t intuition of it
which is never deceived. Before he actually entered upon his
great office, and for a considerable time afterwards, there is
no reason to suppose that he adequately estimated the gigantic
task about to be imposed upon him, or, at least, had any
distinct idea how it was to be managed; and I presume there may
have been more than one veteran politician to propose to
himself to take the power out of President Lincoln's hands into
his own, leaving our honest friend only the public
responsibility for the good or ill success of the career. The
extremely imperfect development of his statesmanly qualities at
that period may have justified such designs. But the President
is teachable by events, and has now spent a year in a very
arduous course of education; he has a flexible mind, capable of
much expansion, and convertible towards far loftier studies and
activities than those of his early life; and if he came to
Washington a backwoods humorist, he has already transformed
himself into as good a statesman (to speak modestly) as his
prime minister."

So long as a general's sword is seemingly invincible, and the uniformity
of his success silences even the cavillings of envy,--that most
persistent of all the unlovely emotions,--just so long he may safely
count on a unanimity of public approval. But let disaster befall, and,
justly or otherwise, it matters little which, the voices just now most
vociferous for coronation, bellow the loudest for crucifixion! Few of
our commanders in the late war had bitterer evidence of this than
McClellan. Idolized while victorious, he was vituperated with
corresponding violence the instant fortune showed signs of wavering in
her fidelity. At this distance from those stirring times we can easily
perceive that the idolatry and the abuse were alike unjust and even
ridiculous; the same wisdom that pronounces it unsafe to praise a man
until death has set the seal to his earthly reputation, deems it no less
a folly to bestow adulation or excessive blame on a military commander
before the end of his campaigns. To his brief estimate of McClellan's
character and qualifications for his post of vast responsibility, our
author brought an admirable coolness of judgment, and that wonderful
insight into men and motives so seldom at fault. Keenly alive to the
ridiculousness of the attack on Manassas, and declari