ng overheard, 'That is all true;
Hooker talks badly; but the trouble is, he is stronger with the country
today than any other man.' I ventured to ask how long he would retain
that strength if his real conduct and character should be understood.
'The country,' said he, 'would not believe it; they would say it was all
a lie.'"(8)

Whether Chase did what he said he would do and ceased to be Hooker's
advocate, may be questioned. Tradition preserves a deal between the
Secretary and the General--the Secretary to urge his advancement, the
General, if he reached his goal, to content himself with military honors
and to assist the Secretary in succeeding to the Presidency. Hooker
was a public favorite. The dashing, handsome figure of "Fighting Joe"
captivated the popular imagination. The terrible Committee were his
friends. Military men thought him full of promise. On the whole,
Lincoln, who saw the wisdom of following up his clash over the Cabinet
by a concession to the Jacobins, was willing to take his chances with
Hooker.

His intimate advisers were not of the same mind. They knew that there
was much talk on the theme of a possible dictator-not the constitutional
dictator of Lincoln and Stevens, but the old-fashioned dictator of
historical melodrama. Hooker was reported to have encouraged such talk.
All this greatly alarmed one of Lincoln's most devoted henchmen--Lamon,
Marshal of the District of Columbia, who regarded himself as personally
responsible for Lincoln's safety. "In conversation with Mr. Lincoln,"
says Lamon, "one night about the time General Burnside was relieved, I
was urging upon him the necessity of looking well to the fact that there
was a scheme on foot to depose him, and to appoint a military dictator
in his stead. He laughed and said, 'I think, for a man of accredited
courage, you are the most panicky person I ever knew; you can see more
dangers to me than all the other friends I have. You are all the time
exercised about somebody taking my life; murdering me; and now you
have discovered a new danger; now you think the people of this great
government are likely to turn me out of office. I do not fear this from
the people any more than I fear assassination from an individual. Now to
show my appreciation of what my French friends would call a coup d'etat,
let me read you a letter I have written to General Hooker whom I have
just appointed to the command of the army of the Potomac."(9)

Few letters of Linco