he wanted
was to make his proclamation as effective as possible in the event of
such a peace. He said, in a regretful tone, 'The slaves are not coming
into our lines as rapidly and numerously as I had hoped.' I replied that
the slaveholders knew how to keep such things from their slaves, and
probably very few knew of his proclamation. 'Well,' he said, 'I want you
to set about devising some means of making them acquainted with it, and
for bringing them into our lines.' What he said showed a deeper moral
conviction against slavery than I had ever seen before in anything
spoken or written by him. I listened with the deepest interest and
profoundest satisfaction, and, at his suggestion, agreed to undertake
the organizing of a band of scouts, composed of colored men, whose
business should be, somewhat after the original plan of John Brown, to
go into the rebel States beyond the lines of our armies, carry the news
of emancipation, and urge the slaves to come within our boundaries."

Frederick Douglass once remarked that Lincoln was one of the few white
men he ever passed an hour with who failed to remind him in some way,
before the interview terminated, that he was a negro. "He always
impressed me as a strong, earnest man, having no time or disposition to
trifle; grappling with all his might the work he had in hand. The
expression of his face was a blending of suffering with patience and
fortitude. Men called him homely, and homely he was; but it was
manifestly a human homeliness. His eyes had in them the tenderness of
motherhood, and his mouth and other features the highest perfection of a
genuine manhood."

As though the political difficulties that beset President Lincoln in
the first half of 1863 were not discouragement enough, they were
attended by disheartening reverses to our arms. It will be remembered
that on the removal of General McClellan from command of the Army of the
Potomac, in November, 1862, General Burnside succeeded him. The change
proved an unfortunate one. General Burnside was an earnest and gallant
soldier, but was not equal to the vast responsibilities of his new
position. It is said, to his credit, that he was three times offered the
command of the Army of the Potomac, and three times he declined. Finally
it was pressed upon him by positive orders, and he could no longer,
without insubordination, refuse it. In addressing General Halleck, after
his appointment, he said: "Had I been asked to take it, I