The Major Disappointed--Meets the President at West Point--Sees Gen. Scott--They Talk over Strategy--Returns to Philadelphia with the President--Makes a Speech at Jersey City--Mr. Lincoln also Speaks--Meets Seward at the Astor House--A Wheel within a Wheel-- Mr. Seward Caught. 108 LETTER XIII. The Major Returns to Washington--Things Get Mixed Up--Lincoln and the Panther--Splitting Rails and the Union--The Major and the President Visit Gen. McClellan's Army--Going up James River--Alarm of the Rebels--Exciting Scene on Board the Boat--Nobody hurt--The President Reviews the Troops at Harrison's Landing--The Return Trip--The President and Party Bathe in the Potomac--Almost a Catastrophe--The Major's Life-Preserver--The Moral of it--The President Proposes a Conundrum. 116 LETTER XIV. The President has an Attack of Fever and Ague--The Major Prescribes Elder-Bark Tea--A Fearful Mistake--The Bark Scraped the Wrong Way--Mr. Lincoln has to be Rolled--Stanton, Seward and the Major-- A Ludicrous Scene--The "Kernel" comes to and Begins to Joke--The Moral of taking the wrong Medicine--"The Irrepressible Conflict." 125 LETTER XV. Gen. McClellan's Change of Base--A Bear Story--A Delegation of Clergymen--The Major's Opinion on Negroes and "Edecated Peepel"--How General Jackson Saw Through Them--How the War is to End--Mr. Lincoln tells Another Story. 133 LETTER XVI. The Science of "Military Strutegy"--The Major's Opinion upon it--A Call from the Secretary of the American and Foreign Benevolent Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Colored Race--His Speech--The President's Reply--A Curious Prayer--The Major's Opinion on Slavery--The Critical Condition of Affairs--Mr. Lincoln Tells a Story. 141 LETTER XVII. A Cabinet Meeting--The President Calls for the Opinion of Each Member--Speeches of Seward, Chase, Stanton, Blair, Welles, Smith and Bates--The Major Called on for an Opinion--The Peperage Log Story--The Major Proposes an Armistice--No Conclusion Arrived at. 150 LETTER XVIII. The Major not Ill--The President has "the Gripes"--The Witch-Hazel Medicine--Going to the bottom of a Subject--The Democrats and the War--The Emancipation Proclamation--A Visit to Gen. McClellan's Army--The Soldiers Cool--Mr. Lincoln tells a Story--"Sloshing About." 159 LETTER XIX. The President Nervous--The State Elections--Mr. Lincoln Astonished --He takes Cordial--Mr. Seward Turns Democrat--The Major tells a Story--Mr. Seward and the Major Take a Drink--How John Van Buren got Gen. Scott's Letter--Mr. Stanton on the Elections. 168 LETTER XX.