"Yes," was the reply, "he is like Jim Jett's brother. Jim used to say that his brother was the greatest scoundrel that ever lived, but in the infinite mercy of Providence he was also the greatest fool."
Family sayings, when they are not loving, are apt to be bitter. One of the Vanderbilts said of a connection of his by marriage that he was "more kinds of a fool to the square inch than anybody else in the world."
McClellan, who seemed practically certain of success in August, 1864, was badly beaten in November, when the battle of parties was fought out at the polls. Fremont had retired from the contest early in the campaign. At the first Cabinet meeting after the election, November 11, 1864, the President took a paper out of his desk and said:
"Gentlemen, do you remember last summer I asked you all to sign your names to the back of a paper, of which I did not show you the inside? This is it. Now, Mr. Hay, see if you can get this open without tearing it."
Its cover was so thoroughly pasted up that it had to be cut open. This done, Lincoln read it aloud. Here it is:
"Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 23, 1864.
"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.
A. Lincoln."
In that memorandum is the sign-manual of a great soul. Lincoln, believing his own defeat was written in the stars, thought, not of himself, but of how he, defeated, could best save the cause of the Union from defeat. A small man thinks first of himself. A big man thinks first of his duty.