ne was "generally admitted
and (his) earnest opposition to it fully justified in the opinion of
the Republican members of Congress."(4) How fully they perceived their
danger had been shown in their attempt to drive Lincoln into a corner on
the issue of a new Cabinet.

Even before that, Lincoln had decided on his next move. As in the
emancipation policy he had driven a wedge between the factions of the
Republicans, so now he would drive a wedge into the organization of
the Democrats. It had two parts which had little to hold them together
except their rooted partisan habit.(5) One branch, soon to receive the
label "Copperhead," accepted the secession principle and sympathized
with the Confederacy. The other, while rejecting secession and
supporting the war, denounced the emancipation policy as usurped
authority, and felt personal hostility to Lincoln. It was the latter
faction that Lincoln still hoped to win over. Its most important member
was Horatio Seymour, who in the autumn of 1862 was elected governor of
New York. Lincoln decided to operate on him by one of those astounding
moves which to the selfless man seemed natural enough, by which the
ordinary politician was always hopelessly mystified. He called in
Thurlow Weed and authorized him to make this proposal: if Seymour would
bring his following into a composite Union party with no platform
but the vigorous prosecution of the war, Lincoln would pledge all his
influence to securing for Seymour the presidential nomination in 1864.
Weed delivered his message. Seymour was noncommittal and Lincoln had to
wait for his answer until the new Governor should show his hand by
his official acts. Meanwhile a new crisis had developed in the army.
Burnside's character appears to have been shattered by his defeat.
Previous to Fredericksburg, he had seemed to be a generous, high-minded
man. From Fredericksburg onward, he became more and more an impossible.
A reflection of McClellan in his earlier stage, he was somehow
transformed eventually into a reflection of vindictivism. His later
character began to appear in his first conference with the Committee
subsequent to his disaster. They visited him on the field and "his
conversation disarmed all criticism." This was because he struck their
own note to perfection. "Our soldiers," he said, "were not sufficiently
fired by resentment, and he exhorted me (Julian) if I could, to breathe
into our people at home the same spirit toward our ene