mate
knowledge of the situation than I had. He had every one marked,
knew how he stood, and the list made a better showing than I had
expected.

The truth is, however, that many of the strong men in Congress,
especially the radicals, were against his renomination, and would
have rejoiced to see some one else the nominee of the party; but
they knew full well, that the great body of the people of the North
were with him, and that it would be useless to attempt to prevent
his renomination.

The next time I called at the White House after the convention, he
reminded me of our previous conversation, and remarked that it did
not turn out so badly after all.

He was reminded of a little story. A couple of Irishmen came to
America and started out on foot into the country. They travelled
along until they came to a piece of woods. They thought they heard
a noise, but did not know what it was. They deployed on either
side of the road to find out, but were unable to do so, and finally
one called to the other, "Pat, Pat, let's go on; this is nothing
by a domned noise." So the opposition to him, he said, was apparently
nothing but a noise.

But if he never had any doubts as to his renomination, he at one
time almost despaired of being re-elected, as did many of his
closest and most intimate friends. The Democrats had not yet
selected their candidates, and as he remarked: "At this period we
had no adversary, and seemed to have no friends."

An incident in this connection is related by the late Secretary,
John Hay. The President felt that the campaign was going against
him, and he had made up his mind deliberately as to the course he
should pursue. He resolved to lay down for himself a course of
action demanded by his then conviction of duty. He wrote on the
twenty-third of August the following memorandum:

"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable
that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be
my duty to so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the
Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have
secured his election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save
it afterwards."

He then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that its contents
could not be read, and as the cabinet came together he handed this
paper to each member successively, requesting him to write his name
across the back of it, without intimating to any member of the
cab