receive that approval by
being called to serve them for another term. To one friend he remarked,
using his old figure of "the people's attorney," "If the people think I
have managed their case for them well enough to trust me to _carry it up
to the next term_, I am sure I shall be glad to take it." He evidently
dreaded the rebuke that would be implied in a failure to be renominated;
yet it seemed unbecoming to him, in the critical condition of the
country, to make any personal effort to that end. To these
considerations were added his extreme weariness and longing for release
from his oppressive burdens. He was also, as Mr. Welles records in his
Diary, "greatly importuned and pressed by cunning intrigues."

From these various complications, Lincoln's embarrassment and
perplexity as the time for holding the Republican Convention drew near
were extreme. A journalistic friend (Mr. J.M. Winchell), who had a
lengthy conversation with him on the subject, gives what is no doubt a
correct idea of his state of mind at that period. "Mr. Lincoln received
me," says Mr. Winchell, "kindly and courteously; but his manner was
quite changed. It was not now the country about which his anxiety
prevailed, but himself. There was an embarrassment about him which he
could not quite conceal. I thought it proper to state in the outset that
I wished simply to know whatever he was free to tell me in regard to his
own willingness or unwillingness to accept a renomination. The reply was
a monologue of an hour's duration, and one that wholly absorbed me, as
it seemed to absorb himself. He remained seated nearly all the time. He
was restless, often changing position, and occasionally, in some intense
moment, wheeling his body around in his chair and throwing a leg over
the arm. This was the only grotesque thing I recollect about him; his
voice and manner were very earnest, and he uttered no jokes and told no
anecdotes. He began by saying that as yet he was not a candidate for
renomination. He distinctly denied that he was a party to any effort to
that end, notwithstanding I knew that there were movements in his favor
in all parts of the Northern States. These movements were, of course,
without his prompting, as he positively assured me that with one or two
exceptions he had scarcely conversed on the subject with his most
intimate friends. He was not quite sure whether he desired a
renomination. Such had been the responsibility of the office--so
oppre