or intention of
the meeting. It was quite dark when I arrived there simultaneously with
the Secretary, who led the way to the wharf on the Potomac, to which a
steamer was moored that proved to be a revenue cutter, the 'Miami.' We
went on board and proceeded at once to the cabin, where to my surprise I
found the President and Mr. Chase, who had preceded us. The vessel
immediately got under way and steamed down the Potomac.... After supper
the table was cleared, and the remainder of the evening was spent in a
general review of the situation, which lasted long into the night. The
positions of the different armies in the field, the last reports from
their several commanders, the probabilities and possibilities as they
appeared to each member of the group, together with many other topics,
relevant and irrelevant, were discussed, interspersed with the usual
number of anecdotes from the never-failing supply with which the
President's mind was stored. It was a most interesting study to see
these men relieved for the moment from the surroundings of their onerous
official duties. The President, of course, was the centre of the
group--kind, genial, thoughtful, tender-hearted, magnanimous Abraham
Lincoln! It was difficult to know him without knowing him intimately,
for he was as guileless and single-hearted as a child; and no man ever
knew him intimately who did not recognize and admire his great
abilities, both natural and acquired, his large-heartedness and
sincerity of purpose.... He would sit for hours during the trip,
repeating passages of Shakespeare's plays, page after page of Browning,
and whole cantos of Byron. His inexhaustible stock of anecdotes gave to
superficial minds the impression that he was not a thoughtful and
reflecting man; whereas the fact was directly the reverse. These
anecdotes formed no more a part of Mr. Lincoln's mind than a smile forms
a part of the face. They came unbidden, and, like a forced smile, were
often employed to conceal a depth of anxiety in his own heart, and to
dissipate the care that weighed upon the minds of his associates. Both
Mr. Chase and Mr. Stanton were under great depression of spirits when we
started, and Mr. Chase remarked with a good deal of seriousness that he
had forgotten to write a very important letter before leaving. It was
too late to remedy the omission, and Mr. Lincoln at once drove the
thought of it from his mind by telling him that a man was sometimes
lucky in forgett