FIRST  ACT  OF  THE  M^CLELLAN  DRAMA.    323

of  numbers  or  better  drill  and  discipline,  how  long
would  it  require  to  actually  get  in  motion?  After
leaving  all  that  would  be  necessary,  how  many
troops  could  join  the  movement  from  southwest  of
the  river?  How  many  from  northeast  of  it?"
Then  he  proceeded  briefly  to  hint  rather  than  dis-
tinctly to  suggest  that  plan  of  a  direct  advance  by
way  of  Centreville  and  Manassas,  which  later  on
he  persistently  advocated.  Ten  days  elapsed  be-
fore McClellan  returned  answers,  which  then  came
in  a  shape  too  curt  to  be  respectful.  Almost  im-
mediately afterward  the  general  fell  ill,  an  occur-
rence which  seemed  to  his  detractors  a  most  aggra-
vating and  unjustifiable  intervention  of  Nature
herself  in  behalf  of  his  policy  of  delay.
On  January  10  a  dispatch  from  General  Halleck
represented  in  his  department  also  a  condition  of
check  and  helplessness.  Lincoln  noted  upon  it:
"Exceedingly  discouraging.  As  everywhere  else,
nothing  can  be  done."  Yet  something  must  be
done,  for  the  game  was  not  to  be  abandoned.  Un-
der this  pressure,  on  this  same  day,  he  visited  Mc-
Clellan, but  could  not  see  him ;  nor  could  he  get
any  definite  idea  how  long  might  be  the  duration
of  the  typhoid  fever,  the  lingering  and  uncertain
disease  which  had  laid  the  general  low.  Accord-
ingly he  summoned  General  McDowell  and  Gen-
eral Franklin  to  discuss  with  him  that  evening  the
military  situation.  The  Secretaries  of  State  and
of  the  Treasury,  and  the  Assistant  Secretary  of
War  also  came.  The  President,  says  McDowell,


324  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.
