t, one from among themselves.

_May 14: One o'clock, P. M._--The President, Halleck and Hooker in
secret conclave. Stanton, it seems, is excluded. If so, I am glad on
his account. God have mercy on this wronged and slaughtered people.
No holy spirit will inspire the Conclave.

_May 15._--The English Government shelters behind the Enlistment
Act. The Act is a municipal law, and a foreign nation has nothing to
do with it. We are with England on friendly terms, and England has
towards us duties of friendly comity, whatever be the municipal law.
To invoke the Enlistment Act against us, is a mean pettifogger's
trick.

A good-natured imbecile, C----, everybody's friend, and friend of
Lincoln, Seward and the Administration in the lump, C---- asked me
what I want by thus bitterly attacking everybody.

"I want the rebellion crushed, the slaves emancipated; but above all
I want human life not to be sacrilegiously wasted; I want men, not
counterfeits."

"Well, my dear, point out where to find them?" answered everybody's
friend.

_May 15._--On their return from Falmouth, the patriotic Senators
told me that they felt the ground for my proposed election of a
commander by his colleagues, and that General Meade would have the
greatest chance of being elected. _Va pour Meade._ Some say that
Meade is a Copperhead at heart. Nonsense. Let him be a Copperhead at
heart, and fight as he fought under Franklin, or fight as he would
have fought at Chancellorsville if Hooker had not been trebly
_stunned_.

_May 15._--Much that I see here reminds me of the debauched times in
France; on a microscopic scale, however; as well as of the times of
the _Directoire_. The jobbers, contractors, lobbyists, etc., here
could perhaps carry the prize even over the supereminently infamous
jobbers, etc., during the _Directoire_.

_May 15._--"Peel of Halleck, Seward and Sumner," exclaims Wendell
Philips, the apostle. Wendell Samson shakes the pillars, and the
roof may crush the Philistines, and those who lack the needed pluck.

_May 16._--The President visited Falmouth, consoled Hooker and
Butterfield, shook hands with the generals, told them a story, and
returned as wise as he went concerning the miscarriage at
Chancellorsville. The repulse of our army does not frighten Mr.
Lincoln, and this I must applaud from my whole heart. It is however
another thing to admire the cool philosophy with which are swallowed
the causes of a Fredericksburgh and a Chanc