of whom the first named was reputed the ablest of the “war Governors” in the West, and on whom his army depended for recruits, now combined in representations against him which could not be ignored.  Lincoln, who could not have personal acquaintance with the generals of the Western armies as he had with those in the East, was, it should be observed, throughout unceasing in his efforts to get the fullest and clearest impression of them that he could; he was always, as it has been put, “taking measurements” of men, and a good deal of what seemed idle and gossipy talk with chance visitors, who could tell him little incidents or give him new impressions, seems to have had this serious purpose.  For the first half of the war the choice of men for high commands was the most harassing of all the difficulties of his administration.  There is no doubt of his constant watchfulness to discern and promote merit.  He was certainly beset by the feeling that generals were apt to be wanting in the vigour and boldness which the conduct of the war demanded, but, though this in some cases probably misled him, upon the whole there was good reason for it.  On the other hand, it must be considered that all this while he knew himself to be losing influence through his supposed want of energy in the war, and that he was under strong and unceasing pressure from every influential quarter to dismiss every general who caused disappointment.  Newspapers and private letters of the time demonstrate that there was intense impatience against him for not producing victorious generals.  This being so, his own patience in this matter and his resolution to give those under him a fair chance appear very remarkable and were certainly very wise.

We have come, however, to the end, not of all the clamour against Lincoln, but of his own worst perplexities.  In passing to the operations further west we are passing to an instance in which Lincoln felt it right to stand to the end by a decried commander, and that decried commander proved to possess the very qualities for which he had vainly looked in others.  The reverse side of General Grant’s fame is well enough known to the world.  Before the war he had been living under a cloud.  In the autumn of 1862, while his army lay between Corinth and Memphis, the cloud still rested on his reputation.  In spite of the glory he had won for a moment at Fort Donelson, large circles were ready to speak of him simply as an “incompetent and disagreeable man.”  The crowning work of his life was accomplished with terrible bloodshed which was often attributed to callousness and incapacity on his part.  The eight years of his Presidency afterwards, which cannot properly be discussed here, added at the best no lustre to his memory.  Later still, when he visited Europe as a celebrity the general impression which he created seems to be contained in the words “a rude man.”  Thus the Grant that we discover in the recollections of a few loyal and loving friends, and in the memoirs