ELSIE led Mrs. Cameron direct from the White House to the War Department.
"Well, Mrs. Cameron, what did you think of the President?" she asked.
"I hardly know," was the thoughtful answer. "He is the greatest man I ever met. One feels this instinctively."
When Mrs. Cameron was ushered into the Secretary's Office, Mr. Stanton was seated at his desk writing.
She handed the order of the President to a clerk, who gave it to the Secretary.
He was a man in the full prime of life, intellectual and physical, low and heavy set, about five feet eight inches in height and inclined to fat. His movements, however, were quick, and as he swung in his chair the keenest vigour marked every movement of body and every change of his countenance.
His face was swarthy and covered with a long, dark beard touched with gray. He turned a pair of little black piercing eyes on her and without rising said:
"So you are the woman who has a wounded son under sentence of death as a guerilla?"
"I am so unfortunate," she answered.
"Well, I have nothing to say to you," he went on in a louder and sterner tone, "and no time to waste on you. If you have raised up men to rebel against the best government under the sun, you can take the consequences"
"But, my dear sir," broke in the mother, "he is a mere boy of nineteen, who ran away three years ago and entered the service"
"I don't want to hear another word from you!" he yelled in rage. "I have no time to waste—go at once. I'll do nothing for you."
"But I bring you an order from the President," protested the mother.
"Yes, I know it," he answered, with a sneer, "and I'll do with it what I've done with many others—see that it is not executed—now go."
"But the President told me you would give me a pass to the hospital, and that a full pardon would be issued to my boy!"
"Yes, I see. But let me give you some information. The President is a fool—a d fool! Now, will you go?"
With a sinking sense of horror, Mrs. Cameron withdrew and reported to Elsie the unexpected encounter.
"The brute!" cried the girl. "We'll go back immediately and report this insult to the President."
"Why are such men intrusted with power?" the mother sighed.
"It's a mystery to me, I'm sure. They say he is the greatest Secretary of War in our history. I don't believe it. Phil hates the sight of him, and so does every army officer I know, from General Grant down. I hope Mr. Lincoln will expel him from the Cabinet for this insult."
When they were again ushered into the President's office, Elsie hastened to inform him of the outrageous reply the Secretary of War had made to his order.
"Did Stanton say that I was a fool?" he asked, with a quizzical look out of his kindly eyes.
"Yes, he did," snapped Elsie. "And he repeated it with a blankety prefix."
The President looked good-humouredly out of the window toward the War Office and musingly said:
"Well, if Stanton says that I am a blankety fool, it must be so, for I have found out that he is nearly always right, and generally means what he says. I'll just step over and see Stanton."
As he spoke the last sentence, the humour slowly faded from his face, and the anxious mother saw back of those patient gray eyes the sudden gleam of the courage and conscious power of a lion.
He dismissed them with instructions to return the next day for his final orders and walked over to the War Department alone.
The Secretary of War was in one of his ugliest moods, and made no effort to conceal it when asked his reasons for the refusal to execute the order.
"The grounds for my action are very simple," he said, with bitter emphasis. "The execution of this traitor is part of a carefully considered policy of justice on which the future security of the Nation depends. If I am to administer this office, I will not be hamstrung by constant Executive interference. Besides, in this particular case, I was urged that justice be promptly executed by the most powerful man in Congress. I advise you to avoid a quarrel with old Stoneman at this crisis in our history."
The President sat on a sofa with his legs crossed, relapsed into an attitude of resignation, and listened in silence until the last sentence, when suddenly he sat bolt upright, fixed his deep gray eyes intently on Stanton and said:
"Mr. Secretary, I reckon you will have to execute that order."
"I cannot do it," came the firm answer. "It is an interference with justice, and I will not execute it."
Mr. Lincoln held his eyes steadily on Stanton and slowly said:
"Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done."
Stanton wheeled in his chair, seized a pen and wrote very rapidly a few lines to which he fixed his signature. He rose with the paper in his hand, walked to his chief, and, with deep emotion, said:
"Mr. President, I wish to thank you for your constant friendship during the trying years I have held this office. The war is ended, and my work is done. I hand you my resignation."
Mr. Lincoln's lips came suddenly together, he slowly rose, and looked down with surprise into the flushed angry face.
He took the paper, tore it into pieces, slipped one of his long arms around the Secretary and said in low accents:
"Stanton, you have been a faithful public servant, and it is not for you to say when you will be no longer needed. Go on with your work. I will have my way in this matter; but I will attend to it personally."
Stanton resumed his seat, and the President returned to the White House.