tness of an individual for the office entrusted to
him, as does the government of Mr. Lincoln. I cannot imagine that it
could have been always so, under previous administrations. It seems
that in the opinion of the Executive, not only geniuses, but men of
studies, and of special and specific preparation and knowledge run
in the streets, crowd the villages and states, and the Executive has
only to stretch his hand from the window, to take hold of an
unmistakable capacity, etc. The Executive ought to have some
experience by this time; but alas, _experientia non docet_ in the
White House.

_April 10._--Agitated as my existence has been, I never fell among
so much littleness, meanness, servility as here. To avoid it, and
not to despair, or rage, or despond, several times a day, it is
necessary to avoid contact with politicians, and reduce to few, very
few, all intercourse with them. I cannot complain, as I find
compensation--but nevertheless, I am afraid that the study and the
analysis of so much mud and offal may tell upon me. Physical
monstrosities are attractive to physiologists or rather to
pathologists. But an anthropologist prefers normal nobleness of
mind, and shudders at sight and contact with intellectual and moral
crookedness.

_April 11._--Sumter day. Two years elapsed, and treason not yet
crushed; Charleston not yet ploughed over and sown with salt;
Beauregard still in command, and the snake still keeping at bay the
eagle. And all this because in December, 1861, and in January, 1862,
McClellan wished not, Seward wished not, and Mr. Lincoln could not
decide whether to wish that Charleston and Savannah--defenceless at
that time--be taken after the fall of Port Royal. Two years! and the
people still bleed, and the exterminating angel strikes not the
malefactors, and the earth bursts not, and they are not yet in
Gehenna's embrace.

Old patriot Everett made an uncompromising speech. That is by far
better than to make a hero out of a McClellan. But the misdeeds of
the Administration easily confused such impressionable receptive
minds as is Edward Everett's.

_April 11._--The Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War,
discloses how McClellan deliberately ruined General Stone, and I
have little doubt that McClellan ruined Fitz-John Porter.

_April 12._--Our navy makes brilliant prizes of Anglo-rebel flags
and ships. But Mr. Seward does his utmost to render the labor of our
cruisers as difficult and as da