John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[313] other civilian at Washington. It was but natural, therefore, that he should have had a greater influence with the men inside of the government, with whom he was on the closest terms, than any one else. While it is not known that he ever made any claim on this account, and indeed was entitled to no especial reward for doing what he conceived to be his duty, one cannot suppress the reflection that it all might have turned out quite differently had Washburne or he taken another course. The world readily adjusts itself to accomplished facts, and takes but little account of what might have been the result had this or that man taken a different course at this or that crisis, but it is at least interesting to note that Dana, although filling a subordinate position, had many opportunities to exert upon those highest in authority whatever influence was due to the information he had gathered, and was fortunate enough throughout the great conflict to exert it always for the advancement of the public interests. He seems never to have asked for anything personal, but to have considered himself amply repaid for his services in Washington and in the field by the consideration he received from the great characters with which they brought him in contact, rather than by the pay he got or the rewards bestowed upon him.

It was a never-ceasing source of satisfaction to Dana that his residence in Washington brought him constantly in contact with the President and his cabinet. This is abundantly shown in his masterly sketch of Lincoln,¹ whom he regarded as a very great man, full of gentle kindness and amiable sincerity, treating his cabinet, several of whom were men of extraordinary force and self-assertion, with unvarying candor and respect, and yet never failing to impress them one and all with the fact “that he was the ”