“Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy.  It would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it.  There are now in the service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and acquiring Union territory.  The Democratic strategy demands that these forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restoring them to slavery....  You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate success; and the experience of the present war proves their successes inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black men into their side of the scale....  Abandon all the posts now garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand men from our side and put them in the battle-field or corn-field against us, and we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks....  My enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition.  So long as I am President it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the Union.  But no human power can subdue this rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion....  Let my enemies prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is not necessary to a restoration of the Union.  I will abide the issue.”

The political situation grew still darker.  When at last, toward the end of August, the general gloom had enveloped even the President himself, his action was most original and characteristic.  Feeling that the campaign was going against him, he made up his mind deliberately as to the course he should pursue, and laid down for himself the action demanded by his conviction of duty.  He wrote on August 23 the following memorandum: 

“This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reelected.  Then it will be my duty to so cooeperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.”

He then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that its contents could not be read, and as the cabinet came together he handed this paper to each member successively, requesting them to write their names across the back of it.  In this peculiar fashion he pledged himself and the administration to accept loyally the anticipated verdict of the people against him, and to do their utmost to save the Union in the brief remainder of his term of office.  He gave no intimation to any member of his cabinet of the nature of the paper they had signed until after his reelection.