er of Ned Vaughan, who escaped from prison?"

John nodded:

"The son of Dr. Richard Vaughan, of Palmyra, Missouri."

"Then you're our boy, fighting with Grant's army--yes, I heard of you
when your brother was in trouble. You've been ill, I see--wounded, of
course?"

"Yes."

The President rose and took his visitor's hand, clasping it with both
his own:

"There's nothing I won't do for one of our wounded boys if I can--what
is it?"

"My mother writes me that my father has been arrested without warrant,
is held in prison without bail and denied the right to trial----"

He paused and leaned on the desk, trembling with excitement which had
increased as he spoke.

"I have come to ask you for justice--that he shall be confronted by his
accusers in open court and given a fair trial----"

A frown deepened the shadows in the dark, kindly face:

"And for what was he arrested?"

"For exercising the right of free speech. In a public address he
denounced the war----"

The President shook his head sorrowfully:

"You see, my boy, your house is divided against itself--the symbol in
the family group of our unhappy country. Of course, I didn't know of
this arrest. Such things hurt me, so I refuse to know of them unless I
must. They tell me that Seward and Stanton have arrested without warrant
thirty-five thousand men. I hope this is an exaggeration. Still it may
be true----"

He stopped, sighed, and shook his head again:

"But come, now, my son, and put yourself in my place. What can I do?
I've armed two million men and spend four millions a day to fight the
South because they try to secede and disrupt the Union. My opponents in
the North, taking advantage of our sorrows, harangue the people and
elect a hostile legislature in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois. They are
about to pass an ordinance of secession and strike the Union in the
back. If secession is wrong in the South it is surely wrong in the
North. Shall I fight secession in the South and merely argue politely
with it here? Instead of shooting these men, I've consented to a more
merciful thing, I just let Seward and Stanton lock them up until the
war is over and then I'll turn them all loose.

"Understand, my boy, I don't shirk responsibility. No Cabinet or
Congress could conduct a successful war. There must be a one man power.
I have been made that power by the people. I am using it reverently but
firmly. And I am backed by the prayers, the good will and the co