Lincoln labored under deep depression during the summer of 1864.  The Army of the Potomac achieved apparently very little in return for its enormous expenditure of blood and treasure.  Until the victories of Farragut in Mobile Bay, late in August, and Sherman at Atlanta a few days later, the gloom was unrelieved.  The people were restless and impatient, and vented their displeasure upon the administration, holding it responsible for all reverses and disappointments, and giving grudging praise for success at any point.  The popular displeasure was increased by the President’s call for 500,000 additional troops, made July 18,—­a measure which some of his strongest friends deprecated, as likely to jeopardize his re-election in November.  “It is not a personal question at all,” said Lincoln.  “It matters not what becomes of me.  We must have the men.  If I go down, I intend to go like the Cumberland, with my colors flying.”  To the question, When is the war to end? he said, “Surely I feel as deep an interest in this question as any other can; but I do not wish to name a day, a month, or a year, when it is to end.  We accepted this war for an object—­a worthy object; and the war will end when that object is attained.  Under God, I hope it never will end until that time.”

The President’s mind seemed constantly weighted with anxiety as to the movements and fortunes of our armies in the field.  He could not sleep at night under this crushing load.  Secretary Welles’s Diary gives frequent instances of this.  Once, after an engagement between the Western armies, the President, says Mr. Welles, “came to me with the latest news.  He was feeling badly.  Tells me a despatch was sent to him at the Soldiers’ Home last night shortly after he got asleep, and so disturbed him that he had no more rest, but arose and came to the city and passed the remainder of the night awake and watchful.”  At another time, after a desperate battle between Grant and Lee, Mr. Welles says:  “The President came into my room about one P.M. and told me he had slept none last night. He lay down for a short time on the sofa in my room, and detailed all the news he had gathered.”

Ex-Governor Bross of Illinois furnishes an account of an interview with Lincoln during this dark period:  “The last time I saw Mr. Lincoln, till, as a pallbearer, I accompanied his remains to their last resting-place, was in the early part of August, 1864.  It was directly after the frightful disaster at Petersburg, and I was on my way to the front, to recover, if possible, the body of my brother, Colonel John A. Bross, who fell there at the head of his regiment.  I found the President with a large pile of documents before him.  He laid down his pen and gave me a cordial but rather melancholy welcome, asking anxiously for news from the West.  Neither of us could shut our eyes to the gloom which hung over the entire country.  The terrible losses of the Wilderness, and the awful