orrectly--from the way he was received. Doubtless the
very cordiality, the whimsical admission of loose methods, irritated
the austere Secretary. Welles had in his hand a communication dated
that same day and signed by the President, making radical changes in the
program of the Navy Department. He had come to protest.

"The President," said Welles, "expressed as much surprise as I felt,
that he had sent me such a document. He said that Mr. Seward with two
or three young men had been there during the day on a subject which he
(Seward) had in hand and which he had been some time maturing; that it
was Seward's specialty, to which he, the President, had yielded, but as
it involved considerable details, he had left Mr. Seward to prepare
the necessary papers. These papers he had signed, many of them without
reading, for he had not time, and if he could not trust the Secretary of
State, he knew not whom he could trust. I asked who were associated with
Mr. Seward. 'No one,' said the President, 'but these young men who were
here as clerks to write down his plans and orders.' Most of the work was
done, he said, in the other room.

"The President reiterated that they (the changes in the Navy) were not
his instructions, though signed by him; that the paper was an improper
one; that he wished me to give it no more consideration than I thought
proper; to treat it as cancelled, or as if it had never been written. I
could get no satisfactory explanation from the President of the origin
of this strange interference which mystified him and which he censured
and condemned more severely than myself. . . . Although very much
disturbed by the disclosure, he was anxious to avoid difficulty, and to
shield Mr. Seward, took to himself the whole blame."

Thus Lincoln began a role that he never afterward abandoned. It was the
role of scapegoat Whatever went wrong anywhere could always be loaded
upon the President. He appeared to consider it a part of his duty to
be the scapegoat for the whole Administration. It was his way of
maintaining trust, courage, efficiency, among his subordinates.

Of those papers which he had signed without reading on April first,
Lincoln was to hear again in still more surprising fashion six days
thereafter.

He was now at the very edge of his second crucial decision. Though the
naval expedition was in preparation, he still hesitated over issuing
orders to sail. The reply to the Thoughts had not committed him to any