esident Buchanan.

"Of course, Lincoln had no knowledge of the bitterness exhibited by
Stanton to himself personally and to his administration, but if he had
known the worst that Stanton ever said or wrote about him, I doubt
not that he would have called him to the Cabinet in January, 1862. The
disasters the army suffered made Lincoln forgetful of everything but the
single duty of suppressing the rebellion.

"Lincoln was not long in discovering that in his new Secretary of War he
had an invaluable but most troublesome Cabinet officer, but he saw
only the great and good offices that Stanton was performing for the
imperilled Republic.

"Confidence was restored in financial circles by the appointment of
Stanton, and his name as War Minister did more to strengthen the faith
of the people in the government credit than would have been probable
from the appointment of any other man of that day.

"He was a terror to all the hordes of jobbers and speculators and
camp-followers whose appetites had been whetted by a great war, and he
enforced the strictest discipline throughout our armies.

"He was seldom capable of being civil to any officer away from the army
on leave of absence unless he had been summoned by the government for
conference or special duty, and he issued the strictest orders from time
to time to drive the throng of military idlers from the capital and
keep them at their posts. He was stern to savagery in his enforcement of
military law. The wearied sentinel who slept at his post found no mercy
in the heart of Stanton, and many times did Lincoln's humanity overrule
his fiery minister.

"Any neglect of military duty was sure of the swiftest punishment, and
seldom did he make even just allowance for inevitable military disaster.
He had profound, unfaltering faith in the Union cause, and, above all,
he had unfaltering faith in himself.

"He believed that he was in all things except in name Commander-in-Chief
of the armies and the navy of the nation, and it was with unconcealed
reluctance that he at times deferred to the authority of the President."

THE NEGRO AND THE CROCODILE.

In one of his political speeches, Judge Douglas made use of the
following figure of speech: "As between the crocodile and the negro,
I take the side of the negro; but as between the negro and the white
man--I would go for the white man every time."

Lincoln, at home, noted that; and afterwards, when he had occasion
to refer t