e few records of the
visits to the troops which Lincoln constantly paid when they were not
too far from Washington, cheering them with little talks which served a
good purpose without being notable. He was reviewing the brigade
commanded at Bull Run by William Sherman, later, but not yet, one of
the great figures in the war. He was open to all complaints, and a
colonel of militia came to him with a grievance; he claimed that his
term of service had already expired, that he had intended to go home,
but that Sherman unlawfully threatened to shoot him if he did so.
Lincoln had a good look at Sherman, and then advised the colonel to
keep out of Sherman's way, as he looked like a man of his word. This
was said in the hearing of many men, and Sherman records his lively
gratitude for a simple jest which helped him greatly in keeping his
brigade in existence.

Not one of the much more serious defeats suffered later in the war
produced by itself so lively a sense of discomfiture in the North as
this; thus none will equally claim our attention. But, except for the
first false alarms in Washington, there was no disposition to mistake
its military significance. The "second uprising of the North," which
followed upon this bracing shock, left as vivid a memory as the little
disaster of Bull Run. But there was of necessity a long pause while
McClellan remodelled the army in the East, and the situation in the
West was becoming ripe for important movements. The eagerness of the
Northern people to make some progress, again asserted itself before
long, but to their surprise, and perhaps to that of a reader to-day,
the last five months of 1861 passed without notable military events.
Here then we may turn to the progress of other affairs, departmental
affairs, foreign affairs, and domestic policy, which, it must not be
forgotten, had pressed heavily upon the Administration from the moment
that war began.

3. _Lincoln's Administration Generally_.

Long before the Eastern public was very keenly aware of Lincoln the
members of his Cabinet had come to think of the Administration as his
Administration, some, like Seward, of whom it could have been little
expected, with a loyal, and for America most fortunate, acceptance of
real subordination, and one at least, Chase, with indignant surprise
that his own really great abilities were not dominant. One Minister
early told his friends that there was but one vote in the Cabinet, the
Pres