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Any news from the front, this morning?
NICOLAY
[_Handing him a telegram._]
From General Grant's lines--only this, sir----
LINCOLN
[_Reads._]
"Confederate Cavalry raiders capture a Brigadier General and fifty army mules."--Too bad--rush a regiment after the mules--they're worth $200 a piece--Jeff Davis can have my Brigadier General----!
NICOLAY
[_Laughs._]
Yes, sir--and this came in code from Sherman--
[_Hands_ LINCOLN _another telegram._]
LINCOLN
[_Eagerly._]
Word from Sherman! Good!
[_Reads._]
--"Scouts report Hood's trenches before Atlanta are impregnable--carefully considering a flank movement--but as yet, I cannot find the position or strength of Hood's second line----" W. T. Sherman----
[_Pauses._]
Grant's deadlocked with Lee at Petersburg--If-Sherman-could-only-give-us-Atlanta!----
[_Pauses._]
I've a notion to telegraph Sherman an order direct----!
NICOLAY
I wouldn't go over General Grant's head, sir, with a military order--he's sensitive----
LINCOLN
It might make trouble--Grant might resent my interference with his plan of campaign----
NICOLAY
It would have to be filed in the War Department----
LINCOLN
Yes--I know. Anything else----?
NICOLAY
[_Handing him a large doc.u.ment._]
Baker's full report of the secret service on the Copperhead Societies---- He asks for the immediate arrest of their leaders--and I think he's right----
LINCOLN
[_Shakes his head._]
It won't do--it won't do just now--it's an ugly business--too ugly for haste--I'll look it over carefully----
[_Lays the report on his desk._]
I'm ready now to see the people----
NICOLAY
The Republican National Committee are in town, sir----
LINCOLN
What on earth are they doing here----?
NICOLAY
That's what everybody's asking----
LINCOLN
They should be in their States, leading the Party to victory---- What do they want?
NICOLAY
To see you----
LINCOLN
Umph----!
NICOLAY
Henry Raymond, their Chairman, is with them, and has just sent word demanding a hearing before your public reception this morning.
