reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. The differences of
opinion concerning this subject had only intensified the feeling against
Lincoln which had long been nursed among the radicals, and some of them
openly declared their purpose of resisting his re-election to the
Presidency. Similar sentiments were manifested by the advanced
antislavery men of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the
"conservatives" of that State, had not received from Lincoln the active
support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, mainly in the
East, gravely shook their heads when considering the question whether
Lincoln should be re-elected. They were those who cherished in their
minds an ideal of statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office
with which, in their opinion, Lincoln's individuality was much out of
accord. They were shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave
affairs of state with a story about "a man out in Sangamon County,"--a
story, to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly lacking in
dignity. They could not understand the man who was capable, in opening a
cabinet meeting, of reading to his secretaries a funny chapter from a
recent book of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied moment he had
relieved his care-burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the
executive council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation
emancipating the slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms with
another victory. They were alarmed at the weakness of a President who
would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances of statesmen against his
policy, but could not resist the prayer of an old woman for the pardon of
a soldier who was sentenced to be shot for desertion. Such men, mostly
sincere and ardent patriots, not only wished, but earnestly set to work,
to prevent Lincoln's renomination. Not a few of them actually believed,
in 1863, that, if the national convention of the Union party were held
then, Lincoln would not be supported by the delegation of a single State.
But when the convention met at Baltimore, in June, 1864, the voice of the