martial.

The President shook his head, but sadly added:

"He has acted badly toward Pope. He really wanted him to fail."

And then began the search to find the man once more to weld the
shattered army into an efficient fighting force.

Abraham Lincoln asked himself this question with a sense of the deepest
and most solemn responsibility. He must answer at the bar of his
conscience before God and his country. Again he brushed aside every
adviser inside and outside his Cabinet and determined on his choice
absolutely alone.

Early on the morning of September 2nd John Vaughan looked from the
window of General McClellan's house and saw the giant figure of the
President approaching, accompanied by Halleck.

When his aide announced this startling fact, the General coolly said:

"It means my arrest, no doubt. I'm ready. Let them come."

The President was not kept waiting this time. His General was there to
receive him.

The rugged face was pale and drawn.

"General McClellan," he began without ceremony, "I have come to ask you
to take command of all the returning troops for the defense of
Washington."

The short, stalwart figure of the General suddenly straightened, his
blue eyes flashed with amazement and then softened into a misty
expression. He bowed with dignity and quietly said:

"I accept the position, sir."

"I need not repeat," the President went on, "that I disapprove some
things you have done. I have made this plain to you. I do this because I
believe it's best for our country. I assume its full responsibility and
I expect great things of you."

The President bowed and left the astonished General and his still more
astonished aide gazing after his long swinging legs returning to the
White House.

He had done the most unpopular act of his entire administration. His
decision had defied the fiercest popular hostility. He faced a storm of
denunciation which would have appalled a less simple and masterful man.
The Cabinet meeting which followed the startling news was practically a
riot. He listened to all his excited Ministers had to say with
patience. When they had spoken their last word of bitter disapproval he
quietly rose and ended the tumultuous session with two or three
sentences which none could answer:

"There is no one in the army who can man these fortifications and lick
these troops of ours into shape half as well as he can. McClellan is a
great engineer--of the stationary type, perhaps. Bu