t's pocket humorists
and had small patience with his tales. "Was ever a great war fought," he
cried, "with such a camp-following as our Congressmen?"

Lincoln looked comically surprised.

"You're too harsh, Mr. Stanton. I admit there are one or two rascals
who'd be better hanged. But the trouble is that most of them are too
high-principled. They are that set on liberty that they won't take the
trouble to safeguard it. They would rather lose the war than give up
their little notions. I've a great regard for principles, but I have no
use for them when they get so high that they become foolishness."

"Every idle pedant thinks he knows better how to fight a war than the
men who are labouring sixteen hours a day at it," said Stanton bitterly.

"They want to hurry things quicker than the Almighty means them to go. I
don't altogether blame them either, for I'm mortally impatient myself.
But it s no good thinking that saying a thing should be so will make it
so. We're not the Creator of this universe. You've got to judge results
according to your instruments. Horace Greeley is always telling me what
I should do, but Horace omits to explain how I am to find the means. You
can't properly manure a fifty-acre patch with only a bad smell."

Lincoln ran his finger over the leaves of the small Bible he had taken
from his pocket "Seems to me Moses had the same difficulties to contend
with. Read the sixteenth chapter of the book of Numbers at your leisure,
Mr. Secretary. It's mighty pertinent to our situation. The people have
been a deal kinder to me than I deserve and I've got more cause for
thankfulness than complaint. But sometimes I get just a little out of
patience with our critics. I want to say to them as Moses said to Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram--'Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi!'"

Lincoln's speech had broadened into something like the dialect of his
boyhood. Stanton finished the paper on which he had been engaged and
stepped aside from his desk. His face was heavily preoccupied and he
kept an eye always on the door leading to his private secretary's room.

"At this moment," he said, "Hooker is engaged with Lee." He put a finger
on a map which was stretched on a frame behind him. "There! On the
Rappahannock, where it is joined by the Rapidan.... Near the hamlet of
Chancellorsville.... Battle was joined two days ago, and so far it has
been indecisive. Tonight we should know the result. That was the news
you came h