who was always slow to turn against any man.  Replying to a denunciatory letter from Halleck he said:  “I propose continuing to be myself the judge as to when a member of the cabinet shall be dismissed.”  He made a like statement, curtly and decisively, in a cabinet meeting.  Messrs. Nicolay and Hay say that he did not yield to the pressure until he was assured of his reelection, and that then he yielded only because he felt that he ought not obstinately to retain an adviser in whom the party had lost confidence.  On September 23 he wrote to Mr. Blair a kindly note:  “You have generously said to me more than once that whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal.  The time has come.  You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with you, personally or officially.  Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any friend.”  Mr. Blair immediately relieved the President from the embarrassing situation, and he and his family behaved afterward with honorable spirit, giving loyal support to Mr. Lincoln during the rest of the campaign.  Ex-Governor Dennison of Ohio was appointed to the vacant office.

[Illustration:  M. Blair]

Many and various were the other opportunities which the President was urged to seize for helping both himself and other Republican candidates.  But he steadfastly declined to get into the mud of the struggle.  It was a jest of the campaign that Senator King was sent by some New York men to ask whether Lincoln meant to support the Republican ticket.  He did:  he openly admitted that he believed his reelection to be for the best interest of the country.  As an honest man he could not think otherwise.  “I am for the regular nominee in all cases,” he bluntly said, in reply to a request for his interference concerning a member of Congress; and the general principle covered, of course, his own case.  To the postmaster of Philadelphia, however, whose employees displayed suspicious Republican unanimity, he administered a sharp and imperious warning.  He even would not extend to his close and valued friend, Mr. Arnold, assistance which that gentleman too sorely needed.  More commendable still was his behavior as to the draft.  On July 18, as has been said, he issued a call for 500,000 men, though at that time he might well have believed that by so doing he was burying beyond resurrection all chance of reelection.  Later the Republican leaders entreated him, with earnest eloquence and every melancholy presage, to suspend the drafting under this call for a few weeks only.  It seemed to him, however, that the army could not wait a few weeks.  “What is the presidency worth to me, if I have no country?” he said; and the storm of persuasion could not induce him to issue the postponing order.

Campaign slanders were rife as usual.  One of them Mr. Lincoln cared to contradict.  Some remarks made by Mr. Seward in a speech at Auburn had been absurdly construed by Democratic orators and editors to indicate that Mr. Lincoln, if defeated at the polls, would use the remainder of his term for doing what he could to ruin the government.  This vile charge, silly as it was, yet touched a very sensitive spot.  On October 19, in a speech to some serenaders, and evidently having this in mind, he said:—­