniforms and ac- 
 coutrements of the "Philadelphia Lancers," who 
 acted as a guard of honor to the President during 
 that visit to the Army of the Potomac. The uneven 
 ground was soft with melting snow, and the mud 
 flew in every direction under the hurrying feet of the 
 cavalcade. On the skirts of this cloud of cavalry 
 rode the President's little son " Tad," in charge of a 
 mounted orderly, his gray cloak flying in the gusty 
 wind like the plume of Henry of Xavarre. The 
 President and the reviewing party rode past the 
 long lines of cavalry standing at rest, and then the 
 march past began. It was a grand sight to look 
 upon, this immense body of cavalry, with banners 
 waving, music crashing, and horses prancing, as 
 the vast column came winding like a huge serpent 
 over the hUls past the reviewing party, and then 
 stretching far away out of sight. 
 
 The President went through the hospital tents 
 of the corps that lay nearest to headquarters, and 
 insisted upon stopping and speaking to nearly every 
 man, shaking hands with many of them, asking a 
 question or two here and there, and leaving a kind 
 word as he moved from cot to cot. More than once, 
 as I followed the President through the long lines 
 of weary sufferers, I noticed tears of gladness steal- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 49 
 
 ing down their pale faces ; for they were made happy 
 by looking into Lincoln's sympathetic countenance, 
 touching his hand, and hearing his gentle voice; 
 and when we rode away from the camp to Hooker's 
 headquarters, tremendous cheers rent the air from 
 the soldiers, who stood in groups, eager to see the 
 good President. 
 
 The infantry reviews were held on several differ- 
 ent days. On April 8 was the review of the Fifth 
 Corps, under Meade; the Second, under Couch; the 
 Third, under Sickles ; and the Sixth, under Sedg- 
 wick. It was reckoned that these four corps num- 
 bered some 60,000 men, and it was a splendid sight 
 to witness their grand martial array as they wound 
 over hiUs and rolling ground, coming from miles 
 around, their arms shining in the distance, and 
 their bayonets bristling like a forest on the horizon 
 as they marched away. The President expressed 
 himself as delighted with the appearance of the 
 soldiery, and he was much impressed by the parade 
 of the great reserve artillery force, some eighty 
 guns, commanded by Colonel De Russy. One pic- 
 turesque feature of the review on that day was the 
 appearance of the Zouave regiments, whose dress 
 formed a sharp contrast to the regulation uniform 
 of the other troops. General Hooker, being asked 
 by the President if fancy uniforms were not unde- 
 sirable on account of the conspicuousness which 
 they gave as targets to the enemy's fire, said that 
 these uniforms had the effect of inciting a spirit of 
 pride and neatness among the men. It was notice- 
 able that the President merely touched his hat in 
 return salute to the officers, but uncovered to the 
 
50 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 men in the ranks. As they sat in the chilly wind, 
 in the presence of the shot-riddled colors of the 
 army and the gallant men who bore them, he and the 
 group of distinguished ofl&cers around him formed 
 a notable historic spectacle. After a few days the 
 weather grew warm and bright; and although the 
 scanty driblets of news from Charleston that were 
 filtered to us through the rebel lines did not throw 
 much sunshine into the military situation, the 
 President became more cheerful and even jocular. 
 I remarked this one evening as we sat in Hooker's 
 headquarters, after a long and laborious day of re- 
 viewing. Lincoln replied : " It is a great relief to 
 get away from Washington and the politicians. 
 But nothing touches the tired spot." 
 
 On the 9th the First Corps, commanded by General 
 Eeynolds, was reviewed by the President on a beau- 
 tiful plain at the north of Potomac Creek, about 
 eight miles from Hooker's headquarters. We rode 
 thither in an ambulance over a rough corduroy 
 road; and, as we passed over some of the more dif- 
 ficult portions of the jolting way, the ambulance 
 driver, who sat well in front, occasionally let fly 
 a volley of suppressed oaths at his wild team of 
 six mules. Finally Mr. Lincoln, leaning forward, 
 touched the man on the shoulder, and said: 
 
 "Excuse me, my friend, are you an Episco- 
 palian ? " 
 
 The man, greatly startled, looked around and 
 replied : 
 
 " No, Mr. President ; I am a Methodist." 
 
 "Well," said Lincoln, "I thought you must be 
 an Episcopalian, because you swear just like G-ov- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 51 
 
 ernor Seward, who is a churchwarden." The driver 
 swore no more. 
 
 As we plunged and dashed through the woods, 
 Lincoln called attention to the stumps left by the 
 men who had cut down the trees, and with great 
 discrimination pointed out where an experienced 
 axman made what he called " a good butt," or where 
 a tyro had left conclusive evidence of being a poor 
 chopper. Lincoln was delighted with the superb 
 and inspiriting spectacle of the review that day. 
 A noticeable feature of the doings was the martial 
 music of the corps ; and on the following day the 
 President, who loved military music, was warm in 
 his praise of the performances of the bands of the 
 Eleventh Corps, under General Howard, and the 
 Twelfth, under General Slocum. In these two corps 
 the greater portion of the music was furnished by 
 drums, trumpets, and fifes, and with most stirring 
 and thrilling effect. In the division commanded 
 by G-eneral Schui'z was a magnificent array of 
 drums and trumpets, and his men impressed us as 
 the best drilled and most soldierly of all who passed 
 before us during our stay. 
 
 I recall with sadness the easy confidence and 
 nonchalance which Hooker showed in all his con- 
 versations with the President and his little party 
 while we were at his headquarters. The general 
 seemed to regard the whole business of command 
 as if it were a larger sort of picnic. He was then, 
 by all odds, the handsomest soldier I ever laid my 
 eyes upon. I think I see him now: tall, shapely, 
 well dressed, though not natty in appearance; his 
 fair red and white complexion glowing with health, 
 
52 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 his bright blue eyes sparkling with intelligence and 
 animation, and his auburn hair tossed back upon 
 his well-shaped head. His nose was aquiline, and 
 the expression of his somewhat small mouth was 
 one of much sweetness, though rather irresolute, 
 it seemed to me. He was a gay cavalier, alert 
 and confident, overflowing with animal spirits, and 
 as cheery as a boy. One of his most frequent 
 expressions when talking with the President was, 
 "When I get to Eichmond," or "After we have 
 taken Eichmond," etc. The President, noting this, 
 said to me confidentially, and with a sigh: "That 
 is the most depressing thing about Hooker. It 
 seems to me that he is over-confident." 
 
 One night when Hooker and I were alone in 
 his hut, which was partly canvas and partly logs, 
 with a spacious fireplace and chimney, he stood 
 in his favorite attitude with his back to the fire, 
 and, looking qui^izicaUy at me, said, "The Presi- 
 dent tells me that you know all about the letter 
 he wrote to me when he put me in command of 
 this army." I replied that Mr. Lincoln had read 
 it to me ; whereupon Hooker drew the letter from 
 his pocket, and said, " "Would n't you hke to hear 
 it again?" I told him that I should, although I 
 had been so much impressed by its first reading 
 that I believed I could repeat the greater part of 
 it from memory. That letter has now become 
 historic; then it had not been made public. As 
 Hooker read on, he came to this sentence: 
 
 You are ambitious, whicli, within reasonable bounds, 
 does good rather than harm ; but I think during Burn- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 53 
 
 side's commaad of the army you took counsel of your 
 ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in 
 which you did a great wrong to the country and to a 
 most meritorious and honorable brother of&cer. 
 
 Here Hooker stopped, and vehemently said: 
 " The President is mistaken. I never thwarted 
 Burnside in any way, shape, or manner. Burn- 
 side was preeminently a man of deportment: he 
 fought the battle of Fredericksburg on his deport- 
 ment; he was defeated on his deportment; and 
 he took his deportment with him out of the Army 
 of the Potomac, thank God ! " Eesuming the 
 reading of Lincoln's letter, Hooker's tone imme- 
 diately softened, and he finished it almost with 
 tears in his eyes ; and as he folded it, and put it 
 back in the breast of his coat, he said, "That is 
 just such a letter as a father might write to his 
 son. It is a beautiful letter, and, although I think 
 he was harder on me than I deserved, I will say 
 that I love the man who wrote it." Then he 
 added, "After I have got to Richmond, I shall 
 give that letter to you to have published." Poor 
 Hooker, he never got to Eichmond ; but the letter 
 did eventually find its way into print, and, as an 
 epistle from the commander-in-chief of the army 
 and navy of one of the greatest nations of the 
 world, addressed to the newly appointed general 
 of the magnificent army intended and expected 
 to capture the capital of the Confederacy and to 
 crush the rebellion, it has since become one of 
 the famous documents of the time. 
 
 A peep into the Confederate lines while we were 
 
54 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 with the army was Hglily entertaining. "Tad" 
 having expressed a consuming desire to see how 
 the "graybacks" looked, we were allowed, under 
 the escort of one of G-eneral Hooker's aides and 
 an orderly, to go down to the picket-lines oppo- 
 site Fredericksburg and to take a look at them. 
 On our side of the river the country had been 
 pretty weU swept by shot and by the axmen, and 
 the general appearance of things was desolate in 
 the extreme. The Phillips House, which was 
 Burnside's headquarters during the battle of Fred- 
 ericksburg, had been burned down, and the ruins 
 of that elegant mansion, built in the olden time, 
 added to the sorrowful appearance of the region 
 desolated by war. Here and there stood the bare 
 chimneys of houses destroyed, and across the river 
 the smoke from the camps of the enemy rose from 
 behind a ridge, and a flag of stars and bars floated 
 over a handsome residence on the heights, just 
 above the stone wall where our men were slain by 
 thousands during the dreadful fight of December, 
 1862. The town of Fredericksburg could be thor- 
 oughly examined through a field-glass, and almost 
 no building in sight from where we stood was 
 without battle-scars. The walls of the houses 
 were rent with shot and shell, and loose sheets of 
 tin were fluttering from the steeple of a church 
 that had been in the line of fire. A tall chimney 
 stood solitary by the river's brink, and on its bare 
 and exposed hearthstone two rebel pickets were 
 warming themselves, for the air was frosty. One 
 of them wore with a jaunty swagger a United 
 States light-blue army overcoat. Noting our ap- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 55 
 
 pearance, these clieerful sentinels bawled to us 
 that GUI' forces had been "licked" in the recent 
 attack on Fort Sumter; and a rebel officer, hear- 
 ing the shouting, came down to the river-bank, 
 and closely examined our party through a field- 
 glass. On the night before our arrival, when 
 Hooker had vainly looked for us, a rebel sentry 
 on the south side of the Rappahannock had asked 
 if " Abe and his wife " had come yet, showing that 
 they knew pretty well what was going on inside 
 the Union lines. The officer inspecting our party, 
 apparently having failed to detect the tall form of 
 President Lincoln, took off his hat, made a sweep- 
 ing bow, and retired. Friendly exchanges of to- 
 bacco, newspapers, and other trifles went on be- 
 tween the lines, and it was difficult to imagine, so 
 peaceful was the scene, that only a few weeks had 
 passed since this was the outer edge of one of the 
 bloodiest battle-fields of the war. 
 
 One of the budgets that came through the lines 
 while we were at Hooker's headquarters inclosed a 
 photograph of a rebel officer addressed to General 
 Averill, who had been a classmate of the sender. 
 On the back of the picture was the autograph of 
 the officer, with the addendum, "A rebellious rebel." 
 Mrs. Lincoln, with a strict construction of words 
 and phrases in her mind, said that the inscription 
 ought to be taken as indicating that the officer was 
 a rebel against the rebel government. Mr. Lincoln 
 smiled at this feminine way of putting the case, and 
 said that the determined gentleman who had sent 
 his picture to Averill wanted everybody to know 
 that he was not only a rebel, but a rebel of reb- 
 
56 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 els — "a double-dyed-in-the-wool sort of rebel," be 
 added. 
 
 One day, wbile we were driving around some of 
 the encampments, we suddenly came upon a dis- 
 orderly and queer-looking settlement of shanties 
 and little tents scattered over a hillside. As the 
 ambulance drove by the base of the hill, as if by 
 magic the entire population of blacks and yellows 
 swarmed out. It was a camp of colored refugees, 
 and a motley throng were the various sizes and 
 shades of color that set up a shrill "Hurrah for 
 Massa Linkum ! " as we swept by. Mrs. Lincoln, 
 with a friendly glance at the children, who were 
 almost innumerable, asked the President how many 
 of " those piccaninnies " he supposed were named 
 Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln said, "Let 's see; 
 this is April, 1863. I should say that of all those 
 babies under two years of age, perhaps two thirds 
 have been named for me." 
 
 APTER HOOKEE'S DEFEAT 
 
 The President returned to Washington not only 
 invigorated and refreshed by his short outing, but 
 somewhat cheered and comforted by the general 
 appearance of the army and the indications that 
 the coming battle, when it should be fought, would 
 result fortunately for the cause of the Union. The 
 world now knows how great was the new disap- 
 pointment that fell upon him and upon the nation 
 when the battle was actually fought and lost at 
 ChaneellorsviUe, a few weeks later. 
 
 I was at the White House on Wednesday, May 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 57 
 
 6, and the President, who seemed anxious and 
 harassed beyond any power of description, said 
 that while still without any positive information as 
 to the result of the fighting at Chaneellorsville, he 
 was certain in his own mind that "Hooker had 
 been licked." He was only then wondering whether 
 Hooker would be able to recover himself and re- 
 new the fight. The President asked me to go into 
 the room then occupied by his friend Dr. Henry, 
 who was a guest in the house, saying possibly we 
 might get some news later on. 
 
 In an hour or so, while the doctor and I sat talking, 
 say about three o'clock in the afternoon, the door 
 opened, and Lincoln came into the room. I shall 
 never forget that picture of despair. He held a tele- 
 gram in his hand, and as he closed the door and came 
 toward us I mechanically noticed that his face, usu- 
 ally sallow, was ashen in hue. The paper on the wall 
 behind him was of the tint known as " French gray," 
 and even in that moment of sorrow and dread ex- 
 pectation I vaguely took in the thought that the 
 complexion of the anguished President's visage 
 was almost exactly like that of the wall. He gave 
 me the telegram, and in a voice trembling with 
 emotion, said, "Read it — news from the army." 
 The despatch was from Gleneral Butterfield, Hook- 
 er's chief of staff, addressed to the War Depart- 
 ment, and was to the effect that the army had been 
 withdrawn from the south side of the Rappahan- 
 nock, and was then " safely encamped " in its 
 former position. The appearance of the Presi- 
 dent, as I read aloud these fateful words, was pite- 
 ous. Never, as long as I knew him, did he seem to 
 
58 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 be SO broken, so dispirited, and so ghostlike. Clasp- 
 ing his hands behind his back, he walked up and 
 down the room, saying, "My God! my God! What 
 will the country say ! What will the country say ! " 
 
 He seemed incapable of uttering any other words 
 than these, and after a little time he hurriedly left 
 the room. Dr. Henry, whose affection for Lincoln 
 was deep and tender, burst into a passion of tears. 
 I consoled him as best I could, and while we were 
 talking and trying to find a gleam of sunshine in 
 this frightful darkness, I saw a carriage drive up to 
 the entrance of the White House, and, looking out, 
 beheld the tall form of the President dart into the 
 vehicle, in which sat General Halleck, and drive 
 off. Immediately after, an attendant came to tell 
 us that the President and General Halleck had 
 gone to the Army of the Potomac, and that Mr. 
 Lincoln would return next day, and would like to 
 see me in the evening. 
 
 The wildest rumors were at once set on foot; 
 but it was known that the President and General 
 Halleck had gone to the front, taking a special 
 steamer at the navy-yard at four o'clock that after- 
 noon. It was commonly believed that Hooker was 
 or would be put under arrest ; that Halleck would 
 be placed in command of the Army of the Potomac; 
 that Stanton had resigned; that Lee had cut 
 Hooker to pieces, and was approaching Washington 
 by the way of Dumfries; that McCleUan was com- 
 ing on a special train from New York, and that 
 Sigel, Butler, Fremont, and several other shelved 
 generals, had been sent for in hot haste. The crowd 
 at Willard's Hotel that night was so great that it 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 59 
 
 was difficult to get inside the doors. The friends 
 of McClellan, and the Copperheads generally, sprang 
 at once into new life and animation, and were dotted 
 through the gloomy crowds with smiling faces and 
 unsuppressed joy. 
 
 Of course these fantastic stories speedily passed 
 away like mists before the sun. Hooker was not 
 removed, and although he never again commanded 
 the Army of the Potomac in any great battle, his 
 withdrawal from his high post was accomplished 
 later on without any such disgrace as would have 
 attended his dismissal at that time. When he was 
 finally relieved of the command of the Army of the 
 Potomac, a few days before the battle of Grettys- 
 burg, and while Lee was on his march to invade 
 Pennsylvania, Hooker went to Baltimore to wait for 
 orders, very much as McClellan had gone to Tren- 
 ton to wait when he had relinquished his baton of 
 command. No orders went to Hooker, and, becom- 
 ing impatient, he came to Washington to ask for 
 orders. He sent his card to my rooms, and I called 
 on him at his headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, 
 opposite WUlard's Hotel. He did not in the least ex- 
 hibit that chastened spirit which I expected to see in 
 him, but evidently regarded himself a greatly abused 
 man. He could not speak in moderation of any 
 one of his generals; and as for Halleck and Stanton, 
 no words at his command could express his hatred 
 and contempt for these men, whom he regarded 
 as the authors of aU his misfortunes. He asked 
 me what the President had said about him. I hesi- 
 tated, but when he pressed for a reply, said that Lin- 
 coln had told me that he regarded Hooker very much 
 
60 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 as a father might regard a son who was lame, or who 
 had some other incurable physical infirmity. His 
 love for his son would be even intensified by the re- 
 flection that the lad could never be a strong and 
 successful man. The tears stood in Hooker's eyes 
 as he heard this curious characterization of himself ; 
 but immediately rallying, he said, " Well, the Presi- 
 dent may regard me as a cripple ; but if he will give 
 me a chance, I will yet show him that I know how 
 to fight." The next day Hooker was arrested on an 
 order from the War Department for having visited 
 Washington without leave, contrary to existing rules 
 and regulations. This certainly was a most ungra- 
 cious and needless bit of oppression ; it would have 
 been very easy to have warned Hooker that he was 
 liable to arrest, and to have given him an opportu- 
 nity to get away from Washington without discredit. 
 I never saw Hooker again until long after the war, 
 whenhe was living at theBrevoort House, New York, 
 where I was then in the habit of dining. His mind 
 had become somewhat shaken by sickness, and the 
 long and painful strain of years of strenuous ser- 
 vice. Apparently he never saw me without a quick- 
 ening of his memory of Chaneellorsville, the Presi- 
 dent, and what came after. In a loud voice, which 
 astonished the quiet diners at the Brevoort,he would 
 at once discourse of his misfortunes and wrongs, and 
 speak of certain public men, civil and military, in 
 the most violent and abusive terms. After a while, 
 so habitual was this lecture, which poor Hooker 
 seemed to address to the company in general, I 
 was obliged to take a table in a corner of the din- 
 ing-room as far as possible from him. He has 
 
"WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 61 
 
 long since passed off the stage of action, but no 
 one who knew him in his prime can fail to recall 
 him to mind as one of the most picturesque per- 
 sonalities of the war ; one of the brightest figures 
 in that long and fast-fading panorama that reached 
 from the firing on Fort Sumter to the burial of 
 Lincoln at Springfield. 
 
 EXCLUSIVE INrORMATION 
 
 In spite of a rigorous censorship of the wires, mili- 
 tary matters did sometimes get out of Washington 
 in the most inexplicable manner, eluding the stern 
 authority in the telegraph office. When it was 
 decided to reinforce Rosecrans, in 1863, with the 
 Eleventh and Twelfth Corps of the Army of the 
 Potomac, an officer of the War Department went to 
 every newspaper correspondent in the city, and re- 
 quested them, at the special desire of the Presi- 
 dent and the Secretary of War, not to make any 
 mention of the proposed movement. The corre- 
 spondents all agreed to this, and telegraphed or 
 wrote to their newspapers not to refer to the matter, 
 should it come to their knowledge in any way. But 
 one night (September 26) everybody was astonished 
 by news from New York that the " Evening Post," 
 an unconditional supporter of the Administration, 
 had published full particulars of the reinforcement 
 of Rosecrans by the Eleventh and Twelfth Army 
 Corps under Hooker. The Washington Sunday 
 morning papers copied the intelligence, and a Phila- 
 delphia paper, saying that the news was " contra- 
 band," suggested that the editors of the New York 
 
62 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 " Evening Post " should breakfast in Fort Lafay- 
 ette. It is a curious illustration of the muddled con- 
 dition of things at that time, that the Monday 
 morning papers in Washington discreetly held their 
 peace, and printed not a word of news or com- 
 ment concerning the whole affair. The " Evening 
 Post "explained its position by saying that its "Wash- 
 ington correspondent was not responsible for the 
 " rumors " which had appeared in its Saturday edi- 
 tion, and that the paper had been imposed upon by 
 others. When this comical imbroglio began, the 
 Washington correspondents were in despair. Stan- 
 ton raged like a lion, and Lincoln, I am bound to 
 say, was exceedingly angry. 
 
 The "Evening Post," in its zeal to secure the earli- 
 est information, more than once got itseK or its 
 correspondents into trouble. When it was known 
 that the President had written a letter to the Ee- 
 publican mass-meeting to be held in Springfield, 
 Illinois, September 3, 1863, there was a great stir 
 among the newspaper men in Washington, every 
 correspondent being anxious to get an advance 
 copy of so important a document. The Peace 
 Democrats of Illinois, and indeed thi'oughout the 
 West, were then in a state of furious and threat- 
 ening wrath. Senator Eichardson of Illinois had 
 addressed a meeting at Springfield that summer in 
 a most hysterical and blood-cm-dling manner, and 
 the meeting adopted resolutions denouncing " mis- 
 rule and anarchy," and declaring in favor of " peace 
 upon the basis of restoration of the Union." That 
 the President of the United States should consent 
 to write a letter to a convocation gotten up in his 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 63 
 
 own State by way of a counterblast to this traitor- 
 ous demonstration was enough, to stimulate to the 
 highest pitch the desire of every journalist to secure 
 an early copy of the document. But to all impor- 
 tunities the President and his secretaries were deaf; 
 and the paper, which was dated August 26, 1863, 
 was sent out of the White House, it was said, by a 
 private messenger. Nevertheless, several days be- 
 fore the meeting of the Springfield assemblage, the 
 letter appeared in full in the New York " Evening 
 Post," and to our great amusement was telegraphed 
 back to Washington, and printed in that city be- 
 fore it could be publicly read in Springfield. This 
 was the famous letter, which has since become 
 a political classic, in which occurred the unique 
 phrase, "Uncle Sam's web-feet," and in which 
 the good President said, "The signs look better," 
 " the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the 
 sea," etc. 
 
 So far as I know, the method by which the 
 "Evening Post" got possession of a copy of that 
 letter has never been made public. It was not an 
 offense against military law, of course, to print it, 
 as it was a political and not military piece of in- 
 formation, but I remember that Lincoln said he 
 was " mad enough to cry." He had refused a copy 
 of his letter to the Washington agent of the As- 
 sociated Press, explaining that although solemn 
 promises not to publish had repeatedly been given, 
 he found that the practice of furnishing advance 
 copies of anything to the newspapers was a source 
 of endless mischief. He was sorry to say that he 
 could not always depend upon even the most im- 
 
64 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 pressive promises of those who besieged him for 
 "early and exclusive" information. 
 
 AN INTEKBTJPTED SEANCE 
 
 The most terrifying threat that could be held 
 over a zealous war-correspondent was that of ar- 
 rest and confinement in the old Capitol prison. 
 Every person who spent much time in Washington 
 during the war will recall with mingled amusement 
 and dread the freedom with which this threat was 
 bandied about among people who were not by any 
 means authorized to promote the rapid transit of 
 anybody to that malodorous BastiUe. Let me give 
 an instance in which, though one of the unauthor- 
 ized, I made use of this fear-compelling threat. A 
 seamstress employed in the White House had in- 
 duced Mrs. Lincoln to listen to the artful tales of 
 a so-called spiritual medium who masqueraded un- 
 der the name of Colchester, and who pretended to 
 be the illegitimate son of an English duke. The 
 poor lady at that time was well-nigh distraught 
 with grief at the death of her son Willie. By play- 
 ing on her motherly sorrows, Colchester actually 
 succeeded in inducing Mrs. Lincoln to receive him 
 in the family residence at the Soldiers' Home, 
 where, in a darkened room, he pretended to pro- 
 duce messages from the dead boy by means of 
 scratches on the wainscoting and taps on the walls 
 and furniture. Mrs. Lincoln told me of these so- 
 called manifestations, and asked me to be present 
 in the White House when Colchester would give 
 an exhibition of his powers. I declined ; but mean- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 65 
 
 wMle I received an invitation to invest one dollar 
 and attend " a Colchester sitting " at the house of a 
 Washington gentleman who was a profound be- 
 liever in this pretentious seer. To gratify my curi- 
 osity, I paid the entrance fee, and, accompanied 
 by a trusty friend, went to the seance. After the 
 company had been seated around the table in the 
 usual approved manner, and the lights were turned 
 out, the sUence was broken by the thumping of a 
 drum, the twanging of a banjo, and the ringing of 
 bells, all of which instruments had been laid on 
 the table, ready for use. By some hocus-pocus, it 
 was evident, the operator had freed his hands from 
 the hands of those who sat on each side of him, 
 and was himself making " music in the air." Loos- 
 ening my hands from my neighbors', who were un- 
 believers, I rose, and, grasping in the direction of 
 the di'um-beat, grabbed a very solid and fleshy 
 hand in which was held a bell that was being 
 thumped on a drum-head. I shouted, " Strike a 
 light ! " My friend, after what appeared to be an 
 unconscionable length of time, lighted a match; 
 but meanwhile somebody had dealt me a severe 
 blow with the drum, the edge of which cut a slight 
 wound on my forehead. When the gas was finally 
 lighted, the singular spectacle was presented of 
 "the son of the duke" firmly grasped by a man 
 whose forehead was covered with blood, while the 
 arrested scion of nobility was glowering at the 
 drum and bells which he still held in his hands. 
 The meeting broke up in the most admired dis- 
 order, " Lord Colchester " slipping out of the room 
 in the confusion. His host subsequently brought 
 
66 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 down word from the discomfited seer to the effect 
 that Colchester was "so outraged by this insult " 
 that he refused to reappear! 
 
 A day or two after this, I was astonished by a 
 note from Mrs, Lincoln requesting me to come to 
 the White House without a moment's delay, on a 
 matter of the most distressing importance. On my 
 arrival, the lady, somewhat discomposed, showed me 
 a note from " Colchester," in which he requested 
 that she should procure for him from the "War De- 
 partment a pass to New York, and intimated that 
 in case she refused he might have some unpleasant 
 things to say to her. We made an arrangement 
 by which Colchester came to the White House at a 
 specified hour the next day, and after I had been 
 formally introduced to the charlatan, Mrs. Lincoln 
 withdrew from the room. Going up to Colchester, 
 I lifted the hair from the scar on my forehead, yet 
 unhealed, and said, "Do you recognize this?" The 
 man muttered something about his having been in- 
 sulted, and then I said : " You know that I know 
 you are a swindler and a humbug. Get out of this 
 house and out of this city at once. If you are in 
 Washington to-morrow afternoon at this time, you 
 will be in the old Capitol prison." The little scamp 
 pulled himself together and sneaked out of the 
 house, and, so far as I know, out of Washington. 
 I never saw or heard of him afterward. 
 
 SOCL^ INCIDENTS 
 
 The White House did not witness many brilliant 
 festivities during the war, after that famous party 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 67 
 
 which was given by the President and Mrs. Lincoln 
 early in the first year- of the Lincoln administra- 
 tion. But Mrs. Lincoln's afternoon receptions and 
 the President's public levees were held regularly 
 during the winters. Nothing could be more dem- 
 ocratic than these gatherings of the people at the 
 White House. They were usually held twice a 
 week during the winter, those on Tuesday even- 
 ings being so-called dress receptions, and the Satur- 
 day levees being less formal in character. A ma- 
 jority of the visitors went in full dress : the ladies 
 in laces, feathers, silks, and satins, without bon- 
 nets; and the gentlemen in evening dress. But 
 sprinkled through the gaily attired crowds were 
 hundreds of officers and private soldiers, the light- 
 blue army coat of the period being a conspicuous 
 feature of the moving panorama. Here and there 
 a day-laborer, looking as though he had just left 
 his work-bench, or a hard-working clerk with ink- 
 stained linen, added to the popular character of 
 the assembly. Usually the President stood in the 
 famous Blue Eoom, or at the head of the East 
 Eoom; and those who wished to shake hands made 
 their entrance, one by one, and were introduced by 
 the functionary detailed for that occasion. So vast 
 were the crowds, and so affectionate their greet- 
 ings, that Mr. Lincoln's right hand was often so 
 swollen that he would be unable to use it readily for 
 hours afterward; and the white kid glove of his 
 right hand, when the operation of handshaking 
 was over, always looked as if it had been dragged 
 through a dust-bin. Much of the time, I think, 
 the President never heard with his inner ear the 
 
68 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 names of persons presented to him by Secretary 
 Nicolay, Commissioner French, or United States 
 Marshal Lamon. His thoughts were apt to be far 
 from the crowds of strangers that passed before 
 him. On one occasion, bringing up a friend, I 
 greeted the President as usual, and presented my 
 friend. The President shook hands with me in a 
 perfunctory way, his eyes fixed on space, and I 
 passed on, knowing that he had never seen me or 
 heard the name of my friend; but after I had 
 reached a point seven or eight persons beyond, the 
 President suddenly seemed to see me, and, continu- 
 ing the handshaking of strangers while he spoke, 
 shouted out : " Oh, Brooks ! Charley Maltby is in 
 town, and I want you to come and see me to-mor- 
 row." Maltby, it may be said, was an old friend of 
 Mr. Lincoln's then living in California, and about 
 whose petition for a federal appointment the Presi- 
 dent wished to talk with me. Lincoln's sudden 
 outburst, naturally enough, astonished the people 
 who heard it. 
 
 While the President and his party were with the 
 Army of the Potomac at the time previously referred 
 to, pleasant collations were occasionally served at 
 the headquarters of the various corps commanders 
 whose troops were being reviewed. At a luncheon 
 given by General Sickles at his headquarters, among 
 the ladies present was the Princess Salm-Salm, 
 whose husband was a staff-officer in the army. This 
 lady attracted much admiration by her graceful and 
 dashing riding in the cavalcade that attended the 
 reviews. Before her marriage she was a Miss Joyall 
 of Philipsbm-g. It was this remarkable woman who 
 
WASHINGTON EST LINCOLN'S TIME 69 
 
 astonislied the President, on his entering General 
 Sickles's headquarters, by flying at him, and im- 
 printing a bouncing kiss on his surprised and not 
 altogether attractive face. As soon as he could 
 coUect himself and recover from his astonishment, 
 the President thanked the lady, but with evident 
 discomposure ; whereupon some of the party made 
 haste to explain that the Princess Salm-Salm had 
 laid a wager with one of the officers that she would 
 kiss the President. Her audacious sally won her a 
 box of gloves. 
 
 I have called the princess remarkable ; and her 
 career certainly deserves a parenthetical note, for 
 she was a conspicuous figure in some social cu-cles 
 of Washington during Lincoln's time. Her parents 
 were of humble origin, living in Philipsburg, at the 
 Canadian end of Lake Champlain, called Missisquoi 
 Bay. The girl earned her living by service among 
 the neighboring farmers, but subsequently became 
 an actress in a strolling company of players. From 
 this time her life was picturesque and varied. It 
 was said that her well-known skill and deftness in 
 the care and management of horses were acquired 
 when she was a circus-rider ; at that period of her 
 checkered career she was billed as " Miss Leclerq." 
 Prince Salm-Salm served as a volunteer staff-officer 
 during our war, after which he and his wife went to 
 Mexico, where they identified themselves with the 
 failing cause of the Emperor Maximilian. The lady 
 narrated her remarkable adventures in Mexico in a 
 bright book, and the couple returned to Austria, 
 whence the prince had been previously expelled on 
 account of his profligate habits, but where he was 
 
70 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 now made welcome and was given a pension and a 
 post in one of the royal palaces near Vienna. It was 
 subsequently reported that this American princess 
 joined herself to the French forces under the Geneva 
 cross, in the Franco-Prussian war, and that her hus- 
 band was killed while fighting on the same side at 
 the battle of Gravelotte. 
 
 During the war the proportion of civilians to those 
 who wore the trappings of the army and navy was 
 so small that men felt it almost a distinction to wear 
 the ordinary evening dress. An order from the War 
 Department forbidding military officers to come to 
 Washington without leave did not by any means 
 abate what was felt to be a great nuisance. Too 
 many officers haunted the lobbies of the Capitol in 
 search of political aid to secxu-e for them the promo- 
 tions that they desired, or the passage of bills in 
 which military or naval officers had special interest. 
 I saw a curious example of military absenteeism one 
 night at Ford's Theater, where I had accompanied 
 the President to see Edwin Booth in " The Merchant 
 of Venice." The President had sent word late in 
 the afternoon that he would like to have a box for 
 himself and a friend ; but when we arrived at the 
 theater, going in by the stage entrance, we were met 
 by the managei-,who said that the boxes had all been 
 taken before the President's message had been re- 
 ceived, but he would use his efforts Avitli a party of 
 officers, as soon as they arrived, to induce them to 
 give up a box which they had engaged. While he 
 was speaking, an usher came behind the scenes, and 
 said that the officers had very willingly relinquished 
 their box for the pleasure of the President. Between 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 71 
 
 the acts the manager came to pay his respects to the 
 President, and to inquire for his comfort, and Lin- 
 coln asked for the names of the military gentlemen 
 who had so kindly given up their evening's enter- 
 tainment in his behalf. The manager replied that he 
 did not know, but he afterward quietly told me that 
 he knew that one half of the number were of&cers 
 absent from the army without leave, and that they 
 considered it a good joke that they could escape 
 the President's observation at the cost of relinquish- 
 ing their box at the theater. The manager shrewdly 
 guessed that the President had asked for their 
 names in order to discover if they were in Wash- 
 ington on leave ; but that was not Lincoln's way. 
 President Lincoln's theater -going was usually 
 confined to occasions when Shakspere's plays were 
 enacted ; for, although he enjoyed a hearty laugh, 
 he was better pleased with the stately dignity, deep 
 philosophy, and exalted poetry of Shakspere than 
 with anything that was to be found in more modern 
 dramatic writings. But I remember a delightful 
 evening that we once spent at the old Washington 
 Theater, where we saw Mrs. John Wood in John 
 Brougham's travesty of " Pocahontas." The deli- 
 cious absurdity and crackling puns of the piece gave 
 the President food for mirth for many days there- 
 after. At another time we saw Edwin Forrest in 
 " King Lear," and the President appeared to be more 
 impressed by the acting of John McCullough, in the 
 role of Edgar, than with the great tragedian's ap- 
 pearance as the mad king. He asked that McCul- 
 lough might come to the box between the acts ; and 
 when the young actor was brought to the door, clad 
 
72 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 in his fantastic garb of rags and straw, Mr. Lincoln 
 warmly, and yet with diffidence, praised the per- 
 formance of the scene in which he had just appeared. 
 It was Mr. Lincoln's delight to sally forth in the 
 darkness, on foot, and, accompanied only by a friend, 
 to visit some theater to which notice of his coming 
 had been sent only just befoi-e his setting out. When 
 we consider that it was popularly believed that 
 Washington at that time was infested with spies and 
 midnight assassins, we may well wonder at his te- 
 merity. But perhaps it was the unexpectedness and 
 lack of advertisement of his movements that may 
 have induced him to undertake these little excur- 
 sions. It was the wide publicity given to his inten- 
 tion to go to the play that wrought his own undoing 
 in 1865. Those who are disposed to consider that 
 Lincoln exhibited a frivolous side of his character 
 by his play-going should reflect that the theater was 
 almost the only place where he could escape from 
 the clamor of office-seekers, and for a moment unfix 
 his thoughts from the cares and anxieties that 
 weighed upon his spirit with dreadful oppressive- 
 ness. Official etiquette forbids the President of the 
 United States the social pleasures outside of his 
 house which a less exalted functionary or a private 
 citizen may enjoy. In Lincoln's case, more than in 
 that of any other who has held the presidential office, 
 there was abundant justification of his seeking for 
 opportunities to escape from the stately prison-house 
 of the official residence. 
 
WASHINGTOK IN LINCOLN'S TIME 73 
 
 PUBLIC EXEBCISES AT THE CAPITOL 
 
 One of the most charming figures in semi-publie 
 life in Washington during the war was Miss Anna 
 Dickinson, then in the first flush of her success as 
 an eloquent speaker. Her first appearance in Janu- 
 ary, 1864, was a grand triumph for a young woman 
 just beginning her long and picturesque career. 
 She was invited by a host of distinguished men (at 
 the head of the list being Vice-President Hamlin 
 and Speaker Colfax) to address the people in the 
 HaU of Representatives. The great room was 
 crowded, and the house never looked gayer than it 
 did that evening, bright as it was with the velvets, 
 flowers, and brilliant colors of a great company of 
 society women. Miss Dickinson was accompanied 
 to the platform by the Vice-President and the 
 Speaker, and was introduced by the former, who 
 likened her to Joan of Arc. Dressed in black silk, 
 with a touch of color at her throat, her wavy black 
 hair in short redundant curls, Anna Dickinson made 
 a figure long to be remembered as she slowly paced 
 to and fro on the platform, dropping her well- 
 formed and compact sentences upon the people 
 below. Lincoln was present, and incidentally the 
 fair orator introduced a striking and encomiastic 
 allusion to the chief magistrate, and the vast audi- 
 ence applauded with tremendous enthusiasm. In 
 the following March, however, the lady changed 
 her mind, as ladies may, and in a speech delivered 
 at Grrover's Theater "raked the Lincoln adminis- 
 tration fore and aft." But later on she experienced 
 
74 WASHINaTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 a change of heart, and forsook Fremont, who had 
 been her idol for a time, and paid a very beautiful 
 tribute to the new administration of Lincoln. Her 
 last appearance in the House of Eepresentatives 
 was very soon after Lincoln's second inaugui'ation. 
 Those who were present on that 4th of March, 1865, 
 may remember that just as the President took the 
 oath of office, the sun, which had been obscured by 
 clouds, burst forth, and its golden beams fell upon 
 the distinguished group assembled on the Capitol 
 steps. Lincoln next day asked me if I had noticed 
 the sunburst, and then went on to say that he was 
 just superstitious enough to consider it a happy 
 omen. In the address above referred to. Miss Dick- 
 inson also referred to the breaking of the clouds, 
 and in touching and inspiring words pictured the 
 dispersion of the gloom that lowered over the coun- 
 try. The President sat directly in front of the 
 platform from which Miss Dickinson spoke. Be- 
 fore she began, he had recognized me as I sat in 
 the reporters' gallery over the platform ; and when 
 the speaker alluded to the sunburst, he looked up 
 at me and deliberately winked. 
 
 The National Capitol witnessed a novel sight in 
 the early spring of 1863, when a wedding was 
 solemnized in the great Hall of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives. So far as I know, this was the only 
 bridal ceremony ever conducted within the Avails of 
 the legislative chamber. It took place on a Sun- 
 day. The high contracting parties were Miss Rum- 
 sey and Mr. Fowler, two members of the choir that 
 led the singing in the House of Representatives for 
 the religious services held in the House during the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 75 
 
 old war days. That was a "star" occasion; for 
 the Eev. Dr. Stockton (a half -brother of Frank E. 
 Stockton, the author) on that day closed a long term 
 of service as chaplain of the House, and preached 
 a farewell sermon full of interesting historical 
 reminiscences. Dr. Stockton had held the post of 
 chaplain of the House during the administrations 
 of Andrew Jackson and Martin Yan Buren, and his 
 reminiscent discourse was a valuable contribution 
 to the history of Washington in earlier years. The 
 bride and bridegroom were well known as the man- 
 agers of one of the most admirable beneficences of 
 the time — the Soldiers' Free Library — and the Hall 
 of the House was crowded to its utmost capacity, 
 and hundreds went away disappointed of entrance. 
 The bride wore upon her corsage a big knot of red, 
 white, and blue ribbons, and after the ceremony 
 had been concluded, some inconsiderate patriot 
 loudly called for " The Star Spangled Banner." 
 The newly-made bride graciously consented, and 
 the audience joined in the chorus with tremen- 
 dous effect unto the vast Hall rang with music and 
 enthusiasm. Even in those fiery days, song-sing- 
 ing and loud cheering-in the national capitol were 
 a novelty. The HaU of the House was much more 
 readily given for purposes other than legislative 
 than it has been since. 
 
 LINCOLN'S MEMOKY 
 
 A NOTABLE meeting was held in the hall of the 
 House of Eepresentatives in January, 1865, when 
 the United States Christian Commission held its 
 
76 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 anniversary exercises. Secretary Seward presided, 
 and made a delightful address. As an example of 
 Mr. Lincoln's wonderful power of memory, I noticed 
 that a few days after that meeting in the Capitol he 
 recalled an entire sentence of Mr. Seward's speech, 
 and, so far as I could remember, without missing a 
 word. This faculty was apparently exercised with- 
 out the slightest effort on his part. He " could n't 
 help remembering," he was accustomed to say. One 
 would suppose that in the midst of the worries and 
 cares of office his mind would become less retentive 
 of matters not immediately related to the duties of 
 the hour. But this was not the fact. Although the 
 memories of long past events, and words long since 
 read or heard, appeared to be impossible of oblitera- 
 tion, more recently acquired impressions remained 
 just as fixed as the older ones. One of my cousins, 
 John Holmes Goodenow, of Alfred, Maine, was 
 appointed minister to Turkey early in the Lincoln 
 administration, and was taken to the White House, 
 before his departure for his post, to be presented to 
 the President. When Lincoln learned that his vis- 
 itor was a grandson of John Holmes, one of the first 
 senators from Maine, and a man of note in his day 
 and generation, he immediately began the recitation 
 of a poetical quotation which must have been more 
 than a hundred lines in length. Mr. Holmes, never 
 having met the President, was naturally astonished 
 at this outburst ; and as the President went on and 
 on with this long recitation, the suspicion crossed 
 his mind that Lincoln had suddenly taken leave of 
 his wits. But when the lines had been finished, the 
 President said : " There ! that poem was quoted bv 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 77 
 
 your grandfather Holmes in a speech wMch lie made 
 in the United States Senate in — " and he named 
 the date and specified the occasion. As John 
 Holmes's term in the Senate ended in 1833, and Lin- 
 coln probably was impressed by reading a copy of 
 the speech rather than by hearing it, this feat of 
 memory appears very remarkable. 
 
 Lincoln's power of memory was certainly very 
 great ; if he had been by any casualty deprived of 
 his sight, his own memory would have supplied him 
 with an ample and varied Hbrary, He used to say 
 that it was no evidence of his partiality for a bit of 
 literature that he remembered it for a long time. 
 For example, he once recited to me along and dole- 
 ful ballad, the production of a rural Kentucky bard, 
 composed in the vein of " Vilikins and his Dinah," 
 and when he had finished, he added, with a depre- 
 catory laugh, " I don't believe I have thought of 
 that before for forty years." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's manner toward enlisted men, with 
 whom he occasionally met and talked, was always 
 delightful in its bonhomie and its absolute freedom 
 from anything like condescension. Then, at least, 
 the " common soldier " was the equal of the chief 
 magistrate of the nation. One day in the latter part 
 of March, 1863, I was at the White House with the ^, 
 President, and he told me to tarry for a while, as a 
 party of Ohio soldiers who had been lately exchanged 
 after many harassing experiences were coming to 
 see him. It appeared that these were the surviv- 
 ors of what was then known as the Marietta raid. 
 Twenty- one men from Ohio regiments of the com- 
 mand of Greneral 0. M. Mitchel, then in northern 
 
78 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Alabama, were sent on a dangerous mission to de- 
 stroy the railroad communications of Chattanooga 
 to the south and east. The expedition failed, and 
 of the original number only six returned to Wash- 
 ington, after incredible hardships and suffering, — 
 one third of the party having escaped, and another 
 fraction having been hanged as spies, the rebel au- 
 thorities deciding that the fact that these men wore 
 citizen's clothes within an enemy's lines put them 
 in that category. 
 
 The men, who were introduced to the President 
 by General E. A. Hitchcock, then on duty in Wash- 
 ington, were Mason, Parrott, Pittenger, Buffum, 
 Eeddick, and Bensinger. Their names were given 
 to the President, and, without missing the identity 
 of a single man, he shook hands aU round with an 
 unaffected cordiality and good-fellowship difficult 
 to describe. He had heard their story in all its de- 
 tails, and as he talked with each, asking questions 
 and making his shrewd comments on what they 
 had to say, it was evident that for the moment this 
 interesting interview was to him of supreme im- 
 portance. At that time we had great difficulty in 
 effecting exchanges of prisoners, and General Hitch- 
 cock had compiled a series of papers of startling 
 importance bearing on the question. The stories 
 of these long-suffering men, and the cheerful light- 
 ness with which they narrated their courageous 
 and hazardous deeds, impressed Mr. Lincoln very 
 deeply. Speaking of the men afterward, he said, 
 with much feeling, that their bearing, and their ap- 
 parent unconsciousness of having taken their lives 
 in their hands, with the chances of death all against 
 them, presented an example of the apparent disregard 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 79 
 
 of the tremendous issues of life and death which was 
 so strong a characteristic of the American soldier. 
 
 One of Lincoln's favorite poems was Holmes's 
 " The Last Leaf" ; and one November day we were 
 driving out to the Soldiers' Home, near Washing- 
 ton, when the aspect of the scene recalled the lines 
 to his mind. Slowly and with excellent judgment 
 he recited the whole poem. Enlarging upon the 
 pathos, wit, and humor of Holmes, I found that the 
 President had never seen a copy of the genial doc- 
 tor's works, so far as he could remember, although 
 he was not certain that he had not. I offered to 
 lend him my copy of the poems, a little blue-and- 
 gold book ; and the next time I went to the White 
 House I took it with me. About a week after leav- 
 ing the book with the President, I called at the 
 house one evening, and, finding htm alone, we set- 
 tled down for a quiet chat. He took from a drawer 
 in his table the blue-and-gold Holmes, and went 
 over the book with much gusto, reading or reciting 
 several poems that had struck his fancy. He ex- 
 pressed his surprise at finding that some of the 
 verses which he admired most had been drifting 
 about in the newspapers without the name of the 
 author attached to them; and it was in this 
 way, he said, that he had found " The Last Leaf," 
 although he did not know that Dr. Holmes was the 
 author. Finally he said that he liked "Lexington" 
 as well as anything in the book, " The Last Leaf " 
 alone excepted, and he began to read the poem; 
 but when he came to the stanza beginning 
 
 Green be the graves where her martyrs are lying ! 
 Shroudless and tombless they sunk to their rest, — 
 
80 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 his voice faltered, and he gave me the book with 
 the whispered request, "You read it; I can't." 
 Months afterward, when several ladies were in the 
 Eed Parlor one evening, calling upon Mrs. Lincoln, 
 he recited that poem without missing a word, so 
 far as I could remember it. And yet I do not be- 
 lieve that he ever saw the text of "Lexington" 
 except during the few busy days when he had my 
 book. 
 
 I have still in my possession the blue-and-gold 
 Holmes, Ticknor & Fields edition, 1862, with the 
 leaf folded lengthwise, as Lincoln folded it to mark 
 the place where he found " Lexington." In a pref- 
 ace written in 1885 Dr. Holmes said that "good 
 Abraham Lincoln had a liking for ' The Last Leaf,' " 
 and that Governor Andrew had told the author 
 that Lincoln repeated the poem to him. 
 
CHAPTER ni 
 
 APTEK THE BATTLE OF GETTTSBUEG 
 
 THE NATIONAIi CAPITAL UNDEB THE rNFLUENCE OF 
 GOOD NEWS — AFTER THE FIGHT — LEE'S ESCAPE 
 ACEOSS THE POTOMAC AT FALLING WATERS — LIN- 
 COLN'S DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 TTNDER the influence of the good news that 
 U reached us in the early weeks of July, 1863, 
 Washington was a cheerful place to live in. There 
 had been many months of wearying discourage- 
 ment ; people had waited with hope often deferred 
 for tidings of victory to the Union arms, and these 
 never came. The battle of Gettysburg, fought so 
 near the national capital, as it seemed to us, was a 
 prodigious event ; for, although it was not then re- 
 garded, as it is now, as the turning-point in the 
 war, even the most cautious and conservative of 
 observers began to think that it might prove that 
 " beginning of the end " which the more sanguine 
 had seen so many times and so many times had de- 
 spaired of realizing. 
 
 But from the southwest came tidings of great 
 joy to every patriotic heart. During the first two 
 weeks of July we heard of the faU of Port Hudson, 
 the surrender at Vicksburg, the opening of the Mis- 
 
82 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 sissippi River, the renewed attack on Charleston, 
 and other less important successes, which, under or- 
 dinary conditions, would have been eagerly grasped 
 at as of pith and moment. The single drop of bitter- 
 ness in our cup of joy was the unexpected flight of 
 Lee's army across the Potomac after the battle of 
 Grettysburg; this, it was felt, was another post- 
 ponement of a long -looked -for event — the final 
 crippling of the army of invasion that had so many 
 times threatened "Washington. The first news of 
 the capitulation of Vicksburg, by the way, was re- 
 ceived at the Navy Department, about noon, July 7, 
 in a despatch from Admiral Porter. Secretary 
 Welles astonished everybody who knew him by 
 putting on his hat and solemnly proceeding to the 
 White House to tell the news to President Lincoln. 
 It was said at the time that the Secretary, on arriv- 
 ing at the executive chamber, executed a double- 
 shuffle and threw up his hat by way of showing that 
 he was the bearer of glad tidings. This was a mere 
 invention ; but Lincoln did say that he never be- 
 fore nor afterward saw Mr. WeUes so thoroughly 
 excited as he was then. 
 
 Soon, however, Washington was straining its at- 
 tention toward Maryland, where, it was popularly 
 supposed, the Army of the Potomac, under the 
 command of G-eneral Meade, had at last " corralled " 
 Lee and all his forces, supplies, and guns in an 
 elbow of the Potomac, between Williamsport and 
 Falling Waters. After the battle of Grettysburg, 
 railroad communication was again resumed between 
 the Eelay House, on the Baltimore and Washing-, 
 ton line, and the town of Frederick, Maryland. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 83 
 
 This last-named place then became the Union base 
 of supplies, and immense quantities of stores were 
 forwarded at once. We were in almost hourly ex- 
 pectation of a great battle which should be fought 
 on Maryland soil and result in the annihilation of 
 the army of Virginia and the hastening of the col- 
 lapse of the rebellion. Like many others, I was 
 anxious to see the expected end of the rebellion and 
 witness the effectual crushing of the army that had 
 so frequently threatened Washington and so per- 
 sistently protected the rebel capital. President 
 Lincoln sympathized with my natural desire to see 
 the great fight, and he not only furnished me with 
 passes to the front, but gave me letters to Greneral 
 Meade and Adjutant-Q-eneral Seth Williams of the 
 Army of the Potomac. I was intimately acquainted 
 with Greneral Rufus Ingalls, Chief-Quartermaster of 
 the Army of the Potomac, and armed with these 
 credentials, I pressed forward to the headquarters 
 of the army by the way of Frederick. On the train, 
 meeting with two old finends from California, we 
 formed a plan to hire horses in Frederick and so 
 make our way up to the devious verge of the battle 
 which now seemed imminent. All along the route, 
 we passed immense trains of supplies of aU kinds, 
 miles and miles of freight-cars standing on the track 
 loaded with forage, ammunition, rations, horses, 
 contrabands, soldiers, and all the other means and 
 appliances which an active army requires. 
 
 The streets of Frederick were alive with cavalry, 
 infantry, supply-trains and ambulances. Squads of 
 staff officers were pushing their way through the 
 throngs, and here and there the flag of some divi- 
 
84 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 sion commander denoted temporaiy headquarters. 
 The road to Middletown was crowded with numer- 
 ous wagon-trains and troops moving forward to the 
 front. With considerable difficulty we threaded 
 our way through the masses of men, wagons, and 
 horses, and finally reached Middletown, between 
 the Catoctin and South Mountain ranges. At the 
 foot of South Mountain was a huge park of supply- 
 trains, which formed a depot of commissary stores 
 and was the base between the army and the main 
 base at Frederick. As we galloped along the open 
 spaces which intervened between the city of Fred- 
 erick and an army division standing at rest, we 
 descried the body of a man dangling by a noose 
 from a limb of a tree — a ghastly sight. This was 
 a spy, who had been in the Army of the Potomac 
 for several mouths peddling maps and singing army 
 songs. On his person had been found, when he was 
 arrested, a number of minute drawings of the forti- 
 fications around Washington, a statement of the 
 forces in the forts, etc., and about $30,000 in green- 
 backs. He was tried, condemned, and hanged as 
 a spy. 
 
 The comfortable houses along the roads were be- 
 sieged by Union soldiers begging for fresh bread, 
 milk, eggs, and such other articles as would natur- 
 ally excite the desire of men long used to the hard 
 fare of the army. There were, however, no com- 
 plaints as to any disorderly conduct on the part of 
 these hungry and importunate men. They offered 
 money in payment for anything which thev re- 
 ceived, and the Maryland "farmers, be it said to 
 their credit, were invariably generous and liberal 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 85 
 
 to their Tinwelcoine guests. It was, however, no- 
 torious that some of the Marylanders who hung 
 out Union flags, and waved their handkerchiefs, in 
 welcome to the blue-coated soldiers of the Army of 
 the Potomac, had been quite as enthusiastic, not 
 many days before, when the gray-coated veterans 
 of Lee had passed that way. At a house where 
 we stopped for the night, the ladies of the family 
 were ardent in their protestations of loyalty to the 
 Union and their delight at the rebel defeat at G-et- 
 tysburg ; but a Union sergeant from a detachment 
 of troops stationed near by expressed to me his 
 strong desire to search the house for ten or twelve 
 Confederate flags, which he and his comrades said 
 had formerly decorated the piazza and roof of the 
 domicile. But, for the most part. Unionism was 
 sincere and out-spoken throughout all the region 
 of Hagerstown, Boonsboro, and Middletown. We 
 met here one Dick Schackles, who was well-known 
 for his loyalty throughout Western Maryland. He 
 avowed himself a " Henry Clay Whig," and thanked 
 Grod that he had never been anything else. He 
 was jubilant that the time was coming, as he said, 
 when the " blasted Locof ocos who had baited the 
 rebels across the line would be down, down, down 
 where they belonged." He said : " We do not call 
 them Copperheads up here ; we call them Locofo- 
 cos, and they are the meanest, dirtiest snakes that 
 ever crawled." The profanity and abuse with which 
 he assaulted " the Locofocos and Northern rebels " 
 was something startling. Dick Schackles had good 
 reason to speak ill of the rebels, for, having heard 
 of him and his aggressive Unionism, they were by 
 
86 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 no means considerate of his property rights, or his 
 comforts, while they were in that part of the coun- 
 try. But the hurrying and confusion of marching 
 and counter-marching made it impossible for either 
 army to punish soldiers guilty of outrages. 
 
 The ruin and destruction that marked the foot- 
 steps of the armies were heartrending to behold. 
 Fences were torn down, and grain ready for the 
 reaper was trodden under foot, and ground into 
 the rain-drenched soil by army wagons, artillery, 
 and the hoofs of cavalry. All along the roadside, 
 as we approached the headquarters of the Army 
 of the Potomac, were stragglers and " bummers," 
 some of them barefoot, many without guns, and 
 hundreds of them asleep in the grass or under the 
 lee of outbuildings. The rebel captives, whom we 
 occasionally met in droves, were generally good- 
 looking and well-clad men, not at all like the scare- 
 crows we had usually seen sent up to Washington 
 as prisoners, when our army was in Virginia. We 
 found Greneral Meade's headquarters in a magnifi- 
 cent grove of giant oaks about a mile south of 
 Boonsboro, near Antietam Creek. Meade was a 
 tall, spare man, a little past his prime, but still 
 straight and wiry ; he wore spectacles almost con- 
 stantly, had a sallow face, dark eyes, and dark hair 
 plentifully sprinkled with gi'ay. He was very 
 plainly dressed, affable but not genial in his man- 
 ners, and usually reserved in speech. I noticed 
 that when he mounted or dismounted he moved 
 very stiffly, without any of that elasticity of motion 
 characteristic of the other officers of the army. 
 
 There was about Meade's headquarters a certain 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 87 
 
 suppressed excitement, wMch was the natural result 
 of an expectation of another battle to be fought. 
 It was known that Greneral Meade had received 
 several pressing messages from Greneral Halleck, 
 which, of course, were inspired by President Lin- 
 coln, warning him that the rebel army might es- 
 cape across the Potomac unless the Union forces 
 should speedily take the aggressive. There had 
 been several days of tremendous rain, and the Po- 
 tomac and its tributary streams at this point were 
 Med to overflowing. On the Sunday night before 
 our arrival at headquarters, a council of war had 
 been held, and, as usual in such cases, the vote 
 was against an attack. It is a military tradition 
 that a council of war never fights. This one was 
 no exception to the rule. Meade's staff officers 
 were considerably disgruntled by the so-caUed 
 Washington "interference." Halleck had sent an 
 order to Meade in which he directed the attention 
 of the commander of the Army of the Potomac to 
 the fact that it was currently believed in Washing- 
 ton that Lee had received pontoons from the south 
 of the Potomac and was preparing to cross ; and 
 he concluded his order by saying : " The War De- 
 partment would again urge upon the commanding 
 general the importance of attacking the enemy as 
 soon as practicable, using that energy and decision 
 of action which alone can accomplish so desirable 
 an end, the complete crippling of the insurgent 
 army in Maryland." This despatch of Halleck's 
 had been printed in a special order issued to the 
 corps and division commanders of the Army of 
 the Potomac before our arrival, and was then in 
 
88 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 their hands. The staff officers regarded the publi- 
 cation of Meade's order as a piece of satire, because 
 it not only reproduced portions of Halleck's in- 
 structions, but enjoined upon them " such due 
 vigor and energy in action as would result in se- 
 curing the end desired by the country, and alluded 
 to in the despatch from the War Department."' 
 The general feeling at headquarters was that Gren- 
 eral Meade (who was convinced that Lee's army 
 could not escape across the Potomac at that time) 
 had scored rather a good point on the Washington 
 authorities from the President downward. 
 
 Sharing in this general feehng of exultation and 
 expectation, I accepted General Ingalls's offer of a 
 cavalry horse and an orderly, and pushed forward 
 across the fields which lie between Antietam Creek 
 
 1 This is the exact lan^age of a printed cireular given to me at 
 General Meade's headquarters, and quoted by me in a newspaper let- 
 ter written by me, dated July 14, 1863. No such order can now be 
 found. The nearest approach to it is the following. See Official 
 Eecords, Vol. XX"\T;I, part m, page 605 : 
 
 Headquarters Army op the Potomac, July S, 1863. 
 
 The following copies of a, despatch from the President to the Major- 
 
 General commanding, and of the reply to the same, are communicated to 
 
 corps commanders, in the earnest hope that they will use their best efforts 
 
 to assist the commanding general in meeting the wishes of the Pi-esident. 
 
 By command of Major-General Meade, 
 
 S. Williams, 
 Assistant Adjutant- Qeneral. 
 
 [_I)iclosurcs.'] 
 
 Washington, July S, 1863. 12:30 p. m. 
 Major-General Meade: 
 
 There is reUable information that the enemy is crossing at Williams- 
 port. The opportunity to attack his divided forces should not be lost. 
 The President is urgent and anxious that your army should move against 
 him by forced marches. 
 
 H. W. Halleck. 
 
 Oetierai^in- Ch ief. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 89 
 
 above Boonsboro and Sharpsburg and the Hagers- 
 town pike. This was about noon, July 14th, and 
 all that morning there had been rumors of a retreat 
 of the enemy across the Potomac. General Ingalls 
 was positive that the Confederate army had made 
 good its retreat to "Virginia, and some of the 
 younger men at headquarters did not hesitate to 
 say that Meade had been " most egregiously fooled." 
 About twelve o'clock noon, heavy cannonading 
 was heard from the front in the direction of Wil- 
 liamsport, on the Potomac, and opinions differed 
 as to whether this was the beginning of a general 
 engagement or was the firing of Kilpatrick's and 
 Buford's cavalry on the retreating flanks of the 
 rebels. About two miles from Antietam Creek, we 
 came upon the Federal line of intrenchments (now 
 abandoned), and foiond the Third Corps drawn up 
 in line of battle; the Second and Fifth having 
 pushed on ahead. We soon overtook those troops, 
 marching in three columns over fields of grain, 
 through thrifty orchards, clover-fields and gardens. 
 The ground was soft and the country roads were 
 in a dreadful state of mire. The movements of the 
 troops, however, were regardless of roads, and in 
 their forward advance they manoeuvered precisely 
 as they would through a savage country. It was 
 rather entertaining, on the whole, to come into the 
 abandoned rebel lines, as we soon did. Here were 
 rifle-pits and other hastily constructed earthworks ; 
 but not a picket or a sentry was to be seen. All 
 had "skedaddled" incontinently, leaving behind 
 them the refuse of their camps. Here and there I 
 found letters half -written, which the rebel soldiers 
 
90 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 were inditing to friends at home and had thrown 
 away, apparently, in the sudden haste of their 
 departure. The rehc-hunter could have collected 
 a museum of military curios in these deserted 
 camps. Fragments of army equipage and wearing- 
 apparel, abandoned horses, broken artillery-wagons, 
 and other debris, were di'opped about in picturesque 
 confusion. All along the route toward Falling 
 Waters were disabled caissons, wrecked ambu- 
 lances and army forges, muskets, knapsacks, and a 
 few country wagons, left by the fleeing enemy. 
 The cannonading we had heard at headquarters 
 ceased, but a few volleys of musketry were fired 
 in the vicinity of Falling Waters, four mUes below 
 Williamsport, on the Potomac. StiUdng into the 
 woods near Falling Waters, we came upon squads 
 of rebel prisoners in hundreds or more, lying on 
 the ground and guarded by a few Union cavalry. 
 These poor fellows were ragged, wet, and muddy, 
 many of them having been caught while in the 
 river attempting to ford the stream. The roads 
 were choked with cavalry, and here and there were 
 parks of artillery at rest, brought out on a bootless 
 errand, the drivers sleeping under the caissons. 
 
 Now we learned that the rebels had drawn in 
 their lines at about six o'clock that morning, the 
 main body of the army having pre\dously crossed 
 the stream by means of bridges hastily thrown 
 across. The approach to the little callage of Fall- 
 ing Waters, Maryland, was over a hill which rose 
 shai-ply from the grain-fields around it. Ha^^ng 
 mounted this hill, one saw that the roads passed 
 over gentle undulations gradually sloping down to 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 91 
 
 the river. On the top of the hill, which com- 
 manded all these roads leading to the river crossing, 
 and parallel to the stream, were a series of light 
 earthworks which the rebels had occupied with a 
 rear-guard of four thousand men, Early's division 
 of the rebel army. Behind the works were stUl 
 passing out the last of the rebels when our forces 
 came up at noon that day. Lee had finished here, 
 on the previous Saturday, a pontoon-bridge across 
 the Potomac, and the structure, eked out with 
 scows, boats and lumber seized in the vicinity, was 
 standing when we arrived. It was a very good 
 piece of engineering and trestle-work. Here and 
 there on the floor of the bridge lay a dead soldier, 
 and occasionally a gray-coated body could be seen 
 half in and half out of the water that lapped the 
 shore. The rebels who were protecting the retreat 
 of their army in the breast-work on the hill, had 
 received our cavalry as they charged up the hill 
 with a volley which laid low about twenty of our 
 men and wounded many more ; at the same time, 
 a considerable force of rebel infantry was deployed 
 on their right where the hills sloped down into a 
 wheat-field, in which the shocks of grain stood in 
 scattered cocks. But the onslaught of the Union 
 cavalry was so furious that the Confederates could 
 not stand before it, and began a fighting retreat. 
 The cannonading which we had heard two hours 
 before, when we were on the Sharpsburg pike, was 
 the firing of the Union light artillery, brought to 
 bear upon the enemy as they fought bravely 
 through the flowery lanes and grain-fields of Fall- 
 ing Waters on their way to the temporary bridge. 
 
92 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 In the mean time, another cavahy force had sur- 
 rounded the small squads of rebels who were trying 
 to escape across on the floating scows which had 
 been used at WUliamsport, and had been brought 
 down to this point. About three hundred and fifty 
 of them were taken prisoners, and these, with six- 
 teen hundred who were cut off at the end of the 
 bridge, were all that were found here of Lee's army, 
 which was to have been "bagged" while it was 
 securely caged in the elbow formed by the bend of 
 the Potomac at this point. All, did I say ? There 
 were a score or more lying there with the Union 
 soldiers in the wheat-fields among the sheaves 
 which their fight had overturned, their faces 
 toward the sky, gray-backs and blue-backs sleep- 
 ing the sleep that knows no waking. To one 
 unused to the gory sights of battle-fields, the pic- 
 ture presented there was strangely fascinating. 
 The dead soldiers, blue-clad or gray-clad, lay in 
 various positions scattered over the gi-ain-field and 
 in the clover meadow ; but most of them had been 
 turned over on their backs since they feU. The 
 expressions on the countenances of these poor fel- 
 lows were usually peaceful. One rebel soldier 
 attracted my attention by the attitude in which he 
 lay still in death, his head upon his arm, just as I 
 remembered that David Copperfield saw his friend, 
 the drowned Steerforth, lying on the beach, as he 
 had " often seen him lie at school." 
 
 In a military hospital that had been hastily im- 
 provised in a barn, at the head of a leafy lane," were 
 gathered the wounded of both armies, under the 
 charge of Federal surgeons, of whom I occasionally 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 93 
 
 caught glimpses with their bare hands and arms 
 reddened with the gore of the poor fellows, whose 
 cries and groans sounded lugubriously within. The 
 men captured in this little fight were from the 40th, 
 47th, and 55th Virginia, and 55th North Carolina 
 regiments. They were commanded by Brigadier- 
 General Pettigrew. They made a courageous stand 
 and a brave fight against the Union cavalry. They 
 were gallantly charged by the Michigan Brigade, 
 composed of the 1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th Michigan 
 Cavalry, aided by a detachment of the 8th New 
 York, 1500 men in all, remnants of several regi- 
 ments decimated by death, and commanded by 
 General George A. Custer. Among these who did 
 not survive their wounds at Falling "Waters was the 
 rebel General Pettigrew, who was then lying in a 
 barn at Falling "Waters, but was next day taken 
 across the river under a flag of truce from Lee's 
 army. He died at Bunker Hill, Virginia, two days 
 later (July 17). The spoils of war included three 
 regimental battle-flags; one brass field-piece, and a 
 large rifled cannon which was found concealed in 
 the woods on the banks above the pontoon-bridge. 
 Turning my horse's head in the direction of 
 Meade's headquarters, I looked across the swollen 
 and turbid Potomac where I could see the smoke 
 of rebel camps rising in the thick Virginia woods 
 on the other side of the stream. It is impossible 
 now to describe — ahnost impossible to recall — the 
 feehng of bitterness with which we regarded the 
 sight. Lee's army was gone. In spite of warnings, 
 expostulations, doubts, and fears, it had escaped, 
 and further pursuit was not even to be thought of. 
 
94 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 I remembered the anxiety, almost anguish, with 
 which Lincoln had said before I left Washington that 
 he was afraid that " something would happen " to 
 prevent that annihilation of Lee's army, which, as he 
 thought, was then certainly within the bounds of 
 possibility. But the last hope of the Confederacy 
 had not failed them yet. The desperate venture 
 of an invasion of Pennsylvania and Maryland had 
 failed, it was true. But the fatal blow which seemed 
 to hang in the air when I left Washington did not 
 fall. As I rode down the hill and through the un- 
 dulating fields beyond, the blue-coated soldiers, 
 jolly and insouciant, greeted the solitary civilian 
 horseman with jocose remarks aboiit the " Johnny 
 Eebs " who had so cunningly run away from them. 
 Many of these men had enlisted " for the war," and 
 when I stopped to exchange salutations, they good- 
 naturedly said, "Well, here goes for two years 
 more." I noticed a euiious effect of whispering 
 speech as I rode through the woods. Two or three 
 thousand men waiting for orders were scattered over 
 the ground among the bushes, beguiling their time 
 by eating, drinking, and talking in low tones. The 
 curious fluttering noise of this wide conversation 
 of so large a body of men was something like that 
 undistinguishable chorus which we have heard in 
 one of G-ilbert and Sullivan's operas, when the girls 
 on the beach sit down and "talk about the wea- 
 ther"; but this was a prodigious chorus — it was 
 the gabble of two or thi-ee thousand men, all talk- 
 ing at once, and producing an undulating volume 
 of sound like the noise of birds seeking their roosts 
 at night. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 95 
 
 Meade's headquarters, on my return, presented a 
 chopfallen appearance; probably the worst was 
 known there before I had left on my own private 
 and special reconnoissance. Here I met Vice-Presi- 
 dent Hamlin, who was also a visitor at Meade's 
 headquarters, and who had been taken out to see 
 the fight (which did not come ofE), at a point nearer 
 "Williamsport. As we met, he raised his hands and 
 turned away his face with a gesture of despair. 
 Later on, I came across Gleneral Wadsworth, who 
 almost shed tears while he talked with us about the 
 escape of the rebel army. He said that it seemed 
 to him that most of those who participated in the 
 council of war had no stomach for the fight. " If 
 they had," he added, " the rebellion, as one might 
 say, might have been ended then and there." 
 
 Vice-President Hamlin and myseK were des- 
 patched by Greneral Meade in an ambulance under 
 the charge of a young lieutenant of cavalry by the 
 turnpike road to Frederick, where we took a train 
 for Washington. Columns upon columns of army 
 wagons and artillery were now in motion toward 
 Frederick, crossing the fields, blocking the roads, 
 and interlacing the face of the whole country with 
 blackened tracks which heavy wheels cut in the 
 rich, dark soil of Maryland, saturated with days of 
 rain. Here and there one passed a knot of wagons 
 inextricably tangled or hopelessly mired by the 
 roadside. At one point, I was amused by seeing an 
 eight-mule team thus stalled in a marshy piece of 
 ground, every animal being on its back with its 
 four legs motionless in the air. Whenever a team- 
 ster essayed to touch any part of the harness, all 
 
96 WASHTNGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 those thirty-two legs would fly with the speed and 
 regularity of a tremendous machine, and the unfor- 
 tunate meddler would bounce high in the air and 
 come down again angiy and swearing. It is no 
 exaggeration to say that the Boonsboro pike that 
 day was a blue streak of profanity from Meade's 
 headquarters to Frederick. At one point, our driver 
 was urged by the lieutenant to cut in between two 
 trains which had suddenly parted and showed a 
 long clear space ahead. As he was whipping up his 
 horses, the wagon-master in charge of the tangled 
 teams came out ahead of us and, shaking his fist, 
 shouted in stentorian tones, " Get out of that ! " 
 Whereupon our lieutenant stood up on the dash- 
 board and shouted in reply, " I have the Vice-Pres- 
 ident of the United States in this wagon, and he 
 must get the two o'clock train from Frederick," 
 The wagon-master, nothing daunted, cried back, " I 
 don't care if you have got the Saviour of mankind 
 in that wagon, you can't come up here." Even the 
 tired and dejected Vice-President was forced to 
 smile grimly at the resolute wagoner's reply. 
 
 Nevertheless, we did catch the two o'clock train 
 from Frederick ; and the next day, according to 
 the President's request, I reported to him all that 
 I had seen and heard. It is enough to say that al- 
 though he was not so profoundly distressed as he 
 was when Hooker's army recrossed the Rappahan- 
 nock after the battle of Chancellorsville, his gi'ief 
 and anger were something sorrowful to behold. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CHASE, AND GRANT — AMONG THE LAW 
 MAKEES — DLFEICULT PKOGEESS OF "WAE LEGISLA- 
 TION — LINCOLN AND CHASE AND THEm POLITICAL 
 FRIENDS — THE RESIGNATION OF SECRETARY CHASE 
 — ENTER LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT 
 
 THE niimerous exciting topics brought up in 
 the debates of Congress during the war made 
 the capitol a point of exceeding interest to people 
 in Washington in search of a new sensation. No- 
 body could tell when an animated and acrimoni- 
 ous, or very important, discussion would spring up 
 in either branch of Congress. The bill to indem- 
 nify civil officers of the govei'nment for the conse- 
 quences of their exercise of extraordinary functions 
 during the suspension of the privileges of the writ of 
 habeas corpus, the bill to authorize the enlistment of 
 colored soldiers, the proposition to divide the State 
 of Virginia, the Conscription Bill, and similar so- 
 called war measures, were all prohfic causes of nu- 
 merous political wordy tilts in Congress. And in all 
 such cases there would be a field-day at the capitol, 
 and hurrying crowds would overflow the galleries 
 allotted to visitors, and the doors of the chamber 
 would be besieged by men who craftily pleaded 
 their special privilege of entrance. It was difficult 
 
98 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 to account for the celerity with which the news 
 that an exciting debate was going on would be 
 circulated through the city of Washington. When 
 the House, for example, met at noon and listened 
 perfunctorily to the prayer of the chaplain and 
 the equally perfunctory reading of the minutes of 
 the previous day's session, there would apparently 
 be no cloud on the congressional sky. The pro- 
 gress of legislation would go droning on with a 
 dreary monotony that lulled the few drowsy spec- 
 tators, and gave the newspaper men an opportunity 
 to bring up their arrears of work ; and then there 
 would suddenly spring up a breeze of debate that 
 would eventually sweep through the HaU like a 
 gale. Almost immediately every seat on the floor 
 would be filled ; absentees would come flocking in 
 from corridors and committee rooms, and as if by 
 magic, before an hour had passed, the galleries 
 were empty no longer. Or it often happened that 
 an excited debate which had been interrupted by 
 adjournment, would end then and there ; and, al- 
 though the multitudes would stream up to the 
 capitol, next day, to hear " the rest of the story," 
 proceedings would open tamely, and the subsequent 
 discussion would as tamely drift off into congres- 
 sional platitudes and be heard of no more. 
 
 There were several field-days in Congress when 
 attempts were made to censure or expel some of 
 the more reckless and indiscreet Copperheads. 
 One of the most impressive of these was in the 
 Thirty-eighth Congress, when Speaker Colfax left 
 his seat, and, amidst profound silence in the 
 House, offered a resolution to expel Alexander 
 
WASHTNGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 99 
 
 Long, one of the Ohio representatives, who had 
 declared himself in favor of acknowledging the in- 
 dependence of the rebel States. Long's offense 
 had been committed the day before, and he had 
 been replied to by Garfield, who compared him to 
 Benedict Arnold, and had said that he (Long) pro- 
 posed to surrender his country's flag and honor 
 and integrity into the hands of its rebel enemies. 
 Colfax supported a resolution of expulsion in a 
 speech of much solemnity and impressiveness. 
 
 His voice trembled with emotion while he said 
 that he had a double duty to perform; first, as 
 presiding officer of the House, and second as the 
 representative of more than one hundred thousand 
 voters in his own congressional district of Indiana. 
 It was in the latter capacity, he said, that he called 
 for the expulsion of Long. Colfax was rather se- 
 verely criticized, even by some of the Union mem- 
 bers, for his taking it upon himseK to offer this 
 resolution without consulting any of his associates. 
 The debate ran along with fluctuations of excite- 
 ment through several days, and was participated 
 in by all the leading members on both sides of the 
 House. The discussion, as usual, took a wide range 
 — the right of revolution, the status of the so- 
 called rebel States, and a multitude of other ques- 
 tions being lugged in without much regard to the 
 original cause of the long and tedious discussion. 
 It was at this time that General Garfleld came 
 most prominently to the front as one of the readi- 
 est debaters and most impressive speakers in 
 Congress. 
 
 Curiously enough, while this skirmishing was 
 
o 
 
 100 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 going on, another Peace Democrat, Benjamin Gr. 
 Harris, of Maryland, got into trouble by not only 
 indorsing everything that Long had said, but by 
 announcing himself to be a believer in a peace 
 which, he said, could only be obtained by a recogni- 
 tion of the Southern Confederacy. There was a 
 general outcry from the Union members, who 
 called him to order. He defiantly yelled, " You 've 
 got to come to it," and went on to say that he had 
 been a slave-owner before the Abolitionists stole 
 all his slaves away from him, and had borne in 
 silence the insults which had been heaped upon 
 him as a slave-owner by those who called slavery 
 " the sum of all villainies." Finally he cried, " The 
 South asks you to let them alone; but no, you 
 say you will bring them into subjection ; that is 
 not yet done, and God Almighty grant that it may 
 never be; I trust you will never subjugate the 
 South." Instantly the House was in the wildest 
 confusion, and a score of members were on their 
 feet shouting to the Speaker and endeavoring to 
 be recognized. Out of the tumult finally rose the 
 stentorian voice of E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, 
 who called Harris to order " for words spoken in 
 debate," and demanded that the language of the 
 member should be taken down and read from the 
 clerk's desk. After much confusion, this was 
 finally done, and the words objected to were read 
 by the clerk in the midst of profound silence, 
 whereat Harris airily exclaimed : " That 's all right ; 
 that 's what I said." Then Washburne moved a 
 vote of expulsion, and the House was well tangled 
 up by the two motions — one to expel Long, of 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 101 
 
 Ohio, and tlie other aimed at Harris, of Maryland. 
 Fernando Wood, apparently envious of the sudden 
 reputation which his political associates had ac- 
 quired, tried to slide in a little speech in which he 
 said that if Long were expelled, he (Wood) might 
 as well go with him, as he indorsed every word 
 that the Ohio gentleman had said. At this Wash- 
 burne, pale with rage, shook his fist at Wood and 
 shouted, " We 'U put you out, too." 
 
 The most picturesque incident of this acrimoni- 
 ous debate was Long's final speech in his own de- 
 fense. He was a tall, well-formed man, with a 
 small head, a noticeably red face, and fiery auburn 
 hair. He had been distinguished throughout the 
 session for his quiet and reserve, and the speech 
 which provoked this terrific storm was almost his 
 maiden effort in Congress; he said it had been 
 written four weeks before its delivery and kept in 
 his desk waiting for an opportunity to launch it 
 upon the House. In the course of his defense, he 
 said that copies of his so-called treasonable speech 
 had been largely subscribed for by Republican 
 members who were anxious to sow treason among 
 their constituents. He referred satirically to W. 
 D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, who, he said " played 
 Forrest here for the benefit of the House." The 
 most impressive speech of this famous debate was 
 made by " Thad" Stevens, who came into the House 
 from his sick-bed, and, though pale and wan, arose 
 like a column of iron in his place to say that he 
 had learned that during his absence from the 
 House somebody on the other side had attempted 
 to compare his position on the status of the so- 
 
102 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 called rebel States with tliat of the two gentlemen 
 now under censure. "With a grim smile, he said : 
 " It has been said by members upon this floor, that 
 those who would recognize the so-called Southern 
 Confederacy by treaty occupy the same position as 
 myself." S. S. Cox, whose remarks were evidently 
 in the mind of Stevens, attempted to reply, but the 
 stern old Pennsylvaniau waved him down by the 
 motion of his hand, and said " that whoever would 
 Unk me [Stevens] with the infamous creatures 
 now before the consideration of the House was a 
 fool or a knave, perhaps both." The debate began 
 on the 8th of April and did not end until the 14th. 
 The upshot of the matter was that the two thirds 
 vote necessary to expel a member could not be 
 secured in the case of Long, and he was censured 
 by a vote of ninety-three to eighteen. The same 
 correction overtook the loquacious Marylander by 
 a vote nearly identical. 
 
 " Garrulous Carrett Davis " got into trouble about 
 the same time when he attacked the Amnesty Pro- 
 clamation of President Lincoln in a series of reso- 
 lutions offered by him in the Senate. After his 
 usual fashion, he had embodied a long stump speech 
 in his resolutions, in the course of which he- said: 
 " Verily, the people North and the people South 
 ought to revolt against their war leaders and take 
 this great matter into their own hands, and elect 
 members to a national convention of all States to 
 terminate a war that is slaying its himdreds of thou- 
 sands. Officers, plunderers, and spoilsmen in the 
 loyal States threaten the masses of both sections 
 with irretrievable bankruptcy and indefinite slaugh- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 103 
 
 ter." On this, a resolution to expel Davis from the 
 Senate was offered by Senator Wilson, of Massachu- 
 setts ; and there was a great rush to the Senate gal- 
 leries when Davis's so-called trial began. Wilson 
 opened for the prosecution, and made a strong and 
 sensible speech, and was replied to by Davis, who 
 began by taking off his neckerchief, unbuttoning 
 his waistcoat, and generally getting ready to " wade 
 in." Davis, before he had fairly got under way, 
 drove pretty much everybody out of the Senate, and 
 the galleries were empty. He insisted upon read- 
 ing nearly all of the long sections of the old Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law, and other statutes and documents 
 which he thought bore upon the matter under dis- 
 cussion. The proposition to expel him dragged 
 along for weeks and months, and was not finally 
 disposed of until the public had lost all interest in 
 it. While the matter was pending, Davis was even 
 more than usually defiant. At one time he proposed 
 his celebrated scheme to divide the Northern States 
 so that Massachusetts and New Hampshire should 
 be one State, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode 
 Island another, and Maine be left to take care of 
 itself. 
 
 At another time Davis proposed to amend the 
 Constitution by providing that no person whose 
 mother or grandmother had been a negro should 
 be a citizen of the United States, or be entitled to 
 any privileges of citizenship. This latter scheme 
 provoked the galleries to a tremendous burst of 
 laughter, which excited the rage of the little old 
 Kentuckian, and was sternly rebuked by the pre- 
 siding officer. At another time, when he was con- 
 
104 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ducting a bitter fight against the establishment of 
 the Freedmen's Bureau, the garrulous senator made 
 a vituperative speech against Lincoln, whom he 
 compared to George III. He said that Lincoln was 
 "a man of weak mind and inordinate vanity, who 
 thought himself a great man and a statesman, as 
 he played his fantastic tricks before high Heaven." 
 When, in course of debate, Sunmer reminded the 
 shrieking Kentuckian that Madison had said that 
 the Revolutionary War was in behalf of the rights 
 of humanity, Davis replied that Madison by " hu- 
 manity " meant " white men only," at which every- 
 body laughed; and Davis himself, dropping into 
 his seat, faMy chuckled with mirth. The motion 
 to expel Davis was finally dropped, and the com- 
 bative little man kept up his fusillade of violent 
 speeches as long as he remained in the Senate. 
 
 A great deal of heat was wasted on the proposi- 
 tion to enact a law to indemnify the President and 
 other public oflBcers for any responsibility which 
 they might have incurred in suspending the privi- 
 leges of the wi-it of habeas corpus in the so-called 
 arbitrary ai'rests. During the progress of the biU 
 a long and exceedingly bitter debate went on in 
 the House, where Yoorhees made a cantankerous 
 speech against it. As the passage of the measure 
 was already assured (it was on a proposition to 
 amend the bill after its first passage that Yoorhees's 
 speech was made), there was no disposition to make 
 any reply to " the Tall Sycamore of the Wabash " ; 
 accordingly, Mr. DaUey, a Territorial delegate from 
 Nebraska, was coached and put forward to make a 
 speech in rejoinder, by way of derision. Dailey was 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 105 
 
 what was called a " smooth-bore " speaker, and he 
 had no sooner begun to pour out his disjointed sen- 
 tences than the mortified Voorhees fled in dismay ; 
 but Dailey succeeded in stirring up the House. He 
 spoke to the galleries, where there chanced to be a 
 regiment of soldiers, and paid a glowing tribute to 
 the " brave boys in blue " ; whereupon the brave 
 boys in blue gave him a round of applause. At 
 this Vallandigham sprang out into the aisle, trem- 
 bhng with rage, and insisted that the galleries 
 should not be permitted to show their approval or 
 disapproval to " the actors on this floor." It was a 
 long time before the sparring between members 
 which followed this sally was brought to a close, 
 and Dailey was permitted to finish his speech. The 
 bill (as we aU know) eventually passed. 
 
 Probably no measure brought before the War 
 Congress excited so much debate and political feel- 
 ing as the Conscription Bill and its subsequent 
 amendment known as the Negro Soldier Bill. The 
 bin to authorize the draft was debated pro and 
 con, amended and generally fought over, for nearly 
 a year before it finally became a law. It was 
 bitterly opposed by the Peace Democrats, Vallan- 
 digham being at the head of the opposition in 
 the House. During the earlier debates, the feeling 
 of wrath among the Peace Democratic members 
 of the House was manifested at every step of 
 the way. One day Eepresentative Campbell of 
 Pennsylvania referred to the Peace Democrats as 
 "domestic traitors"; whereupon Yallandigham, 
 who had given a few minutes of his allotted time 
 to Campbell, wrathUy bounced up and said that 
 
106 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 he had yielded the floor to a gentleman and not to 
 a blackguard. Campbell retorted: "The gentle- 
 man is himself a blackguard," apparently not see- 
 ing the incongruousness of calling a man a 
 gentleman and a blackguard in the same breath. 
 This saUy provoked the mirth and the applause of 
 the galleries, which were, as usual, crowded with 
 soldiers; and several of the Peace Democrats loudly 
 and angrily demanded that the galleries be cleared. 
 One of the speakers. Representative Robinson of 
 Illinois, said that " Congress had been too often 
 insulted by army contractors and government 
 plunderers." This offensive remark caused the 
 blue-coated sovereigns in the gallery to laugh in 
 chorus with derision; but some of them uttered 
 angry exclamations, and for a moment there were 
 serious signs of mutiny. S. S. Cox remarked that 
 he hoped that the galleries would not be cleared, as 
 only a few persons had joined in the demonstra- 
 tions, and "the fool-killer would be able to take 
 care of them!" Good humor was restored by this 
 time, and the impending storm was averted. 
 
 The Conscription Bill passed through many and 
 curious phases before it became a law, and when- 
 ever it appeared in either branch of Congress, 
 there was a signal for a racket to begin. Even 
 after the law had gone into the statute-books. Sec- 
 retary Stanton attempted to construe the clause 
 allowing exemption from the draft on a pajnnent of 
 $300 in such a way as to increase the burdensome- 
 ness of the law; but he was overruled by the 
 solicitor of the War Department and the attorney- 
 general. One of Fernando Wood's amusing amend- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 107 
 
 ments proposed to the pending bill was that "all 
 persons who, from conscientious disbelief in the 
 humanity, necessity, or eventual success of the 
 war, were opposed to its further progress, should 
 be exempted from the draft." 
 
 The bill to enlist negroes in the army was op- 
 posed with tremendous energy by Peace Demo- 
 crats, who affected to look on the proposition as 
 an attempt to excite a servile war. This was the 
 view of the case, it wiU be remembered, that was 
 taken by the Confederate authorities ; and Repre- 
 sentative Wickllffe of Kentucky made himself 
 ridiculous by offering a resolution inquiring as to 
 the truthfulness of the report that fugitive slaves 
 were being mustered into the service of the United 
 States, contrary to law. Wickliffe was speedily 
 silenced when, in due course of time, there came 
 back from the army, through the War Depart- 
 ment, the explanation that "colored Americans 
 had been enlisted in the military service in the ab- 
 sence of their fugitive masters, who had fled south- 
 ward." This ludicrous finale for a time quelled 
 even the querulous and perpetually complaining 
 gentleman from Kentucky. Later on, when it was 
 found that colored substitutes would be accepted 
 in place of drafted white men, there was a great 
 rush on the part of the authorities of several of the 
 Free States to fill up their quotas by enlisting ne- 
 groes from the Border States and the District of 
 Columbia. The War Department stopped this by 
 compelling all enlisting agents to give bonds that 
 men taken outside of their own State lines should 
 not be used as recruits in the army. The United 
 
108 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 States Government, so Secretary Stanton said, 
 wanted to employ these colored men in its own 
 work, and would not tolerate interference from 
 any of the States. Upon this, Senator Wilson, of 
 Massachusetts, proposed to amend the conscription 
 law by allowing the agents of loyal States to go 
 into all of the seceded States where Union lines 
 had been reestablished, and to enlist men, black or 
 white, for their own State organizations. This 
 was intended to facilitate the enlistment of black 
 soldiers in the South ; but the proposition came to 
 Stanton's ears, and he and Wilson had a hot dis- 
 cussion, in the course of which the Secretary told 
 the Senator that no agents of Free States had any 
 right in Southern States raking up able-bodied col- 
 ored men, who would be put in the poorly-officered 
 State regiments, instead of being placed in the 
 more thorough and vigorous organizations of col- 
 ored troops then being undertaken by the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. Becoming somewhat 
 excited by this discussion, Secretary Stanton told 
 Senator Wilson that if the Wilson amendment be- 
 came a law, the War Office would be seeking a sec- 
 retary on the very next day after. It is needless 
 to add that Wilson's amendment was heard of no 
 more. 
 
 The value of negro substitutes for drafted white 
 men was quaintly hit off by " Petroleum A'. Nasby," 
 in one of his inimitable papers written from " Con- 
 fedrit Crossroads." In a previous paper the parson 
 had poured out the vials of his wrath upon the 
 wicked project to use colored men as soldiers in 
 the war ; but when he discovered that colored sub- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 109 
 
 stitutes could be made available to save the precious 
 lives of the unwiUing residents of the Border States, 
 he sounded an impassioned cry to " rally " all the 
 colored people that were drifting about the region 
 of his Crossroads. This letter attracted the atten- 
 tion of President Lincoln, who never missed an op- 
 portunity to read Nasby's then famous papers. 
 The President, by frequent reading, was able to 
 repeat this particular " rally " from memory, and 
 for a long time he humorously illustrated the in- 
 consistency of the Copperhead position on the ques- 
 tion of negro enlistments by reciting the letter with 
 great effect, invariably ending his recitation with 
 a hearty laugh. 
 
 One evening, long after the Nasby letter had 
 been printed, and while the Lincoln family were at 
 their summer house, the Soldiers' Home, I went 
 out with the President to stay overnight. Several 
 visitors came in, and the conversation fell upon 
 the condition of the freedmen in the Border States. 
 The President, standing before the fire-place, re- 
 cited the whole of Nasby's letter, then displaced in 
 the public mind by later productions. The last 
 part, which Lincoln said was specially good, ran 
 thus: "Arowse to wunst! Eally agin Conway! 
 Rally agin Sweet ! Eally agin Hegler ! Eally agin 
 Hegler's family ! EaUy agin the porter at the Eeed 
 House ! Eally agin the cook at the Crook House ! 
 Eally agin the nigger widder in Vance's addishun ! 
 EaUy agin Missis Umstid! Eally agin Missis 
 Umstid's childern by her first husband ! Eally 
 agin Missis Umstid's childern by her sekkund hus- 
 band ! Eally agin all the rest uv Missis Umstid's 
 
110 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 childern ! Eally agin the nigger that kum yister- 
 day ! Eally agin the saddle-kulurd gal that yoost 
 2 be hear ! Ameriky for white men ! " Lincoln 
 used to quote these rallying-eries, at intervals, 
 after other men had read and forgotten them. 
 
 In the winter of 1862, the dismemberment of 
 Virginia by the admission of the western counties 
 of the Old Dominion as the new State of West 
 Virginia was the subject of a long and interesting 
 debate. The congressional elections of the previous 
 November had resulted somewhat unfavorably for 
 the administration. Lincoln's emancipation policy, 
 the removal of McClellan, and other important 
 events, as it was alleged, had so aroused the 
 popular indignation that the Republican majority 
 in the next succeeding House of Representatives 
 was somewhat diminished. This gave pause to 
 some of the more timorous Unionists, who hesi- 
 tated at taking a step so radical as that proposed 
 in the division of Virginia. Among those who 
 voted against the passage of the "West Virginia 
 bill were such Republicans as Roseoe Conkliug of 
 New York, John B. Alley of Massachusetts, 
 James M. Ashley of Ohio, and Martin F. Conway 
 of Kansas. This last-named gentleman, however, 
 was an erratic and radical politician, whose objec- 
 tion to the bill was that it provided for gradual, 
 and not immediate, emancipation of the slaves in 
 the proposed iiew State. Conway subsequently 
 secured notoriety by his preposterous scheme to 
 divide the Northern States into new confederacies. 
 Later on he made an insane speech in the House, 
 in which he attacked the Lincoln administration 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 111 
 
 for its " pro-slavery character," asserting that Lin- 
 coln was trying to bnild up a pro-slavery party, 
 and had fiUed the departments and the army with 
 pro-slavery sympathizers with the rebellion." Con- 
 way was a small, red-topped, pale-faced man, with 
 an excitable temperament and vehement manners. 
 Once, while he was in the midst of an incendiary 
 harangue, the limit of his time expired, and when 
 he asked permission to go on, he was stopped by 
 Owen Lovejoy with an objection ; whereupon Con- 
 way, darting his finger at the burly radical from 
 Illinois, screamed, " And you too, Brutus ! " This 
 was not the only exciting episode in which Conway 
 was a conspicuous figure. It was charitably be- 
 lieved that his reason had been unsettled by his 
 intense attention to the political issues that were 
 then so prominent. 
 
 One of the most notable incidents in Congress in 
 the winter of 1862-63 was the remarkable speech 
 of Vallandigham, in which he defined his position 
 and made his reelection to Congress an impossi- 
 bility so long as a respectable majority of his own 
 party had any influence at the polls. It was an 
 important occasion, and the rumor that he would 
 at that time define his position brought a great 
 concourse to the House; and when he began to 
 speak the members from the opposite side of the 
 chamber clustered around the nearest adjoining 
 seats, and listened with intentness to what he had 
 to say. It was a singular spectacle, this rapt atten- 
 tion by relentless patriots to the studied but vehe- 
 ment address of a man who was soon to be sent 
 across the rebel lines by a Union officer as a traitor 
 
112 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 to his country. But the eagerness of the Eepub- 
 can listeners to hear Yallandigham's speech was 
 inspired rather by the hope that he would say 
 something that would damage the cause of the 
 Peace Democrats than by their admiration of his 
 oratory. In brief, his was an argument in favor of 
 the right of the revolution. He said that Greorge 
 Washington was a rebel, and that we were all de- 
 scended from rebels. He referred very frequently 
 to some form of compromise; and the ghost of 
 "peaceful compromise" was continually hovering 
 in the background while he spoke. He ventured 
 somewhat into the domain of prophecy when he 
 said, " History will record the utter, disastrous, and 
 most bloody failure of the experiment of an attempt 
 to coerce the Southern States." He also said that 
 if the war was prolonged, and the South should 
 establish its independence, "the great Northwest 
 would go with the South, and would not be a mere 
 appanage to the Atlantic States, without a seaboard." 
 One of the most vigorous and pungent speeches 
 of that session was made in reply to Tallandigham 
 by John A. Bingham, of Ohio. Judge Bingham 
 was one of those curiously constituted men who 
 never excel in a formal speech, and who require 
 provocation, contradiction, and iuterruption to 
 arouse them to real eloquence. The more f requentlj 
 he was interfered with and baited in the discussion, 
 the more vigorous was his logic, and the more bril- 
 liant and forcible his rhetoric. On this occasion 
 he was a remarkable figure. He was a small 
 nervous man, with a pale, thin face, and long, 
 tawny, fine hair, an excitable manner, and lambent. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 113 
 
 light-blue eyes. Again and again lie "bronght 
 down the House " with his apt rejoinders to Vallan- 
 digham, who lost ground whenever he ventured to 
 interrupt Bingham. 
 
 Another speaker who replied to VaUandigham's 
 speech was Representative Hendrick B. Wright, of 
 the Luzerne Congressional District, Pennsylvania. 
 Mr. Wright was an elderly, white-haired man, a 
 War Democrat, and his commanding figure rose 
 high above the mob of congressmen who eagerly 
 clustered around him to hear what he might say. 
 He had recently lost his eldest son, a captain in 
 "Rush's Lancers," who had died at the age of 
 twenty-five, of fever contracted in the marshes of 
 Virginia ; and a second son, only sixteen years old, 
 was then standard-bearer in another Pennsylvania 
 regiment. Eloquently referring to the complaint 
 of the Peace Democrats that the war required a 
 great sacrifice of blood and treasure, he said that 
 it was better that we should offer three hundred 
 thousand more of the best men of the nation, and 
 so end the rebellion, than bequeath its horrors to 
 a generation to come, and let it meet the terrors 
 that we had not the courage to grapple with and 
 conquer. There were moist eyes in the throng of 
 heroes round this noble Roman father as he thus 
 concluded: "The war has cost me its trials and 
 tribulations. I can truly close my remarks with a 
 quotation from an ancient philosopher, uttered 
 over the body of his son, slain in battle: 
 
 "I should have blushed if Cato's house had stood 
 Secure and flourished in a civil war." 
 
114 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 It would be needless here to refer to Vallan- 
 digham's subsequent career. We may recall Ms 
 incendiary speeches in Ohio later in that year, his 
 arrest by G-eneral Burnside, his deportation beyond 
 the rebel lines, and the flames of discord that flared 
 up in the North when these events took place. 
 Although President Lincoln was greatly surprised 
 and dismayed by Burnside's treatment of VaUan- 
 digham, he wrote several documents pertinent 
 thereto which have passed into history as pohtical 
 classics. With a single stroke of his pen he re- 
 vealed the kernel of the contention when he asked, 
 "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who 
 deserts, while I must not touch a hair of the wily 
 agitator who induces him to desert ? " * 
 
 When Vallandigham, passing through the Con- 
 federacy, had, by a detour seaward, finally returned 
 to the tJnited States through Canada, I had occa- 
 sion to mention his name to Lincoln, remarking 
 that he had been speaking in Ohio. " What ! " ex- 
 claimed the President, looking at me quizzically, 
 " has Vallandigham got back ? " Somewhat puz- 
 zled, I explained that everybody knew that. " Dear 
 me ! " said Lincoln, with preternatural solemnity. 
 " I supposed he was in a foreign land. Anyhow, 
 I hope I do not know that he is in the United 
 States; and I shall not, unless he says or does 
 something to draw attention to him." Presently 
 he went to his table, and, drawing out some loose 
 sheets of paper, said that he had there the rough 
 notes of an interview which he had lately had with 
 Fernando Wood. This was in August, 1864. It 
 
 " Lincoln to Gov. H. Seymour, June 12, 1863. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 115 
 
 appeared that Wood had said to the President: 
 "We Peace Democrats are the only Democrats; 
 all others are bastards and impostors ; there is no 
 such thing as a War Democrat, for that is a con- 
 tradiction in terms. We don't expect to elect our 
 candidate for President this fall : the people of the 
 North are not yet ready for peace. But peace 
 must come sooner or later ; and when it does, the 
 Democratic party wiU be the party which will act 
 and assimilate with the dominant party in the 
 South, and so we shall again have our rightful as- 
 cendancy. Now, Mr. President, you cannot find 
 fault with that ; it is not going to hurt you any." 
 Lincoln then said that he had told Wood that he 
 was disposed to be generous ; and he asked if Val- 
 landigham's alleged return was any part of this 
 program. Wood replied that it was not, and added : 
 " Tou may not believe me, but I assure you that I 
 never knew or expected that he would return, 
 though I acknowledge that I have had a letter from 
 him since he got back. He has had already more 
 notoriety than he deserves, and I warn you that 
 the true policy is that he be severely let alone." 
 To this the President replied, 'according to his own 
 account: "I don't believe that Vallandigham has 
 returned; I never can believe it until he foi'ces 
 himself offensively upon the public attention and 
 upon my attention. Then we shall have to deal 
 with him. So long as he behaves himself decently, 
 he is as effectually in disguise as the man who 
 went to a masquerade party with a clean face." 
 
116 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 LINCOLN AND CHASE, AND THEIR POLITICAL FKIENDS 
 
 Seceetary Chase was inordinately jealous of any 
 apparent invasion of the appointing power of his 
 office. His warmly supported theory was that each 
 head of an executive department should exercise 
 exclusive control of all the appointments and re- 
 movals in his branch of the public service. This, 
 of course, would leave the President absolutely 
 shorn of all power in the matter of making ap- 
 pointments, whether important or unimportant. 
 If the Secretary of the Treasury were to be su- 
 preme in the choice of an officer to fill the most 
 considerable place in his department, then the Sec- 
 retary of State should also be the sole authority in 
 respect of selecting foreign ministers to represent 
 our government abroad. Secretary Chase not only 
 held to this view, at least so far as his own depart- 
 ment was concerned, but he also resented the in- 
 terference of congressmen, and more than once 
 brushed aside President, senators, and representa- 
 tives in his determination to make important ap- 
 pointments without their consent or approval. 
 
 A curious illustration of this usage of the Secre- 
 tary came to mj knowledge in March, 1863. There 
 had been a thorough overhauling of the chief fed- 
 eral offices in San Francisco, conducted by a spe- 
 cial agent of the Treasury Department — Thomas 
 Brown — who was a confidential friend of Secre- 
 tary Chase. On his report, it was determined in 
 the interior councils of the Treasury Department 
 to make "a clean sweep." Secretary Chase inti- 
 mated this determination to the three California 
 
WASHINGTON m LINCOLN'S TIME 117 
 
 congressmen — A, A. Sargent (afterward United 
 States senator, and subsequently minister to Grer- 
 many), F. F. Low (afterward minister to China), 
 and T. G. Phelps. These gentlemen, having been 
 informed by the Secretary that he intended to 
 make many changes, were invited one evening to 
 his private office in the Treasury building, where 
 they were entertained with a brief summary of 
 Brown's report, after which Secretary Chase blandly 
 informed the expectant congressmen that he had 
 resolved to remove all of the leading officials and 
 to supply their places with new men. He then read 
 a list of the appointments as he had made them out, 
 and waited with cahn dignity to hear if the con- 
 gressmen had anything to say. But as he had al- 
 ready announced his irrevocable decision in the 
 matter, there was evidently nothing for them to 
 say ; and, having expressed themselves as resigned 
 to the Secretary's will, they departed. It was re- 
 ported that the three astonished congressmen ut- 
 tered some strong language as they passed out of 
 the Treasury building. A few days afterward, the 
 California congressmen paid their respects to the 
 President, and departed for New York on their way 
 to San Francisco. There Mr. Phelps at once took 
 a steamer homeward byway of Panama, and Messrs. 
 Sargent and Low lingered for a day or two in the 
 city. 
 
 While they were in New York, I was astonished 
 one night by receiving from President Lincoln an 
 urgent summons to come immediately to the 
 White House. Upon my arriving there, Mr. Lin- 
 coln said that he had just learned that a number 
 
118 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 of removals and appointments in San Francisco 
 had been determined upon by Secretary Chase 
 without consulting him or the California congress- 
 men ; and that the three congressmen had departed 
 from Washington very angry and discomfited. 
 With some asperity of manner, he wanted to know 
 if this was true. I told him that it was true, and I 
 recited the facts as they had come to my know- 
 ledge from Messrs. Sargent, Low, and Phelps. The 
 President then angrily asked why I had not told 
 him this before. I replied that it was not my 
 affair; that as long as the congressmen had seen 
 fit to conceal their feelings of disappointment 
 from the President when they bade him good-by, it 
 certainly was not my business to " tell tales out of 
 school." The President expressed his astonish- 
 ment that he had been kept in the dark about so 
 grave a matter as the emptying and filling of the 
 most important federal ofSces on the Pacific coast. 
 Then he anxiously asked if there was any way by 
 which the California congressmen could be reached 
 and brought back ; and when told that two of them 
 were still in New York, he produced a telegraph 
 blank and insisted that I should at once wi'ite a 
 despatch to Messrs. Sargent and Low, and request 
 them to retm-n to Washington and see the Presi- 
 dent. With that careful attention to the smallest 
 details which always characterized Lincoln, he 
 enjoined upon me that I should send the despatch 
 and collect from him the charge therefor the next 
 time I came to the T\niite House. The despatch 
 was sent, the two congressmen were recalled, and the 
 slate which Secretary Chase had so carefully pre- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 119 
 
 pared was eventually broken. Subsequently Mr. 
 Lincoln informed me that Mr. Chase was " exceed- 
 ingly hurt" by the President's interference with 
 his plans. A curious outcome of all this business 
 was that Secretary Chase, having been disappointed 
 in his scheme for filling the office of collector of the 
 port of San Francisco, insisted that one of the two 
 congressmen who had returned to Washington 
 should be appointed in place of the person whom 
 he (Chase) had previously selected for the post. 
 The President suggested that all three congress- 
 men should get together in San Francisco, agree 
 upon the list of appointments, and send it to him 
 for ratification and approval. This, however, 
 seemed impracticable ; and when Messrs. Sargent 
 and Low finally sailed for California, Mr. Low 
 carried with him his commission as collector of the 
 port. 
 
 Victor Smith, formerly a resident of Ohio, and a 
 personal friend of Secretary Chase, was one of the 
 disturbing elements that made the great Secretary's 
 last days in the Treasury Department turbulent 
 and unhappy. Victor Smith had been appointed 
 by the Secretary to the place of collector of cus- 
 toms at Port Townsend, "Washington Territory. 
 Smith was a restless visionary, and in these later 
 days would have been called a crank. While he 
 was collector at Port Townsend, Smith succeeded 
 in inducing the government to move the custom- 
 house from that point to another on Puget Sound. 
 It was a foolish and harebrained scheme, and 
 created a bitter feeling among business men. His 
 new place was named Port Angelos. There the 
 
120 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 collector maintained himself for a time in a semi- 
 barbaric proprietorship. It is related of bim that 
 he once invited the officers of the revenue cutter 
 Shuhrick to dine at his house; and the officers, 
 considering that the collector of the port was a 
 high functionary, arrayed themselves in full dress, 
 with swords, gold lace, and other gorgeous insignia 
 of their station, and went ashore in state to wait 
 upon Collector Smith at his mansion, which was 
 then in an unfinished condition. In due course of 
 time the collector, assisted by his wife, brought 
 out two carpenter's saw-horses, on which was 
 placed a board covered with wrapping-paper. The 
 repast, which was as simple as any ever partaken 
 of by the hermits of olden time, was then set forth ; 
 and Smith, taking from his pockets three big 
 apples, gave one to each of the three officers, with 
 a small forked stick, remarking : " Tou 'U have 
 to roast your own apples." 
 
 This eccentric functionary once informed me that 
 he had " so intertwined himself in the fibers of the 
 government that his removal from office was an 
 impossibility." Nevertheless, the outcry against 
 Smith was so great that the President told Secre- 
 tary Chase that the man must go. Every federal 
 officer, and nearly every prominent citizen in the 
 Puget Sound collection district, had written letters 
 or signed memorials protesting against the contin- 
 uance of Smith in his office, and had demanded his 
 removal and the return of the custom-house to the 
 point from which it had been so needlessly carried 
 away. The Secretary of the Treasury was obdu- 
 rate ; but finally, in May, 1863, the harassed Presi- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 121 
 
 dent "took the bull by the horns," and resolved 
 upon Smith's removal. The stream of expostula- 
 tions, protests, and remonstrances that poured in 
 upon him from the distracted region over which 
 Victor Smith reigned had become intolerable ; but, 
 kind and considerate to the last, the President wrote 
 to the Secretary (as we learn from the Nicolay-Hay 
 history of Lincoln) to this effect : 
 
 My mind is made up to remove Victor Smith as col- 
 lector of the customs at the Puget Sound district. Yet 
 in doing this I do not decide that the charges against him 
 are true ; I only decide that the degree of dissatisfaction 
 with him there is too great for him to be retained. But 
 I believe he is your personal acquaintance and friend, 
 and if you desire it I will try to find some other place 
 for him. 
 
 When the Secretary received this note, he made 
 out a commission for Victor Smith's successor, 
 wrote his own resignation as Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury, and sent both to the President. This was only 
 one of several instances in which Chase manifested 
 his disposition to retire from the public service in 
 case his will was thwarted in any particular ; but 
 once more the President succeeded in placating the 
 ruffled Secretary, who stiU remained at the head of 
 the Treasury Department, notwithstanding the re- 
 moval of the petty officer from his distant post on 
 Puget Sound. 
 
 There is an interesting sequel to this story. One 
 of the most conspicuous opponents of Victor Smith 
 was Dr. A. G. Henry, surveyor-general of Washing- 
 ton Territory, an old friend of the President, whose 
 
122 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 name lias beeu mentioned in a previous chapter of 
 these reminiscences. He was the bearer of a load 
 of remonstrances that were finally influential in de- 
 termining the removal of Victor Smith. Dr. Henry 
 and Smith had long been on terms of enmity, and 
 always declined to recognize each other when they 
 passed by. On my return to California after Lin- 
 coln's death, in 1865, Dr. Henry was a fellow-pas- 
 senger on the steamer from New York to Aspin- 
 wall. Victor Smith had been in "Washington on 
 some one of his many busy errands, and had de- 
 parted for home on the steamer Golden Rule, of the 
 Nicaragua line, and in her had been wrecked on 
 Roneador Reef, since made famous by the catas- 
 trophe that deprived us of the historic Kearsarge. 
 We found the shipwrecked passengers at Panama 
 waiting for transportation to San Francisco, and 
 most of them embarked with us. Smith among the 
 number. This addition to our passenger-list crowded 
 the ship, and the newer arrivals were distributed 
 among those who had previously been allotted in- 
 dividual cabins. Soon after we left our moorings in 
 Panama Bay, Dr. Henry came to me, in great agita- 
 tion of mind, with the information that in the new 
 allotment Victor Smith had been given a berth in 
 his (Henry's) room. " I would n't dare to sleep in 
 the same room with that viper," said the doctoi-, ex- 
 citedly. " He might get up and kill me in the night. 
 You know the purser ; I wish you would go to him 
 and see if you cannot have Smith put in some other 
 man's room. I don't care who else is put into my 
 room ; but Smith I will not have." Smiling at the 
 good doctor's vehemence, I started for the purser's 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 123 
 
 office, but was intercepted by Victor Smith, who 
 said : " They have put me in the same state-room 
 with that old devil, Dr. Henry. You know the 
 purser ; I wish you would use your influence with 
 him and have me put in some other room. I would 
 n't dare to sleep in the same room with that man." 
 The necessary change was made, and Dr. Henry and 
 Victor Smith were not obliged to recognize each 
 other's existence on that ship at least. 
 
 But when they reached San Francisco later in 
 the month (July, 1865), they both, with great reluc- 
 tance, took passage on the steamer Brother Jonathan^ 
 bound for Portland, Oregon. There was no alter- 
 native except the slow transit by stage from Sacra- 
 mento northward. The Brother Jonathan struck on 
 a reef on this her last ill-fated voyage, and nearly 
 all on board perished, among the lost being General 
 Greorge "Wright, who, haying survived the perils of 
 war, was then on his way to take command of the 
 Department of the Columbia. The waves also en- 
 gulfed Dr. Henry and Victor Smith. In the supreme 
 moment, when certain death yawned before these 
 two determined enemies, did they clasp hands and 
 forgive the past ? 
 
 The tragical episode that marked the close of the 
 career of Dr. Henry, Lincoln's good friend, may best 
 be concluded here with a letter from Mrs. Lincoln 
 in which touching reference is made to him and to 
 her husband. Imay as well explain thatthe " claims'' 
 referred to in Mrs. Lincoln's letter were certain 
 shares of " wild-cat " stock, sent to her in her days 
 of prosperity, and which the poor lady thought 
 might be sold for a small sum. This is her letter: 
 
124 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Chicago, May 11, 1866. 
 
 Noah Brooks, Esq., San Peancisco. 
 
 My Dear Sir : A few days since I received a very sad 
 letter from Mrs. Henry, in which she vividly portrays 
 her great desolation and dependence upon others for 
 every earthly comfort. I am induced to enclose you the 
 Nevada claims and also a petroleum claim, hoping that 
 you may be able to secure a purchaser for them, in which 
 case I will most cheerfully give Mrs. Henry some of the 
 proceeds. I am aware that I am taxing your kindness very 
 greatly, yet the remembrance of your great esteem for 
 my beloved husband and Dr. Henry would excuse the 
 intrusion upon you. I wish you were not so far removed 
 from us — true friends, in these overwhelming days of 
 affliction, I find to be very rare. I find myself clinging 
 more tenderly to the memory of those who, if not so 
 remote, would be more friendly. 
 
 I hope you wiQ be able to visit Mrs. Henry the coming 
 summer. I sometimes, in my wildness and grief, am 
 tempted to believe that it is some terrible, terrihle dream, 
 and that my idolized husband wiU return to me. Poor 
 Dr. Henry ! he who wept so truly and freely with us in 
 our great misfortune, how soon he was called to join the 
 beloved one who had so recently " gone before " ! In my 
 own great sorrow, how often I have prayed for death to 
 end my great misery ! 
 
 My sons are weU, and a great comfort to me. . . . 
 Robert and Taddie remember you very kindly. I hope 
 you will write to us more frequently. I am well aware 
 of the deep sympathy you feel for us, and the great 
 affection and confidence my husband cherished for you 
 draws you very near to us. With apologies for troubling 
 you as I am now doing, I remain always sincerely your 
 fi'iend, Mary Lincoln. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 125 
 
 THE RESIGNATION OP CHASE 
 
 Lincoln was greatly exasperated by the Victor 
 Smith incident ; and when he had finally disposed 
 of the matter, as he thought, he was much depressed 
 by frequent repetitions of similar complications. 
 From him and from one of the senators who 
 waited upon him after Chase's resignation I learned 
 the facts of the last trial of the patience of the 
 long-suffering Lincoln. The crisis which made it 
 impossible for Mr. Chase to stay any longer in the 
 Treasury Department was brought on, as every- 
 body knows, by his determination to have his own 
 way in making several important appointments in 
 the city of New York. But, as we have seen, the 
 trouble began long before, when Secretary Chase 
 grew more and more determined to resent inter- 
 ference with any of the appointments in the Trea- 
 sury Department. Whether his ambition to be 
 president of the United States had anything to do 
 with this hardening of his will in the matter of 
 executive patronage, it is impossible to say ; but 
 from the time that his name was brought promi- 
 nently before the public by Senator Pomeroy, of 
 Kansas, and others, until his final exit from the 
 Treasury Department, Mr. Chase was continually 
 in hot water. His resignation, handed in when 
 Victor Smith's removal was determined upon by 
 the President, was written in May, 1863. His final 
 resignation was tendered in June, 1864. It would 
 appear that Mr. Chase believed that his great 
 position in the United States Grovernment was 
 absolutely necessary to the welfare of the republic. 
 
126 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 and that he could not be permitted to leave it 
 without inviting disaster ; and his frequent threats 
 of resignation were intended, apparently, to coerce 
 the President into letting him have his own way 
 in all matters of detail. 
 
 When the nomination of David Tod, of Ohio, 
 went to the Senate in place of Salmon P. Chase, 
 resigned, the senators were struck dumb with 
 amazement. In executive session the whole mat- 
 ter was at once referred to the Finance Committee, 
 and in a few minutes Senators Fessenden, Conness, 
 Sherman, Cowan, and Van Winkle were on their 
 way to the White House. They had two questions 
 to ask. One was, Why has Chase resigned, and is 
 the act final f And the other was, Why has the 
 name of David Tod been sent to the Senate ? The 
 President received the senators with great affa- 
 bility, and there was a general and free discussion 
 of the situation. Senator Fessenden, chairman of 
 the Finance Committee, being the mouthpiece of 
 the visiting statesmen. The President immediately 
 disposed of the Tod branch of the complication by 
 reading a telegram from Governor Tod declining 
 the nomination. Then he gave the senators a full 
 history of the original formation of the cabinet in 
 1861, explaining why each man had been chosen, 
 and expressing his great confidence in Secretary 
 Chase's abilities and integrity. Then he followed 
 with a detailed statement of the relations that had 
 existed between himself and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury since the latter had taken ofiice. He told 
 the senators all the incidents concerning the many 
 times that Chase had offered his resignation, and 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 127 
 
 he referred to the ill temper which the Secretary- 
 had betrayed on those occasions. Then he took 
 from a pigeonhole all the correspondence between 
 himself and the Secretary, showing numerous in- 
 stances of the testiness of the Secretary and the 
 much-enduring patience of the President during a 
 period stretching over nearly all the years of the 
 administration down to that day. 
 
 Lincoln said that of course Mr. Chase had a full 
 right to indulge in his ambition to be president, 
 and there was no question as to his claim upon the 
 gratitude of the American people; but indiscreet 
 friends of the Secretary had succeeded in exciting 
 a feeling disagreeable in itself, and embarrassing 
 to the President and to the Secretary. This had 
 gone on, he said, untU they disliked to meet each 
 other; and to him (Lincoln) the relation had be- 
 come unendurable, and he had accepted the resig- 
 nation of Mr. Chase as a finality. He told the 
 committee that he would not continue to be presi- 
 dent with Mr. Chase in the cabinet; that if the 
 Senate should insist upon it, they could have his 
 resignation, and take Mr. Hamlin for president. 
 Of one of the appointments which Secretary Chase 
 had insisted upon President Lincoln spoke with 
 considerable feeling. This appointment, which 
 Chase had adhered to tenaciously, and which Lin- 
 coln said was discreditable to the Secretary, was 
 one which the President insisted never would be 
 made with his consent. He told the senators that 
 at a party where Mr. Chase's chosen appointee was 
 present, this person was intoxicated, and kicked 
 his hat in the air in the presence of ladies and 
 
128 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 gentlemen. Lincoln said lie had told Chase that 
 he would take any other nomination which he 
 (Chase) would send him, but this man he could not 
 and would not accept. Chase, notwithstanding 
 Lincoln's statement concerning the man's habits 
 and character, persisted in urging the nomination 
 upon the President. This, Lincoln said, was " the 
 last straw." As we know. Tod's declination of the 
 nomination left the President free to send another 
 name to the Senate, and the Finance Committee of 
 that body was then for the first time enlightened 
 as to the unfortunate relations which had so long 
 existed between the Secretary of the Treasury and 
 the President. 
 
 The way was now clear, and the next surprise to 
 which the public was treated was the nomination 
 and immediate confirmation of Senator William 
 Pitt Fessenden as secretary of the treasury. It 
 was a picturesque feature of this latter part of the 
 business that Senator Fessenden was in the Presi- 
 dent's office conferring with him on the situation 
 of affairs while his own nomination as successor to 
 Chase was on its way to the Senate ; and when Fes- 
 senden learned from the President that that nomi- 
 nation had actually been made, he went in hot haste 
 to the capitol, only to find that the appointment 
 had been confirmed before he could enter his pro- 
 test against it. 
 
 That evening I was at the TVTiite House, and Mr. 
 Lincoln sent for me to come into the library, where 
 I found him lying upon his back on a sofa, with 
 his hands clasped over his chest, and looking wearv 
 beyond description. But he was in a comfortable 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 129 
 
 frame of mind ; and, after going over the incidents 
 of tliis exciting episode, lie said cheerfully, " When 
 I finally struck the name of Fessenden as Grovernor 
 Chase's successor, I felt as if the Lord had n't for- 
 saken me yet." 
 
 It is well known that the friends of Secretary 
 Chase, and probably some of Lincoln's, insisted 
 upon fomenting strife between these two illustrious 
 men long after the Secretary had retired to private 
 life and Lincoln's second nomination and election 
 had eliminated the presidential question, for a time 
 at least, from all other relations which affected the 
 two men. This mischievous influence was at work 
 when, on the death of Roger B. Taney, the great 
 office of chief justice of the United States became 
 vacant, and Chase's name was immediately brought 
 forward by his friends and admirers, who hoped to 
 see him succeed to that post. Senator Sumner and 
 other radical Republicans at once deluged Lincoln 
 with letters and telegrams beseeching him to nomi- 
 nate Chase as chief justice. On the other hand, 
 Lincoln was overwhelmed with protests from his 
 own political and personal friends, who reminded 
 him that Chase had not " behaved well " while sec- 
 retary of the treasury, and had embarrassed the 
 President with his inordinate ambition. 
 
 While the matter was pending, I had occasion to 
 call on the President, and the rumors of Chase's ap- 
 pointment naturally came up for discussion. Mr. 
 Lincoln had been, for him, very gay and cheery ; 
 but as soon as Chase and the chief -justiceship were 
 mentioned, his visage lengthened, and with great 
 seriousness he pointed to a pile of telegrams and 
 
130 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 letters on his table, and said : " I have been all day, 
 and yesterday and the day before, besieged by mes- 
 sages from my friends aU over the country, as if 
 there were a determination to put up the bars be- 
 tween Grovernor Chase and myself." Then, after a 
 pause, he added : " But I shall nominate him for 
 chief justice, nevertheless." It was therefore with 
 amusement that I learned from one of Chase's most 
 ardent friends, about an hour- later, that " Lincoln 
 was not great enough to nominate Secretary Chase 
 as chief justice ; " and with inward satisfaction I 
 bore in silence much contumely and reproach from 
 Chase's fast friends, from that time until the country 
 was delighted by the intelligence that Chase's nomi- 
 nation had been sent to the Senate on December 6, 
 1864, in a message written by the President's own 
 hand. 
 
 The political complications which immediately 
 preceded the presidential nominations of 1864 were 
 extremely distressing to Lincoln. "Washington was 
 in a ferment, and to some degree, although not to 
 the extent that Washington politicians believed, 
 the country was responsive to the excitement which 
 prevailed at the national capital. It had become 
 evident that Lincoln's nomination was impending, 
 although the friends of Mr. Chase insisted that his 
 renomination was unlikely, and that his reelection 
 was an absolute impossibility. At this later day, 
 when the political events of 1864 lie behind us like 
 landmarks in a road over which we have securely 
 traveled, it is difBcult to understand how any man 
 of even moderate sagacity could have supposed, as 
 not a few men did, that Lincoln had a verv slight 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 131 
 
 cliaiice of renomination and none at all of reelec- 
 tion. It is difficult also to comprehend, even now, 
 the motives that induced so many honest and ear- 
 nest Republicans at the seat of government to be at 
 great pains, as they were, to defeat what seemed 
 to be the popular will respecting Lincoln. It was 
 urged by the friends of Mr. Chase that no man 
 should be elected to a second term of the presi- 
 dency ; and it was well known that Mr. Chase him- 
 self made no secret of his strong belief in the sav- 
 ing grace of the one-term principle. Many people 
 were dissatisfied with the alleged slowness of the 
 Lincoln administration as regarded both political 
 and military operations. On the other hand, many 
 ardent Union men, in zealous advocacy of what 
 they conceived to be the conservative policy of the 
 administration, went quite as far on the other tack 
 as the radicals did in the direction of a more vigor- 
 ous and aggressive policy on the part of the Presi- 
 dent and his cabinet. The eddying currents of 
 political opinion surged about the capitol while 
 Congress was in session ; and in both branches of 
 that body the rival factions skirmished with each 
 other, their real purpose being thinly veiled by a 
 pretense of earnest devotion to the public business. 
 The Missouri imbroglio was a source of perpetual 
 annoyance to the great body of public men who had 
 no special interest in the unreasonable quarrel that 
 raged in that State. Beginning with the brief and 
 brilliant reign of General Fremont, and extending 
 almost to the close of the war, the Unionist party in 
 Missouri was divided into two hostile camps, radi- 
 cal and conservative. These never became friends 
 
132 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 and allies so long as the war endured, and political 
 matters were consequently hopelessly mixed in Mis- 
 souri. The quarrel was at its height during General 
 Schofleld's administration of military rule in the 
 State, before the civil authority reasserted itself. 
 Finally, when B. Glratz Brown and John B. Hen- 
 derson came to the United States Senate as rep- 
 resentatives respectively of the radical and the 
 conservative wings of the Union party, there was 
 for a while something like an armed truce. The 
 Blair family, however, with a proclivity to mischief- 
 making that was amazing, succeeded in fomenting 
 the Missouri quarrel whenever it showed any indi- 
 cations of simmering down. Frank P. Blair, Jr., 
 took his seat in the House of Representatives with 
 the avowed determination of showing up, as he 
 expressed it, the corruption which existed in the 
 administration of the Treasury Department in Mis- 
 souri. He represented the so-caUed conservative 
 wing of his party, and he demanded the appoint- 
 ment of a committee to inquire into and report upon 
 the alleged infraction by treasury agents of the act 
 of Congress regulating commercial intercourse with 
 the States declared to be in insurrection. As a 
 counterblast to this, some of the Missouri radicals 
 brought charges against Blair in which it was al- 
 leged that he, as a commanding general in the Fif- 
 teenth Army Corps near Vicksburg in the summer 
 of 1863, with his officers, had been engaged in a 
 large speculation, in the course of which brandy, 
 whisky, beer, wines, cigars, tobacco, and canned 
 fruits had been bought in St. Louis, and smuggled 
 through the military lines for the use of rebel offi- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 133 
 
 cers on the other side of the military boundaries. 
 The result of this charge against Blair was harm- 
 less. It "was proved that a small order given by 
 General Blair and his staff, the total cost of which 
 would not have exceeded one hundred and fifty or 
 one hundred and seventy-five dollars, had been 
 fraudulently expanded by the agent to whom it was 
 intrusted, so that it called for a variety of goods 
 amounting to about nine thousand dollars in value. 
 This disgraceful episode was only one of many 
 which marked the long and stormy discussions 
 dragged into the House day after day by the quar- 
 relsome Missouri members ; at the same time, Mont- 
 gomery Blair in Maryland was pursuing Henry 
 Winter Davis, a radical Republican, Avith the same 
 relentlessness with which his brother Frank kept 
 on the track of the Missouri radicals. 
 
 Greneral Schofleld, who had been military gover- 
 nor of Missouri during its reconstruction period, 
 was nominated by the President for promotion to 
 the rank of major-general in the volunteer army. 
 As this happened during the height of the Missouri 
 excitement, G-ratz Brown in the Senate, and his 
 radical colleagues in the House, fell afoul of the 
 nomination with rage and determination. Mean- 
 while, however, the War Department had attempted 
 to quiet the disturbance by providing for Schofield 
 at another point, and putting Eosecrans in his place. 
 Although the changing of Schofleld removed the 
 immediate cause of the bitterness of the radical 
 Missourians, opposition to his military promotion 
 was still kept up, and Washington politics for weeks 
 apparently consisted of nothing but the rumors and 
 
134 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 reports which circulated about General Schofield's 
 nomination and his confirmation by the Senate. 
 
 The Blair family also came to the front conspic- 
 uously in the f aU of 1863, in a speech made at Rock- 
 ville, Maryland, in October, by Montgomery Blair, 
 then Postmaster-General. The speech, which was 
 an elaborate defense of the alleged conservative pol- 
 icy of the President, was also a bitter arraignment 
 of prominent members of the cabinet, senators, and 
 representatives. The speech was subsequently is- 
 sued in pamphlet form, and created considerable 
 stir in Washington, and among the President's real 
 friends in Maryland. The title-page of the pam- 
 phlet edition of this speech gave the speaker con- 
 siderable fictitious importance as " a member of 
 Lincoln's cabinet," and 'the speech was ingeniously 
 worded so as to endue it with an appearance of hav- 
 ing been sanctioned by the President in order to set 
 himself right before the people as against the wicked 
 aspersions of the more radical men in his party. Of 
 course Lincoln eventually heard of this extraordi- 
 nary oration, and a friend, calling on him one day, 
 found him reading a little slip cut from a newspa- 
 per, from which he was endeavoring to get some 
 idea of the then famous Eockville speech. The 
 visitor offered to send the President a copy of the 
 pamphlet as published by Blair ; and, at his request, 
 I took it to the President, who was greatly amused, 
 as well as astonished, by the ingeniously worded 
 title-page of that queer document. 
 
 Later on in that month, just after the Pennsyl- 
 vania State elections, "William D. Kelley and Colo- 
 nel John W. Forney called on the President with 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 135 
 
 their congratulations, and Forney very plainly said 
 to the President (Blair being then present) that his 
 conservative friend, Governor Curtin, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, desired the President to know that if the 
 Rockville speech of Postmaster-Greneral Blair had 
 been made thirty days earlier, it would have lost 
 the Union ticket in Pennsylvania twenty thousand 
 votes. To Blair Forney also expressed his aston- 
 ishment that he, a cabinet of&cer, should have had 
 the hardihood to utter such sentiments in public 
 just on the eve of important elections in other 
 States. Blair responded that whatever Forney 
 might think of the matter, he had only spoken his 
 honest sentiments at Eockville. " Then," said the 
 angry Forney, turning upon Blair, " why don't you 
 leave the cabinet, and not load down with your in- 
 dividual and peculiar sentiments the administra- 
 tion to which you belong 1 " The President sat by, 
 a silent spectator of this singular and unexpected 
 scene. 
 
 Colonel Forney gave me an account of this affair, 
 and probably other newspaper correspondents had 
 it from the same source. Among these, Whitelaw 
 Reid published an account of the interview which 
 was widely copied and commented upon. There- 
 upon the Washington correspondent of the " New 
 York Herald," on the authority of Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral Blair, denied that Colonel Forney had ever used 
 to him, in the presence of Mr. Lincoln, the lan- 
 guage attributed to him in the reports of that in- 
 terview. I went to the President with the story 
 as it was printed ; and, having looked through the 
 clipping, he said that he " guessed it was about cor- 
 
136 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 rect." The incident is told here as a good example 
 of the difficulties that Lincoln had with his own 
 friends, and of the bitterness that divided some 
 of them from each other. Nobody ever doubted 
 Blair's devotion and loyalty to Lincoln; and cer- 
 tainly Forney never for a moment considered any 
 man fit to take Lincoln's place, and heartily and 
 enthusiastically supported his renomination. Yet 
 these two men, Forney and Blair, could not meet 
 on amicable terms. 
 
 In February, 1864, the long-vexed political com- 
 plication came to a head iu the appearance of the 
 famous " secret circular " in which Senator Pome- 
 roy, of Kansas, frankly proposed the nomination of 
 Mr. Chase for the presidency. This circular was 
 marked "strictly private," and gave to Pomeroy, 
 whose initals were S. C, the nickname of " Secret 
 Circular Pomeroy." At this late day it is hardly 
 worth while to recall anything in that document 
 but its main propositions. These were that the 
 renomination of Lincoln was not only undesirable 
 but impossible ; that the honor of the nation and 
 the cause of liberty and union would suffer in con- 
 sequence of his reelection; that the "one-term 
 principle " was essential to the safety of republican 
 institutions ; that Salmon P. Chase had more of the 
 qualities needed iu a president at that critical time 
 than any other man; and that the discussion of 
 Chase's availability had surprised his warmest ad- 
 mirers by the development of his strength. It is 
 one of the cui-iosities of the time that this queer 
 document, which was in the hands of nearly every 
 newspaper man and politician in Washington, did 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 137 
 
 not find its way into the public prints until several 
 days after its private circulation began. Finally, 
 on Washington's Birthday, its appeai'ance in the 
 "National Intelligencer" greatly excited the quid- 
 nuncs, although nearly everybody was already 
 familiar with its contents. It was not until March 
 10, however, that Pomeroy took public notice of 
 the commotion which his fulmination had aroused. 
 He was evidently pleased with his sudden noto- 
 riety. But by that time it had become clearly 
 manifest that Mr. Chase could not possibly be nom- 
 inated. The Unionists of his own State had de- 
 clared in favor of Lincoln; and on the day after 
 that declaration was made, Pomeroy rose in his 
 place in the Senate and attempted to justify his 
 foolish circular; a letter was then printed from 
 Mr. Chase withdrawing his name from the politi- 
 cal canvass. Pomeroy, who was an unctuous and 
 sleek man, with a rosy countenance and a suave 
 manner, told the senators that he was the author 
 of the now famous circular, but that some person 
 whom he did not name had appended to it the in- 
 dorsement " strictly private," in order, as he said, 
 to give it a wider circulation. He exulted in the 
 fact that he was chairman of a respectable associa- 
 tion, with widely ramifying branches all over the 
 country, whose object was to secure the election of 
 "an efficient and radical candidate for the presi- 
 dency in opposition to the time-serving policy of the 
 day." He said that Mr. Chase " had been drafted 
 into the service " of that organization ; and that 
 while he (Pomeroy) should not be considered as 
 making war upon the present administration, he 
 
138 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 must insist that no executive could long sustain it- 
 self unless it had strong party affiliations to uphold 
 it in Congress and in the country. 
 
 It was inevitable that the Missouri quarrel should 
 be dragged into the discussion. Senator Wilkin- 
 son, of Minnesota, who replied to Pomeroy, taunted 
 him with gross inconsistency in putting himself for- 
 ward as a champion of radicalism, while, at the 
 same time, he was exerting himself in. the Senate to 
 secure the confirmation of General Schofield, whose 
 supporters were the conservatives of the party. 
 The incident naturally attracted interested atten- 
 tion in both houses of Congress ; and while Wil- 
 kinson, who was by no means a keen debater, was 
 tantalizing Pomeroy, members came flocking over 
 from the other end of the capitol, crowding the Sen- 
 ate-chamber to hear with amusement the parent of 
 the now famous circular defend his action while he 
 avowed its paternity. It was a desperate attempt 
 to make the best of a failing cause. But it was of 
 no avail. The tide of public opinion had set too 
 strongly in the du-ection of Lincoln for any such 
 feeble efforts as those of Pomeroy, Edmunds, Win- 
 chell, and their comrades to withstand the cm-rent 
 any longer. That was a time of dramatic political 
 sensations. The coincident appearance of Chase's 
 letter, taking his name out of the list of possible 
 presidential candidates, and Senator Pomeroy's 
 lame endeavor to give weight and reasonableness 
 to the secret circular, were among the excitements 
 of the day; but, although Mr. Chase's withdrawal, 
 and the ignominious collapse of the scheme in 
 whose interest the circular had been prepared, de- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 139 
 
 prived tlie radical disorganizers of even the sem- 
 blance of a leader and a head, it was not until the 
 Union Eepnblican Convention of 1864 had renomi- 
 nated Lincoln that the restless and querulous op- 
 position to his call to a second term was finally 
 silenced. It is possible that this brief recital of the 
 political events that preceded Lincoln's second elec- 
 tion may suggest to politicians of this later day 
 the ineffectiveness of merely factious tactics and 
 schemes. 
 
 ENTER LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT 
 
 It is interesting to call to mind some of the forces 
 which made Grant the general-in-chief of the armies 
 of the United States, and some of the incidents that 
 attended the consummation of that historic work. 
 It was by no means a grateful task for the congress- 
 men of that time to lend a hand in creating the grade 
 of lieutenant-general in the army, although there 
 was no question as to the man on whom the dis- 
 tinction should be conferred. I doubt very much 
 if the bill to revive the grade of lieutenant-general 
 would have then gone through Congress if it had 
 not been for the general dissatisfaction with G-en- 
 eral HaUeck, who was acting as general-in-chief 
 with headquarters at Washington. This dissatis- 
 faction was constantly increasing, and although the 
 country at large did not seem to be keenly alive to 
 Halleck's inadequacy to the situation, Washington, 
 and especially the chambers of Congress, resounded 
 with complaints of his sluggishness, his unwilling- 
 ness to take responsibilities, and his supposed in- 
 
140 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 capacity to grasp the whole military situation. I 
 doubt if the most outspoken and malignant Cop- 
 perhead in Congress was so disliked, so railed 
 against, and so reviled by the more radical mem- 
 bers as this unfortunate general-in-chief. The be- 
 lief that some new man, no matter who he might 
 be, could vigorously prosecute the war and bring a 
 speedy peace, if he were in Halleck's place, made 
 possible the passage of the bill reviving the rank of 
 lieutenant-general of the army. Oddly enough, men 
 who complained that the President clung tena- 
 ciously to Greneral Halleck as his military adviser 
 never doubted for a moment that Mr. Lincoln was 
 more than willing that the rank should be revived 
 with the distinct understanding that Grant should 
 be the wearer of the title, and by virtue thereof be- 
 come at once the generalissimo of all the military 
 forces of the United States. 
 
 That the President did cling to Halleck in spite 
 of the very general popular disfavor with which the 
 general was regarded is well known. When I ven- 
 tured, one day, to say to the President that Halleck 
 was disliked because many people supposed that he 
 was too timid and hesitating iia his military conduct, 
 Mr. Lincoln's face at once wore a grave, almost se- 
 vere expression, as he said that he was Halleck's 
 friend because nobody else was. Other men had 
 received from the President a somewhat similar im- 
 pression ; and whatever may have been thought of 
 the very remote possibility that any other man than 
 General Grant woiald be called to the head of the 
 armies, congressmen who were clamorous for a more 
 vigorous prosecution of the war were eagerly turn- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 141 
 
 ing to the " lieutenant-general bill," as it was called, 
 as the readiest way to be rid of General Halleek's 
 alleged slowness. 
 
 This fact was brought out in the debate in the 
 House when the measure was under consideration. 
 With that free-and-easy frankness which so distin- 
 guished the House from the Senate, as it was then 
 constituted, the representatives did not hesitate to 
 fling about a great many personalities while they 
 discussed the expediency of reviving the grade of 
 lieutenant-general. When the bill came up for its 
 final passage on February 1, 1864, E. B. Wash- 
 burne, who had the measure in charge, distin- 
 guished himself by the energy and impatience 
 with which he fairly bulldozed the House into its 
 immediate consideration. He ramped and roared, 
 expostulated and threatened, until he wrought him- 
 self into a state of quivering excitement. Wash- 
 burne had been from the very first an enthusiastic 
 believer in Grrant's great military genius, and this 
 was not only his supreme effort to place on high 
 the object of his love and idolatry, but, as he be- 
 lieved, to save the republic from years of wasteful 
 war. It is entertaining now to recall the attitude 
 of some of the conspicuous congressmen who op- 
 posed or supported the bill. Grant, it should be 
 remembered, was at that time by no means the 
 popular favorite that he very soon after became, 
 although his wonderful series of successes in the 
 Southwest had even then made him the cynosure 
 of all eyes. 
 
 Garfield, of Ohio, who had fought under Grant, 
 and was now a member of the House Military Com- 
 
142 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 mittee, opposed the bill on the ground that the rank 
 was not needed, and that the President and the 
 War Department already had the power to detail 
 any major-general to perform the functions with 
 which a lieutenant-general would be intrusted. He 
 said that if the proposed rank was to be conferred 
 as a reward of merit, it would be better to wait 
 until the war was over, and not seize upon an im- 
 mature reputation as worthy of so great a reward. 
 He said that if this rank had been created two 
 years before, probably one of the several generals 
 now shelved or retu-ed would have been honored 
 with it, and the country be thereby now mortified. 
 Grarfleld was one of the first who frankly said in 
 debate that General Grant would probably be 
 nominated lieutenant-general if the bill became 
 law; and he added that the country could not 
 spare Grant from the great work he was doing in 
 the West to transform him into " a bureau ofl&ce in 
 Washington." But, in view of the political influ- 
 ences that would be at work, he (Garfield) was not 
 so sure that Grant would be the man after all. 
 
 Another member of the Military Committee — 
 General Farusworth of Illinois — favored the biU 
 because General Grant was "no carpet-knight," 
 but would command the armies in person, " not in 
 a richly furnished Brussels-carpeted chamber in 
 Washington," after the manner of some com- 
 manders-in-chief. This hit at Halleck was greatly 
 enjoyed by the galleries, and a general laugh rip- 
 pled over the surface of the House. General Rob- 
 ert C. Schenek, who was chairman of the House 
 Military Committee, supported the bill not because 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 143 
 
 he believed. General Grrant was tlie man to fill it, 
 but because be believed in the principle that a mili- 
 tary man sbould be at the head of the army and 
 direct all operations in the field. 
 
 Washburne fretted and fumed when sundry mem- 
 bers rose with amendments of various kinds ; and 
 there was every indication — the previous question 
 not having been seconded — that the whole subject 
 must go over for another day. " Thad " Stevens 
 made a little speech in which he said, as Garfield had 
 said, that he did not see the use of the proposed 
 measure, because the President already had power 
 to appoint a general-in-chief He also objected to 
 the bill because it restricted the President to the 
 choice of a lieutenant-general from a small number 
 of major-generals. " Why not allow military men 
 of less note to have equal footing in the proposed 
 race for the great prize ? And why not even choose 
 from citizens, some of w;hom are worth more than 
 many major-generals, as military men ? Saints are 
 not canonized until after death," he said, " and the 
 gi'eatest of reputations is not secure until the pos- 
 sessor has rested from his labors." Stevens said 
 he had been amused to hear some of the members 
 speak as though it was certain that General Grant 
 would be the honored recipient of the prize ; but he 
 was not so certain of that. Judging from the te- 
 nacity with which the President held on to Halleck, 
 he thought the present general-in-chief might be 
 the lucky man. 
 
 Washburne attempted to close the debate; he said 
 he believed the war would not be ended until Grant 
 was placed in supreme command. In reply to mur- 
 
144 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 murs from the members lie shouted : " I can't wait , 
 I want this now. Glrant must fight out this war, 
 and he will never leave the field ! " Washburne's 
 patience fairly broke down when Whaley of West 
 Virginia wanted to know if the conferring of this 
 rank upon G-rant would make that general ineligi- 
 ble for the presidency. Washburne bounced up, 
 white with rage, and charged that the House was 
 afraid to call for the previous question, as members 
 would have to go upon the record in this matter ; 
 and he darkly hinted of another record to be made 
 up thereafter which they could not dodge. To Bout- 
 well of Massachusetts, who offered some opposition 
 to the bill, "Washburne retorted that New England 
 was showing her sectional feeling in the matter be- 
 cause G-rant was a Western man. Amid great heat 
 and considerable excitement, the bill was finally 
 passed by a vote of eighty-six to forty-one. Among 
 the Eepublicans who voted against the bill were 
 Ashley of Ohio, Boutwell of Massachusetts, Broom- 
 all of Pennsylvania, Henry Winter Davis, Garfield, 
 G. W. Julian of Indiana, WUliam D. Kelley of Penn- 
 sylvania, Thaddeus Stevens, and William B.Wash- 
 burn of Massachusetts. The bill passed the Senate 
 without much debate on February 26, and three 
 days later it was approved by the President. 
 
 If there was any doubt as to the popularity of 
 Grant in Washington (and he was disposed to re- 
 gard that city as a place of snares), the arrival of 
 the newly-created lieutenant-general effectually dis- 
 sipated it. He had been called to the capital, and 
 arrived there late iu the afternoon of March 8, 1864. 
 He quietly went to Willard's Hotel to get his din- 
 
"WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 145 
 
 ner. At that time he was a rather sHghtlj^ built 
 man, with stooping shoulders, mild blue eyes, and 
 light-brown hair, with a reddish tinge in his brist- 
 ling mustache. He had a shy but manly bearing, 
 wore a shabby-looking military suit of clothes, and 
 seemed distressed when he was recognized by the 
 mob of diners. He had been discovered there tak- 
 ing his dinner just like ordinary mortals ; and it 
 was noised about that the hero of Belmont, Donel- 
 son, and Vicksburg was in the room. A slight com- 
 motion presently spread from table to table ; people 
 got up and craned their necks in an anxious en- 
 deavor to see " the coming man." Then some en- 
 thusiastic admirer, mounting a chair, called for 
 " three cheers for Lieutenant-Greneral Grant." They 
 were given with a will, amid a pounding on the 
 tables which made everything dance. For a few 
 minutes there was a scene of wild confusion, in the 
 midst of which Gleneral Grant, looking very much 
 astonished and perhaps annoyed, rose to his feet, 
 awkwardly rubbed his mustache with his napkin, 
 bowed, and resumed his seat and attempted to fin- 
 ish his dinner. The good sense of the cheering pa- 
 triots prevailed, and the general was allowed to eat 
 in peace. But as soon as he had finished his repast, 
 and was on his way out of the dining-room, he was 
 taken in hand by Representative Moorhead of Penn- 
 sylvania, who acted as master of ceremonies, and 
 introduced to the general the mob of admirers who 
 now swooped down upon him. This was his first 
 levee. 
 
 That evening, as it chanced, was the occasion of 
 the usual weekly reception at the White House, and 
 
146 WASHINGTON IN I-INCOLN'S TIME 
 
 thither General Grant went by special invitation. 
 Thither too went throngs of people when it was 
 known that he would be on view with the President. 
 So great was the crowd, and so wild the rush to get 
 near the general, that he was obliged at last to mount 
 a sofa, where he could be seen, and where he was se- 
 cure, at least for a time, from the madness of the 
 multitude. People were caught up and whirled in 
 the torrent which swept through the great East 
 Room. Ladies suffered dire disaster in the crush 
 and confusion ; their laces were torn and crinolines 
 mashed ; and many got upon sofas, chairs, and ta- 
 bles to be out of harm's way or to get a better view 
 of the spectacle. It was the only real mob I ever 
 saw in the White House. It was an indescribable 
 scene of cuiiosity, joy, and pleasure. For once at 
 least the President of the United States was not the 
 chief figure in the picture. The little, scared-look- 
 ing man who stood on a crimson-covered sofa was 
 the idol of the hour. He remained on ^dew for a 
 short time ; then he was quietly smuggled out by 
 friendly hands, and next day departed from the 
 city, which he then appeared to dread so much, to 
 begin the last and mightiest chapter in his military 
 career. 
 
 It is probable that Grant's early dislike and sus- 
 picion of Washington and its alleged pernicious 
 political influences were partly due to Sherman's 
 positive belief that the national capital was a hot- 
 bed of intrigue and chicane. I learned as much 
 from the general's own lips long after the war, and 
 after his two terms of the presidency had given him 
 other views of the city and its influence in public 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 147 
 
 affairs. Sherman repeatedly warned Grant against 
 what he considered its baleful moral miasma. Dur- 
 ing the summer succeeding his appointment as 
 lieutenant-general, Grant did not come often to 
 Washington, although his headquarters were for 
 most of the time within a day's journey of the capi- 
 tal. Later in that year, armed with a letter of in- 
 troduction from the President, I met him at City 
 Point, while I was on a visit to the Army of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 At that time his headquarters were at City Point. 
 On one side of his wall-tent stood the great com- 
 mander's narrow bedstead ; and a rude pine-table 
 covered with maps and papers, two or three camp- 
 chairs, a military chest, and a box or two, made up 
 the fm-niture of the headquarters of Grant. The 
 cares of the day were over when we paid our visit, 
 and the general began an easy, offhand talk about 
 politics and the then late elections, which he con- 
 sidered as being of immense importance because, 
 as he said, the political legislation of Congress was 
 now so closely allied to the prosecution of the war 
 that every officer watched its course with the deep- 
 est anxiety. He spoke pleasantly of McClellan, was 
 sorry for his personal mortification and defeat for 
 the presidency, and said that he hoped that McClel- 
 lan would see his way clear to accept the handsome 
 salary that it was then reported had been offered 
 him by the Illinois Central Eailroad Company. 
 Grant was evidently very well informed as to the 
 antecedents and political record of nearly all of the 
 congressmen, especially those from the West ; and 
 he spoke with evident pride of his own congressional 
 
148 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 district (Washburne's) in Illinois, wliich had lately- 
 given nine thousand majority for the Union ticket. 
 Offering ns cigars, he alluded jocularly to his na- 
 tional notoriety for smoking, and said that this had 
 made him somewhat uncomfortable, as he did not 
 want to be regarded as greatly addicted to any one 
 personal habit, and that he had lately limited him- 
 self to four cigars a day. One of our party, who did 
 not perhaps know that information as to the nu- 
 merical force of an army was regarded as " contra- 
 band of war," innocently asked Oeneral Grant how 
 many men he had in the Army of the Potomac, to 
 which the general frankly responded, " Oh, a great 
 many," an observation which closed inquiry in that 
 direction. 
 
 Grrant's famous expression, " I propose to fight it 
 out on this line, if it takes all summer," was first 
 made public in a little speech extorted from the 
 President a few days after the final battle of the 
 Wilderness. The general, in a letter to General 
 Halleck dated May 11, 1864, had used the now his- 
 toric phrase ; and in the evening of the day on 
 which that letter was received Washington had 
 broken loose with a tremendous demonstration of 
 joy over the recent Aictories achieved by the Army 
 of the Potomac. There was something like delir- 
 ium in the air. Everybody seemed to think that 
 the war was coming to an end right away. Con- 
 gress was in nominal session only, an adjournment 
 being taken every three days, and the city was still 
 filled with congressmen anxious "to be in at the 
 death," as they fondly thought they soon would be. 
 
 About nine o'clock on the evening referred to a 
 great crowd of cheering citizens surged around the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 149 
 
 White House, and the President came to the main 
 door of the mansion, and stood bareheaded on the 
 platform of the portico. He congratulated the peo- 
 ple on the brighter prospects of the cause of the 
 Union, and gave them the pith of General Grrant's 
 latest letter to HaUeck. For a time it appeared as 
 if most people thought that Grant would close the 
 war and enter Eichmond before the autumn leaves 
 began to fall. Yet it was a full month after that 
 day — on June 14 — that the President, regretfully 
 viewing the unreasonable elation of friends of the 
 Union, said to me : " I wish, when you write or 
 speak to people, you would do aU you can to cor- 
 rect the impression that the war in Virginia wiU 
 end right off and victoriously. To me the most 
 trying thing of all this war is that the people are 
 too sanguine ; they expect too much at once. I de- 
 clare to you, sir, that we are to-day farther ahead 
 than I thought, one year and a half ago, that we 
 should be ; and yet there are plenty of people who 
 believe that the war is about to be substantially 
 closed. As God is my judge, I shall be satisfied if 
 we are over with the fight in Virginia within a year. 
 I hope we shall be ' happily disappointed,' as the 
 saying is ; but I am afraid not — I am afraid not." 
 The solemn manner of the President, and the 
 weightiness of his utterance, so impressed me that 
 I drew toward me a sheet of paper and wrote down 
 his words then and there. Then I read to him what 
 I had written, in order that I might be sure that 
 he was correctly reported. He suggested a verbal 
 change, and I carried the paper away with me. 
 At that time the art of interviewing had not been 
 invented. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 TWO WAK-TIME CONVENTIONS 
 
 LINCOLN'S SECOND NOMINATION — CONTENTION OVEE 
 KECONSTEUCTION PLANS — THE DAEK DATS OF 1864 — 
 McCLELLAN'S nomination at CHICAGO — CHASE ON 
 THE SUPKEME BENCH 
 
 POLITICAL discussion in Washington during 
 the months immediately preceding the second 
 nomination of Lincoln was exceedingly animated. 
 Although, as we afterward found, the country at 
 large really thought of no name but Lincoln's, 
 Washington politicians were all agog over a va- 
 riety of compromises that would placate the ultra- 
 radicals of the Republican party, and keep in line 
 the conservatives. Fremont had been nominated 
 at a hybrid convention in Cleveland, Ohio; and 
 the enemies and unfriendly critics of the Lincoln 
 administration were predicting all sorts of disas- 
 ters, political and military, if the President were 
 "forced upon the people." The commonest fore- 
 cast of the situation made by these pessimists was 
 that if the military movements of 1864 were suc- 
 cessful. Grant would be the next president; if they 
 were unsuccessful, neither Grant nor Lincoln could 
 be elected that year. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 151 
 
 The Democrats, on the other hand, were irrecon- 
 cilably divided. Although they were noticeably 
 quiet during the weeks preceding the assembling of 
 the Union Republican National Convention at Bal- 
 timore that summer, it was clear that the " Peace " 
 and " War " factions of the party could not possibly 
 be made to harmonize. The two hostile camps oc- 
 casionally fired a shot at each other even in the in- 
 frequent sittings of Congress. S. S. Cox was one 
 of the more talkative and vivacious representatives 
 who led the War Democrats pledged to the cause 
 of McCleUan, and Fernando Wood was the acknow- 
 ledged leader in Congress of the Peace faction, 
 whose affections were fixed on Horatio Seymour. 
 
 The night before the meeting of the Baltimore 
 Convention I had a long conversation with the 
 President in regard to the probable action of that 
 body. He requested me to come to him when I 
 should return from Baltimore, and bring him the 
 odd bits of political gossip that I might pick up in 
 the convention, and which, as he said, would not 
 get into the newspapers. I had hoped to see Mr. 
 Hamlin renominated, and had anxiously given Mr. 
 Lincoln many opportunities to say whether he pre- 
 f eiTed the renomination of the Vice-President ; but 
 he was craftily and rigidly non-committal, knowing, 
 as he did, what was in my mind concerning Mr. 
 Hamlin. He would refer to the matter only in the 
 vaguest phrase, as, "Mr. Hamlin is a very good 
 man," or, "You, being a New Englander, would 
 naturally like to see Mr. Hamlin renominated ; and 
 you are quite right," and so on. By this time Lin- 
 coln's renomination was an absolute certainty, and 
 
152 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 he cheerfully conceded that point without any false 
 modesty. But he could not be induced to express 
 any opinion on the subject of the selection of a 
 candidate for vice-president. He did go so far 
 as to say that he hoped that the convention would 
 declare in favor of the constitutional amendment 
 abohshing slavery as one of the articles of the party 
 faith. But beyond that, nothing. 
 
 I may say here that when I returned from the 
 convention I made a verbal report to the President, 
 and entertained him with an account of some of its 
 doings of which he had not previously heard ; and 
 he was then wUling to admit that he would have 
 been gratified if Mr. Hamlin could have been re- 
 nominated. But he said : " Some of our folks [re- 
 ferring, as I believed, to Republican leaders] had 
 expressed the opinion that it would be wise to take 
 a War Democrat as candidate for vice-president, 
 and that, if possible, a border-State man should be 
 the nominee." Mr. Lincoln appeared to have ac- 
 cepted the result, saying, " Andy Johnson, I think, 
 is a good man." Nevertheless, I have always been 
 confident that LLacoln, left to himself, would have 
 chosen that the old ticket of 1860 — Lincoln and 
 Hamlin — should be placed in the fi.eld. It is rea- 
 sonable to suppose that he had resolved to leave 
 the convention entirely free in its choice of a can- 
 didate for the second place on the ticket. 
 
 The convention which assembled in Baltimore 
 June 6, 1864, was not fortunate in its presiding offi- 
 cers. Ex-Governor E. D. Morgan of New York, as 
 chairman of the National Committee, called the 
 convention to order, but did not long remain in 
 
WASHINGTON DT LINCOLN'S TIME 153 
 
 the chair, for which he had no raarked aptitude. 
 The temporary chairman was the Rev. R. J. Breck- 
 inridge, of Kentucky ; he had a weak voice and an 
 irresolute manner, and though he made a clear and 
 logical speech on taking the chair, and was received 
 with a whirlwind of the most boisterous applause, 
 he was unable to make himself heard when the 
 business of organization began, and the vast crowd 
 that filled the Front Street Theater was unruly and 
 restive under renewed delays. When the States 
 were called upon to present the names of their dele- 
 gates, Missouri appeared, as usual, with rival dele- 
 gations. Another bone of contention was the claim 
 of Tennessee, then in an inchoate condition, to be 
 admitted to participation in the doings of the con- 
 vention. Horace Maynard made a stirring speech 
 in which he plaintively urged that " long-suifering 
 and much-enduring Tennessee be admitted to this 
 national council." The temper of the convention 
 was readily manifest when the radical delegation 
 from Missouri and the Tennessee petitioners were 
 both admitted to seats in the convention. The 
 cheering that greeted the consummation of these 
 two acts was something tremendous. It was evi- 
 dent that the Missouri radicals, after all, had a 
 strong hold upon the delegates who represented 
 the loyal States in the Union. But it was noted 
 with some degree of acrimony that when the claims 
 of Tennessee came up for consideration, the Mis- 
 sourians, who had only just squeezed in, were solidly 
 against allowing Tennessee that recognition which 
 they had secured for themselves. It was perhaps 
 this evidence of selfishness that induced the con- 
 
154 WASHINaTON IN LINCOIiN'S TIME 
 
 vention subsequently to admit also the conservative 
 delegation from Missouri, thus giving both sides 
 equal rights on the floor. As the persecuted State 
 of Tennessee finally had permission to cast her fif- 
 teen votes in the convention, this was regarded as 
 a marked indication of the preference of the con- 
 vention for Andrew Johnson for vice-president. 
 New England, preferring Hamlin, had naturally 
 voted against the admission of the Tennessee dele- 
 gation. Later on it was seen that Missouri well- 
 nigh prevented the final action of the convention 
 from being unanimous. Of the other Southern 
 States then in rebellion, South Carolina, Florida, 
 Virginia, Louisiana, and Arkansas sent delegates 
 to the convention ; but as South Carolina, Florida, 
 and Virginia had not taken any steps whatever to- 
 ward reviving a State government, their delegates 
 were not admitted ; those of Louisiana and Arkan- 
 sas, however, by a vote substantially identical with 
 that which opened the door for Tennessee, ob- 
 tained recognition in the convention. 
 
 The permanent chairman of the convention was 
 Ex-Governor Dennison of Ohio. He made a short 
 speech, but he was not a vigorous or cool-headed 
 presiding of&cer. Whenever a wave of excitement 
 produced confusion in the convention, the chairman 
 apparently lost his head, and showed inability to 
 control the storm ; and many a storm there was be- 
 fore the convention finished its business. But the 
 most terrific contests were made when sundry well- 
 meaning persons were almost ready to fly at one 
 another's throats in their anxiety to have the honor 
 of nominating Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 155 
 
 As one sat on the platform, looking over the tem- 
 pest-tossed assemblage, watching with amusement 
 the frantic efforts of a score of men to climb over 
 one another's heads, as it were, and snatch for them- 
 selves this inestimable privilege, one could not help 
 thinking of the frequently repeated assertion of cer- 
 tain small politicians that Lincoln could not possi- 
 bly be nominated by that convention. The most 
 conspicuous claimants for the honor of naming Lin- 
 coln were Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Gov- 
 ernor Stone of Iowa, B. C. Cook of Illinois, and 
 Thompson Campbell of California. The last-named 
 gentleman, who had known Lincoln intimately dur- 
 ing his young manhood in Springfield, Ulinois, was 
 especially desirous that he might be permitted to 
 speak for Illinois, California, and his own native 
 State — Kentucky. This had been virtually agreed 
 upon, but before he could secure the floor, Simon 
 Cameron got in ahead of him, and sent up to the 
 clerk's desk a written resolution which he demanded 
 should be read. When the clerk opened the paper 
 and read its contents, it was found that the resolu- 
 tion demanded the renomination of Abraham Lin- 
 coln of Illinois and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. No 
 sooner had the clerk finished reading the resolution 
 than a frightful clamor shook the hall. Almost 
 every delegate was on his feet objecting or hurrah- 
 ing, or in other ways making his emotions and his 
 wishes known in stentorian tones. For a few min- 
 utes pandemonium reigned, and in the midst of it 
 Cameron stood with his arms folded, grimly smiling, 
 regarding with composure the storm that he had 
 raised. After the turmoil had spent itself, Henry 
 
156 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 J. Eaymond, of New York, in an incisive, clear-cut 
 speech, advocated making nominations by a call of 
 States. He urged that as entire unanimity in the 
 choice of the presidential candidate was expected, 
 the moral effect would be better if no noisy accla- 
 mation were made, which would give slanderers an 
 opportunity to say that the nomination was rushed 
 through by the overwhelming of all opposition, how- 
 ever small. Before'the applause which followed the 
 adoption of Raymond's resolution had entirely sub- 
 sided, B. C. Cook of Illinois mounted a settee and 
 cried : " Illinois once more presents to the nation the 
 name of Abraham Lincoln — God bless him ! " An- 
 other roar of applause swept through the theater, 
 and Stone of Iowa succeeded in gaining his point by 
 seconding Cook's nomination; but Thompson Camp- 
 bell of California, who had been unfairly deprived 
 of his coveted privilege of making the nomination, 
 leaped upon a settee and addressed the chair. He 
 was constantly interrupted with catcalls and cries of 
 "No speeches," " Get down," "Dry up," and " CaU 
 the roll," etc. In the midst of the confusion, how- 
 ever, Campbell, who was a taU, spare man with a 
 saturnine visage and tremendous lung power, kept 
 on speaking in dumb show, wildly gesticulating, not 
 a word of his speech being audible. Campbell was 
 evidently beside himself with rage and disappoint- 
 ment ; but those nearest him finally succeeded in 
 coaxing him off his perch, and he sat down sullen 
 with anger. 
 
 That was a business convention, and when the 
 roll-call began, Maine simply announced its sixteen 
 votes for Abraham Lincoln. New Hampshire, com- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 157 
 
 ing next, attempted to ring in a little speech with 
 its vote, but was summarily choked off with cries 
 of " No speeches," and the call proceeded in an or- 
 derly manner, no delegation venturing to make any 
 other announcement than that of its vote. The con- 
 vention struck a snag when Missouri was reached, 
 and the chairman of the united delegations made a 
 brief speech in which he said that the radical dele- 
 gation was under positive instructions to cast its 
 twenty-two votes for U. S. Grrant ; that he and his 
 associates would support any nominee of the con- 
 vention, but they must obey orders from home. 
 This caused a sensation, and growls of disapproval 
 arose from all parts of the convention ; for it was 
 evident that this unfortunate complication might 
 prevent a unanimous vote for Lincoln. The Mis- 
 souri radical delegates, it should be understood, had 
 been chosen many weeks before the nomination of 
 Lincoln became inevitable. There never was any 
 recall of the instructions given at a time when it 
 was apparently among the possibilities that another 
 than Lincoln might be the nominee of the National 
 Convention. When the clerk of the convention an- 
 nounced the result of the roll-caU, it was found that 
 Abraham Lincoln had 507 votes and U. S. Grant 22 
 votes. Thereupon Mr. Hume, chairman of the Mis- 
 souri delegation, immediately moved that the nom- 
 ination be declared unanimous. This was done. 
 Straightway the long-pent-up enthusiasm burst 
 forth in a scene of the wildest confusion. Men hur- 
 rahed, embraced one another, threw up their hats, 
 danced in the aisles or on the platform, jumped on 
 the benches, waved flags, yeUed, and committed 
 
158 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 every possible extravagance to demonstrate the exu- 
 berance of their joy. One of the most comical sights 
 which I beheld was that of Horace Maynard and 
 Henry J. Eaymond alternately hugging each other 
 and shaking hands, apparently unable to utter a 
 word, so full of emotion were they. And when the 
 big brass band burst out with " Hail, Columbia ! " 
 the racket was so intolerable that I involuntarily 
 looked up to see if the roof of the theater were not 
 lifted by the volume of sound. When quiet was re- 
 stored, and other business was about to be resumed, 
 the band again struck up " Yankee Doodle " in its 
 liveliest manner, and another torrent of enthusiasm 
 broke forth ; and it was a long time before the 
 excited and jubilant assemblage could be quieted 
 down and order restored. In those days the mere 
 sight of the American flag, or the sound of a na- 
 tional melody, would stir an assembly to fever-heat. 
 The chairman caused to be read a despatch ad- 
 dressed to him by the Secretary of War, giving a 
 favorable account of the military situation, and 
 news of Hunter's victory in the Shenandoah Yalley, 
 all of which was received with applause. There- 
 upon the Rev. T. H. Pearue, of Oregon, read a des- 
 patch from his State announcing the result of the 
 general election there on the previous day, which was 
 a Union victory. The eheei-ing again bm-st forth, 
 and for a time it looked as though no other business 
 but making announcements and "bursting into ap- 
 plause" would be done that day. But the con- 
 vention finally got down to work, and when the 
 Indiana delegates presented the name of Andrew 
 Johnson for vice-president, Stone, of Iowa, seconded 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 159 
 
 the nominatiori, and Horace Maynard made a little 
 speech in favor of the same. Simon Cameron nom- 
 inated Hamlin without any speech ; Kentucky pre- 
 sented General Eousseau ; and Lyman Tremaine, 
 in behalf of a portion of the New York delegation, 
 presented the name of Daniel S. Dickinson. The 
 popular demand for a War Democrat had induced 
 some of the New Yorkers to present Dickinson's 
 name ; but it was well known that most of the New 
 York delegates favored Hamlin, and their argument 
 was that if Seward was to remain in the cabinet it 
 could hardly be expected that a New Yorker would 
 be made vice-president. There was much button- 
 holing and wire-pulling while the vote was being 
 taken, and before it was officially announced : but 
 of the 520 votes cast Andrew Johnson had 202, Han- 
 nibal Hamlin 150, Daniel S. Dickinson 109, Benja- 
 min F. Butler 28, and 31 votes were scattering ; so 
 there was no choice. As Johnson was considerably 
 in the lead of all other candidates, his nomination 
 was made certain by Kentucky, which, having paid 
 its compliments to General Rousseau, threw its 
 twenty-two votes for Andrew Johnson, with much 
 empressement on the part of the spokesman of the 
 delegation". Oregon, having given its five votes to 
 Schuyler Colfax, followed the lead of Kentucky. 
 Then Pennsylvania, amid the greatest excitement 
 of that episode of the convention, threw a solid vote 
 of fifty-two for the Tennesseean, and Andrew John- 
 son was declared the nominee of the convention, 
 applause, cheering, and much enthusiasm greeting 
 the final announcement. 
 The next evening, when I called on the President 
 
160 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 at home, I was astonislied by his jokingly rallying 
 me on my failure to send him word of his nomina- 
 tion. It appeared that nobody had apparently 
 thought it worth while to telegraph him the result 
 of the balloting for the presidential nominee of the 
 convention. Probably each one of the many men 
 who would have been glad to be the sender of plea- 
 sant tidings to the President had thought that some 
 other man would surely anticipate him by a tele- 
 gram of congratulation. In the confusion that 
 reigned in the convention nobody went to the wares 
 that were led into the building but the alert news- 
 paper men, who thought only of their own business. 
 
 It turned out that the President, having business 
 at the War Department, met Major Eckert, super- 
 intendent of the military bureau of telegraphs, who 
 congratulated him on his nomination. "What! 
 Am I renominated?" asked the surprised chief. 
 When assured that this had been done, Mr. Lincoln 
 expressed his gratification, and asked Major Eckert 
 if he would kindly send word over to the White 
 House when the name of the candidate for vice- 
 president should have been agreed upon. Lincoln, 
 later on, was informed by Major Eckert that John- 
 son had been nominated, and (as the President 
 himself subsequently told me) made an exclamation 
 that emphatically indicated his disappointment 
 thereat. Major Eckert afterward confii-med this 
 statement with a hearty laugh. 
 
 While we were talking over some of the cuidous 
 details of the convention (Lincoln being especially 
 sorry for his friend Thompson Campbell's disap- 
 pointment), a band came to the T^^Iite House, and 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 161 
 
 a messenger brouglit up the information that the 
 members of the Ohio delegation to the Baltimore 
 Convention desired to pay their respects to the 
 President, whereupon he went down to the door, 
 hat in hand, and when the cheering and music had 
 subsided, spoke as follows : 
 
 Gentlemen : I am very much obliged to you for this 
 compliment. I have just been saying, and as I have just 
 said it, I will repeat it : The hardest of all speeches which 
 I have to make is an answer to a serenade. I never know 
 what to say on such occasions. I suppose that you have 
 done me this kindness in connection with the action of 
 the Baltimore Convention which has recently taken place, 
 with which, of course, I am very well satisfied. [Laugh- 
 ter and applause.] What we want still more than Balti- 
 more Conventions or presidential elections is success un- 
 der General Grant. [Cries of " Good ! " and applause.] 
 I propose that you constantly bear in mind that the sup- 
 port you owe to the brave of&cers and soldiers in the 
 field is of the very first importance, and we should bend 
 all our energies to that point. Now, without detaining 
 you any longer, I propose that you help me to close up 
 what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for Gen- 
 eral Grant and the officers and soldiers under his com- 
 mand. 
 
 The President's request was acceded to, and three 
 rousing cheers were given, Lincoln himself leading 
 off, and waving his hat as enthusiastically as any- 
 body else. 
 
 During the afternoon of the same day, the com- 
 mittee appointed by the convention to wait upon 
 the President and notify him of his nomination was 
 received in the East Eoom of the "White House, and 
 
162 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Ex-Governor Dennison of Ohio, president of the 
 convention, made a very good little speech, and 
 presented Lincoln with an engrossed copy of the 
 resolutions adopted by the convention. The Presi- 
 dent appeared to be deeply affected by the address, 
 and with considerable emotion and solemnity ac- 
 cepted the nomination in a short speech, in which 
 he referred to pending propositions of amnesty, 
 and to such an amendment to the Constitution as 
 became a fitting and natural conclusion to the final 
 success of the Union cause. His last words, refer- 
 ring to the amendment to the Constitution abolish- 
 ing slavery, were : " 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 prac- 
 tical effect." 
 
 CONTENTION OVEE EECONSTKUCTION PLANS 
 
 Yet, within a month from that happy and jubi- 
 lant time, everything was once more in confusion 
 in Washington, and the political skies were again 
 darkened by clouds returning after the rain. Be- 
 tween the notable events of the nomination of Lin- 
 coln at Baltimore and of McClellan at Chicago, there 
 intervened the publication of what is known in his- 
 tory as the Wade-Davis manifesto. This incident 
 in the long struggle over Southern reconstruction 
 — a struggle that extended into the administra- 
 tion of Andrew Johnson — was almost inevitable 
 when it is considered that the radicals in Congress 
 were greatly dissatisfied with the outlines of the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 163 
 
 reconstructioii policy of President Lincoln, as these 
 appeared in his message of the previous year (1863). 
 The pivotal point in the discussion then going on 
 was, Are the States lately in rebellion in the Union 
 or out of the Union ? The Republican party was 
 divided on this question, a portion contending that 
 the so-called acts of secession were inoperative -in 
 every respect ; while others, in theory and practice, 
 appeared to assume that those States had been out- 
 side of the Union, and had been conquered and 
 brought back. On such refinements of reasoning 
 a dangerous schism was opened in the party that 
 was expected to support Lincoln in that canvass. 
 
 Senator Sumner was one of those who received 
 the President's message of 1863 with undisguised 
 impatience, and who subsequently found fault with 
 his reconstruction speech made in answer to a ser- 
 enade at the end of the war. Although it has been 
 said that Mr. Sumner was not displeased with that 
 message, it is certain that he expressed himself to 
 his friends with some warmth, descanting on the 
 President's omission to say whether the rebel States 
 were in or out of the Union. While the message 
 was being read, Sumner listened attentively until 
 he saw its drift, and then he apparently withdrew 
 his attention from the reading, and in a boyish and 
 petulant manner slammed his books and docu- 
 ments about his desk and upon the floor, and gen- 
 erally exhibited his ill-temper to an astonished and 
 admiring gallery. Later on in that session a bill 
 was introduced in the House by Henry Winter Da- 
 vis in which were embodied the notions of the rad- 
 ical Eepublicans. In brief, Mr. Lincoln's policy 
 
164 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 was to build up a civil government in each State 
 as soon as military resistance should disappear; 
 and, under tlie authority of military governors to 
 be appointed by Mm, to develop the nucleus of an 
 orderly government, whose powers and authority 
 should be submitted to Congress for recognition. 
 The scheme of Henry Winter Davis and his friends 
 was to provide for the appointment of a provisional 
 governor (a civil officer) in each of the States lately 
 in rebellion, under whose authority a majority of 
 the white male citizens of the State should elect 
 delegates to a convention to reestablish a State gov- 
 ernment. The new constitution which should be 
 adopted by such a convention was to provide three 
 things — exclusion of military and civil officers of 
 the Confederacy, the abolition of slavery, and the 
 total repudiation of all rebel debts. 
 
 This bill was in direct opposition to the well- 
 known plans and opinions of Lincoln, and could 
 not be made to square with his plan of reconstruc- 
 tion, the details of which were already well under- 
 stood. Nevertheless, the measure did not awaken 
 much opposition among the Unionist members of 
 Congress, and was opposed by the Democrats only 
 on general principles. Singularly enough, although 
 Henry Winter Davis had been steadily hostile to 
 every policy favored by Lincoln, nobody seemed to 
 think that this extraordinary scheme would be dis- 
 approved by the President, or that the friends of 
 the administration ought to be shy of any proposi- 
 tion which came from a man who was constantly 
 bristling with hostility to Lincoln's political ideas. 
 Davis was a singularly alert and singularly violent 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 165 
 
 politician. In his speeches advocating the passage 
 of his bill he imputed low motives to the President, 
 and treated his scheme of reconstruction, outlined 
 in the amnesty proclamation and the message of 
 December, 1863, with frank contempt. This was in 
 exact accord with the rash and egotistical course 
 which Davis pursued in regard to any man or any 
 measure that did not receive his full approbation. 
 For example, Assistant-Secretary Fox of the Navy 
 Department had in some way incurred Davis's en- 
 mity, and in one of his diatribes against the alleged 
 inefficiency of the navy, Davis disposed of the fight 
 between the Monitor and the Merrimac as follows : 
 " The Monitor accidentally came into Hampton 
 Eoads as the Merrimac was trying to destroy, as it 
 had already destroyed, some of our vessels. The 
 collision took place ; neither fleet was destroyed ; 
 neither vessel was sunk ; neither party was whipped, 
 as the boys say ; and the country ran wild over two 
 guns in a cheese-box having done anything." Ex- 
 travagances like this injured the reputation of 
 Davis for statesmanship, and should have put the 
 friends of Lincoln on their guard when Davis for- 
 mulated his policy for the reconstruction of the 
 Southern States. Lincoln was unwilling to lay 
 down a hard-and-fast rule to be applied to each 
 State as it should be brought once more into Fed- 
 eral relations with the other States of the Union. 
 Davis's plan contemplated restricting the President 
 to one iron-bound scheme applicable to each and all 
 of the States. His bill, after much speech-making 
 on both sides of the House, went over to the Sen- 
 ate in the summer of 1864. It was almost imme- 
 
166 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 diately passed, but with some amendments; was 
 sent back to the House ; and was ready for the sig- 
 nature of the President just before Congress ad- 
 journed on July 4 of that year. 
 
 The last days of a congressional session are char- 
 acterized by confusion which would turn the head 
 of any one unused to this fantastic turmoU ; and 
 the end of that particular session was unusually 
 noisy and chaotic. Many bills of importance were 
 pitchforked into shape at the last moment, and were 
 tossed between the Senate and the House even to 
 the latest hour of the session. Both branches of 
 Congress had agreed to adjourn at 12 o'clock on 
 July 4; but the Senate, which was inextricably 
 mixed up with important and unfinished business, 
 importuned the House to extend the session ten 
 minutes. This was done three times, so that the 
 final hour of adjournment did not arrive untU half- 
 past twelve o'clock on that day. Gfreat interest 
 was felt in an important bill to amend the Pacific 
 Railroad Act. This bill virtually increased the 
 compensation of the railroad builders, and in other 
 ways enhanced their interests. It was finally 
 dragged through, but two other measures of more 
 importance failed. One of these was Washbume's 
 Whisky Tax Bill, and another was a bill to estab- 
 lish a commission for the purpose of ascertaining 
 the public financial resoiu'ces, and the best means 
 of levying judicious taxation on the same. It was 
 noticeable, however, that notwithstanding the fact 
 that many bills of uatioual import failed to get 
 through, there was no failure of a bill which gave 
 every member of the Thirty-ninth Congress a com- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 167 
 
 plete set of the " Congressional Globe " from the 
 beginning of its publication until the close of that 
 Congress. 
 
 Ten minutes before the hour of adjournment had 
 arrived, pages darted to and fro with messages and 
 bills, and engrossing clerks rushed madly about 
 with sheets of parchment for the signatures of 
 Speaker and clerk. Cabinet ministers were numer- 
 ous on the floor of the House, and lobbyists in the 
 general disorder slipped in through the doors and 
 buttonholed members, while the mill of legislation 
 slowly ground out its last grist. The President 
 was signing bills in the room set apart for his use 
 in the Senate wing of the Capitol, being attended 
 from time to time during the morning by members 
 of his cabinet. As the hands of the clock drew 
 near the fateful hour of adjournment, it was sud- 
 denly whispered about the House that the Presi- 
 dent had so far failed to sign the Wade-Davis Ee- 
 construction Bill. Men held their breath at this 
 unexpected turn of affairs, and asked, "Will he 
 send in a veto message, or will he pocket it ? " It 
 was, of course, too late to think of a veto message, 
 and the general opinion of those who believed that 
 the biU would not receive his sanction was that he 
 would give it a pocket veto. Now for the first time 
 men who had not seriously opposed the passage of 
 the reconstruction bill began to wish that it had 
 never gone to the President; but all was uncer- 
 tainty, and although it was the supreme moment, 
 the reading clerk was droning forth in occasional 
 fragments the Declaration of Independence, which 
 somebody had demanded should be read. Most of 
 
168 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 the members and senators appeared to forget their 
 petty jobs and schemes in the all-absorbing ques- 
 tion, What will the President do with the recon- 
 struction bill? Finally messages from the Senate 
 and from the President informed the House that 
 no further communications were to be expected 
 from them, and Speaker Colfax, in a few pleasant 
 words, dismissed the members to their homes, and 
 declared the session ended. In the disorder which 
 followed, Davis standing at his desk, pale with 
 wrath, his bushy hair tousled, and wildly brandish- 
 ing his arms, denounced the President in good set 
 terms. It was known at last that the bill had failed 
 to receive the President's signature. Congress had 
 adjourned, leaving the great scheme of Wade, 
 Davis, and their colaborers a mass of ruins. 
 
 This event, in the minds of those who were in at 
 the death of that session, looms up more conspicu- 
 ously in the history of that July 4, 1864, than any 
 other that had lately occurred in Washington. I 
 certainly was astonished to hear the bitter denun- 
 ciations heaped upon the head of President Lincoln 
 by some of the radical senators and representa- 
 tives. Pomeroy, of Kansas, was of course exceed- 
 ingly wrathful and sarcastic ; and he went around 
 saying, "I told you so." The Missourians were 
 unexpectedly quiet, and Senator Gratz Brown, who 
 had all along taken a somewhat conservative view 
 of the matter, expressed himself as being well sat- 
 isfied with the ultimate fate of the bill. Among 
 those whom I heard express great disappointment 
 and sharp disapproval of the President's " pocket 
 veto " was Representative Grarfield. But these mal- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 169 
 
 contents soon poured out of the doors of the Capi- 
 tol on all sides, leaving the gilded and decorated 
 halls to loneliness and dusky splendor. They be- 
 took their complaints, their congratulations, their 
 hopes and fears, to their own homes, and the first 
 session of the Thirty-ninth Congress ended in a 
 curious condition of unrest and dissatisfaction. 
 
 Political matters were lost sight of when, very 
 soon after the adjournment of Congress, the capital 
 was threatened by Early on his famous raid ; but 
 the excitement of that brief beleaguering having 
 passed away, the publication of a letter signed by 
 Senator Wade and Representative Davis criticiz- 
 ing the President with severity, again created a 
 lively condition of things in national politics. The 
 letter appeared on August 5. It is needless to re- 
 call the points of that now historic document. Its 
 appearance creat;ed something like a panic in the 
 ranks of the President's supporters. It was the 
 work of two members of his own party. It was at 
 first said that it was written by James A. Garfield, 
 and on the strength of that report his renomina- 
 tion for Congress was subsequently in danger. 
 Garfield, however, although he frankly acknow- 
 ledged that he was in sympathy with the signers 
 of the manifesto, flatly declared that he had no- 
 thing to do with its production. It was generally 
 understood that Henry Winter Davis was the author 
 of the document, and it certainly bore evidence of 
 his well-known skill in the art of putting things. 
 Upon President Lincoln this letter, which was ad- 
 dressed to "the supporters of the Government," 
 had a most depressing effect. Four days after Con- 
 
170 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 gress adjourned he liad issued a proclamation, and 
 had embodied in that document a copy of the Wade- 
 Davis bill as it passed Congress, and had given 
 his reasons for withholding from it his approval. 
 This proclamation had been generally received with 
 every sign of popular satisfaction, and the Wade- 
 Davis manifesto, coming as it did afterward like a 
 thunderbolt out of a clear sky, threw politicians of 
 every stamp into the wildest confusion. The ad- 
 dress imputed to the President the meanest of mo- 
 tives, and insinuated very broadly that his policy 
 of reconstruction was the natural outcome of his 
 intense desire to be reelected. It was this unjust 
 suggestion that cut Lincoln to the heart. A day 
 or two after the Wade-Davis manifesto appeared, 
 Lincoln, in conversation with me, said: "To be 
 wounded in the house of one's friends is perhaps 
 the most grievous afB^iction that can befall a man. 
 I have tried my best to meet the wishes of this man 
 [Davis], and to do my whole duty by the country." 
 Later on in the same conversation, while lamenting 
 with sincere grief the implacable hostility which 
 Henry Winter Davis had manifested, he said that 
 Davis's pride of opinion led him to say and do 
 things of which he (Lincoln) was certain in his own 
 private judgment his (Davis's) conscience could not 
 approve. When I said that it sometimes seemed 
 as though Da\is was mad, Lincoln replied, " I have 
 heard that there was insanity in his family; per- 
 haps we might allow the plea in this ease." It was 
 this attack upon him, apparently so needless and 
 so unprofitable, and so well calculated to disturb the 
 harmony of the Union party, that grieved the Presi- 
 
"WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 171 
 
 dent more than the framing and the passage of the 
 bill; but commenting in his own shrewd way on 
 that bUl, Lincoln said that he had somewhere read 
 of a robber tyrant who had built an iron bedstead 
 on which he compelled his victims to lie. If the 
 captive was too short to fill the bedstead, he was 
 stretched by main force until he was long enough ; 
 and if he was too long, he was chopped off to fit 
 the bedstead. This, Lincoln thought, was the sort 
 of reconstruction which the "Wade-Davis plan con- 
 templated. If any State coming back into Federal 
 relations did not fit the "Wade-Davis bedstead, so 
 much the worse for the State. Lincoln's habitual 
 diffidence in quoting erudite or classic sayings usu- 
 ally induced him to refer to such stories in this 
 vague way ; and although he probably knew very 
 well who Procrustes was, he slurred over the il- 
 lustration as something of which he had remotely 
 heard. 
 
 As a matter of record, I may as well say here 
 that at the next and last session of that Congress — 
 the Thirty-ninth — Davis reintroduced his pet meas- 
 ure ; and after it had been amended considerably, 
 it was finally tabled February 21, 1865, in spite 
 of the fiery speech which its distinguished author 
 made in its favor. Although the bill passed both 
 branches of Congress without serious opposition in 
 the first instance, public opinion had so far changed 
 under Lincoln's guiding hand, eight months later, 
 that it was finally killed by a vote of 91 to 64, 
 which laid it on the table. 
 
172 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 THE DAKK DAYS OF 1864 
 
 In the memory of men who lived in Washington 
 during the months of July and August, 1864, those 
 days will appear to be the darkest of the many 
 dark days through which passed the friends and 
 lovers of the Federal Union. The earlier years of 
 the war, it is true, had been full of grief, despon- 
 dency, and even agony; but the darkness that 
 settled upon us in the summer of 1864 was the 
 more difficult to be endured because of its unex- 
 pectedness. The hopes so buoyantly entertained 
 by our people when Grant opened his campaign in 
 Virginia had been dashed. No joyful tidings came 
 from the army now ; a deadly calm prevailed where 
 had so lately resounded the shouts of victory. In 
 every department of the Government there was a 
 manifest feeling of discouragement. In the field of 
 national polities confusion reigned. 
 
 When Congress adjoui'ned on July 4, with the 
 Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill left unsigned, the 
 turmoil inside of the Union Republican party was 
 something terrific; and when, a month later, the 
 Wade-Davis manifesto appeared, the consternation 
 of the Republican leaders was very great. Early's 
 invasion of Maryland and dash upon Washington, 
 which caused a good deal of panic in the coun- 
 try generally, occurred about the middle of July. 
 Right on the heels of this event came the Presi- 
 dent's call for five hundred thousand men, which 
 was issued July 18, and then the placing of another 
 great loan, which dropped upon the people about 
 the same time. Nor was the militarv situation anv 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 173 
 
 more cheerful. The awful fighting in the Wilder- 
 ness and at Cold Harbor had fairly startled the 
 country by the enormous loss of life sustained by 
 the Army of the Potomac, apparently without any 
 corresponding gain of position. The failure of the 
 Petersburg mine, July 30, was another addition to 
 the burden carried in the hearts of patriotic Ameri- 
 cans. Chase's resignation of the secretaryship of 
 the Treasury, and the muddle which Horace 
 Greeley had succeeded in creating by his futile 
 mission to the rebel emissaries at Niagara Falls, 
 had so worried the people that nobody appeared 
 to know what was in the air — a compromise in 
 the interest of peace, or a more vigorous prosecu- 
 tion of the war. 
 
 The raid of Early, which occurred in July, 1864, 
 gave us our only serious scare in the national capital, 
 although many alarms were sounded during the war 
 and after the first terrors of the civil insurrec- 
 tion had died away. That incursion of the dash- 
 ing rebel hosts was evidently twofold in its purpose, 
 forage and plunder in Maryland and Pennsylvania 
 being part of the scheme, while the more important 
 and highly desired purpose was to seize upon Wash- 
 ington, then left comparatively defenseless so far 
 as troops were concerned. The news of the ap- 
 proach of Early was brought to the city (whatever 
 may have been the information lodged in the War 
 Department) by the panic-stricken people from 
 Eockville, Silver Spring, Tennallytown, and other 
 Maryland villages. These people came flocking 
 into Washington by the Seventh street road, flying 
 in wild disorder, and bringing their household 
 
174 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 goods with them. In a general way we understood 
 that the city was cut off at the north and east, and 
 that the famine of market-stuff, New York news- 
 papers, and other necessaries of life, was due to the 
 cutting of railway lines leading northward. For 
 two or three days we had no mail, no telegraphic 
 messages, and no railway travel. Our only com- 
 munication with the outer world was by steamer 
 from Greorgetown, D. C, to New York. Washing- 
 ton was in a ferment ; men were marching to and 
 fro; able-bodied citizens were swept up and put 
 into the District militia; and squads of depart- 
 ment clerks were set to drilling in the parks. It 
 was an odd sight to see men who had been thus 
 impressed into the public service, dressed in linen 
 coats or in partial uniform, being put through the 
 manual of arms by an impromptu captain, who in 
 turn was coached by his ordei'ly sergeant (a mes- 
 senger employed in the War Department). These 
 sons of Mars were all under command of Brigadier- 
 general Bacon, a worthy gi'ocer of Washington, 
 who was the militia commander of the District of 
 Columbia. The city was also garrisoned by one 
 hundred men, Veteran Eeserves as they were 
 called (or Invalid Corps), with a few dismounted 
 cavalry. The actual garrison of the city, available 
 for duty and including the Veteran Eeserves, one- 
 hundred-day-men. District militia, and other odds 
 and ends of fighting material, numbered less than 
 ten thousand effective, and these were mostly raw 
 men. These weak and unorganized forces were 
 thrown into the fortifications, and Washington 
 stood agape while we listened to the sound of the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 175 
 
 rebel cannon less than ten miles away. General 
 Halleck was then living on Georgetown Heights, 
 where the blue-coated Invalids mounted guard 
 over his residence, and the bugles nightly blew 
 " tattoo " and " taps." Ill-natured people were ready 
 to suggest that the rebels might be guilty of petty 
 larceny should they rapidly march down Eock Creek 
 and seize upon Halleck, who for various reasons was 
 bitterly unpopular in Washington. The President 
 and his family were at their summer residence, the 
 Soldiers' Home, on the outskirts of "Washington, 
 about half-way between the outer line of fortifica- 
 tions at Fort Stevens and the city ; but on Sunday 
 night, the 10th, Secretary Stanton, finding that the 
 enemy was within striking distance of that point, 
 sent out a carriage with positive orders that the 
 President should return to the White House. Lin- 
 coln, very much irritated, and against his will, came 
 back to town. He was subsequently greatly dis- 
 composed and annoyed when he found that the 
 Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Captain G. V. Fox, 
 had kept under orders a small navy vessel in the 
 Potomac for the President's escape in case the 
 rebel column should succeed in piercing the line of 
 fortifications. The wildest estimates of the force of 
 the invaders were made, and flying rumors were to 
 the effect that Early, Ewell, Imboden, and Breckin- 
 ridge were in command of some forty thousand men. 
 As a matter of fact, there were, according to the 
 records, not many more than twelve thousand men. 
 There was a vast amount of hurrying to and fro 
 between the War Department, the White House, 
 and the exterior lines of defense, and the telegraph 
 
176 WASHINGTON IN LINOOLN'S TIME 
 
 wire was constantly worked to its fullest capacity. 
 There were not a few domestic rebels in Washington 
 who looked on this commotion with undisguised glee. 
 
 In Georgetown one nest of secessionists was 
 rudely broken in upon by the provost guard, who 
 discovered a half-finished Confederate flag in the 
 house. The men were marched over to the guard- 
 house, and the unfinished colors, probably intended 
 to be pi'esented to Earlj", were promptly confiscated. 
 This was not the only flag made to be presented to 
 the rebels when they should effect their triumphal 
 entry into Washington. But early on Monday morn- 
 ing part of the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Po- 
 tomac lauded at Washington, having come from the 
 James River in swift transports ; another division 
 (Ricketts's) was already in Maryland. The thirteen 
 thousand men lauding in Washington were com- 
 manded by General Horatio G. Wright. About noon 
 the Nineteenth Corps, under command of General 
 W. H. Emory, arrived from the Gulf of Mexico by 
 way of Fort Monroe, and Washington breathed 
 more freely. 
 
 General Alexander MeD. MeCook was in com- 
 mand of the troops and fortifications ; and General 
 Augm-, who at that time was commander of the De- 
 partment of Washington, had under him all the 
 available men of the District of Columbia, including 
 a considerable number of drafted men from Camp 
 Convalescent at Alexandria. Colonel Wisewell, mih- 
 tary governor of the city, had orders to detail all of 
 the ablebodied men in the hospitals; and before the 
 night of Monday, thirty-two hundred fighting men 
 from those institutions, officered, provisioned, and 
 
"WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 177 
 
 armed, were on their way to tlie front. " Contraband" 
 negroes and refugees were also pressed into the ser- 
 vice, and at twelve o'clock on the night of July 11 
 it was estimated that there were within the fortifica- 
 tions of "Washington sixty thousand men, armed ^nd 
 equipped for fight. Clearly, the time for a success- 
 ful assault by the rebel column had passed. But if 
 the invasion of Maryland was designed to create a 
 diversion from Grant's army, then in front of Eich- 
 mond, that end was successful; and while a great 
 force of effective men was kept at bay within the 
 defenses of Washington, the bulk of Early's army 
 was busy sweeping up all available plunder, and 
 sending it southward across the Potomac. 
 
 It was popularly believed in the North at that 
 time that President Lincoln was greatly disturbed 
 by the imminence of the danger of the capture of 
 Washington ; but I learned from his own hps that 
 his chief anxiety was that the invading forces might 
 not be permitted to get away. Speaking of their 
 escape, afterward, he said that Greneral Halleck's 
 manifest desire to avoid taking any responsibility 
 without the immediate sanction of Greneral Grant 
 was the main reason why the rebels, having threat- 
 ened Washington and sacked the peaceful farms 
 and villages of Maryland, got off scatheless. 
 
 If Lincoln was the meddlesome marplot in mili- 
 tary affairs which some have represented him to be, 
 he would have peremptorily ordered a sortie of the 
 Union forces, then numerously massed inside the 
 defenses of Washington; but although he was 
 " agonized " (as he said) over the evident failure of 
 aU attempts at pursuit, he kept his hands off. 
 
178 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 G-rant's distance from the scene, HaDeck's disin- 
 clination to take the responsibility of pursuit, and 
 Lincoln's firm refusal to decide any military ques- 
 tion of detail, resulted in the safe departure of 
 Early and his forces. It may as well be said that 
 throughout the long and weary months of the war 
 which followed this panic in Washington, Lincoln 
 frequently referred to the escape of Early as one of 
 the distressing features of his experience in the city 
 of Washington. He went out to Port Stevens during 
 the skirmish in front of that fortification on July 
 12, and repeatedly exposed himself in the coolest 
 manner to the fire of the rebel sharp-shooters. He 
 had once said to me that he lacked physical cour- 
 age, although he had a fan* share of the moral qual- 
 ity of that virtue; but his calm unconsciousness 
 of danger while the bullets were flying thick and 
 fast about him was ample proof that he would not 
 have dropped his musket and run, as he believed he 
 certainly would, at the fii'st sign of physical danger. 
 
 The scene of the desultory fighting in front of 
 Washington was novel and striking to a party of 
 us (civilians) who sm-veyed the field immediately 
 after the rebels had fled. We saw the last glimpse 
 of the dust which the skedaddling pickets left be- 
 hind them as they rode off in the du-ection of Ed- 
 wards's Ferry. We found traces of rebel occupation 
 five or six miles from Washington, where houses 
 had been held by the invaders, the rightful owners 
 thereof having incontinently fied at the approach 
 of the onomy. Horses had been picketed in the or- 
 chards; fences were torn down and used for fire- 
 wood, and books, letters, and women's wearing-ap- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 179 
 
 parel were scattei-ed about the grounds, showing 
 that the raiders had naade the best use of their time 
 in looting the houses where they had been quar- 
 tered. In one comfortable family mansion, now 
 in a sad state of wreck, we found such a disorder 
 as might have reigned if a wild Western cyclone 
 had swept through the building. Furniture was 
 smashed, crockery broken, and even a handsome 
 piano was split up in the very wantonness of de- 
 struction. Obscene drawings covered the walls, and 
 one inscription, scrawled with charcoal over the 
 place where the piano had stood, read, "Fifty thou- 
 sand Virginian homes have been devastated in like 
 manner." The houses were Httered with the tattered 
 remnants of butternut-colored uniforms, as if the 
 invaders had effected that fair exchange which in 
 time of war is no robbery ; and a picturesque dis- 
 order reigned in my lady's chamber, as well as in 
 kitchen and pantry of homes suddenly vacated at 
 the approach of the rebel soldiery. 
 
 It should be said that the panic in Washington, 
 although tolerably severe among the more unin- 
 formed of the residents, was by no means so utter 
 as people at a distance from the national capital 
 generally supposed; and in government circles 
 there was no fear entertained after the first dash 
 had been ineffectively made by Early's troops. In 
 the country at large, however, the effect of this 
 demonstration was somewhat depressing. The cap- 
 ital had been threatened; the President's safety 
 had been imperiled; only a miracle had saved trea- 
 sures, records, and archives from the fate that over- 
 took them when Coekbmm seized the city during 
 
180 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 the War of 1812. Tliese were some of the highly col- 
 ored pictures presented to the people of the United 
 States by alarmists and prophets of disaster dur- 
 ing the week of the raid and thereafter. But there 
 was no such frantic panic in Washington. 
 
 McCLELLAN'S nomination at CHICAGO 
 
 At such a time as this the men who were deter- 
 mined on a declaration of " peace at any price " met 
 in Chicago to nominate a candidate for the presi- 
 dency. The Democratic convention of that year had 
 first been called to meet on July 4: ; but the doings of 
 the Cleveland convention, which had nominated 
 Fremont, and those of the Baltimore convention, at 
 which Lincoln had been nominated, probably in- 
 duced the Democratic managers to postpone the as- 
 sembling of their convention until a later date — 
 August 29, 1SG4. By this time it was pretty weU 
 settled that McClellan, although a war leader and a 
 war candidate, would be the nominee of the Demo- 
 cratic convention ; and people wondered how the 
 advocates of peace would arrange to square their war 
 candidate on a peace platform. A few days before 
 the meeting of the Democratic convention, just prior 
 to my leaving Washington for Chicago, the Presi- 
 dent said to me : " They must nominate a Peace 
 Democrat on a war platform, or a War Democrat on 
 a peace platform ; and I personally can't say that I 
 care much which they do." 
 
 About this time, as we now learn from Nicolay and 
 Hay's " History of Lincoln," the President wrote, 
 sealed, and put aside the following memorandum, 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 181 
 
 wHcli was dated August 23, 1864 : " This morning, 
 as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable 
 tbat this administration will not be reelected. Then 
 it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President 
 elect as to save the Union between the election and 
 the inauguration ; as he will have secured his elec- 
 tion on such ground that he cannot possibly save it 
 afterward." On the evening of August 24 I called 
 on the President to say good-by, as I intended to 
 leave for Chicago the following day ; and although 
 Lincoln had already put himseK on record as more 
 than doubtful of his own reelection, he said : " Good- 
 by. Don't be discouraged ; I don't believe that Grod 
 has forsaken us yet." Possibly the good President 
 desired to inspire those whom he met with some- 
 thing of the confidence which he did not himseK feel. 
 But, at any rate, he did regard with great interest 
 the doings of the Democrats who were about to 
 nominate their candidate and build their platform. 
 Knowing that I would not return to Washington un- 
 til a week or two after the convention had adjourned, 
 he asked me to write two or three letters, as the con- 
 vention should unfold its plans, giving him " some 
 of the poUtical gossip that would not find its way 
 into the newspapers." These letters, of course, I wrote 
 according to his request ; and it is a curious illustra- 
 tion of his care for all papers coming into his hands 
 that they were found after his death in his carefully 
 preserved and voluminous private correspondence. 
 Although the train on which I traveled westward 
 was burdened with many distinguished and jubilant 
 Democratic leaders, it was notable that the most con- 
 spicuous person was Congressman Harris of Mary- 
 
182 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 land, wlio had been censm-ed by the House for so- 
 called treasonable language. It was known that be 
 was on the train, and whenever we stopped — and 
 that was pretty often — the Butternuts yelled vocif- 
 erously for him. I made his acquaintance, and found 
 him a very companionable person ; he frankly said 
 that he found himself much more popular in the 
 West than in Maryland. It had been bruited abroad 
 that McCleUan was on our train, and at Plymouth, 
 Indiana, there was a great call for " Little Mac." A 
 Union colonel, going home on furlough, was readily 
 passed off as the redoubtable general by some of the 
 fun-loving Democrats, who were determined that 
 their Indiana compatriots should not be disap- 
 pointed. The colonel made a very ingenious httle 
 speech in the character of McCleUan, and was re- 
 ceived with tremendous cheers. 
 
 When we got to Chicago, and the convention be- 
 gan to assemble in the great wigwam near the lake 
 shore, Vallandigham, Alexander Long, and Repre- 
 sentative Harris were the " stars " of the occasion. 
 Calls for them were made at every possible oppor- 
 tuuity, and it was easy to see that these eminent 
 Peace Democrats were more popular than any other 
 of the delegates to the convention. It was a noisy 
 assemblage, and it was also a Peace Democratic con- 
 vention. While Alexander Long was reading a set 
 of resolutions, which lie proposed to have the con- 
 vention adopt, asking for a suspension of the draft 
 until after the election, " Sunset " Cox interfered 
 with a motion to have all resolutions referred, with- 
 out reading or debate, to the proper committee; 
 whereupon he was roundly hissed, and the specta- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 183 
 
 tors, who to the number of thousands filled the pit 
 of the great building, yelled, " Gret down, you War 
 Democrat ! " much to his discomfiture. The crowd 
 of on-lookers in the pit was so great that many of 
 them climbed up and roosted on a fence which sepa- 
 rated them from the delegates, and their weight soon 
 broke down this slender barrier, creating the greatest 
 confusion. Frantic ushers and policemen attempted 
 to preserve order ; now and then a train crashing by 
 on the Lake Shore tracks close at hand added to the 
 racket, and filled the huge building with smoke and 
 cinders. 
 
 Horatio Seymour, then governor of New York, 
 was the president of the Chicago convention ; and 
 it must be said that he made a much better presid- 
 ing officer than ex-Grovernor Dennison had proved 
 himself in the chair of the Republican convention at 
 Baltimore. Seymour was tall, fine-looking, of an 
 imposing figure, with a good though colorless face, 
 bright, dark eyes, a high, commanding forehead, 
 dark-reddish hair, and slightly bald. He had a clear, 
 ringing voice, with a slight imperfection in his 
 speech, and he was in the main an attractive and 
 effective speaker, and a capital presiding officer. 
 His opening address, which was very calm and cool, 
 was not well received by the crowd, who evidently 
 wanted something more heart-firing, and who inces- 
 santly shouted, " Vallandigham ! Vallandigham ! " 
 But the distinguished exile, though he was not far 
 away, was discreet enough to remain out of sight un- 
 tU his time came. His name was presented by the 
 State of Ohio for membership of the committee on 
 platform, and it was well known that the most im- 
 
184 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 portant plank in that structure — that which related 
 to the prosecution of the war — was his. One of the 
 conspicuous figures in that convention was James 
 Gruthrie of Kentucky, a taU, huge-limbed, white- 
 haired man about seventy years old, with a florid 
 complexion, a clear and well-modulated voice, and 
 the general appearance of a weU-fed, weU-groomed 
 Kentucky gentleman of the old school. Another 
 was Samuel J. Tilden of New York, who took an ac- 
 tive part in the business of building the platform, 
 and who surprised aU to whom he was a stranger by 
 his agile movements, his fresh, smooth, almost boy- 
 ish face, and his generally alert manner. When the 
 platform finally came before the convention,. late in 
 the afternoon of the second day, the resolution which 
 was greeted with the most vociferous applause was 
 that with which VaUandigham's hand hadbeen busy. 
 This was the famous clause which explicitly de- 
 clared that " after fom" years of failure to restore the 
 Union by the experiment of war, during which, un- 
 der the pretense of a military necessity, or war 
 power higher than the Constitution, the Constitu- 
 tion itself has been disregarded in every part, . . . 
 the public weKare demands that immediate efforts 
 be made for a cessation of hostilities with a \'iew to 
 an ultimate convention of the States, or other peace- 
 able means to the end that at the earliest practicable 
 moment peace may be restored on the basis of the 
 Federal union of the States." This was the peace 
 platform which Lincoln had expected. The war 
 candidate, of com-se, was soon to be forthcoming. 
 The faces of some of the delegates when the platform 
 was read and adopted were a study. S. S. Cox 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 185 
 
 clasped his hands in his lap and dropped his head, a 
 picture of despair. August Belmont, who was the 
 chairman of the National Committee that year, also 
 looked profoundly sad. But Vallandigham and 
 Alexander Long rubbed theii* hands with unre- 
 strained glee, and as soon as his famous resolution 
 was adopted the former was surrounded by con- 
 gratulating friends. It was clear that the returned 
 exile was the hero of the occasion. 
 
 When the presidential nominations were finally 
 before the convention, Harris of Maryland took the 
 floor, and attempted to make a speech against Mc- 
 CleUan. Although the chairman at first ruled him 
 to be out of ordei', he went on shrieking and vocifer- 
 ating, denouncing McClellan for his so-called arbi- 
 trary arrests in Maryland, and saying that he had 
 initiated tyranny and oppression before Lincoln 
 had. The house rose at Harris as one man, cheer- 
 ing and encouraging him to go on. Promising to 
 speak in order, he went up to the platform, and 
 proceeded with his vituperation and abuse. He in- 
 sisted that Lincoln had found an assassin of State 
 rights in Greorge B. McClellan, and shrieked, " "Will 
 you vote for such a man? I never will!" At this 
 point several War Democrats objected to his pro- 
 ceeding, because, as they very properly said, if he 
 would not promise to support the nominee of the 
 convention, he was not fit to be a member of that 
 body, much less to make a speech to it. He was 
 accordingly ruled out and disappeared from the 
 platform; and as he went back to his seat a New 
 York delegate rose and called him a "traitor." 
 Harris promptly struck his defamer, and for a 
 
186 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 time there was a scene of general uproar and riot- 
 ous confusion. 
 
 The Maryland delegates as a rule were opposed 
 to McClellan on account of his so-called arbitrary 
 arrests in their State earlier in the war. General 
 Morgan, an Ohio delegate, attempted a defense of 
 MeCleUan's conduct in Maryland, and said that 
 McClellan would have been a traitor if he had not 
 acted as he did, boldly and promptly, ia arresting 
 the conspirators in the Maryland legislature. At 
 this there was a wrathful outbui-st from the Mary^ 
 land delegation, who contradicted the Ohioan, and 
 compelled him to diverge from that branch of the 
 discussion. 
 
 Alexander Long was another irreconcilable dele- 
 gate who insisted that freedom of speech had been 
 denied him in this Democratic convention, and who, 
 when indulgently allowed to speak, went on to say 
 that McClellan was " the worst and weakest man " 
 who could be nominated at that time ; he begged 
 that the convention would nominate Seymour of 
 New York, or Yallandigham, or anybody but "this 
 weak tool of Lincoln's." Speeches like these from 
 both wings of the jarring Democracy wore out the 
 patience of the delegates and the spectators, and 
 the second day closed without a nomination. 
 
 Chicago was wild that night with brass bands 
 and cheering Democrats, who visited the different 
 hotels, and insisted upon speeches from prominent 
 delegates. In front of the Sherman House there 
 was a vociferous demand for Dean Richmond, who, 
 tall, corpulent, big-nosed, austere and arbitrary in 
 his manner, and looming up with his high white 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 187 
 
 hat and blue-tailed coat, was stalking about the 
 lobbies of the hotel, while his friend Peter Cagger, 
 "three sheets in the wind," was impersonating 
 Richmond at an upper window, and making a 
 speech which convulsed the crowd with laughter. 
 Although McClellan was the inevitable nominee 
 of the convention, he did not receive the honor 
 until one formal ballot had been taken. The first 
 ballot gave him 150 votes ; Thomas H. Seymour of 
 Connecticut had 43 votes, and Horatio Seymour of 
 New York received 7. There were two scattering 
 votes cast. The roll-caU had been finished, but the 
 balloting was practically settled by the action of 
 Missouri, which, having previously voted solidly 
 for Thomas H. Seymour, now divided its strength, 
 and cast 7 votes for McClellan, and 4 for Thomas 
 H. Seymour, amid great cheering. There was then 
 a great landslide of votes for McClellan, untU all 
 but the most uncompromising of the Peace Demo- 
 crats had gone over to the inevitable nominee. 
 Long, VaUandigham, and others held out until the 
 last; and after all changes were made, the final 
 vote was announced thus: McClellan, 202J; Thomas 
 H. Seymour, 23J. Instantly the pent-up feelings of 
 the crowd broke forth in the most rapturous man- 
 ner : cheers, yeUs, music, and screams indescribable 
 rent the air, and outside the wigwam a park of can- 
 non volleyed a salute in honor of the nominee. The 
 long agony was over, and men threw up their hats, 
 and behaved as much like bedlamites as men usu- 
 ally do under such circumstances. When order was 
 restored, VaUandigham, who until then had not 
 spoken, mounted the rostrum, and moved that the 
 
188 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 nomination be made unanimous. It is impossible 
 to describe the tremendous applause wMch greeted 
 the appearance of the Ohio " martyr," who had only 
 lately returned through Canada from his exile. His 
 appearance on the platform, bland, smiling, and 
 rosy, was the signal for a terrific outburst before he 
 could open his mouth ; and when his little speech 
 was done, another whirlwind of applause greeted 
 his magnanimous motion in favor of a war can- 
 didate. 
 
 Some of the speeches that followed were full of 
 venom and denunciation. Charles A. Wickliffe, 
 who was commonly known in Washington as "Old 
 Kentucky," offered a resolution to the effect that his 
 State expected that the first act of the new Demo- 
 cratic administration would be "to open the prison 
 doors, and let the oppressed go free." Wickliffe 
 had previously raised a laugh in the convention by 
 nominating ex-President Pierce in an amusing and 
 wandering speech. Later on, after the nomination 
 of vice-president, Wickliffe again distinguished him- 
 self by adjm-ing the convention to refrain from 
 an adjom*nment si)ie die. He insisted that he and 
 his colleagues in the West were "of the opinion 
 that circumstances may occur between now and 
 March 4 next which wiU make it proper for the 
 Democracy of the country to meet in convention 
 again." Although the real motive for this proposed 
 action was not apparent to anybody, so far as I 
 could learn by talking with the delegates afterward, 
 Wickliffe's suggestion was received with a shout of 
 boisterous applause. IMystery characterized many 
 of the proceedings of the convention, and the 
 
WASHINaTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 189 
 
 mysteriousness of this proposition appeared to be 
 significant to tlie delegates. It was taken as a 
 warning tliat the managers of the party expected 
 something extraordinary to happen, and were de- 
 termined to be ready for any emergency that might 
 arise; so the convention accordingly adopted a reso- 
 lution to "remain as organized, subject to be called 
 at any time and place that the Executive National 
 Committee shall designate." It is a matter of his- 
 tory, however, that the convention never was called 
 together again, and the reason for this cautious an- 
 chor to windward has never been disclosed. 
 
 George H. Pendleton was nominated for vice- 
 president without much difficulty, although there 
 were several other candidates in the field. Indiana 
 had proposed the name of her favorite son, " the 
 TaU Sycamore of the Wabash," D. W. Voorhees ; 
 Pennsylvania had nominated George W. Cass ; Ver- 
 mont, James Guthrie of Kentucky ; Illinois, Judge 
 John D. Caton; Delaware, Lazarus W. Powell of 
 Kentucky ; Missouri, John S. Phelps of that State ; 
 and Iowa, Augustus Caesar Dodge, once minister to 
 Spain. It was the large vote of New York which 
 finally made Pendleton's nomination inevitable. 
 This State had withheld its vote until it was obvi- 
 ous that its sudden dropping would decide the eon- 
 test ; then it was ponderously thrown to Pendleton, 
 and the contest was virtually over. Pendleton was 
 present as a delegate from Ohio, and, mounting the 
 platform, made a pleasant speech. The convention 
 broke up in the most admirable disorder, and that 
 night the city of Chicago seemed drunk with poUti- 
 cal excitement. Although many of the leaders had 
 
190 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 left by afternoon trains, tlie marching mobs halted 
 under the windows of all the principal hotels, and 
 demanded speeches until midnight feU, and some- 
 thing like silence reigned in the city. 
 
 It was during the last days of August that the 
 convention declared that the war was a failure, and 
 that peace must be sought in a convention of Fed- 
 erals and Confederates. On September 3 "Wash- 
 ington received from Sherman the good news of 
 the fan of Atlanta, and President Lincoln issued 
 an order in which the national thanks were given 
 to General Sherman and the officers and soldiers 
 of his command before Atlanta " for the distin- 
 guished ability, corn-age, and perseverance dis- 
 played in the campaign in Greorgia, which, under 
 divine favor, has resulted in the capture of At- 
 lanta." And at the same time Grant, at City Point, 
 telegraphed to Sherman : "In honor of your great 
 victory I have ordered a salute to be fired with 
 shotted guns from every battery bearing upon the 
 enemy. The salute AviU be fii-ed ^^vithin an hour, 
 amid great rejoicing." The tide had tm-ned. The 
 Democratic campaign of 1864 began under very 
 different auspices from those which had attended 
 the assembling of the convention which nominated 
 a war candidate on a peace platform. The dark 
 days were over. 
 
 CHASE ON THE SUPKEME BENCH. 
 
 Another historic event which marked the wonder- 
 ful transition in political affairs in this republic was 
 the inauguration of Salmon P. Chase as chief jus- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 191 
 
 tice of the United States. It was a curious coinci- 
 dence that his immediate predecessor, Roger B. 
 Taney, was, like himself, an ex-secretary of the 
 Treasury. Students of American political history 
 will recollect that Taney was appointed secretary of 
 the Treasury by Andrew Jackson in his fierce and 
 vindictive prosecution of a war against the United 
 States Bank. William J. Duane, as secretary of the 
 Treasury, had refused to become the willing tool of 
 Jackson in that contest ; and Taney, who promised 
 to do the bidding of " Old Hickory," was appointed 
 in his place, and did the work required of him. Sub- 
 sequently, when the office of chief justice became 
 vacant, Taney was promoted to that exalted station; 
 and it surely is no violence to the memory of either 
 of these two famous men to say that the chief -jus- 
 ticeship was Taney's reward for his services in re- 
 moving the government deposits from the United 
 States Bank, as Andrew Jackson had decreed. 
 
 Many years had passed since that time, and the 
 incidents of Taney's earlier career had been well-nigh 
 forgotten when he once more made his name con- 
 spicuous by the infamous Dred Scott decision, which 
 was to the effect that the negro has no rights that 
 the white man is bound to respect, although these 
 were not the exact terms of the dictum then given. 
 Lincoln himself thus summarized the opinion of the 
 United States Supreme Court, as enunciated by the 
 Chief Justice : " The Constitution of the United 
 States forbids Congress to deprive a man of his 
 property without due process of law. The right of 
 property in slaves is distinctly and expressly af- 
 firmed in that Constitution : therefore if Congress 
 
192 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 shall undertake to say that a man's slave is no longer 
 his slave when he crosses a certain line into a Terri- 
 tory, that is depriving him of his property without 
 due process of law." Now, in the fullness of time, 
 Taney had passed away, and another secretary of 
 the Treasury, of high character, distinguished alike 
 for his services to the cause of human freedom and 
 to the Am.erican nation, received the noblest honor 
 in the gift of the national executive. It was unfor- 
 tunate that some of the new Chief Justice's over- 
 zealous and indiscreet friends gleefully claimed that 
 President Lincoln was coerced into making that ap- 
 pointment, and scornfully insisted that it was a popu- 
 lar choice forced upon the President by men who 
 controlled confirmations in the Senate. It was la- 
 mentable that when Lincoln willingly paid a noble 
 honor to one who had been his competitor for the 
 presidential nomination, he could not have at least 
 the poor satisfaction of knowing that the purity of 
 his motives and the fixity of his intention were ap- 
 preciated by those who made Chase and Chase's am- 
 bitions the excuse for conspuing against the good 
 name of Lincoln. As a matter of history, it should 
 be recorded that Lincoln never intended to appoint 
 any other man than Chase to the chief-justiceship, 
 and never for one moment had he entertained the 
 name of any other person. It was a peculiar trait 
 of Lincoln that, in order to preclude all possibility of 
 doubt in his own mind concerning the expediency of 
 any contemplated act, he would state to those with 
 whom he came in contact many doubts and objec- 
 tions not his own, but those of others, for the express 
 purpose of being confirmed and fixed in his own 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 193 
 
 judgment. For example, when a Chicago ministe- 
 rial delegation yisited Lincoln, and urged upon him 
 the expediency of issuing an emancipation procla- 
 mation, it was this mental habit that induced him to 
 argue with his visitors as though his mind were not 
 already made up, and as if he were really uncertain 
 as to his course in regard to that great measure. 
 When those Chicago clergymen read the emancipa- 
 tion proclamation, for the coming of which Lincoln 
 had given them no hope, they must have been 
 amazed by what they perhaps thought was an evi- 
 dence of Lincoln's secretiveness. And, as a matter 
 of truth, it may be said that when Sumner and 
 others importuned President Lincoln to nominate 
 Chase to the chief -justiceship, and he replied in a 
 doubtful manner, he had really made up his mind 
 to nominate Chase. 
 
 A curious complication arose over the appoint- 
 ment of Chase, which made his public inauguration 
 a matter of doubt for a week or two. The form of 
 procedure prescribed in such a case requires that 
 the letters patent of a justice of the Supreme Court 
 shall pass through the hands of the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral of the United States. At that time Mr. James 
 Speed had been appointed attorney-general in 
 place of Mr. Edward Bates, resigned. The Senate 
 judiciary committee held up the nomination sev- 
 eral days, not because they hesitated at confirming 
 Speed, but, as one of that committee said, " to con- 
 vey a mild insinuation to the President that they 
 did not know who James Speed of Kentucky was." 
 Meanwhile the documents necessary to complete 
 the induction of Mr. Chase into his new office could 
 
194 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 not be issued. Bates was out, and Speed was not 
 in. Five times people who frequented the Capitol 
 filled the limits of the Supreme Court room, in the 
 expectation that they would see the inauguration 
 of the Chief Justice, and five times were they dis- 
 appointed ; for the Senate boggled over the confir- 
 mation of the functionary whose signature was aU 
 that was needed to enable the new Chief Justice to 
 put on his official robes. Finally, however, on De- 
 cember 15, 1864, for the sixth time the crowd as- 
 sembled, and aU was ready. The noble room of the 
 Supreme Com-t was overflowing with an immense 
 throng of dignitaries of various degrees, ladies, con- 
 gressmen, foreign ministers, and others who wished 
 to view the simple but impressive ceremony of 
 swearing in the chief judicial officer of the repubhc. 
 The rush was very great, and a rippling tide of hu- 
 manity, chiefly women, overflowed into the sacred 
 precincts of the bar, where sat ponderous Tom 
 Ewing, white-headed Eeverdy Johnson, Secretary 
 Seward, and other distinguished la^n-yers. There 
 were Senator Sprague, with his wife, ]\Ii's. Kate 
 Chase Sprague, and her sister, gorgeously di'essed ; 
 Nathaniel P. Banks, erect and martial-looking; 
 gray-headed Ben AVade ; and other personages 
 whose names are famous. Jxxst in the rear of the 
 Supreme Bench, on the -right, the elegant form of 
 Charles Sumner leaned against one of the marble 
 columns in a fine and studied pose ; his handsome 
 features plainly showed his inward glow of grati- 
 fication. The soft stir of the chamber was broken 
 1)y the voice of the usher, who announced in a loud 
 ofiicial tone, " The Honorable Justices of the Su- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 195 
 
 preme Court of the United States"; whereupon 
 through the side entrance behind the bench entered 
 the gowned justices, headed by Justice Wayne, the 
 senior member of the bench, arm in arm with the 
 newly appointed Chief Justice. The justices ad- 
 vanced to their several chairs, and bowed to the 
 left and to the right ; and the bar, remaining stand- 
 ing, collectively bowed in return. Then the new 
 Chief Justice came forward to his chair, and Justice 
 Wayne handed him a paper containing the oath, 
 which Mr. Chase opened, and read in a clear but 
 tremulous voice, as follows : " I, Salmon P. Chase, 
 do solemnly swear that I wUl, as Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, adminis- 
 ter equal and exact justice to the poor and to the 
 rich, in accordance with the Constitution and the 
 laws of the United States, to the best of my abil- 
 ity." Then, laying down the paper, he lifted his 
 light hand, looked upward to the beautiful dome 
 of the court-room, and with deep feeling added, 
 " So help me Grod." A breathless hush pervaded 
 the chamber, and the Chief Justice of the United 
 States took his seat. Then the clerk, with a good 
 deal of tremor in his voice, read aloud the letters 
 patent of the Chief Justice ; the simple ceremony 
 was over, and the routine business of the court began. 
 As the crowd decorously moved out of the room 
 I came face to face with " Bluff Ben Wade." My 
 eyes met his, which were actually suffused with 
 tears; and with great grimness, but with much 
 fervor, he said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy ser- 
 vant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy 
 salvation." 
 
196 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 A few days after the appointment of Chief Jus- 
 tice Chase the President was visited by the mem- 
 bers of the Electoral College of Maryland, who, in 
 the course of the interview, expressed their satis- 
 faction with the act of the President in elevating 
 Mr. Chase to the Supreme Bench. In reply the 
 President said that he trusted that the appoint- 
 ment would be for the best. The country, he ad- 
 ded, needed some assurances on two points of great 
 national importance ; and there was an assurance 
 that could be better given by the character and 
 well-known opinions of the appointee than by any 
 verbal pledges. By the appointment of Mr. Chase 
 all holders of United States securities in America 
 and Europe felt assured that the financial policy of 
 the Government would be upheld by its highest ju- 
 dicial tribunal. In sustaining that poKey, Judge 
 Chase would be only sustaining himself, for he was 
 the author of it. The other point to which Lincoln 
 referred was that relating to the constitutionality of 
 the emancipation policy of the Government. He 
 said that other distinguished gentlemen had been 
 named as competent to undertake the great trust 
 now borne by Judge Chase ; but these did not bear 
 the same relations to those important issues that 
 Chase did, although they were doubtless equally 
 soiind. When we reflect that the financial polioj" 
 of the Government, so far as it was involved in the 
 legal-teiuler law, was subsequently disapproved by 
 the distinguished author of it, we may well wonder 
 what Lincoln would have thought if he had lived 
 to read the Chief Justice's decision thereupon. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE DEATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 LAST CASE UNDER THE FUGITIVE-SLAVE LAWS — ABO- 
 LITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUM- 
 BIA — COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION — PASSAGE OF 
 THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT — THRILLING SCENES 
 IN CONGRESS — COLORED PEOPLE IN STREET-CARS 
 
 AS late as June, 1862, although, slavery had been 
 J\. abolished in the District of Columbia, the in- 
 famous Fugitive-Slave laws still remained on the 
 statute-books. In that month a fugitive-slave case 
 came up in Washington, and John Dean, a promi- 
 nent lawyer, counsel for a fugitive from labor, was 
 indicted for aiding and assisting in the escape of 
 his client, one Andrew Hall, alleged to have been 
 owned by a Virginia gentleman, who stiU clung to 
 his property. Andrew, while waiting for the action 
 of the court in his case, enlisted in one of the col- 
 ored regiments then being raised in Washington, 
 and thus settled his status for himself. The indict- 
 ment of the attorney in the case was based upon 
 his alleged offense committed in a " scrapping 
 match" which took place when the fugitive had 
 been discharged from a first arrest, and was about 
 
198 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 to be again taken into custody. The alleged owner 
 of the alleged fugitive was on hand when the man 
 was discharged, and was about to take him into 
 custody until an arresting officer could amve with 
 papers for his further detention. In the little riot 
 which followed, Mr. Dean, the attorney for the ne- 
 gro, interfered and beat off the men who were en- 
 gaged in the attempt to detain Andrew by force of 
 arms while waiting for the papers. The punish- 
 ment for Dean's offense, or alleged offense, would 
 have been six months imprisonment, or one thou- 
 sand dollars fine, under the Fugitive-Slave law of 
 1850. The case dragged on from tei-m to term, and 
 was finally dropped out of sight ; but Andrew's en- 
 listment in the United States ser^ice of course had 
 made him a free man, so far as any obligation to 
 an alleged owner of human flesh and blood was 
 concerned. So far as I know, this was the last case 
 under the Fugitive-Slave laws of which the United 
 States courts took any cognizance. The affair cre- 
 ated intense excitement in Washington, more es- 
 pecially in both Houses of Congress, which were 
 then in session. 
 
 SLAVEKY IN THE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA 
 
 It will be remembered that when Lincoln served 
 his single term in Congi-ess he introduced a bill 
 (January, 1849) for the gradual abolition of slavery 
 in the District of Columbia. It failed to pass. lii 
 December, 1861, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, 
 introduced bills in the Senate pro^-iding for the 
 immediate emancipation of all slaves in" the Dis- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 199 
 
 trict of Columbia, and the payment to loyal owners 
 of an average sum of three hundred dollars per 
 head, and providing for the appointment of a Board 
 of Commissioners to assess the amounts to be paid 
 to each slave owner, and appropriating one million 
 dollars for that pui-pose. Singularly enough, this 
 measure was at fii-st opposed by a considerable 
 number of Democratic Senators whose loyalty to 
 the Union was not for a moment questioned. Sen- 
 ator "Willey of "West Virginia, for example, opposed 
 the bill in a speech in which he insisted that the 
 policy of the Union party had nothing whatever to 
 do with the abolition of slavery or with its main- 
 tenance ; that the slavery question was one entirely 
 outside of all measures for the preservation of the 
 Union. The debate ran on several days, and dur- 
 ing that time a great many decent-looking and in- 
 telligent-appearing colored men thronged to the 
 Senate to hear what the speakers had to say on 
 the general question. Grarrett Davis said he was 
 astonished at the impudence of these colored peo- 
 ple, who were concerned to know whether they 
 were to be property or free men ; and in a partic- 
 ularly vituperative speech, one afternoon, he called 
 attention to the predominance of black people in 
 the galleries, and said: "A few days ago, I saw 
 several negroes thronging the open door of the 
 Senate and listening to the debate on this subject. 
 I suppose in a few months they will be crowding 
 white ladies out of the galleries ! " Senator Davis's 
 opinion was that the hberation of the slaves in the 
 rebellious States would be of no avail, because as 
 soon as the States should be reorganized as an in- 
 
200 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 tegral part of tlie Union, " the white inhabitants of 
 those States would reduce the slaves again to a 
 state of bondage or would expel them from their 
 borders and hunt them like wild animals." But 
 notwithstanding the opposition of such men as the 
 erratic Kentuckian, the Wilson bill finally passed 
 the Senate by twenty-nine votes to six. 
 
 Thaddeus Stevens had charge of the bill when it 
 came up in the House early in the following April. 
 It was opposed in the House by the same class of 
 politicians that had fought it in the Senate. Even 
 so liberal a Democrat as John J. Crittenden spoke 
 and voted against the bill, and WicklifPe of Ken- 
 tucky said: "I hope the friends of this bill wiU 
 not so far outrage the laws of the District as to 
 authorize slaves or free negroes to be witnesses in 
 any case before the courts." Vallandigham also 
 opposed the measure with great vehemence, and 
 declared that there were not ten men in the next 
 preceding Congress who would ha^^e voted for the 
 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 But the biU passed the House by a vote of ninety- 
 two to thirty-eight. This famous act was finally 
 approved by the President, and became a law on 
 Api'il 16, 1862, and great was the jubilation, not 
 only throughout the District, but all over the loyal 
 States. The city of "Washington was the scene of 
 a remarkable parade, alleged to be made np of free 
 negroes, but as a matter of fact it was not until 
 months after that that freedom was attained in the 
 District. 
 
 One morning in the latter part of January, 1863, 
 while passing through the Treasury Department, I 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 201 
 
 noticed a large crowd of persons gathered in a cor- 
 ridor and waiting their turn to enter Eoom No. 18. 
 My curiosity was satisfied when I found that the 
 Commissioners appointed by Congress, attended by 
 their clerk and the cashier of the Sub-Treasury, 
 were paying for the emancipated slaves of the Dis- 
 trict. Think of it! As the claimants walked up 
 one after another and gave their names, the Com- 
 missioners' clerk looked up the number of the 
 claim and the Sub-Treasury cashier produced a 
 check which bore the same number. Thereupon 
 the claimant signed a receipt, received his check, 
 and went to Greneral Spinner, United States Trea- 
 siu'er, where he signed another receipt, and the 
 check, being duly countersigned, was payable at 
 the Sub-Treasuiy. About three hundred persons 
 were then in line waiting their tui-n for payment. 
 Three or four days were required to settle all the 
 claims of the ex-slaveholders, and when the ac- 
 counts were eventually balanced it was found 
 that the total amount of money paid for slaves 
 purchased in the District of Columbia by act of 
 Congress was considerably within the sum appro- 
 priated — one million dollars. It should be said 
 that some of the more radical Republican mem- 
 bers of Congress opposed the abolition bill on the 
 ground that it was wicked to pay for slaves, thus 
 recognizing the right of property in human beings. 
 Their attitude was like that of the Prohibitionists 
 of the present day, who would refuse licenses to 
 liquor-dealers on a somewhat similar principle. 
 But compensated emancipation was at that time 
 considered by most sensible people as the easiest 
 
202 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 and most practicable solution of tlie great impend- 
 ing difficulty — the abolition of slavery. 
 
 COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION 
 
 Makyland was one of tbe first States to take ad- 
 vantage of the so-called compensated emancipation 
 scheme. Henry Winter Davis, notwithstanding his 
 wrong-headed and self-willed course, was a con- 
 sistent and ardent supporter of all measures that had 
 for their purpose the abolition of slavery and a vig- 
 orous prosecution of the war. He supported Lin- 
 coln with a very bad grace in 1864, saying that he 
 gave him his vote for the reason that the worst man 
 whom the Union party could put up was far better 
 than the best man the Democrats could nominate. 
 As a stump speaker Henry Winter Davis was bril- 
 liant, effecti"\'e, and widely popular ; and his services 
 in the emancipation movement in Maryland were 
 above all value. The emancipation party carried 
 that State in 1863, electing a majority of the leg- 
 islature ; and in January, 1864, a resolution was 
 adopted bj" the legislature declaring that the true 
 interests of Marj'land demanded that the policy of 
 emancipation should be immediately inaugurated. 
 That legislature called for a convention to amend 
 the constitution of the State and provide for eman- 
 cipation. Henry Winter Davis, and other friends of 
 the good cause, took the field with such vigor that a 
 popular majority of twelve thousand was thrown in 
 favor of the convention ; and of the ninety-sis dele- 
 gates chosen, sixty-one were in favor of emancipa- 
 tion. The new constitution was finally submitted 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 203 
 
 to a vote of the people and adopted in October, 1864, 
 and on the nineteenth day of that month a great 
 crowd of Marylanders went on to Washington to 
 congratulate the President upon the final entrance 
 of Maiyland into the column of free States. It was 
 a beautiful, bright day, and with music, banners, and 
 cheers the loyal Marylanders made the welkin ring 
 with their jubilation. The President came out in 
 answer to their calls and made a little speech, in 
 which he congratulated his visitors, their State and 
 the nation, upon the great event. He said that he 
 regretted that emancipation had not come two years 
 sooner, because he thought that, if it had, it would 
 have saved the nation more money than would have 
 met all the private losses incident to emancipation 
 under the present order of things. Later on in 
 the day he said in private conversation : "I would 
 rather have Maryland upon that issue than have a 
 State twice its size upon the Presidential issue. It 
 cleans up a piece of ground." Any one who has 
 ever had anything to do with cleaning up a piece of 
 ground, digging out the roots and stumps, as Lincoln 
 had, can appreciate the homely simile applied to 
 Maryland, where slavery had at last been rooted out. 
 
 AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 But of course the great act in the war drama was 
 the final passage of the amendment to the Consti- 
 tution abolishing slavery throughout the length and 
 breadth of the Eepublic. This amendment first 
 passed the Senate, April 8, 1864. The proposition 
 was debated with much earnestness, but without 
 
204 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 much heat. Among the Democrats who voted for 
 it were Senators from Maryland, Missonri, West 
 Virginia, Oregon, and California. There were only 
 six votes cast against the measure. These were from 
 Garrett Davis of Kentucky, Thomas A. Hendricks 
 of Indiana, McDougaU of California, Powell of Ken- 
 tucky, and Eiddle and Saulsbury of Delaware. 
 There was a faint rumble of applause when the 
 result of the voting was announced, but no such 
 demonstration as was made when the House finally 
 passed the bill, nearly a year later — on January 31, 
 1865. In the earher months of the same Congress, 
 in 1864, the measure had failed to receive the two 
 thirds vote of the House necessary for its passage ; 
 and Representative Ashley, of Ohio, who had then 
 changed his vote in order that he might move a re- 
 consideration, gave notice that he would call up the 
 Constitutional amendment on January 6, 1865. The 
 debate ran on fitfully for the remainder of that 
 month, and whenever it was noised abroad that the 
 Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery would 
 come up in the House, the galleries were thronged to 
 overflowing, and the speeches were listened to with 
 great intentness. But to the very last day it was 
 feared that the necessary two tliirds vote could not 
 be obtained. Although West Virginia, Missom-i, 
 Arkansas, Maryland, and Louisiana had by that time 
 accepted the situation, and had adopted measm'es 
 looking to the immediate emancipation of slaves, 
 there were not a few men in the House of Repi-esen- 
 tatives who opposed the Constitutional amendment. 
 William S. Holman and George H. Pendleton, from 
 the Northern States, were among those who voted 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 205 
 
 against it. It should be recalled that the House on 
 the previous occasion, when it failed to pass, June 
 15, 1864, gave the amendment ninety-five ayes to 
 sixty-six noes, a two thirds vote being necessaiy ; 
 and when the measm*e came up for final passage 
 on January 31, anxiety and expectation sat on 
 every countenance. But on the fioor of the House, 
 where the friends of liberty and freedom were cir- 
 culating tally-lists which they had prepared for 
 their own private information, there was a general 
 air of cheerfulness and confidence. The galleries, 
 corridors, and lobbies were crowded to the doors, 
 and the reporters' gallery was invaded by a mob 
 of well-di*essed women, who for a time usurped the 
 place of the newspaper men ; and these, consid- 
 ering the importance of the proceedings and the 
 gravity of the impending event, surrendered their 
 seats with good grace. On the floor of the House 
 were Chief Justice Chase and the Associate Just- 
 ices Swayne, Miller, Nelson, and Field, Secretary 
 Fessenden, Postmaster-General Dennison, senators 
 by the dozen, the electoral messengers from Ore- 
 gon, Nevada, and California, ex-Postmaster-G-eneral 
 Montgomery Blair, and hosts of other prominent 
 persons. 
 
 When the hour for taking the vote approached, 
 Archibald McAllister, a Pennsylvania Peace Dem- 
 ocrat, astonished everybody by sending up to the 
 clerk's desk a note in which he said that as all 
 peace negotiations and missions had failed, he was 
 satisfied that nothing short of their independence 
 would satisfy the Southern Confederates, and he 
 therefore determined to cast his vote against the 
 
206 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 corner-stone of tlie Southern Confederacy— slavery. 
 Several other Democrats and Border State men, 
 who had heretofore withheld their support of the 
 Constitutional amendment, also came in with brief 
 explanations of the vote which they now proposed 
 to cast in the affirmative. The supreme moment 
 finally arrived, Speaker Colfax's ringing voice de- 
 manded of the House " Shall the Joint Resolution 
 pass ? " The roU-eaU proceeded, and as the clerk's 
 call went slowly down the list, knots of members 
 gathered around their fellows who were keeping 
 tally; and a group of Copperheads hung around 
 Pendleton, looking gloomy, black, and sour. Occa- 
 sionally, when a member whose opposition to the 
 amendment had been notable voted " aye," a clatter 
 of applause, irrepressible and spontaneous, swept 
 through the House. "When the name of John Gran- 
 son, a New York Peace Democrat, gave back an 
 echo of " aye," much to the surprise of everybody, 
 there was a great burst of enthusiasm; for this 
 marked the safety of the amendment. On the final 
 vote there were one hundred and nineteen in the 
 affirmative, fifty-six in the negative, and eight ab- 
 sentees. 
 
 When the roll-oall was concluded. Speaker Col- 
 fax exercised his prerogative and asked the clerk to 
 call his name, whereupon his voice rang out ^^ith 
 an " aye ". Then, the record being made up, the 
 Speaker, his voice trembling, said : "On the passage 
 of the Joint Resolution to amend the Constitution 
 of the United States the ayes have one hundred 
 and nineteen, the noes fifty-six. The constitutional 
 majority of two thirds having voted in the affirm- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 207 
 
 ative, the Joint Resolution has passed." For a mo- 
 ment there was a pause of utter silence, as if the 
 voices of the dense mass of spectators were choked 
 by strong emotion. Then there was an explosion, 
 a storm of cheers, the like of which probably no 
 Congress of the United States ever heard before. 
 Strong men embraced each other with tears. The 
 galleries and aisles were bristling with standing, 
 cheering crowds. The air was stirred with a cloud 
 of women's handkerchiefs waving and floating ; 
 hands were shaking ; men threw their arms about 
 each other's necks, and cheer after cheer, and burst 
 after burst followed. Full ten minutes elapsed 
 before silence returned sufficient to enable Ebon 
 C. Ingersoll, of Illinois, to move an adjournment 
 " in honor of the sublime and immortal event," upon 
 which B. C. Harris, the deeply censured Mary- 
 lander, shaking with wrath, arose and demanded the 
 ayes and noes on the motion. This little artifice to 
 procure delay did not amount to much, for, as the 
 roll-call began, members answered to their names 
 and passed out, most of the defeated Copperheads 
 taking their hats and stealing away before their 
 names were reached. As the roll-call went on 
 amidst great confusion (for there was no longer 
 any pretense of maintaining order), the air was 
 rent by the thunder of a great salute fired on Capi- 
 tol Hill, to notify all who heard that slavery was no 
 more. 
 
 Every Republican member of the House voted 
 for the final passage of the amendment: not one 
 of them was absent when the vote was taken. Of 
 the 119 members who finally voted for the amend- 
 
208 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ment, 11 were Democrats ; their votes were neces- 
 sary to secure the constitutional two thirds. These 
 men were James E. English, of Connecticut ; Anson 
 Herrick, William Eadford, Homer A. Nelson, John 
 B. Steele, and John Granson, of New York ; A, H. 
 Coffroth and Archibald McAllister, of Pennsylva- 
 nia ; Wells A. Hutchins, of Ohio ; and Augustus C. 
 Baldwin, of Michigan. There were eight Democrats 
 absent when the vote was taken ; these were Jesse 
 Lazear, of Pennsylvania ; John F. McKinney and 
 Francis C. LeBlond, of Ohio ; Daniel W. Voorhees 
 and James F. McDowell, of Indiana; George 
 Middleton and A. J. Rogers, of New Jersey; and 
 Daniel Marcy, of New Hampshke. It is fair to 
 assume that these absentees were not unwilling 
 that the amendment abolishing slavery should 
 prevail, but were not willing to give it their ac- 
 tive support. 
 
 At that time there were seven Territories repre- 
 sented by delegates in Congress. These were Colo- 
 rado, Utah, Nebraska, Arizona, Dakota, Idaho, and 
 New Mexico. The delegates of these Territories, 
 not having the right to vote on any measure in the 
 House of Representatives, were granted leave to 
 enter upon the Journal of the House a paper in 
 which they expressed their deep interest in the 
 proposition to amend the Federal Constitution, for- 
 ever abolishing slavery, and declared their unqual- 
 ified approbation of the same. 
 
 The Joint Resolution to amend the Constitution, 
 and thus provide for the perpetual abolition of 
 slavery, being an accomplished fact so far as the 
 action of Congress was concerned, the consent of 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 209 
 
 the States was now necessary. It will be remem- 
 bered that in the so-called Wade-Davis bill proAd- 
 sion had been made for the abolition of slavery by 
 requiring that each reconstructed State, as it took 
 its place in returning to the Union, should adopt a 
 Constitution forever prohibiting slavery within its 
 borders. This feature of the measure commended 
 it to all friends of human freedom. Very many 
 who did not pause to consider the effect of what 
 Mr. Lincoln called " this bed of Procrustes " were 
 taken by the proposition that slavery would be 
 abolished, provided the measure should receive the 
 favorable action of the reconstructed States ; and 
 in their manifesto the authors of the bill laid great 
 stress upon that clause of their elaborate scheme ; 
 and they asked, with fine sarcasm, how President 
 Lincoln could possibly expect slavery could be 
 abolished when the House had already refused the 
 necessary two thirds vote required by the Consti- 
 tution. At that time, it will be remembered, the 
 House had taken its first and undecisive action on 
 the bill, in June, 1864. Now that the amendment, 
 however, having safely passed the ordeal of both 
 branches of Congress, was to go to the States 
 for ratification, the final act giving vitality to the 
 amendment was merely a matter of time. Two 
 States, Rhode Island and Michigan, led the col- 
 umn, their legislatures having ratified the amend- 
 ment February 2, 1865 ; but it was not until after 
 Lincoln's death that the necessary three fourths of 
 the thirty-six States of the Union had ratified the 
 amendment so that it became valid as a part of 
 the Constitution. Official proclamation of that 
 
210 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 consummation was finally made by Secretary Sew- 
 ard, then in Johnson's cabinet, December 18, 1865. 
 
 Before the adoption of the Thirteenth Amend- 
 ment, slavery was possible within the limits of any 
 State, at the will of a majority of the voters of 
 such State ; or, slavery conld be abolished in any 
 State in like manner. Now, slavery was forever 
 prohibited within the United States by the author- 
 ity of the nation. And as the amended Constitu- 
 tion declared that " Congress shall have power to 
 enforce this article by appropriate legislation," 
 the power of the States to meddle with the ques- 
 tion of slavery was forever taken away. In Sep- 
 tember, 1859, Lincoln compressed into a single 
 brief sentence the gist of the Dred Scott decision 
 thus : " The Constitution of the United States for- 
 bids Congress to deprive a man of his property 
 without due process of law. The right of property 
 in slaves is distinctly affirmed in the Constitution : 
 therefore, if Congi'ess shall undertake to say that a 
 man's slave is no longer his when he crosses a cer- 
 tain line into a Territory, that is depriving him 
 of his property without due process of law." The 
 Thirteenth Amendment, proposed by Congress and 
 adopted by the States, drew the fangs of the mon- 
 ster which Taney, and those who believed with him, 
 had insisted was sleeping in the Constitution — the 
 right of property in slaves. 
 
 One of the curiosities of the time was the anx- 
 iety of every member who voted for the amend- 
 ment, and many others who were not members of 
 Congress, to procure oflacially enrolled copies of the 
 historic act as it had passed both branches of Con- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 211 
 
 gress. It became one of the industries of the clerks 
 of the House and Senate to engross on a sheet of 
 parchment the few brief and pregnant sentences 
 of the amendment, and procure thereto the auto- 
 graph signatures of the senators and representa- 
 tives who voted for it, and also the autographs of 
 the President and Secretary of the Senate, the 
 Speaker and Clerk of the House of Representa- 
 tives, the President of the United States, and the 
 Secretary of State. So far as I know, hundreds of 
 such parchments, bearing the signatures of these 
 now historic personages, were in existence when 
 Congress adjourned in March, 1865. It has always 
 been the custom for pages and others about the 
 House and Senate to procure the autographs of 
 members. These, arranged in albums, have finally 
 come to be regarded as an article of commerce; 
 but the signing of the names of the senators and 
 representatives, and other high officials responsi- 
 ble for the enactment of the Thirteenth Amend- 
 ment, was certainly done with more cheerfulness 
 than any similar exercise of that semi-public func- 
 tion. As a matter of fact, the signature of the 
 President was not necessary to give effect to the 
 action of Congress in passing the amendment. In- 
 advertently, however, the Joint Resolution was 
 laid before the President on the day of its passage 
 by the House, and he signed it in due course of 
 business. Subsequently, however, the Senate, at 
 the instance of Senator Lyman TriimbuU, who was 
 a gifted hair-splitter, adopted a resolution that such 
 approval by the President was unnecessary to give 
 effect to the action of Congress ; and it was then 
 
212 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 declared that the negative of the President applied 
 only to the ordinary cases of legislation, and that 
 he had nothing to do with the proposition or the 
 adoption of amendments to the Constitution. Nev- 
 ertheless, the attaching of the President's signature 
 to the Thirteenth Amendment did establish for 
 him a precedent which thereafter required him to 
 sign his name to the hundreds of facsimiles of the 
 document which set forth the momentous fact that 
 Congress had on the 31st day of January, 1865, 
 formally abolished slavery throughout the United 
 States ; and he was deeply gratified that his name 
 was officially connected with that act. 
 
 "COLOEED PEKSONS MAY HIDE IN THIS CAK." 
 
 Another sign of the times (though far less impor- 
 tant in its way) that showed that the world still 
 moves, and slavery is an anachronism, was the grad- 
 ual emancipation of the colored people of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia from the ban under which they 
 had always lived. The introduction of street rail- 
 ways into the National Capital was in itself an in- 
 novation. The fine old aristocrats of the ancien 
 regime looked upon these vehicles with great dis- 
 favor. They soon discovered that the "c'yar box", as 
 they called the street-car, would not come up to the 
 sidewalk at the wave of a parasol or the beckoning 
 of a hand, as had been the servile habit of the omni- 
 buses, formerly the principal means of public con- 
 veyance in Washington streets. And it was a long 
 time before these dignified sticklers for old man- 
 ners and customs permitted themselves to enter the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 213 
 
 queer " Yankee contrivance " so lately introduced. 
 Negroes had been permitted in ancient times to ride 
 on the roof of the omnibus, and when the street- 
 cars began their slow progress on Pennsylvania 
 Avenue, colored people were graciously allowed to 
 face the dust, or the snow, sleet, and rain of the 
 variable climate, in company with the driver on 
 the front platform ; but when the abolition of 
 slavery in the District became inevitable, and free 
 negroes from the disordered States adjacent began 
 to flock into Washington, these narrow accommo- 
 dations were soon found insufficient. Under no 
 pretext whatever was a colored person, however 
 well dressed, however cleanly, permitted inside of 
 one of the "c'yar boxes" sacred to the Caucasian 
 race. Protests against their exclusion found their 
 way into the newspapers, and the street-car com- 
 pany, in deference to a popular demand of increas- 
 ing loudness, added one or two antique cars, which 
 bore upon the roof in big letters this concession : 
 "Colored Persons May Ride In This Car." The 
 poor outcasts who had been denied the luxury of a 
 seat, although they paid their full fare just as cheer- 
 fully as white people, now had an opportunity of 
 riding inside of a car once in an hour ; and occa- 
 sionally a white person of bitter prejudices would 
 stray ignorantly into one of the vehicles conceded 
 to the colored race, and would indignantly demand 
 of the conductor the expulsion of every person but 
 himself, much to his own subsequent discomfiture. 
 Before the introduction of the so-called "colored 
 cars" I saw a handsomely dressed and lady-like 
 woman sent out on the front platform by a con- 
 
214 WASHIKGTOH IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ductor, whose practised eye detected Ethiopian tra- 
 ces in her white face and straight hair, although a 
 person less expert in ethnology could not possibly 
 have discerned them. When the lady had made 
 her exit, which she did with a quick blush man- 
 tling her beautiful face, the conductor angrily said 
 that it was just as likely as not that of a dark even- 
 ing the woman had ridden back and forth in the 
 cars and " nobody had known no thin' of it." When 
 somebody asked, "Well, what of that?" the amazed 
 Caucasian conductor was incapable of reply. 
 
 As the street-car company was a creature of Con- 
 gress, and Congress was at that time busily engaged 
 in considering how all traces of slavery should be 
 eradicated, petitions began to flow in, and indig- 
 nant lovers of freedom occasionally raised a racket 
 in the Senate or House over the long-continued 
 proscription of the colored people. Finally the 
 crisis came when Dr. A. T. Augusta, a colored sur- 
 geon, of the Seventh United States Colored Troops, 
 dressed in the full uniform of a major, was expelled 
 from a street-car under peculiarly exasperating cir- 
 cumstances. He was on his way to a court-martial, 
 where he was an important witness, and, being com- 
 pelled to get out into the rain and slush of a Febru- 
 ary day, was a long time delayed in reaching the 
 court. He had been told by the conductor that he 
 could ride on the front platform, where the rain 
 was driving in sheets, but he explained that unless 
 he could ride in the car, he would not ride at all. 
 He was therefore compelled to walk a long dis- 
 tance in mud and rain, and when he reached the 
 court he addressed to the Judge- Advocate a com- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 215 
 
 munication, giving the reason of his failure to 
 report when ordered. In due course of time this 
 incident came before the Senate, and a resolution 
 was passed inquiring into the right of the street- 
 car company to set up a rule by which colored 
 people were excluded from any of their vehicles. 
 The company very soon found that their charter 
 contemplated no such discrimination against any 
 person, and after a while the concessionary sign on 
 the tops of the few " colored cars " disappeared, and 
 this invidious distinction was heard of no more. 
 If there was any real invasion of the rights of white 
 people which unpleasantly affected the superior 
 race at that time, it was never made manifest ; but 
 it is singular that such men as Buckalew of Penn- 
 sylvania, Hendricks of Indiana, Nesmith of Oregon, 
 Richardson of Illinois, and a few other Northern 
 men with fixed principles of hostility to the " un- 
 bleached Americans," persistently opposed the reso- 
 lution to inquire into the facts concerning the ex- 
 clusion of colored people from the street-cars. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 LINCOLN'S KEELECTION 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF LINCOLN'S SECOND TEKM — THE 
 president's SHEEWDNESS at HAMPTON EOADS — 
 LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGUKATION 
 
 THE day of the presidential election in Novem- 
 ber, 1864, was dark and rainy. About noon I 
 called on President Lincoln, and to my surprise 
 found him entirely alone, as if by common consent 
 everybody had avoided the White House. It was 
 " cabinet day," and at the meeting, which had been 
 held earlier, only two members of the cabinet were 
 present. Stanton was at his home, sick with chills 
 and fever; Seward, Usher, and Dennison had re- 
 turned to their own States to vote ; and Fessenden 
 was closeted with New York financiers in confer- 
 ence over ways and means to place a new loan. 
 So Secretary Welles and Attorney-General Bates 
 were left to "run the machine," and very little 
 time had been occupied by them in their session 
 with the President. Lincoln took no pains to con- 
 ceal his anxious interest in the result of the election 
 then going on all over the country, and said : " I 
 am just enough of a politician to know that there 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 217 
 
 was not much doubt about the result of the Balti- 
 more convention ; but about this thing I am very- 
 far from being certain. I wish I were certain." I 
 spent nearly all the afternoon with the President, 
 who apparently found it difficult to put his mind 
 on any of the routine work of his office, and en- 
 treated me to stay with him. In the course of the 
 afternoon he told an amusing story about a pet 
 turkey of his boy "Tad." It appears that Jack, 
 the turkey, whose life had been spared the year be- 
 fore at Tad's earnest request, had mingled with 
 the "Bucktail" soldiers from Pennsylvania, quar- 
 tered in the grounds on the river front of the White 
 House. The soldiers were voting under the direc- 
 tion of a commission sent on from their State, as 
 was the custom in several States of the Union, and 
 Tad, bursting into his father's office, had besought 
 the President to come to the window and see the 
 soldiers who were " voting for Lincoln and John- 
 son." Noticing the turkey regarding the proceed- 
 ings with evident interest, Lincoln asked the lad 
 what business the turkey had stalking about the 
 polls in that way. " Does he vote ? " " No," was 
 the quick reply of the boy ; " he is not of age." 
 The good President dearly loved the boy, and for 
 days thereafter he took pride in relating this anec- 
 dote illustrative of Tad's quick- wittedn ess. 
 
 Late in the evening I returned to the "White 
 House, and found that the only returns then re- 
 ceived wei'e from Indiana, which showed that a 
 gain of 1500 had been made in Indianapolis for the 
 Republican ticket. Later on we went over to the 
 War Department, and there heard good news from 
 
218 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Baltimore, that city having sent in a majority of 
 more than 10,000. Other reports soon came in, but 
 not very rapidly, as a rain-storm had interfered 
 with the transmission of news over the telegraph 
 wires. There was a long lull about ten o'clock in 
 the evening, during which the President amused 
 the little company in the War Of6.ce with enter- 
 taining reminiscences and anecdotes naturally sug- 
 gested by the political intelligence that dropped in 
 from time to time. For instance, when New Jer- 
 sey broke the calm by announcing a gain of one 
 congressman for the Union, but with a fair pros- 
 pect of the State going for McClellan, Lincoln had 
 an amusing story to tell about that particular con- 
 gressman, Dr. Newell, who had long been a family 
 friend of the Lincolns. A despatch from New York 
 city, claiming the State by 10,000, was received by 
 the chief magistrate with much incredulity ; and 
 when Greeley telegraphed that the State would 
 probably give 4000 majority for Lincoln, he said 
 that that was much more reasonable than the ab- 
 surd statement of a bigger majority. By midnight 
 Pennsylvania, the New England States, Maryland, 
 Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin were toler- 
 ably certain for Lincoln; but the President was 
 greatly disappointed that neither Illinois nor Iowa 
 was heard from. The wires continued to woi'k 
 badly on account of the long storm, and it was not 
 until two days later that satisfactory returns were 
 had from Illinois or from any of the States beyond 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 About midnight of the day of the election it was 
 certain that Lincoln had been reelected, and the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 219 
 
 few gentlemen left in the office congratulated Mm 
 very warmly on the result. Lincoln took the mat- 
 ter very calmly, showing not the least elation or ex- 
 citement, but said that he would admit that he was 
 glad to be relieved of all suspense, and that he was 
 grateful that the verdict of the people was likely to 
 be so full, clear, and unmistakable that there could 
 be no dispute. About two o'clock in the morning 
 a messenger came over from the White House with 
 the news that a crowd of Pennsylvanians were ser- 
 enading his empty chamber, whereupon he went 
 home ; and, in answer to repeated calls, he made a 
 happy little speech full of good feeling and cheer- 
 fulness. He wound up his remarks by saying, " If 
 I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any 
 taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the 
 motives of any one opposed to me. It is no plea- 
 sure to me to triumph over any one, but I give 
 thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the 
 people's resolution to stand by free government 
 and the rights of humanity." 
 
 Next day, ia private conversation, he said : " Be- 
 ing only mortal, after all, I should have been a 
 little mortified if I had been beaten in this can- 
 vass before the people ; but the sting would have 
 been more than compensated by the thought that 
 the people had notified me that my official respon- 
 sibilities were soon to be lifted off my back." Dr. 
 A. Gr. Henry of Washington Territory, whose name 
 has frequently been mentioned in these papers as 
 an old friend of the President, had been promised 
 that he should receive a despatch from Mr. Lincoln 
 when the result of the presidential election of that 
 
220 WASHINGTON IN LINCOIiN'S TIME 
 
 year should be definitely ascertained. Accordingly, 
 on this day, which was November 9, President Lin- 
 coln dictated a despatch, the terms of which were 
 as follows : " With returns and States of which we 
 are confident, the reelection of the President is con- 
 sidered certain, while it is not certain that McClel- 
 lan has carried any State, though the chances are 
 that he has carried New Jersey and Kentucky." 
 When I had written the despatch at the President's 
 dictation, I passed it to him for his signature ; but 
 he declined to " blow his own horn," as he expressed 
 it, and said : " You sign the message, and I will send 
 it." A day or two later, when Delaware, whose vote 
 had been uncertain, declared for McClellan, Lincoln 
 sent a second despatch in order to give his friend 
 on the far-off Pacific coast a clear and exact idea 
 of what had happened, explaining that he took it 
 for granted that Dr. Henry would hear all the news, 
 but might think it odd that the President should 
 leave him without clearing up the situation thus 
 left somewhat undecided in the uncertainties of the 
 election returns. 
 
 On the day mentioned, Lincoln narrated an in- 
 cident the particulars of which I wrote out and 
 printed directly after. These are his own words, 
 as nearly as they could then be recalled : " It was 
 just after my election in 1860, when the news had 
 been coming in thick and fast all day and there 
 had been a great ' hurrah, boys,' so that I was well 
 tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself 
 down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where 
 I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it " 
 (and here he got up and placed furniture to illus- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 221 
 
 trate the position), " and looking in that glass I 
 saw myself reflected nearly at full length ; but my 
 face, I noticed, had two separate and distinct im- 
 ages, the tip of the nose of one being about three 
 inches from the tip of the other. I was a little 
 bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked 
 in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying 
 down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if pos- 
 sible, than before ; and then I noticed that one of 
 the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than 
 the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, 
 and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour 
 forgot aU about it — nearly, but not quite, for the 
 thing would once in a while come up, and give me 
 a little pang as if something uncomfortable had hap- 
 pened. When I went home again that night I told 
 my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made 
 the experiment again, when " (with a laugh), " sure 
 enough ! the thing came again ; but I never suc- 
 ceeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though 
 I once tried very industriously to show it to my 
 wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She 
 thought it was a ' sign ' that I was to be elected to 
 a second term of office, and that the paleness of one 
 of the faces was an omen that I should not see life 
 through the last term." This is a very remarkable 
 story — a coincidence, we may say, to which some 
 significance was given by the cruel death of the 
 President soon after the beginning of his second 
 term. I told Mrs. Lincoln the story, and asked her 
 if she remembered its details. She expressed sur- 
 prise that Mr. Lincoln was willing to say anything 
 about it, as he had up to that time refrained from 
 
222 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 mentioning the incident to anybody; and as she 
 was firm in her belief that the optical Hlusion 
 (which it certainly was) was a warning, I never 
 again referred to the subject to either the Presi- 
 dent or his wife. Subsequently, Lincoln's version 
 of the story was confirmed by Private Secretary 
 John Hay, who, however, was of the opinion that 
 the illusion had been seen on the day of Lincoln's 
 first nomination, and not, as I have said, on the 
 day of his first election. Commenting on the re- 
 sult of the election of the day before, Lincoln said, 
 with great solemnity : "I should be the veriest 
 shallow and self-conceited blockhead upon the 
 footstool, if in my discharge of the duties that are 
 put upon me in this place, I should hope to get 
 along without the wisdom that comes from God, 
 and not from men." 
 
 On the night of November 10 an impromptu pro- 
 cession, gay with banners and resplendent with lan- 
 terns and transparencies, marched up to the White 
 House, and a vast crowd surged around the main 
 entrance, fiUiug the entire space within the grounds 
 as far as the eye could reach from the house. Mar- 
 tial music, the cheers of people, and the roar of 
 cannon, shook the sky. Tad, who was flying around 
 from window to window arranging a small illumi- 
 nation on his own private account, was delighted 
 and excited by the occasional shivering of the large 
 panes of glass by the concussion of the air pro- 
 duced when the cannon in the driveway went off 
 with tremendous noise. The President wi'ote out 
 his little speech, and his appeai-ance at " the historic 
 window " over the doorway in the portico was the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 223 
 
 signal for the maddest cheers from the crowd, and 
 it was many minutes before the deafening racket 
 permitted him to speak. The same procession 
 marched around to the houses of some of the mem- 
 bers of the cabinet, among others to that of Secre- 
 tary Seward, who had returned from his visit to 
 New York. 
 
 The Secretary of State was in an exceedingly 
 jocose frame of mind, and after congratulating the 
 crowd on the result of the election, made a funny 
 speech substantially as follows : " I advise you to 
 go and see Mr. Fessenden, for if he gets discou- 
 raged we shall all come to grief; also be good 
 enough to poke up Mr. Stanton ; he needs poking 
 up, for he has been seriously sick, I hear, for sev- 
 eral days past. You cannot do better also than 
 to call upon my excellent friend Grideon "Welles, 
 and ask him if he cannot make the blockade ofE 
 Wilmington more stringent, so that I shall not need 
 to have so much trouble with my foreign relations." 
 To say that the crowd was delighted with this com- 
 ical little speech is faintly to describe the frame of 
 mind in which the Secretary's jocose remarks were 
 received. 
 
 THE PKESIDENT'S SHREWDNESS AT HAMPTON KOADS 
 
 Geeat was the excitement in Washington when, 
 at the close of the next January (1865), it was noised 
 abroad that negotiations looking for peace were to 
 be opened between the Federal administration and 
 the rebel president. Francis P. Blair, Sr., had re- 
 turned from the second of his fruitless missions to 
 
224 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Eichmond, bringing to the President the informa- 
 tion that Jefferson Davis was " ready to enter into 
 conference with a view to secure peace to the two 
 countries." The general tenor of Blair's verbal ac- 
 count of what he saw and heard in Richmond, more 
 than anything else, perhaps, encouraged Mr. Lin- 
 coln in the belief that peace might be obtained by 
 negotiation, and the Union be restored upon terms 
 which would be acceptable to the country. I say 
 " perhaps," because there is probably no living man 
 who knew exactly what was Mr. Lincoln's opinion 
 concerning the possibility of secui'ing terms of peace 
 at that time on any basis that would be acceptable 
 to himself and to the whole country. But in any 
 case we may be sure that he determined to exhaust 
 all the means within his reach to satisfy the coun- 
 try whether peace with honor could or could not 
 . be obtained by negotiation. My own belief then 
 (which was strengthened by one or two conversa- 
 tions with Mr. Lincoln) was that after the failure 
 of the Niagara Falls conference in July, 1864, he 
 had no faith whatever in any proposition pretend- 
 ing to look in the direction of peace which might 
 come from the Confederate authorities. 
 
 But when it was found that not only had Secre- 
 tary Seward gone to Hampton Roads to meet the 
 so-called rebel commissioners, Stephens, Campbell, 
 and Hunter, but that the President of the United 
 States had actually followed him, the perturbation 
 in Washington was something which cannot be read- 
 ily described. The Peace Democrats went about the 
 corridors of the hotels and the Capitol, saying that 
 Lincoln had at last come to their way of thinking, 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 225 
 
 and had gone to Hampton Eoads to open peace ne- 
 gotiations. The radicals were in a fury of rage. 
 They bitterly complained that the President was 
 about to give up the political fruits which had been 
 already gathered from the long and exhausting mili- 
 tary struggle. It was asserted that the policy of 
 confiscation and emancipation was to be abandoned, 
 and that as a further concession to the " returning 
 prodigal," the abolition of slavery by the action of 
 States that had not yet voted was to be blocked 
 then and there. There were, however, not a few 
 moderate, and I may say conservative, Republi- 
 cans whose faith in the sagacity and patriotism 
 of Abraham Lincoln still remained unshaken ; but 
 these were in a minority, and it was apparently 
 with feeble hope that they admonished radical Ee- 
 publicans and Copperhead Democrats to wait until 
 Lincoln had retm-ned from Hampton Koads and 
 was ready to tell his story. Among the bitterest to 
 denounce the course of Lincoln was Thaddeus Ste- 
 vens, who, a few days before, had said in his place 
 in the House of Eepresentatives that if the country 
 were to vote over again for President of the United 
 States, Benjamin F. Butler, and not Abraham Lin- 
 coln, would be their choice. Others of the same 
 uncompromising and unreasonable stripe actually 
 hinted at impeachment and trial. Colonel John W. 
 Forney unwittingly added fuel to the flames by pub- 
 lishing in the " Washington Chronicle " a series of 
 editorial articles ablaze with all the clap-trap of 
 double leads and typographical device, in which it 
 was sought to prepare the public mind for the sac- 
 rifice of something vaguely dreadful and dreadfully 
 
226 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 vague. These articles counseled popular acquies- 
 cence in the repeal of the confiscation law and other 
 kindred measures as a condition of peace, and were 
 telegraphed all over the country, and indorsed 
 by thoughtless men as the outgivings of President 
 Lincoln. They were read by astonished and indig- 
 nant thousands, were flouted and scouted by the 
 followers of Wade and Davis, and they filled with 
 alarm and dejection the minds of multitudes of 
 readers not conversant with the facts. It must be 
 remembered that, the war upon President Lincoln 
 for his alleged slowness in regard to the slavery 
 question having no longer that excuse for being, 
 the ultra-radicals had flown to negro suffrage and 
 a more vigorous system of retaliation upon rebel 
 prisoners as convenient weapons in a new aggres- 
 siveness ; and when it was confidently stated that 
 Lincoln had gone to Hampton Eoads because he 
 feared that Seward would not make his terms " lib- 
 eral enough," the excitement in and around the 
 Capitol rose to fever heat. 
 
 When the President and the Secretary of State 
 returned to Washington after their conference on 
 board the steamer JRircr Queen at Hampton Roads, 
 the tenseness of political feeling in Congress was 
 slightly relaxed. The radicals grudgingly admitted 
 that Lincoln and Seward had not yet compromised 
 away the substantial fruits of four years of war 
 and legislation. But with common consent every- 
 body agreed that the President must at once en- 
 lighten Congress as to the doings of himself and 
 Secretary Sewai'd and the rebel commissioners at 
 Hampton Roads. On Februarv 8 culminated a 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 227 
 
 long and acrimonious quarrel which had been 
 brewing in the Senate between some of the con- 
 servative and radical members of that body. Sum- 
 ner introduced a resolution calling on the President 
 for information concerning the Hampton Eoads 
 conference. To this Senator Doolittle of Wiscon- 
 sin objected. He urged that such a request, at such 
 a time, was an indirect censure of the President, 
 and would be construed as a senatorial demand for 
 him to give an account of himself. Mr. Doolittle 
 was somewhat anxious to be regarded as the special 
 champion of Lincoln and his administration. Sum- 
 ner made a thrust at Doolittle, saying that the 
 Wisconsin senator had made that speech before in 
 the Senate, and that he [Sumner] would caution 
 him not to " jump before he got to the stile." Irri- 
 tated by this and other gibes at his alleged super- 
 serviceableness, Doolittle replied that he classed 
 Senator Powell of Kentucky and Senator Wade of 
 Ohio together ; for although, as he said, they were 
 acting from different motives, they were attempt- 
 ing a common aim. Both, he said, were opposed to 
 the readmission of the States lately in rebellion 
 where the Federal authority had been partially re- 
 stored — Louisiana at that time being the bone of 
 contention. Senator Wade soon got the floor, and 
 replied to Doolittle's speech with great bitterness, 
 losing his temper, and referring to Doolittle's posi- 
 tion as " poor, mean, miserable, and demagogical." 
 He frankly said that he bore the senator from Wis- 
 consin " no malice and very little good will," and he 
 added that the President was certainly in a bad 
 way if he was reduced to having " such a poor 
 
228 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 prop " as Doolittle. Senator Wade exhibited great 
 violence of temper, and Doolittle did not appear 
 to advantage in his attempt to parry the violent 
 blows of the angry senator from Ohio. The up- 
 shot of this painful business was that the resolution 
 calling on the President for information concerning 
 the Hampton Roads conference was adopted. 
 
 On the same day the House, without much ado, 
 passed a resolution of similar import; but it was 
 not until two days later (February 10) that the 
 message and accompanying documents came in. 
 Meanwhile, before the President's return from Fort 
 Monroe, Fernando Wood made in the House an 
 extraordinary speech, which in the opinion of some 
 people was designed to injure Lincoln with his own 
 party by its fulsome praises of the President's pa- 
 triotic action in going to Hampton Roads to par- 
 ticipate in the now historic conference with the 
 rebel commissioners. Among other things, Wood 
 said : " If it be true that the President of the Uni- 
 ted States and the Secretary of State have gone 
 personally to meet ambassadors, or representatives, 
 or commissioners, as you may please to call them, 
 from Richmond, I think that instead of this pro- 
 ceeding being obnoxious to the censure which I 
 have heard bestowed upon it, they but follow the 
 precedent of Washington and Hamilton, who in a 
 similar emergency went (the one President and the 
 other Secretary of the Treasury) to treat with 
 rebels who were engaged in the whisky insurrec- 
 tion in Pennsylvania in 1796. K, therefore, it be 
 true that the President of the United States has 
 made an honest effort to stop this shedding of 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 229 
 
 blood, this exhaustion of the energies of onr great 
 country ; if it be true that, realizing his responsi- 
 bility to his country and his Grod, he has thus risen 
 superior to partizanship and the unfortunate influ- 
 ences that have surrounded him, I say all thanks 
 to him, and God speed him in the work of mercy 
 and justice and right." Even at this late day one 
 can imagine the effect of remarks like these falling 
 from the lips of one of' the most notorious of the 
 Northern Copperheads, eulogistic of the chief mag- 
 istrate, who, as "Wood would have had us believe, 
 had taken a tedious journey to a point near the 
 rebel lines in order to reopen those peace negotia- 
 tions which the Democratic National Convention 
 of the previous summer had declared necessary. 
 On the same day, however, Wood offered a resolu- 
 tion declaring as the sense of the House that it 
 was the duty of the President to proffer and accept 
 only such negotiations as should imply the con- 
 tinued integrity and indissolubility of the Federal 
 govei'nment. 
 
 The House, as seen from the reporters' gallery, 
 when the President's message and accompanying 
 documents relating to the Hampton Roads confer- 
 ence came in, was a curious and interesting study. 
 There had been a call of the House on the previous 
 evening, and a great number of absentees were now 
 summarily brought up at the bar to make such ex- 
 cuses as they could for their non-appearance at the 
 previous session. These proceedings were going 
 on when the message from the President was an- 
 nounced. Instantly, by unanimous consent, all 
 other business was suspended, and the communica- 
 
230 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 tion from the President was ordered to be read. 
 The reading began in absolute silence. Looking 
 over the hall, one might say that the hundreds 
 seated or standing within the limits of the great 
 room had been suddenly turned to stone. The au- 
 ditors who strained their attention were not merely 
 interested to know what was the story to be un- 
 folded : they were apparently fascinated by the 
 importance and mysteriousness of the possible out- 
 come of this extraordinary incident. It is no exag- 
 geration to say that for a little space at least no 
 man so much as stirred his hand. Even the hur- 
 rying pages, who usually bustled about the aisles 
 waiting upon the members, were struck silent and 
 motionless. The preliminary paragi'aphs of the 
 message recited the facts relating to F. P. Blair, 
 Sr.'s, two journeys to Richmond, and, without the 
 slightest appearance of argument, cleared the way 
 for the departure of Secretary Seward to meet the 
 commissioners at Fort Monroe. Then came the 
 three indispensable terms given in the instructions 
 to the Secretary, on which alone could any confer- 
 ence looking to peace be held. These were : 
 
 1. The restoration of the national authority 
 throughout all the States. 
 
 2. No receding, by the Executive of the United 
 States, on the slavery question, from the position 
 assumed thereon in the late annual message to Con- 
 gress and in preceding documents. 
 
 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of 
 the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to 
 the government. 
 
 When the clerk read the words at the close of the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 231 
 
 instructions to Seward, " Yon will not assume to 
 definitely consummate anything," there ran a ripple 
 of mirth thi'oughout the great assembly of con- 
 gressmen ; and the tenseness with which men had 
 listened to the reading was for the first time re- 
 laxed, although there had been a subdued rumble 
 of applause when the clerk read in the instructions 
 to Mr. Blair that the President would be always 
 ready to receive any agent whom Davis, or other 
 influential person, should send to him with a view 
 of securing peace to the people of " our one com- 
 mon country." As the reading of the message and 
 documents went on, the change which took place 
 iu the moral atmosphere of the hall of the House 
 was obvious. The appearance of grave intentness 
 passed away, and members smilingly exchanged 
 glances as they began to appreciate Lincoln's saga- 
 cious plan for unmasking the craftiness of the rebel 
 leaders ; or they laughed gleefully at the occasional 
 hard hits with which the wise President demolished 
 the pretensions of those whose fine-spun logic he 
 had so ruthlessly swept aside in the now famous in- 
 terview. Of course the details of that interview 
 were not then spread before the country, but enough 
 was given in the documents submitted by the Presi- 
 dent to Congress to show the subtle wisdom with 
 which his mission had been conducted and con- 
 cluded. When the reading was over, and the name 
 of the writer at the end of the communication was 
 read by the clerk with a certain grandiloquence, 
 there was an instant and irrepressible storm of ap- 
 plause, begun by the members on the floor, and 
 taken up by the people in the gallery. It was in- 
 
232 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 stantaneoTis, involuntary, and irrepressible, and the 
 Speaker only perfunctorily attempted to quell it. 
 It was like a burst of refreshing rain after a long 
 and heartbreaking drought. 
 
 In the midst of the great inspiration of satisfac- 
 tion which followed the conclusion of the reading 
 of the message, Eepresentative James Brooks, of 
 New York, made a partizan speech in which he ex- 
 pressed his regret that negotiations with " the sepa- 
 rate States " had not been opened by the President ; 
 and from this he went on to the usual phrases of 
 " effusion of blood," "fratricidal strife," and "enor- 
 mous debt," and endeavored to break the force of 
 the President's communication, which for a time at 
 least had made every Unionist in that House a friend 
 of every other, regardless of the titles of " conser- 
 vative " and " radical" which had heretofore divided 
 them. Thaddeus Stevens, who had been among the 
 most acrid of Lincoln's critics during the period of 
 doubt which intervened while the true intent and 
 purpose of the visit to Hampton Roads were not un- 
 derstood, replied to Brooks briefly and pungently, 
 and paid a high tribute to the sagacity, wisdom, and 
 patriotism of President Lincoln. S. S. Cox was an- 
 other speaker who praised the President. He said 
 that the chief magistrate deserved the thanks of the 
 country for his noble course in disregarding " mere 
 politicians," and in looking over their heads to the 
 people for indorsement and approval. 
 
 In a few days all of the material details of the 
 Hampton Eoads conference were spread before the 
 country. The President's reply to the Senate's call 
 for information chiefly consisted of a despatch pre- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 233 
 
 pared at the State Department for transmission to 
 Mr. Adams, the United States minister to England, 
 in which the whole story was told with some degree 
 of detail. Those censorious critics of Lincoln's pol- 
 icy who had pretended to believe that the Presi- 
 dent's visit to Fort Monroe was prompted by his 
 desii-e to second Secretary Seward's eagerness and 
 to stimulate his desire for peaceable negotiations, 
 were greatly chagrined when they ascertained that 
 it was General Grant, the idol of the hour, who had 
 influenced Lincoln to take that step. Grant had con- 
 fidentially written to the Secretary of War express- 
 ing his regret that the Confederate commissioners 
 would return home " without any expression from 
 any one in authority." While he recognized the 
 difficulty of receiving the commissioners, he feared 
 the "bad influence" which their failure to get an 
 authoritative reply would have on the minds of the 
 people, probably South as well as North. It was 
 Grant's message, in which he deplored the failure 
 of the commissioners to see the President, that had 
 impelled Lincoln to go to Fort Monroe. Although 
 General Grant recognized the difficulties in the way 
 of receiving the commissioners, and probably had no 
 faith in any substantial gain to be secured thereby, 
 he did say that he was sorry that the errand of the 
 three men would bfe bootless. He regarded only the 
 moral effect of the mission on both sides of the lines. 
 Lincoln was in his grave before all the facts re- 
 lating to this remarkable conference were made 
 public by those who participated in it ; and when 
 those details did come out, the heroic attitude of 
 Abraham Lincoln, as he sturdily stood up for all 
 
234 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 the results of the long contest which had then been 
 secured in the interest of the Federal Union and 
 the rights of man, was defined with exceeding clear- 
 ness. The wisdom and sagacity wdth which he con- 
 ducted the delicate business then in hand were 
 acknowledged by friend and foe alike, when the 
 session of the House broke up after his remarkable 
 communication had been read to it; and, years 
 later, those who had heard that message readrecaUed 
 with a thrill of pride the exposition of shrewdness 
 contained in the document. But among the vari- 
 ous incidents of the conference the world will prob- 
 ably longest remember that recorded by Alexander 
 H, Stephens, one of the three commissioners, who, 
 afterward writing of the eveut, said that Mr. Hun- 
 ter made a long reply to the President's refusal to 
 recognize another government inside of that of 
 which he alone was President by receiving ambas- 
 sadors to treat for peace. "Mr. Hunter," says 
 Stephens, " referred to the correspondence between 
 King Charles I. and his parliament as a trust- 
 worthy precedent of a constitutional ruler treating 
 with rebels. Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that in- 
 describable expression which generally preceded his 
 hardest hits, aud he remarked : 'Upon questions of 
 history I must refer you to Mr. Sewai-d, for he is 
 posted in such things, and I do not pretend to be 
 bright. My only distinct recollection of the matter 
 is that Charles lost his head.' That settled Mr. 
 Hunter for a while." 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 235 
 
 LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION 
 
 The day of Lincoln's second inauguration, Marcli 
 4, 1865, was as somber and drizzly as the November 
 day of his second election. When the hour of noon 
 arrived, great crowds of men and women streamed 
 around the Capitol building in most wretched 
 plight. The mud in the city of Washington on 
 that day certainly excelled all the other varieties I 
 have ever seen before or since, and the greatest test 
 of feminine heroism — the spoiling of their clothes — 
 redounded amply to the credit of the women who 
 were so bedraggled and drenched on that memorable 
 day. The only entrance to the Senate wing, where 
 the preliminary ceremonies were held, was by the 
 main or eastern portico, the other entrances being 
 used only by privileged persons. From the report- 
 ei's' gallery one could see that the senators were all 
 massed on one side of their chamber, the other side 
 being left for the members of the House and the 
 few notables who should come in later. When the 
 doors of the gallery were opened, and the crowd of 
 women had finally been admitted, the sight was a 
 beautiful one. Senator Foote of Vermont was in 
 the chair, and was greatly discomfited to find that 
 the fair ladies in the gallery had not the slightest 
 idea that they were invading a session of the Sen- 
 ate. They chattered and clattered like zephyrs 
 among the reeds of a water-side. The presiding 
 officer in vain tapped with his ivory mallet. The 
 gay people in the galleries talked on just as though 
 there was no Senate in session in the United States; 
 but when the attention of the fair mob was diverted 
 
236 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 by the arrival of eminent personages, sometMng 
 like a calm prevailed, and there was a sUent gazing. 
 There was Hooker, handsome, rosy, and gorgeous 
 in full uniform; "the dear old Admiral," as the 
 women used to call Farragut ; Mrs. Lincoln in the 
 diplomatic gallery, attended by gallant Senator An- 
 thony ; a gorgeous array of foreign ministers in full 
 court costume; and a considerable group of military 
 and naval officers, brilliant in gold lace and epau- 
 lets. There was a buzz when the justices of the 
 Supreme Court came in, attired in their robes of 
 office, Chief Justice Chase looking very young and 
 also very queer, carrying a " stove-pipe " hat and 
 wearing his long black silk gown. The foreign 
 ministers occupied seats at the right of the chair 
 behind the Supreme Court justices; and behind 
 these were the members of the House. The mem- 
 bers of the cabinet had front seats at the left of the 
 chair, Seward at the head, followed by Stanton, 
 Welles, Speed, and Dennison. Usher was detained 
 by illness, and Fessenden occupied his old seat in 
 the Senate. Lincoln sat in the middle of the front 
 row. 
 
 All eyes were turned to the main entrance, where, 
 precisely on the stroke of twelve, appeared Andrew 
 Johnson, Vice-President elect, arm in arm with 
 Hannibal Hamlin, whose term of office was now ex- 
 piring. They took seats together on the dais of the 
 presiding officer, and Hamlin made a brief and 
 sensible speech, and Andrew Johnson, whose face 
 was extraordinarily red, was presented to take the 
 oath. It is needless to say here that the unfortu- 
 nate gentleman, who had been very ill, was not alto- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 237 
 
 gether sober at this most important moment of his 
 life. In order to strengthen himself for the physi- 
 cal and mental ordeal through which he was about 
 to pass, he had taken a stiff drink of whisky in the 
 room of the Vice-President, and the warmth of the 
 Senate chamber, with possibly other physical con- 
 ditions, had sent the fiery liquor to his brain. He 
 was evidently intoxicated. As he went on with his 
 speech, he turned upon the cabinet officers and ad- 
 dressed them as "Mr. Stanton," "Mr. Seward," etc., 
 without the official handles to their names. Forget- 
 ting Mr. Welles's name, he said, " and you, too, Mr. 
 — ," then, leaning over to Colonel Forney, he said, 
 " What is the name of the Secretary of the Navy ? " 
 and then continued as though nothing had hap- 
 pened. Once in a while, from the reporters' gal- 
 lery, I could observe Hamlin nudging Johnson from 
 behind, reminding him that the hour for the inau- 
 guration ceremony had passed. The speaker kept 
 on, although President Lincoln sat before him, pa- 
 tiently waiting for his extraordinary harangue to 
 be over. 
 
 The study of the faces below was interesting. 
 Seward was as bland and serene as a summer day ; 
 Stanton appeared to be petrified ; Welles's face was 
 usually void of any expression ; Speed sat with his 
 eyes closed ; Dennison was red and white by turns. 
 Among the Union Senators Henry Wilson's face 
 was flushed; Sumner wore a saturnine and sarcas- 
 tic smile ; and most of the others turned and twisted 
 in their senatorial chaii-s as if in long-drawn agony. 
 Of the Supreme Bench, Judge Nelson only was ap- 
 parently moved, his lower jaw being dropped clean 
 
238 WASHINGTOK IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 down in blank horror. Chase was marble, adamant, 
 granite in immobility until Johnson turned his back 
 upon the Senate to take the oath, when he ex- 
 changed glances with Nelson, who then closed up 
 his mouth. When Johnson had repeated inaudibly 
 the oath of ofdce, his hand upon the Book, he turned 
 and took the Bible in his hand, and, facing the au- 
 dience, said, with a loud, theatrical voice and ges- 
 ture, " I kiss this Book in the face of my nation of 
 the United States." 
 
 This painful incident being over. Colonel Forney, 
 the secretary of the Senate, read the proclamation 
 of the President convoking an extra session, and 
 called the names of the members elect. Thereupon 
 the newly chosen senators were sworn in, and the 
 l^rocession for the inauguration platform, which had 
 been built on the east front of the Capitol, was 
 formed. There was a sea of heads in the great plaza 
 in front of the Capitol, as far as the eye could reach, 
 and breaking in waves along its outer edges among 
 the budding foliage of the grounds beyond. When 
 the President and the procession of notables ap- 
 peared, a tremendous shout, prolonged and loud, 
 arose from the surging ocean of humanity around 
 the Capitol building. Then the sergeant-at-arms of 
 the Senate, the historic Brown, arose and bowed, 
 with his shining black hat in hand, in dumb-show 
 before the crowd, which thereupon became still, and 
 Abraham Lincoln, rising tall and gaunt among the 
 groups about him, stepped forward and read his in- 
 augural address, which was printed in two broad 
 columns upon a single page of large paper. As he 
 advanced from his seat, a roar of applause shook 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 239 
 
 the air, and, again and again repeated, finally died 
 far away on the outer fringe of the throng, like a 
 sweeping wave upon the shore. Just at that mo- 
 ment the sun, which had been obscured all day, 
 burst forth in its unclouded meridian splendor, and 
 flooded the spectacle with glory and with light. 
 Every heart beat quicker at the unexpected omen, 
 and doubtless not a few mentally prayed that so 
 might the darkness which had obscured the past 
 four years be now dissipated by the sun of pros- 
 perity, 
 
 Till danger's troubled night depart, 
 
 And the star of peace return. 
 
 The inaugural address was received in most pro- 
 found silence. Every word was clear and audible 
 as the ringing and somewhat shrill tones of Lincoln's 
 voice sounded over the vast concourse. There was 
 applause, however, at the words, "both parties dep- 
 recated war, but one of them would make war rather 
 than let the nation survive, and the other would 
 accept war rather than let it perish " ; and the cheer 
 that followed these words lasted long enough to 
 make a considerable pause before he added senten- 
 tiously, " and the war came." There were occasional 
 spurts of applause, too, at other points along this 
 wonderful address. Looking down into the faces 
 of the people, illuminated by the bright rays of the 
 sun, one could see moist eyes and even tearful 
 cheeks as the good President pronounced these no- 
 ble words: "With malice toward none, with charity 
 for all, with firmness in the right as Grod gives us 
 to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
 
240 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care 
 for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
 widow and his orphans ; to do all which may achieve 
 and cherish a just and a lasting peace among our- 
 selves and with all nations." Among the memories 
 of a lifetime, doubtless there are none more fondly- 
 cherished by those who were so fortunate as to stand 
 near Lincoln at that historic moment than the rec- 
 ollection of the beautiful solemnity, the tender 
 sympathy, of these inspired utterances, and the* 
 rapt silence of the multitudes. 
 
 There were many cheers and many tears as this 
 noble address was concluded. Silence being re- 
 stored, the President turned toward Chief Justice 
 Chase, who, with his right hand uplifted, directed 
 the Bible to be brought forward by the clerk of 
 the Supreme Court. Then Lincoln, laying his right 
 hand upon the open page, repeated the oath of 
 office administered to him by the Chief Justice, 
 after which, solemnly saying, " So help me Grod," 
 he bent forward and reverently kissed the Book, 
 then rose up inaugurated President of the United 
 States for four years from March 4, 1865. A salvo 
 of artillery boomed upon the air, cheer upon cheer 
 rang out, and then, after turning, and bowing to 
 the assembled hosts, the President retired into the 
 Capitol, and, emerging by a basement entrance, 
 took his carriage and was escorted back to the 
 White House by a great procession. 
 
 The Book was probably opened at a venture by 
 a clerk. Chief Justice Chase noted the place where 
 Lincoln's lips touched the page, and he afterward 
 marked the spot with a pencil. The Book so 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 241 
 
 marked was given by the Chief Justice to Mrs, 
 Lincoln. The President had pressed his lips on 
 the 27th and 28th verses of the fifth chapter of the 
 Book of Isaiah, where were these words : 
 
 None shall be weary nor stumble among them ; none 
 shall slumber nor sleep ; neither shall the girdle of their 
 loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken : 
 
 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their 
 horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, their wheels like 
 a whirlwind. 
 
 There was the usual reception at the White 
 House that evening, and, later on, the traditional 
 inauguration ball, at which the President and his 
 wife, most of the members of the cabinet. General 
 Hooker, Admiral Farragut, and other great people 
 were present. The ball was held in the great Hall 
 of Patents in the Interior Department building, 
 and was a very handsome aflfair; but its beauty 
 was marred by an extraordinary rush of hungry 
 people, who fairly mobbed the supper-tables, and 
 enacted a scene of confusion whose wildness was 
 similar to some of the antics of the Paris Commune. 
 
 But chiefly memorable in the mind of those who 
 saw that second inauguration must stUl remain the 
 tall, pathetic, melancholy figure of the man who, 
 then inducted into office in the midst of the glad 
 acclaim of thousands of people, and illumined by 
 the deceptive brilliance of a March sunburst, was 
 already standing in the shadow of death. 
 
CHAPTER Vin 
 
 THE END OF LINCOLN'S CAEEER 
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAH DRAMA — THE GREAT 
 TRAGEDT — THE DOOM OF THE CONSPIRATORS 
 
 IN the latter part of the month of March, 1865, 
 Washington saw many signs of a collapse of the 
 rebellion. The Confederate army appeared to be 
 thoroughly demoralized, and deserters, who arrived 
 constantly in large nxmibers, reported that men 
 from Alabama, Greorgia, Florida, and the Carolinas 
 could not be expected to have any heart in a fight 
 which then seemed only for the defense of Virginia, 
 while their own States were occupied by the armies 
 of the Union. During the month of March more 
 than 3000 deserters were received at Washington, 
 and great numbers were quartered at Fort Monroe, 
 Annapolis, and other points nearer the lines, where 
 they were put to work in the quartermaster's de- 
 partment or in the naval service. One curiosity of 
 the times was a Confederate regimental band which 
 had deserted in a body with its instruments, and 
 was allowed to march through the streets of the na- 
 tional capital playing Union airs. This was one of 
 
WASHINGTOK IN LINCOLN'S TIME 243 
 
 the oddest signs of the final break-up. People re- 
 called a story, told by Hooker, how, when the Union 
 army sealed and occupied Lookout Mountain, a 
 rebel sentry on duty on the crest of one of the 
 most difficult precipices saw our men rise up in 
 solid masses over steps which had been thought 
 inaccessible, and was so surprised that he forgot 
 to run, but stood with feet rooted to the spot, 
 watching the Union force climbing up, and stream- 
 ing past him, and driving the enemy far to the 
 rear, until he was left alone, a statue of amaze- 
 ment. Eecovering himself at last, he threw down 
 his musket, stripped off his rebel-gray jacket, stood 
 on them both, and, looking far off to the sunny 
 South, stretched out as a map below him, said, 
 "How are you. Southern Confederacy?" 
 
 But, notwithstanding such indications of a col- 
 lapse of the rebellion, at this very time many North- 
 ern Union newspapers, led by Horace Greeley and 
 others of his stamp, were demanding that appeals 
 should be made to the Southern people "to stop 
 the flow of blood and the waste of treasure," and 
 that some message should be sent to the Southern- 
 ers " so terse that it will surely be circulated, and 
 so lucid that it cannot be misconstrued or per- 
 verted," by way of an invitation to cease firing. 
 Curiously enough, the nearer the time came for a 
 final surrender, the more fervid was the demand 
 for negotiation and appeal from the unreasonable 
 radicals in the ranks of Northern Unionists. But 
 all this was soon to end ; and while a small party 
 was asking, " Why not negotiate ? " the downfall 
 came. 
 
244 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 The army of Grrant had been enveloping Peters- 
 burg on March 28 and 29, and about ten o'clock on 
 the morning of AprU 3 word was received in Wash- 
 ington from President Lincoln at City Point that 
 that city had been evacuated, and that our army 
 was pushing into it, sweeping around it, and pur- 
 suing the flying squadrons of Lee. At a quarter 
 to eleven in that forenoon came a despatch to the 
 War Department from Gleneral Weitzel, dated at 
 Richmond, announcing the fall of the Confederate 
 capital. It was not many minutes before the news 
 spread like wildfire through Washington, and the 
 intelligence, at first doubted, was speedily made 
 certain by the circulation of thousands of news- 
 paper " extras " containing the news in bulletins 
 issued from the War Department. In a moment 
 of time the city was ablaze with an excitement the 
 like of which was never seen before; and every- 
 body who had a piece of bunting spread it to the 
 breeze; from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to 
 the other the air seemed to burn with the bright 
 hues of the flag. The sky was shaken by a grand 
 salute of 800 guns, fired by order of the Secretaiy 
 of War — 300 for Petersburg and 500 for Eichmond. 
 Almost by magic the streets were crowded with 
 hosts of people, talking, laughing, hurrahing, and 
 shouting in the fullness of their joy. Men em- 
 braced one another, "treated" one another, made 
 up old quarrels, renewed old friendships, marched 
 through the sti-eets arm in arm, singing and chat- 
 ting in that happy sort of abandon which charac- 
 terizes our people when under the influence of a 
 great and universal happiness. The atmosphere 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 245 
 
 was fuU of the intoxication of Joy. The depart- 
 ments of the Government and many stores and 
 private offices were closed for the day, and hosts 
 of hard- worked clerks had their full share of the 
 general holiday. Bands of music, apparently with- 
 out any special direction or formal call, paraded 
 the streets, and boomed and blared from every 
 public place, until the air was resonant with the 
 expression of the popular jubilation in all the na- 
 tional airs, not forgetting "Dixie," which, it will 
 be remembered, President Lincoln afterward de- 
 clared to be among the spoils of war. 
 
 The American habit of speech-making was never 
 before so conspicuously exemplified. Wherever 
 any man was found who could make a speech, or 
 who thought he could make a speech, there a 
 speech was made ; and a great many men who had 
 never before made one found themselves thrust 
 upon a crowd of enthusiastic sovereigns who de- 
 manded of them something by way of jubilant ora- 
 tory. One of the best of those offhand addresses 
 extorted by the enthusiastic crowds was that of 
 Secretary Stanton, who was called upon at the 
 War Department by an eager multitude clamorous 
 for more details and for a speech. The great War 
 Secretary, for once in his life so overcome by emo- 
 tion that he could not speak continuously, said 
 this: 
 
 Friends and fellow-citizens : In this great hour of tri- 
 umph my heart, as well as yours, is penetrated with grat- 
 itude to Almighty God for his deliverance of the nation. 
 Our thanks are due to the President, to the army and 
 
246 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 navy, to the great commanders by sea and land, to the 
 gallant officers and men who have periled their lives upon 
 the battle-field, and drenched the soil with their blood. 
 Henceforth all commiseration and aid should be given to 
 the wounded, the maimed, and the suffering, who bear 
 the marks of their great sacrifices in the mighty struggle. 
 Let us humbly offer up our thanks to divine Providence 
 for his care over us, and beseech him to guide and govern 
 us in our duties hereafter, as he has carried us forward 
 to victory ; to teach us how to be humble in the midst of 
 triumph, how to be just in the horn* of victory, and to help 
 us secure the foundations of this republic, soaked as they 
 have been in blood, so that it shall live for ever and ever. 
 Let us not forget the laboring millions iu other lands, 
 who in this struggle have given us their sympathies, their 
 aid, and their prayers ; and let us bid them rejoice with 
 us in our great triumph. Then, having done this, let us 
 trust the future to him who will guide us as heretofore, 
 according to his own good will. 
 
 Nearly every line of this address was punctuated 
 with applause. 
 
 The Secretary then read G-rant's despatch, an- 
 nouncing the capture of Richmond, and the fact 
 that the city was on fire, upon which the Secretary 
 asked the crowd what they would reply to Grant. 
 Some cried, " Let her burn ! " others, " Burn it ! 
 burn it ! " but one voice shouted, " Hold Eichmond 
 for the Northern mudsills ! " which sally was re- 
 ceived with considerable laughter. Mr. Stanton 
 introduced to the crowd Willie Kettles, a bright- 
 faced Vermont boy about foui'teen years old, an 
 operator in the telegraph room of the War OflSce, 
 who had been the lucky recipient of the important 
 despatch announcing the capture of Richmond. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 247 
 
 Of course the crowd wanted a speech from the lad, 
 who discreetly held his tongue, and bowed with 
 modesty. Secretary Seward, who happened to be 
 at the War Department to hear the news, was 
 espied and called out, and he made a little address 
 in which he said that he had always been in favor 
 of a change in the cabinet, particularly in the "War 
 Department, and that recent events proved that 
 he was right. " Why," said he, " I started to go to 
 ' the front ' the other day, and when I got to City 
 Point they told me it was at Hatcher's Run, and 
 when I got there I was told it was not there but 
 somewhere else, and when I get back I am told by 
 the Secretary that it is at Petersburg ; but before 
 I can realize that, I am told again that it is at 
 Richmond, and west of that. Now I leave you to 
 judge what I ought to think of such a Secretary of 
 War as this." The crowds continually circulated 
 through the city, and from a building near the 
 War Department Senator Nye of Nevada and Pres- 
 ton King of New York spoke, and at Willard's Ho- 
 tel General Butler, Green Clay Smith of Kentucky, 
 and Vice-President Johnson responded to the eager 
 and uproarious demand. The day of jubilee did 
 not end with the day, but rejoicing and cheering 
 were prolonged far into the night. Many illumi- 
 nated their houses, and bands were stUl playing, and 
 leading men and public officials were serenaded all 
 over the city. There are always hosts of people 
 who drown their joys effectually in the flowing 
 bowl, and Washington on April 3 was full of them. 
 Thousands besieged the drinking- saloons, cham- 
 pagne popped everywhere, and a more liquorish 
 
248 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 crowd was never seen in Washington than on that 
 night. Many and many a man of years of habitual 
 sobriety seemed to think it a patriotic duty to " get 
 full " on that eventful night, and not only so, but to 
 advertise the fact of fullness as widely as possible. 
 I saw one big, sedate Vermonter, chief of an execu- 
 tive bureau, standing on the corner of F and Four- 
 teenth streets, with owlish gravity giving away 
 fifty-cent " shin-plasters " (fractional currency) to 
 every colored person who came past him, brokenly 
 saying with each gift, " Babylon has fallen ! " 
 
 On the night of April 4, in pursuance of a recom- 
 mendation by the Secretary of State, the city was 
 generally illuminated. All the public buildings 
 and a great proportion of private residences and 
 business houses were alight with fireworks and 
 illuminations of every description. The War De- 
 partment was gorgeously decorated with a mass 
 of flags, the windows ^^-ere filled with lights, and a 
 huge transparency of patriotic devices crowned 
 the portico. The same was true of the Navy De- 
 partment, the Winder building (occupied by the 
 Government), the White House, and the State and 
 Treasury buildings. Secretary Seward was the au- 
 thor of a much-admired motto over the portico of 
 the State Department, which read : " At home 
 Union is order, and Union is peace. Abroad Union 
 is strength, and strength is peace." Over another 
 entrance of the building was: "Peace and good 
 will to all nations, but no entangling alliances and 
 no foreign intervention." The Treasury had over 
 its chief entrance a huge transparency which was 
 a tolerable imitation of a ten-dollar interest-bear- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 249 
 
 ing United States note, with a mammoth facsimile 
 of Treasm-er Spinner's signatiu-e in all its unique 
 ugliness. The Treasury motto was : " U. S. Green- 
 backs and U. S. Grrant. Grant gives the green- 
 backs a metallic ring." 
 
 With that wonderful adaptability which is char- 
 acteristic of the American people, Richmond was 
 no sooner in our hands than aU the machinery of 
 war, transportation, and subsistence began to tend 
 thither, and orders were at once carried out to re- 
 build railroads, equip steamboat lines, and put up 
 piers and bridges, so that in a few days Washing- 
 ton was in regular communication with Eichmond, 
 and that city was used as a base of supplies against 
 whatever of rebellion might be left in arms. The 
 Orange and Alexandria route to Eichmond was re- 
 established, although for the time being the line of 
 transportation was from Washington via Acquia 
 Creek and Fredericksburg. Steamers were des- 
 patched from Washington to Eichmond with hos- 
 pital supplies, and a United States mail agent took 
 possession of the Eichmond post-ofS.ee ; and while 
 Washington was celebrating the downfall of the 
 rebel capital, the General Post-office received its 
 first regular mail from the captured city. Governor 
 Peirpoint, who, as Senator Sumner picturesquely 
 said, had been carrying the State government of 
 loyal Virginia in his trousers-pocket for several 
 years, announced that the peripatetic ark of the 
 government finally rested in its proper seat ; and so 
 the " Common Council of Alexandria," as Sumner 
 had styled the " loyal " legislature of Virginia, was 
 once more holding sittings in Eichmond. 
 
250 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 But greater things were yet to come. Most peo- 
 ple were sleeping soundly in their beds when, at 
 daylight on the rainy morning of April 10, 1865, 
 a great boom startled the misty air of Washington, 
 shaking the very earth, and breaking the windows 
 of houses about Lafayette Square, and moving the 
 inhabitants of that aristocratic locality to say once 
 more that they would be glad when Union victo- 
 ries were done with, or should be celebrated else- 
 where. Boom ! boom ! went the guns, until five 
 hundred were fired. A few people got up in the 
 chill twilight of the morning, and raced about in 
 the mud to learn what the good news might be, 
 while others formed a procession and resumed 
 their parades, — no dampness, no fatigue, being 
 sufficient to depress their ardor. But many pla- 
 cidly lay abed, well knowing that only one mili- 
 tary event could cause all this mighty pother in 
 the au' of Washington ; aud if their nap in the gi*ay 
 dawn was disturbed with dreams of guns and of 
 terms of armies surrendered to Grant by Lee, they 
 awoke later to read of these in the daily papers; 
 for this was Secretary Stanton's way of telling the 
 people that the Army of Northern Virginia had at 
 last laid down its arms, and that peace had come 
 again. 
 
 But the great news had really reached Washing- 
 ton the night before (Palm Sunday), and a few 
 newspaper men and others of late habits, who were 
 up through the darkness aud the dampness of those 
 memorable hours, had sent the glad tidings all over 
 the Union from Maine to California, aud had then 
 unbent themselves in a private and exclusive jolli- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 251 
 
 fication. When the capital was broad awake, and 
 had taken in the full value of the news, the fever- 
 heat that had fired the city on the day after the 
 fall of Eichmond did not return. Popular feeling 
 had culminated then, and after that great event 
 there was nothing that could surprise us, not even 
 if "Jeff" Davis himseK had come to Washington to 
 surrender. The streets were shockingly muddy, 
 but were all alive with people singing and cheer- 
 ing, carrying flags, and saluting everybody, hun- 
 gering and thirsting for speeches. General Butler 
 was called out, among others, and he made a speech 
 fuU of surprising hberality and generosity toward 
 the enemy. The departments gave another holiday 
 to their clerks; so did many business firms; and 
 the Treasury employees assembled in the great 
 corridor of their building and sang " Old Hun- 
 dredth " with thrilling, even tear-compelling effect. 
 Then they marched in a body across the grounds 
 to the White House, where the President was at 
 breakfast, and serenaded him with "The Star-Span- 
 gled Banner." 
 
 As the forenoon wore on, an impromptu pro- 
 cession came up from the navy-yard, dragging 
 six boat-howitzers, which were fired through the 
 streets as they rolled on. This crowd, reinforced 
 by the hurrahing legions along the route, speedily 
 swelled to enormous proportions, and filled the 
 whole area in front of the White House, where 
 guns were fired and bands played while the mul- 
 titude waited for a speech. The young hope of 
 the house of Lincoln — Tad — made his appear- 
 ance at the well-known window from which the 
 
252 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 President always spoke, and was received with 
 great shouts of applause, whereupon he waved a 
 captured rebel flag, to the uproarious delight of the 
 sovereign people below. When Lincoln came to 
 the window shortly after, the scene before him was 
 one of the wildest confusion. It seemed impossible 
 for men adequately to express their feelings. They 
 fairly yelled with delight, threw up their hats again 
 and again, or threw up one another's hats, and 
 screamed like mad. From the windows of the 
 White House the surface of that crowd looked like 
 an agitated sea of hats, faces, and arms. Quiet be- 
 ing restored, the President briefly congratulated 
 the people on the occasion which called out such 
 unrestrained enthusiasm, and said that, as arrange- 
 ments were being made for a more formal celebra- 
 tion, he would defer his remarks until that occasion; 
 " for," said he, " I shall have nothing to say then if 
 it is all dribbled out of me now." He said that as 
 the good old tune of " Dixie " had been captured 
 on the 9th of April, he had submitted the question 
 of its ownership to the Attorney-General, who had 
 decided that that tune was now our lawful prop- 
 erty; and he asked that the band should play it, 
 which was done with a will, " Yankee Doodle " fol- 
 lowing. Then the President proposed three cheers 
 for General Grant and the officers and men under 
 him, then three cheers for the navy, all of which 
 were given heartily, the President leading off, wav- 
 ing his hand ; and the laughing, joyous crowd dis- 
 persed. 
 
 The special celebration to which Lincoln referred 
 was that of the 11th of April, when, in answer to 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 253 
 
 the customary serenade, the President made a long 
 and formal speech. All of the government build- 
 ings were again illuminated, and the people, almost 
 with unanimity, followed the example. The night 
 was misty, and the exhibition was a splendid one. 
 The reflection of the illuminated dome of the Cap- 
 itol on the moist air above was remarked as being 
 especially fine ; it was seen many miles away. Ar- 
 lington House, across the river, the old home of 
 Lee, was brilliantly hghted, and rockets and col- 
 ored lights blazed on the lawn, where ex-slaves by 
 the thousand sang "The Year of Jubilee." 
 
 The notable feature of the evening, of course, 
 was the President's speech, delivered to an im- 
 mense throng of people, who, with bands, banners, 
 and loud huzzahs, poured into the semicircular 
 avenue in front of the Executive Mansion. After 
 repeated calls, loud and enthusiastic, the President 
 appeared at the window, which was a signal for a 
 great outburst. There was something terrible in 
 the enthusiasm with which the beloved Chief Mag- 
 istrate was received. Cheers upon cheers, wave 
 after wave of applause, rolled up, the President 
 patiently standing quiet until it was all over. The 
 speech was longer than most people had expected, 
 and of a different character. It was chiefly devo- 
 ted to a discussion of the policy of reconstruction 
 which had been outlined by him in pi'evious public 
 documents. It began with the words, now classic, 
 " We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in glad- 
 ness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and 
 Eichmond, and the surrender of the principal in- 
 surgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy 
 
254 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 peace, whose joyous expression cannot be re- 
 strained. In the midst of this, however, he from 
 whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A 
 call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, 
 and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those 
 whose harder part gave us the cause of rejoicing 
 be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled 
 out with others. I myself was near the front, and 
 had the high pleasm"e of transmitting much of the 
 good news to you, but no part of the honor for 
 plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, Ms 
 skillful officers and brave men, all belongs. The 
 gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to 
 take active part." 
 
 While the crowd was assembling in front of the 
 house, and before the President went up-stairs to 
 the window from which he was to speak, I was 
 with him, and noticed that his speech was written 
 out, and that he carried a roll of manuscript in his 
 hand. He explained that this was a precaution to 
 prevent a repetition of the criticisms which had 
 sometimes been made by fastidious persons upon 
 his offhand addresses. Senator Sumner, it may 
 be remembered, had objected to the President's 
 using on a former occasion the expression," The 
 rebels turned tail and ran," as being undignified 
 from the lips of the President of the United States. 
 Lincoln recalled that criticism with a placid smile. 
 From a point of concealment behind the window 
 drapery I held a light while he read, dropping the 
 pages of his written speech one by one upon the 
 floor as he finished them. Little Tad, who found 
 the crowd no longer responsive to his antics, had 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 255 
 
 now sought the chief point of attraction, and scram- 
 bled around on the floor, importuning his father to 
 give him "another," as he collected the sheets of 
 paper fluttering from the President's hand. Out- 
 side was a vast sea of faces, illuminated by the 
 lights that burned in the festal array of the White 
 House, and stretching far out into the misty dark- 
 ness. It was a silent, intent, and perhaps surprised, 
 multitude. Within stood the tall, gaunt figure of 
 the President, deeply thoughtful, intent upon the 
 elucidation of the generous policy which should be 
 pursued toward the South. That this was not the 
 sort of speech which the multitude had expected is 
 tolerably certain. In the hour of his triumph as the 
 patriotic chief magistrate of a great people, Lin- 
 coln appeared to think only of the great problem 
 then pressing upon the Grovernment — a problem 
 which would demand the highest statesmanship, 
 the greatest wisdom, and the firmest generosity. 
 I have said that some of Lincoln's more fastid- 
 ious critics had objected to certain of his offhand 
 phrases, which readily took with the multitude, and 
 which more graphically conveyed his meaning than 
 those commonly used by the scholars. Against 
 advice, he had, in a formal message to Congress, 
 adhered to the use of the phrase "sugar-coated 
 pill." He argued that the time would probably 
 never come when the American people would not 
 understand what a sugar-coated pill was ; and on 
 this historic occasion he used another favorite fig- 
 ure of his when he said, "Concede that the new 
 government of Louisiana is only to what it should 
 be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have 
 
256 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 the fowl by hatching the egg than smashing it." 
 But it turned out that Senator Sumner, for one, 
 was no better pleased with this metaphor than 
 he had been with others on previous occasions; 
 for in a letter to Dr. Lieber of Philadelphia, next 
 day, he wrote : " The President's speech, and other 
 things, augur confusion and uncertainty in the fu- 
 ture, with hot controversy. Alas ! alas ! " And 
 stUl later in that year Sumner said : " The eggs of 
 crocodiles can produce only crocodiles, and it is not 
 easy to see how eggs laid by military power can be 
 hatched into an American State." 
 
 Tears have passed since then, and the grave has 
 long since closed over the President and the sena- 
 tors who opposed his pohcy and his judgment. 
 Posterity has ^dndicated the wisdom of Lincoln, 
 and has dealt charitably with the errors of those 
 who in their day lacked that charity which is now 
 entreated of mankind for them. That they meant 
 well, that they were patriotic, that they were sin- 
 cere, no man can doubt; but as we turn our 
 thoughts backward to that April night when the 
 great President made his last public speech to a 
 silent and wondering crowd, we may well regard 
 his figure with veneration and reverence, aware 
 now, if we were not then, that he builded better 
 than they knew. In the general jubilation of that 
 horn-, however, there was very little criticism of 
 the President's last public speech. It was felt, per- 
 haps, that the man who had brought us safe 
 through the great trial of om' strength and pa- 
 tience, himself strong and patient, might well be 
 trusted with the adju.stment of terms of reunion. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 257 
 
 Eeimion was then the foremost thought in the 
 minds of men. Slavery was dead, peace had re- 
 turned, and henceforth the grateful task of reunit- 
 ing the long-estranged brotherhood of the States 
 was ours. Is it any wonder that men fairly cried 
 with joy when the certainty of this happy consum- 
 mation rose in their minds ? 
 
 But even while we stood under the light of a new 
 day, joyful as a people, triumphant as citizens, 
 there was preparing for us a portentous and incon- 
 ceivable disaster. 
 
 THE GREAT TEAGEDY 
 
 The afternoon and evening of April 14, 1865, 
 were cold, raw, and gusty. Dark clouds enveloped 
 the capital, and the air was chiUy with occasional 
 showers. Late in the afternoon I filled an appoint- 
 ment by calling on the President at the White 
 House, and was told by him that he "had had a no- 
 tion" of sending for me to go to the theater that 
 evening with him and Mrs, Lincoln ; but he added 
 that Mrs. Lincoln had already made up a party to 
 take the place of Gleneral and Mrs. Q-rant, who had 
 somewhat unexpectedly left the city for Burlington, 
 New Jersey. The party was originally planned for 
 the purpose of taking General and Mrs. Grant to 
 see "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater, and 
 when Grant had decided to leave "Washington, he 
 (the President) had " felt inclined to give up the 
 whole thing"; but as it had been announced in 
 the morning papers that this distinguished party 
 would go to the theater that night, Mrs. Lincoln 
 
258 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 had rather insisted that they ought to go, in order 
 that the expectant public should not be wholly dis- 
 appointed. On my way home I met Schuyler Col- 
 fax, who was about leaving for California, and who 
 tarried with me on the sidewalk a little whUe, talk- 
 ing about the trip, and the people whom I knew 
 in San Francisco and Sacramento and whom he 
 wished to meet. Mr. Lincoln had often talked with 
 me about the possibilities of his eventually taking 
 up his residence in California after his term of of- 
 fice should be over. He thought, he said, that that 
 country would afford better opportunities for his 
 two boys than any of the older States ; and when 
 he heard that Colfax was going to California, he 
 was greatly interested in his trip, and said that he 
 hoped that Colfax would bring him back a good 
 report of what his keen and practised observation 
 would note in the country which he (Colfax) was 
 about to see for the first time. 
 
 The evening being inclement, I stayed within 
 doors to nurse a violent cold with which I was af- 
 flicted ; and my room-mate McA and I whiled 
 
 away the time chatting and playing cards. About 
 half-past ten our attention was attracted to the 
 frequent galloping of cavalry, or the mounted pa- 
 trol, past the house which we occupied on New 
 York Avenue, near the State Department buildiag. 
 After a while quiet was restored, and we retired to 
 our sleeping-room in the rear part of the house. As 
 I turned down the gas, I said to my room-mate: 
 " Will, I have guessed the cause of the clatter out- 
 side to-night. You know "Wade Hampton has 
 disappeared with his cavalry somewhere in the 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 259 
 
 mountains of Virginia. Now, my theory of the 
 racket is that he has raided Washington, and has 
 pounced down upon the President, and has at- 
 tempted to carry him off." Of course this was said 
 jocosely and without the slightest thought that the 
 President was in any way in danger; and my 
 friend, in a similar spirit, banteringly rephed, 
 " What good will that do the rebs unless they carry 
 off Andy Johnson also ? " The next morning I was 
 awakened in the early dawn by a loud and hurried 
 knocking on my chamber door, and the voice of 
 Mr. Gardner, the landlord, crying, "Wake, wake, 
 Mr. Brooks ! I have dreadful news." I slipped out, 
 turned the key of the door, and Mr. Grardner came in, 
 pale, ti'embling, and woebegone, like him who "drew 
 Priam's curtain at the dead of night," and told his 
 awful story. At that time it was believed that 
 the President, Mr. Seward, Vice-President Johnson, 
 and other members of the Government, had been 
 killed; and this was the burden of the tale that 
 was told to us. I sank back into my bed, cold and 
 shivering with horror, and for a time it seemed as 
 though the end of all things had come. I was 
 aroused by the loud weeping of my comrade, who 
 had not left his bed in another part of the room. 
 
 When we had sufficiently collected ourselves to 
 dress and go out of doors in the bleak and cheer- 
 less April morning, we found in the streets an ex- 
 traordinary spectacle. They were suddenly crowded 
 with people — men, women, and children thronging 
 the pavements and dai'kening the thoroughfares. 
 It seemed as if everybody was in tears. Pale faces, 
 streaming eyes, with now and again an angry, 
 
260 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 frowning countenance, were on every side. Men 
 and women who were strangers accosted one an- 
 other with distressed looks and teaii ul inquiries for 
 the welfare of the President and Mr. Seward's fam- 
 ily. The President still hved, but at half -past seven 
 o'clock in the morning the tolling of the beUs an- 
 nounced to the lamenting people that he had ceased 
 to breathe. His great and loving heart was still. 
 The last official bulletin from the War Department 
 stated that he died at twenty-two minutes past 
 seven o'clock on the morning of AprU 15. 
 
 Instantly flags were raised at haK-mast aU. over 
 the city, the beUs tolled solemnly, and with incredi- 
 ble swiftness "Washington went into deep, universal 
 mourning. AU shops, government departments, 
 and private offices were closed, and everywhere, on 
 the most pretentious residences and on the hum- 
 blest hovels, were the black badges of grief. Nature 
 seemed to sympathize in the general lamentation, 
 and tears of rain fell from the moist and somber 
 sky. The wind sighed mournfully through streets 
 crowded with sad-faced people, and broad folds of 
 funeral drapery flapped heavily in the wind over 
 the decorations of the day before. Wandering aim- 
 lessly up F street toward Ford's Theater, we met a 
 tragical procession. It was headed by a group of 
 army officers walking bareheaded, and behind them, 
 carried tenderly by a company of soldiers, was the 
 bier of the dead President, covered with the flag of 
 the Union, and accompanied by an escort of sol- 
 diers who had been on duty at the house where 
 Lincoln died. As the little cortege passed down 
 the street to the White House, every head was un- 
 
WASHING-TON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 261 
 
 covered, and the pi'ofound silence which prevailed 
 was broken only by sobs and by the sonnd of the 
 measured tread of those who bore the martyred 
 President back to the home which he had so lately 
 quitted full of life, hope, and cheer. 
 
 On the night of the 17th the remains of Lincoln 
 were laid in the casket prepared for their recep- 
 tion, and were taken from the large guest-chamber 
 of the house to the famous East Eoom, where so 
 many brilliant receptions and so many important 
 public events had been witnessed ; and there they 
 lay in state until the day of the funeral (April 19). 
 The great room was draped with crape and black 
 cloth, relieved only here and there by white flowers 
 and green leaves. The catafalque upon which the 
 casket lay was about fifteen feet high, and consisted 
 of an elevated platform resting on a dais and cov- 
 ered with a domed canopy of black cloth which 
 was supported by four pillars, and was lined be- 
 neath with fluted white silk. In those days the 
 custom of sending " floral tributes " on funereal oc- 
 casions was not common, but the funeral of Lincoln 
 was remarkable for the unusual abundance and 
 beauty of the devices in flowers that were sent by 
 individuals and public bodies. From the time the 
 body had been made ready for burial until the last 
 services in the house, it was watched night and day 
 by a guard of honor, the members of which Avere 
 one major-general, one brigadier-general, two field 
 officers, and four line officers of the army and four 
 of the navy. Before the public were admitted to 
 view the face of the dead, the scene in the darkened 
 room — a sort of chwpelle ardente — was most im- 
 
262 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 pressive. At the head and foot and on each side of 
 the casket of their dead chief stood the motionless 
 figures of his armed warriors. 
 
 When the funeral exercises took place, the floor 
 of the East Eoom had been transformed into some- 
 thing like an amphitheater by the erection of an 
 inclined platform, broken into steps, and filling all 
 but the entrance side of the apartment and the area 
 about the catafalque. This platform was covered 
 with black cloth, and upon it stood the various per- 
 sons designated as participants in the ceremonies, 
 no seats being provided. In the northwest corner 
 were the pall-bearers — senators Lafayette S. Foster 
 of Connecticut, E. D. Morgan of New York, Eeverdy 
 Johnson of Maryland, Eichard Tates of Illinois, 
 Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, and John Conness of 
 California ; representatives Henry L. Dawes of Mas- 
 sachusetts, A. H. Coffroth of Pennsylvania, Green 
 Clay Smith of Kentucky, Schuyler Colfax of Indi- 
 ana, E. B. Washbm'ue of Illinois, and H. Gr. Wor- 
 thington of Nevada; Lieutenant-G-eneral Grant, 
 Major-General Halleck, and Brevet Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral Nichols; Vic e- Admiral Farragut, E ear- Admiral 
 Shubrick, and Colonel ZeUin, of the Marine Corps ; 
 civilians 0. H. Browning, George Ashmun, Thomas 
 Corwiu, and Simon Cameron. The New York 
 Chamber of Commerce was represented by its offi- 
 cers, and the New York Associated Merchants by 
 Simeon Draper, Moses Grinnell, John Jacob Astor, 
 Jonathan Sturges, and Hiram Walbridge, Next to 
 them, at the extreme southern end of the room, 
 were the governors of the States ; and on the east 
 side of the coffin, which lay north and south, and 
 
"WASHINGTON m LINCOLN'S TIME 26c 
 
 opposite the main entrance of the East Room, stooc 
 Andrew Johnson, President of the United States 
 He was supported on each side by his faithful f rienc 
 Preston King and ex- Vice-President Hamlin. Be- 
 hind these were Chief Justice Chase and his asso- 
 ciates on the Supreme Bench, and near them wer( 
 the members of the cabinet and their wives, all oi 
 whom were in deep mourning. On the right of th( 
 cabinet officers, at the northern end of the room 
 were the diplomatic corps, whose brilliant eouri 
 costumes gleamed in strange contrast with the som- 
 ber monotony of the rest of the spectacle. Th( 
 members of the Senate and House of Representa 
 tives were disposed about the room and adjoining 
 apartments, and at the foot of the catafalque wa; 
 a little semicircle of chau-s for the family and friends 
 Robert T. Lincoln, son of the President, was th( 
 only one of the family present, Mrs. Lincoln bein^ 
 unable to leave her room, where she remained witl 
 Tad. General Grant, separated from the others 
 sat alone at the head of the catafalque, and duiin^ 
 the solemn services was often moved to tears. Th( 
 officiating clergymen were the Rev. Dr. Gurley, pas 
 tor of the President, who preached the funeral ser 
 mon ; the Rev. Dr. Hall, of the Epiphany Episeopa 
 Church ; the Rev. Dr. Grvaj, who was then ehaplaii 
 of the Senate ; and Bishop Simpson, who was ai 
 intimate friend of Lincohi. A singular omission 
 whether intentional or not I do not know, was tha 
 no music of any sort was mingled with the exercises 
 The sight of the funeral pageant will probabb 
 never be forgotten by those who saw it. Long be 
 fore the services in the White House were over, th( 
 
264 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 streets were blocked by crowds of people thronging 
 to see the procession, which moved from the house 
 precisely at two o'clock, amid the tolling of bells 
 and the booming of minute-guns from three bat- 
 teries that had been brought into the city, and from 
 each of the many forts about Washington. The 
 day was cloudless, and the sun shone brilliantly 
 upon cavalry, infantry, artillery, marines, associa- 
 tions, and societies, with draped banners, and ac- 
 companied in their slow march by mournful dirges 
 from numerous military bands. The Ninth and 
 Tenth Regiments of Veteran Reserves headed the 
 column ; next came a battalion of marines in gor- 
 geous uniforms ; then the Sixteenth New York and 
 the Eighth Illinois Cavahy Regiments; then eight 
 pieces of United States light artillery in all the 
 pomp and panoply peculiar to that branch of the 
 service; next several mounted major-generals and 
 brigadiers, accompanied by thek staffs ; then army 
 and naval officers on foot by the hundi-ed, more 
 mounted officers, and pall-bearers in carriages ; 
 then the funeral car, a large structure canopied and 
 covered with black cloth, somewhat like the cata- 
 falque which had been erected in the White House. 
 The casket rested on a high platform eight or ten 
 feet above the level of the street. As it passed 
 many shed tears, and all heads were uncovered. 
 The car was inclosed in a hollow square formed by 
 a guard of honor consisting of mounted non-com- 
 missioned officers of various light artillery compa- 
 nies from Oamp Barry, among them being the 
 Independent Pennsylvania (Hampton's) Artillery, 
 and the First West Virginia Battery, and the com- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 265 
 
 pany of cavalry known as the President's body- 
 guard ; then came the carriages for the family, and 
 then the President, the cabinet, the diplomatic 
 corps, both houses of Congress, and others. 
 
 One noticeable feature of the procession was the 
 appearance of the colored societies which brought 
 up the rear, humbly, as was their wont ; but just 
 before the procession began to move, the Twenty- 
 Second United States Colored Infantry (organized 
 in Pennsylvania), landed from Petersburg and 
 marched up to a position on the avenue, and when 
 the head of the column came up, played a dirge, 
 and headed the procession to the Capitol. The 
 coffin was taken from the funeral car and placed on 
 a catafalque within the rotunda of the Capitol, 
 which had been darkened and draped in mourning. 
 
 The coffin rested in the rotunda of the Capitol 
 from the 19th of April until the evening of the 20th. 
 Dming that time many thousands of people from 
 every part of the United States paid to the dead 
 form of the beloved President their last tearful 
 tribute of affection, honor, and respect. The center 
 of the building was temporarily in charge of the 
 military. Congress not being in session, and the 
 arrangements were admirable for the preservation 
 of order, while all who came were allowed every 
 reasonable facility in the carrying out of their mel- 
 ancholy errand. Gruards marshaled the vast pro- 
 cession of sight-seers into a double line which 
 separated at the foot of the coffin, passed on either 
 side, was reunited again, and was guided out by the 
 opposite door, which opened onto the great portico 
 of the building on its east front. 
 
266 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 While this solemn pageant was passing, I was 
 allowed to go alone up the winding stairs that lead 
 to the top of the great dome of the Capitol. Look- 
 ing down from that lofty point, the sight was weird 
 and memorable. Directly beneath me lay the casket 
 in which the dead President lay at full length, far, 
 far below; and, like black atoms moving over a 
 sheet of gi-ay paper, the slow-moving mourners, 
 seen from a perpendicular above them, crept si- 
 lently in two dark lines across the pavement of the 
 rotunda, forming an ellipse around the coffin and 
 joining as they advanced toward the eastern portal 
 and disappeared. When the h^ng in state at the 
 Capitol was over, the funeral procession from Wash- 
 ington to Springfield, Illinois, began, the cortege 
 passing over the same route which was taken by 
 Abraham Lincoln when he left his home for the 
 national capital to assume the great office which he 
 laid down only with his life. 
 
 It would be superfluous now to dwell on the inci- 
 dents of that historic and most lamentable proces- 
 sion, or to recall to the minds of the present and 
 passing generation the impressiveness of the won- 
 derful popular demonstration of grief that stretched 
 from the seaboard to the heart of Illinois. History 
 has recorded how thousands of the plain people 
 whom Lincoln loved came oiit from their homes to 
 stand bareheaded and reverent as the funeral train 
 swept liy, while bells were tolled and the westward 
 progress through the night was marked by camp- 
 fires built along the com'se by which the great 
 emancipator was borne at last to his dreamless rest. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 267 
 
 THE DOOM OF THE CONSPIRATOKS 
 
 The court-room in wMch were tried in May, 
 1865, the eight conspii-ators arraigned for being 
 concerned in the plot against the lives of the heads 
 of the Grovernment, was a place of fascinating and 
 perhaps morbid interest. The trial was arranged 
 to be secret, but it was finally opened to those who 
 could procure passes from the president of the 
 court. The- room in which the trial was held is a 
 part of the great United States Arsenal establish- 
 ment, attached to which is the penitentiary in which 
 the conspirators were confined. It is on the banks 
 of the Potomac, in the suburbs of the city. Enter- 
 ing an old-fashioned brick building, one was shown 
 into a large, bare room on the ground floor, where 
 sat a couple of staff-officers receiving the creden- 
 tials of those who applied for admission ; they sent 
 these up to the court, where an officer inspected 
 them, and returned them, if satisfactory, with the 
 desired card of admission. A narrow flight of stairs 
 brought the visitor to a small chamber in the sec- 
 ond story, where a knot of orderlies were lounging 
 about, and an officer inspected one's pass; after 
 another flight of stairs, another inspection of the 
 pass permitted one to enter the court-room, which 
 was in the third story. It was an apartment about 
 twenty-five feet wide and thirty feet long, the en- 
 trance being at the end opposite the penitentiary. 
 Looking into the room, one saw that it was divided 
 lengthwise into two parts, the portion on the right 
 being occupied by the court, sitting around a long, 
 green-covered table, Greneral Hunter at one end, 
 
268 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 and Judge- Advocate-G-eneral Holt with his assist- 
 ants at the other. The part of the room which was 
 not occupied by the court was railed off, and was 
 taken up with a few seats for reporters and specta- 
 tors generally, who were crowded confusedly about, 
 and rested as best they could against the bare, 
 whitewashed walls of the room. At the farther 
 end of the apartment was a wooden railing, behind 
 which, on a narrow, raised platform, sat the accused 
 men, ah in a solemn row, with an armed soldier sit- 
 ting between every two persons. At the left-hand 
 corner behind them was a heavy iron door opening 
 into the corridor along which were the cells of the 
 prisoners. Each one of the accused was manacled 
 hand and foot, and sat grimly against the wall, fac- 
 ing the court and the witnesses, the witness-stand 
 being a raised box in the center of the room. 
 
 On the left, in the line of prisoners, sat 'Mrs. 
 Surratt, deeply veiled, with her face turned to the 
 wall, slowly and constantly fanning herself, and 
 never raising her head except when ordered to show 
 her countenanc^e for the purpose of identification 
 by witnesses. She was a dark-looking, fleshy, 
 placid, and matronly woman, apparently about forty- 
 five years of age. She was accused of being privy 
 to the plot, assisting both before and after the as- 
 sassination, and secreting in her house the arms 
 and other implements to be used in carrying oiit 
 the conspiracy. 
 
 Next to the guard who sat liy Mrs. Surratt's side 
 was Herold, a small, dark man, about twenty-five 
 years old, with a low, receding forehead, scanty 
 black hair and whiskers, a stooping figure, protrud- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 269 
 
 ing teeth, and a vulgar face. This man was Booth's 
 intimate companion, and left him only when he was 
 burned out in the Maryland barn. 
 
 Next was Payne, the assassin detailed for the 
 murder of Seward. ' He sat bolt upright against 
 the wall, looming up like a young giant above all 
 the others. Payne's face would defy the ordinary 
 physiognomist. It certainly appeared to be a good 
 face. His coarse, black hair was brushed well off 
 his low, broad forehead ; his eyes were dark gray, 
 unusually large and liquid. His brawny, muscular 
 chest, which was covered only by a dark, close- 
 fitting " sweater," was that of an athlete. He was 
 apparently not much over twenty-four years old, 
 and his face, figure, and bearing bespoke him the 
 powerful, resolute creature that he proved to be. 
 It was curious to see the quick flash of intelligence 
 that involuntarily shot from his eyes when the knife 
 with which he had done the bloody work at Sew- 
 ard's house was identified by the man who found 
 it in the street near the house in the gray dawn of 
 the morning after that dreadful night. The knife 
 was a heavy, horn-handled implement, with a dou- 
 ble edge at the point, and a blade about ten inches 
 long, thick at the back, but evidently ground care- 
 fully to a fine point. This knife was subsequently 
 given to Eobinson, the faithful nurse who saved 
 the life of Seward, and who was afterward made a 
 paymaster in the army of the United States. 
 
 Next in order sat Atzerot, who had been assigned, 
 it was believed, to the murder of Vice-President 
 Johnson, but whose heart failed him when the time 
 came to strike the blow. This fellow might safely 
 
270 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 challenge the rest of the party as the completest 
 personification of a low and cunning scoundrel. 
 He was small and sinewy, with long, dark-brown 
 hair, dark-blue and unsteady eyes, a receding, nar- 
 row chin and forehead, and a generally villainous 
 countenance. It was observed that when any ludi- 
 crous incident disturbed the gravity of the court, 
 as sometimes happened, Atzerot was the only man 
 who never smiled, although the others, Payne es- 
 pecially, would often grin in sympathy with the 
 auditors. 
 
 O'Laughlin, who was supposed to have been set 
 apart for the murder of Stanton or Grrant, had the 
 appearance of the traditional stage "villain. He had 
 a high, broad forehead, a mass of tangled black 
 hair, a heavy black mustache and chin-whiskers, 
 and his face was blackened by a rough, unshaven 
 beard. His large eyes, black and wild, were never 
 still, but appeared to take in everything within the 
 room, scanning each new arrival at the door, watch- 
 ing the witnesses, but occasionally resting on the 
 green trees and sunny sky seen through the grated 
 window on his left. He often moved his feet, and 
 the clanking of his manacles would attract his at- 
 tention ; he would look down, then back and forth 
 at the scene within the court-room. A Californian 
 vigilance committee in 1849 probably would have 
 hanged him " on general principles." He was ac- 
 cused of being in league with both Surratt and 
 Herold, and was seen at Stanton's house on the 
 night of the murder, asking for General Grant. 
 
 Spangler, the stage-oarpenter of Ford's Theater, 
 was about forty, heavily built, sandy in complexion, 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 271 
 
 slovenly in appearance. He held Bootli's horse at 
 odd times, kept clear the way to the rear of the 
 theater, and was suspected of being his lackey. 
 The poor creature, more than any other, appeared 
 to be under the influence of imminent bodily fear. 
 His hands were incessantly moving along his legs 
 from knee to thigh, his bony fingers traveling back 
 and forth like spiders, as he sat with his eyes fixed 
 on each witness. 
 
 Dr. Mudd, the companion and associate of Booth, 
 who received the flying assassin into his house on 
 the night of the murder, and set his fractured limb, 
 in appearance was about thirty-five years of age, 
 and had mild blue eyes, a good, broad forehead, 
 ruddy face, hair scanty and thin, a high head, and 
 a sanguine temperament. He sat in his shirt- 
 sleeves, with a white handkerchief knotted loosely 
 about his neck, and attentively regarded the pro- 
 ceedings with the ail- of a man who felt sm-e of 
 himself. 
 
 Last in the row, and looking out of the window 
 upon the pleasant sky and tree-tops beyond, was 
 Arnold, the " Sam " of Booth's correspondence, who, 
 writing from Hookstown, Maryland, informed the 
 assassin that he had concluded to "give up the 
 job," and was tired of keeping up appearances. 
 This man was as uneasy as a caged whelp. He 
 leaned his head on the rail before him, or looked 
 out of the window, or lounged against the wall, or 
 rested his chin on his breast, and generally was ab- 
 solutely inattentive to everything that went on. 
 He had retreated from the conspiracy, and was 
 caught at Fort Monroe, where he had gone to get 
 
272 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 out of the way until suspicion had passed. It then 
 appeared that he figured only in the original plan 
 of abducting Lincoln, and was to have caught him 
 on the stage when the rest of the villains had thrown 
 him over from the box. 
 
 The appearance and demeanor of the court, it 
 must be admitted, were neither solemn nor impres- 
 sive. The members of the commission sat about 
 in various negligent attitudes, and a general ap- 
 pearance of disorder was evident. Many ladies 
 were present, and their irrepressible whispering 
 was a continual nuisance to the reporters, who de- 
 su*ed to keep track of the evidence. The witnesses 
 were first examined by the judge-advocate, the 
 members of the coui't putting in a question now 
 and then, and the counsel for the prisoners taking 
 up the cross-examination, each counselor attending 
 only to the witness whose testimony affected his 
 own client. The witnesses were brought in without 
 regard to any particular criminal, all being tried at 
 once. Occasionally an attorney for one prisoner 
 would " develop " the witness under examination in 
 such a manner as to injure the cause of another 
 of the defendants, and then a petty quarrel would 
 ensue between the different counsel. 
 
 Of the eight prisoners at the bar, Payne, Atzerot, 
 Herold, and Mrs. Surratt were declared by the com't 
 guilty of murder, and were hanged on July 7, 1865. 
 O'Laughlin, Arnold, and Dr. Mudd were found 
 guilty of being accessory to the conspiracy, and 
 were sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor 
 for life. Spaugler, who impressed most people 
 as being a weak creature, unaware of being con- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 273 
 
 cerned in any real crime, was sentenced to six 
 years' imprisonment, and, with O'Laiighlin, Arnold, 
 and Mudd, was sent to the forts of the Dry Tor- 
 tugas. Dr. Mndd was pardoned by President John- 
 son in February, 1869, and Arnold and Spangler 
 about a month later in the same year. O'Laughlin 
 died of yellow fever while in prison at Fort Jeffer- 
 son, Florida. John H. Surratt, who was at first 
 believed to have been the would-be assassin of Mr. 
 Seward, escaped from Washington immediately 
 after the tragedy, and fled to Canada; thence he 
 went to Italy, where he enlisted in the Papal 
 Zouaves, but was traced by the sleuth-hounds of 
 the United States detective force, and was brought 
 back to this country on an American frigate in De- 
 cember, 1866, and tried, but not convicted. 
 
 A painful and depressing feature of this tragical 
 business was the ease with which many well-meaning 
 but unreasonable people not only appeared to for- 
 get the awfulness of the crime committed, but made 
 objection to the findings of the court as well. Judge 
 John A. Bingham, who assisted the judge-advocate 
 in the trial, was unjustly, even wickedly, pursued 
 by some of these wrong-headed persons for the part 
 he took in the conviction of Mrs. Surratt. All the 
 evidence in her case pointed unerringly to her guilt 
 as an intelligent accomplice of the assassins. And 
 the fact that Payne sought her house as a place of 
 refuge after his murderous assault upon Seward, 
 was only one of many more conclusive evidences of 
 her active share in the great conspiracy. Her sex 
 appears to have confused the judgment of many 
 who did not follow the trial with attentiveness. 
 
274 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 It -was natural, but to a lover of Lincoln almost 
 surprising, that wMle the lifeless form of the mar- 
 tyr was being borne home to Illinois, the newly in- 
 stalled President, Andrew Johnson, was surrounded, 
 courted, and flattered by eager crowds of courtiers 
 and oflfice-seekers in Washington. If Johnson had 
 just been inaugm-ated, after apolitical campaign in 
 which he had defeated Lincoln, and was expected 
 to overturn everything that remained of his prede- 
 cessor's work, the appearance of things would not 
 have been different from what it was. Multitudes 
 from every part of the country rushed upon Wash- 
 ington, some with windy and turgid addresses to 
 the new President, and many more with applica- 
 tions for ofl&cial favor. To a thoughtful man this 
 exhibition was disgusting beyond description. 
 
 Nor was one's respect for a pure democracy 
 heightened by the habitual pose of President John- 
 son. It was a remarkable illustration of the elas- 
 ticity and steadiness of our form of government 
 that its machinery moved on without a jar, without 
 tumult, when the head was suddenly stricken down. 
 But the vulgar clamor of the crowds that beset 
 Johnson, the boisterous ravings of the successor of 
 Lincoln, and the complete absoi-ption of Washing- 
 ton quidnuncs in speculations on the " policy " of 
 the new head of the Grovernment, saddened those 
 who regarded this ignoble spectacle with hearts 
 sore with grief for the loss of him who was yet 
 unburied. 
 
 All these petty details are but a small part of our 
 history ; but they do belong to history. Posterity 
 is already making up its verdict. We must be con- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 275 
 
 tent to leave to posterity the final adjustment of all 
 things. Smaller men are passing out of human 
 memory. In the words of one who knew him well, 
 Lincoln "belongs to the ages." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 LITE EST THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 MID war's ALAEMS — THE BOY OF THE WHITE HOUSE — 
 THE PEST OF PLACE-HUNTERS — LINCOLN'S STOKIES 
 — SOME OF HIS LITEEAEY TENDENCIES — FONDNESS 
 FOE POETRY — HIS METHODICAL HABITS 
 
 PEOBABLY no family that ever lived in tlie 
 Executive Mansion was so irregular in its 
 methods of living as were the Lincolns. Naturally, 
 Mr. Lincoln was methodical in his habits ; he was 
 scrupulously exact in all the details of his office, 
 and his care for wi-itten documents was sometimes 
 carried to an extreme; he appeared to have the 
 Chinese reverence for a written paper. But the 
 exigencies of those stormj'' times prevented him 
 from being regular in his manner of life in the 
 White House ; and the example of the head of the 
 family could not fail to affect all of the other 
 members. Never very attentive to the demands 
 or the attractions of the table, his incessant cai-es, 
 his anxieties, and the engrossing calls upon his 
 time (which he had not the skill to parry), left him 
 with very little opportunity to attend to the sim- 
 plest duties of the head of a family. Of his per- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 277 
 
 sonal comfort lie was so absolutely neglectful as to 
 require constant prompting from other members 
 of his household. 
 
 When Mrs. Lincoln, whom he always addressed 
 by the old-fashioned title of " Mother," was absent 
 from home, the President would appear to forget 
 that food and diink were needful for his existence, 
 unless he were persistently followed up by some of 
 the servants, or were finally reminded of his needs 
 by the actual pangs of hunger. On one such occa- 
 sion, I remember, he asked me to come in and take 
 breakfast with him, as he had some questions to 
 ask. He was evidently eating without noting what 
 he ate ; and when I remarked that he was different 
 from most western men in his preference for milk 
 for breakfast, he said, eying his glass of milk with 
 surprise, as if he had not before noticed what he 
 was drinking, "Well, I do prefer coffee in the 
 morning, but they don't seem to have sent me in 
 any." Who "they" were I could only guess. 
 
 For many years before Lincoln became presi- 
 dent, there had been no children living in the 
 White House. Buchanan was unmarried, and 
 Pierce was childless when he took up his residence 
 in the Executive Mansion. Although the great 
 house, of which a large part was surrendered to 
 public uses and inspection, never could be made to 
 assume an air of domesticity, the three boys of the 
 Lincoln family did much to invest the historic 
 building with a phase of human interest which it 
 did not have before. 
 
278 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 THE BOY or THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 The youngest lad, Thomas, better known by his 
 nickname of " Tad," was the irrepressible spirit of 
 fun and mischief which, through the wbole of his 
 father's term, gave the life in the White House its 
 only comic element. This lad, the complete em- 
 bodiment of animal spirits, may be called one of 
 the historic boys of America. His name is closely 
 identified with that of his father in the minds of 
 aU who were admitted to the inner precincts of the 
 White House; and thousands who never saw the 
 home apartments of that gloomy building knew 
 the tricksy sprite that brightened the weary years 
 which Lincoln passed in Washington. 
 
 When the Lincoln family took up theu' abode in 
 the White House, Eobert, the eldest of the three 
 children, was not quite eighteen years old. He 
 had been admitted to Harvard College in 1860, and 
 was away from home during a greater part of the 
 time thereafter ; and his subsequent successful ca- 
 reer as Secretary of War, Minister to England, and 
 lawyer is familiar in the mind of the reader. The 
 second son, Willie, a bright and cheery lad, 
 greatly beloved by his parent, was a little past 
 ten years old when the family entered the White 
 House. He died in February, 1862, while the black 
 shadows rested on many another American home. 
 Tad was eight years old when he was taken to 
 Washington with the rest of the family. He had 
 a curious impediment in his speech which rather 
 heightened the effect of his droll saj-ings ; and the 
 difficulty which he had in pronouncing his own 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 279 
 
 name gave him the odd nickname by which he was 
 always known. After his father's death, Tad was 
 taken abroad by his mother, and, by judicious 
 schooling, he overcame the defect of which I have 
 spoken. Returning home with his mother in 1871, 
 he was prostrated by a severe illness; and, after 
 enduring with marked fortitude several months of 
 suffering, he died in July, 1871. 
 
 Perhaps it was heaviness of grief at the loss of 
 WiUie that made it weU-nigh impossible for Lin- 
 coln to treat Tad's innumerable escapades with se- 
 verity. While the family lived in "Washington, the 
 lad was allowed his own way almost without check. 
 His father was to the last degree indulgent, al- 
 though when he chose to exercise his paternal au- 
 thority, the boy was readily amenable to discipline 
 or reproof. Much of the time it was impossible that 
 he should not be left to run at large. He was ca- 
 ressed and petted by people who wanted favors of 
 his father, and who took this way of making a 
 friend in the family, as they thought ; and he was 
 living in the midst of a most exciting epoch in the 
 country's histoiy, when a boy in the "White House 
 was in a strange and somewhat unnatural atmo- 
 sphere. But I am bound to say that Tad, although 
 he doubtless had his wits sharpened by being in 
 such strange surroundings, was never anything 
 else, while I knew him, but a boisterous, rollicking, 
 and absolutely real boy. He was not " old for his 
 years," as we sometimes say of precocious children, 
 nor was he burdened with care before his time. He 
 was a big-hearted and fresh-faced youngster, and 
 when he went away from the White House, after 
 
280 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 his father's tragic end, he carried with him, from 
 the midst of sorrows and associations that are now 
 historic, the same boyish frankness and simplicity 
 that he took into it. 
 
 Very soon after he began life in the White House, 
 Tad learned what an office-seeker was. All day 
 long, unless the President was absent from the 
 building, the office-seekers lined the upper corridors 
 and passages ; and sometimes the lines extended aU 
 the way down the stairs and nearly to the main en- 
 trance. When other diversions failed him. Tad 
 liked to go around among these waiting place-hunters 
 and institute inquiries on his own account. He would 
 ask what they wanted, how long they had been 
 there, and how much longer they proposed to wait. 
 Some of these men came day after day, and for 
 many successive days ; with these Tad became ac- 
 quainted, and to them he would give much sympa- 
 thetic advice in his own whimsical but sincere way. 
 Once he mounted guard at the foot of the public 
 staircase, and exacted toll of all who passed up. 
 " Five cents for the benefit of the Sanitary Fund," 
 he explained to the visitors, who were not unwilling 
 to have a friend at court for so small a price. 
 
 He organized for himself, after the custom of the 
 day, a Sanitary Fair. Beginning with a little table, 
 which he set in the grand corridor of the White 
 House and stocked ^vith small purchases of fruit and 
 odds and ends begged from the pantry of the house, 
 he extended his operatiims in a second venture. 
 He secured from a carpenter a pair of trestles and 
 a wide board, on which he spread the entire stock 
 of an old woman who sold apples, gingerbread, and 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 281 
 
 candy, near the Treasury building, bought out with 
 the lad's carefully saved pocket-money. This "fair" 
 was set up just within the portico of the White 
 House, where the place-seekers, whose patronage 
 the shrewd boy catered for, would be sure to pass 
 on their way to the fountain of power. Tad's en- 
 terprise was highly successful, but the proceeds of 
 his sales were speedily dispersed by his open- 
 handed generosity. Before night, capital and prof- 
 its had been spent, and the httle speculator went 
 penniless to bed. 
 
 Everything that Tad did was done with a certain 
 rush and rude strength which were peculiar to him. 
 I was once sitting with the President in the library, 
 when Tad tore into the room in search of some- 
 thing, and, having found it, he threw himself on 
 his father like a small thunderbolt, gave him one 
 wild, fierce hug, and, without a word, fled from the 
 room before his father could put out his hand to 
 detain him. With all his boyish roughness. Tad 
 had a warm heart and a tender conscience. He ab- 
 horred falsehood as he did books and study. Tutors 
 came and went, like changes of the moon. None 
 stayed long enough to learn much about the boy ; 
 but he knew them before they had been one day in 
 the house. " Let him run," his father would say ; 
 " there 's time enough yet for him to learn his let- 
 ters and get poky. Bob was just such a little ras- 
 cal, and now he is a very decent boy." 
 
 It was curious, however, to see how Tad compre- 
 hended many practical realities that are far beyond 
 the grasp of most boys. Even when he could 
 scarcely read, he knew much about the cost of 
 
282 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 things, the details of trade, the principles of me- 
 chanics, and the habits of animals, all of which 
 showed the activity of his mind and the odd turn 
 of his thoughts. His father took great interest in 
 everything that concerned Tad, and when the long 
 day's work was done, and the little chap had related 
 to the President aU that had moved him or had 
 taken up his attention during the daylight hours, 
 and had finally fallen asleep under a di-owsy cross- 
 examination, the weary father would tm'n once 
 more to his desk, and work on into the night, for 
 his cares never ended. Then, shouldering the sleep- 
 ing child, the man for whom millions of good men 
 and women nightly prayed took his way through 
 the sUent corridors and passages to his boy's bed- 
 chamber. 
 
 On an occasion of issuing a presidential procla- 
 mation for a national fast, Tad expressed some cu- 
 riosity as to what a fast-day could possiljly be. The 
 result of his investigations filled him with dismay. 
 An absolute fasting for one whole day, such as he 
 Avas told to expect, was dreadful. Accordingly he 
 established a food depot under the seat of a coach 
 in the carriage-house. To this he furtively con- 
 veyed savings from his table-rations and such bits 
 of food as he could pick up fibout the larder of the 
 White House. Xobodj- suspected what he was do- 
 ing, until a servant, one day, while cleaning the 
 carriage, lighted on this store of provision, much to 
 the rage and consternation of the lad, who stood by 
 watching the gradual approach of the man to his 
 provision depot. The President related the incident 
 with glee, and added, " If he grows to be a man. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 283 
 
 Tad will be what tlie women all dote on. — a good 
 provider." 
 
 Tad accompanied his father and mother on the 
 visit to the Army of the Potomac, spoken of in 
 a previous chapter, and although he was greatly 
 delighted with the bustle, animation, and brilliancy 
 of the reviews during those memorable days, he 
 was anxious for home when night and darkness 
 came on, and there was nothing to engage his rest- 
 less mind. Then he would begin to coax his father 
 to go back to Washington. The President, although 
 shghtly annoyed by the boy's persistence, apolo- 
 gized for him, saying that there was a new pony at 
 home waiting to be tried under the saddle by 
 Tad, who had finally compassed a darling project 
 of his own. Finally, to bribe the lad to cease his 
 importunities, Lincoln offered to give him a dollar 
 if he would not pester him with further inquiries 
 about going home. The boy accepted the bai'gain, 
 but he did not keep his agreement very well ; and 
 on the last day of our stay he shyly reminded his 
 father that he needed that dollar very much. Lin- 
 coln thoughtfully took out of his pocket-book a 
 dollar bill, and, looking in the boy's eyes, said: 
 "Now, Taddie, my son, do you think you have 
 earned this ! " The lad hung his head, and an- 
 swered not a word. " Well, my son," said the in- 
 dulgent father, " although I don't think you have 
 kept your part of the bargain, I will keep mine, 
 and you cannot reproach me with breaking faith, 
 anyway." 
 
 On the way from headquarters to the railway sta- 
 tion at that time, there was an immense amount 
 
284 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 of cheering from tlie soldiers, who, as usual, seemed 
 wild with delight at seeing the President. Occa- 
 sionally we heard them cry, " Three cheers for Mrs. 
 Lincoln ! " and they were given with a will. Then, 
 again, the men would cry, " Three cheers for 
 the boy ! " This salute Tad acknowledged, under 
 instructions from his mother, and entirely una- 
 bashed by so much noise and attention. One sol- 
 dier, after the line through which we were passing 
 had given three cheers " for the next fight," cried, 
 " And send along the greenbacks ! " This arrested 
 the attention of Tad, who inquired its meaning, 
 and, when told that the army had not been paid for 
 some time, on account of the scarcity of greenbacks, 
 he said, with some indignation, " Why does n't 
 Grovernor Chase print 'em some, then ? " 
 
 There are several interesting photogi'aphs of 
 Tad now extant. One of these represents him 
 dressed in the uniform of a lieutenant. In a mo- 
 ment of sportiveness. Secretary Stanton gave the 
 boy a lieutenant's commission, and " Tad " managed 
 to get together most of the articles of clothing and 
 equipment suitable to his unexpected rank. He 
 actually attempted to exercise military authority 
 over the guards at the White House ; but his elder 
 brother, Robert, interposed to relieve the men from 
 duty after Tad had placed them on sentry. That 
 night, it is recorded, the Executive Mansion was 
 left unguarded. A well-known picture of Tad 
 and his father, engraved for the " Centm-y Maga- 
 zine " some years ago, represents the boy standing 
 by his father's side, looking over the pages of a 
 large book. Lincoln explained to me that he was 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 285 
 
 afraid that this picture was a species of false pre- 
 tense. Most people, he thought, would suppose the 
 book a large clasped Bible, whereas it was a big 
 photograph album which the photographer, posing 
 the father and son, had hit upon as a good device 
 to use in this way to bring the two sitters together. 
 Lincoln's anxiety lest somebody should think he 
 was " making believe read the Bible to Tad, " was 
 illustrative of his scrupulous honesty. 
 
 THE GETTYSBURG SPEECH AND OFFICE-SEEKING 
 
 One iSTovember day — it chanced to be the Sun- 
 day before the dedication of the national cemetery 
 at Gettysburg — I had an appointment to go with 
 the President to Grardner, the photographer, on 
 Seventh street, to fulfil a long-standing engagement. 
 Mr. Lincoln carefully explained that he could not 
 go on any other day without interfering with the 
 public business and the photographer's business, to 
 say nothing of his liability to be hindered by cu- 
 riosity-seekers " and other seekers " on the way 
 thither. Just as we were going down the stairs of 
 the White House, the President suddenly remem- 
 bered that he needed a paper, and, after hurrying 
 back to his office, soon rejoined me with a long en- 
 velop in his hand. When we were fairly started, 
 he said that in the envelop was an advance copy of 
 Edward Everett's address to be delivered at the 
 G-ettysbm'g dedication on the following Tuesday. 
 Drawing it out, I saw that it was a one-page sup- 
 plement to a Boston paper, and that Mr. Everett's 
 address nearly covered both sides of the sheet. The 
 
286 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 President expressed his admiration for the thought- 
 fulness of the Boston orator, who had sent this copy 
 of his address in order that Mr. Lincohi might not 
 traverse the same Hues that the chosen speaker of 
 the great occasion might have laid out for liimselE, 
 When I exclaimed at its length, the President 
 laughed and quoted the line, 
 
 " Solid men of Boston, make no long orations," 
 
 which he said he had met somewhere in a speech 
 by Daniel Webster. He said that there was no 
 danger that he should get upon the liaes of Mr. 
 Everett's oration, for what he had ready to say 
 was very short, or, as he emphatically expressed 
 it, " short, short, short." In reply to a question as 
 to the speech having been akeady written, he said 
 that it was written, "but not finished." He had 
 brought the paper with him, he explained, hoping 
 that a few minutes of leisure while waiting for the 
 movements of the photographer and his processes 
 would give him a chance to look over the speech. 
 But we did not have to wait long between the sit- 
 tings, and the President, having taken out the en- 
 velop and laid it on a little table at his elbow, 
 became so engaged in talk that he failed to open it 
 while we were at the studio. A disaster overtook 
 the negative of that photograph, and after a very 
 few prints had been made from it, no more were 
 possible. lu the picture which the President gave 
 me, the envelop containing Mr. Everett's oration is 
 seen on the table by the side of the sitter, recalling 
 the incident and Lincoln's quotation of Boston's 
 " long orations." 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 287 
 
 It was a curious illustration of the pertinacity 
 with which, the office-hunters pursued the Presi- 
 dent, that even Sunday's sanctity was not respected 
 by them. When we returned that day to the 
 White House, one of these was waiting to inter- 
 cept him at the entrance with a paper covered 
 with indorsements. " Office-hunting was in the 
 air," Lincoln said. 
 
 When a certain prominent comedian of the time 
 was playing in Washington during Lincoln's ad- 
 ministration, the President saw his representations 
 with great delight, and was so pleased that he 
 expressed himself in warm terms to the player 
 through the medium of the manager. Thereupon 
 the actor sent the President a book in which he in- 
 scribed some pleasant words by way of dedication 
 to Lincoln, who acknowledged the gift in a kindly 
 little note. Not long after this, going to the Presi- 
 dent's cabinet on a summons from him very late at 
 night, I noticed this man waiting alone in the cor- 
 ridor outside the President's door. Lincoln asked 
 me if any one was waiting without, and when I 
 told him that I had seen the actor sitting there, he 
 made a gesture of impatience and regret, and said 
 that the little courtesies which had passed between 
 them had resulted in the comedian applying to 
 him for an office. I have forgotten what it was, 
 but I think it was an English consulate which the 
 old man wanted. Lincoln almost groaned as he 
 said that it seemed impossible for him to have any 
 close relations with people in Washington without 
 finding that the acquaintance thus formed gener- 
 ally ended with an application for office. 
 
288 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 One of the best things he ever said about the 
 office-seeking that consumed so much of the pre- 
 cious time which should have been given to more 
 important matters was that he was like a man who 
 was so busy renting out rooms at one end of his 
 house that he could not stop to put out the fire 
 that was burning the other end. On another occa- 
 sion, he said that it sometimes seemed to him that 
 each one in the unending stream of place-hunters 
 that approached him seized and took away a bit of 
 his vitality. No wonder the harassed President 
 was often so worn and spent with his day's labors, 
 in the midst of tremendous cares of office, that he 
 sunk into a semi-conscious state, his eyes fixed on 
 vacancy, and became so deeply abstracted that it 
 was with difficulty that he could be roused by the 
 friend, or member of his own household, who stood 
 over him. 
 
 Returning from a visit to the Army of the Po- 
 tomac, when its depots were at City Point, I gave 
 an account of my visit to the President, as he had 
 sent me with a special pass to Grant's headquar- 
 ters. He asked, jocularly, "Did you meet any 
 colonels who wanted to l^e brigadiers, or any brig- 
 adiers who wanted to be major-generals, or anv 
 major-generals who wanted to run things f " Ee- 
 ceiving a reply in the negative, he stre'tohed out 
 his hand in mock congratulation, and said, "Happy 
 man ! " Afterward, an officer who had been atten- 
 tive to our little party did come to my lodgings and 
 complain that he ought to be promoted, urging, 
 among other things, that his relationship to a dis- 
 tmguished general kept him down. I told the inci- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 289 
 
 dent to the President, after recalling Ms previous 
 questions to me. Lincoln fairly shrieked with laugh- 
 ter, and, jumping up from his seat, cried, "Keeps 
 him down? Keeps him down? That 's all that 
 keeps him up ! " 
 
 A Western senator who had failed of a reelection, 
 brought his successor, one day, and introduced him 
 to the President. Lincoln, in reply, expressed his 
 gratification at making the acquaintance of a new 
 senator. "Yet," he added, "I hate to have old 
 friends like Senator W go away. And — an- 
 other thing — I usually find that a senator or rep- 
 resentative out of business is a sort of lame duck. 
 He has to be provided for." When the two gentle- 
 men had withdrawn, I took the liberty of saying 
 
 that Mr. W did not seem to relish that remark. 
 
 Weeks after, when I had forgotten the circum- 
 stance, the President said, "Tou thought I was 
 
 almost rude to Senator W the other day. Well, 
 
 now he wants Commissioner Dole's place ! " Mr. 
 Dole was then Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 
 
 LINCOLN'S STOEY-TELLING 
 
 Lincoln very seldom invented a story. Once he 
 said to me, " You speak of Lincoln stories. I don't 
 think that is a correct phrase. I don't make the 
 stories mine by telling them. I am only a retail 
 dealer." Numberless stories were repeated to him 
 as being from him, but he once said that, so far as 
 he knew, only about one sixth of all those which 
 were credited to him had ever been told by him. 
 He never forgot a good story, and his apt applica- 
 
290 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 tion of those which lay in his mind gave them pecu- 
 liar crispness and freshness. Here is a case in 
 point : In 1863, a certain captain of volunteers was 
 on trial in "Washington for a misuse of the funds of 
 his company. The accused officer made only a fee- 
 ble defense, and seemed to treat the matter with in- 
 difference. After a while, however, a new charge 
 — that of disloyalty to the government — came into 
 the case. The accused was at once excited to a 
 high degree of indignation, and made a very vigor- 
 ous defense. He appeared to think lightly of being 
 convicted of embezzling, but to be called a traitor 
 was more than he could bear. At the breakfast- 
 table, one morning, the President, who had been 
 reading an account of this case in the newspaper, 
 began to laugh, and said, " This fellow reminds me 
 of a juror in a case of hen-stealing which I ^ tried 
 in Illinois, many years ago. The accused man was 
 summarily convicted. After adjournment of court, 
 as I was riding to the next town, one of the jm'ors 
 in the case came cantering up behind me, and com- 
 plimented me on the vigor with which I had pressed 
 the prosecution of the unfortunate hen-thief. Then 
 he added, ' Wliy, when I was young, and my back 
 was strong, and the country was new, I did n't mind 
 taking off a sheep now and then. But stealing 
 hens ! Oh, Jerusalem ! ' Now, this captain has evi- 
 dently been stealing sheep, and that is as much as 
 he can bear." 
 
 Scripture stories and incidents were also used by 
 
 1 The writer is not certain, now, whether Mr. Lincoln told this 
 story out of his own experience, or at second hand. The applica- 
 tion, of course, was his own. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 291 
 
 Lincoln to illustrate his argument or to enforce a 
 point. Judge E had been concerned in a cer- 
 tain secret organization of "radical" Eepublicans, 
 whose design was to defeat Lincoln's renomination. 
 When this futile opposition had died out, the judge 
 was pressed by his friends for a profitable office. 
 Lincoln appointed him, and to one who remon- 
 strated against such a display of magnanimity, he 
 
 replied, " Well, I suppose Judge E , having 
 
 been disappointed before, did behave pretty ugly ; 
 but that would n't make him any less fit for this 
 place ; and I have scriptural authority for appoint- 
 ing him. You remember that when the Lord was 
 on Mount Sinai getting out a commission for Aaron, 
 that same Aaron was at the foot of the mountain 
 making a false god for the people to worship. Yet 
 Aaron got his commission, you know." 
 
 Lincoln particularly liked a Joke at the expense 
 of the dignity of some high civil or military official. 
 One day, not long before his second inauguration, 
 he asked me if I had heard about Stanton's meeting 
 a picket on Broad River, South Carolina, and then 
 told this story : " General Foster, then at Port Royal, 
 escorted the secretary up the river, taking a quar- 
 termaster's tug. Reaching the picket lines on the 
 river, a sentry roared from the bank, ' Who have 
 you got on board that tug I ' The severe and dig- 
 nified answer was, ' The Secretary of War and Ma- 
 jor-G-eneral Poster.' Instantly the picket roared 
 back, ' We 've got major-generals enough up here 
 — why don't you bring us up some hard-tack ? ' " 
 The story tickled Lincoln mightily, and he told it 
 until it was replaced by a new one. 
 
292 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Anything that savored of the wit and humor of 
 the soldiers was especially welcome to Lincoln. 
 His fondness for good stories is a well-accepted tra- 
 dition, but any incident that showed that " the 
 boys " were mirthful and jolly in all theii- privations 
 seemed to commend itseK to him. He used to say 
 that the grim grotesqueness and extravagance of 
 American humor were its most striking character- 
 istics. There was a story of a soldier in the Army 
 of the Potomac, carried to the rear of battle with 
 both legs shot off, who, seeing a pie- woman hover- 
 ing about, asked, " Say, old lady, are them pies 
 sewed or pegged I " And there was another one of 
 a soldier at the battle of Chancellorsville, whose 
 regiment, waiting to be called into the fight, was 
 taking coffee. The hero of the story put to his lips 
 a crockery mug which he had carried, with infinite 
 care, through several campaigns. A stray bullet, 
 just missing the coffee-drinker's head, dashed the 
 mug into fragments, and left only its handle on his 
 finger. Turning his face in that direction, the sol- 
 dier angrily growled, " Johnny, you can't do that 
 again ! " Lincoln, relating these two stories to- 
 gether, said, " It seems as if neither death nor dan- 
 ger could quench the grim humor of the American 
 soldier." 
 
 When I had been at some pains, one day, to show 
 the President how a California politician had been 
 coerced into telling the truth without knowing it, 
 he said it reminded him of a black barber in Illi- 
 nois, notorious foi- hi-Ug, who, hearing some of his 
 customers admiring the planet Jupiter, then shin- 
 ing in the evening sky, said, " Sho, I 've seen that 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 293 
 
 star afore. I seen Mra 'way down in Georgy." Said 
 the President, " Like your California friend, he told 
 the truth, but he thought he was lying." 
 
 In considering Lincoln's story-telling habit, it 
 should be borne in mind that he never told a story 
 for the sake of the telling ; the tale came into his 
 mind as an apt illustration of what was at that mo- 
 ment under discussion. Thus the cry for reinforce- 
 ments that came from a Union general whose 
 whereabouts had been anxiously debated, reminded 
 him of an Illinois woman who, when she heard the 
 wail of one of her offspring in the underbrush near 
 her cabin, thanked God that there was " one who 
 was n't dead yet." And when Hood's army in Ten- 
 nessee was destroyed by Thomas, in December, 
 1864, the President told this story, which has since 
 been often related : " A certain rough, rude, and 
 bullying man in our county had a bull-dog, which 
 was as rude, rough, and bullying as his master. Dog 
 and man were the terror of the neighborhood. No- 
 body dared to touch either for fear of the other. 
 But a crafty neighbor laid a plan to dispose of the 
 dog. Seeing Slocum and his dog plodding along 
 the road one day, the dog a little ahead, this neigh- 
 bor, who was prepared for the occasion, took from 
 his pocket a junk of meat in which he had con- 
 cealed a big charge of powder, to which was fas- 
 tened a deadwood slow-match. This he lighted, and 
 then threw into the road. The dog gave one gulp 
 at it, and the whole thing disappeared down his 
 throat. He trotted on a few steps, when there was 
 a sort of smothered roar, and the dog blew up in 
 fragments, a fore-quarter being lodged in a neigh- 
 
294: WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 boi-ing tree, a hind-quarter on tlie roof of a cabin, 
 and the rest scattered along the dusty road. Slo- 
 cum came up and viewed the remains. Then, more 
 in sorrow than in auger, he said, ' BUI war a good 
 dog ; but, as a dog, I reckon his usefuhiess is over.' " 
 The President added, with a twinkle of his eye, 
 " Hood's army was a good army. We have been 
 very much afraid of it. But, as an army, I reckon 
 its usefulness is gone." 
 
 SOME OF HIS LITEKAHY TENDENCIES 
 
 It does not seem that Lincoln had a nimble fancy ; 
 his imagination was not fertile ; if it was, he took 
 pains to keep it under ; but there was a vein of 
 poetic sentiment which appears in many of his ear- 
 lier writings and speeches. When the poetical tastes 
 of Lincoln are mentioned, immediately there comes 
 to mind that depressing and bilious poem, " Oh, 
 why should the spu'it of mortal be proud 1 " Those 
 verses, with their lugubrious refrain, undoubtedly 
 affected Lincoln strongly on the tragic side of his 
 nature ; but they have received a somewhat ficti- 
 tious value as an expression of his literary taste. 
 It is true, however, that he incUned toward the 
 poetry inspired by sad and pathetic themes. It has 
 been said that this was a sort of prophetic indica- 
 tion of the tragical ending of his own life; and 
 some have thought that they detected in " the far- 
 away look of his eyes " the gaze of one who was 
 destined to a violent death. It is not likely that 
 such thoughts occurred to any of us Avhile he was 
 yet alive ; they are, however, "the most natural of 
 afterthoughts. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 295 
 
 Like many men who have a keen sense of humor, 
 Lincoln was easily moved by the pathos which is 
 so nearly allied, to jocularity. This is the reason, I 
 suppose, why he liked best the minor poems of 
 Thomas Hood and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Few 
 men ever passed from grave to gay with the facil- 
 ity that characterized him. He liked, too, sad and 
 pensive songs. I remember that, one night at 
 the White House, when a few ladies visiting the 
 family were singing at the piano-forte, he asked for 
 a little song in which the-wi"iter describes his sen- 
 sations when revisiting the scenes of his boyhood, 
 dwelling mournfully on the vanished joys and the 
 dehghtful associations of forty years ago. It is not 
 likely that there was anything in Lincoln's lost 
 youth that he would wish to recall ; but there was 
 a certain melancholy and half- morbid strain in that 
 song which struck a responsive chord in his heart. 
 The lines sunk into his memory, and I remember 
 that he quoted them, as if to himself, long aftei'- 
 ward. 
 
 Lincobi seldom quoted poetry in his letters or 
 speeches, although in conversation he often made 
 an allusion to something which he had read, al- 
 ways with the air of one who deprecated the impu- 
 tation that he might be advertising his erudition. 
 Occasionally, as in his farewell speech to his neigh- 
 bors and friends in Springfield, he employed a 
 commonplace quotation, with due credit to the un- 
 known author. In that address he said, "Let us 
 believe, as some poet has expressed it, ' Behind the 
 cloud the sun is still shining.'" In a speech in 
 Congress, on so unpromising a theme as internal 
 
296 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 improvements, then one of the issues of the time, 
 he quoted Eobert Herrick's hnes : 
 
 Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt ; 
 Nothing 's so hard but search will find it out. 
 
 Another example occurs in an address made to a 
 delegation of colored men who had waited on him 
 to obtain an expression of opinion on the subject 
 of colonization. The President spoke at some 
 length, and concluded by saying that he hoped 
 that his visitors would consider the matter seri- 
 ously, not for themselves alone, nor for the present 
 generation, but for the good of mankind, and he 
 added : 
 
 From age to age descends the lay 
 
 To millions yet to be. 
 Till far its echoes roll away 
 
 Into eternity. 
 
 Amid all his labors, Lincoln found time to read 
 the newspapers, or, as he sometimes expressed it, 
 "to skirmish " with them. From their ephemeral 
 pages he rescued many a choice bit of verse, which 
 he carried with him until he was quite familiar with 
 it. I am bound to say that some of these waifs would 
 not receive the hospitality of a severe literary critic; 
 but it was noticeable that they were almost invari- 
 ably referable to his tender sympathy with hiimau- 
 ity, its hopes and its sorrows. I recall one of these 
 extracts, which he took out of his pocket one after- 
 noon, as we were riding out to the Soldiers' Home. 
 It began : 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 297 
 
 A weaver sat at his loom, 
 Flinging Ms shuttle fast, 
 And a thread that should wear till the hour of 
 doom 
 Was added at every cast. 
 
 The idea was that men weave in their own lives 
 the garment which they must wear in the world to 
 come. I do not know who wrote the verses; but 
 the opening lines were fixed in my mind by their 
 frequent repetition by the President, who seemed 
 to be strongly impressed by them. During the 
 evening, he murmured them to himself, once or 
 twice, as if in a soliloquy. 
 
 I think it was early in the war that some public 
 speaker sent Lincoln a newspaper report of a speech 
 delivered in New York. The President, apparently, 
 did not pay much attention to the speech, but a few 
 lines of verse at the close caught his eye. These 
 were the closing stanzas of Longfellow's " Building 
 of the Ship," beginning with : 
 
 Thou too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 
 Sail on, Union, strong and great ! 
 
 To my surprise, he seemed to have read the lines 
 for the first time. Knowing the whole poem as 
 one of my youthful exercises in recitation, I began, 
 at his request, with the description of the launch of 
 the ship, and repeated it to the end. As he listened 
 to the last lines : 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, etc., 
 
298 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 his eyes filled with tears, and his cheeks were wet. 
 He did not speak for some minutes, but finally said, 
 with simplicity : " It is a wonderful gift to be able 
 to stir men like that." It is quite possible that he 
 had read the poem long before the war for the Un- 
 ion gave to the closing portion that depth of mean- 
 ing which it held for him and now holds for us. 
 
 WBITING AND COMPOSITION 
 
 Lincoln always composed slowly, and he often 
 wrote and rewrote his more elaborate productions 
 several times. I happened to be with him often while 
 he was composing his message to Congress, which 
 was sent in while Sherman was on his march through 
 Georgia. There was much speculation as to where 
 Sherman had gone, and the secret was very well pre- 
 served. The President hoped, from day to day, that 
 Sherman would be heard from, or that something 
 wouldhappento give him an opportunity to enlighten 
 " and possibly congratulate the country," as he put 
 it. But December came, and there were no tidings 
 from Sherman, though everybody was hungry with 
 expectation, and feverish with anxiety. The Presi- 
 dent's message was first written with pencil on stiff 
 sheets of white pasteboard, or boxboard, a good 
 supply of which he kept by him. These sheets, five 
 or six inches wide, could be laid on the writer's 
 knee, as he sat comfortably in his arm-chair, in his 
 favorite position, with his legs crossed. One night, 
 taking one of these slips out of his drawer, with a 
 great affectation of confidential secrecy, he said, 
 " I expect you want to know all about Sherman's 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 299 
 
 raid?" Naturally I answered in the affirmative, 
 wlien lie said, " Well, then, I '11 read you this para- 
 graph from my message." The paragraph, how- 
 ever, was curiously non-committal, merely referring 
 to " General Sherman's attempted march of three 
 hundred miles directly through the insurgent re- 
 gion," and gave no indication whatever of the di- 
 rection of the march, or of the point from which 
 news from him was expected. Laying the paper down, 
 and taking off his spectacles, the President laughed 
 heartily at my disappointment, but added, kindly, 
 " "Well, my dear fellow, that's all that Congress will 
 know about it, anyhow." 
 
 He took a simple-hearted pleasure in considering 
 some of his best " hits." Occasionally, he would tell 
 his more intimate friends of a sharp saying that 
 he had uttered during that day ; and once he wrote 
 out for publication an account of an interview 
 which he had just had with two ladies who had 
 come to him with a request for the liberation of 
 their husbands, held as prisoners of war in Federal 
 camps. He thought he " had got the best of the 
 argument," he said, although he granted the peti- 
 tion of the ladies. In that writing, I remember, he 
 did not use capital letters when he mentioned the 
 days of the week ; and he said that with him punc- 
 tuation was a matter of feeling, not of education. 
 But his punctuation, it may be added, was always 
 good, and he was addicted to what the printers call 
 " close punctuation." Once he alluded to the semi- 
 colon, which so few people use with intelligence 
 and confidence, as " a very useful little chap." 
 
 As a rule, Lincoln wrote his most important let- 
 
300 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 ters with his own hand. Some of these — perhaps 
 mostof them — were read over to confidential friends 
 and were corrected, or modified, before being sent. 
 He kept copies of all letters of moment, and even 
 some of these copies he made himself with pains- 
 taking care. In his ofB.ce in the public wing of the • 
 White House was a little cabinet, the interior di- 
 vided into pigeonholes. The pigeonholes were 
 lettered in alphabetical order, but a few were de- 
 voted to individuals. Horace Grreeley, I remember, 
 had a pigeonhole by himself ; so did each of sev- 
 eral generals who wrote often to htm. One com- 
 partment, labeled " W. & W.," excited my curiosity, 
 but I never asked what it meant, and, one night, 
 being sent to the cabinet for a letter which the 
 President wanted, he said, " I see you looking at 
 my ' W. & W.' Can you guess what that stands 
 for ? " Of course it was useless to guess. " Well," 
 said he, with a merry twinkle of the eye, " that 's 
 Weed and Wood — Thurlow and Fernandy." Then 
 he added with an indescribable chuckle, " That 's a 
 pair of 'em ! " 
 
 Though Lincoln does not appear to have used 
 much imagery in his letters and speeches, his in- 
 numerable good sayings were pregnant with mean- 
 ing; as Emerson has said, his fables were so wise 
 that in an earlier time he would have been a my- 
 thological character, like .Esop. His parables were 
 similes. His figures of speech, used sparingly, were 
 homely and vigorous, the offspring of an unculti- 
 vated imagination, rather than of a mind stored 
 with the thoughts of the great men of all ages. 
 The simplest incidents of every-day life furnished 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 301 
 
 him with similes. In one of his speeches in the 
 famous campaign with Douglas, he said, referring 
 to the suppression of political debate, " These pop- 
 ular sovereigns are at their work, blowing out the 
 moral lights around us." This figure of blowing out 
 the lights is not only a simple one, but highly sug- 
 gestive of the homely incident which was in the 
 mind of the speaker ; an affected or fastidious per- 
 son would have weakly said, " extinguishing." In 
 the same way, Lincoln insisted on retaining in his 
 first annual message to Congress the phrase " sugar- 
 coated pills ; " and when remonstrated with by the 
 public printer, John D. Defrees, who was a personal 
 friend, he defended his use of the figure by de- 
 claring that the time would never come when the 
 American people would not know what a sugar- 
 coated piU was. 
 
 His earlier addresses showed, perhaps, more use 
 of figures of speech than did his later ones. Criti- 
 cizing that part of President Polk's message which 
 referred to the Mexican war, Lincoln, then a repre- 
 sentative in Congress, compared it to " the half -in- 
 sane mumbling of a fever-dream." In the same 
 speech he described military glory as " the attrac- 
 tive rainbow that rises in showers of blood; the 
 serpent's eye that charms to destroy." I do not now 
 recall a more striking picture, drawn by Lincoln, 
 than this description of the helpless state of the 
 American slave in 1857. " They have him in his 
 prison-house," said he. " They have searched his 
 person and have left no prying instrument with 
 him. One after another they have closed the heavy 
 iron doors upon him, and now they have him, as it 
 
302 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, whicli 
 can never be unlocked without the concurrence of 
 every key ; the keys in the hands of a hundi-ed dif- 
 ferent men, and they scattered to a hundred differ- 
 ent and distant places ; and they stand musing as 
 to what invention, in all the dominions of mind and 
 matter, can be produced to make the impossibility 
 of his escape more complete than it is." 
 
 Lincoln was a close observer of nature, as weU as 
 of men. He used natural objects to complete his 
 similes. Into the alembic of his mind everything 
 was received, to be brought forth again as apho- 
 rism, parable, or trenchant saying. In woodcraft, 
 for example, he was deeply skilled, his habit of close 
 observation leading him to detect curious facts 
 which escaped the notice of most men. Riding 
 through a wood in Virginia, he observed a vine 
 which wrapped a tree in its luxuriant gi'owth. 
 " Yes," he said, " that is verj- beautiful ; but that 
 vine is like certain habits of men ; it decorates the 
 ruin that it makes." At another time, when we 
 were in Virginia together, just after a fall of snow, 
 I found him standing on the stump of a tree, look- 
 ing out over the landscape. He called attention to 
 various subtle features of the view, and said, among 
 other things, that he liked the trees best when they 
 were not in leaf, as their anatomy could then be 
 studied. And he bade me look at the delicate yet 
 firm outline of a leafless tree against the sky. Then, 
 pointing to the fine net-work of shadows cast 
 on the snow by the branches and twigs, he said 
 that that was the profile of the tree. The very next 
 day, somebody was discussing with him the differ- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 303 
 
 ence between character and reputation, when he 
 said, — with a look as if to remind me of what he 
 had been talking about the day before, — perhaps a 
 man's character was like a tree, and his reputation 
 like its shadow ; the shadow is what we think of it ; 
 the tree is the real thing. 
 
 Perhaps his exceeding plainness of speech de- 
 tracted somewhat from the real depth of his thought, 
 but he was acute rather than profound ; and I am 
 inclined to think that those who were nearest him 
 dming the last years of his life were impressed by 
 the swiftness and the correctness of his intuitions, 
 rather than by the originality and profundity of his 
 reasoning. Some of the more radical members of 
 his party were impatient with his "exasperating 
 slowness " ; but I never heard any one criticize him 
 for lack of speed in arriving at a rational conclu- 
 sion when he had once undertaken an argument on 
 any subject whatever. 
 
 We were once talking about woodcraft, and the 
 President said that, although he had had undue 
 ci'edit for rail-splitting, he did know how to fell 
 a tree ; and he gave an entertaining disquisition on 
 the art, illustrated by examples before us. He said 
 that he did not remember splitting many rails in 
 his life. In fact, rail-fences were not in his line at 
 all ; but he was proud, he said, of his record as a 
 woodsman. Somebody reminded him that he had 
 authenticated some rails as of his splitting, during 
 the Lincoln and Hamlin campaign. " No, I did n't," 
 he replied. " They brought those rails in where I 
 was, with a great hurrah, and what I did say was 
 that if I ever split any rails on the piece of ground 
 
304 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 that those rails came from (and I was not sure 
 whether I had or not), I was sure that those were 
 the rails." 
 
 In private conversation Lincoln manifested a sin- 
 gular reluctance to speak of himself as president, 
 or to mention the office with any sort of personal 
 reference to himself. He always used the phrase, 
 " since I came into this place," instead of saying, 
 " since I became president." The war he usually 
 spoke of as " this gi-eat trouble," and he seldom 
 alluded to the enemy as " Confederates," or " the 
 Confederate government," but he used the word 
 " rebel " in his talk and in his letters. 
 
 LINCOLN, EVERETT, AND AGASSIZ 
 
 Theke was, sometimes, a curious inconsistency 
 between Lincoln's public and private utterances. 
 Not long after Edward Everett's death, he referred 
 to that event as a public loss. On the evening of 
 the day when the news of the death reached "Wash- 
 ington, I was at the White House, and the conver- 
 sation naturally fell upon that topic. Lincoln said, 
 "Now, you are a loyal New Englander, — loyal to 
 New England, — what great work of Everett's do 
 you remember ? " I was forced to say that I could 
 not recall any. The President persisted and wanted 
 to know if I could not recollect any great speech. 
 Not receiving satisfaction, he said, looking around 
 the room in his half -comical fashion, as if afraid of 
 being overheard, " Now, do you know, I think Ed- 
 ward Everett was very much overrated. He has n't 
 left any enduring monument. But there was one 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 305 
 
 speech in which, addressing a statue of John Adams 
 and a picture of Washington, in Fanenil Hall, Bos- 
 ton, he apostrophized them and said, ' Teach us the 
 love of liberty protected by law ! ' That was very 
 fine, it seems to me. Still, it was only a good idea, 
 introduced by noble language." 
 
 Continuing his discussion of Everett, he referred 
 to his celebrated address on "Washington, which 
 was delivered through the South, as if in the hope 
 that the rising storm of the rebellion might be 
 quelled by this oratorical oil on the waters. Lin- 
 cohi recalled a story told of Everett's manner. It 
 was necessary, in his Washington oration, to relate 
 an anecdote accompanied by the jingle of coin in 
 the lecturer's pocket. This was done at each of the 
 five hundred repetitions of the address, in the same 
 manner, and with unvarying accuracy. When gold 
 and silver disappeared from circulation, Mr. Ever- 
 ett procured and kept for this purpose a few coins 
 with which, and a bunch of keys, the usual effect 
 was produced. " And I am told," added Lincoln, 
 " that whenever Mr. Everett delivered that lecture, 
 he took along those things. They were what, I 
 believe, the theatrical people would call his ' prop- 
 erties.' " 
 
 While this talk was going on, the cards of Con- 
 gressman Hooper and Professor Agassiz were 
 brought in by a servant. "Agassiz!" exclaimed 
 the President with great delight, " I never met him 
 yet, and Hooper promised to bring him up to-night." 
 I rose to go, when he said, " Don't go, don't go. Sit 
 down, and let us see what we can pick up that 's 
 new from this great man," 
 
 20 
 
306 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 The conversation, however, was not very learned. 
 The President and the savant seemed like two boys 
 who wanted to ask questions which appeared com- 
 monplace, but were not quite sure of each other. 
 Each man was simplicity itself. Lincoln asked for 
 the correct pronunciation and derivation of Agas- 
 siz's name, and both men prattled on about curious 
 proper names in various languages, and odd cor- 
 respondences between names of common things in 
 different tongues. Agassiz asked Lincoln if he 
 ever had engaged in lecturing in his hf e. Lincoln 
 gave the outline of a lecture which he had partly 
 written, to show the origin of inventions, and prove 
 that there is nothing new under the sun. " I think 
 I can show," said he, " at least, in a fanciful way, 
 that aU the modern inventions were known centu- 
 ries ago." Agassiz begged that Lincoln would fin- 
 ish the lecture some time. Lincoln replied that he 
 had the manuscript somewhere in his papers, " and," 
 said he, " when I get out of this place, I '11 finish 
 
 it up, perhaps, and get my friend B to print it 
 
 somewhere." The fragment, for it is little else, was 
 found among his papers after his death, and was 
 printed by his literary executors, Messrs. Nicolay 
 and Hay. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE LAST GBAND REVIEW 
 
 A STRIKING AND MEMORABLE MILITARY PAGEANT — THE 
 FINAL MARCH OP GRANT'S AND SHERMAN'S ARMIES 
 THROUGH THE NATIONAL CAPITAL — SOME OF THE 
 FEATURES OF THE PAHADE — A NOTE OF PEACE AT 
 LAST 
 
 THE city of Washington, so often wrung with 
 grief, and so often delirious with hope and joy, 
 during those memorable years of war, saw a noble 
 and inspiring sight on the twenty-third and twenty- 
 fourth days of May, in 1865. This was when we 
 witnessed the farewell march through the National 
 capital of more than one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand soldiers, who were welcomed with an enthusi- 
 asm impossible of description, as they passed 
 through the city which for the time being might 
 have been regarded as being the heart of the nation. 
 It was a noble sight to see ; and it is not altogether 
 certain that the pride and joy of the soldiers ready 
 to be mustered out at last were any greater than 
 the pride and joy of the citizens who regarded with 
 affectionate admiration this brave array. On the 
 first day was reviewed the Army of the Potomac, 
 
308 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 General Meade commanding ; and the second day 
 saw the march-past of the famous Army of the Mis- 
 sissippi, commanded by General Sherman. 
 
 It was a notable event, and people came from 
 every part of the United States to look upon the 
 passing pageant. Never in the history of Wash- 
 ington had there been such an enormous influx of 
 visitors as at that time. For weeks there had been 
 so vast a volume of apphcations for accommodations 
 at the hotels and boarding-houses that every avail- 
 able nook and corner had been taken. Governors 
 and other state functionaries, congressmen, and 
 private citizens from even distant cities desired to 
 look at last upon the grand armies now about to 
 dissolve. So gi'eat was the number of visitors that 
 many were obliged to spend the night in the open 
 air, sleeping on park benches, or walking the streets. 
 The mild summer weather of Washington softened 
 these discomforts to the houseless and determined 
 patriots. 
 
 Along the route of the great march stands were 
 built by the Government or by the District authori- 
 ties, and in some instances by private indi^^duals ; 
 so that, from the Capitol to the White House, Penn- 
 sylvania avenue presented a well-nigh unbroken 
 mass of seats, rising rank above rank along the 
 line of march, decorated with the national colors, 
 and filled with joyful and enthusiastic crowds of 
 men, women, and children. The city had ordered 
 a closing of the schools for these two days, and 
 one of the charming featiu'es of the great occasion 
 was the massing of the children, in gay attire, on 
 the steps and platforms of the massive porticos and 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIMR 309 
 
 terraces of the northern end of the capitol. The 
 little folks greeted the returning soldiers with 
 bursts of patriotic song and the waving of minia- 
 ture flags, to which the men in the ranks responded 
 with cheers, many a father doubtless looking up 
 with moistened eyes to the childish throngs with 
 thoughts of homes to which they were now return- 
 ing after long absence in perilous campaigns. 
 
 The main point of attraction was the part of 
 Pennsylvania avenue which is nearest the White 
 House. There were built several covered stands 
 for the comfortable accommodation of some ten or 
 fifteen thousand people ; the central space being 
 designed for the President of the United States, 
 members of his cabinet, heads of departments, 
 military officers of the highest rank, and the diplo- 
 matic coi"ps. On the opposite side of the avenue 
 were stands for use of congressmen, the Federal 
 Judiciary, the press, and invited guests. A com- 
 modious stand had been built near here, too, by a 
 pubhc-spirited Bostonian, at his own expense, for 
 the exclusive use of crippled and convalescent sol- 
 diers. These disabled heroes filled the structure, 
 and it was impossible to regard without emotion 
 the continual exchange of cheers between the 
 scarred veterans and their retru-ning comrades. 
 
 The weather was absolutely perfect on both the 
 days of the grand review ; all the conditions, bar- 
 ring the painful memories which even this inspir- 
 ing sight recalled to many minds, were complete 
 for the full enjoyment of the people's holiday. 
 Two days of rain had cooled the air and laid the 
 dust; and the streets of Washington, not always 
 
310 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 clean, were pleasant to inarch through. The au- 
 was bright, cleai-, and invigorating; as far as the 
 eye conld reach along the wide avenues through 
 which the armed hosts moved with measured tread 
 there was a blaze of color. Flags, banners, stream- 
 ers, and all imaginable forms of patriotic device 
 were lavishly spread to the au\ The home-coming 
 of the armies had been the signal for the removal 
 of the somber badges of mourning that for more 
 than a month had marked the grief of the city 
 over the death of the beloved Lincoln. Looking 
 over the canopy of the reviewing stand opposite 
 that in which I sat, one could see that the flag on 
 the White House, for the first time since the fif- 
 teenth of April, was no longer at half-mast. 
 
 In the center of the reviewing stand nearest the 
 White House grounds was seated President An- 
 drew Johnson ; on his right were Secretary Stan- 
 ton, General G-rant, and Attorney-General Speed; 
 and on his left were General Meade, Secretary 
 Welles, Postmaster-General Dennison, and Generals 
 Sherman, Bai'nard, and Meigs. Behind these were 
 Secretary McCuUoch, Secretary Harlan, and a group 
 of military notables. On the higher platform be- 
 hind were the members of the diplomatic corps in 
 fuU ceremonial costume, and in the stands at the 
 right and left of that occupied by the President 
 and other dignitaries were military, naval, and 
 civil functionaries by the hundreds. Among these 
 one noted the fine figure and handsome face of 
 General W. S. Hancock ; he was often recognized 
 and cheered by the passing soldiery, as well as by 
 civilian spectators. As each army corps passed 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 311 
 
 the President's stand, the commander of the corps 
 took his seat by the side of President Johnson. 
 The cavahy, a mighty cavalcade, occupied a full 
 hour in passing. The clatter of hoofs, the clank 
 of sabers, and the shrill call of bugles resounding 
 on the air invested this favorite arm of the service 
 with something of that romance with which our 
 people usually regard it. And a striking incident 
 ushered in the march past of the corps. Suddenly 
 dashed upon the scene, while the pavement was clear 
 and the spectators were watching for the first ap- 
 pearance of Grenei"al "Wesley Merritt's forces, a 
 splendid blooded charger, covered with foam, wildly 
 plunging and galloping, and ridden by a young- 
 major-general. His stirrups were loose, his empty 
 scabbard clattered behind him, his long yellow 
 curls were flying in the wind, but his sabre was 
 gallantly carried at salute as he fled by. This was 
 the dashing Custer, whose horse, frightened at a 
 tremendous wreath of flowers flung over his head 
 by some indiscreet admirer, was for a few minutes 
 beyond the control of his rider. There was an ir- 
 repressible burst of cheers from the spectators as 
 the scared steed flashed past, and " Custer !" " Cus- 
 ter ! " " Custer ! " flew from lip to lip. Shortly, 
 curbing his horse, the gallant young cavalryman 
 rode back again — a beautiful figure, lithe, graceful, 
 and every inch a soldier, saluting again as he re- 
 passed the President and took his place at the head 
 of his division, which now came up and passed in 
 review. General Merritt commanded the cavalry 
 corps. General Sheridan having departed to his 
 new command in the Southwest. 
 
312 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 After the cavalry, which made a picturesque and 
 brUliant spectacle, came the mounted artillery of 
 the regular army, nine batteries in all, Colonel Rob- 
 ertson commanding. The glitter of their equip- 
 ments, the gleam of their polished cannon, the 
 champing and tramping of their fine horses, and 
 the soldierly appearance of the men, made this an 
 impressive feature of the great parade. Next came 
 the Provost-Marshal's guard, — two regiments of 
 cavalry, and the Third and Tenth United States 
 Infantry, Greneral Macy commanding. The Engi- 
 neer Brigade, commanded by General Benham, was 
 a corps that roused the enthusiasm and gratified the 
 curiosity of the multitudes as it marched past, with 
 pioneers bearing the implements of their branch of 
 the service, and haiding with them the pontoons, 
 boats, and other appliances requu-ed on the march 
 to battle, but seldom seen in a holiday military 
 show. 
 
 The Ninth Corps of the Ai-my of the Potomac, 
 formerly Burnside's, was headed liy G-eueral John 
 G-. Parke. This corps was one of the most splen- 
 didly equipped and best drilled in the first day's 
 parade ; the regiments appeared iufiue order, march- 
 ing " company front," with arms at right-shoulder- 
 shift until just before reaching the President's stand, 
 when they were brought to shoulder-arms \\-ith a 
 military precision that evoked a great roar of ap- 
 plause from the admiring thousands who looked 
 on. Each brigade of infantry was accompanied by 
 six ambulances, three abreast, and the rear of the 
 corps was brought up by a brigade of artillery. 
 Almost no break occurred in the line of march, aiid 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 313 
 
 the passing troops were halted but once, and that 
 for a brief moment in front of the main reviewing 
 stand. 
 
 After the Ninth came the Fifth Corps, Greneral 
 Charles Griflfin in command. Many of the specta- 
 tors tui-ned their eyes involuntarily toward Warren, 
 who had only recently been relieved of his com- 
 mand, and who was seen, recognized, and uproari- 
 ously cheered by the men of the Fifth as they 
 marched by. The affection and admiration of those 
 cheers were unmistakable, whatever may have been 
 thought of the infraction of military discipline 
 which was thus committed. A vivid bit of color, 
 giving a pictorial effect to the show, was the ap- 
 pearance of four regiments of Zouaves in the Fu'st 
 Brigade, Second Division, of this corps. These 
 were the One Hundred and Fourteenth Pennsyl- 
 vania, the Fifth New York, the One Hundred and 
 Forty-sixth, and the One Hundred and Fortieth 
 New York. They were splendid in appearance; 
 their marching was perfect, and the men were all 
 well formed and muscular ; their gay uniforms and 
 unique di'ess gave a pleasant relief in the general 
 monotony of color that pervaded the ranks of the 
 marching armies. The Second Corps, commanded 
 by Q-eneral A. A. Humphreys, brought up the rear 
 of the Army of the Potomac, the Sixth, under 
 General H. Gr. Wright, not being near enough at 
 hand to take part in the review. It was, however, re- 
 viewed separately June 8, 1865. The First, Second, 
 and Third Divisions of the Second Corps were com- 
 manded by Ramsey, Barlow, and Mott respectively : 
 and in the First Division was the famous Irish 
 
314 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Brigade, Nugent commanding, composed of the 
 Sixty-ninth New York, the Twenty-eighth Massa- 
 chusetts, the Eighty-eighth New York, the Fourth 
 New York Artillery (equipped as infantry), and the 
 Sixty-third New York. Every soldier and every 
 officer wore a sprig of green in his hat, and the 
 regimental colors had the emerald-green ground, 
 the sunburst, and the harp of Erin. These em- 
 blems and the men who bore them were loudly 
 cheered all along the line ; we could hear the great 
 roar of the people long before the regiments reached 
 us. Generally speaking, it was noticeable that the 
 applause and the cheering were less frequent at the 
 grand stands where the dignitaries were assembled 
 than at other places along the line where the multi- 
 tude was enjoying itself in its own free-and-easy 
 fashion. 
 
 On the stand where I sat it was entertaining to 
 watch the movements of many governors of states, 
 who made it their business to " rally " whenever a 
 regiment from their own prideful community came 
 marching by. Governor John A. Andrew of Massa- 
 chusetts was one of those who, bubbling over with 
 enthusiasm, started volleys of cheers for regiments 
 from the Eastern States; and Governor Fenton of 
 New York was always prepared to " give a hand " 
 to the boys in blue who represented by the thou- 
 sands the Empire State in the Army of the Poto- 
 mac. There was an occasional good-humored laugh 
 when a New York militia officer, who never saw 
 service in the field, put himself conspicuously in 
 evidence with his elaborate uniform and militai'y 
 gear, proposing cheers for favorite regiments. 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 315 
 
 It "was noticeable that the commanders of divi- 
 sions and corps were not, for the most part, men of 
 an elderly appearance. Meade, Benham, and Hum- 
 phreys were the only exceptions to this I'ule ; almost 
 all the other general officers being youthful of look. 
 Another notable feature of the parade was the few- 
 ness of the field officers; companies were com- 
 manded by lieutenants who had taken the places 
 of captains temporarily commanding regiments; 
 and colonels led brigades. This was an expressive 
 reminder of the sorrowful mortality that had laid 
 low so many gallant officers leading their men in 
 desperate charges on the field of battle. 
 
 There were many inquiries why there were no 
 colored troops in line ; at that time the negro troops 
 were being massed at City Point, Virginia, prepar- 
 atory to being sent to Sheridan's new command in 
 the Southwest. Those troops would doubtless have 
 had a rousing welcome in Washington ; for in those 
 days men recognized in the tardily enlisted freed- 
 men something very like the last hope of the dis- 
 traught and long-harassed republic. 
 
 The general regret that Sheridan was not "on 
 view " with the other famous generals was marked, 
 and significant of his vast popularity. Sherman's 
 appearance on the grand stand was the signal for 
 a tremendous outburst of applause from those who 
 gazed upon the brilliant group, with cheer upon 
 cheer. The redoubtable warrior returned these 
 salutes with grim composure. At that time the 
 public was agog over the dispute that had arisen 
 between the G-eneral and the Secretary of War on 
 account of Sherman's terms of agreement for the 
 
316 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 surrender of the Confederate forces under Greneral 
 Jos. E. Johnston. People who disliked Stanton 
 (and these were many) had hoped and expected 
 that Sherman would treat him with marked disre- 
 spect when they met. I sat in the stand opposite 
 that of the presidential party, between Senator 
 Conness of California and Senator WUson of Mas- 
 sachusetts ; and when Sherman, removing his hat, 
 emerged upon the platform from the crowd near 
 the President, Senator WUson excitedly said: "Now 
 let us watch Sherman ; people think he will affront 
 Stanton, whom he has n't met yet." We trained our 
 field-glasses on the group and saw Stanton extend 
 his hand to Sherman, who, after saluting the Presi- 
 dent, approached the Secretary of War. At our 
 distance from the party in the grand stand, we 
 could not hear whether any words were spoken; 
 but we could see that Sherman, declining Stanton's 
 greeting, firmly placed his right hand by his side 
 with a very slight gestui-e. Stanton's face, never 
 very expressive, remained immobile. Sherman, as 
 he turned his attention to the troops passing by, 
 looked glimmer than ever, and a dark-red scar, the 
 mark of a recent slight accident, imparted to his 
 visage a certain sinister expression which rather 
 heightened the effect of this little episode. Some 
 have said that Sherman put his hands behind him, 
 and at the same time made a curt remark as he put 
 aside the greeting proffered by Stanton. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac, on its grand review, 
 left outside of the city a great number of men in 
 charge of camps, and many unarmed and dis- 
 mounted men ; but there were in line on that beau- 
 
WASHINaTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 317 
 
 tiful May day eighty thousand fighting men. There 
 were twenty-nine I'egiments of cavalry, thirty-three 
 batteries of artillery, one hundred and eighty regi- 
 ments of infantry, and numerous brilliant staffs of 
 division and corps commanders. 
 
 On the second day of the review, the Army of the 
 Mississippi made its first and last appearance in 
 Washington: its victorious leader, Sherman, the 
 idol of the horn', and more than ever admired after 
 his bout with the great War Secretary, stood, at 
 last, in the city whose political atmosphere he so 
 much abhorred. The divisions of his army were 
 the Ai'my of the Tennessee, which formed the right 
 wing, and was commanded by Greneral John A. 
 Logan, who had lately succeeded General 0. O. 
 Howard, the newly-appointed chief of the Freed- 
 men's Bureau, and the Army of Georgia, or the left 
 wing, commanded by General H. W. Slocum. Of 
 these grand subdivisions, the .Army of the Tennes- 
 see was composed of ninety-four regiments of in- 
 fantry; that of Georgia had eighty-six regiments, 
 and a full complement of artillery, and a smaller 
 contingent of cavalry. These forces aggregated 
 about 70,000. The Army of the Ohio, made up of 
 the Tenth and Twenty-third Corps, commanded by 
 General John M. Schofield, had been left in North 
 Carolina, and did not participate in the review. 
 
 With military precision, as the church clocks 
 chimed nine in the morning. General Sherman ap- 
 peared at the head of his armies, accompanied by 
 General O. O. Howard, the gorgeously arrayed staffs 
 of the two generals streaming out behind them, a 
 shining spectacle. Sherman was a skilful horse- 
 
318 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 man, but his spirited steed, a powerful beast, gave 
 him all he could do to manage him. The com- 
 mander saluted the President with impassive face, 
 and Howard, who guided his horse by the stump of 
 his amputated arm, did the same; then the two 
 officers, haAdng passed the reviewing stand, dis- 
 mounted, and took up their stations with the re- 
 viewing party. There was something almost fierce 
 in the fever of enthusiasm roused by the sight of 
 Sherman. Volleys of cheers, prolonged and loud, 
 rose from the crowd; a multitude of small flags 
 waved from the reviewing stands, and wi'eaths and 
 bouquets of flowers flew thick and fast through the 
 ail'. In the group of notable men on the grand 
 stand, Sherman was certainly the most notable in 
 appearance. His head was high and narrow, his 
 hair and whiskers were sandy in hue, his moustache 
 stiff and bristling, and his eyes keen and piercing. 
 He was very tall, walked with an immense stride, 
 talked rapidly and nervously, and would be picked 
 out in any assemblage as a man of distinction. All 
 eyes were fastened upon his striking countenance, 
 the vast multitude gazing with a certain raptui'e 
 at the famous man whom they now saw for the first 
 time. 
 
 There was, of course, a great deal of popular cu- 
 riosity to see the Western soldiers who had marched 
 from Atlanta to the sea, and through the Carolinas 
 and Virginia to Washington. Everybody welcomed 
 with glad acclaim to the national capital these he- 
 roes who now, for the first time since they had been 
 in the military service of the country, saw its seat 
 of government. Comparisons between the Eastern 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 319 
 
 and the Western men were made at once. It was 
 observed that the Western men wore a more free- 
 and-easy uniform, generally adopting the loose blue 
 blouse and the sugar-loaf-shaped felt hat, rather 
 than the close-fitting coat and natty French kepi of 
 the Eastern soldiers who had marched before us in 
 the Army of the Potomac. But nothing could be 
 more perfect than their marching order, each rank 
 stepping out as one man. As a rule, the Western- 
 ers were of larger build than their brothers in the 
 Army of the Potomac ; and they were so allotted 
 in the ranks that each company front presented a 
 line of uniform height, the tallest men in the front. 
 As each brigade reached the President's stand, 
 its band and drum corps swung around opposite 
 the reviewing officer, who had taken his place by 
 the President, and played until the rear came up, 
 and then fell in, giving place to the next brigade 
 band. In this way, there was always good march- 
 ing music at the reviewing stand, adding greatly 
 to the fine effect of the military spectacle of passing 
 troops. Great praise was given to the Fifteenth 
 Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, commanded 
 by G-eneral W. B. Hazen, and made up of troops 
 from Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, 
 Indiana, and Ohio. This magnificent body of men 
 was generally regarded as comprising some of the 
 very best types of the Western fighting man ; their 
 free, swinging stride, their boldness of bearing, and 
 their powerful physique, were certainly highly im- 
 pressive, and extorted the unstinted admiration of 
 the onlookers, who saw many regiments and bri- 
 gades made famous during the long struggle in the 
 
320 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 Southwest long before the review in the national 
 capital was even so much as thought of. 
 
 The Seventeenth Corps, which immediately fol- 
 lowed the Fifteenth, was composed of troops from 
 the States above mentioned, and included one regi- 
 ment from the State of New Jersey. In this corps, 
 too, were many Wisconsin men — splendid speci- 
 mens of humanity, taU, well-made, and marching 
 with the stride and cadence step which were so 
 marked a feature of the Westerners. The long legs 
 and the long marches of Sherman's men, it was 
 said, gave the army that peculiar and impressive 
 appearance in the line of parade. G-eneral Frank 
 P. Blair, Jr., rode at the head of this noble corps ; 
 and he looked stouter and browner than when he 
 was in Congress. He was frantically cheered by the 
 populace as soon as he was recognized, riding there 
 with a certain military grace and alert manner that 
 were characteristic of his admirable soldierly rep- 
 utation. The good-humored crowds laughed and 
 cheered when they saw in the rear of each brigade 
 of these two corps some of the typical " Sherman's 
 bummers," of whose exploits they had heard so 
 much. These were accompanied by Jacks and mules, 
 laden with camp equipage and the spoils of forag- 
 ing expeditions, and attended liy grinning darkies ; 
 chickens, roosters, goats, dogs, yomig raccoons, and 
 camp pets of various species Avere all mixed in mot- 
 ley array. The plantation of Jeff Davis had been 
 laid under tribute, and two small white jacks of a 
 fancy stock were among the trophies of one regi- 
 ment. 
 
 Between the armies, as they marched past, and 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 321 
 
 occasionally between the individual corps, were 
 gaps of distance across which the sovereign people 
 on the outer lines would run to gaze upon the no- 
 tables in the reviewing stand. Sometimes a great 
 throng of people would collect in front and cheer 
 lustily for G-rant, Sherman, Howard, or some other 
 military favorite, not omitting President Johnson ; 
 and each would rise with manifest unwillingness 
 to make his bow to the multitude. Then the guards 
 on duty would rush in and ungraciously force back 
 the sovereigns in most admired disorder, a great 
 show of glittering bayonets being made. But, for 
 the most part, the streets were kept clear for the 
 marching men, and good order was preserved. Tow- 
 ard the end of the second day's parade, popular 
 respect for the military guards on duty seemed to 
 have abated somewhat, and there were frequent ir- 
 ruptions of spectators into the lines, and civil and 
 military confusion most inextricable followed. 
 
 Like the Army of the Potomac, the corps of the 
 Army of the Mississippi had adopted distinctive 
 badges ; and it was an interesting novelty to see in 
 Washington some of the totems of the great forces 
 that had opened the navigation of the Father of 
 Waters, split the Confederacy into fragments, and 
 finally marched to the sea. People gazed with ad- 
 miring curiosity upon the Fifteenth's cartridge-box, 
 set transversely on a square field, with the legend, 
 "Forty rounds," the Seventeenth's arrow, the star of 
 the Twentieth, and the acorn of the Fourteenth. 
 Looking at these novel emblems of military prowess 
 (for they were novel to us), one could realize how far 
 apart had been the two great armies fighting in the 
 
322 WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 
 
 defense of the Union. The brave men who bore 
 these badges had hewed their way from the Missis- 
 sippi to Washington, and on their battle-flags they 
 carried the magical names of " Atlanta," " Lookout 
 Mountain," " Chickamauga," and a host of other 
 titles that symbolized and immortalized their valor 
 and their successes. They were stUl brothers in 
 blood with their comrades in the Army of the Poto- 
 mac, and with the dense multitudes that cheered 
 and cheered again as the strangers passed. One 
 must needs recall with grateful heart the mighty 
 achievements and the self-denying sacrifices of 
 these marching men, whose victories had so often 
 given occasion for national thanksgiving as the 
 tide of victory ebbed and flowed and the day of 
 peace at last drew nearer and more near. 
 
 Now on every pennon, flag, and guidon fluttered 
 a black streamer ; the hilt of every ^dctorious saber 
 wore a band of crape. These were the tokens of 
 that national mourning over the last illustrious 
 martyr, whose death left a pang of sorrow, even in 
 this hour of jubilation, in every patriot's heart. Nor 
 could the thoughtful spectator restrain a sigh for 
 the thousands who should have marched with these 
 triumphant cohorts, but who fell, a sacrifice for the 
 cause of the Union for whose defense they had risked 
 and lost their hves. They were not forgotten in that 
 hour of triumph— they who had fallen out of the 
 ranks now marching past, although they slept their 
 last sleep in the bayous and marshes of the South- 
 west and had made the South all billowy with 
 graves. One could almost imagine, as the glitter- 
 ing, cheered, and cheering columns passed by, re- 
 
WASHINGTON IN LINCOLN'S TIME 323 
 
 dundant with life and vigor, that another host, 
 spectral and shadowy, but as nuinerous and as viv- 
 idly characterized and marked, moved with and over 
 them with silent tread in the viewless air — two 
 armies, one living and one dead. 
 
 The pageant faded. The men-at-arms who had 
 spent their years and lavished their energies in 
 camps or on fields of battle went from the national 
 capital to their own homes, to take up once more 
 the arts of peace and the cares and joys of sweet 
 domesticity. In a few weeks this army of two or 
 three hundred thousand men melted back into the 
 heart of the people from whence it came, and the 
 great spectacle of the Grand Army of the Eepublic 
 on review disappeared from sight. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Amendment, the 13tli, 203 ei seq. 
 
 Anecdotes of Al>Tabam Lincoln : and 
 tie wounded soldier, 7 ; and Prof. 
 Henry, 11 ; and Stanton and Eckert, 
 30 ; and Halleck, 36 ; and th e swear- 
 ing teamster, 50 ; and the pickanin- 
 nies, 66; and Princess SEilm-Salm, 
 63; and John McCullough, actor, 
 71 ; and the sunhnrst, 74 ; and Nas- 
 by's letter on negro enUstmenta, 
 109 ; and Pesaenden. 129 : and Blair 
 and Forney, 136 ; of his hearing 
 news of his renomination, 160 ; and 
 Tad, 217 ; and E. M. T. Hunter, 234; 
 of the " lame duck," 289. 
 
 Anecdotes of Tad Lincoln, 278«< seq. 
 
 Army of the Potomac reviewed by 
 Lincoln, 1863, 45. 
 
 Ashley, Eepresentative J. M., in 
 charge of Constitution Amendment 
 aholishing slavery, 204. 
 
 Assassins of Lincoln, trial of, 267; 
 fate of, 272-73. 
 
 Agassiz, Frot., calls on Lincoln, 304. 
 
 Augusta, Major, colored surgeon, ex- 
 pelled from Washington street-car, 
 214. 
 
 Bates, Edward, Attorney-General, 
 personal appearance, 34; resigns 
 office, 193. 
 
 Battle of Prederickshurg, 39. 
 
 Baltimore, Republican National Con- 
 vention in, 1864, 161-59. 
 
 Blair, Montgomery, personal appear- 
 ance of, 36; his Bockville speech, 
 134 ; altercation with Col. Forney, 
 135. 
 
 Blair, F. P., Sen., visits Eichmond, 
 223. 
 
 Blair, F. P., Jr., in Congress, 132; at 
 the closing military review^ 320. 
 
 Brooks, James, speech on Lmcoln's 
 visit to Hampton Eoads, 232. 
 
 Booth, Edwin, at Ford's Theater, 70. 
 
 Bingham, Representative J. A., re- 
 ply to Vallandigham, 112; in the 
 trial of the assassins of Lincoln, 
 320. 
 
 Butler, B. F., speech at celebration 
 of war victories, 261. 
 
 Burnside, General A. E., the " Mud 
 March," 44; his treatment of Val- 
 landigham, 114. 
 
 Camp Convalescent, 6; and Strag- 
 gle, 7. 
 
 Capitol at Washington, work on, 9, 
 10 ; wedding in, 74 ; U. S. Chiistian 
 Commission meeting in, 75. 
 
 Chancellorsville, Lincoln hears news 
 of retreat after battle of, 57. 
 
 Chandler, Zachariah, Senator, 27. 
 
 Chase, Secretary of Treasury, his the- 
 ory conoerning executive appoint- 
 ments, 116; Ms treatment of Cali- 
 fornia congressmen, 117; resigns 
 office, 125 ; nominated for Chief Jus- 
 tice, 129-30; supported for presi- 
 dency by S. O. Pomeroy and others, 
 136 ; mstalled as Chief Justice, 190 
 etseq. 
 
 Colored people in Washington street- 
 oars, 212 et seq. 
 
 Colfax, Schuyler, Eepresentative and 
 Speaker, personal appearance, 21 ; 
 his resolution to expel Eepresenta- 
 tive Long, 98 ; his vote on the 13th 
 Amendment, 206. 
 
 "Colchester," a spiritist medium, 64. 
 
 Conness, John, Senator, facetious re- 
 mark concerning Secretary WeUes, 
 33. 
 
 Congress, fleld-days in, 97. 
 
 Conscription bill, debate on, 105. 
 
 Constitutional Amendment abolish- 
 ing slavery, 203 el seq. 
 
 Custer, General Geo. A., at the fight 
 at Falling Waters, Md., 93; at the 
 closing military review, 310. 
 
 DaUey, S. C, Delegate from Nebras- 
 ka, replies to Voorhees, 104. 
 
 Davis, Garrett, Senator, his excited 
 speeches in Senate, 103 ; his aston- 
 Isliment at " negro impudence." 
 
 Davia, Eepresentative H. W., his re- 
 construction bill and Wade-Davis 
 manifesto, 163 et seq. 
 
 Dennlson, ex-Governor, chairman of 
 Eepuhlican National Convention, 
 1864, 154. 
 
326 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dickinson, Miss Anna, lier speeches 
 in Washington, 73. 
 
 Dix, Miss Dorottiea, 5. 
 
 Dickinson, D. S., 109 Totes in Repulj- 
 lioan National Convention, 1864, 159. 
 
 District of Columbia, abolition of sla- 
 very In, 198 et seq. 
 
 Early's raid on Washington, 1864, 
 
 178-179. 
 Bokert, General T. T., with Lincoln 
 
 and Stanton, 30 ; gives Uncoln 
 
 news of his renomination, 160. 
 Emancipation in Maryland, 202. 
 "Evening Post," of New York, its 
 
 exclusive news, 61. 
 Everett, Edward, and Lincoln, 285, 
 
 304. 
 
 Falling Waters, Md., escape of rebel 
 army at, 93. 
 
 Pessenden, Wm. Pitt, Senator and 
 Secretary of Treasury , 26 ; his nom- 
 ination to succeed Chafie, 128. 
 
 Fox, Captain G. V., Assistant Secre- 
 tary of Navy, 32 ; H. W. Davis's hos- 
 tility to, 166. 
 
 Forney, Colonel J. W.. altercation 
 with Montgomery Blair, 135 ; news- 
 paper articles ou Hampton Eoads 
 conference. 225. 
 
 Fortifications of Washington, 11. 
 
 Fredericksburg, battle of, 39. 
 
 Fremont, General J. C, nominated 
 for president, 1864, 160. 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law, last case under, 
 198. 
 
 Garfield, Eepreeontative Jas. A. , per- 
 sonal appearance, 20 ; on the lieu- 
 tenant-general bill, 141 ; connection 
 with the Wade-Davis manifesto, 
 169. 
 
 Garuett, a confederate ofHeor. and 
 Eepresentative WickUffe, 13. 
 
 Gettysburg, battle of, and after, Sl- 
 oe ; Lincoln's speech ax dedication 
 of cemetery at, 285. 
 
 Grant, General U. S., the forces that 
 made him lieutenaut-general, 139 ; 
 his llrst appearance in Washington, 
 144 ; at the White House, 146 ; at City 
 Point, 147, Ms remarks conoeruiug 
 McCleUan, 147 : ••flghtitoutouthis 
 line," 148; votes for, in the Eepub- 
 llonu National Convention, 1864, 
 167 ; on the Hampton Eoads con- 
 fcroncc. 233; at I'eter.sburi;', 244 ; at 
 Lincoln's funeral, 263; at tlie clos- 
 iUK mllitnry review. 310. 
 
 Greeley, Horace, his demand for 
 peace negotiations, 24:i. 
 
 Hallcck, Gcu. H. W., his personal ap- 
 pearance, 35; and Lincoln, 36; his 
 
 despatches to Meade after the bat- 
 tle of Gettysburg, 88 ; his unpopu- 
 larity, 140. 
 
 Hall, Andrew, a fugitive slave, 197. 
 
 Hamlin, Vice-President Hannibal, 
 possibilities of his renomination, 
 151. 
 
 Hampton Eoads, conference at, 223 
 el seq. ; report from, to Congress, 
 228. 
 
 Harris, Eepresentative B. G. of 
 Maryland, efibrt to expel from the 
 House, 100 ; delegate to the Demo- 
 cratic National Convention, 1864, 
 181 et seq. 
 
 Henry, Professor, anecdote of, with 
 Lincoln, 11. 
 
 Henry, Dr. A. G., his relations to Lin- 
 coln and Victor Smith, 121 et seq. ; 
 Lincoln's despatch to, 219. 
 
 Hospitals in Washington, 2; in the 
 Patent Office, 7. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Lincoln's 
 liking for his poems, 79. 
 
 Hooker, General Joseph, Lincoln's 
 letter to, on taking command of the 
 Army of the Potomac, 62 ; after his 
 defeat at ChancellorsvUl^/ 56 ; his 
 flnal exit, 60. 
 
 Hunter, E. M. T., with Lincoln at the 
 Hampton Eoads conference, 234. 
 
 Lnauguration, Lincoln's second, 236 
 et seq. 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, nomination for 
 vice-president, 164 et seq. ; his In- 
 augui'ation, 236 ; speeches ou acces- 
 sion to presideutiai ofHee, 274; at 
 the funeral of Lincoln, 263 ; at the 
 closing military review, 310. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, his appearance in 
 1862. 2; with Stanton and Eckert, 
 33 ; on threats of assassmatiou, 38 ; 
 reviews Army of the Potomac. 45 
 et seq. ; reproof to swearing team- 
 ster, 60 ; his letter to Hooker on giv- 
 ing him command, 52 ; on the " pick- 
 aninnies," 66; with Hooker, 59; 
 letter to the Springfield, IlL, Con- 
 vention, 1863, 63 ; his retentive mem- 
 ory, 76 ; manner toward enlisted 
 men, 77 ; liking for Holmes's poems, 
 79; eouceming Wood and Vallan- 
 digham, 114; auger at Secretary 
 Chase's California appointments, 
 118 ; exasperation over the Victor 
 Smith incident, lis ; explanation of 
 his relations with Chase, made to 
 the Senate Committee. 120 et seq. : 
 nominates Chase to chief-iustice- 
 ship. 129 , interview with Blair and 
 Forney, 136 ; his renomination de- 
 clared impossible, 130 ; his friend- 
 
INDEX 
 
 327 
 
 aWp for Halleck, UO; Ms opinion 
 as to duratiou of war in Virginia, 
 14:9; on Hamlin's renomination, 
 151 ; Ms renomination in 1864, 155 ; 
 liow lie received tlie news of Ma re- 
 nomination, 160; official notice of 
 the same, 162; Ms reconstruction 
 policy, 163 ; liis views of the Early 
 raid, 177 ; Ms prediction concerning 
 the Democratic National Conven- 
 tion of 1864, 180; cheerful state of 
 mind during the dark days of 1864, 
 181; Ms attitude on Chase's ap- 
 pointment as Chief Justice, 191 ; his 
 remarks on the same, 196 ; on Main- 
 land emancipation, 203 ; signs the 
 13th Ameudment biU, 211; de- 
 meanor on the day of presidential 
 election, 1864, 216; how he received 
 the news of the election, 219 ; his 
 account of an optical Illusion, 220 ; 
 his sM'ewdness at Hampton Beads, 
 223 etseq. ; sends report of that con- 
 ference to Congress, 229 ; Ms second 
 inauguration, 235 tt seq.; Ms re- 
 marks at the end of the war, 252 ; 
 his speech, April 11, 1865, 253 eiseq. ; 
 his assassination, 257 et seq. ; Msf u- 
 neral, 261 ; family life at the WMte 
 House, 284 etseg.; his remarks ahout 
 Ms Gettyshurg speech, 285; con- 
 cerning office-seekers, 287; Ms 
 story-telling habit, 289; literary 
 tendencies, 294; methods of liter- 
 ary composition, 298; meets Pro- 
 fessor Louis Agassiz, 304. 
 
 Lincohi, Mrs. Mary, letter from, to 
 author, 124. 
 
 Lincoln, Eohert T., at his father's 
 funeral, 263; age on entering the 
 White House, 278. 
 
 Lincoln, " Tad," anecdote of, 217 ; at 
 a serenade to Ms father, 222; Ms 
 life In the WMte House, 278 et seq. 
 
 Lieutenantgeneral bill, the, 141. 
 
 Long, Representative Alexander, ef- 
 fort to expel from the House, 98 ; 
 delegate to the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention, 1864, 182 et seq. 
 
 Marietta raid, the, 77. 
 
 Maryland, emancipation in, 202. 
 
 Maynard, Horace, in the Baltimore 
 Bepublican Convention, 1864, 153. 
 
 McAllister, Eepresentatlve AroM- 
 hald, vote on the 13th Amendment, 
 205. 
 
 McClellan, General George B., at a 
 military trial, 15 ; rumors of his re- 
 call to command, 16 ; nominated for 
 president in 1864, 180 el seq. 
 
 MoOuUough, John, actor, and Lin- 
 coln, 71. 
 
 McDowell, Gen. Irvin, Ms court of 
 inquiry, 15. 
 
 Meade, Gen. G. C, after the battle 
 of Gettysburg, 86; at the closing 
 military review, 310. 
 
 Missouri, its long political quarrel, 
 131; votes in the Eepubllcan Na- 
 tional Convention, 1864, 163. 
 
 Morris, Thaddeus, Speaker's clerk 
 and page, 22. 
 
 " Mud March," Burnside's, 44. 
 
 Negroes, as soldiers, biJl for their en- 
 listment, 107 ; P. V. Nasby on, 108 ; 
 in the Washington street cars, 214. 
 
 New Year's Day in Washington, 42. 
 
 Office-seekers, Lincoln's remarks 
 concerning, 287 ; Tad Lincoln's ex- 
 perience with, 280. 
 
 Pendleton, Geo. H., nominated lor 
 vice-president, 1864, 189. 
 
 Pomeroy, S. C, Ms " secret circular," 
 136-167. 
 
 Porter, Gen. Fltz-John, court-mar- 
 tial, 14. 
 
 Presidential election of 1864, 216 et 
 seq. 
 
 Eatiflcatlon of 13th Amendment by 
 States, 209. 
 
 Eeconstmction, Lincoln's policy of, 
 162. 
 
 Elchmond, capture of, 144. 
 
 Sanitary Commission, U. S., opera- 
 tions of, 5. 
 
 Salm-Salm, Princess, 68. 
 
 Schofleld, General J. M., Incurs hos- 
 tility of Missouri radicals, 133. 
 
 Secesslomsts in Georgetown in 1864, 
 176. 
 
 Seymour, Thos. H., 43 votes for presi- 
 dential nomination in Democratic 
 National Convention of 1864, 187. 
 
 Seymour, Horatio, chairman Dem- 
 ocratic National Convention of 
 1864, 183 et sen. 
 
 Seward, W. H., Secretary of State, 
 personal appearance, 27 ; at the 
 U. S. CMistian Commission meet- 
 ing, 75 ; speech after the presiden- 
 tial election of 1864, 223 ; visits 
 Hampton Beads, 224 ; on the fall of 
 Richmond, 247. 
 
 Sherman, General W. T., sends the 
 news of faU of Vlcksburg to Lin- 
 coln, 190 ; at the closing military re- 
 view, 310 et seq. 
 
 Sheridan, not present at the closing 
 military review, 315. 
 
 Slavery, abolition of, 197 ei seq. 
 
 Smith, Victor, Chase's frlendsMp 
 for, 119; removal from office, 121; 
 Ms tragic death, 123; Lincoln's 
 anger over Chase's treatment of, 
 125, 
 
328 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Speed, James, nomination (or attor- 
 ney-general, 193 ; at the closing 
 military review, 310. 
 
 Springfleld, 111., Lincoln's letter to 
 Eepubllcan Convention in, 62. 
 
 Stanton, personal appearance, 28; 
 with Lincoln anclEckert, 30; speech 
 on the fall of Richmond, 246 ; at the 
 closing military review, 310, 313 et 
 seq. 
 
 Stevens, Representative Thaddeus, 
 personal appearance, 17. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, Senator, personal 
 appearance, 23 ; his opposition to 
 Lincoln's reconstruciion poUcy, 
 163 1 on the government of Vir- 
 ginia, 249. 
 
 Surratt, Mrs., 273. 
 
 Territorial Delegates m Congress, 
 record of, on the 13th Amendment, 
 208. 
 
 Theater, Ford's, Lincoln sees Edwin 
 Booth In, 70. 
 
 Theater-going, Lincoln's, 71. 
 
 Tilden, S. J., m thi- Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention, 1864, 184. 
 
 Tod, David, nominated for secretary 
 of Ti-easury, 126. 
 
 TrumbuU, Senator LjTn an, resolution 
 as to President's signature to any 
 constitutional amendment, 211. 
 
 Trial of the assassins of Lincoln, 267 
 et seq. 
 
 Usher, J. P., Secretary of Interior, 35. 
 
 U. S. Sanitary Commission, opera- 
 tions of, 5. 
 
 U. S. Christian Commission, meeting 
 for, in the Capitol, 76. 
 
 Vallandigham, Representative C. L., 
 personal appearance of, IS ; replies 
 to Representative Campbell of 
 Penn., 105 : defines bis position, ill ; 
 his deportation beyond the lines, 
 and return, 114 et seq. ; in Demo- 
 cratic National Convention, 1864, 
 183 et seq. 
 
 Vlcksbui-g, fall of, 81. 
 
 Virgima, dismemberment of, 110. 
 
 Voorhees, Representative D. W., op- 
 poses biU to indemnify Federal ex- 
 ecutive ofiBcers, 104. 
 
 Wade, Senator B. F., personal ap- 
 pearance, 25; his connection with 
 the Wade-Davis reconstruction bUl 
 and manifesto, 163-171; at Chase's 
 inauguration, 196; debate with 
 Senator DooUttle, 227. 
 
 Washbume, Eepreseutative E. B., 
 his resolution to expel Represent- 
 ative Alexander Long, 100; his bUl 
 to revive the rank of Ueutenant- 
 general, 141 et seq. 
 
 Washington, its camps, hospitals, and 
 soldiers, 2 et seq. ; fortifications of, 
 11 ; New Tear's Day in, 41 ; r^oic- 
 iugs in, at end ol war, 244, 250 ; grand 
 military re^'lew in, at close of war, 
 307 et seq. 
 
 Welles, Gideon, Secretary of Navy, 
 personal appearance, 33; at the 
 closing mUltaiy review, 310. 
 
 West Virginia, bill to admit as State, 
 110. 
 
 Wilson, Senator Henry, personal ap- 
 pearance, 23 ; his motion to expel 
 Garrett Davis, 103 ; his bUl to abol- 
 ish slavery In the District of Co- 
 lumbia, 198 et seq. 
 
 WicUlffe, Representative Charles A., 
 in the Democratic National Con- 
 vention, 1864, 188. 
 
 WUMnson, Senator M. S., reply to Se- 
 nator Pomeroy, 138. 
 
 White House, receptions in, 42, 67 ; 
 life in, during Lincoln's term, 284 et 
 seq. 
 
 Wright. J. A., Senator, from Indiana. 
 
 Wright, Representative H. B , of 
 Penn., reply to Vallandigham, 113. 
 
 Wood, Representative Fernando, his 
 personal appearance, 19 ; Interview 
 with Lmcolu as to Vallandigham's 
 return, 114; his remarks on Lin- 
 coln's visit to Hampton Roads, 238. 
 
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