disliked by all the members of the Cabinet and prominent officials, and with especial bitterness by Secretary Stanton.  Secretary Welles speaks, in his Diary, of “Stanton’s implacable hostility to McClellan,” and records his belief that “Stanton is determined to destroy McClellan.”  Welles relates that on the very day of Pope’s defeat at Manassas, Secretary Stanton, accompanied by Secretary Chase, called on him and asked him to join in signing a communication to the President demanding McClellan’s immediate dismissal from command of the Army of the Potomac, saying all the members of the Cabinet would sign it.  The document was in Stanton’s handwriting.  Welles, though far from friendly toward McClellan, refused to sign the paper, and the matter was dropped.  Welles adds the comment, “There was a fixed determination to remove, and, if possible, to disgrace, McClellan.”

When it was rumored in Washington that McClellan was to be reinstated, everyone was thunderstruck.  A Cabinet meeting was held on the second day of September, at which the President, without asking anyone’s opinion, announced that he had reinstated McClellan.  Regret and surprise were openly expressed.  Mr. Stanton, with some excitement, remarked that no such order had issued from the War Department.  The President then said, with great calmness, “No, Mr. Secretary, the order was mine, and I will be responsible for it to the country.”  He added, by way of explanation, that, with a retreating and demoralized army tumbling in upon the capital, and alarm and panic in the community, something had to be done, and as there did not appear to be anyone else to do it he took the responsibility on himself.  He remarked that McClellan had the confidence of the troops beyond any other officer, and could, under the circumstances, more speedily and effectually reorganize them and put them in fighting trim than any other general.  “This is what is now wanted most,” said he, “and these were my reasons for placing McClellan in command.”

Perhaps at no other crisis of the war did Lincoln’s strength of character and power of making quick and important decisions in the face of general opposition, come out more clearly than on this occasion.  Secretary Welles, who was present at the dramatic and stormy Cabinet meeting referred to, says:  “In stating what he had done, the President was deliberate, but firm and decisive.  His language and manner were kind and affectionate, especially toward two of the members, who were greatly disturbed; but every person present felt that he was truly the chief, and every one knew his decision was as fixed and unalterable as if given out with the imperious command and determined will of Andrew Jackson.  A long discussion followed, closing with acquiescence in the decision of the President.  In this instance the President, unaided by others, put forth with firmness and determination the executive will—­the one-man power—­against the temporary general sense of the community, as well as of his Cabinet, two of whom, it has been generally supposed, had with him an influence almost as great as the Secretary of State.  They had been ready to make issue and resign their places unless McClellan was dismissed; but knowing their opposition, and in spite of it and of the general dissatisfaction in the community, the President had in that perilous moment exalted him to new and important trusts.”