President Lincoln had a little joke at the expense of General George B.
McClellan, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency in opposition
to the Westerner in 1864. McClellan was nominated by the Democratic
National Convention, which assembled at Chicago, but after he had
been named, and also during the campaign, the military candidate was
characteristically slow in coming to the front.
President Lincoln had his eye upon every move made by General McClellan
during the campaign, and when reference was made one day, in his
presence, to the deliberation and caution of the New Jerseyite,
Mr. Lincoln remarked, with a twinkle in his eye, “Perhaps he is
intrenching.”
The cartoon we reproduce appeared in “Harper’s Weekly,” September 17th,
1864, and shows General McClellan, with his little spade in hand, being
subjected to the scrutiny of the President--the man who gave McClellan,
when the latter was Commander-in-Chief of the Union forces, every
opportunity in the world to distinguish himself. There is a smile on the
face of “Honest Abe,” which shows conclusively that he does not regard
his political opponent as likely to prove formidable in any way.
President Lincoln “sized up” McClellan in 1861-2, and knew, to a
fraction, how much of a man he was, what he could do, and how he went
about doing it. McClellan was no politician, while the President was the
shrewdest of political diplomats.