The eyes went deeper into their caverns, and
seemed to send their search farther than ever away into a receding
distance; the furrows sank far into the sallow face; a stoop bent the
shoulders, as if the burden of the soul had even a physical weight. Yet
still he sought neither counsel, nor strength, nor sympathy from any
one; neither leaned on any friend, nor gave his confidence to any
adviser; the problems were his and the duty was his, and he accepted
both wholly. "I need success more than I need sympathy," he said; for it
was the cause, not his own burden, which absorbed his thoughts. The
extremists, who seemed to have more than half forgotten to hate the
South in the intensity of their hatred of McClellan, had apparently
cherished a vague faith that, if this procrastinating spirit could be
exorcised, the war might then be trusted to take care of itself. But
after they had accomplished their purpose they were confronted by facts
which showed that in this matter, as in that of emancipation, the
President's deliberation was not the unpardonable misdoing which they
had conceived it to be. In spite of McClellan's insolent arrogance and
fault-finding, his unreasonable demands, and his tedious squandering of
invaluable time, Mr. Lincoln, being by nature a man who contemplated the
consequence of an action, did not desire to make a vacancy till he could
fill it with a better man.
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