ion, Lincoln's mood was cheerful. On the seventh of July he was
serenaded. Serenades for the President were a feature of war-time in
Washington, and Lincoln utilized the occasions to talk informally to
the country. His remarks on the seventh were not distinctive, except
for their tone, quietly, joyfully confident. His serene mood displayed
itself a week later in a note to Grant which is oddly characteristic.
Who else would have had the impulse to make this quaint little
confession? But what, for a general who could read between the lines,
could have been more delightful?(23)

"My dear General: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.
I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable
service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When
you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do
what you finally did-march the troops across the neck, run the batteries
with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith
except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass
expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below and took Port
Gibson, Grand Gulf and the vicinity, I thought you should go down the
river and join General Banks, and when you turned Northward, east of the
Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal
acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong.

"Very truly,

"A. LINCOLN."

XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE

Between March and December, 1863, Congress was not in session. Its
members were busy "taking the sense of the country" as they would have
said: "putting their ears to the ground," as other people would say.
A startling tale the ground told them. It was nothing less than that
Lincoln was the popular hero; that the people believed in him; that the
politicians would do well to shape their ways accordingly. When they
reassembled, they were in a sullen, disappointed frame of mind. They
would have liked to ignore the ground's mandate; but being politicians,
they dared not.

What an ironical turn of events! Lincoln's well-laid plan for a
coalition of Moderates and Democrats had come to nothing. Logically,
he ought now to be at the mercy of the Republican leaders. But instead,
those leaders were beginning to be afraid of him, were perceiving that
he had power whereof they had not dreamed. Like Saul the son of Kish,
who had set out to find his father's asses, he had