esident, we have just heard a most painful and
startling announcement from the War Department. We begged you to
withhold the new draft for five hundred thousand men until after the
election. Halleck informs us of the discovery of a great combination to
resist it by armed force and General Grant must detach a part of his
army from Lee's front in order to put down this counter revolution. This
is the blackest news yet. We trust that you realize the impossibility of
your administration asking for indorsement at the polls----"

With a sign of final resignation he sat down and the tall, dark figure
rose with quick, nervous energy.

"I, too, have received important news since I saw you an hour ago."

He held the telegram above his head:

"I'll read it to you without my glasses. I know it by heart. I have just
learned that my administration will be indorsed by an overwhelming
majority, that the defeat of George B. McClellan and his platform of
failure is a certainty. The war to preserve the Union is a success. The
sword has been driven into the heart of the Confederacy. Sherman has
captured Atlanta--the Union is saved!"

The Committee leaped to their feet with a shout of applause and crowded
around him to congratulate and praise the man they came to bury. There
was no longer a question of his resignation. The fall of Atlanta would
thrill the North. A wave of wild enthusiasm would sweep into the sea the
last trace of gloom and despair. They were practical men--else, as rats,
they would never have tried to desert their own ship. They knew that the
tide was going to turn, but it was a swift tide that could turn before
they could!

They wrung the President's hands, they shouted his praise, they had
always gloried in his administration, but foolish grumblers hadn't been
able to see things as they saw them--hence this hue and cry! They
congratulated him on his certain triumph and the President watched them
go with a quiet smile. He was too big to cherish resentments. He only
pitied small men, he never hated them.

CHAPTER XL

WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE

General Grant fired a salute in honor of the Atlanta victory with
shotted guns from every battery on his siege lines of thirty-seven miles
before Richmond and Petersburg. To Sherman he sent a remarkable
message--the kind which great men know how to pen:

"You have accomplished the most gigantic undertaking given to any
General in this war, with a skill and ability wh