rcing their
sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances, I can not but regard
your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime
Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any
country. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance of the
inherent power of the truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph
of justice, humanity and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you
have expressed will be sustained by your great nation; and on the
other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite
admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among
the American people. I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as
an augury that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall
your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exist
between the two nations, will be, as it shall be my desire to make them,
perpetual."(14)

XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT AND THE LITTLE MEN

While the Jacobins were endeavoring to reorganize the Republican
antagonism to the President, Lincoln was taking thought how he could
offset still more effectually their influence. In taking up the
emancipation policy he had not abandoned his other policy of an
all-parties Administration, or of something similar to that. By this
time it was plain that a complete union of parties was impossible. In
the autumn of 1862, a movement of liberal Democrats in Michigan for the
purpose of a working agreement with the Republicans was frustrated by
the flinty opposition of Chandler.(1) However, it still seemed possible
to combine portions of parties in an Administration group that should
forswear the savagery of the extreme factions and maintain the war in a
merciful temper. The creation of such a group was Lincoln's aim at the
close of the year.

The Republicans were not in doubt what he was driving at. Smarting over
their losses in the election, there was angry talk that Lincoln and
Seward had "slaughtered the Republican party."(2) Even as sane a man as
John Sherman, writing to his brother on the causes of the apparent turn
of the tide could say "the first is that the Republican organization was
voluntarily abandoned by the President and his leading followers, and
a no-party union was formed to run against an old, well-drilled party
organization."(3) When Julian returned to Washington in December, he
found that the menace to the Republican machi