In this remarkable document he proposed to assume the Dictatorship and
outlined his policy as director of the Nation's affairs.
He would immediately provoke war with Great Britain, Russia, Spain and
France!
The dark-visaged giant adjusted his glasses and read this paper with a
smile of incredulous amazement. He wiped his glasses and read it again.
And then without consultation with a single human being, and without a
moment's hesitation he wrote a brief reply to the great man and his
generous offer. There was no bluster, no wrath, no demand for an apology
to his insulted dignity, but in the simplest and friendliest and most
direct language he informed his Secretary that if a dictator were needed
to save the country he would undertake the dangerous and difficult job
himself inasmuch as he had been called by the people to be their
Commander-in-Chief, and that he expected the cooeperation, advice and
support of _all_ the members of his Cabinet.
He did not even refer to the wild scheme of plunging the country into
war with two-thirds of the civilized world. The bare announcement of
such a suggestion would have driven the Secretary from public life. The
quiet man who presided over the turbulent Cabinet never hinted to one of
its members that such a document had reached his hands.
But as the shades of night fell over the Capitol on that first day of
April, 1861, there was one distinguished statesman within the city who
knew that a real man had been elected President and that he was going to
wield the power placed in his hands without a tremor of fear or an
instant's hesitation.
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