tasks then were to prevent the secession of
any more states, to prevent European recognition of the Confederacy, and
to create an army and navy. His diplomacy saved for the Union Maryland,
Kentucky and Missouri.

With increasing confidence and power the President watched over men and
events; cautiously and patiently, with mistakes and successes; amid
acrid criticism, noisy abuse and malignant misrepresentation, he made
his slow sure way.

The first disaster at Manassas staggered and steadied the North. The
President called to the command of the army of the Potomac, General
George B. McClellan, who had been winning small successes and sending
large telegrams in Western Virginia. He was brilliant, bold,
spectacular, a good organizer and soon trained the strong young raw
recruits--farmers and artisans--into one of the finest armies the world
had ever witnessed. While McClellan was drilling and preparing in the
East, Fremont in the West assumed the authority to issue a proclamation
emancipating the slaves of all non-Union men in Missouri; an act which
delighted the abolitionists of the North but created consternation in
the border states and added to the perplexities of the President. In
order to save for the Union cause the border states of Maryland,
Kentucky and Missouri the President had to revoke the proclamation of
Fremont and suffer the thoughtless abuse of the abolitionists who even
talked of impeachment. They saw only the immediate and moral issue of
slavery rather than the ultimate political issue of Union--in their
premature haste to free a few slaves they would have lost the whole
cause both of freedom and of Union. Lincoln loved freedom as much as
they but was more wise; nevertheless the patient President suffered much
from the misunderstanding. His patience was never exhausted though
terribly tried by the unjust criticism from many sources, by the piques
and prides of new-made Generals who felt able to command armies though
they could not command their own tempers; by the impertinent Buell who
failed to move into East Tennessee and stop the Confederate
depredations against loyal citizens; and by the unappreciative McClellan
who was too young to understand the President's fatherly solicitude, and
who drilled and drilled but did not go forward to fight.

In the light of the troubles that the President had with embryo-Generals
one can appreciate the narrative that a caller finding him pondering
over some paper