In    his   final   report,   Gen.    McClellan   makes    the    following
statement:    "  All  the  information  I  could  obtain,  previous  to
the  24th  of  June,  regarding  the  movements  of  Gen.  Jackson,
led   to   the  belief  that  he  was  at  Gordonsville.  where   he  was
receiving  re-enforcements  from  Richmond  via  Lynchburg  and
Staunton  ;  but  what  his  purposes  were,  did  not  appear  until  the
date  specified,"  etc.     Entertaining  this  opinion,  it  may  well  be
asked,   in    passing,   how  happened   it   that   he   so  vehemently
urged,    again   and   again,    the    withdrawal   of   all    troops  from
before  Washington,    leaving  an  entirely  inadequate    garrison
within  the  city  itself,  in  order  to  transfer  all  to  the  Peninsula?
Such,  on  the  one  hand,  is  his  confession  ;   such,  on  the  other,
was  his  demand.     That  Jackson  was  prepared  for  any  "  pur-
pose ::    that   best    suited    the    occasion  —  that   he   would   have
attacked  Washington    had  McDowell's  army  been  withdrawn,
as  McClellan  desired,  or  that  he  would  have  invaded  Maryland
by  way  of  the  Valley,  as  Jjee  has  since  done — can  admit  of  no
rational  doubt.     Both  those  movements  were  defeated  by  the
wise  forecast  of  the  President,  and  by  his  persistence  in  adhe-
ring to  the  policy  so  clearly  marked  out,  with  the  approval  of
all  the  leading  generals,  at  the  outset  of  the  Peninsular  move-
ment.    When   McClellan   admits   his   inability  to  discern   the
intentions  of  Jackson,  more  than  a  month  after  the  latter  left
Richmond,  he  at  once  puts  at  rest  all  cavils  in  regard  to  the
opinions  of  those  who  assumed   some   other  purpose   possible
than  that  finally  developed.     But  what  solution  can  be  given
of  his  own  inaction  during  all  this  period  of  Jackson's  known
absence  ?     And  how  will  he  even  give  a  plausible  look  to  his
eagerness  to  withdraw  McDowell,  and  to  leave  to  Jackson  an
unobstructed  route  to  the  National  Capital  ?

But  the  "purposes"  of  Jackson,  hitherto  so  uncertain,  were
discovered  on  the  24th  of  June,  and  thus  reported  :


376  LIFE  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.
