They were practical men--else, as rats,
they would never have tried to desert their own ship. They knew that the
tide was going to turn, but it was a swift tide that could turn before
they could!
They wrung the President's hands, they shouted his praise, they had
always gloried in his administration, but foolish grumblers hadn't been
able to see things as they saw them--hence this hue and cry! They
congratulated him on his certain triumph and the President watched them
go with a quiet smile. He was too big to cherish resentments. He only
pitied small men, he never hated them.
CHAPTER XL
WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE
General Grant fired a salute in honor of the Atlanta victory with
shotted guns from every battery on his siege lines of thirty-seven miles
before Richmond and Petersburg. To Sherman he sent a remarkable
message--the kind which great men know how to pen:
"You have accomplished the most gigantic undertaking given to any
General in this war, with a skill and ability which will be acknowledged
in history as unsurpassed if not unequaled."
From the depths of despair the North swung to the wildest enthusiasm and
in the election which followed Abraham Lincoln was swept into power
again on a tidal wave. He received in round numbers two million five
hundred thousand votes, McClellan two millions.
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