rs?
He fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with counsel when we were in
doubt, with inspiration when we sometimes faltered, with caution when we
would be rash, with calm, clear, trustful cheerfulness through many an
hour when our hearts were dark. He fed hungry souls all over the country
with sympathy and consolation. He spread before the whole land feasts of
great duty and devotion and patriotism on which the land grew strong. He
fed us with solemn, solid truths. He taught us the sacredness of
government, the wickedness of treason. He made our souls glad and
vigorous with the love of Liberty that was in his. He showed us how to
love truth, and yet be charitable; how to hate wrong and all oppression,
and yet not treasure one personal injury or insult. He fed all his
people, from the highest to the lowest, from the most privileged down to
the most enslaved. 'He fed them with a faithful and true heart.'"

CHAPTER XXIV

Trials of the Administration in 1863--Hostility to War
Measures--Lack of Confidence at the North--Opposition in
Congress--How Lincoln felt about the "Fire in the Rear"--Criticisms
from Various Quarters--Visit of "the Boston Set"--The Government on
a Tight-rope--The Enlistment of Colored Troops--Interview between
Lincoln and Frederick Douglass--Reverses in the Field--Changes of
Military Leaders--From Burnside to Hooker--Lincoln's First Meeting
with "Fighting Joe"--The President's Solicitude--His Warning Letter
to Hooker--His Visit to the Rappahannock--Hooker's Self-confidence
the "Worst Thing about Him"--The Defeat at Chancellorsville--The
Failure of our Generals--"Wanted, a Man."

It is impossible, without a close study of the inner history of the war
and of the acts of the administration, to conceive of the harassing and
baffling difficulties which beset President Lincoln's course in every
direction, and of the jealous, narrow, and bitter opposition which his
more important measures provoked. As the struggle advanced he found in
his front a solid and defiant South, behind him a divided and
distrustful North. What might be called the party of action and of
extreme measures developed a sharp hostility to the President. He would
not go fast enough to suit them; they thought him disposed to
compromise. They began by criticizing his policy, and his methods of
prosecuting the war; from this they passed rapidly to a criticism of the
President hi