Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/368

298 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Gen. Grant was about to set out on his campaign of final victory, the secretary of war gave him, by the president s order, this imperative instruc tion: "The president directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no conference with Gen. Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of Gen. Lee s army, or on some other minor and purely military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question. Such questions the president holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile, you are to press to the utmost your military advantages." When he refused to comply with the desire of the more radical Republicans in congress to take Draconian measures of retaliation against the Con federates for their treatment of black soldiers, he was accused by them of weakness and languor. They never seemed to perceive that to withstand an angry congress in Washington required more vigor of character than to launch a threatening decree against the Confederate government in Richmond. Mr. Lincoln was as unusual in personal appearance as in character. His stature was almost gigantic, six feet and four inches ; he was muscular but spare of frame, weighing about 180 pounds. His hair was strong and luxuriant in growth, and stood out straight from his head ; it began to be touched with gray in his last years. His eyes, a grayish brown,