step along the dangerous road of going over the Commander’s head, of bringing to bear upon him influences not strictly included in the military system.  He required McClellan to submit his plan to a council of his general officers.  Lincoln attended this council and told the generals “he was not a military man and therefore would be governed by the opinion of a majority."(10) The council decided in McClellan’s favor by a vote of eight to four.  This was a disappointment to Lincoln.  So firm was his addiction to the overland route that he could not rest content with the council’s decision.  Stanton urged him to disregard it, sneering that the eight who voted against him were McClellan’s creatures, his “pets.”  But Lincoln would not risk going against the majority of the council.  “We are civilians,” said he, “we should justly be held responsible for any disaster if we set up our opinions against those of experienced military men in the practical management of a campaign."(11)

Nevertheless, from this quandary, in which his reason forced him to do one thing while all his sensibilities protested, he extricated himself in a curious way.  Throughout the late winter he had been the object of a concerted attack from Stanton and the Committee.  The Committee had tacitly annexed Stanton.  He conferred with them confidentially.  At each important turn of events, he and they always got together in a secret powwow.  As early as February twentieth, when Lincoln seemed to be breaking down with grief and anxiety, one of those secret conferences of the high conspirators ended in a determination to employ all their forces, direct and indirect, to bring about McClellan’s retirement.  They were all victims of that mania of suspicion which was the order of the day.  “A majority of the Committee,” wrote its best member, long afterward when he had come to see things in a different light, “strongly suspected that General McClellan was a traitor.”  Wade vented his spleen in furious words about “King McClellan.”  Unrestrained by Lincoln’s anguish, the Committee demanded a conference a few days after his son’s death and threatened an appeal from President to Congress if he did not quickly force McClellan to advance.(12)

All this while the Committee was airing another grievance.  They clamored to have the twelve divisions of the army of the Potomac grouped into corps.  They gave as their motive, military efficiency.  And perhaps they thought they meant it.  But there was a cat in the bag which they carefully tried to conceal.  The generals of divisions formed two distinct groups, the elder ones who did not owe their elevation to McClellan and the younger ones who did.  The elder generals, it happened, sympathized generally with the Committee in politics, or at least did not sympathize with McClellan.  The younger generals reflected the politics of their patron.  And McClellan was a Democrat, a hater of the Vindictives, unsympathetic with Abolition.  Therefore, the mania of suspicion