However,the President would not give up the Democrats without one last attempt to get round the Little Men.Again,he could think of no mode of negotiation except the one he had vainly attempted with Seymour.As earnest of his own good faith,he would once more renounce his own prospect of a second term.
But since Seymour had failed him,who was there that could serve his purpose?The popularity of McClellan among those Democrats who were not Copperheads had grown with his misfortunes.There had been a wide demand for his restoration after Fredericksburg,and again after Chancellorsville.
Lincoln justified his reputation for political insight by concluding that McClellan,among the Democrats,was the coming man.Again Weed was called in.Again he became an ambassador of renunciation.Apparently he carried a message to the effect that if McClellan would join forces with the Administration,Lincoln would support him for president a year later.But McClellan was too inveterate a partisan.Perhaps he thought that the future was his anyway.[19]
And so Lincoln's persistent attempt to win over the Democrats came to an end.The final sealing of their antagonism was effected at a great Democratic rally in New York on the Fourth of July.The day previous,a manifesto had been circulated through the city beginning,"Freemen,awake!In everything,and in most stupendous proportion,is this Administration abominable!"[20]Seymour reaffirmed his position of out-and-out partisan hostility to the Administration.Vallandigham's colleague,Pendleton of Ohio,formulated the Democratic doctrine:that the Constitution was being violated by the President's assumption of war powers.His cry was,"The Constitution as it is and the Union as it was."He thundered that "Congress can not,and no one else shall,interfere with free speech."The question was not whether we were to have peace or war,but whether or not we were to have free government;"if it be necessary to violate the Constitution in order to carry on the war,the war ought instantly to be stopped."[21]
Lincoln's political program had ended apparently in a wreck.
But Fortune had not entirely deserted him.Hooker in a fit of irritation had offered his resignation.Lincoln had accepted it.Under a new commander,the army of the Potomac had moved against Lee.The orators at the Fourth of July meeting had read in the papers that same day Lincoln's announcement of the victory at Gettysburg.[22]Almost coincident with that announcement was the surrender of Vicksburg.Difficult as was the political problem ahead of him,the problem of finding some other plan for unifying his support without participating in a Vindictive Coalition,Lincoln's mood was cheerful.On the seventh of July he was serenaded.Serenades for the President were a feature of war-time in Washington,and Lincoln utilized the occasions to talk informally to the country.His remarks on the seventh were not distinctive,except for their tone,quietly,joyfully confident.His serene mood displayed itself a week later in a note to Grant which is oddly characteristic.
Who else would have had the impulse to make this quaint little confession?But what,for a general who could read between the lines,could have been more delightful?[23]
"My dear General:I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country.Iwish to say a word further.When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg,I thought you should do what you finally did-march the troops across the neck,run the batteries with the transports,and thus go below;and I never had any faith except a general hope that you knew better than I,that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed.When you got below and took Port Gibson,Grand Gulf and the vicinity,Ithought you should go down the river and join General Banks,and when you turned Northward,east of the Big Black,I feared it was a mistake.I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong.
"Very truly,"A.LINCOLN."
