By permitting this added source of confusion among his advisers,Lincoln treated himself much as he had already treated McClellan.By going over McClellan's head to take advice from his subordinates he had put the General on a leash;now,by setting Hitchcock and the experts in the seat of judgment,he virtually,for a short while,put himself on a leash.Thus had come into tacit but real power three military councils none of which was recognized as such by law--the Council of the Subordinates behind McClellan;the Council of the Experts behind Lincoln;the Council of the Jacobins,called The Committee,behind them all.
The political pressure on Lincoln now changed its tack.Its unfailing zeal to discredit McClellan assumed the form of insisting that he had a secret purpose in waiting to get his army away from Washington,that he was scheming to leave the city open to the Confederates,to "uncover"it,as the soldiers said.By way of focussing the matter on a definite issue,his enemies demanded that he detach from his army and assign to the defense of Washington,a division which was supposed to be peculiarly efficient General Blenker had recruited a sort of "foreign legion,"in which were many daring adventurers who had seen service in European armies.Blenker's was the division demanded.So determined was the pressure that Lincoln yielded.
However,his brief anger had blown itself out.To continue vengeful any length of time was for Lincoln impossible.He was again the normal Lincoln,passionless,tender,fearful of doing an injustice,weighed down by the sense of responsibility.He broke the news about Blenker in a personal note to McClellan that was almost apologetic."I write this to assure you that I did so with great pain,understanding that you would wish it otherwise.If you could know the full pressure of the case,I am confident you would justify it."[19]
In conversation,he assured McClellan that no other portion of his army should be taken from him.[20]
The change in Lincoln's mood exasperated Stanton.He called on his pals in the Committee for another of those secret confabulations in which both he and they delighted.Speaking with scorn of Lincoln's return to magnanimity,he told them that the President had "gone back to his first love,"the traitor McClellan.Probably all those men who wagged their chins in that conference really believed that McClellan was aiming to betray them.One indeed,Julian,long afterward had the largeness of mind to confess his fault and recant.The rest died in their absurd delusion,maniacs of suspicion to the very end.At the time all of them laid their heads together--for what purpose?Was it to catch McClellan in a trap?
Meanwhile,in obedience to Lincoln's orders of March thirteenth,McClellan drew up a plan for the defense of Washington.As Hitchcock was now in such high feather,McClellan sent his plan to the new favorite of the War Office,for criticism.Hitchcock refused to criticize,and when McClellan's chief of staff pressed for "his opinion,as an old and experienced officer,"Hitchcock replied that McClellan had had ample opportunity to know what was needed,and persisted in his refusal.[21]McClellan asked no further advice and made his arrangements to suit himself.On April first he took boat at Alexandria for the front.Part of his army had preceded him.
The remainder-except the force he had assigned to the defense of Washington-was speedily to follow.
With McClellan's departure still another devotee of suspicion moves to the front of the stage.This was General Wadsworth.
Early in March,Stanton had told McClellan that he wanted Wadsworth as commander of the defenses of Washington.
McClellan had protested.Wadsworth was not a military man.He was a politician turned soldier who had tried to be senator from New York and failed;tried to be governor and failed;and was destined to try again to be governor,and again to fail.
Why should such a person be singled out to become responsible for the safety of the capital?Stanton's only argument was that the appointment of Wadsworth was desirable for political reasons.He added that it would be made whether McClellan liked it or not.And made it was.[22]Furthermore,Wadsworth,who had previously professed friendship for McClellan,promptly joined the ranks of his enemies.Can any one doubt,Stanton being Stanton,mad with distrust of McClellan,that Wadsworth was fully informed of McClellan's opposition to his advancement?
On the second of April Wadsworth threw a bomb after the vanishing McClellan,then aboard his steamer somewhere between Washington and Fortress Monroe.Wadsworth informed Stanton that McClellan had not carried out the orders of March thirteenth,that the force he had left at Washington was inadequate to its safety,that the capital was "uncovered."Here was a chance for Stanton to bring to bear on Lincoln both those unofficial councils that were meddling so deeply in the control of the army.He threw this firebrand of a report among his satellites of the Army Board and into the midst of the Committee.2[3]
It is needless here to go into the furious disputes that ensued-the accusations,the recriminations,the innuendoes!
