Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the matter a
recognition abroad.

Nevertheless, with the Cabinet five to two against him, with his
military adviser against him, Lincoln put aside his own views. The
government went on marking time and considering the credentials of
applicants for country post-offices.

By this time, Lincoln had thrown off the overpowering gloom which
possessed him in the latter days at Springfield. It is possible he
had reacted to a mood in which there was something of levity. His
oscillation of mood from a gloom that nothing penetrated to a sort of
desperate mirth, has been noted by various observers. And in 1861 he
had not reached his final poise, that firm holding of the middle
way,---which afterward fused his moods and made of him, at least in
action, a sustained personality.

About the middle of the month he had a famous interview with Colonel W.
T. Sherman who had been President of the University of Louisiana and had
recently resigned. Senator John Sherman called at the White House with
regard to "some minor appointments in Ohio." The Colonel went with him.
When Colonel Sherman spoke of the seriousness of the Secession movement,
Lincoln replied, "Oh, we'll manage to keep house." The Colonel was so
offended by what seemed to him the flippancy of the President that he
abandoned his intention to resume the military life and withdrew from
Washington in disgust.(13)

Not yet had Lincoln attained a true appreciation of the real difficulty
before him. He had not got rid of the idea that a dispute over slavery
had widened accidentally into a needless sectional quarrel, and that as