After the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, Governor Morgan, of
New York, was at the White House one day, when the President said:
“I do not agree with those who say that slavery is dead. We are like
whalers who have been long on a chase--we have at last got the harpoon
into the monster, but we must now look how we steer, or, with one ‘flop’
of his tail, he will yet send us all into eternity!”
“LINCOLN’S DREAM.”
President Lincoln was depicted as a headsman in a cartoon printed in
“Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper,” on February 14, 1863, the title
of the picture being “Lincoln’s Dreams; or, There’s a Good Time Coming.”
The cartoon, reproduced here, represents, on the right, the Union
Generals who had been defeated by the Confederates in battle, and had
suffered decapitation in consequence--McDowell, who lost at Bull Run;
McClellan, who failed to take Richmond, when within twelve miles of that
city and no opposition, comparatively; and Burnside, who was so badly
whipped at Fredericksburg. To the left of the block, where the President
is standing with the bloody axe in his hand, are shown the members
of the Cabinet--Secretary of State Seward, Secretary of War Stanton,
Secretary of the Navy Welles, and others--each awaiting his turn. This
part of the “Dream” was never realized, however, as the President did
not decapitate any of his Cabinet officers.
It was the idea of the cartoonist to hold Lincoln up as a man who would
not countenance failure upon the part of subordinates, but visit the
severest punishment upon those commanders who did not win victories.
After Burnside’s defeat at Fredericksburg, he was relieved by Hooker,
who suffered disaster at Chancellorsville; Hooker was relieved by Meade,
who won at Gettysburg, but was refused promotion because he did not
follow up and crush Lee; Rosecrans was all but defeated at Chickamauga,
and gave way to Grant, who, of all the Union commanders, had never
suffered defeat. Grant was Lincoln’s ideal fighting man, and the “Old
Commander” was never superseded.