He did not care to be a soldier or an officer of soldiers; he had no gift for polemics; his mind was not of the disputatious order--not even in the realm of finance.

He was concerned only to see what was of vast advantage to him, and to devote all his attention to that.

This fratricidal war in the nation could not help him.

It really delayed, he thought, the true commercial and financial adjustment of the country, and he hoped that it would soon end.

He was not of those who complained bitterly of the excessive war taxes, though he knew them to be trying to many.