. But as is wont with
Lincoln, he will hesitate, hesitate, until much of precious time
will be lost.

_January 18._--A surgeon in one of the hospitals in Alexandria
writes in a private note:

"Our wounded bear their sufferings nobly; I have hardly heard a
word of complaint from one of them. A soldier from the 'stern and
rock bound coast' of Maine--a victim of the slaughter at
Fredericksburgh--lay in this hospital, his life ebbing away from
a fatal wound. He had a father, brothers and sisters, a wife, and
one little boy of two or three years old, on whom his heart
seemed set. Half an hour before he ceased to breathe, I stood by
his side, holding his hand. He was in the full exercise of his
intellectual faculties, and knew he had but a brief time to live.
He was asked if he had any message to leave for his dear ones
whom he loved so well. "_Tell them_," said he, "_how I died--they
know how I lived!_"

_January 19._--Senator Wright, of Indiana, stirred the hearts of the
Senate and of the people. It was not the oration of a rhetor--it was
the confession of an ardent, pure patriot. I never heard or
witnessed anything so inspiring and so kindling to soul and heart.

_January 20._--General Butler palsied and shelved, Halleck all
powerful and with full steam running the country and the army to
destruction--such is the truest photograph of the situation. But as
an adamantine rock among storms, so Mr. Lincoln remains unmoved.
Unmoved by the yawning, bleeding wounds of the devoted, noble
people--unmoved by the prayers and supplication of patriots--of
his--once--best friends. Mr. Lincoln answers, with dignity not
Roman, and with obstinacy unparallelled even by Jackson, that he
will stand or fall with his present advisers, and that he takes the
responsibility for all the cursed misdeeds of Seward, Halleck,
Chase, and others. So children are ready to set a match to a powder
magazine unconscious of the terrible results--unconscious of the
awful responsibility for its destructive action.

A death pang runs through one's body to see how rapidly the dial
marks the disappearing hours, and how unrelentingly approaches March
4th, and the death-knell of this present patriotic, devoted
Congress. For this terrible storm and clash of events, the people,
perhaps, feel not the immensity of the loss. Paralyzed as Congress
has been and now is, by the infernal machinations of Seward,