Soon after this I returned to Washington and made my headquarters in the War Building with Colonel Scott.  As I had charge of the telegraph department, as well as the railways, this gave me an opportunity of seeing President Lincoln, Mr. Seward, Secretary Cameron, and others; and I was occasionally brought in personal contact with these men, which was to me a source of great interest.  Mr. Lincoln would occasionally come to the office and sit at the desk awaiting replies to telegrams, or perhaps merely anxious for information.

All the pictures of this extraordinary man are like him.  He was so marked of feature that it was impossible for any one to paint him and not produce a likeness.  He was certainly one of the most homely men I ever saw when his features were in repose; but when excited or telling a story, intellect shone through his eyes and illuminated his face to a degree which I have seldom or never seen in any other.  His manners were perfect because natural; and he had a kind word for everybody, even the youngest boy in the office.  His attentions were not graduated.  They were the same to all, as deferential in talking to the messenger boy as to Secretary Seward.  His charm lay in the total absence of manner.  It was not so much, perhaps, what he said as the way in which he said it that never failed to win one.  I have often regretted that I did not note down carefully at the time some of his curious sayings, for he said even common things in an original way.  I never met a great man who so thoroughly made himself one with all men as Mr. Lincoln.  As Secretary Hay so well says, “It is impossible to imagine any one a valet to Mr. Lincoln; he would have been his companion.”  He was the most perfect democrat, revealing in every word and act the equality of men.

When Mason and Slidell in 1861 were taken from the British ship Trent there was intense anxiety upon the part of those who, like myself, knew what the right of asylum on her ships meant to Britain.  It was certain war or else a prompt return of the prisoners.  Secretary Cameron being absent when the Cabinet was summoned to consider the question, Mr. Scott was invited to attend as Assistant Secretary of War.  I did my best to let him understand that upon this issue Britain would fight beyond question, and urged that he stand firm for surrender, especially since it had been the American doctrine that ships should be immune from search.  Mr. Scott, knowing nothing of foreign affairs, was disposed to hold the captives, but upon his return from the meeting he told me that Seward had warned the Cabinet it meant war, just as I had said.  Lincoln, too, was at first inclined to hold the prisoners, but was at last converted to Seward’s policy.  The Cabinet, however, had decided to postpone action until the morrow, when Cameron and other absentees would be present.  Mr. Scott was requested by Seward to meet Cameron on arrival and get him right on the subject before going to the meeting, for he was expected to be in no surrendering mood.  This was done and all went well next day.