ed about his
eyes as he looked at his grim visitor. The two men were face to face at
last--the two men above all others who had built and were to build the
foundations of the New Nation--Lincoln's in love and wisdom to endure
forever, the Great Commoner's in hate and madness, to bear its harvest of
tragedy and death for generations yet unborn.

"Well, now, Stoneman," began the good-humoured voice, "that puts me in
mind----"

The old Commoner lifted his hand with a gesture of angry impatience:

"Save your fables for fools. Is it true that you have prepared a
proclamation restoring the conquered province of North Carolina to its
place as a State in the Union with no provision for negro suffrage or the
exile and disfranchisement of its rebels?"

The President rose and walked back and forth with his hands folded behind
him before answering.

"I have. The Constitution grants to the National Government no power to
regulate suffrage, and makes no provision for the control of 'conquered
provinces.'"

"Constitution!" thundered Stoneman. "I have a hundred constitutions in the
pigeonholes of my desk!"

"I have sworn to support but one."

"A worn-out rag----"

"Rag or silk, I've sworn to execute it, and I'll do it, so help me God!"
said the quiet voice.

"You've been doing it for the past four years, haven't you!" sneered the
Commoner. "What right had you under the Constitution to declare war
against a 'sovereign' State? To invade one for coercion? To blockade a
port? To declare slaves free? To suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_? To
create the State of West Virginia by the consent of two states, one of
which was dead, and the other one of which lived in Ohio? By what
authority have you appointed military governors in the 'sovereign' States
of Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana? Why trim the hedge and lie about
it? We, too, are revolutionists, and you are our executive. The
Constitution sustained and protected slavery. It _was_ 'a league with
death and a covenant with hell,' and our flag 'a polluted rag!'"

"In the stress of war," said the President, with a far-away look, "it was
necessary that I do things as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to
save the Union which I have no right to do now that the Union is saved and
its Constitution preserved. My first duty is to re-establish the
Constitution as our supreme law over every inch of our soil."

"The Constitution be d----d!" hissed the old man. "It was the creat