Where did the President stand?What was the outlook for those men who in the words of Senator Wilson "would rather give a policy to the President of the United States than take a policy from the President of the United States."Lincoln's situation was a close parallel to the situation of July,1861,when McDowell failed.Just as in choosing a successor to McDowell,he revealed a political attitude,now,he would again make a revelation choosing a successor to McClellan.By passing over Fremont and by elevating a Democrat,he had spoken to the furious politicians in the language they understood.Whatever appointment he now made would be interpreted by those same politicians in the same way.
In the atmosphere of that time,there was but one way for Lincoln to rank himself as a strict party man,to recant his earlier heresy of presidential independence,and say to the Jacobins,"I am with you."He must appoint a Republican to succeed McClellan.Let him do that and the Congressional Cabal would forgive him.But he did not do it.He swept political considerations aside and made a purely military appointment Burnside,on whom he fixed,was the friend and admirer of McClellan and might fairly be considered next to him in prestige.He was loved by his troops.In the eyes of the army,his elevation represented "a legitimate succession rather than the usurpation of a successful rival."[6]He was modest.He did not want promotion.Nevertheless,Lincoln forced him to take McClellan's place against his will,in spite of his protest that he had not the ability to command so large an army.[7]
When Congress assembled and the Committee resumed its inquisition,Burnside was moving South on his fated march to Fredericksburg.The Committee watched him like hungry wolves.
Woe to Burnside,woe to Lincoln,if the General failed!Had the Little Men possessed any sort of vision they would have seized their opportunity to become the President's supporters.But they,like the Jacobins,were partisans first and patriots second.In the division among the Republicans they saw,not a chance to turn the scale in the President's favor,but a chance to play politics on their own account.A picturesque Ohio politician known as "Sunset"Cox opened the ball of their fatuousness with an elaborate argument in Congress to the effect that the President was in honor bound to regard the recent elections as strictly analogous to an appeal to the country in England;that it was his duty to remodel his policy to suit the Democrats.Between the Democrats and the Jacobins Lincoln was indeed between the devil and the deep blue sea with no one certainly on his side except the volatile Abolitionists whom he did not trust and who did not trust him.A great victory might carry him over.But a great defeat--what might not be the consequence!
On the thirteenth of December,through Burnside's stubborn incompetence,thousands of American soldiers flung away their lives in a holocaust of useless valor at Fredericksburg.
Promptly the Jacobins acted.They set up a shriek:the incompetent President,the all-parties dreamer,the man who persists in coquetting with the Democrats,is blundering into destruction!Burnside received the dreaded summons from the Committee.So staggering was the shock of horror that even moderate Republicans were swept away in a new whirlpool of doubt.
But even thus it was scarcely wise,the Abolitionists being still fearful over the emancipation policy,to attack the President direct.Nevertheless,the resourceful Jacobins found a way to begin their new campaign.Seward,the symbol of moderation,the unforgivable enemy of the Jacobins,had recently earned anew the hatred of the Abolitionists.Letters of his to Charles Francis Adams had appeared in print.Some of their expressions had roused a storm.For example:"extreme advocates of African slavery arid its most vehement exponents are acting in concert together to precipitate a servile war."[8]
To be sure,the date of this letter was long since,before he and Lincoln had changed ground on emancipation,but that did not matter.He had spoken evil of the cause;he should suffer.
All along,the large number that were incapable of appreciating his lack of malice had wished him out of the Cabinet.As Lincoln put it:"While they seemed to believe in my honesty,they also appeared to think that when I had in me any good purpose or intention,Seward contrived to suck it out of me unperceived."[9]
The Jacobins were skilful politicians.A caucus of Republican Senators was stampeded by the cry that Seward was the master of the Administration,the chief explanation of failure.It was Seward who had brought them to the verge of despair.Acommittee was named to demand the reorganization of the Cabinet Thereupon,Seward,informed of this action,resigned.The Committee of the Senators called upon Lincoln.He listened;did not commit himself;asked them to call again;and turned into his own thoughts for a mode of saving the day.
During twenty months,since their clash in April,1861,Seward and Lincoln had become friends;not merely official associates,but genuine comrades.Seward's earlier condescension had wholly disappeared.Perhaps his new respect for Lincoln grew out of the President's silence after Sumter.A few words revealing the strange meddling of the Secretary of State would have turned upon Seward the full fury of suspicion that destroyed McClellan.But Lincoln never spoke those words.
Whatever blame there was for the failure of the Sumter expedition,he quietly accepted as his own.Seward,whatever his faults,was too large a nature,too genuinely a lover of courage,of the nonvindictive temper,not to be struck with admiration.Watching with keen eyes the unfolding of Lincoln,Seward advanced from admiration to regard.After a while he could write,"The President is the best of us."He warmed to him;he gave out the best of himself.Lincoln responded.
