Stevens
[Furiously.]
For one thing—you have never yet chosen a successful General. The South has not changed Commanders since Jeff Davis appointed Robert E. Lee. In thirty days of the last campaign in a series of massacres, Lee has killed and wounded sixty-two thousand of our men—more than he himself commanded—and Grant has only reached the point where McClellan stood in 1862. He could have marched there by McClellan's old line without the loss of a man. Washington is piled with the wounded, the dying and the dead. Your mail is choked with letters demanding the removal of this butcher as our Commander, and you refuse—why?
Lincoln
[Smiling calmly.]
Well, now that you've really let off steam, I think you'll feel better, Stevens——!
Stevens
I demand, sir, an answer to my question—why have you not removed Grant?
Lincoln
[Quickly.]