criticism of
harsh methods. Moreover, the impression obtained that the war would
soon be over.[807] McClellan was in command, and the people had not yet
learned that "our chicken was no eagle, after all," as Lowell
expressed it.[808] Controversy over the interference with slavery also
became less acute. John Cochrane, now commanding a regiment at the
front, declared, in a speech to his soldiers, that slaves of the
enemy, being elements of strength, ought to be captured as much as
muskets or cannon, and that whenever he could seize a slave, and even
arm him to fight for the government, he would do so.

[Footnote 806: "There are sympathisers with the secessionists still
remaining in the Democratic ranks, but they compose a small portion of
the party. Nine-tenths of it is probably strenuous in the
determination that the constitutional authority of the government
shall be maintained and enforced without compromise. This sentiment is
far more prevalent and decided than it was two months ago."--New York
_Tribune_, November 19, 1861.]

[Footnote 807: "I have now no doubt this causeless and most flagitious
rebellion is to be put down much sooner than many, myself included,
thought practicable."--Edwin Croswell, letter in New York _Tribune_,
November 25, 1861.]

[Footnote 808: Political Essays, p. 94.--_North American Review_,
April, 1864.]

In conducting the campaign the People's leaders discountenanced any
criticism of the Government's efforts to restore the Union. "It is not
Lincoln and the Republicans we are sustaining," wrote Daniel S.
Dickinson. "They have nothing to do with it. It is the government of
our fathers, worth just as much as if it was administered by Andrew
Jackson. There is but one side to it."[809] As a rule the Hards
accepted this view, and at the ratification of the ticket in New York,
on September 20, Lyman Tremaine swelled the long list of speakers. A
letter was also read from Greene C. Bronson. To those who heard James
T. Brady at Cooper Institute on the evening of October 28 he seemed
inspired. His piercing eyes burned in their sockets, and his animated
face, now pale with emotion, expressed more than his emphatic words
the loathing felt for men who had plunged their country into bloody
strife.

[Footnote 809: Daniel S. Dickinson's _Life, Letters, and Speeches_,
Vol. 2, pp. 550-551.]

Nevertheless, it remained for Daniel S. Dickinson to stigmatise the
Democratic party. At the Union Square meet