Fremont was not the man to understand instruction of this sort.  He would make no compromise with the President.  If Lincoln wished to go over his head and rescind his order let him do so-and take the consequences.  Lincoln quietly did so.  His battle with the Vindictives was on.  For a moment it seemed as if he had destroyed his cause.  So loud was the outcry of the voluble people, that any one might have been excused momentarily for thinking that all the North had risen against him.  Great meetings of protest were held.  Eminent men—­even such fine natures as Bryant—­condemned his course.  In the wake of the incident, when it was impossible to say how significant the outcry really was, Chandler, who was staunch for Fremont, began his active interference with the management of the army.  McClellan had insisted on plenty of time in which to drill the new three-year recruits who were pouring into Washington.  He did not propose to repeat the experience of General McDowell.  On the other hand, Chandler was bent on forcing him into action.  He, Wade and Trumbull combined, attempting to bring things to pass in a way to suit themselves and their faction.  To these men and their followers, clever young Hay gave the apt name of “The Jacobin Club.”

They began their campaign by their second visit to the army.  Wade was their chief spokesman.  He urged McClellan to advance at once; to risk an unsuccessful battle rather than continue to stand still; the country wanted something done; a defeat could easily be repaired by the swarming recruits.(12)

This callous attitude got no response from the Commanding General.  The three Senators turned upon Lincoln.  “This evening,” writes Hay in his diary on October twenty-sixth, “the Jacobin Club represented by Trumbull, Chandler and Wade, came out to worry the Administration into a battle.  The agitation of the summer is to be renewed.  The President defended McClellan’s deliberateness.  The next night we went over to Seward’s and found Chandler and Wade there.”  They repeated their reckless talk; a battle must be fought; defeat would be no worse than delay; “and a great deal more trash.”

But Lincoln was not to be moved.  He and Hay called upon McClellan.  The President deprecated this new manifestation of popular impatience, but said it was a reality and should be taken into account.  “At the same time, General,” said he, “you must not fight until you are ready."(13)

At this moment of extreme tension occurred the famous incident of the seizure of the Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, who were passengers on the British merchant ship, the Trent.  These men had run the blockade which had now drawn its strangling line along the whole coast of the Confederacy; they had boarded the Trent at Havana, and under the law of nations were safe from capture.  But Captain Wilkes of the United States Navy, more zealous than discreet, overhauled the Trent and took off the two Confederates.