managed as was the War Department
under Cameron, all things considered, much of disaster would have been
avoided.

Lochiel, as Cameron liked to be called, was a man of sentiment. In his
ninetieth year he visited us in Scotland and, passing through one of
our glens, sitting on the front seat of our four-in-hand coach, he
reverently took off his hat and bareheaded rode through the glen,
overcome by its grandeur. The conversation turned once upon the
efforts which candidates for office must themselves put forth and the
fallacy that office seeks the man, except in very rare emergencies.
Apropos of this Lochiel told this story about Lincoln's second term:

One day at Cameron's country home near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he
received a telegram saying that President Lincoln would like to see
him. Accordingly he went to Washington. Lincoln began:

"Cameron, the people about me are telling me that it is my patriotic
duty to become a candidate for a second term, that I am the only man
who can save my country, and so on; and do you know I'm just beginning
to be fool enough to believe them a little. What do you say, and how
could it be managed?"

"Well, Mr. President, twenty-eight years ago President Jackson sent
for me as you have now done and told me just the same story. His
letter reached me in New Orleans and I traveled ten days to reach
Washington. I told President Jackson I thought the best plan would be
to have the Legislature of one of the States pass resolutions
insisting that the pilot should not desert the ship during these
stormy times, and so forth. If one State did this I thought others
would follow. Mr. Jackson concurred and I went to Harrisburg, and had
such a resolution prepared and passed. Other States followed as I
expected and, as you know, he won a second term."

"Well," said Lincoln, "could you do that now?"

"No," said I, "I am too near to you, Mr. President; but if you desire
I might get a friend to attend to it, I think."

"Well," said President Lincoln, "I leave the matter with you."

"I sent for Foster here" (who was his companion on the coach and our
guest) "and asked him to look up the Jackson resolutions. We changed
them a little to meet new conditions and passed them. The like result
followed as in the case of President Jackson. Upon my next visit to
Washington I went in the evening to the President's public reception.
When I entered the crowded and spacious East Room, being like Lincoln
ver