"His idea," said the President "was that it would be considered our last
shriek, on the retreat." (This was his precise expression.) "' Now,'
continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the Measure, I suggest, Sir, that
you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the Country supported
by Military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now,
upon the greatest disasters of the War!'"

Mr. Lincoln continued: "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of
State, struck me with very great force. It was an aspect of the case
that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked.
The result was that I put the draft of the Proclamation aside, as you do
your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory."

It may not be amiss to interrupt the President's narration to Mr.
Carpenter, at this point, with a few words touching "the Military
Situation."

After McClellan's inexplicable retreat from before the Rebel Capital
--when, having gained a great victory at Malvern Hills, Richmond would
undoubtedly have been ours, had he but followed it up, instead of
ordering his victorious troops to retreat like "a whipped Army"--[See
General Hooker's testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the
War.]--his recommendation, in the extraordinary letter (of July 7th) to
the President, for the creation of the office of General-in-Chief, was
adopted, and Halleck, then at Corinth, was ordered East, to fill it.

Pope had previously been called from the West, to take
command of the troops covering Washington, comprising some 40,000 men,
known as the Army of Virginia; and, finding cordial cooperation with