Between that date and the battle
of the second Bull Run intervened the period of a full month, during
which, in the absence of military movements or congressional proceedings
to furnish exciting news, both private individuals and public journals
turned a new and somewhat vindictive fire of criticism upon the
administration. For this they seized upon the ever-ready text of the
ubiquitous slavery question. Upon this issue the conservatives protested
indignantly that the President had been too fast, while, contrarywise,
the radicals clamored loudly that he had been altogether too slow. We
have seen how his decision was unalterably taken and his course
distinctly marked out, but that he was not yet ready publicly to
announce it. Therefore, during this period of waiting for victory, he
underwent the difficult task of restraining the impatience of both
sides, which he did in very positive language. Thus, under date of July
26, 1862, he wrote to a friend in Louisiana:
"Yours of the sixteenth, by the hand of Governor Shepley, is received.
It seems the Union feeling in Louisiana is being crushed out by the
course of General Phelps. Please pardon me for believing that is a false
pretense. The people of Louisiana--all intelligent people
everywhere--know full well that I never had a wish to touch the
foundations of their society, or any right of theirs.
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