General George Brinton McClellan, in answer to the summons, reached Washington on July the 20th, and immediately took command of the Army of the Potomac—or of what was left of it.
The President did not make this selection without bitter opposition4 and grave warning. He was told that McClellan was an aggressive pro-slavery Democrat5, a political meddler6 and unalterably opposed to him and his party on every essential issue before the people. These arguments found no weight with the man in the White House. He would ask but one question, discuss but one issue:
"Is McClellan the man to whip this new army of 500,000 citizens into a mighty7 fighting machine and level it against the Confederacy?"
The all but unanimous answer was:
"Yes."
"Then I'll appoint him," was the firm reply. "I don't care what his religion or his politics. The question is not whether I shall save the union—but that the union shall be saved. My future and the future of my party can take care of themselves—if they can't, let them die!"
The new Commander was a man of striking and charming personality, but thirty-four years old, and graduated from West Point in 1846. He had served with distinction in the war against Mexico, studied military science in Europe under the great generals in command at the Siege of Sebastopol, and had achieved in West Virginia the first success won in the struggle with the South. He had been opposed in West Virginia by General Robert E. Lee, the man of destiny to whom the President, through General Scott, had offered the command of the union army before Lee had drawn8 his sword for Virginia. He was a past master of the technical science of engineering, defense9 and military drill.
In spite of his short physical stature10, he was of commanding appearance. On horseback his figure was impressively heroic. It took no second glance to see that he was a born leader of men.
On the first day of his active command he had already conceived the idea that he was a man of destiny. He wrote that night to his wife:
"I find myself in a new and strange position here—President, Cabinet, General Scott and all deferring11 to me. By some strange operation of magic, I seem to have become the power of the land——"
Three days later he wrote again of his sensational12 reception in the Senate Chamber13:
"I suppose half a dozen of the oldest members made the remark I am becoming so much used to:
"'Why how young you look and yet an old soldier!'
"They give me my way in everything, full swing and unbounded confidence. All tell me that I am held responsible for the fate of the Nation, and that all its resources shall be placed at my disposal. It is an immense task that I have on my hands, but I believe I can accomplish it. When I was in the Senate Chamber to-day and found those old men flocking around me; when I afterward14 stood in the library looking over the Capital of a great Nation, and saw the crowd gathering15 to stare at me, I began to feel how great the task committed to me. How sincerely I pray God that I may be endowed with the wisdom and courage necessary to accomplish the work. Who would have thought when we were married, that I should so soon be called upon to save my country?"
Nor was McClellan the only man who saw this startling vision. He made friends with astounding16 rapidity, and held men to him with hooks of steel.
With utter indifference17 to his own fame or future, the President joined the public in praise of the coming star. The big heart at the White House rejoiced in the strength of his Commanding General. But the man who measured the world by the fixed18 standards of an exact science had no powers of adjustment to the homely19 manners, simple unconventional ways, and whimsical moods of Abraham Lincoln.
McClellan's one answer to all inquiries20 about his relation to the Chief Executive was:
"The President is honest and means well!"
The smile that played about the corners of his fine, keen, blue eyes when he said this left no doubt in the mind of his hearer as to his real opinion of the poor country lawyer who had by accident been placed in the White House.
And so the inevitable21 happened. The suggestions of the President and his War Department were early resented as meddling22 with affairs which did not concern them.
The President saw with keen sorrow that there were brewing23 schemes behind the compelling blue eyes of the "Napoleon" he had created. The talk of McClellan's aspirations24 to a military dictatorship, which would include the authority of the Executive and the Legislative25 branches of the Government, had been current for more than two months. His recent manner and bearing had given color to these reports.
The splendor26 and ceremony of his headquarters could not have been surpassed by Alexander or Napoleon. His growing staff already included a Prince of the Royal Blood, the distinguished27 son of the Emperor of France, and the Comte de Paris his attendant. His baggage train was drawn by one hundred magnificent horses perfectly28 matched, hitched29 in teams of four to twenty-five glittering new vans. His Grand Army spread over mile after mile of territory far back into the hills of Virginia. The autumnal days were brilliant with fresh uniforms, stars, sabres, swords, spurs, plate, dinners, wines, cigars, the pomp and pride and glory of war.
Men stood in little groups and discussed in whispers the significance of his continued stay in the Capital.
"If the President has any friends, the hour has come when they've got to stand by him!" The speaker was a man of fifty, a foreigner who had made Washington his home and liked Lincoln.
"Nonsense, my dear fellow," a tall Westerner replied, "we may have to get a few rifles and guard the White House from somebody's attempt to occupy it, but we'll not need any big guns."
"If you'd heard the talk last night," the foreigner replied, with a shrug30 of his shoulder, "you'd change your mind——"
The Westerner shook his head:
"No! The General's not that big a fool and the men around him have better sense. And if they haven't—if they all should go crazy—it couldn't be done. They couldn't control the army."
"Did you ever hear the army cheer as 'Little Mac' rides along the line?"
"Yes, but it don't mean an Emperor for all that——"
"I'm not so sure!"
And there were men of National reputation who considered the chances of the man on horseback good at this moment. Such a man had openly attached himself to the General as his attorney—no less a personage than the distinguished Attorney General of the late Cabinet, Edwin M. Stanton. During the closing days of Buchanan's crumbling31 administration Stanton had become the dominating force of the Capital. His daring and his skill had defeated the best laid schemes of the Southern party and broken its grip on the administration. He had remained in Washington as a lawyer practicing before the Supreme32 Court and had become the most aggressive observer and critic of Lincoln and his Cabinet. His scorn for the President knew no bounds.
"No one," he wrote to General John A. Dix, "can imagine the deplorable condition of this city and the hazard of the Government, who did not witness the weakness and the panic of the administration and the painful imbecility of Lincoln."
To Buchanan, his ex-Chief, he wrote:
"A strong feeling of distrust in the candor33 and sincerity34 of Lincoln's personality and of his Cabinet has sprung up. It was the imbecility of this administration which culminated35 in the catastrophe36 of Bull Run. Irretrievable misfortune and National disgrace never to be forgotten are to be added to the ruin of all peaceful pursuits and National bankruptcy37 as the result of Lincoln's running the machine for five months. Jefferson Davis will soon be in possession of Washington."
Not only in letters to the leaders of public opinion in the Nation did the aggressive and powerful lawyer seek to destroy the Government, but in his conversation in Washington he was equally daring, venomous and personal in his abuse of the President. "A low, cunning clown" and "the original gorilla38" were his choice epithets39.
Stanton's influence over McClellan was decided40 and vital from the moment of their introduction. It was known among the General's intimate friends that he had advised again and again that he use his power as Commander of the Army to declare a Dictatorship, depose41 the President and dissolve the sittings of Congress until the war should be ended.
How far McClellan had dallied42 with this dangerous and alluring43 scheme was a matter of conjecture44. It is little wonder that the wildest rumors45 of intrigues46, of uprisings, of mutiny, filled the air.
McClellan had doggedly48 refused either to move his army or to formally go into winter quarters until the middle of December, when he took to his bed and announced that he was suffering from an attack of typhoid fever.
The President was further embarrassed by the course of his Secretary of War, Cameron, who, while laboring49 under the censure50 of Congress for the conduct of his office, had allowed Senator Winter to stab his chief in the back by recommending in his report that the slaves be armed by the Government and put into the ranks of the armies. Senator Winter, as the Radical51 leader, knew that to meet such an issue once raised the President must rebuke52 his Secretary and apologize to the Border Slave States. He would thus alienate53 from his support all Cameron's friends, and all friends of the negro. The Senator did not believe the President would dare to fight on such an issue.
He had misjudged his man. The President not only rebuked54 his Secretary by suppressing his report and revising its language, he demanded and received his resignation, notwithstanding the fact that Cameron was the most powerful politician in the most powerful State of the North.
He at once sought a new Secretary of War, free from all party entanglements56, who could not be influenced by contractors57 or jobbers58 or scheming politicians, who was absolutely honest and who had a boundless59 capacity for work.
Strangely enough, his eye rested on Edward M. Stanton, his arch enemy, the man who had become McClellan's confidential60 attorney.
As an aggressive patriotic61 Democrat, Stanton had won the confidence of the public in the last administration. His capacity for work had proved limitless. He was under no obligations to a living soul who could ask aught of Lincoln's administration. He was savagely62 honest. At the moment the discovery of gigantic frauds practiced on the War Department by thieving contractors, coupled with fabulous63 expenditures64 in daily expenses, had destroyed the confidence of the money lenders in the integrity of the Government. The Treasury65 was facing a serious crisis.
And then the astounding thing happened. Without consulting a soul inside his Cabinet or out, Abraham Lincoln appointed his bitterest foe66 from the party of his enemies his Secretary of War. He offered the place to Edwin M. Stanton.
Perhaps the most astonished man in America was Stanton himself. To the amazement67 of his friends, as well as his critics, he promptly68 accepted the position.
Senator Winter, whose radical temperament69 had found in Stanton a congenial spirit, though as wide as the poles apart in politics, met him in the lobby of the Senate Chamber on the day his appointment was confirmed.
He broke into a cynical70 laugh and asked:
"And what will you do?"
Stanton's keen spectacled eyes bored him through in silence as he snapped:
"I may make Abe Lincoln President of the United States."
Evidently another man was entering the Cabinet under the impression that the hands of an impotent Chief Magistrate needed strengthening. The merest glance at this man's burly thick set body, his big leonine head with its shock of heavy black hair, long and curling, his huge grizzly71 beard and full resolute72 lips, was enough to convince the most casual observer that he could be a dangerous enemy or a powerful ally.
The President was warned of this appointment, but his confidence was unshaken. His reply was a revelation of personality:
"I have faith in affirmative men like Stanton. They stand between a nation and perdition. He has shown a loyalty73 to the union that rose above his own partisan74 creed75 of a lifetime. I like that kind of a man."
"He'll run away with the whole concern," was his friend's laconic76 reply.
The President's big generous mouth moved with a smile:
"Well, we may have to treat him as they sometimes did a Methodist minister I knew out West. He was a mighty man in prayer and exhortation77. At times his excitement rose to such threatening heights the elders put brick bats in his pockets to hold him down. We may be obliged to serve Stanton the same way——"
He paused and laughed.
"But I guess we'll let him jump awhile first!"
The men who knew the inner secrets of Stanton's relations to McClellan watched this drama with keen interest. Had he gone into the Cabinet to place the General in supreme power in a moment of crisis? Or had he at heart deserted78 the Commander with the intention of using the enormous power of the War Department to further a scheme of equal daring for himself? They could only watch the swiftly moving scenes of the war pageant79 for their answer.
One fact was standing55 out each day with sharp and clean cut distinctness, a struggle of giants was on beneath the surface. Startling surprise had followed startling surprise during the past months. Men everywhere were asking one another, what next? The air of Washington was foul80 with the breath of passion and intrigue47. Purposes and methods were everywhere assailed81. Men high in civil life were believed to be plotting with military conspirators82 to advance their personal fortunes on the ruins of the Republic.
Around two men were gathering the forces whose clash would decide the destiny of the Nation—the struggle between the supremacy of civil authority in the President, and the war-created strength of the Military Commander represented by McClellan. Could the Republic survive this war within a war?
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1
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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meddler
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| n.爱管闲事的人，干涉者 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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deferring
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| v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的现在分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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18
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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19
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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23
brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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24
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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27
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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29
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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30
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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32
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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gorilla
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| n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手 | |
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epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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40
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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41
depose
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| vt.免职；宣誓作证 | |
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42
dallied
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| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
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alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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46
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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47
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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48
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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49
laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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50
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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51
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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52
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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53
alienate
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| vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等) | |
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54
rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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entanglements
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| n.瓜葛( entanglement的名词复数 )；牵连；纠缠；缠住 | |
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contractors
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| n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 ) | |
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jobbers
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| n.做零活的人( jobber的名词复数 )；营私舞弊者；股票经纪人；证券交易商 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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expenditures
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| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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66
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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68
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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70
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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71
grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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laconic
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| adj.简洁的；精练的 | |
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77
exhortation
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| n.劝告，规劝 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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80
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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81
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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