is native genius enabled him to
reach, but never quite understanding--how could he?--their practical
application to the field of strategy. His supremely good common
sense saved him from going beyond his depth whenever he could help
it. His Military Orders were forced upon him by the extreme pressure
of impatient public opinion. He told Grant "he did not know but
they were all wrong, and he did know that some of them were."

McClellan was not the only failure in Virginia. Burnside and Hooker
also failed against Lee and Jackson. All three suffered from civilian
interference as well as from their own defects. At last, in the
third year of the war, a victor appeared in Meade, a good, but
by no means great, commander. In the fourth year Lincoln gave the
chief command to Grant, whom he had carefully watched and wisely
supported through all the ups and downs of the river campaigns.

Grant's account of his first conference alone with Lincoln is eloquent
of Lincoln's wise war statesmanship:

He stated that he had never professed to be a military man or
to know how campaigns should be conducted, and never wanted to
interfere in them.... All he wanted was some one who would take
the responsibility and act, and call on him for all the assistance
needed, pledging himself to use all the power of the government
in rendering such assistance.... He pointed out on the map two
streams which empty into the Potomac, and suggested that the army
might be moved on boats and landed between the mouths of these
streams. We would then have the Potomac to bring our supplies and
the tributaries would protect our flanks while we moved out. I
listened respectfully, but did not suggest that the same streams
would protect Lee's flanks while he was shutting us up. I did not
communicate my plans to the President; nor did I to the Secretary
of War or to General Halleck.

Trust begot trust; and some months later Grant showed war statesmanship
of the same magnificent kind. McClellan had become the Democratic
candidate for President, to the well-founded alarm of all who put
the Union first. In June, when Grant and Lee were at grips round
Richmond, Lincoln was invited to a public meeting got up in honor
of Grant with only a flimsy disguise of the ominous fact that Grant,
and not Lincoln, might be the Union choice. Lincoln sagaciously wrote
back: "It is impossible for me to attend. I approve nevertheless
of whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain G