trong Ministers, all entirely under his influence,
Lincoln fully persuaded the Committee that at this moment, any overture
for peace would be the worst of strategic blunders, "would be worse than
losing the presidential contest--it would be ignominiously surrendering
it in advance."(14)

Lincoln won a complete spiritual victory over the Committee. These
dispirited men, who had come to Washington to beg for a policy of
negotiation, went away in such a different temper that Bennett's
Washington correspondent jeered in print at the "silly report" of their
having assembled to discuss peace.(15) Obviously, they had merely held
a meeting of the Executive Committee. The Tribune correspondent
telegraphed that they were confident of Lincoln's reelection.(16)

On the day following the conference with Lincoln, The Times announced:
"You may rest assured that all reports attributing to the government any
movements looking toward negotiations for peace at present are utterly
without foundation. . . . The government has not entertained or
discussed the project of proposing an armistice with the Rebels nor has
it any intention of sending commissioners to Richmond . . . its sole
and undivided purpose is to prosecute the war until the rebellion is
quelled. . . ." Of equal significance was the announcement by The Times,
fairly to be considered the Administration organ: "The President stands
firm against every solicitation to postpone the draft."(17)

XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT

The question insists upon rising again: were the anti-Lincoln
politicians justified in their exultation, the Lincoln politicians
justified in their panic? Nobody will ever know; but it is worth
considering that the shrewd opportunist who expressed himself through
The Herald changed his mind during a fortnight in August. By one
of those odd coincidences of which history is full, it was on the
twenty-third of the month that he warned the Democrats and jeered at the
Republicans in this insolent fashion:

"Many of our leading Republicans are now furious against Lincoln. . . .
Bryant of The Evening Post is very angry with Lincoln because Henderson,
The Post's publisher, has been arrested for defrauding the government.

"Raymond is a little shaky and has to make frequent journeys to
Washington for instructions. . . .

"Now, to what does all this amount? Our experience of politics convinces
us that it amounts to nothing. The sorehead Republicans compl