"When I have saved the Union we shall see. Time will indicate the wisdom
of my position. I have no longer any ambition except to give the best
that's in me to my people."

The breach between the President and the most powerful leaders of his
own party was now complete. It was a difference that was fundamental and
irreconcilable. They asked him to extend the autocratic power he wielded
to preserve the Union in a time of war to a program of revenge and
proscription against the South as it should fall before the advancing
army. His answer was simple:

"Secession was void from the beginning. The South shall not be laid
waste as conquered territory when the Union is restored. They shall
return as our brethren to live with us in peace and good will with the
curse of Slavery lifted from them and their children. Nor will I permit
the absorption of this black blood into our racial stock to degrade our
National character. When free, the negro must return to his own."

With fierce, sullen determination the Radical wing of his party
organized a secret powerful conspiracy to drive Abraham Lincoln from
public life.

Behind this first line of attack stood the Democratic party with its
millions of loyal voters now united under George B. McClellan. The
Radicals and the Democrats hated each other with a passion second only
to their hatred of the President. They agreed to remove him first and
then settle their own differences.

CHAPTER XXV

THE TUG OF WAR

Betty Winter, having made up her mind to put John Vaughan out of her
life for all time, volunteered for field service as a nurse and by
permission of the President joined Burnside's army before
Fredericksburg.

The General had brought its effective fighting force to a hundred and
thirteen thousand. Lee's army confronted him on the other side of the
Rappahannock with seventy-five thousand men. A great battle was
impending.

Burnside had reluctantly assumed command. He was a gallant, genial,
cultured soldier, a gentleman of the highest type, a pure, unselfish
patriot with not a trace of vulgar ambition or self-seeking. He saw the
President hounded and badgered by his own party, assaulted and denounced
in the bitterest terms by the opposition, and he knew that the remedy
could be found only in a fighting, victorious army. A single decisive
victory would turn the tide of public opinion, unite the faction-ridden
army and thrill the Nation with enthusiasm.

He determ