vernment in a
civil capacity as well as military commander, and soon after
establishing his headquarters at St. Louis assumed authority over the
slavery question which the President could neither recognize nor permit.
General Hunter, at Port Royal, and General Phelps, in the Gulf, each
laboring under the same error, took upon themselves to issue
extraordinary manifestoes that conflicted with the Constitution and
laws, on the subject of slavery, which the President was compelled to
disavow. The subject, if to be acted upon, was administrative and
belonged to the Government and civil authorities--not to military
commanders. But there was a feeling in Congress and the country which
sympathized with the radical generals in these anti-slavery decrees,
rather than with the law, and the Executive in maintaining it. The
Secretary of War, under whom these generals acted, not inattentive to
current opinion, also took an extraordinary position, and in his annual
report enunciated a policy in regard to the slavery question, without
the assent of the President and without even consulting him. Mr. Lincoln
promptly directed the assuming portion of the report, which had already
been printed, to be cancelled; but the proceeding embarrassed the
Administration and contributed to the retirement of Mr. Cameron from the
Cabinet. These differences in the army, in the Administration, and among
the Republicans in Congress, extended to the people. A radical faction
opposed to the legal, cautious, and considerate policy of the President
began to crystallize and assume shape and form, which, while it did not
openly oppose the President, sowed the seeds of discontent against his
policy and the general management of public affairs.

The military operations of the period are not here detailed or alluded
to, except incidentally when narrating the action of the Administration
in directing army movements and shaping the policy of the Government.
Nearly one-third of the States were, during the Presidency of Mr.
Lincoln, unrepresented in the national councils, and in open rebellion.
A belt of border States, extending from the Delaware to the Rocky
mountains, which, though represented in Congress, had a divided
population, was distrustful of the President. Yielding the
Administration a qualified support, and opposed to the Government in
almost all its measures, was an old organized and disciplined party in
all the free States, which seemed to consider its