aking a political speech when you are where one is to be made; but
quite surely, speaking in the North and fighting in the South at the
same time are not possible; nor could I be justified to detail any
officer to the political campaign during its continuance and then return
him to the army."

Not only did he firmly take this stand as to his own nomination, but
enforced it even more rigidly in cases where he learned that Federal
office-holders were working to defeat the return of certain Republican
congressmen. In several such instances he wrote instructions of which
the following is a type:

"Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power to
defeat Judge Kelley's renomination to Congress.... The correct
principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom
of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do
just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not
constrain any of your subordinates to do other than as he thinks fit
with his."

He made, of course, no long speeches during the campaign, and in his
short addresses, at Sanitary Fairs, in response to visiting delegations,
or on similar occasions where custom and courtesy decreed that he must
say something, preserved his mental balance undisturbed, speaking
heartily and to the point, but skilfully avoiding the perils that beset
the candidate who talks.

When at last the Republican convention came together on June 7, 1864, it
had less to do than any other convention in our political history; for
its delegates were bound by a peremptory mandate. It was opened by brief
remarks from Senator Morgan of New York, whose significant statement
that the convention would fall far short of accomplishing its great
mission unless it declared for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting
African slavery, was loudly cheered. In their speeches on taking the
chair, both the temporary chairman, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of
Kentucky, and the permanent chairman, William Dennison of Ohio, treated
Mr. Lincoln's nomination as a foregone conclusion, and the applause
which greeted his name showed that the delegates did not resent this
disregard of customary etiquette. There were, in fact, but three tasks
before the convention--to settle the status of contesting delegations,
to agree upon a platform, and to nominate a candidate for
Vice-President.

The platform declared in favor of crushing rebellion and maintaining the
i