Portrait life of Lincoln; life of Abraham Lincoln, the greatest American

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portrait JLift of Htncoln

Life of Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American, told from Origi-
nal Photographs taken with His Authority during the Great
Crisis through which He Led His Country — Treasured
among the 7000 Secret Service War Negatives in
the Brady-Gardner Collection at Spring-
field, Massachusetts, and in Private
Collections, valued at $150,000

Collected by
Edward Bailey Eaton

By
FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of " The Journal of American History"

Author of " The Photographic History of the Civil War "

Author of "American Hero Tales" — Editor of the Search-Light Library

Member of The American Historical Association

Fellow of The American Geographical Society
Member of The American Statistical Association

Member of The National Geographic Society
Member of The American Academy of Political and Social Science

Anno Domini SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS M c m x

Itye patriot <pui)ltstf)mg Company

NEW YORK, 439 Lafayette Street Marquette Building, CHICAGO

Copyright, 1910, by

PATRIOT PUBLISHING COMPANY
Springfield, Massachusetts

• HAMMOND PRESS
W. B. CONKEY COMPANY. CHICAGO

O R E W O R D

is w^h pleasure that this volume is presented to the American
People as a direct and original contribution to our national litera-
ture. As a collection of the famous portraits of Lincoln, taken
from the greatest collections in the world and valued at more than
$150,000, it alone would claim distinction. This is the first collec-
tion of all the known original photographs of Lincoln and represents years
of research by the most eminent American collectors.

It is, however, upon its graphic literary treatment that this volume
must take its -position as one of the most important books of the times. It
is a book with a mission — and that mission is to revive in the homes of
America the true spirit of Lincoln ; that man of rugged honesty who said
that " God must have loved the common people or he would not have made
so many of them;" the man who "knew what it meant to start at the
bottom and work to the top;" the man who "met misfortune face to face
and overcame it with the might of manhood." Its psychological insight
into human nature; its philosophical grasp on life and its opportunities;
its appeal to the American heart and conscience, with its vigorous applica-
tion of the principles of Lincoln to everyday life, inspire one with new
courage and new ambition.

Lincoln lives again in the pages of this volume, through the portraits
and the word paintings that are masterpieces of literary art. It has been
the desire of the publishers to make it a new American classic in which the
generations may look upon Lincoln in the most dramatic situations in his
life, feeling the impulse of a great heart and the inspiration of an indomit-
able will and resolute purpose.

More books have been written about Lincoln than any other man in
the world's history, but this is the first time that he has been brought before
the people in the actual negatives for which he sat during his life and in text
pictures in which he again moves among us. -It has been the purpose of
the publishers to present, in the fewest possible pages, a full acquaintance
with Lincoln and an understanding of what such a man means to the world
of humanity. It has further been desired to make this a complete unfold-
ing of the vital events in his life. This has been accomplished by an
interesting chronology in which the whole panorama of the growth of the
nation, during the life of Lincoln, is presented. The volume further
includes the nine great speeches upon which Lincoln rose to the highest
political honor within the gift of the American people. These, with a record
of the celebrated Lincoln Collections in America, and the hundred greatest
books on Lincoln, fulfill its title as the "Portrait Life of Lincoln," and give
it immediate position as the first authoritative handbook on Lincoln.

THE PUBLISHERS

3895J3?

G O N T E N

PART I

An Epigrammatic Philosophy on Life and Its Opportunities Drawn from
the Early Experiences of Abraham Lincoln

THE ROAD TO GREATNESS 3

THE FULLNESS OF LIFE AND OPPORTUNITY — BIRTH 4

THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF LIVING — CHILDHOOD 5

THE UNFOLDING OF KNOWLEDGE — SCHOOL DAYS 6

THE REVELATION OF LIFE'S SECRETS — BOYHOOD 7

THE THRILL OF AMBITION — YOUTH 8

THE DISCOVERY OF POWER — CITIZENSHIP 9

THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION — MANHOOD. . 10

PART II

A Photographic Narrative Which Interprets the Character and Life of
Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American

THE FOUNDATION OF LINCOLN'S CHARACTER 12

THE INFLUENCE OF LOVE ON LINCOLN'S LIFE 14

THE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF LINCOLN 16

THE IMPULSE THAT HELD LINCOLN STEADFAST 18

THE RUGGED HONESTY OF LINCOLN'S HEART 20

THE MAN WHO FIRST MADE LINCOLN KNOWN 22

THE CHALLENGE THAT TESTED LINCOLN'S STRENGTH 24

THE DEFEAT THAT MADE LINCOLN FAMOUS ,26

THE APPEAL OF HUMANITY THAT LINCOLN HEARD 28

THE FIRST TEST OF LINCOLN'S NATIONAL GREATNESS 30

THE INSPIRATION OF LINCOLN'S PATRIOTISM 32

THE GATHERING OF HUMANITY UNDER LINCOLN 34

THE BURDEN OF A NATION ON LINCOLN'S HEART 36

THE AFFECTION OF LINCOLN FOR His HOME 38

THE WILLINGNESS OF LINCOLN TO GIVE His LIFE 42

THE FORTITUDE OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF TRIAL 44

THE CRUMBLING NATION IN LINCOLN'S ARMS 46

THE DETERMINED WILL OF LINCOLN AMONG MEN 48

THE TRUE TEST OF LINCOLN'S STATESMANSHIP 50

THE STRENGTH OF LINCOLN IN A NATION'S PERIL 52

THE FAITH OF LINCOLN IN THE COMMON PEOPLE 54

THE ABILITY OF LINCOLN TO OVERCOME DEFEAT 56

THE HOPEFULNESS OF LINCOLN IN MISFORTUNE 58

THE MIGHT OF LINCOLN IN His COUNTRY'S CRISIS 64

THE HAND OF LINCOLN ON THE CHAIN OF BONDAGE 66

THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF LINCOLN'S LIFE 68

THE POWER OF LINCOLN TO CONQUER HIMSELF 70

THE HUMILITY OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF VICTORY c . . . 72

THE SYMPATHY OF LINCOLN FOR THE UNFORTUNATE 76

THE WORTH OF A MAN IN LINCOLN'S JUDGMENT 78

O N T E N

THE LOYALTY OF LINCOLN TO His LIFE WORK 80

THE INSIGHT OF LINCOLN INTO HUMAN NATURE 84

THE HEART OF LINCOLN THAT KNEW No MALICE 86

THE FATHERHOOD OF LINCOLN AMONG THE LOWLY 88

THE MAGNANIMITY OF THE SPIRIT OF LINCOLN. 90

THE VICTORY OF LINCOLN — A RE-UNITED PEOPLE 92

THE VEIL OF SORROW OVER AN EXULTANT NATION. . 94

PART III

A Revelation of the Last Scenes in the Closing Hours of Lincoln from
Actual Photographs Taken at the Time

THE LAST LINGERING MOMENTS OF A NOBLE LIFE 96

THE MAGNIFICENCE OF LITE'S LAST TRIUMPH 98

THE INFAMY OF A DEED THAT ROBBED A NATION 100

THE GLORY OF A MAN WHO LOVES His FELLOWMEN. . . 106

PART IV

The Great Speeches that Mark the Rise of Abraham Lincoln as
an Orator and Leader of the People

THE FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN i 112

THE FIRST GREAT PATRIOTIC SPEECH OF LINCOLN ." 113

THE FIRST GREAT NATIONAL SPEECH OF LINCOLN. 119

THE SPEECHES IN LINCOLN'S POLITICAL GREATNESS 132

THE SPEECH THAT MOLDED A NATION'S FUTURE 133

THE GREATEST SPEECH IN AMERICAN HISTORY 139

THE LAST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 141

THE WORDS OF WISDOM FROM LINCOLN'S PHILOSOPHY. . . 144

PART V

A Chronology of the Historic Events in the Growth of the American
Nation from the Birth to the Death of Lincoln

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. . . 145

PART VI

A Handbook of the Famous Photographic Portraits of Abraham Lincoln
Treasured in the Great American Collections

THE FAMOUS PORTRAITS OF LINCOLN WITH COMPLETE INDEX TO ALL PHOTOGRAPHS

REPRODUCED IN THIS VOLUME 155

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN — THE HUNDRED GREATEST BOOKS ON His

LIFE 161

THE GREATEST POEM ON LINCOLN — O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! — BY WALT WHITMAN . 164

INTRODUCTORY

an American, who loves his country and his people, I believed
that I knew Lincoln. Throughout my life I have read the anec-
dotes and biographies that make him familiar to the generations,
but it was not until I looked upon his portraits that I began to
understand the real character of the man. It was then, as Bart-
lett, the sculptor, has said, that I looked into a face in which is written
the history of a nation and the hopes of its people — the face of democracy.

There is always something about an old photograph that is intensely
human. In it still lives one who has been long absent; the expression on
the face, the light in the eyes, the kindness and the firmness of the mouth.
One can almost feel the heart that beat beneath it. So it was that, in
these photographs, I found the living Lincoln. My acquaintance with him
before had been only through the various estimates of his character.
I believe that there are more than two thousand of them, including many
masterly biographies, in which one listens to the men who knew him and
hears reminiscences of his drollery and wit.

But it is in these time-stained photographs that the man comes back
to us. About them gather all the events of his life. Look at that familiar
picture of the old log cabin where he was born. In your imagination you
can see the great forests, and the sunshine in the trees; you can see the
little creeping figure before the door; it is a baby; it laughs and cries.
Look, look again; now it is a boy; he runs and jumps and shouts; he is
standing at the opening of the woods; he is shielding his eyes with his
hands and looking this way; he is calling to us; he is waving his arms;
he is coming down the forest path, under the great trees, nearer and nearer.
Look again — he stands right before us; he is a man!

And now, taking up his first photograph, look into the youthful face
filled with hope and courage. In it you can see the storms that are gather-
ing about his life. One by one these old portraits unfold the life story of
the man who gave his personality to them — they are all that remain ofthe
physical Lincoln.

Sit down with me and turn these pages in reverie. In your mind's
eye you can see the gaunt figure in the law office; you sit with him as he
pores over his books during that long, weary period of a lawyer's life-
waiting for clients; you fight with him as a captain in the Black Hawk
War; you take your letters to him as the village postmaster; you cast your
ballot for him as a member of the state legislature; you see him take his
first stand against slavery. Now you are listening to his convincing oratory
against the great Douglas for the senate; those ringing words are dropping
from his lips: "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some
of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of
the time."

In this reverie over these old portraits you can hear the cheering; he

INTRODUCTORY

is being nominated for the presidency. You are standing beside him as
he receives the news that he has been elected to the highest political honor
in the gift of mankind — the leadership of the American people; you listen
to his farewell speech to his friends at Springfield; you go with him to
Washington and sit with him in the White House; you hear the news of
the first shot at Fort Sumter; you hear the clank of the cavalry and the
tramp of regiments of marching men offering their lives on the altar of
civilization; you sit silent with him in the gloom of defeat; you catch the
gleam of light in the din of victory; you gaze bewildered upon him as he
issues the Emancipation Proclamation. Now you are going with him to
Antietam, to Gettysburg, to Richmond; you are standing beside him as
he hears the news of the surrender at Appomattox. The soldiers are
passing through the streets of Washington on their homeward march, and
your foot beats time to the strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" and
"Dixie."

The pages are now nearly turned. The last portrait is before you.
A shot rings in your ears; a figure falls prostrate to the floor; you linger
by his bedside through the long hours; Seward is whispering: "Now he
belongs to the ages." You stand over the bier and look upon the kindly
face that you have learned to love; you heap his grave with flowers. This
is the "Portrait Life of Lincoln."

In simple words I have endeavored to gather about these old por-
traits the scenes in which the living Lincoln stood at the time that the
photographs were taken. I have neither the desire nor the ability to make
this volume a biography of Lincoln nor a history of the times in which
he lived. It is but a series of word-pictures and life-portraits in which
you may look upon Lincoln and come to your own conclusion regarding
his strength of character and his greatness as a man.

It has seemed to me, after looking upon them, that in this man we
find the strongest character that American civilization has produced.
I know no other man in American history who has been called upon to
meet such overwhelming obstacles and who has overcome them with
truer courage, finer fortitude, and greater self-sacrifice. This is the man
who led his people through the greatest crisis that the American Nation
has known. I believe that when one considers that the United States
exist today largely through the faith and hope and indomitable will of
this man, he may justly be entitled "The Greatest American."

It is not my privilege, however, to fix the historical position of Lincoln.
I shall be satisfied if my humble service is but to bring the generations into
personal acquaintance with him, for it is in his character that they will find
the whole secret of the power of common manhood. The strength with
which he faced the problems of life is an inspiration to all men; it is the
hope of the future; the convincing proof of the ability of the common man

INTRODUCTORY

to rise above his surroundings and make his way in the world through
the courage of his convictions. It is the very simplicity of Lincoln as a
man that brings him so close to us. He is the most companionable of men.
In him you find many of your own characteristics — the common qualities
of human nature. To know Lincoln is to know yourself. He is the com-
mon heritage of the American people.

In these introductory words I desire to express my appreciation to
those who have assisted in giving me a clear understanding of the man
whose portraits are here presented in photograph and text. I am espe-
cially indebted to Honorable Robert Todd Lincoln, of Chicago, Illinois,
who has advised me regarding the sources for original investigation, and
to Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton, of Hartford, Connecticut, who, in his untiring
historical research, has collected these photographs and has collaborated
with me in preparing "The Portrait Life of Lincoln."

I further desire to give credit to the collectors who have rendered
assistance. The Frederick H. Meserve Collection of Americana, in New
York, and the Fay Collection of photographs of historic personages, in
Illinois, are among the most valuable collections in America. The Oldroyd
Lincoln Memorial Collection, which now occupies the historic house in
which Lincoln died, at Washington, is a shrine that should be visited by
every American. Among its treasures are nearly twenty thousand exhibits
relating to the life of the great American. The Lambert Collection, in
Philadelphia, is the work of one of the leading authorities on Lincoln-
iana. Many original negatives are treasured in the Handy and the Rice
Collections in Washington.

The largest collection of original Civil War negatives is the famous
Brady-Gardner Collection, in Springfield, Massachusetts, which contains
more than seven thousand negatives taken under the protection of the
Secret Service during the American Crisis. The only other collection of
its magnitude is deposited in the War Department at Washington, where
it is held as official documentary evidence of this great epoch in American
history. In these collections can be found practically everything pertain-
ing to the life and character of Abraham Lincoln.

The author takes pleasure in commending these collections to the
American people and acknowledging the valuable services extended by all
who have co-operated in preparing this volume, which we trust may bring
the generations closer to the heart and ideals of the world's greatest apostle
of common manhood — Abraham Lincoln.

FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER

"Buena Vista "
Hartford, Connecticut

Dedicated to the United States of America, the only land

on earth where a man can rise from a cabin to the

palace within the hearts of a Great People

The Portrait Life of Lincoln

PART I

An Epigrammatic Philosophy on Life and

Its Opportunities drawn from

the Early Experiences of

Abraham Lincoln

The Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln

This bronze doth keep the very form and mold

Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he;
That brow all wisdom, all benignity;

That human, humorous mouth ; those cheeks that nold

Like some harsh landscape all the summer's gold;
That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea
For storms to beat on; the lone agony

Those silent, patient lips too well foretold.

Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men

As might some prophet of the elder day —
Brooding above the tempest and the fray

With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken.
A power was his beyond the touch of art
Or armed strength — his pure and mighty heart.

— From poems of Richard Watson Glider.

THE ROAD TO GREATNESS

Philosophy of the Life of Lincoln

^f^f^HE Greatest Man in the World is not the man who accumulates

m the most money or the most power; it is not the man who takes

^^^ J the most out of life; it is the man who gives the most to life.

The world is a great harvest-house of man's bounteous industry.

Death garners the crops which he has sown. His true riches are estimated,

not by that which he leaves to his sons, but by that which he leaves to his

fellow-men as a heritage for the generations to come.

Life is a journey between the starting point of Decision and the far-
away mountain heights of Ambition. The path is long and tortuous. It
leads down through the dark and dismal swamps of Indecision, and over the
rough and stony hills of Disappointment. There loom in the pathway the
jagged cliffs of Discouragement that seem almost impossible to climb.
Below them is the deep abyss of Lost Hope. There are crossroads of
Temptation; and rivers of Sorrow to ford.

It takes a strong man to make the journey; one who knows the forests,
who has been hardened to the storms; who knows Nature because he has
lived close to its heart. It is the rugged country boy, with his face tanned
by the winds, his muscles strengthened by hard labor, and his heart full of
sunshine and cheerfulness as its own beacon light, that makes the most
courageous journeyman. It needs one whose will has been beaten into
steel on the forge of life; one who knows the sweet peace of the rest that
follows fatigue and suffering; one who has no fear because he has many
times met danger face to face — and overcome it. He knows that just
beyond the gloomy clouds the golden light of life still shines; he knows
the truth of the old adage, that it is darkest just before the dawn.

The abyss of Time holds the millions that have been too weak for
the journey; those who wandered in the glamour of luxury and ease — only
to be lost. Far beyond, on the pinnacles that pierce the sky, where the
glorious sun casts a halo about them, are the strong who have gained the
heights and live forever in the sublime light of Immortality. Among them
are many who were without worldly possessions and were counted poor on
earth. Few, indeed, are there who were rich and powerful. Not one is
among them who purchased his way with tributes of gold and silver.

Courage, Fortitude, Sacrifice, Sympathy, Love — these are the price of
Immortal Greatness; they lie in the heart of man.

THE FULLNESS OF LIFE AND OPPORTUNITY— BIRTH

3T is with this measure of a man that we look upon the American
boy who journeyed from the humblest log home, along the road of
life, to an everlasting abiding-place in the heart of humanity; who
overcame the greatest obstacles that can beset man ; who carried on
his shoulders a burden that weighed down the world.

There is not one who reads these lines who was born in humbler
circumstances than Abraham Lincoln; not one whose opportunities in life
are so limited as those which surrounded him; and yet he became one of
the greatest of men. His life proves to all generations the power of an
indomitable will and a resolute purpose; that man, when he conquers him-
self, can conquer the world.

Do you remember that old homestead where you were born ? It was
a mansion compared with that rough log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness
where Abraham Lincoln began life on that cold winter day on the twelfth
of February, in 1809.

Do you remember the dear old village where you spent your child-
hood days; its long country roads, shaded with towering maples and elms,
along which you romped and shouted and played on your way to school—
those good old days in the country ? It was a great world of light and
laughter, of pleasure and friendship, of wonderful opportunities, compared
with that forest home of Abraham Lincoln where only the growl of the
bear echoed along the trail, where the ring of the ax was the only sound
of civilization, and desolation and poverty were his only friends — and they
were staunch friends.

Every American is rich today in comparison with the worldly posses-
sions of Abraham Lincoln during his childhood, his youth, and his early
manhood — rich in surroundings of home; rich in the comforts of life; rich
in the opportunities for learning and education. There is not an American
youth who is not a millionaire in the possibilities of vast success in life,
compared to the possibilities that were within the grasp of Abraham Lincoln
on the day that he left his father's roof to go out into the great world, of
which he knew only the knowledge that comes from the school of the woods
and the motherhood of Nature. There was one thing that he did not know
and never learned — and that was Fear. He learned early that man is his
own master; that with a strong arm, a strong heart, and a strong will, there
is no power on earth that he need fear; that with his conscience clear and his
mind clean the future. will take care of itself and even Death is conquered.

THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF LIVING— CHILDHOOD

^F^^^HE safest capital on which to begin life is good health and

m sound morals. With these, permanent failure is almost impos-

^^^ J sible. There is not money enough in the banks of the world to

buy them. In partnership with Industry and Thrift, they must

succeed. Any man who possesses them has the wealth of the world within

his reach. Education, social position, political power, financial credit — all

these, then, but await your desire.

This is the capital upon which Abraham Lincoln began. His father
was a woodsman who could neither read nor write; his mother was an
orphan girl. His cabin home of rough-hewn logs sheltered but a single
room; but here, on the banks of Nolen Creek, in desolate Hardin County,
he started on life's journey.

Do you remember the first time that you left home ? How you bade
good-by to the old scenes ? How you turned and looked back for one last
lingering glance at the old place that you loved — and then wiped a tear
away ? You know, then, what it meant to the seven-year-old Lincoln when,
with his little sister, he trudged behind his father and mother from the
Kentucky wilds into southern Indiana,, where, with an ax, they cut their
way through the dense forests to start life anew.

« Here, in the savage wilds of Little Pigeon Creek, they felled the trees
for a new cabin. The bare earth, which turned to mud in the winter thaws,
was its floor. There were no windows to let in the sunlight and not
even a skin to hang over the doorway to shut out the sleet and snow. The
little lad fell asleep on the heap of loose leaves — and he called it home.

Do you remember the first great sorrow that came into your life ?
The loved one whose lips you kissed for the last time ? Whose eyes were
never to look again into yours ? Whose hand as you clasped it in your
own was cold and white ? You know, then, the grief that lay in the heart
of this lad as he knelt sobbing beside his dying mother. You can feel,
then, the touch of her hand as she laid it on his young head and whispered
the last message from those loving lips: "Be good to your father and
sister. Be kind to one another — and worship God." Your heart goes
out to him as they lay her away in a rough box, hewn from the pine forest,
and tenderly lower her to the resting place on the knoll where the sunlight
pours its golden wreaths upon her grave. You know what was in his
heart when in after years he bowed his head and called her "My angel
mother."

THE UNFOLDING OF KNOWLEDGE— SCHOOL DAYS

IFE'S lessons are not all learned in a university. Poverty, toil,
suffering — these are the schools of discipline, and the man who
passes through them has an education that all the universities of
the earth could not give. The book of Nature does not teach the
conjugation of verbs; it teaches the conjugation of life. It may not master
the tongues of dead languages, but it does master the tongues of the thou-
sand living languages — the language of the Heart, of the Hand, of
Common Sense. It may not lead to a doctorate in science, but it does
lead to the highest degree within the power of man — the degree of
strong character.

The backwoods is the university that made Lincoln. Here he learned
a lesson that few men ever learn — how to bear the burdens of life without
complaint, and how to overcome them.

At ten years of age, he was walking nine miles a day to and from the
little log schoolhouse in the woods. At night, he lay before the fireplace
ciphering on a wooden shovel and scrawling his name on the logs of the
cabin. A new world had been revealed to him — the world of knowledge.
Within his humble home there had never been a newspaper or a story
book, but now he had made the first great discovery of his life. He. had
found that within the covers of books lay the secrets that unlock the
mysteries of the earth; that through them you can sit in the comradeship
and listen to the wisdom of the wise men of the ages; that with them you
cannot be alone, for the intimate friendship of the world's greatest men
is yours.

This is the education that is within the reach of every man, woman
and child in America today — the university of outdoor life and of books.

Do you remember the first book that you ever read ? Possibly it
was ^Esop's Fables or Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," or "Robinson
Crusoe." These were the books that kindled the flame of desire in
Lincoln's mind, until, at nineteen years of age, although his total school-
ing was less than a year, he had read every book that he could borrow
within fifty miles of his home.

This was Lincoln's education. There he stood, long, lank, swarthy;
six feet four inches tall; strong as a giant, a heart like the oak, and a
head full of Common Sense — ready and eager to fight it out with
Destiny.

THE REVELATION OF LIFE'S SECRETS— BOYHOOD

CHOOSING an occupation is the first great crisis in life. Many
a good farmer is spoiled in the making of a lawyer, and so it is
through all the trades and life professions. There is in each one of
us some natural tendency toward certain lines of work, and success
depends largely upon giving heed to this warning. Whatever line of work
you may choose there is always some opportunity to reach the top.

Abraham Lincoln did not choose his calling; he allowed it to choose
him. He passed the apprenticeship of hard work and answered the call
of duty wherever he found it. He was a wood chopper and a farm hand;
he swung the ax and the scythe, slaughtered hogs and wielded the flail.
A day's work was from sunrise to sunset. The pay, which was a quarter
of a dollar, went to his father, to whom he owed all his time until noon of
his twenty-first birthday. A ferryman offered thirty-seven cents a day for
his services, on the deck as a bow hand, to help pole the craft down
the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. This was his first real revela-
tion of the great channels of trade and commerce. He realized for the
first time that he lived in a great world of throbbing humanity in which
every man is trying to make the most of his short journey through it. He
began to feel the beat of the human heart and the pulse of life itself. The
great ^brotherhood of man, with its laughter and tears, gripped at his heart;
and he found himself a man among men.

Do you remember the thrill that you felt when you earned the first
dollar that was to be your very own ? No matter what success may come
to you, or whatever fortune you may accumulate, you will never be as rich
as that again. It was this same feeling that Lincoln felt when in after
life he told the story.

"I was about eighteen years of age," he said. "Two men hailed me
and asked me to take their trunks to a steamer which waited for them
in midstream. I sculled them out to the steamer. They got on board,
and I lifted the trunks and put them on the deck. The steamer was about
to put on steam again, when I called out, 'You have forgotten to pay me/
Each of them took from his pocket a silver half dollar and threw it on the
bottom of my boat. You may think it was a very little thing, and in these
times it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in
my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar
in less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a
more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time."

THE THRILL OF AMBITION- YOUTH

€VERY man must make his own place in the world. There is no
one who will do it for him. It takes good grit to hew your way
to the front. Abraham Lincoln started out into the world with
an ax over his shoulder. An ox team had drawn the family and
its scanty possessions from Indiana to Illinois. The wagon wheels were
but round blocks of wood cut from the trunk of an oak tree, with a hole
in the center for the axle. He was now twenty-two years of age, and,
having helped build the new home in the wilderness, he bid good-by to
his father and stood alone in the world — his own master and his own
servant.

Look — far down the road you can see that tall, gaunt, sad-faced youth;
his coat ragged; his hat battered; his trousers of torn and patched home-
spun — and, as he passes from view, you feel that one not wholly unlike
yourself has passed by; that if he, with only struggle behind him and strug-
gle ahead of him, has the courage to fight it out with the might of man-
hood, then you cannot stand by as an idler and a coward.

The experiences that Lincoln met were those that we all meet in the
necessity of earning a livelihood. He took whatever honest occupation
came to him; he split rails; he became a flatboatman; he worked in the
country store at New Salem, a village of twenty log houses, — and -more
than all, he left kindness wherever he went. He watched with the sick;
if a widow were in need of firewood he would cut it for her; if he made a
mistake in weight or change, he did not sleep until he had corrected the
error — and through this he received the first and highest honor of his life,
the title of "Honest Abe."

There comes a day to each of us when we decide whether we are to
be the leader or the follower of men. With Lincoln, as with many youths
today, it was his physical prowess. Remarkable stories were told of his
giant strength, of his picking up and moving a chicken house weighing
600 pounds, and how he could raise a barrel from the ground and lift it
until, standing erect, he could drink from the bunghole, and by means
of ropes and straps fastened about his hips he could lift a box of stones
weighing nearly 1000 pounds; but his first real victory came when he
thrashed the chief bully of the village and won the admiration and respect
of the community. It was this that resulted in his being chosen captain
in the Black Hawk War, and sent his fame broadcast through the frontier
settlements. It is as true today as it was then, that, whether it be in brawn
or brain, it is the survival of the fittest.

THE DISCOVERY OF POWER— CITIZENSHIP

man who is not interested in public affairs cannot hope to
succeed. He has no right to either complain or ask help, for he
^as deliberately shut himself off from the world. In this great
brotherhood of men, which we call a democracy, every man is
pledged upon his honor to do his part for the community in which he lives.
Lincoln laid the foundation for his own success when he discovered the
power and opportunity of American citizenship.

Lincoln was twenty-three years of age when he found his birthright
and entered into the full privileges of citizenship by attending the public
meetings in the little town of New Salem, and expressing his opinion and
power by voice and ballot.

"I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them," he said, "but, hold-
ing it a sound maxim that it is better only some time to be right than at
all times to be wrong, so as soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous
I shall be ready to renounce them." His townspeople made him their
candidate for the state legislature, and, in accepting their leadership, he
declared: "My greatest ambition is to be truly esteemed of my fellow-
men by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. I was born and have
ever remained in the most humble walks of life. If the good people in their
wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar
with disappointments to be very much chagrined."

This was the beginning of his political career — and it began with
defeat, for, having no acquaintance outside of the village, the residents
from the other towns in the county jeered and asked: "Who is this Abra-
ham Lincoln?" and the only response was ridicule and laughter at the
sight of the gawky youth with his tan brogans and blue yarn socks.

As a country merchant, he failed and was left $1,100 in debt, and for
years afterwards gave his creditors every dollar that he could earn above the
cost of living. "That debt," he said in later years, "was the greatest
obstacle I have ever met in life. It was my national debt!"

"I will succeed now, anyway," he declared. During the hours after
the hard labor of the day, he pored over the law books which he borrowed
by walking twenty miles to Springfield and back. At night he would go
to the cooper's shop and build a fire of shavings and read by its light.
Whenever he gained a new point in law he would put it into practice by
drawing up the legal papers for the neighbors. It is such a man as this,
with courage to start life again with the future mortgaged, who wins !

THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION— MANHOOD

A IL URE is but the closed door to success — try again and you
may open it. There is not one man in a thousand who
succeeds the first time. We learn only by experience. No
matter how many times you have failed, the possibility for
success is only greater the next time. It is not defeat that is dishonorable;
it is giving up. Struggling to regain his lost foothold, Lincoln, at twenty-
four years of age, earned by his honesty the postmastership at New
Salem. The mails came but once or twice a week, and in the winter only
once a month; the cheapest postage was six cents for thirty miles, and rose
as high as twenty-five cents on a letter, according to the distance. The
frontiersmen lived largely on credit and did not pay cash even for their
letters, so that the postmaster had to carry the accounts. So humble was
this political office that Lincoln found it necessary to continue as a day
laborer, and he took up surveying to add to his income, so that he might
pay off the indebtedness of his failure in business. The foreclosure of a
note given by him during his financial reverses resulted in the seizure of
his horse, saddle and bridle, including his surveying instruments, leaving
him again stripped of all the belongings he had in the world. The keenness
of this humiliation wrote itself deep into his character. But his faith in
man and in himself never wavered, and during the next election he again
accepted the nomination for the legislature — and won.

Lincoln was now twenty-five years of age, and so poor that he had to
borrow the money with which to buy suitable clothes to take his seat in the
State Capitol at Springfield. No man has ever come into American politics
under more adverse conditions. Here was a young legislator who had never
lived in a town, who had never lived where there was a church, who had
attended school hardly more than six months of his life, and whose entire
income was not averaging $4.00 a week. It is this first impulse of political
power that tests the character of a man. The temptation of joining the
majority and stepping into immediate influence beset Lincoln in the same
way that it lures the man of today. True to himself, and to those whom
he loved, he took up the cause of the common people, creating a furor by
agitating the emancipation of women from political thraldom, raising his
his voice for freedom in a moral protest against slavery, and denouncing
the citizenship that orders its politics according to personal rewards. He
had reached the position in life where he had the courage of his convictions
— and that is Manhood.

10

The Portrait Life of Lincoln

PART II

A Photographic Narrative Which Interprets

the Character and Life of
Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American

THE FOUNDATION OF LINCOLN'S CHARACTER

comes a moment in every man's life when he discovers
himself; when he finds that the years of labor and experience have
laid a foundation upon which he must stand, and that foundation
is either strong or weak according to the manner in which he has
built it. We are today only what we made ourselves yesterday.

Lincoln was thirty-three years of age when he discovered his fixed
position in life. And what a foundation he had laid! Built without tools
or material, crude blocks of opportunity, — he found himself standing be-
fore the burning heart of humanity, from which there is no turning back.
Behind him were those long years of poverty and struggle, the Kentucky
cabin, the savage wilds of Indiana, the prairies of Illinois; childhood of
poverty, boyhood of toil, the wrestle with destiny. The people had claimed
him as their own, and for the first time in his life he could now look straight
ahead into the future. A youth of twenty-five years, he had been sent by
his townspeople to represent them in the legislature of Illinois, and had allied
himself with the cause of the downtrodden. The call of the larger town
appealed to him. In his twenty-ninth year, he mounted a borrowed horse,
and with all his worldly possessions in the saddlebags, rode away to Spring-
field to become a lawyer. Here he was again forced to fight his way through
many misfortunes, but during his years in the halls of legislation he had
made the acquaintance of men who were to become the nation's leaders.

It was here that Lincoln took his first stand against slavery, with but
one member of the legislature in sympathy with him. His honesty and integ-
rity at the bar brought him a law practice that allowed him to remove the
indebtedness of his earlier life, and at thirty-three years of age he was main-
taining himself through his own abilities. He had been eight years a
legislator and had risen to the leadership of the Whig party, rejecting the
nomination for the governorship. The fortunes of politics are as varied as
those of war; when Lincoln first announced his ambition to be sent to
Washington as a congressman, the honor was refused him by his party.

Struggle chisels its lines on the countenance of a man. Upon Lin-
coln's face there was now being written the story that was to become a
nation's history. And as he sat for his first photograph, when the call
of the people demanded the privilege of looking upon the features of the
young lawyer who desired to carry their interests into the halls of congress,
he realized that he no longer belonged to himself, hut was now a servant
of the great democracy. It was the face of prophecy.

12

FIRST PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN TAKEN WHEN HE ENTERED
NATIONAL POLITICS — AGE 37

This daguerreotype is undoubtedly the first time that Lincoln sat for

his portrait. It was taken during his campaign for Congress

or shortly after his election, when he delivered his first

speeches — from 1846 to 1848. Photograph from

• original daguerreotype in possession of

Honorable Robert T. Lincoln

of Chicago, Illinois

THE INFLUENCE OF LOVE ON LINCOLN'S LIFE

is no man so strong that he cannot be won by gentleness.
The power of affection is the most subtle force in the world, and
interwoven in the lives of all men, whether they be among the
greatest or the most humble runs the silken thread of a woman's
heart. It was this new world of tenderness that flooded its golden light on
Lincoln and ignited new fires of ambition within him. It was when he first
entered politics that he first felt the power of a woman's influence. The
beauty and the character of little Anne Rutledge, daughter of the village
tavernkeeper at New Salem, appealed to Lincoln, but while she admired
his manliness and ambition she was betrothed to another. Her compan-
ionship with Lincoln is one of the love idylls in American history. The
impress which it made upon his character lived with him throughout his
life, for in it was written a tragedy. Lincoln's strong friendship for the
girl finally won her heart, but in the midst of almost the first happiness
which he had ever known his sweetheart fell sick and died. Lincoln was
constantly with her during her last hours, and the last song that she sang
was for him. The veil of darkness fell upon him, and in all the stirring
events that beset his after life he never fully emerged from the melancholy,
although her memory was one of his richest possessions. His grief for the
dead girl was such that his friends feared that he was losing his mind.

The experience of Lincoln was not unlike that of many others who have
saved themselves at such critical moments by summoning their will power
to lift them from despair. Work is man's greatest friend. It has been
the salvation of man since the world began. Lincoln turned to it in his
time of need and entered earnestly into the political problems that were
gathering like foreboding clouds over the nation, ardently supporting the
moral principles that underly every public question of moment.

It was during these days in his yearning for companionship that he
met and married Mary Todd, a Kentucky society girl, whose keen intuition
saw in the poor and awkward young legislator a great political destiny.
It was a turning point in his career, that fourth day in November in 1842,
when this son of the woods, now thirty-three years of age, brought into
his life this daughter of pride and social ambition, descended from governors
and generals, who, then twenty-one years of age, exclaimed: "I mean to
to make him President of the United States. You will see that, as I always
told you, I will be the President's wife." Woman became in the life of Lin-
coln, as she is in the homes of the nation today, the power behind the throne.

14

PHOTOGRAPH OF MARY TODD, WHO MARRIED ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1842

Lincoln was now 33 years of age. This negative was taken some years later at the time

of Lincoln's inauguration for the Presidency, and presents her

in the gown worn at the Inaugural Ball

Original Life Negative in Collection of Americana — Owned
by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

THE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF LINCOLN

'MBITION is a noble comrade, but a dangerous master. It
walks beside a man as a faithful friend, but when once given the
reins of control it becomes a despot.

Lincoln's mastery of himself was his greatest safeguard in
life. He never allowed his political aspirations to overcome his principles,
and, while this for a time retarded his progress, it ultimately proved to
be the stepping stone upon which he rose to the fullest heights of ambition.
He was forced to overcome the same difficulties that beset every man who
enters politics. The party leaders, who were unable to mold him accord-
ing to their desires, gave him but little consideration. This reason which
keeps so many men out of politics is in reality the very reason why they
should enter them. Strong men of honest purpose need never fear the
ultimate outcome of their contest with corruption.

Lincoln's failure to secure the nomination for congress only strength-
ened his resolution, and on the following election he swept his district by
the largest majority that ever had been given to a Whig candidate. The
tall, gaunt figure of the young congressman of Illinois, on the streets of
Washington, amused the passers-by as he walked to and from the National
Capitol ; his books tied in a bandana handkerchief, hanging on the end
of a cane over his shoulder. While he was considered droll, he did not
make a very deep impress on the statesmen of the times, owing largely to
the fact that his viewpoint was seldom political or economic, but almost
wholly moral. The war with Mexico, and the victory of the American
arms, inspired the American spirit of progress, but Lincoln weighed its
issue wholly in the scales of the old precept, "Whatever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them." His speeches, coming when
the country was elated with military glory, brought denunciation upon him
and cost him his political popularity. Political agreements, similar to those
which are still practiced today, deprived him of re-election and he returned
to the dingy law office in the back room of a two-story building on the
square at Springfield. Upon his retirement to private life it was believed
that the untactful country lawyer had passed forever from political memory.

The politicians administered "a decisive blow" to the slavery agitation
with the Missouri Compromise, only to learn that the heart of humanity
cannot be suppressed, and to witness that unforeseen force, Lincoln, being
carried to the leadership of the tremendous economic problem that was
soon to make him the supreme figure in American politics.

Photograph taken while Lincoln, age 45, was engaged in the Missouri Com-
promise in 1854 — Original taken in an itinerant gallery in Chi-
cago, for George Schneider, editor of "Staats Zeitung"

Photograph taken in 1856, when Lincoln, age 47, was mentioned for
Vice-President in the First Republican National Convention

Print in Collection of Mr. Osborn H . Oldroyd of Washington, D. C.

THE IMPULSE THAT HELD LINCOLN STEADFAST

^••^^HE man who takes the world philosophically can never be per-

m manently beaten. Lincoln was greatly disappointed when his

^^^ J political party set him aside, but in referring to it, in his life as

a country lawyer, he said: "I have always been a fatalist and

what is to be, will be, or rather, as Hamlet says, 'There is a divinity that

shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will.' ;

Lincoln admitted that he was losing interest in politics when the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise, "stirred him as he never had been stirred
before." It aroused him to such an extent that he again entered the arena
and became the candidate for the United States Senate. The abolition
movement was beginning to sweep New England. The people began to
rally to the new standard by the tens of thousands. A great political party,
for the altruistic purpose of equality to all men, was being organized.

Lincoln became one of the first Republicans. The oratory of this
strange, serious man seemed to inspire the hopes of the people. They looked
upon him in bewilderment as they saw this giant of the woods, in a black
alpaca coat, with his sleeves rolled up, hammering away at the institution
which he believed to be unjust. His appeal was always one of peace, for
in his heart or mind there had not yet been a suggestion of the clash of
arms that was to come through his leadership. He recognized that slavery
was an established institution and that its property rights were legal and
just according to the economic system of the times, but he believed that it
was unworthy of the high principles of American self-government and that
in the interest of civilization we should dissolve the institution by pur-
chasing the chattels from their owners and extending liberty and freedom
to all men, regardless of color or race.

"Our political problem now is, 'can we as a nation continue together
permanently — forever— half slave and half free/ the problem is too mighty
for me. May God superintend the solution," he remarked prophetically.

The one dominant note in Lincoln's character was hope. He believed
that hope was the saving grace in humanity. "Free labor has the inspira-
tion of hope, pure slavery has no hope," he said. "The power of hope
upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful." When the Republican
party came into existence, Lincoln, now forty-seven years of age, stood
on the convention floor and held his hearers spellbound; men cheered and
women wept; the audience rose to its feet enmasse. The great popu-
lace had found their champion at last in this frontier lawyer.

18

First photograph of Lincoln circulated throughout the country for campaign

purposes — Taken in Chicago in 1857 — Lincoln was now 48 years of age.

Original negative by Alexander Hesler burned in Chicago fire.

Print in Collection of Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois

Ambrotype taken in 1858, shortly after Lincoln's speech at Galesburg,
Illinois — Print owned by Mr. O. H. Oldroyd of Washington

THE RUGGED HONESTY OF LINCOLN'S HEART

^y^fj^HTL heart of every man is a furnace of smoldering fires, which,

m when fanned by inspiration, bursts into flame. It is the man

^^^ V who can rekindle the dormant fire of humanity, and cause it to

rise from its own ashes, who becomes the leader of his people.

There were hundreds of men in Lincoln's time who were more learned

in the law than he; there are thousands today. It is not how much you

know, but rather how much you know how to use it.

Lincoln knew more about the heart of man than he did the head.
The secret of his success and his greatness was his simple humanity.
All the political wisdom and legal knowledge of the great men of the times
could not overcome the simple, direct words of his homely philosophy
that sank deep into the understanding of every hearer.

Listen — you can hear the resonant tones echoing down through the
years from the lips of the tall, gaunt orator: "When the white man governs
himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also
governs another man, that is more than self-government — that is despotism."
"No man is good enough to govern another without that other's consent."
"Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromise, repeal the
Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, still you cannot repeal
human nature."

You can see him as he stands in the halls of the Republican Conven-
tion in Illinois. He raises his arms and shouts: "We must make this a
land of liberty, in fact as it is in name." "We will say to the Southern
disunionists, we won't go out of the Union, and you shan't!" You can
see that great audience rise to its feet, and as the crowd takes up the slogan,
the hall rings with the words that have ignited the hearts of his hearers
and set them aflame. Twenty days later, the delegates met in the first
National Republican Convention in the city of Philadelphia. Abraham
Lincoln received one hundred and ten votes for the Vice-Presidency. It
was the following noon that he walked into the tavern in the village
where he was trying a law case on the Illinois circuit. He found an excited
group discussing the news which had just arrived. The country lawyer
carelessly replied that there was another Lincoln up in Massachusetts
and it probably meant him. The vote for Lincoln was not sufficient to
place his name on the first Republican ticket, but it saved him from the
necessity of going down to political oblivion in the election that followed.
This is another instance in a man's life where defeat is good fortune.

Lincoln sat for this photograph in Springfield, Illinois, during the

memorable campaign of 1858 — age 49 years — Print owned

by Mrs. Harriet Chapman of Charleston, Illinois

iiinbrotype taken at Pittsfield, Illinois, October 1, 1858, immediately after

Lincoln had made his speech on the public square — age 49 — Original

Dy C. Jackson, owned by Miss Hattie Gilmer of Pittsfield, Illinois.

Print in collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York

THE MAN WHO FIRST MADE LINCOLN KNOWN

a strong man opposition is a challenge that goaas him on to
victory. It requires some crucial effort in a man's life to bring
out his full strength. We all have what we consider our obstacles
in the way of success. The strong man does not attempt to go
around them, he cuts straight through them.

Lincoln's life was rilled with obstacles, but the last and greatest of them
was a man of political strength even greater than his own; a man, who,
like himself, had come to the wilderness to fight his way to success — the
"Little Giant," Stephen A. Douglas.

You possibly can remember in your own experience some one indi-
vidual who has had more effect upon your life than all the others that you
have ever known. Friends are frequently milestones and occasionally
one of them is a turning point.

Douglas was this and more to Lincoln. The roads of the two men
had been similar in early life. Douglas knew the school of hard work and
poverty, for he had come from the hills of Vermont to the Western plains
with but thirty-seven cents in his pocket. He had worked on a farm and
taught school. He first appeared in Lincoln's life as a suitor for the hand
of the same woman. In this first conflict Lincoln won. They both studied
law; they both entered politics; they both entered the legislative halls.

Here their roads seemed to part. Douglas, allying himself with Demo-
cratic powers, plunged ahead toward the goal of his ambition. He became
Secretary of State in Illinois, and Judge of the Supreme Court; he was
sent to Washington as a Congressman; he was elected to the United States
Senate. The name of Douglas stood for statesmanship; his strong hand
could be seen in all the great political movements; he favored the acqui-
sition of new territory to extend the principles of American self-government;
he advocated the compromise of 1850; he formulated the doctrine of Popular
Sovereignty, and the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill.

In this heyday of fame he had almost forgotten the country lawyer
back on the Illinois circuit, who had been left so far behind. It did not
occur to him that this gaunt youth was now literally walking on his
shadow, until suddenly he turned about and found himself once more look-
ing into the strong, homely face of his first opponent — Abraham Lincoln.

The "Little Giant's" career was now brought to a halt for the first
time; not by a man who wished to obstruct him, but by one who heard the
cry of humanity ahead, and challenged him for the right of way.

PHOTOGRAPH OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS TAKEN DURING His DEBATES WITH LINCOLN IN 1858

Lincoln was now 49 years of age; Douglas was 45 years — This negative was taken after Douglas

defeated Lincoln for the United States Senate, which was followed two years later

by Lincoln's defeat of Douglas for President of United States

Original in the Collection of American Celebrities — Owned
by Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C.

THE CHALLENGE THAT TESTED LINCOLN'S STRENGTH

every man must be weighed in the balance sooner or
later, but it is not often that the scales of justice are to be the
crucial test. Lincoln knew when he challenged Douglas for
his seat in the United States Senate that he was challenging
destiny, that he was inviting an irrepressible conflict in which both his
life and his nation were at stake.

The problem of Slavery, which had been suppressed by politicians for
a generation, now demanded the judgment of the American people. Lin-
coln, now forty-nine years of age, brought it to its first crisis.

"I know there is a God, and He hates injustice and slavery. I see
the storm coming. I know His hand is in it. If He has a place and work
for me — and I think He has — I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but
truth is everything."

Like every man who undertakes to follow his conscience at the risk
of his material gain, Lincoln was advised by his friends that he was ruining
himself and his party; that he was not only unwise, but a fool; that while
he was only a country lawyer, without money, and struggling to make a
living, he was courting destruction at the hands of the strongest political
leader of the day; a man who was now of independent fortune, whose home
in Washington was the .gathering place of the distinguished men of the
world, and who had been honored in the capitals of Europe.

Lincoln fully realized the difference between himself and his opponent.
"With me," he said sadly, "the race of ambition has been a failure — a
flat failure; with him it has been one of splendid success." "I affect no
contempt for the high eminence he has reached. So reached that the
oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation, I would
rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed
a monarch's brow." "I shall try to conduct myself as a gentleman in
substance at least, if not in outward polish. The latter I shall never be,
but that which constitutes the inside of a gentleman, I hope I understand."

With full conviction of this inequality, Lincoln declared: "We have
to fight this battle upon principle, and principle alone." It was now that
he sounded the trumpet call to patriotism: "A house divided against
itself cannot stand." "I believe this government cannot endure perma-
nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved—
I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect that it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

24

Ambrotype taken August 25, 1858, at Macomb, Illinois, when Lincoln

was campaigning against Douglas for the United States Senate.

Owned by Mr. W. J. Franklin of Macomb, Illinois

Lincoln as he appeared in the political campaign in 1858 — age 49 —

Original negative owned by Dr. McWilliams of Dwight, Illinois.

Print in possession of Mr. Stuart Brown of Springfield

THE DEFEAT THAT MADE LINCOLN FAMOUS

^9fU0Hti man who dares to fight a superior foe bas already won half

£ the battle. When Lincoln stepped to the platform to stand beside

^^F J Douglas, in his first great combat against brilliancy and wit, on

that twenty-first day of August, in 1858, he stepped into great-

ness. Carloads of people from Chicago poured into the little villages of

Illinois; the roads were filled with country folk, camping on the prairie,

like an army in bivouac.

Douglas journeyed in state in a private car, from which floated the
militant strains of a band playing the national airs; a cannon mounted on
a flat car proclaimed his coming. Lincoln made his way from town to
town by horse or foot, by slow trains or in the caboose of a freight.

Look at the two men as they stand before the cheering multitudes, the
champions of the two greatest causes that have ever met in conflict in the
annals of mankind — freedom and slavery. There stands Douglas, the
"Little Giant," five feet four inches tall; his shoulders broad, his head
massive and majestic. There stands Lincoln, his awkward figure, of six
feet four inches, slightly stooped; his hair disheveled; his clothes uncouth;
his sunken face furrowed by struggle. The throng is cheering and jeering.
The strains of "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," swell from ten thou-
sand throats. The flags of the Republic flutter in the breeze.

The multitude becomes quiet. A deep, manly voice hushes them to
silence: "I don't care whether slavery be voted up or voted down. I don't
believe the negro is any kin of mine at all. Who among you expects to
live, or have his children live, until slavery be established in Illinois or
abolished in South Carolina?" It is the voice of Douglas, combative,
forceful, decisive.

The tall, gaunt figure now rises before the multitude. His lips
part. "Is slavery wrong? It is the eternal struggle between these two
principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are two prin-
ciples that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will
ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity,
and the other the divine right of kings." It is the voice of Lincoln,
resonant, gentle, appealing.

The battle of human emotions rose and fell before seven vast audiences
on the circuit of Illinois, with intense heat and fury. Then came the voice
of the people — the ballot — the highest law in the land, in whose judgment
there speaks an authority which no monarch in the world can overrule—
and Lincoln lost.

Faded ambrotype of Lincoln in linen coat, during Douglas debates
at Beardstown, Illinois, in 1858 — -Original now in Lincoln Mon-
ument Collection at Springfield, Illinois — Print in possession
of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington, D. C.

Photograph taken during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in
18S8— age 49— Collection of Mr. J. C. Browne of Philadelphia

THE APPEAL OF HUMANITY THAT LINCOLN HEARD

^f^f^HE world loves a man who knows how to lose. No man has ever

m yet gone through life without having to take his losses. That is

^^^ J one of the first lessons that we have to learn — and one of the

severest. Abraham Lincoln .probably had more setbacks than

any man who reads these lines.

While Lincoln was walking home in the rain after his defeat for tne
United States Senate, he stumbled in the muddy street, but quickly regain-
ing his balance, he naively muttered, "It is a slip and not a fall." The
defeat had cost Lincoln nearly a thousand dollars — all the money that he
possessed, and the loss of over six months from his law practice. He was
left without money for even household expenses. It had cost Douglas
eighty thousand dollars of his private fortune to save his seat in the United
States Senate and to discover a new political power that was to rival him
for the leadership of the American people.

''Though I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten," .remarked
Lincoln, "I believe I have made some marks which will tell for civil liberty
long after I am gone." "Let the past as nothing be. The fight must go
on, and I shall fight in the ranks'."

Lincoln returned to his work on the circuit to get a living. He carried
his love for humanity into the court room and in defense of the fallen
appealed to the forgiving spirit of brotherly love. His practice of law
was almost wholly based on these principles.

There is an old saying that the truth never dies, and so it was with
Lincoln's words. The fires that he had kindled in his campaign were
spreading throughout the country. There came loud calls for him from
distant cities. He found that his defeat was once again a victory, the step-
ping stone upon which he was to rise to greater heights.

"This is a world of compensation," was the message that he sent to
New England, "He who would be no slave must be content to have no
slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves,
and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."

These messages stirred the populace as had nothing else since the
Declaration of Independence. His speeches were printed and given
wide circulation. His neighbors gazed wonderingly on the growing fame
of their townsman, who, to them, was but a simple, uncouth man who
had no special position among them. It is the old story of the prophet
being without honor in his own home.

LINCOLN AT THE TIME OF JOHN BROWN'S RAID AT HARPER'S FERRY — AGE 50

This negative, taken in 1859, was destroyed in the Chicago Fire — Mrs. Lincoln

considered it the best likeness of her husband that she had ever

seen — It presents Lincoln as he appeared just before

his nomination for the Presidency

Original negative by S. M. Fassett of Chicago, Illinois

Photograph owned by Mr. William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, Massachusetts
Print in collection of Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois

THE FIRST TEST OF LINCOLN'S NATIONAL GREATNESS

€VERY day that a man lives he is building a reputation — good
or bad. There is sure to come a time when this reputation must
be weighed in the balance of public opinion. In such an hour
as this money may be the most worthless thing in the world.
Lincoln, at fifty-one years of age, was still poor in money, but becoming
very rich in reputation.

When the call came for him to speak in the metropolis of New York,
he knew that the greatest test of his life had now come; that he was now
to be measured by the standards of the cosmopolitan world.

A great crowd gathered at Cooper Institute, on that memorable night,
the twenty-seventh of February, in 1860. No man since the days of
Clay and Webster had spoken to a larger assemblage of intellect. On
the platform were the dignitaries of the day. There was William Cullen
Bryant, Horace Greeley, and David Dudley Field.

The tall, awkward figure of Lincoln rose from his chair. His hair
was disheveled; his coat was too large; his arms hung ungainly at his sides,
much longer than his sleeves; and one of the legs of his trousers was two
inches above his shoes: The vast audience smiled.

Lincoln, for the first time in his life, seemed to be embarrassed. His
hands were trembling. His words were first low and stammering. He had
read but three pages and was passing to the fourth when he lost his place.
For a moment he hesitated. Then turning the manuscript over two or
three times, he threw it upon the table. His shoulders straightened. His
whole being seemed to be marshalling power. As he advanced toward the
audience, he seemed to grow in stature and might. His face flashed with
a glow of inspiration. The words rang through the great amphitheatre as
he quoted from Frederick Douglass: "It is written in the sky of America
that the slaves shall some day be free/'

The audience listened spellbound to his wisdom as he laid before
them the entire constitutional and legislative history of the institution of
slavery since the nation was founded.

"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against
us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government
nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might,
and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
No man had ever made such an impression in his first appeal to a New
York audience. Lincoln loomed before the nation as the master of men.

Photograph of Lincoln taken in 1860 at the time of his "Cooper Institute

Speech " in New York during his campaign for the Presidency — age 51.

Original negative by Mathew Brady of New York —

Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C.

THE INSPIRATION OF LINCOLN'S PATRIOTISM

^F^fgfHERE is nothing in this world that merely happens as a matter

m of chance. Life is filled with surprises as well as disappoint-

m^ V ments, but back of each one of them is a well-defined cause. The

conditions that were now gathering about Lincoln, at fifty-one

years of age, were the cumulative results of a long life of work and faith.

The distant rumbles of the greatest political campaign the American
people have ever waged, could now be heard. Public opinion was now
hopelessly divided over slavery. In the great "Wigwam" at Chicago,
the Republicans gathered to nominate the standard bearer. Trains
from the East brought the great political organizers of the day, and
poured their martial bands and drilled clubs into the dusty streets,
only to be met by the tremendous onslaught of enthusiasm that inspired
the West.

It was now the day for nominations. The great "Wigwam" was
a surging sea of men.

"I nominate William H. Seward, of New York, for President,"
shouted the clear, penetrating voice of the campaign leader from the East.
The name of the great statesman was greeted by a storm of applauses

"I nominate Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President of the United
States." The words came from the deep, powerful voice of a Westerner.
A tremendous cheer broke from ten thousand throats. The balloting
began. Nine states of the South did not respond and the silence was
greeted with hisses and jeers. The delegates from the East rose en masse
from their seats. Seward had received 173! votes against 102 for Lincoln—
but he was short more than a score necessary for a majority. The bal-
loting proceeded again. Once more the East broke into applause, but
from the throats of the West there came a challenging ovation. Seward
still led with 184! votes, but Lincoln had received 181 — and still no
majority. The third ballot proceeded. A deep suspense fell upon the
multitude. Lincoln had received 23 1| votes; Seward 180 — still i| votes
short of a majority. The "Wigwam" was in deathlike silence. Suddenly
the figure of a man sprang to a chair. "Ohio changes its four votes to
Abraham Lincoln!" he shouted. The tumult that rose in that auditorium
had never before been witnessed in American politics. A deafening roar
echoed across the "Wigwam." The multitude was thrown into pande-
monium. Men embraced each other and wept. The crowds at the doors
took up the chorus, which echoed through the streets until it was heard a
mile away. Abraham Lincoln, the quaint, ungainly prophet of the New
West, had been nominated for President of the United States.

32

Photograph taken before the Republican National Conven-
tion at Chicago in 1860 — Found in Collection of the
late Mr. J. Henry Brown of Philadelphia

Photograph taken at his home in Springfield, Illinois, immediately

after his nomination for Presidency in 1860 — age 51 — Original by

Alexander Hesler of Chicago, destroyed during the fire — Print

in collection of Mr. Herbert W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois

THE GATHERING OF HUMANITY UNDER LINCOLN

you want to discover just what there is in a man — give him
power. It will either make him or wreck him. Prosperity has
ruined more men than poverty. Watch a man when he catches
his first glow of success and you will discover just how big or how
little he really is.

Lincoln was standing in the door of a shop in Springfield, talking,
when a shout went up from a group in front of the telegraph office. An
excited boy ran across the square shouting, "Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln,
you are nominated!" His townspeople flocked about him, half laughing,
half crying. He stood for a moment looking at them curiously. Then
he quietly remarked: "My friends, I am glad to receive your congratu-
lations, and as there is a little woman down on Eighth Street who will be
glad to hear the news, you must excuse me until I inform her/

When the delegation from the national convention arrived at the
Lincoln home to officially notify him of his nomination, they found a
plain two-storied house, with not more than a dozen citizens gathered in
front and one of Lincoln's sons perched on the gatepost. Mr. Lincoln
was standing in front of the fireplace, his eyes downcast.

The campaign opened with the true Western spirit. Orators stumped
the country from one end to the other. Torchlight processions marched
through the streets. Campaign songs both ridiculed and eulogized
"Honest Abe of the West" —the plain man of the people. The opposing
journals jeered at him as a "third rate country lawyer," coarse and clumsy,
who could not even speak good grammar. The patriotic press held him
before the people as "a man who, by his own genius and force of character,
has raised himself from being a penniless, uneducated flatboatman."

The West was exuberant. Seventy thousand excursionists poured
into Springfield on a single day to shake the hand of "Our Lincoln."
Every road leading to the prairie city was crowded for twenty miles — men,
women and children. They brought their tents, camp kettles, and coffee
pots. It was a pageant, such as no other American had ever known.
The strains of the campaign songs passed along the country roads like
trumpet notes. "Our Lincoln is the man! Our Lincoln is the man!"

"Who is this huckster in politics?" demanded a New Englander.
"Who is this country court advocate?" Lincoln, without resentment
and without humility, calmly replied that his life presented nothing but
"the short and simple annals of the poor."

Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in June, 1860 — Print
owned by Mr. George B. Ayres — Copyrighted 1894

Ambrotype taken at Springfield. Illinois, May 20, 1860—Origmal

presented to Governor Marcus L. Ward of New Jersey — Now in

possession of the Ward family of Newark, New Jersey

THE BURDEN OF A NATION ON LINCOLN'S HEART

MAN'S life is much like a pendulum. It swings back and
forth over the sweep of events between his birth and death. There
is seldom a moment that becomes forever lost. His deeds are
ever recurrent. The beat of time in Lincoln's life always brought
him before the strong, manly presence of one man. It was this man
who now challenged him for the Presidency of the United States — Douglas.

The two were now arrayed against each other in their last great
conflict. Douglas, as the candidate of the Northern Democracy, stood
for state rights; a principle by which each commonwealth or territory
could accept or reject slavery according to its own dictates without inter-
ference of Congress or the neighboring states. Lincoln, the candidate of
the new Republicanism, placed the responsibility of the problem on Con-
gress as the final authority, declaring that there was no power that legalized
slavery anywhere, but that it was within the privilege of Congress to pro-
hibit it in any and every Federal territory. Breckenridge, the candidate
of the Southern Democracy, upheld the principle that the citizen of any
state has a right to migrate to any territory, taking with him his property
by the law of his own state, and that Congress is bound to protect him.

Election day fell on the 6th of November, in 1860. Lincoln came
down to his room at the State House, at eight o'clock in the morning. He
went to the polls in the late afternoon, and cutting his own name from
the head of the Republican ticket, cast the ballot.

The election returns began to arrive in the evening. Lincoln and
his friends withdrew to the little telegraph office on the village square.
Late in the night the announcement came that his own townspeople had
given him a majority. It was then that he showed his first emotion.
Cannon boomed from the village green. The villagers remained up
until daylight shouting and singing.

It was shortly after midnight that Lincoln was informed of his election.
"Boys," he said, "I think I will go home now, for there is a little woman
there who would like to hear the news." Three rousing cheers followed
him as he passed out into the night. As he entered his bedroom he found
his wife had fallen asleep. He touched her gently on the shoulder. "Mary!"
She made no answer. He spoke again, a little louder: "Mary, Mary!
We are elected!"

The cheers of his townspeople rang through the night, but on his heart
there now rested the burden of the nation.

Lincoln as he entered campaign for Presidency at 51 years of age.
Original negative taken in June, 1860, at Springfield, Illinois, b
Print owned by Mr. George B. Ayres— Copyright 1881

Ambrotype taken August, 1860, when seventy thousand Westerners
visited Lincoln at his home in Springfield, Illinois — Age 51 years

Original in collection of Mr. William H. Lambert of Philadelphia

THE AFFECTION OF LINCOLN FOR HIS HOME

^Ff^jHERE is no pinnacle of greatness so high that you cannot reach
m down and touch hands with those at the bottom. When Lincoln

^^f J realized that he had been lifted to the highest honor within the
gift of the American people, he found that humanity was strug-
gling at his feet. He found that while he had secured the required
majority in the electoral college, ten states of the South had not cast a bal-
lot for him; that while he had received the votes of 1,866,452 Americans
who were opposed to slavery, an army nearly a million greater had cast
their ballots against him, for the combined votes of the other candidates
reached 2,814,741.

The fearful import of it all cast its shadow upon his face. The cotton
states of the South refused to abide by the election. Trade was paralyzed,
banks suspended, and the national treasury was nearly bankrupt. The
states in the South bega-n to secede. The North became bewildered at
the grim forebodings of the end of the republic. Mobs in Boston rose
against the abolition agitators, charging them with bringing on the disaster.

The gentle, peace-loving man, about whom the storms were brewing,
remained silent. His heart turned to the old log cabin days and to the
simple woman, who, as his step-mother, had come into the desolation of
his boyhood. It was a long drive through the country, and the river was
filled with running ice, but he made the dangerous passage and arrived at
the woman's humble cottage. Tears came to their eyes, as she embraced
him with deep emotion. "Good bye, Abraham," she said, "I know I shall
never see you again. I know your enemies will kill you."

The tall, sad-faced man caressed her and said gently: "No, no,
mother; they will not do that. Trust in the Lord and all will be well."

Then, going to the unmarked and neglected grave of his father, he
stood over it in reverie, and asked that a suitable tombstone be erected.

It was now his last day in Springfield. He went to the old law office
in the little back room, and, stretching himself out .on the worn lounge, he
lay there a moment with his face toward the ceiling. "Billy," he said, to
his law partner, "let the old sign hang there undisturbed. If I live, I'm
coming back sometime, and then we'll go right on practicing law as if noth-
ing had ever happened."

Then rising and walking toward the door, he lingered a moment as
if to take a last look at the familiar scenes to impress them on his mem-
ory, and, turning away, passed down the stairs for the last time.

38

LINCOLN GREETING His NEIGHBORS FOR THE LAST TIME AT His OLD HOME

Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, when Lincoln was bidding
farewell to his townspeople before going to his inauguration at Washington

Negative in the Collection of Americana owned by Mr. F. H. Meserve of New York

•

'••I. '

v-^*

CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON WHEN LINCOLN WENT TO His INAUGURATION

Photograph taken while the crowd was gathering for the inauguration in 1861,
showing the National Capitol of the Republic in course of its construction

Negative in Collection of Americana owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

LINCOLN AT His HOME IN SPRINGFIELD — Photograph taken early in 1861 as Lincoln stood with his two
younger sons in his front yard — Print in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington

WHITE HOUSE AS LINCOLN ENTERED IT — Photograph taken at Presidential mansion in Washington, in 1861,
in first spring of Lincoln's occupancy — Print in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington .

THE WILLINGNESS OF LINCOLN TO GIVE HIS LIFE

^F^f^HE final test of a mans ability is responsibility. The calm

m dignity of Lincoln in the storms of violence that were thundering

^^^ J about him perplexed the people. He did not repent of "the

crime of having been elected"; he did not ask forgiveness nor

apology; neither did he heed the warnings that were flooding upon him

from all parts of the country, begging him to resign or to compromise.

The day arrived for him to start for Washington. It was a clear, cold,
winter morning — the eleventh of February in 1861. Lincoln rose long
before daylight and was at the railroad station at eight o'clock. Less than
a hundred people were there to shake hands with him, neighbors who had
watched him rise from humbleness to greatness and who knew that the
gulf was so narrow that they could clasp hands from either side.

The tall, solemn figure stood on the rear platform of the train that
was about to bear him away. The snow was beginning to fall. He raised
his hand to silence them, and, baring his head, he looked into their faces.
There was a tear on his cheek; his lips quivered. He spoke a few
words of encouragement, and bowed: "I bid you an affectionate farewell!"
The train pulled away, and as it disappeared from view, Lincoln, the
country lawyer, could be seen still lingering on the platform.

At the villages and cities where the train paused, women and children
threw bouquets into the car, while men and boys shouted for "Lincoln."

'To the salvation of the Union there needs but one thing," he said,
slowly, "the hearts of a people like yours. Of the people when they rise in a
mass in behalf of the Union and the liberties of their country, truly may it be
said 'the gates of hell cannot prevail against them!' 3

For two weeks he passed through the principal cities of the North,
leaving words of encouragement and inspiration. It was now Washington's
Birthday. He stood at Independence Hall, the historic shrine where the
world first heard the Declaration of Independence that proclaimed a new
era of civilization in which all men are politically "free and equal."

"If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle— I
would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it!" he cried.
The words thrilled his hearers. The voice of the solemn man rang through
the great gathering: "I have said nothing that I am not willing to live by,
and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, — to die by!"

It was the clear, clarion note of a Nation's patriotism — a man was
offering his own life as a sacrifice for the country that he loved.

42

Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln's election to the Presidency.

Believed to be his first portrait with beard, early in 1861, at 52

years of age — Owned by Mr. H. W. Fay, DeKalb, Illinois

Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, just prior to Lincoln's

departure for Washington in 1861— Original negative by

F. M. McNulta — Now owned and copyrighted, 1894,

by Mr. Herbert Wells Fay of DeKalb, Illinois

THE FORTITUDE OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF TRIAL

man who stands for a principle must value duty higher than
life. When Lincoln was told that it was sworn that he would
never enter Washington alive, he determined to die if need be
only at the Nation's capital with his hand at the helm of state.
He had a work to do — and he intended to do it.

His journey was fraught with danger. There was a hurried conference
with a messenger in his room at Harrisburg. A plot had been discovered
to take his life. Kissing his wife and children good bye, he left them sob-
bing and slipped away into the night with two friends.

When Washington awakened on the morning of the twenty-fourth of
February, it was startled to find that the new President, Abraham Lincoln,
was in their midst; that he had entered the capital of the republic on a
midnight train as a common passenger, unknown and unrecognized by
his fellow-travelers, — a stranger.

The National capital was in no welcoming mood. It was a Southern
slave-holding community and looked upon Lincoln as a revolutionist who
intended to set up a new system of government under the radical doc-
trines of a new republican party, which had come into being to destroy
their property rights. The statesmen, who had known slavery as an
American institution from the founding of the republic, looked upon the
new party as a menace to the Nation and shook their heads in dismay.
Here was a man who would upset the republic.

At daybreak on the fourth of March, in 1861, the city of Washington
was astir. There was the clatter of cavalry and the tramp of the militia
in the streets. The Senate had been in session the whole night long and
the drowsy statesmen walked the corridors with sullen faces.

At noon the inaugural procession moved slowly over the historic route
which almost every President since Jefferson had traveled to take his oath
of office. Thousands of people crowded the streets. Around the presi-
dential carriage rode the protecting guard of militia to thwart any attempt
at assassination. Platoons of soldiers were stationed along the avenue.
Riflemen were posted on the roof-tops, watching for the slightest sign of
hostility, while cavalrymen guarded every approach from the side streets.

As Lincoln entered the Senate chamber,, his pale face and black attire
brought a stillness over the august body. He was leaning on the arm of an
old man withered and bowed with age — President Buchanan, from whom
he was now to lift the weight of a crumbling republic.

44

Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1861 about the time that he
entered the White House — Original negative by Alexander Hesler
of Chicago — Print owned by Mr. Frank A. Brown of Minneapolis

Photograph of Lincoln taken just before leaving Springfield for the

White House in 1861, age 52 years — Original negative by

C. S. German — Print owned by Mr. Allen Jasper Conant

THE CRUMBLING NATION IN LINCOLN'S ARMS

HEN the world thinks that a man has won, his struggles have
just begun. When Lincoln stood before the throng at the
steps of the National Capitol, to be inaugurated President of
the United States, the first "government of the people, by the
people, and for the people," that the world had ever known, he stood as
the personification of the principles upon which the republic is founded.

Before him now gathered a remarkable group of men who had made
history. Here were statesmen who had served their country through long
lives of distinguished loyalty and had seen it rise from the war with England
to become one of the world's greatest powers. Here were diplomats of
foreign embassies who were pledged to the divine rights of kings and shook
their heads prophetically as they agreed that the theory of self-government
was now to take its place as the heresy of civilization.

Lincoln rose and stood before them. There was a faint cheer from
the crowd that was being held in restraint by the battalion of soldiers.
Riflemen scanned the scene from the capitol windows, while just ahead
moved a battery of flying artillery.

There was a moment's pause as Lincoln moved forward. He removed
his tall silk hat. A short, heavy, strong-featured man stretched forth his
hand and took it from him. Lincoln bowed courteously and smiled. It
was Stephen A. Douglas, the political antagonist of his whole public career,
the man who had fought him through every step of progress, and who
had just contested him for the crowning honor of his life — and lost.

"If I can't be President," he whispered to a member of the Lincoln
party, "I at least can hold his hat."

As Lincoln stood there, pledging himself to preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution and the Union, every ear was strained to catch
the words from his lips:

"I am loath to close," he said. "We are not enemies, but friends.
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, -it must
not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretch-
ing from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-
stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

A hush fell over the assemblage. The oath of office came from his
lips. The cannons of the battery boomed. And Abraham Lincoln, the
son of a log cabin, held the future of a nation in his arms.

THE DETERMINED WILL OF LINCOLN AMONG MEN

OWER. is not so much what a man can accomplish as what he
can lead others to do. Lincoln had the ability to lead men.
It was with a heavy heart that he entered the White House.
The South had insisted upon the supremacy of the state as the
true interpretation of the Constitution, and to uphold this principle seven
historic old states had withdrawn and established a new republic to be
known as the Confederate States of America.

The Southern Senators and Representatives were withdrawing from
the Congress of the United States. The Federal courts were suspending,
and the stars and stripes were being hauled down from their flagstaffs.
The prophecy of Lincoln had come true and the house was now divided.

Lincoln gathered his cabinet about him. Among them were states-
men who had opposed him for the nomination for the Presidency and who
now beheld him with grave perplexity. They were strong men of strong
convictions, but they could little comprehend the subtle power of this
strange man who had come up from the western wilderness and taken
control of their government.

Look at Lincoln as he sat in his cabinet .room. Among the faces of
those men there is not a friend, not one who had known Lincoln a year
before. But to establish the new spirit of republicanism in power, he had
gathered about him this cabinet composed of his rivals for political honors
and had not even reserved for himself the appointment of one personal
friend to whom he might now turn.

There they sat, in their inability to measure the greatness of their
chief, contending for leadership and power, only to find at last that a mighty
man may come from the rough paths through the woods, one who takes
his heart from the oak and his judgment from the mountain rocks.

In the corridors of the White House strode the wily politicians in the
wild stampede for office in the new political party that had come into power
for the first time. Within — was dissension and misunderstanding, political
prowess and manipulation. Without — were the rumbles of discontent and
threats of war. But there sat Lincoln, with words of hope and courage,
turning away impatience and wrath with pointed stories of wit and phi-
losophy, holding the threads of a nation together with the keen insight
of human nature and the instinctive understanding of men, while in his
mind he was working out the solution in the mighty problem of maintaining
the American people one and inseparable.

48

Lincoln's Vice-President in 1861-1865
HANNIBAL HAMLIN of Maine

Lincoln's Secretary of War in 1862-1865
EDWIN M. STANTON of Ohio

Lincoln's Secretary of War in 1861-1862
SIMON CAMERON of Pennsylvania

Lincoln's Secretary of State in 1861-1865
WILLIAM H. SEWARD of New York

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CABINET

Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington. Now in the Brady-Gardner Collection
of Seven Thousand Negatives deposited at Springfield, Massachusetts

THE TRUE TEST OF LINCOLN'S STATESMANSHIP

^yUt^HE man who can control other men without their realizing it

M is in himself great. The firm decision of gentleness has won

^^^ V more victories than aggressive force. The statesmen sitting in

Lincoln's political family all felt that in experience and judg-

ment they were much greater than their chief; each man was confident

that he alone was the real master of the situation. Now they were

advising, now threatening, now demanding. Clamor and intrigue sur-

rounded him.

"Let the Union slide," shouted the abolitionists.

"Let the South go her way. The North can take care of itself,"
cried the financial powers.

"Wayward sisters, depart in peace," exclaimed the venerable patriot
of two wars who was now in command of the Federal Army.

Lincoln heard the words but made no reply.

:<Turn public attention immediately by waging a war with some
foreign nation on some pretext or other and thus force the South to unite
with the North to protect themselves against foreign invasion," advised
the most distinguished member of the cabinet.

"We must change the question before the public from one upon
slavery or about slavery, to one upon union or disunion," he urged. "I
would demand explanations (on the Monroe Doctrine) from Spain and
France, energetically, at once . . . and if not received ... I would convene
Congress and declare war against them. I would seek explanations from
Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and
Central America to arouse a vigorous spirit of continental independence."

But the man in the White House remained calm. He betrayed no
emotion of anger against the insinuations nor boastful self-confidence.
Whether it was to be war or peace, union or disunion, life or death, he
took the fearful burden of it wholly upon his own shoulders, with the simple
words that whatever the course might be: "I must do it."

"Remind the British that we have whipped them in two wars," urged
the cabinet adviser, "and are ready to fight them again, and, if need be,
two or three other European powers at the same time."

Lincoln sat at his cabinet table, with his eyes looking out of the
window on the soldiers that guarded the White House, as if peering into
the future. "One war at a time," he said, softly. "One war at a time."

Native common sense was now in contest with statesmanship.

50

Lincoln's Secretary of Treasury in 1861-1864
SALMON P. CHASE of Ohio

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy in 1861-1865
GIDEON WELLES of Connecticut

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior in 1861-1865
CALEB B. SMITH of Indiana

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Lincoln's Postmaster-General in 1861-1864
MONTGOMERY BLAIR of Maryland

Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy
at Washington, District of Columbia

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CABINET

Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington

MAN must be willing to resign to the inevitable, but he must
first be sure that it is the inevitable. Lincoln knew that every
stroke of the hour was now moving him toward it; that there
was no human power that could resist it. All that he could now
do was to meet it with the courage and resignation of manhood.

It was on the twelfth of April in 1861 — the day was Friday. Lincoln
had arisen with the dawn and was sitting at his morning duties in the
executive mansion when a messenger approached.

'They have fired on Fort Sumter!" he exclaimed.

The message startled the National capital and passed from city to
city until it had aroused the continent and was echoing around the world.
The ancient monarchies well understood its meaning.

The American Flag had been assailed; not by a foreign foe, but by
its own sons. The sound of that shot was like the tap of a drum calling
its people to arms. The South, inspired by its own convictions, rose in
courage and cheered. The North sprang to its guns in an outburst of
frenzied patriotism. The bonds of brotherhood were now severed. The
whole people cried out for war.

Excited groups of statesmen gathered at the White House. Party
dogmas and doctrines were forgotten. Diplomatic relations and policies
were set aside. Political enemies clasped hands and pledged themselves
to the service of their country.

Lincoln walked among them, grave and calm. All day long came
the news of the deadly fire in the ramparts of Fort Sumter. Lincoln shook
his head as he listened to the despatches that told of the brave defense'
of the little garrison, who for thirty-four hours stood at their post, enveloped
in sheets of flame, and when they, too, faced the inevitable, marched bravely
out on that Sunday afternoon with colors flying and drums beating, saluting
the bullet-ridden flag of the Union with fifty guns as it was lowered from
its staff.

The Confederate States of America had now proclaimed their empire.
The sovereignty of the state had now been baptized by shot and shell.
The last vestige of "federal despotism," as they looked upon it, was now
driven from their soil and the American people stood arrayed against each
other in two mighty republics, ready and waiting to lay down their lives
on the fields of battle for the sake of the principles which each held more
precious than life. The inevitable had come.

52

Lincoln's Attorney-General in 1861-1863
EDWARD BATES of Missouri

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Lincoln's Assistant Secretary of War
CHARLES A. DANA of New York

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury m 1864-1865
WILLIAM P. FESSENDEN of Maine

Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy
at Washington, District of Columbia

Lincoln's Secretary of Interior in 1863 1865
JOHN P. USHER of Indiana

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS CTF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CABINET

Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington

THE FAITH OF LINCOLN IN THE COMMON PEOPLE

^F^^jHE heart of the people has never failed to respond when duty

a calls it — and never will. The great army of humanity that has

^^^ V come down through the ages in endless procession since the

world began may have seemed to waver at times under the

sieges of fire, but its lines have never been known to break when standing

on the battle-line of civilization.

And so it was when Lincoln called for volunteers to defend the nation's
flag, and the Confederacy marshaled its sons under the new standard of
the Stars and Bars. Throughout the North could be- heard the tramp
of marching men. Over the green plantations of the South rolled the
call to arms. From village to village sounded the drumbeat of the Union.
Men left their plows and laid down their tools of labor to take up arms
in defense of their homes and their country, while wives and mothers prayed.

The tragedy of it all lay before the eyes of Lincoln. The flag of the
Confederacy floated on the bluffs across the Potomac River in Virginia.
In the streets before him were women fleeing with their children to the
hills. Great wagons of ammunition and provisions thundered over the
thoroughfares. Outside, at the door, he could hear the gruff voices of the
soldiers barricading his home into a fortress. Office seekers and statesmen
walked the corridors of the White House with muskets and revolvers.

Lincoln, turning to his wife and children, urged them* to flee from the
city in safety. The terror-stricken woman looked into the sad face of
her husband, and, clinging to his arm, whispered, "I am as safe as you.
I shall never leave you here alone."

It was five o'clock in the evening on the nineteenth of April, in 1861.
Lincoln stood at the window in the White House. Far down the street,
he could see a great body of men moving nearer and nearer — the men
of the North, who had heard his call and had come to the defense of
their country, — dusty, torn and bleeding. On their faces was grim deter-
mination. Behind them, in single file, came seventeen stretchers bearing
the wounded. Their dead they had left behind in the streets of Baltimore,
where, a few hours before, they had shed the first blood for the Union.

On came the volunteers, pouring floods of men into the national
capital, until, on the Fourth of July, three hundred thousand were
marching under the Stars and Stripes, and from every hill and valley
throughout the land echoed the refrain: " We are coming, Father Abraham,
three hundred thousand more!"

Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury in 1865
HUGH McCuLLOCH of Indiana

Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy
at Washington, District of Columbia

Lincoln's Attorney-General in 1864-1865
JAMES SPEED of Kentucky

Now in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Lincoln's Postmaster-General in 1864-1865
WILLIAM DENNISON of Ohio

Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy
at Washington, District of Columbia

Lincoln's Second Vice-President in 1865
ANDREW JOHNSON of North Carolina

Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy
at Washington, District of Columbia

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CABINET

Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington

THE ABILITY OF LINCOLN TO OVERCOME DEFEAT

is one quality that always comes to the aid of a man in
time of adversity — it is patience. This has never been demon-
strated more forcibly than in the experience of Lincoln during
the early days when the American people were in fratricidal war.

Congress authorized an army of a half million men, with a half billion
dollars to support it. The Confederacy marshaled its strongest sons
to defend its capital at Richmond. The North, with the courage of its
great army and wealth, was eager to pit itself against the new republic
and appealed to Lincoln to strike the fatal blow. But Lincoln, always
with hope in his heart that some unforeseen power would avert the
tragedy, waited patiently. The North, in its impatience, charged him
with being a coward.

Lincoln listened to the abuse without reply. It was now July—
the twenty-first day. The sun rose hot on that Sunday morning. Lincoln
went to church. Suddenly the city was aroused. The two great armies
were standing face to face at Manassas, but thirty-two miles from Wash-
ington. Couriers hurried to the White House. There was deep anxiety
on the face of the President. The North and South were in battle. The
two great fighting forces were in deadly combat.

:<The Union army is victorious!" Crowds waited anxiously for the
next word. The dispatches ceased coming. The prolonged silence per-
plexed the watchers and they were seized with a strange fear.

It was six o'clock in the evening. A statesman hurried to the White
House and asked excitedly for Lincoln.

"The battle is lost," he exclaimed. "The Confederates are coming!"

Lincoln quietly turned, and, without a word, went to the War Depart-
ment. The telegraph instruments were ticking the story of the fearful
disaster and the probable capture of Washington. Turning to the door,
he returned to the White House, and threw himself onto a lounge.

It was midnight when the routed army staggered across Long Bridge
into the city, and when morning dawned the defeated soldiers were pouring
into Washington in great streams of frightened humanity.

Lincoln still lay on the lounge. His deep set eyes had not closed
during the long night. But beneath them there seemed to brood a new
strength. He arose and greeted the disheartened soldiers with the grasp
of a warm heart. On his face was a fixed expression of determination—
the determination of a man who had learned how to grow strong in defeat.

56

Photograph of Lincoln seated with his secretaries, Nicolay and Hay — Taken in

Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, just before leaving for Washington — Print

in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts

Photograph presented by Lincoln to Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, on October 3, 1861

on which he ^inscribed his autograph — Negative in the Collection of

Americana in possession of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

THE HOPEFULNESS OF LINCOLN IN MISFORTUNE

MAN who spends bis time fighting over old battles is surely
lost. Life, in its shortness, gives us no opportunity to re-live
the lost days. The only value of yesterday is the experience
that we learned from it; otherwise nature would never have
given us memory.

Lincoln understood life. Bull Run was nothing more than the price
that is paid for experience. His life had been full of Bull Runs, and from
every defeat he had gained a great victory.

The wrath of the North now fell upon him. Famine began to lay its
hand upon the country. The nation was overwhelmed in debt. The
army was costing more than two millions of dollars a day — and yet no
battles were being won. Men pressed about him with conflicting advice.
Cabinet ministers charged him with incompetency. His friends appealed
to him to resign, or to march his armies against the capital of the Con-
federacy and conquer it by overwhelming numbers.

The generals upon whom he relied, failed to meet the emergencies.
The mighty Confederacy strengthened its power of government and slowly
but firmly drew its lines more tightly around the nation's capital.

As Lincoln sat surrounded by his family, the battle-line crossed the
very threshold of his home. A Southerner by birth, he found many of his
dearest friends under the flag of the Confederacy. Mrs. Lincoln's own
family were arrayed against the Union. Her sisters were parted from her
by the war, and their husbands were fighting against her husband's cause.
When the news came of the Union victory at Shiloh, and Mrs. Lincoln
found it her duty to receive in honor of the victorious soldiers, one of her
own brothers, the darling of her heart, lay dead in a uniform of gray on
that battlefield.

Lincoln, with the terrible imprint of it all being written upon his
countenance, stood for hours with his big white gloved hand grasping
the hands of the passing throng, but his eyes were looking far beyond into
the trenches of the humanity that he loved. And when he received the news
of the • terrible slaughter at Antietam, where, in defense of the nation's
capital, the army in blue withstood the army in gray and forced it back on
to its own soil, Lincoln, with his heart overflowing with hope in the belief
that now the war was to cease, went to the battlefield and looked into
the faces of the soldiers upon whom he relied in this hour of need.

LINCOLN IN CAMP WITH THE ARMY AT ANTIETAM

Photograph taken on October 3, 1862, when Lincoln was

standing in front of General McClellan's tent — Taken

by Mathew Brady, Government Photographer

Original negative in the Brady Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts
Copyright, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Company

PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON BATTLEFIELD OF ANTIETAM UNDER GUARD OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862 — Lincoln was accompanied by Allan Pinkerton

(Major Allen) first chief of the Secret Service, standing at his right, and General McClernand at his left —

Deposited in the Original Collection of seven thousand negatives valued at $150,000 at

Springfield, Massachusetts— Copyright, 1907, by Mr Edward Bailey Eaton

LINCOLN WITH His GENERALS— Photograph taken in the army of the Potomac at Antietam, on October 3, 1862,

while Lincoln was addressing General McClellan and staff — Negative in Brady-Gardner Collection

at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyright, 1907, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton

LINCOLN WITH His SOLDIERS AT THE BATTLE-LINE — Photograph taken while Lincoln was inspecting
conditions in army at Antietam on October 3, 1862 — Original negative by Mathew Brady —
> Print in Collection of Mr. C. M. Derickson of Monessen, Pennsylvania

PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN GENERAL MCCLELLAN'S TENT AT BATTLE GROUNDS OF ANTIETAM

Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862, while Lincoln was in conference

with General McClellan a few days after the great battle — Now deposited in the

Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyright, 1907,

by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton and valued at ten thousand dollars

PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN THE SECOND YEAR OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Original negative taken by Mathew Brady in Washington, in 1862
Print owned by Mr. Baldwin Coolidge of Boston, Massachusetts

THE MIGHT OF LINCOLN IN HIS COUNTRY'S CRISIS

every man s life there are times when the burdens that press upon
him are beyond all human endurance; when patience is no longer
a virtue, and all the powers within him demand decision and action.
Lincoln found that there was a moment when even sympathy and
diplomacy must give way to the destiny of mankind; when it must work
out its own salvation or destruction with the blood of men.

It was five days after the battle of Antietam — the twenty-second day
of September in 1862. Members of the cabinet were seated in secret
session. Lincoln sat. with a book in his hands. The faces of the states-
men were stern. He did not seem to notice them as they entered. Then,
turning to them, he said: "Gentlemen, did you ever read anything from
Artemus Ward ? Let me read you a chapter that is very funny."

A look of anger passed over the ministers. Lincoln laughed heartily;
not a member of the cabinet smiled.

"Well," he said, "let's have another chapter." He continued to read
with great deliberation. The statesmen were astonished. Abruptly, he
threw the book down, and exclaimed: "Gentlemen, why don't you laugh ?
With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day if I do not laugh I
shall die, and you need this medicine as much as I do."

His face and his tone became grave. Turning to his tall silk hat that
lay upon the table, he took a paper from it. He gazed for a moment at
his ministers. "I have called you here," he said slowly, "upon very
important business. I have prepared a little paper of much signifi-
cance ... I have said nothing to any one, but I have made a promise to
myself — and to my Maker. I am now going to fulfill that promise."

Holding the sheets before him, he began to read. His voice was low
but firm: "On the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863,
all persons held as then slaves in any state or designated part of a State,
the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States,
shall be then, thenceforth and forever free."

The statesmen were silent. The tremendous meaning of it all flooded
upon them. The man upon whom they had looked as without power of
decision, sat before them with grim determination. In the might of
decision, he had with a single blow issued to the world a proclamation
that was to break the shackles of bondage and to shake the foundations
of civilization.

The news swept through the army. "Lincoln has freed the slaves!"
The North shouted in exultation. The South retorted in defiance.

64

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AFTER THE FIRST EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington in September, 1862, age 53 years
Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, District of Columbia

THE HAND OF LINCOLN ON THE CHAIN OF BONDAGE

^j^^^HE greatest gift that man has ever known is moral courage.

/ \ It is the secret power that makes men rise above themselves

^^F J and rule their destiny. It is a legacy that is bequeathed to every

living man to use or not to use according to his own desire.

You are your own master of your God-given fortunes and you alone are

held accountable for them.

The Confederacy reeled at the blow of the Emancipation Proclamation
and referred to it as the "most execrable measure recorded in the history
of guilty man." Lincoln understood the responsibility upon him. He saw
in it the omen of racial and social strife to come.

"I do it," he said, "only to save the Union ... I can only trust in
God."

It was New Year's Day in 1863. The White House was a scene of
social brilliancy. Ministers from foreign nations, senators and congress-
men and army officers gathered to pay their respects to the courageous
republic. Lincoln stood among them vvith words of cordial greeting.
Passing from them, he entered the executive chamber. He seated himself
at the long cabinet table. Before him lay a broad sheet, the words of which
were engrossed in heavy letters. He raised his pen, and, dipping it in the
ink, moved his hand to the place for the signature. Hesitating a moment,
he dropped the pen. Turning toward the cabinet minister, and his son,
who were the only persons in the room, he eaid: "I never, in my life, felt
more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. But
I have been shaking hands since nine o'clock this morning, till my arm
is stiff and numb. If my name goes into history it will be for this act, and
my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign this proclamation,
they will say: 'He hesitated.' '

Turning again to the table, he took up the pen, and slowly but firmly
wrote at the close of the document - "Abraham Lincoln." He sat for a
moment with his eyes fixed on the signature. Looking up, he smiled and
said: "That will do!"

His hand fell by his side - the hand that by a single stroke had un-
chained a race that had been held in bondage almost since the world began.
The cabinet member left the room. Lincoln looked straight ahead as
though into the future. The lines were chiseled deep about his lips. He
seemed to be listening as though he could hear the clanking shackles
break from the arms of three million human beings, as though he could
hear the anguished sigh that arose from three million human hearts.

CO

PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN SHORTLY AFTER THE SIGNING
OP THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

Original negative taken by Alexander Gardner at Washington, in 1863, when
Lincoln, age 54, broke the chains that had bound three million slaves

Negative in the Collection of Americana of Frederick H. Meserve, New York

THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF LINCOLN'S LIFE

E who forgets that be was once a child is not a man. The dearest
memories that most of us possess are those of childhood; we
look back at those long lost days with fondest recollections. Lin-
coln never got so far that he could not hear the call of the whip-
poor-will and brown thrush singing in those old Kentucky forests far away.

Lincoln loved children. He had three sons, another having died in
infancy. The army to him was but somebody's boys — his boys; over two
million boys under twenty-one years of age; a million not even eighteen;
eight hundred thousand less than seventeen; two hundred thousand had
not reached sixteen; while one hundred thousand children less than fifteen
years of age were standing on the battle-line under the Stars and Stripes.

It was during the darkest days of the war, that Lincoln was called upon
to make his own sacrifice. The White House was the scene of a brilliant
reception. The President, with his wife leaning on his arm, entered the
room where the dignitaries of the world were gathered to meet him. The
notes of the Marine Band floated fan away to the chamber where the
companion of his heart lay in fever — his twelve-year-old boy, Willie. The
night passed slowly. Lincoln left the ball-room and went to the chamber.

"He is not as well tonight," remarked the physician. "He may be
better in a few days." The passing hours were filled with messages from
the boys who were dying on the field of battle. Lincoln turned again to
his own chamber. His head was bowed with grief. He came to the bed,
and, lifting the cover from the face of his child, he gazed into it.

"My poor boy," he murmured. "He was too good for this earth.
God has called him home. I know he is much better off in heaven, but
we loved him so. It is hard hard — to have him die!" Great sobs choked
his words. He bowed his head in his hands, and his gaunt frame shook.

Those of you who have lost sons, stand with him here a moment.
Listen to the sobs of the broken-hearted mother. Look upon the grief
of a father. Bending over her gently, he takes her by the arm and leads
her to the window: "Mother, do you see that large, white building on the
hill yonder?" He is pointing to the asylum on the hill. 'Try to control
your grief, for it will drive you mad, and we may have to send you there."

The lifeless body of the beloved boy lay in the green room, beneath
his office. Strong men gathered about him, ambassadors, senators and
soldiers, all struggling with their tears — for, whatever the dissensions of
life may be, this is a moment when all the world has a heart in common.

Photograph of President Lincoln's son, William Wallace

Lincoln, who died at the White House, February 20,

1862, at twelve years of age — Collection of

Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

Photograph of Thomas (Tad) Lincoln, born April 4, 1853,

who became the companion of President Lincoln during

his last years in the White House — The oldest son,

Robert Todd Lincoln, was in Harvard —

Collection of Frederick H. Meserve

THE POWER OF LINCOLN TO CONQUER HIMSELF

RE AT achievements are but the accumulation of conquered diffi-
culties. As we look over our own experiences we find that there
is one simple truth in life that is always well worth remembering—
our richest possessions are those which cost us the most, not in
money, but in disappointments, sacrifices, and hope. The Emancipation
Proclamation plunged the nation into despair. It was a bugle call to
the hosts of the South who now arose in vengeance to strike a staggering
blow at the man who had despoiled them of their property.

The mighty columns of the Confederacy were now sweeping toward
the North, vowing that they would unfurl their flag over the capitol at
Washington and force a prostrate nation to return their property to them.
The North, stricken with terror, called for the resignation of Lincoln, the
man who was responsible for the disaster, and threatened to take his life.

"I shall never be happy again," he said. "My life springs are wearing
out and I shall not last ... I long ago made up my mind that if any-
body wants to kill me, he may do it." Then he added dejectedly, "How
hard it is to die, unless I can make the world understand that I would
be willing to die if I could be sure I am doing my work toward lifting the
burdens from all mankind!"

It was a bright afternoon in May, in 1863. The door leading to the
family apartments in the White House swung open. There stood Lincoln,
holding a telegram in his hand. It was from Chancellorsville.

"My God! My God!" he cried in broken tones. "What will the
country say? Oh, what will the country say?"

He tottered to a chair% and sat down. As the night fell he paced the
floor in deep thought. In front of him were heaps of letters, the purport
of which he well knew. They were piteous appeals for peace, the cries
of heart-stricken mothers. They*" were denunciations branding him with
the blood of the hundred thousand homes that were being left fatherless.

The doors of the room were ajar. The night was warm; its stillness
was broken only by the slow, steady tread back and forth. One by one
the hours passed, but Lincoln, with head bowed, walked the chamber, the
steady footfalls breaking the silence. A battle greater than Chancellors-
ville was raging within him. When the morning light sifted through the
window, Lincoln, his eyes heavy with sleeplessness, sat at his desk, but
his face was strong in resignation. A great battle had been fought that
night— and Lincoln had won another victory over himself.

70

Photograph of Lincoln taken at Washington in 1803

shortly after the Battle of Chancellorsville —

Original negative by Mathew Brady

Photograph taken the Sunday before Lincoln left for the

Battlefield of Gettysburg in November, 1863 —

Original negative by Mathew Brady

THE HUMILITY OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF VICTORY

AT it is always darkest just before the dawn is a truth that comes
to every man sooner or later. No matter how hard the storm may
ra&e mere is always a break in the clouds through which the
golden light floods the heart with warmth and hope.

The sun rose hot on the first morning in July, in the year 1863. Its
scorching rays looked down on two great armies standing face to face. The
legions of the South, on their onward march into the strongholds of the
North, stood in battle-line against the hosts in blue under the Stars and
Stripes on the field of Gettysburg. Nearly two hundred thousand strong,
they passed through the fire of hell for the sake of the cause that they
loved. On and on they charged, beneath the maddening hail of iron, into
the terrible roar and din of belching flame, their banners flying; and when
the clouds of smoke lifted at the end of the third day, more than fifty thous-
and dead, wounded and missing, had laid down their lives on the altar of
sacrifice.

Lincoln, with anxiety and anguish on his face, waited for the tidings.
When the news came to him that the flag of the republic had triumphed,
that the great army of the Confederacy had been driven from Northern
soil and was fleeing back to its own beautiful valley— he thanked God.

It was four months later that Lincoln stood on the battlefield at Get-
tysburg. Before him was a great throng of people. Garlands of flowers
were placed upon the graves of the heroes who had given their lives on
the sacred ground on those terrible days in July. The chill of November
had now fallen upon the hills.

Dressed in black, the somberness and ghastly pallor of his face brought
silence to the multitude. His words, as if by magic, fell upon their ears:
"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this conti-
nent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated. to the proposition
that all men were created equal."

A hush fell over the great audience. There was now and then an
outburst of suppressed emotion. The notes rang clear. "It is due our own
who have died here . . . This nation in God shall have a new proof of free-
dom . . . Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."

The tall, solemn figure disappeared from view. As he resumed his seat
the words seemed to leap from man to man across the continent until the
American people were inflamed by their inspiration, the fires of which
are still blazing, and will forever blaze, down through the generations.

72

o^

«.?

Photograph taken about the time of the Battle of Gettysburg
in 1863 — Original negative by Mathew Brady

Photograph taken in thp Brady gallery at the National Capital

in 1863 during darkest days of Civil War — Original negative

by Mathew Brady — L;fe negative in Collection of

Americana of Frederick H. Meserve of New York

Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln called for a half

million more men in 1864 — Original negative by

Mathew Brady of Washington

Photograph taken when Lincoln was seeking a General for

all the armies of the Republic in 1864 — Negative

by Mathew Brady at Washington

THE SYMPATHY OF LINCOLN FOR THE UNFORTUNATE

OME men work only with their hands; some with their heads;
others with their hearts. A great man works with them all — and
of such was Lincoln. He knew that any man who tries to build
his life upon any one of these qualities, at the expense of the
other, is destined to failure. Lincoln began life with his hands; his first
discovery was his heart; and he learned to control them both with his head.

Go back to those days in 1864, and sit with him in his cabinet. The
ministers are impatient and stubborn, but he conquers them not with a
scourge of discipline but with pointed wit. An officer -having some trouble
with Sherman, hurries to Lincoln and reports excitedly: "Mr. President,
I have a cause of grievance. This morning I went to see Colonel Sherman
and he threatened to shoot me!"

"Threatened to shoot you?" exclaims Lincoln in surprise. "Well, if
I were you I would not trust him — for I believe he would do it."

Go with Lincoln to the battlefields. Stand beside him as he aims
the guns to assure himself of their efficiency, and with his early instinct
scores a dozen hits in fourteen shots. Sit with him as he eats at their mess
tables and hear him exclaim, "How willingly would I exchange places today
with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac."

He knew neither pride of rank nor the glory of war; he touched his hat
to the General, but bared his head to the boys in the ranks. The mother's
prayer, the father's plea, the babies' cry, the story of an empty sleeve or
a crutch, he never failed to hear. Every soldier who carried a musket was
his son — all were his children.

'There are already too many weeping widows," he protested when
asked to sign execution papers against deserters. "For God's sake, do not
ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it!"

A girl is pleading for her brother's life; he has been condemned to die.
He is speaking to her: "My poor girl, you have come here with no Gov-
ernor or Senator or member of Congress to plead your cause; you seem
honest and truthful ... If he has not a friend, I will be his friend!"

A poor widow has lost five sons in battle; he is writing to her: "I
pray our Heavenly Father to assuage the anguish of your bereavement
and leave only the memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride
that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of
freedom."

Firm and determined — it was the balance of justice.

Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1864 at the request of Secretary Sewaid

of his cabinet — Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington —

Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy at Washington

Photograph taken about the time of the Battle of Spottsylvania Court House

in 1864 — Original negative by Mathew Brady — Deposited

in the War Department Collection at Washington

THE WORTH OF A MAN IN LINCOLN'S JUDGMENT

^y^^jHERE is a place in the world for every man — and a man for

m every place. The secret is in securing the right man for the

^^^ J right place. Lincoln was an experimenter with men. He knew

that throughout the annals of mankind, whenever the people

are in danger, somewhere, sometime, a man always rises among them to

lead their cause.

The Confederacy found such a man to lead their army at the begin-
ning — a man of courage, character, and nobility, a master leader of men.
The Union found many men, brave, loyal, conscientious — but it had not
yet found the right man for the right place at the right moment. Down
in the Mississippi valley, Lincoln's eyes fell upon a little, silent man
who was fighting his way through almost insurmountable obstacles; a vol-
unteer, who, without political influence, had offered his services to his
country and through his courage was leading his men to victory.

It was early in March, in 1864, that this little, silent man came quietly
to Washington. As he passed through the streets, leading his young son
by the hand, he wore an old blue uniform; there was a well-worn army
hat on his head, and a cigar in his mouth.

A few hours later he entered the White House. Lincoln rose to meet
him. His kind, sympathetic face looked down upon the stranger.

:'This is Ulysses S. Grant," he exclaimed, and the two men clasped
hands. It was a moment that was molding the future of the western
world. Here was a man whose life at thirty-nine had been a failure, and,
although a graduate of West Point, had never been able to find his right
place in the world; who, before the war, was a store clerk at fifty dollars
a month.

As Lincoln stood before him, to bestow upon him the highest
military honor, which none but Washington among American soldiers had
ever borne on the battlefield, ministers of the cabinet gathered about him.

"As the country trusts you," said Lincoln, profoundly, "so under
God will it sustain you."

The silent, little man bowed as he took the commission which gave
him the destiny of an army. "I feel the full weight of the responsibilities
devolving upon me," he said, "and I know that if they are met it will be
due to those armies, and above all to the favor of that Providence which
loves both nations and men." Declining a public dinner as the guest of
the President, he pulled his worn army hat down over his eyes, and left
the White House to marshal about him the legions that were now to lead
a republic to glorious triumph. The right man was now in the right place.

78

Photograph of Lincoln about the time that Lincoln met Grant in 1864 —

Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington — Life negative

in Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

Photograph of Lincoln about the time of Grant's taking command of the

Army in 1864 — Original negative by Mathew Brady — Print in

Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

THE LOYALTY OF LINCOLN TO HIS LIFE WORK

^t^fj^HERE is a halfway point in life where every man hesitates, where

/ he is undecided whether to go ahead or turn back. It is one of

^^F J the most difficult moments in life, when, not knowing the dis-

tance before him, but knowing the distance behind him, he

abandons hope with success just around the next turn in the road.

Lincoln never abandoned hope; if he had there would be no United
States of America today. "If I go down," he said, "I will go with my
colors flying!" But a thousand men with hearts less stout lost hope
and appealed to him to turn back, until, in 1864, the whole American
people stood at the point of hesitancy. Lincoln had reached the end of
the four years' administration to which he had been elected — years of
carnage and terror, of death and famine. But the talons of war still
clutched the people, tearing their hearts and hopes. Politicians protested
that he had been given his opportunity and that he had failed to fulfill
his promises. The new Republican party declared that he had wrecked it.
His cabinet ministers wavered; one of them offered himself to the people;
while Lincoln's friends appealed to him to give up the struggle.

"I have pledged myself," he replied, "to save the Union!"

The radicals in the Republican party met in convention and nomi-
nated one of Lincoln's generals in the army for President. The Demo-
crats were pledged to nominate another of Lincoln's generals to succeed
him; both appealed to the people with the declaration that "the war
is a failure," and promised to end the terrible slaughter.

Lincoln answered them with but one appeal: "I believe that the
people will give me a chance to finish the work that I have begun." The
sense of fair play always surges through the masses. "Give Lincoln a
chance," came back the response from the plain people. The sentiment
passed through the country.

When Lincoln heard of his re-nomination as the standard bearer of
the National Union League, he felt that the American people were still
with him, although he knew that the political powers would conspire to
overwhelm and defeat their purpose.

"I do not allow myself to suppose," he said, "that they have con-
cluded that I am either the greatest or best man in America, but rather
they have concluded that it is not best to swap horses while crossing a
stream." The homely phrase caught the spirit of the American people,
and Lincoln again stood before them as their candidate for President.

80

LINCOLN ABOUT THE TIME OP His SECOND NOMINATION FOR THE
PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES

Photograph taken in 1 864 when the political leaders were declaring that Lincoln could not

be re-elected and the American people were demanding his leadership —

Original negative by Walker in Washington

Print from the Collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at the Lincoln Museum at Washington

Photograph of Lincoln at the time of his second nomination for the

Presidency, in 1864 — Original negative by Mathew Brady — From

Collection of Americana of Frederick H. Meserve

Photograph of Lincoln with his son Thomas (Tad) in 1864
Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington

LINCOLN WITH His SON, THOMAS, (TAD) IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Photograph taken with Lincoln in his characteristic attitude at home

'with his eleven years-old son by his side — His son William

Wallace had died at the White House two years before

Original negative by Mathew Brady in Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy at Washington

THE INSIGHT OF LINCOLN INTO HUMAN NATURE

WORD of wisdom is worth more than volumes q/ argument. The
shaft of reason has frequently won victories while armies are
meeting defeat. The summer of 1864 was long and disappointing.
The success of the great armies swung back and forth with almost
endless precision. Now the war was to end; now the conflict raged
fiercer than ever; now again the Confederacy seemed shattered; only to
rise once more in brave defiance.

"I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," came
the message from the silent, little general on the battle-line.

Political leaders insisted that Lincoln could never be re-elected.
Business interests grew more and more doubtful. The Stars and Bars
swept so close to the national capital that Lincoln looked into the firing
line. The North was in panic. Preparations were made for abandoning
Washington. A steamer was in readiness to take the President and his
cabinet to safety. The wounded and the sick poured into the city.

"We must have more men!" said Lincoln. His demand for five hun-
dred thousand more fighting men from the states staggered the politicians.

"Lincoln must withdraw his candidacy," demanded the political
leaders. "Patriotism demands his retirement. He has proved that he
cannot meet the necessities of the emergency."

"Don't swap horses while crossing a stream," was the only reply
that came from the man in the White House.

Suddenly the nation was aroused by the message from the battlefield:
"Atlanta is ours and fairly won! Sherman is marching to the sea!
The Northern forces are sweeping down the valley of the Shenandoah!"

Election day came on the eighth of November. Lincoln spent the
day at his desk in the war office, expressing metre interest in the messages
from the battlefield than the political conflict. About midnight the wire
ticked: "Lincoln has carried every state in the Union except three. He
has been re-elected President by a majority of nearly a half million votes!"

As he walked in the darkness to the White House, he found a party
of serenaders under the window of his chamber. It was about two o'clock
in the morning. "Friends," he exclaimed, "if I know my heart, my
gratitude is free from any intent of personal triumph. I do not impugn
the motive of anyone who opposed me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph
over anyone, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the
people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity."

Photograph of Lincoln about the time of his second election as

President in 1864 — Original negative by Walker, photographer

for the Treasury Department at Washington — Print from

Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

Photograph of Lincoln, age 56 years, shortly before his second

inauguration in 1865 — Original negative by Alexander

Gardner at Washington — Print from the Collection

of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

THE HEART OF LINCOLN THAT KNEW NO MALICE

are a few men who can forgive their enemies but it takes
a great man to forget them. Lincoln forgot all animosity when
he forgave. He found that 2,216,067 Americans had pledged
their loyalty to him at polls, while 1,808,725 had registered their
ballots against him under the leadership of his former friend, General
McClellan. The cabinet minister, who in envy had tried to take the presi-
dency from him, and had resigned in indignation, was honored by Lincoln
with the highest tribute that the President can confer — Chief Justice of
the United States Supreme Court. He lived by the Golden Rule. "If
any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him,"
he said. "We must not be animated by any motive for revenge, or any
purpose to punish for punishment's sake."

It was now the fourth of March, in 1865 — the day of inauguration,
A light rain was falling in the chill and gloom. A carriage stopped at the
White House door, and Lincoln came down the steps and entered it, alone.

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon. A curious crowd had
gathered around the national capitol; negroes, who were but yesterday
slaves, and citizens jostled each other in the crowd to catch a glimpse of
"Father Abraham." Four years had wrought great changes in the scene.
Statesmen who had then gathered here, were now dead; while others were
now battling on the firing line; and still others had renounced the Republic.

As Lincoln appeared on the steps a rousing cheer greeted him. His
stooping shoulders, and sunken eyes, told the tragic story. As he looked
out over the applauding throng, a stream of sick and wounded heroes were
coming in endless procession from the fields of battle.

"Fellow countrymen." The words brought a hush to the gathering.
The tall, solemn figure spoke in inspiration. "Let us judge not that we
be not judged," he said. "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that
this scourge of war may speedily pass away." The great audience
listened. The closing words rested upon them like a benediction:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right,
as God gives us to see the light, let us stand on to finish the work we are
in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have won
the battle and for his widow, and his orphan; and do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among races and with all
nations." As he stood before the cheering throng, the sun, which had been
veiled by rain throughout the day, burst through the clouds in splendor.

8G

Photograph of Lincoln in the closing days of the American

Crisis in 186S — Original negative by Alexander Gardner

at Washington — Print from the Collection of Mr. L.

C. Handy in Washington, District of Columbia

Photograph of Lincoln at his second inauguration in 1865,

age 56 years — Original negative by H. F. Warren, Waltham.

Massachusetts — Print in the Collection of Mr. Osborn H.

Oldroyd at the Lincoln Museum in Washingtou

THE FATHERHOOD OF LINCOLN AMONG THE LOWLY

^f^fj^HE fortunes of war are much like the fortunes of men. While

/ Lincoln was winning his battles over the people, his silent, little

^^^ J general was carrying the armies to victory. With irresistible

power he was driving back the Confederacy and marching on to

their seat of government. A messenger hurried to the White House with

a dispatch. Lincoln read it and then sat pondering over its contents.

"I must go to the front," he said. "They may need me." The
next night a boat steamed up the James River. There, lying on a berth,
four inches shorter than his body, stretched a long, gaunt figure. The
roar of the battle rolled alorig the shore.

"Richmond has fallen! The Confederacy is destroyed! The capital
is burning!" The tidings aroused the continent; leaped the oceans, and
resounded around the world. The North was' wild with joy. The South
was bowed with grief. Brave hearts shouted and wept; cheered and sighed.
The noble city burst into flames. With the rumble of the drums, and
colors flying, the hosts of the Republic marched into the fallen capital.

It was the month of April, in 1865. The sun rose clear on the morning
of the fourth. At twelve o'clock the barge reached the river bank. As it
came alongside, the tall, gaunt man stepped ashore. An old negro with
snow white hair was standing on the bank. He was bent and worn.

"Bless de Lord," -he shouted, "dere is de great Messiah! I knowed
him as soon as I seed him. He's been in my mind fo' long yeahs, an' he's
cum at las' to free his chilun from deir bondage — Glory Hallelujah!"

And, falling on his knees, the old slave kissed the feet of Lincoln. The
negroes crowded about him and threw themselves on the ground. Lincoln
looked at the poor creatures before him. "Don't kneel to me," he said
quietly. "That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank
Him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy."

"Father Abraham is here!" The streets were instantly alive with the
colored race. They seemed to spring from the earth, tumbling, shouting,
weeping, praying, singing. There stood the Emancipator among the
people he had redeemed from bondage.

"My poor friends," he said, "you are free — free as air. You can
cast off the name of slave and trample upon it; it will come to you no more.
Liberty is your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave it to others . . .
Let the world see that you merit it, and are able to maintain it by your
good works . . . There, now let me pass on."

PRESIDENT LINCOLN ABOUT THE TIME OF THE FALL OF RICHMOND IN 1865

Photograph taken a few days before Lincoln went to the capital of the Confederacy
to look upon the ruins of the historic city — Original negative by Mathew Brady

Deposited in the Original Brady Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts
Copyright, 1909, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton

THE MAGNANIMITY OF THE SPIRIT OF LINCOLN

great question is not alone bow did you bear yourself in
defeat, but how did you bear yourself in victory. As Lincoln
walked through the streets of the destroyed capital of the Con-
federacy, his eyes looked upon ruin and devastation; starvation
and pillage. The flames were still smoldering in the noble capital.

Before him stood the White House of the Confederacy, from which,
only thirty-six hours before, the statesmen of the "Lost Cause" had fled
for safety. Ascending the steps, he entered the stately mansion. There
lay a great desk, with a huge chair, deserted.

"It must have been President Davis' chair," he said, as he sank into
it wearily, relaxing himself against its comfortable back and resting his
hands on its arms. The lines upon his forehead deepened. 'Judge not,"
he said, thoughtfully, "that ye be not judged!"

The boat bearing Lincoln sailed up the Potomac, to take him back
to the capital of the Republic at Washington. His eyes fell upon the white
dome. An expression of dread came to the face of Mrs. Lincoln, who was
now with him. 'That city," she whispered, in apprehension, "is full of
our enemies!" Lincoln turned, and with perplexed expression, he ex-
claimed, "Enemies! — we must never speak that word again!"

The evening was falling. Mount Vernon loomed in the distance.
Lincoln looked out into the gathering twilight. "Springfield!" he said, in
reverie. " How happy, four years hence- to return there in peace and tran-
quility!"

The Nation's capital was waiting in expectancy. The air was rent
with exploding rockets. Crowds gathered in front of the White House
and cheered. The throngs outside called for "Lincoln! Lincoln!"

"Fellow Citizens," he said, "We meet this evening not in sorrow but
in gladness of heart ... In the happiness of all this, however, Him from
Whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. I call for a National
Thanksgiving which is being prepared and will be duly promulgated."

A great cheer arose from the serenaders. The martial notes of the
"Star Spangled Banner" passed through the crowd. Lincoln stood with
his head bared. As the refrain ceased, he raised his hand and called:
"Give us Dixie! We have a right to that tune now!" As he turned and
entered the White House, the strains of the hymn of the South-land fell
upon his ears and echoed through his heart. 'This," he said, "is one
of the happiest moments of my life. "

90

LINCOLN AT THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX

Photograph taken in Washington in 1865 shortly before the Hosts of the South and the
Legions of the North clasped hands in Peace — Original negative by Mathew
Brady now considered the greatest portrait of Lincoln ever taken

Deposited in the Original Brady Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts
Copyright, 1908, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton

THE VICTORY OF LINCOLN— A REUNITED PEOPLE

EACE bath its victories no less than war. Through all the four
years of magnificent courage there is not a moment more inspir-
ing than that April day when the hosts of the South stood before
the legions of the North to pledge themselves to peace and
brotherhood. In an heroic stand, the warriors of the Confederacy had
made their last gallant charge under the- Stars and Bars. Now they stood
before the victorious warriors of the Republic, welcoming peace with the
same brave hearts with which they faced battle.

The two greatest generals that the world has ever known stood face
to face — Grant and Lee. Behind them were the armies in the mightiest
struggle that has ever been recorded in human annals. There stood the
silent, little general, the conqueror, in his uniform of blue; his figure, of
five feet eight inches, slightly bent; there was no sword in his hand; only
his shoulder straps to designate him from the rank of a private soldier.
There stood the gallant leader of the Confederacy in his uniform of gray;
his silver hair crowning his erect figure of six feet in height; at his side he
carried a long sword, the hilt studded with jewels.

The war was over. The camp fires were left to smolder into ashes;
the flags were tenderly furled; and two great armies sheathed their swords.
Along the roads moved regiments of men, no longer foes, but citizens of
a common country. The rattle of the artillery; the rumbling wheels of the
ammunition trains; all in the pageant of peace — echoed through the streets.

Lincoln stood and gazed long upon them. The long night of blood-
shed had ended. The day of peace and love had dawned. He looked
upon a portrait of the conquered commander of the Confederacy.

''It is a good face," he said. "It is the face of a noble, brave man.
I am glad that the war is over at last. We soon will live with the brave

o

men' who have been fighting against us. I trust that the era of good feeling
has returned and that henceforth we will live in peace."

And, turning to his family, his heart trying to lift the veil of tragedy
that had so long enshrouded it, he said: "It is nearly over; now we shall
be happy." Throughout the hills and dales resounded the shouts of
rejoicing. Mothers clasped their long lost sons to their hearts; and children
climbed into the arms of their fathers who had come home at last.

The war was over! The miracle of the reunited people had been per-
formed. And above it all loomed the tall, strong figure of one man-
Abraham Lincoln.

LAST PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN EVER TAKEN

Photograph taken a few days before the end of Lincoln's life in April, 1865,

when the War was over and the American People were re-united

into an inseparable brotherhood — Original negative

by Alexander Gardner at Washington

Collection of Mr. M. P. Rice of Washington— Copyright, 1891

THE VEIL OF SORROW OVER AN EXULTANT NATION

O man knows what the morrow may bring forth. We live today,
but what of the morning ? The morning of the fourteenth of
April, in 1865, was bright and warm. The balm of spring
bathed the hills. The Judas and the dog-wood bent in the
the breeze; the perfume of the lilacs floated through the morning air.

It was Good Friday, the nation's day of prayer and thanksgiving.
Lincoln rose early. A great weight seemed to have lifted. Today he was
to clasp the hand of Grant, the silent, little general who had led his armies
to triumph. Today the flag of the republic, which had been lowered from
Fort Sumter four years ago, was to be unfurled over the ruins. Today
his oldest son was to return from the war with a captain's commission.

As Lincoln took his seat at the head of the cabinet table, his grave,
sad eyes smiled; the haggard lines in his face seemed to disappear. He
greeted his ministers with words of affection, and, as he dropped his arm
upon the shoulders of one of his statesmen, he drew him close to him in
hearty embrace in their rejoicing over the end of the mighty struggle.

:'The war is over," he said. "Enough lives have been sacrificed.
We must extinguish all resentment if we expect harmony and Union."

He grasped the hands of his cabinet ministers, and, entreating them
to be considerate of the vanquished foes, he left them and was soon driv-
ing with his wife along the country roads on this beautiful spring day.

As the carriage rumbled along the blossom-laden lanes, he turned to
her and said: "Mary, we have had a hard time of it since we came to
Washington, but the war is over, and with God's permission we may hope
for four years of happiness and peace, and then we will go back to Illinois
and pass the rest of our lives in quiet."

He spoke of the old home in Springfield, and the recollections of his
early days came crowding back to him. He spoke of their early struggles
together and of their future. (<We have laid by some money," he said
"and during this term we will try to save up more. Then we will go home."

The night fell. Throughout the nation, in a hundred thousand homes,
loved ones were gathering in reunion and thanksgiving. Now and then
there was a cheer, or the beat of a drum at the head of the soldiers
marching home. Suddenly, a great tumult arose in the streets. Newsboys
ran excitedly over the pavements. Great throngs gathered at the bulletins.

"Lincoln has been assassinated! The President has been shot!"

The crowds in the streets seemed stunned.

The Portrait Life of Lincoln

PART III

A Revelation of the Last Scenes in the

Closing Hours of Lincoln
from Actual Photographs Taken at the Time

THE LAST LINGERING MOMENTS OF A NOBLE LIFE

^fffj^HIS is life's greatest moment — it comes to us all. It matters not

M how great or how humble we may be, we are all one at the end;

^^^ V the millions that have gone before, the millions that are to come.

As Lincoln, on that tragic night, on the fourteenth of April,

entered the box at the theater, in honor of the dawning peace, the or-

chestral strains of " Hail to the Chief*' greeted him. The great audience

rose to its feet and cheered. Lincoln bowed. It was a gala night.

The spirit of joyousness filled every heart. The audience roared with

laughter over the farcical lines of the mimic world on the stage.

Suddenly, a shot rang through the theater. There was the scream of a
woman. The figure of a man, an actor, sprang from the Presidential box,
his eyes gleaming with passion. A smoking pistol fell from his hand as he
clutched at a dagger. His spur caught in an American flag, and he fell
upon the stage with the ensign wound about him. Raising his knife in
the air, his words echoed above the tumult: "Sic semper tyrannis!"

The great audience was in frenzy; aisles and seats and galleries were
filled with shouting, weeping, panic-stricken men and women; the crowd
became uncontrollable. "My God, the President is shot!" sobbed strong
men, while women fainted.

The body of Lincoln was lifted from his chair; his head drooped;
blood was flowing from a wound. Over him, moaned his wife, pleading
for him to speak. Gently they bore him from the theater. As they passed
to the street, and carried him to the nearest house, their steps were marked
by his ebbing blood. Behind them walked Mrs. Lincoln, weeping.

Great throngs crowded about the humble dwelling. Anxiously they
waited for a message. The curtains were drawn at the windows. All
night long the crowds lingered; now they were silent under the burden of
grief; now bitterness rankled within them as its meaning flooded upon them.

At the White House, not far distant, all was still. Suddenly the east
door of the basement was thrown open. "Oh Tom! Tom!" cried a little
voice. :'They have killed papa dead! They have killed papa dead!"
and he burst into sobs. It was little Tad. He threw himself into the
arms of an old family servant.

"Now, now, boy," said the faithful friend, caressing him, "don't cry
any more; let's go to bed." They turned down the cover and lay down
together. The old servant put his arm around the grief-stricken lad; the
sobs died away, and Tad fell into sound sleep.

96

Photograph taken at Ford's Theater in Washington, after the assassination on the night of April 14, 1865 — Original negatives by
Alexander Gardner— Now deposited in the Original Brady Collection of seven thousand negatives at Springfield, Massachusetts

Photograph of President Lincoln's box in Ford's Theater
as it appeared on night of the tragedy

Photograph of the chair in which President Lincoln was sitting
when he was shot by John WilkeS Booth

THE MAGNIFICENCE OF LIFE'S LAST TRIUMPH

after all — what does it mean for a man to live well ? Come
to that little chamber in the dingy brick building across the way.
The stairs are dark and narrow. Walk softly through the long,
dim hall. There is a door; knock gently; someone is opening it;
there are tears in his eyes.

Step into the room — the simple bedchamber of a soldier. The
flickering light of a gas-jet falls upon the pallid face of a man that you
love. How pale and sad it is! The long, gaunt figure that you have
known so long, how motionless it lies!

A moan comes from a grief-pent heart; the arms are lifted; now they
fall; there is a long sigh. A smile comes to the face and rests upon it;
how restful it is, like the benediction of peace. How long the night seems!
How still it is : only the footfalls of the loved ones — and a sob !

The April rain is falling. Daylight sends its first gray rays through
the window. The notes of the robin float on the morning breeze. States-
men are gathering about the bed; army generals and senators stand with
bowed heads. How white the face looks in the morning light. The pale
cheeks flush; the lips seem to part; a magnificent light leaps from the deep,
sunken eyes. A physician is leaning over the figure; his ear is close to the
heart. The clock is ticking. He speaks: "The President is dead!"

A clergyman kneels by the bedside. A cabinet minister leans over
the ashen face and gazes for a moment into it — how happy it looks!
Then, tenderly stroking the lids with his hands, he closes the kind eyes in
their last, long sleep, and, drawing a sheet over the slumbering man, his
voice speaks low and deep: "Now he belongs to the ages!"

The hands of the clock on the mantel point at twenty-two minutes
after seven. It is Saturday morning. Tomorrow will be Easter Sunday.
The statesmen bow, and pass from the room. A woman falls upon the
lifeless form; oh, how she sobs; her loving heart is breaking! Close the
door gently; leave them alone in life's greatest moment — a moment that
you and I must soon meet — life's last triumph!

Was there ever a scene more magnificent ? Was there ever a greater
victory ? Was there ever a man whose tribute from the world was more
beautiful ? Look at the thousands and the hundreds of thousands passing
before his bier — looking into the face that they loved — men, women, and
children, weeping; all races and sects knit together into one kinship — his
beloved children.

98

HOUSE IN WHICH PRESIDENT LINCOLN DIED ON SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 15, 1865

Photograph taken of the building opposite Ford's Theater in which Lincoln

spent his last hours — The house is now the famous Lincoln Museum

established bv Mr. Osborh H, Oldroyd at Washington, D. C.

Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington

THE INFAMY OF A DEED THAT ROBBED A NATION

'ND after all — what does it mean for a man to live ill? The world
turned in wrath against the murderers of the man who had loved
humanity. Bitterness raged in their hearts against the assas-
sins. Their names, which are hardly fit to speak, except as they
stand as ignominious warning to mankind, aroused only the hatred
of their fellow-men, and, like all who break the laws of God and man,
are passing down through the generations to be loathed.

The assassin, who, craving for notoriety, had fired the fatal shot in
the theater, fled from the stage in the excitement. His leg broken by the
fall from the balcony, he escaped on a horse that was waiting for him in
the streets, all the fast closing hours of his life to be haunted as a creature
too low to be allowed to exist even in the blood of his own crime.

Pitiful figure that he was, cursed by his own morbid longings, and
believing that the world might look upon and glorify him for his daring,
he found himself riding into the mouth of hell. Slowly, but surely, the grip
of the law tightened about him. Driven to desperation, he took his last
refuge in a barn on a Virginia farm, only to see his last friend betray him.

As the flames leaped from his place of refuge, he rose from his crouch-
ing position and stood upright, leaning upon a crutch, and holding a car-
bine. His eyes glared with the light of fever; his face was haggard from
eleven days of the most fearful torture that a man can endure. There
was a flash from a cavalry rifle. The crutch fell at his side. A long groan
came from his lips; his face writhed in agony — he had paid the penalty.

Look upon him with all the pity that is within your heart — poor,
unfortunate, deluded man. In his moment of ambition he forgot the ruling
hand of Justice that no man ever was or eve'r will be able to overpower.
He forgot that while, for a time, we may withstand it, there is within
every man's heart a law that he never can escape — the law of conscience.

As they carried his body away, to give it a secret resting place that no
man will ever know, a diary fell from his pocket. In it was scribbled
the last words of an agonized heart: "Hunted like a dog through the
swamps ... I am here in despair ... I am abandoned with the curse
of Cain upon me."

And turn now to the prison yard. There on the gallows hang the
bodies of those, who, in their blindness, were led into this plot. There
in the prison cell sit those who listened to false ambition — now rejected
and despised by their fellow-men. Look upon them all with pity!

100

Photograph of John Wilkes Booth, the actor, who shot Lincoln
at Ford's Theater, Friday night, April 14, 1865

Photograph of Sergeant Boston Corbett, 16th New York Cavalry,

who fired the shot that killed the fugitive Booth in a

barn in Virginia at 3:15 a.m., April 26, 1865

Negatives in the Original Brady-Gardner Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts

Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, an unfortunate widow and mother, whose
home unwittingly became the center of the conspiracy

George Atzerodt, a carriage painter, who, it was charged,
was delegated to assassinate Vice- President Johnson

Davey Herold, the boy who aided Booth to escape, and left
his mother and seven sisters heartbroken

Lewis Payne (Powell), a Florida boy, in double irons — He
attempted to assassinate Seward in his home

HANGED AS CONSPIRATORS IN ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN
Original Secret Service Negatives in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts

Michael O'Laughlin, sentenced for life and died during
imprisonment ; his remains were sent to his mother

Sam Arnold , clerk in sutler's store, sentenced for life
but pardoned after serving four years

Edward Spangler, scene shifter, sentenced to six years;
pardoned in four years and died 18 months later

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, physician, who, for harboring Booth
was sentenced for life ; pardoned after four years

IMPRISONED AS ACCESSORIES IN ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN
Original Secret Service Negatives in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts

PRISON WHERE THE CONSPIRATORS WERE CONFINED — Photograph taken at the old
penitentiary building on the Arsenal grounds at Washington where the accused
were imprisoned in cells and heavily chained and manacled — Original negative
• Brady-Gardner Collection deposited in Springfield, Massachusetts

the

MILITARY COURT THAT TRIED THE LINCOLN CONSPIRATORS — Photograph taken
when the commission began to take testimony on May 12. 1865 — Lieutenant
General Grant, whose life was also in the conspiracy, was the first witness — Print
in the Collection of Americana of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

GALLOWS IN THE PRISON YARD WHERE THE CONSPIRATORS WERE HANGED —
Photograph taken on the afternoon of July 7, 1865 when the ropes were being noosed
about the conspirators — Original negative by Alexander Gardner, government
photographer, now in Brady-Gardner Collection in Springfield, Massachusetts

EXECUTION OF THE CONVICTED PRISONERS IN THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION —
This remarkable negative is a silent witness of the end of one of the world's
greatest tragedies — Taken by Alexander Gardner while those who paid
penalty were hanging on gallows— Negative in Springfield, Massachusetts

THE GLORY OF A MAN WHO LOVES HIS FELLOW-MEN

HAT, then, do we learn from the life of such a man as
Abraham Lincoln ? It is the simplest, plainest truth in all
history — the greatest man in the world is the man who
loves his fellow-men. Kings come and go; nations rise and
fall; military glory and political eminence flare for their moment and
then die away. Men may erect great monuments to their memory; genius
may leave its marvels behind it; masters may build their powerful insti-
tutions,— but there is only one living force that pulsates through the
ages and that is the heart of man himself.

Let your eyes rest upon Lincoln, not with the din of battle in your
ears, not with the shout of victory nor the pangs of defeat in your heart,
but as a man who knew no malice, who knew no envy, who knew no
glory, — but who knew only that he loved his fellow-men and that he was
one of the most humble. among them.

The funeral train moves slowly from the nation's capital; watch-fires
blaze in the darkness as it passes; bells are tolling. Was there ever a
procession like this — nearly* two thousand miles of a people's tribute!
Twenty-five million fellow-men 'bowing their heads in prayer.

Now he is home at last — home again in Springfield, where he longed
to rest after his work was done. It is May-day the fourth. Tenderly,
they are bearing him to the foot of the wooded knoll; they are laying him
in the shade of the oaks.

Hark! Can you hear the melody? From every mountain and valley;
from every state and clime — the solemn strains of the dirge are swelling.

The sun drops over the hills. Twilight bathes the blossoming foliage
and gathers its darkening shadows about the tomb. The world has lost
a simple, honest man — and immortality has gained one. From every
nation and from every people, from farm and bench and throne of monarchs,
come tributes of his greatness; for days and months they came; for years
and for decades they have been coming, and ever will as long as memory
shall last and men shall love an honest heart.

This is the true Lincoln — the Lincoln that you should know; the
Lincoln the generations will know when they have forgotten that blinding
war of brother against brother, and come to grasp the hand of this great,
strong, homely man among men. This is the Lincoln that the world will
love — the common heritage of all races and times — the man with a heart big
enough to hold the whole world.

106

PART IV

The Nine Great Speeches that Mark the

Rise of Abraham Lincoln
as an Orator and Leader of the People

FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Delivered at twenty-three years of age when " Honest Abe " the country store
clerk at New Salem, Illinois, became a candidate for the Legislature, in 1832

FELLOW-CITIZENS: I presume you all know who I am. I am
humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become
a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the
old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the
internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my
sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not,
it will be all the same.

INCOLN left his own written record of his character and intellect
in his speeches. They are the living witnesses that remain long
after human lips are silent. In them is woven the true life-story
of the man.

Oratory has always been the forerunner of the world's civiliza-
tion. It is the resounding voice of the future. In modern times, oratory has
not aroused the people as it did of old, owing to the democracy of the public
press which now speaks to the whole world while the human voice can
reach but the few who are within its hearing. The art of oratory will,
nevertheless, always remain one of the greatest gifts of genius.

Lincoln lived in a day when oratory was the road to greatness. His first
public speech, in its homely candor, is much like the first experiences of most
men when they find themselves before their first audience. He was the back-
woods youth, but twenty-three years of age, when he delivered this first
speech; he neither knew nor was known by the world. In it, however, is the
beginning of his journey. It epitomizes the political principles that were the
foundation of his strength and character throughout his life.

In these pages are recorded the nine great speeches that mark the rise of
Lincoln as the leader of his people. He occupied the platform on nearly all
public occasions and spoke on all the varied subjects from temperance to
invention. It was not until he met Douglas in debate. that his speeches were
very widely known. He was fifty-one years of age when he made his first
appearance in the East as an orator, and delivered his first national speech
at the Cooper Union mass meeting in New York. From this time he became
one of the great American orators and his speeches had a deeper effect upon
the trend of events than those of any other man of the generation. His
inaugural addresses inspired the nation, while his speech at Gettysburg has
taken its place as one of the world's greatest orations.

Lincoln was not the turgid rhetorician of the old-school of statesmanship,
but a simple, logical reasoner. His words did not inflame the imagination;
they carried conviction. While it is estimated that Lincoln delivered nearly
a hundred speeches many of them were extemporaneous and cannot be recorded.
Others were not reported at the time and there are various versions of them.
The nine speeches given here are the result of long research through author^
tative sources. They represent the turning points in Lincoln's life and accu-
rately establish the nine progressive steps through which he rose from a back-
woodsman to the highest political honor in the world.

112

FIRST GREAT PATRIOTIC SPEECH OF LINCOLN

Delivered at twenty-eight years of age, while a member of the Legislature of
Illinois, before the Young Men's Lyceum, at Springfield, on January 27, 1837

3N the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American
people, find our account running the date of the nineteenth century
of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of
the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility
of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the govern-
ment of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends
of the civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times
tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal in-
heritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or
establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by once a hardy, brave,
and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of our ancestors. Theirs was
the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through
themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys
a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only to transmit these —
the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the
lapse of time and untorn by usurpation — to the latest generation that fate
shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice
to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all impera-
tively require us faithfully to perform.

How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall we expect the approach
of danger ? By what means shall we fortify against it ? Shall we expect some
transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never!
All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure
of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for
a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track
on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point is the approach of danger to be expected ? I answer, if
it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad.
If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As
a nation of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

I hope I am not over wary; but if I am not there is even now something
of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades
the country — the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions
in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the
executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any com-
munity ; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit,
it would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny.
Accounts of outrages committed by mobs form the every-day news of the times.
They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; they are
neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of
the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to
the slave-holding or the non-slave-holding States. Alike they spring up among
the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens
of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, it is common
to the whole country.

It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of them.

. us

Mob Law Is the Greatest Danger of the Nation

Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are perhaps the
most dangerous in example, and the most revolting to humanity. In the
Mississippi case, they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers —
a set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or honest
occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the laws was actually
licensed by an act of the legislature passed but a single year before. Next,
negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection were caught up and
hanged in all parts of the State; then, white men supposed to be leagued with
the negroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring States, going thither on
business, were in many instances subjected to the same fate. Thus went on
this process of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens,
and from these to strangers, until dead men were seen literally dangling from
boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost sufficient to rival
the native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery to the forest.

Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim was
only sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps the most highly
tragic of anything of its length that has ever been witnessed in real life. A
mulatto man by the name of Mclntosh was seized in the street, dragged to
the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned to death; and
all within a single hour from the time when he had been a free man attending
to his own business and at peace with the world.

Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more
and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order, and
the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to attract anything
more than an idle remark.

But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the per-
petuation of our political institutions?" I answer, "It has much to do with
it." Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small evil,
and much of its danger consists in the proneness of our minds to regard its
direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the
gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They constitute a portion
of population that is worse than useless in any community; and their death,
if no pernicious example is set by it, is never a matter of reasonable regret by
anyone. If they were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague
or smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the operation.
Similar, too is the correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the negro at
St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder
upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he
not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law a short time
afterward. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was as it could otherwise
have been. But the example in either case was fearful. When men take it
into their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recol-
lect that in the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be
as likely to hang or burn someone who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as
one who is, and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow
may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the same mistake. And
not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations
of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob
law; and thus it goes on, step by step, 'til all the walls erected for the defense

114

Rights of Persons and Property Must Be Protected

of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down and disregarded.
But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by
instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in
spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used
to no restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become absolutely unre-
strained. Having ever regarded government as their deadliest bane, they
make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so
much as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who
love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits,
who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, seeing their
property destroyed, their families insulted, and their lives endangered, their
persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for
the better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers them
no protection, and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine
they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic
spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark
of governments, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectu-
ally be broken down and destroyed — I mean the attachment of the people.
Whenever this effect shall be produced among us ; whenever the vicious portion
of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands,
and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing-presses into
rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and
with impunity, depend on it, this government cannot last. By such things
the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and
thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those who are too weak
to make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such circum-
stances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the
opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the last
half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout
the world.

I know the American people are much attached to their government;
I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils
long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another, —
yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually disregarded and despised,
if their rights to be secure in their persons and property are held by no better
tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the
government is the natural consequence; and to that sooner or later it must
come.

Here, then, is one point from which danger must be expected.

The question recurs, "How shall we fortify against it?" The answer
is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to
his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least
particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by
others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration
of Independence, and so to the support of the Constitution and laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor — let every man
remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and
to tear the charter of his own and children's liberty. Let reverence for the
laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles

115

Nation's Safety Is the Preservation of Its Laws

on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in. seminaries, and in colleges; let it be
written in primers, in spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from
the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.
And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old
and the young, the rich and poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues
and colors sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.

While ever a state of feeling such as this universally or even very generally
prevails throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every
attempt, to subvert our national freedom.

When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not
be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, or that grievances may
not arise for the redress for which no legal provisions have ever been made.
I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws,
if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while 'they continue
in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So also
in unimproved cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be made for
them with the least possible delay, but 'til then let them, if not too intolerable,
be borne with.

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any
case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one
of two positions is necessarily true— that is, the thing is right within itself,
therefore deserves the protection of all law and good citizens, or it is wrong,
and therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and in neither case
is the interposition of mob law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.

But it may be asked, "Why suppose danger to our political institutions?
Have we not preserved them for fifty years? And why may we not for fifty
times as long?"

We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope that all danger may be
overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be
extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes,
dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which
are not so insignificant as to merit attention. That our government should
have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment until now,
is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that
period, which now are decayed and crumbled awayi Through that period
it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is understood to be
a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and fame and distinction
expected to find them in the success of that experiment. Their all was staked
upon it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired
to display before an admiring world a practical demonstration of the truth
of a proposition which had hitherto been considered at best no better than
problematical — namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves. If
they succeeded they were to be immortalized; their names were to be trans-
ferred to counties, and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered
and sung, toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called
knaves, and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten.
They succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their
deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; I believe that
the catching ends the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is harvested,

116

True Patriotism Builds Up — It Does Not Pull Down

and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they
too will seek a field. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true,
to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up
amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification
of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The question then
is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice
that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and
good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever
be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress,
a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of
the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would sat-
isfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon ? Never! Towering genius dis-
dains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no dis-
tinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the
memory of others. It denies that it is a glory to serve under any chief. It
scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It
thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at
the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving free men. Is it unreasonable,
then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with
ambition to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among
us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with
each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent,
to successfully frustrate his designs.

Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly,
perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being
past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly
to the task of pulling down.

Here is a probable case, highly dangerous and such an one as could not
well have existed heretofore.

Another reason which once was, but which to the same extent, is now
no more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the
powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon
the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By this
influence the jealousy, the envy, and avarice incident to our nature, and so
common to a state of peace, prosperity and conscious strength, were for the
time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, while the deep-rooted
principles of hate, the powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned
against each other, were directed exclusively against the British Nation. And
thus, from the force of circumstances the basest principles of our nature were
either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement
of the noblest of causes— that of establishing and maintaining civil and religious
liberty.

But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the circum-
stances that produced it.

I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever
will be entirely forgotten, but that like everything else, they must fade from
the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of time.
In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible
shall be read; but even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what

117

Reason Must Ultimately Rule — There Can Be No Hate

it heretofore has been. Even they cannot be so universally known nor so
vividly felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At the close of
that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its
scenes. The consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband,
a father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every family —
a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity in the limbs
mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related —
a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and
ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They
can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but what
invading foemen could never do, the silent artillery of time has done — the
leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but
the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and there
a lonely trunk despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and
unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to combat with mutilated
limbs a few more rude storms and then to sink and be no more.

They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have crum-
bled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply their
places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion
has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason —
cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason — must furnish all the materials for
oar future support and defense. Let those materials be molded into general
intelligence, sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the Constitu-
tion and laws; and that we improve to the last, that we remained free to the
last, that we revered his name to the last, that during his long sleep we per-
mitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting-place, shall be that
which, to learn, the last trumpet shall awaken our Washington.

Upon this let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis;
ana as truly as it has been said of the only greater institution, "the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it."

Words of Wisdom from the Lips of Lincoln

"Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better
than gold."

"Would you undertake to disprove a proposition in Euclid by calling
Euclid a liar?"

"I am like the boy that stumped his toe: hurt too much to laugh and too
big to cry."

"Meet face to face and converse together — the best way to efface unpleasant
feeling."

"I want it said of me that I plucked a thistle and planted a flower where
I thought a flower would grow."

"Let not him who is homeless pull down the house of another, but let him
labor diligently to build one for himself."

"You may fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people
all of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

"If all that has been said in praise of woman were applied to the women
of America, it would not do them justice . . . God bless the women of America!'

118

FIRST GREAT NATIONAL SPEECH OF LINCOLN

First Speech Delivered by Lincoln in the East, at Fifty-one Years of Age, before a
Great Mass Meeting at Cooper Union in New York City, on February 27, 1860 — This
Is the Speech That First Made Lincoln a Great National Political Leader in America

•R. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS OF NEW
YORK: The facts with which I shall deal this evening are
mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the
general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty,
it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences
and observations following that presentation. In his speech last autumn at
Columbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, Senator Douglas said:

Our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, understood this
question just as well, and even better, than we do now.

I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt
it because it furnishes a precise and an agreed starting-point for a discussion
between Republicans and that wing of the Democracy headed by Senator
Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: What was the understanding those
fathers had of the question mentioned ?

What is the frame of government under which we live? The answer
must be, "The Constitution of the United States." That Constitution consists
of the original, framed in 1787, and under which the present government first
went into operation, and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first
ten of which were framed in 1789.

Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution? I suppose the "thirty-
nine" who signed the original instrument may be fairly called our fathers who
framed that part of the present government. It is almost exactly true to say
they framed it, and it is altogether true to say they fairly represent the opinion
and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. Their names, being familiar
to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not now be repeated.

I take these "thirty-nine," for the present, as being "our fathers who framed
the government under which we live." What is the question which, according
to the test, those fathers understood "just as well, and even better, than we
do now?"

It is this: Does the proper division of local from Federal authority, or
anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal government to control as
to slavery in our Federal Territories ?

Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republicans the
negative. This affirmation and denial form an issue; and this issue — this
question — is precisely what the text declares our fathers understood "better
than we." Let us now inquire whether the "thirty-nine" or any of them ever
acted upon this question; and if they did, how they acted upon it — how they
expressed their better understanding. In 1784, three years before the Con-
stitution, the United States, then owning the Northwestern Territory, and
no other, the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question
of prohibiting slavery in that Territory; and four of the "thirty -nine" who after-
ward framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on that question.
Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted for
the prohibition, thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing
local from Federal authority, nor anything else, properly forbade the Federal

119

Federal Control Is a Principle of the Government

Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. The other of the
four, James Mclienry, voted against the prohibition, showing that for some
cause he thought it improper to vote for it.

In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the convention was in
session framing it, and while the Northwestern Territory still 'was the only
Territory owned by the United States, the same question of prohibiting slavery
in the Territory again came before the Congress of the Confederation; and two
more of the "thirty -nine" who afterward signed the Constitution were in that
Congress, and voted on the question. They were William Blount and William
Few; and they both voted for the prohibition — thus showing that in their
understanding no line divided local from Federal authority, nor anything else,
properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal
territory. This time prohibition became a law, being part of what is now well
known, as the ordinance of '87.

The question of Federal control of slavery in the Territories seems not to
have been directly before the convention which framed the original Constitu-
tion; and hence it is not recorded that the "thirty -nine" or any of them, while
engaged on that instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question.

In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitution, an act
was passed to enforce the ordinance of '87, including the prohibition of slavery
in the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this act was reported by one of
the "thirty-nine "-—Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of
Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages without
a word of opposition, and -finally passed both branches without ayes and nays,
which is equivalent to a unanimous passage. In this Congress, there were
sixteen of the "thirty-nine" fathers who framed the original Constitution. 'They
were John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, William S. Johnson, Roger Sherman,
Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus
King, William Paterson, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read, Pierce
Butler, Daniel Carrol and James Madison.

This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from Federal
authority, nor anything in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to
prohibit slavery in the Federal Territory; else both their fidelity to correct
principle, and their oath to support the Constitution, would have constrained
them to oppose the prohibition.

Again, George Washington, another of the "thirty -nine," was then President
of the United States, and as such approved and signed the bill, thus completing
its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his understanding, no line
dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, for-
bade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory.

No great while after the adoption of the original Constitution, North Carolina
ceded to the Federal Government the country now constituting the State of
Tennessee; and a few years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes
the States of Mississippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made
a condition by the ceding States that the Federal Government should not prohibit
slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, slavery was then actually in the
ceded country. Under these circumstances, Congress, on taking charge of
these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. But they
did interfere with it — take control of it — even there, to a certain extent. In

120

Founders of the Republic Forecast Its Problems

1798, Congress organized the Territory of Mississippi. In the act of organi-
zation, they prohibited the bringing of slaves into the Territory from any place
without the United States, by fine, and giving freedom to slaves so brought.
This act passed both branches- of Congress without yeas and nays. In that
Congress, there were three of the "thirty -nine" who framed the original Con-
stitution. They were John Langdon, George Read and Abraham Baldwin.
They all probably voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their oppo-
sition to it upon record if, in their understanding, any line dividing local from
Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal
Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory.

In 1803, the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana country. Our
former territorial acquisitions came from certain of our States ; but this Louisiana
country was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804, Congress gave a territorial
organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana.
New Orleans, lying within that part, was an old and comparatively large city.
There were other considerable towns and settlements, and slavery was exten-
sively and thoroughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not, in
the Territorial Act, prohibit slavery; but they did interfere with it — take control
of it — in a more marked and extensive way than they did in the case of
Mississippi. The substance of the provision therein made in relation to slaves
was :

1st. That no slave should be imported into the Territory from foreign
parts.

2nd. That no slave should be carried into it who had been imported
into the United States since the first day of May, 1798.

That no slave should be carried into it, except by the owner, and for his
own use as a settler; the penalty in all these cases being a fine upon the violator
of the law, and freedom to the slave.

This act also was passed without ayes or nays. In the Congress which
passed it there were two of the "thirty -nine." They were Abraham Baldwin and
Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, it is probable they
both voted for it. They would not have allowed it to pass without recording
their opposition to it if, in their understanding, it violated either the line properly
dividing local from Federal authority, or any provision of the Constitution.

In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri question. Many votes were
taken, by yeas and nays, in both branches of Congress, upon the various phases
of the general question. Two of the "thirty-nine" — Rufus King and Charles
Pinckney — were members of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for
slavery prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as
steadily voted against slavery prohibition and against all compromises. By
this, Mr. King showed that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from
Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, was violated by
Congress prohibiting slavery in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, by
his votes, showed that, in his understanding, there was some sufficient reason
for opposing such prohibition in that case.

The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the "thirty -nine," or of
any of them, upon the direct issue, which I have been able to discover.

To enumerate, the persons who thus acted as being four in 1784, two in
1787. seventeen in 1789, three in 1798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20, there

121

Liberty Under Law Is the Intent of Our Constitution

would be thirty of them. But this would be counting John Langdon, Roger
Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, and George Read each twice, and Abra-
ham Baldwin three times. The true number of those of the "thirty-nine"
whom I have shown to have acted upon the question which, by the text, they
understood better than we, is twenty -three, leaving sixteen not shown to have
acted upon it in any way.

Here, then, we have twenty -three out of our "thirty -nine" fathers "who
framed the government under which we live," who have, upon their official
responsibility and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question which
the text affirms they "understood just as well, and even better, than we do
now"; and twenty -one of them — a clear majority of the whole "thirty -nine" —
so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross political impropriety and
willful perjury if, in their understanding, any proper division between local
and Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution they had made them-
selves, and sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control as
to slavery in the Federal Territories. Thus the twenty -one acted; and, as
actions speak louder than words, so actions under such responsibility speak
still louder.

Two of the twenty-three voted against congressional prohibition of slaver
in the Federal Territories, in the instances in which they acted upon the ques-
tion. But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They may have done
so because they thought a proper division of local from Federal authority, or
some provision or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or they may,
without any such question, have voted against the prohibition on what appeared
to them to be sufficient grounds for expediency. No one who has sworn to
support the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what he understands to
be an unconstitutional measure, however expedient he may think it; but one
may and ought to vote against a measure which he thinks constitutional
if, at the time, he deems it inexpedient. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set
down even the two who voted against the prohibition as having done so because,
in their understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority,
or anything in the Constitution, that forbade the Federal Government to con-
trol as to slavery in Federal territory.

The remaining sixteen of the "thirty -nine," so far as I discovered, have
left no record of their understanding upon the direct question of Federal control
of slavery in the Federal Territories. But there is much reason to believe that
their understanding upon that question would not have appeared different
from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been manifested at all.

For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have purposely omitted
whatever understanding may have been manifested by any person, however
distinguished, other than the "thirty-nine" fathers who framed the original Con-
stitution; and, for the same reason, I have also omitted whatever understand-
ing may have been manifested by any of the "thirty -nine," even on any other
phase of the general question of slavery. If we should look into their acts
and declarations on those other phases, as the foreign slave-trade, and the
morality and policy of slavery generally, it would appear to us that on the
direct question of Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories, the six-
teen, if they had acted at all would probably have acted just as the twenty-
three did. Among that sixteen were several of the most noted anti-slavery

122

Intent of the Fathers of the American Republic

men of those times, — as Dr. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur
Morris, — while there was not one now known to be otherwise, unless it may be
John Rutledge, of South Carolina.

The sum of the whole is that of our "thirty -nine" fathers who framed the
original Constitution, twenty-one — a clear majority of the whole — certainly
understood that no proper division of local from Federal authority, nor any
part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control slavery
in the Federal Territories; while all the rest had probably the same understand-
ing. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding of our fathers who framed
the original Constitution ; and the text affirms that they understood the question
"better than we."

But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of the question
manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. In and by the original
instrument, a mode was provided for amending it; and, as I have already stated,
the present frame of "the government under which we live" consists of that
original, and twelve amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument.
Those who now insist that Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories
violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it
thus violates; and, as I understand, they all fix upon provisions in
these amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The
Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon the fifth
amendment, which provides that no person shall be deprived of "life, liberty,
or property, without the due process of law"; while Senator Douglas and his
peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the Tenth Amendment, provided that
"the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution" "are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first
Congress which sat under the Constitution — the identical Congress which passed
the act, already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the North-
western Territory. Not only was it the saine Congress, but they were the
very identical, same individual men who, at the same session, and at the same
time within the session, had under consideration, and in progress toward
maturity, these constitutional amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery
in all the territory the nation then owned. The constitutional amendments
were introduced before, and passed after, the act of enforcing the ordinance
of '87; so that, during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the ordinance,
the constitutional amendments were also pending.

The seventy-six members of that Congress, including sixteen of the
framers of the original Constitution, as before stated, were pre-eminently our
fathers who framed that part of "the government under which we live" which
is now claimed as forbidding the Federal Government to control slavery in the
Federal Territories.

Is it not a little presumptuous in anyone at this day to affirm that the
two things which that Congress deliberately .framed, and carried to maturity
at the same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other? And does not
such affirmation become impudently absurd when coupled with the other affir-
mation, from the same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged to
be inconsistent, understood whether they really were inconsistent better than
we — better than he who affirms that they are inconsistent ?

123

Honest Conviction Is the Inherent Right of Man

It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine framers of the original
Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the
amendments thereto, taken together, do certainly include those who may be
fairly called "our fathers who framed the government under which we live."
And so assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in his
whole life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local
from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal
Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. I go a step
further. I defy anyone to show that any living man in the whole world ever
did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might almost say
prior to the beginning of the last half century) declare that, in his understand-
ing, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the
Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the
Federal Territories. To those who now so declare I give not only "our fathers
who framed the government under which we live," but with them all other
living men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search,
and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with
them.

Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunderstood. I do
not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers
did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current experience — to
reject all progress, all improvement. What I do say is that if we would sup-
plant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon
evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority,
fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand; and most surely not in a case
whereof we ourselves declare they understood the question better than we.

If any man at this day sincerely believes that a proper division of local
from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal
Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say
so, and to enforce his position by truthful evidence and fair argument which
he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have less access to history,
and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that "our fathers who framed
the government under which we live" were of the same opinion — thus substi-
tuting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If
any man at this day sincerely believes "our fathers who framed the government
under which we live" used and applied principles, in other cases, which ought
to have led them to understand that a proper division of local from Federal
authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government
to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say so. But
he should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of declaring that in his
opinion, he understands their principles better than they did themselves; and
especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that they "under-
stood the question as well, and even better, than we do now."

But enough! Let all who believe that "our fathers who framed the gov-
ernment under which we live understood this question just as well, and even
better, than we do now," speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it.
This is all Republicans ask — all Republicans desire — in relation to slavery.
As those fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be
extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of and so far as its

124

Argument Is the Life of Political Conscience

actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity.
Let all the guarantees those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but fully and
fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as
I know or believe, they will be content.

And now, if they would listen, — as I suppose they will not — I would
address a few words to the Southern people.

I would say to them: You consider yourselves a reasonable and a just
people; and I consider that in the general qualities of reason and justice you
are not inferior to any other people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans,
you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than
outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like
it to "Black Republicans." In all your contentions with one another, each
of you deem an unconditional condemnation of "Black Republicanism" as the
first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be
an indispensable prerequisite — license so to speak — among you to be admitted
or permitted to speak at all. Now can you or not be prevailed upon to pause
and to consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves? Bring
forward your charges and specifications, and then be patient long enough to
hear us deny or justify.

You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue; and the
burden of proof is upon you. You produce your proof; and what is it ? Why,
that our party has no existence in your section — gets no votes in your section.
The fact is substantially true; but does it prove the issue? If it does, then
in case we should, without change of principle, begin to get votes in your
section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this
conclusion; and yet, are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you will prob-
ably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in
your section this very year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly
is, that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact that we get no votes in
your section is a fact of your making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that
fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until you show that we repel
you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong
principle or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to where you ought
to have started — a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our
principle, put in practice, would wrong your section for the benefit of ours, or
for any other object, then our principle and we with it are sectional, and
are justly opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the question of
whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section; and so meet
us if it were possible that something may be said on our side. Do you accept
the challenge? No! Then you really believe that the principle which "our
fathers who framed the government under which we live" thought so clearly
right as to adopt it, and indorse it again and again, upon their official oaths,
is in fact so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation without a moment's
•consideration.

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional
parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years
before Washington gave that warning, he had, as President of the United
States, approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of
slavery in the Northwest Territory, which act embodied the policy of the

125

True Conservatism Must Not Deny Stable Progress

government upon that subject up to and at the very moment he penned that
warning; and about a year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he con-
sidered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection
his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy of free States.

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen upon
this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands against us, or in our
hands against you ? Could Washington himself speak, would he cast the blame
of that sectionalism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, who repudiate
it ? We respect that warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, together
with his example pointing to the right application of it.

But you say you are conservative— eminently conservative — while we are
revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism?
Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We
stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which
was adopted by "our fathers who framed the government under which we live";
while you with one accord reject, and scout, nd spit upon that old policy, and
insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves
as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on new propositions and
plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of
the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave-trade; some for
a congressional slave code for the Territories; some for Congress forbidding
the Territories to prohibit slavery within their limits; some for maintaining
slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the "gur-reat pur-
rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, no third man should object,"
fantastically called "popular sovereignty"; but never a man among you is in
favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal Territories, according to
the practice of "our fathers who framed the government under which we live."
Not one of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the
century within which our government originated. Consider, then, whether
your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your charge of destructiveness
against us, are based on the most clear and stable foundations.

Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent
than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more prominent, but
we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded the old
policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, your innovation; and thence
comes the greater prominence of the question. Would you have that question
reduced to its former proportions? Go back to that old policy. What has
been will be again, under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of
the old times, re-adopt the precepts and policy of the old times.

You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it;
and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was
no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his
Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter,
you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable
for not designating the man and proving the fact. If you do not know it, you
are inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion
after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that
persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, is simply malicious
slander.

126

New Political Parties Are Always Called Radical

Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the
Harper's Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations neces-
sarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know we hold no doc-
trine, and make no declaration, which were not held to and made by "our
fathers who framed the government under which we live." You never dealt
fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some important State
elections were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief that,
by charging the blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us in those
elections. The elections came and your expectations were not quite fulfilled.
Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a
slander, and he was not much inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor.
Republican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with §, continual protest
against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your
slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in
common with "our fathers who framed the government under which we live,"
declare our belief that slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare
even this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely know that
there is a Republican party. I believe they would not, in fact, generally know
it but for your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In your political
contests among yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy with
Black Republicanism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines
Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among
the slaves.

Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were before the
Republican party was organized. What induced the Southampton insurrection,
twenty-eight years ago, in which at least three times as many lives were lost
as at Harper's Ferry ? You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to the
conclusion that Southampton was "got up by Black Republicanism." In the
present state of things in the United States, I do not think a general, or even
a very extensive, slave insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of
action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid communication;
nor can incendiary freemen, black or white, supply it. The explosive
materials are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor can be supplied,
the indispensable connecting trains.

Much is said by Southern people about the affection of slaves for their
masters and mistresses; and a part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising
could scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty individuals before
some one of them, to save the life of a favorite master or mistress, would
divulge it. This is the rule; and the slave revolution in Hayti was not an
exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar circumstances. The gun-
powder plot of English history, though not connected with slaves, was more
in point. In that case only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and
yet one of them in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend,
and, by consequences, averted that calamity. Occasional poisonings from the
kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolts
extending to a score or so, will continue to occur as the natural results of
slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this
country for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an
event, will be alike disappointed.

1*7

A People's Hopes May Be Restrained — Never Destroyed

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, "It is still in
our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation peaceably,
and in such slow degrees as that the evil will wear off insensibly ; and their places
be, pari passu, filled up by white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to
force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up."

Mr. Jefferson did not seem to say, nor do I, that the power of emancipation
is in the Federal Government. He spoke of Virginia; and, as to the power of
emancipation, I speak of the slave-holding States only. The Federal Govern-
ment, however, as we insist, has the power of restraining the extension of the
institution — the power to insure that a slave insurrection shall never occur
on any American soil which is now free from slavery.

John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It
was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the
slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with
all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in
its philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in history,
at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the
oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to lib-
erate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in little less than his own
execution. Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt
at Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eager-
ness to cast blame on Old England in the one case, and on New England in the
other, does not disprove the sameness of the two things.

And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use of John Brown,
Helper's Book, and the like, break up the Republican organization? Human
action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.
There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast
at least a million and a half votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and
feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up the political organization which
rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has
been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how
much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the
peaceful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel. What would that
other channel probably be? Would the number of John Browns be lessened
or enlarged by the operation ?

But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your
constitutional rights.

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully
justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of
some right plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing
no such thing.

When you make these declarations you have a specific and well under-
stood allusion to an assumed constitutional right of yours to take slaves into
the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. But no such
right is specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument is literally
silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right
exists in the Constitution, even by implication.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the government,

128

Rule or Ruin Is Not a Principle of Self-Government

unless you be allowed to construe and force the Constitution as you please,
on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.

This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say the Supreme
Court has decided the disputed and constitutional question in your favor. Not
quite so. But waiving the lawyer's distinction between dictum and decision,
the court has decided the question for you in a sort of way. The court has
substantially said, it is your constitutional right to take slaves into the Federal
Territories, and to hold them there as property. When I say the decision was
made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by a bare
majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another in the
reasons for making it; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree
with one another about its meaning, and that it was mainly based upon a mis-
taken statement of fact — the statement in the opinion that "the right
of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution."

An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property
in a slave is not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it. Bear in mind,
the judges do not pledge ' their judicial opinion that such right is
impliedly affirmed in the Constitution; but they pledge their veracity, that it
is "distinctly and expressly" affirmed there — "distinctly," that is, not mingled
with anything else — "expressly," that is, in words meaning just that, without
the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning.

If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such right is affirmed
in the instrument by implication, it would be open to others to show that
neither the word "slave" nor "slavery" is to be found in the Constitution,
nor the word "property" even, in any connection with language alluding to the
things slaves or slavery ; and that wherever in that instrument the slave is alluded
to, he is called a "person" ; and wherever his master's legal right in relation to him
is alluded to, it is spoken of as "service or labor which may be due" — as a debt
payable in service or labor. Also it would be open to show, by contemporaneous
history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of speaking
of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea
that there could be property in man.

To show all this is easy and certain:

When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to their notice,
is it not reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the mistaken statement,
and reconsider the conclusion based upon it ?

And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers who framed the govern-
ment under which we live" — the men who made the Constitution — decided
this same constitutional question in our favor long ago ; decided it without division
among themselves when making the decision; without division among them-
selves; without the meaning of it after it was made, and, so far as any evidence
is left, without basing it upon any mistaken statement of facts.

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break
up this government unless such a court decision as yours is shall be at once
submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action ? But you will
not abide the election of a Republican president ! In that supposed event,
you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of
having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds

.129

To Extort a Vote — Like Extorting Money — Is Robbery

a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or
I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!"

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was my own;
and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote
is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of
destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished
in principle.

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that all
parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony one with another.
Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked,
let us do nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the Southern
people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands,
and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of duty, we possibly can. Judging
by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy
with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them.

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered
to them? We know they will not. In all their present complaints against
us, the Territories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are
the rage now. Will it satisfy them, if, in the future, we have nothing to do
with invasions and insurrections? We know it will not. We so know, because
we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections;
and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the
denunciation.

The question recurs what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must
not only let them alone, but we must somehow convince them that we do let
them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been
so trying to convince them from the beginning of our organization, but with
no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested
our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them.
Alike unavailing to convince them is the fact that they have never detected
a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.

These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will con-
vince them? This, and this only: Cease to call slavery wrong, and join them
in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well
as in words. Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly
with them. Senator Douglas's new sedition law must be enacted and enforced,
suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics,
in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive
slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free-State constitutions.
The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery,
before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us.

I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in this way. Most
of them would probably say to us, "Let us alone; do nothing to us, and say
what you please about slavery." But we do let them alone, I have never
disturbed them, — so that, after all, it is what we say which dissatisfies them.
They will continue to accuse us of doing, until we cease saying.

I am also aware that they have not as yet in terms demanded the over-
throw of our free-State constitutions. Yet these constitutions declare the
of slavery with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings against

130

Let Us Dare to Do Our Duty as We Understand It

it; and, when all these other sayings have been silenced, the overthrow of these
constitutions will be demanded, and nothing be left to resist the demand.
It is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand the whole of this just
now. Demanding what they do, and for the reason they do, they can volun-
tarily stop nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, that
slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand
a full national recognition of it as a legal right and social blessing.

Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground save our conviction
that slavery is wrong. If slavery is rignt, all words, acts, laws, and constitu-
tions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away.
If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality — its universality; if
it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension — its enlargement. All
they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they
could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and
our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con-
troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for desiring
its full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong as we do, can we yield
to them? Can we cast our votes with their view, and against our own? In
view of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do this ?

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it
is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence
in the nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread
into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States? If
our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and
effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances
wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such
as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong: vain as
the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such
.as a policy of "don't care" on a question about which all true men do care;
such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists,
reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to
repentance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what
Washington said and undo what Washington did.

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against
us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor
of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in
that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."
"When you have written a wrathful letter — put it in the stove/"
"Suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation."
"Never get between the woman's skillet and the man's axhelve."
"Shakespeare was the best judge of human nature that ever wrote."
"It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong."
"If men never began to drink they would never become drunkards."
:t Don't shoot too high — aim low and the common people will understand."
"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was
yesterday."

131

SPEECHES IN LINCOLN'S POLITICAL GREATNESS

Lincoln's Speech in Accepting Nomination for President of the United States at
His Home in Springfield, Illinois, May 19, 1860, at Fifty-one Years of Age

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE:
I tender to you, and through you to the Republican National Convention,
and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor
done me, which you now formally announce.

Deeply, and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which is
inseparable from this high honor — a responsibility which I could almost wish
had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced states-
men whose distinguished names were before the convention — I shall, by your
leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the convention, denominated
the platform, and without any unnecessary or unreasonable delay respond to
you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found
satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted.

And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of
you, by the hand.

Lincoln's Last Speech to His Neighbors When Leaving His Home at Spring-
field, Illinois, on February 11, 1861, to Go to the White House at Washington

MY FRIENDS: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feel-
ing of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people,
I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed
from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is
buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with
a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without
the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed.
With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me,
and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope
that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers
you will commend me, I bid you :m affectionate farewell.

Lincoln's Speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia at 'a Flag Raising on
Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1861, on His Way to the National Capital

FELLOW-CITIZENS: I am invited and called before you to partici-
pate in raising above Independence Hall the flag of our country, with an
additional star upon it! I propose now to say that when the flag was originally
raised here, it had but thirteen stars. I wish to call your attention to the fact
that, under the blessing of God, each additional star has given additional pros-
perity and happiness to this country, until it has advanced to its present con-
dition; and its welfare in the future, as well as in the past, is in your hands.
Cultivating the spirit that animated our fathers, who gave renown and celeb-
rity to this Hall, cherishing that fraternal feeling which has so long character-
ized us as a nation, excluding passion, ill temper, and precipitate action on
all occasions, I think we may promise ourselves that not only the new star
placed upon that flag shall be permitted to remain there to our permanent
prosperity for years to come, but additional ones shall from time to time be
placed there until we shall number, as it was anticipated by the great histo-
rian, five hundred millions of happy and prosperous people.

With these few remarks, I proceed to the very agreeable duty assigned
to me.

132

SPEECH THAT MOLDED A NATION'S FUTURE

Great Epoch- Making Address Delivered by Abraham Lincoln as He Took the
Oath of Allegiance on His First Inauguration as President of the United States
Before a Vast Throng at the National Capitol on the Fourth of March in 1861

^ET£LL OW-CI TIZE NS OF THE UNITED STATES: In com-
^M mf pliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear be-

r *; fore you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the

mjf oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be
^^0^ taken by the President "before he enters the execution of his office."

I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters
of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that
by the accession of a Republican administration their property and their peace
and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reason-
able cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the
contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is
found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I
do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose,
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery m the States
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no
inclination to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with full
knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never
recanted them. And, more than this, they placed in the platform for my accept-
ance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution
which I now read :

RESOLVED: That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and
especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions accord-
ing to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the
perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless
invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory; no matter under what pretext,
as among the greatest of crimes.

I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the
public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible,
that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endan-
gered by the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the protection
which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be
cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause —
as cheerfully to one section as to another.

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service
or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as
any other of its provisions:

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due.

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who
made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention
of the law giver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to
the whole Constitution — to this provision as to any other. To the proposition,
then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause "shall be
delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort

133

Self-Government Depends Upon a Unity of Purpose

in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass
a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath ?

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced
by national or by State authority ; but surely that difference is not a very mate-
rial one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to
him or to others by which authority it is done. And should any one in any
case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial con-
troversy as to how it shall be kept?

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty
known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free
man be not in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well
at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the
Constitution which guarantees that "the citizen of each State shall be entitled
to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States" ?

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no
purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. And
while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper
to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official
and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand un-
repealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them
held to be unconstitutional.

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under
our National Constitution. During that period, fifteen different and greatly
distinguished citizens have, in succession, administrated the executive branch
of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, and gener-
ally with great success. Yet with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon
the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and
peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only men-
aced, is now formidably attempted.

I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the
union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed,
in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that
no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own ter-
mination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Con-
stitution, and the Union will endure forever — it being impossible to destroy
it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.

Again, if the United States be not a government' proper, but an association
of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably
unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract
may violate it — break it, so as to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully
rescind it ?

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that
in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of
the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was
formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and
continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured,
and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and engaged
that it should be perpetual by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And,

134

There Need Be No Bloodshed Nor Violence in Justice

finally, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Con-
stitution was "to form a more perfect Union."

But if the destruction of the Union by one or by part of the States be law-
fully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having
lost the vital element of perpetuity.

It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere notion can
lawfully get out of the Union; and resolves and ordinances to that effect are
legally void; and that acts of violence, within any State or States, against the
authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according
to circumstances.

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the
Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the
Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faith-
fully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on
my part; and I shall perform it so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters,,
the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authori-
tative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a
menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitu-
tionally defend and maintain itself.

In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be
none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. Th? power confided to
me will be used to hold, to occupy, and possess the property and places belonging
to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what
may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force
against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States,
in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent
resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to
force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the
strict legal right may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these
officers the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable,
withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time such use of these offices.

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of
the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense
of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection.
The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience
shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency
my best discretion will be exercised according to circumstances actually existing,
and with a view and a hope of peaceful solution of the national troubles and
the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.

That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the
Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm
nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those,
however, who really love the Union may I not speak ?

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national
fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise
to ascertain precisely why we do it ? Will you hazard so desperate a step while
there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real
existence ? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the
real ones you fly from Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ?

135

Majority Opinion Is the Only True Sovereign

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be
maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Consti-
tution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so consti-
tuted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can,
of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution
has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should
deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a
moral point of view, justify revolution — certainly would if such a right were
a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and
of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations,
guarantees and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never
arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision
specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical adminis-
tration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable
length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives
from labor be surrendered by national or by state authority ? The. Constitu-
tion does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories ?
The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in
the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and
we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not
acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no
other alternative; for continuing the government is acquiescence on one side
or the other.

If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a
precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own
will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a
minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a
year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present
Union now claim to secede from it ? All who cherish disunion sentiments are
now being educated to the exact temper of doing this.

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose
a new Union, as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession?

Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority
held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing '
easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only
true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to
anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority,
as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that rejecting the
majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.

I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional questions,
are to be decided by the Supreme Court ; nor do I deny that such decisions must
be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit,
while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel
cases by all other departments of the government. And while it is obviously
possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given -case, still the evil
effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that
it may be over-ruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better
be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the

136

This Country with Its Institutions Belongs to the People

candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital
questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions
of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between
parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers,
having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands
of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court
or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases
properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn
their decisions to political purposes.

One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended,
while the others believe it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is
the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution,
and the law of the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well en-
forced, perhaps as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sensa
of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people
abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases and a few break over in each.
This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be worse in both cases,
after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now
imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in
one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not
be surrendered at all by the other.

Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respec-
tive sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them.
A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the
reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They
cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile,
must continue between them. Is it possible then to make that intercourse
more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties be more
faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose
you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides,
and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions of inter-
course are again upon you.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise
their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dis-
member or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy
and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended.
While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful
authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the
modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circum-
stances, favor rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people
to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems
preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves,
instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by othere
not specially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as
they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment
to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed
Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with

137

Patient Confidence in Ultimate Justice of the People

the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service.
To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to
speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision
to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made
express and irrevocable.

The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they
have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States.
The people themselves can do this also if they choose; but the executive, as
such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present govern-
ment, as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his
successor.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of
the people ? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? In our present
differences is either party without faith of being in the right ? If the Almighty
Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North,
or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the
judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.

By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people
have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have,
with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands
at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance,
no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously
injure the government in the short space of four years.

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject.
^Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry
any one of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately,
that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frus-
trated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the old Consti-
tution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing
under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it
would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied
hold the right side in dispute, there still is no good reason for precipitate action.
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never
yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way
all our present difficulties.

In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momen-
tous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have
no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath regis-
tered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn
one to "preserve, protect and defend" it.

I am loath to close. WTe are not enemies, but friends. "\Ye must not
be enemies. Though passion may have strained it, it must not break our
bond of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over
this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched,
as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

138

GREATEST SPEECH IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Speech Delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863, Four
Months After the Greatest Battle on American Soil. Greatest Address in Magna-
nimity of Spirit, Simplicity, Brevity, and Historical Import in American Annals

^^^^OURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
^M Hf continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to

y, K the proposition that all men are created equal.

Wm Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether

0^0^ that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can
long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come
to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who
nere gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we
cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here
to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Magnificent Tribute to American Character in Which Lincoln at the Close of the
Greatest War of Brother Against Brother that the World Had Ever Known
Appealed for Love and Brotherhood at His Second Inauguration, March 4, 1865

^£&ELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take
^fl mf the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an

3. -j extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement,

mM somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting-
^^0^ and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which
public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and
phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of
our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as
to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.
With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were
anxiously directed to 'an impending civil war. All dreaded it — all sought
to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place,
devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were
in the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the Union,
and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but. one of
tnem would make war rather than let the nation survive ; and the other would
rather accept war than let it perish. And the war came.

138

With Malice Toward None— With Charity for All

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was,
somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this
interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even
by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than restrict the
territorial enlargement of it.

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which
it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict
might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked
for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both
read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against
the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but
let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
answered — that of neither has been answered fully.

The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of
offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom
the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of
those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which,
having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and
that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those
by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those
divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war
may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by
another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still
it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right,
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in;
to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him whom shall have borne the
battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

"Work, work, work!"

"Hold on with a bull-dog grip."

"It's all in that one word, Thorough."

"Freedom is the last, best hope of earth."

"Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time."

"Calling a sheep's tail a leg doesn't make it so."

"Wealth is a superfluity of what we don't need."

"Many have got into a habit of being dissatisfied."

"Disenthrall ourselves, then we shall save ourselves."

"When you can't remove an obstacle, plough around it/"

"Discourage litigation. There will still be business enough."

"God bless my mother! All I am or hope to be I owe to her."

140

LAST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Speech Delivered by Lincoln on April 11, 1865, Three Days Before His Assassination
in Which He Appeals to the American People to Join Hands in Peace and Build a Re-
United Nation to Stand Forever as a Beacon of Liberty to the People of the Earth

E meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The
evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of
the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and
speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained.
In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings
flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being
prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part
give us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be par-
celed out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure
of transmitting much of the good news to you ; but no part of the honor for
plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers and brave
men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take
active part.

By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national authority —
reconstruction — which has had a large share of thought from the first is
pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great diffi-
culty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no author-
ized organ for us to treat with — no one man has authority to give up the
rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and mold from dis-
organized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment
that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and
measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports
of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot
properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to
my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting
up and seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana.

In this I have done just so much and no more than the public knows.
In the annual message of December, 1863, and in the accompanying proclama-
tion, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised,
if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to and sustained by the execu-
tive government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the
only plan which might possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly
protested that the executive claimed no right to say when or whether
members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This
plan was in advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved
by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then and in that
connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted
parts of Virginia and Louisiana ; that I should drop the suggestion about appren-
ticeship for freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own
power in regard to the admission of members to Congress. But even he approved
every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched
by the action of Louisiana.

The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole
State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously excepted.
It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and it is silent, as it could

141

We Must Mold from the Discordant Elements of Society

not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that,
as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the
plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many commendations
of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection to it from any pro-
fessed emancipationist came to my knowledge until after the news reached
Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance
with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons
supposed to be interested in seeking a reconstruction of a State government
for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned,
reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that
the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially
on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and
the result is known. Such has been my only agency in getting up the
Louisiana government.

As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But as bad prom-
ises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break
it whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest ;
but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on this
subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that
my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the
seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add
astonishment to his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed
Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any
public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor
yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus
remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous
one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that
question is bad as the basis of a controversy and good for nothing at all — a
merely pernicious abstraction.

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper,
practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the government,
civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into that proper
practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier,
to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have
ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home,
it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us
all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations
between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge
his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without
into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been
out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana
government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000
or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 12,000, as it does. It is also
unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored
man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelli-
gent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands,
is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it
is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it ? Can Louisiana be brought

142

If We Reject and Scorn We Do Our Utmost to Disorganize

into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by dis-
carding her new State government? Some twelve thousand voters in the
heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed
to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State
government, adopted a free- State constitution, giving the benefit of public
schools equally to black and white, and empowering the legislature to confer
the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature has already
voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress,
abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 persons are thus fully
committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State — committed
to the very things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants — and they ask
the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good their committal.

Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and
disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless or
worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say:
This cup of liberty, which these, your old masters, hold to your lips we will
dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scat-
tered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this
course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency
to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have so
far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain
the new government of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We
encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the 12,000 to adhere to their work,
and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow
it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united
for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end.
Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by
saving the already advanced steps toward it than by running backward over
them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only what it should
be, as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg
than by smashing it.

Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the pro-
posed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition,
it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which have
not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do
not commit myself against this further than to say that such a ratification
would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned, while a rati-
fication by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unques-
tionable. I -repeat the question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper
practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her
new State government ? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally
to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such
important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new
and unprecedented is the whole case that no exclusive and inflexible plan can
safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such an exclusive and inflexible
plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may
and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be
my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am
considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper.

Wisdom and Philosophy of Abraham Lincoln

"I desire to see the time when education, by its means, morality, sobriety,
enterprise, and integrity, shall become much more general than at present,
and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the
advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the
happy period."

"And when the victory shall be complete, — when there shall be neither
a slave nor a drunkard on earth, — how proud the title of that land, which may
truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those resolutions that
shall have ended in that victory! How nobly distinguished that people, who
shall have planted, and nurtured to maturity, both the political and moral
freedom of their species!"

"Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any rights
nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between
labor and capital, producing mutual benefits . . . No men living are more
worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty — none less inclined
to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned."

"In regard to the Great Book, I have only to say that it is the best gift
which God has given man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is
communicated to us through this Book. But for this Book we could not know
right from wrong. All those things to man are contained in it."-

"Give the Boys a chance." "We cannot escape history." "I can beat
censure, but not insult!" "Don't swap horses in crossing a stream." "Let
us have faith that right makes might." "Public opinion in this country is
everything." "I know I am right because I know Liberty is right." "Is a
man to blame for having a pair of cowardly legs?"

"That some are rich shows that others may become rich."
"Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe."
"Faith in God is indispensable to successful statesmanship."
"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law."
"My boy, never try to be President! If you do, you never "ill be."
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present."

"The Lord must love the common people — that's why he made so many
of them."

"Keep that (temperance) pledge and it will be the best act of your life."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other man's
consent."

"Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your
own limbs to wear them."

"A man has no time to spend in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack
me I never remember the past against him."

"The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the
sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the
best sentiments of a Christian people, and a due regard for the divine will,
demand that Sunday labor be reduced to the measure of strict necessity."

144

The Portrait Life of Lincoln

PART V

A Chronology of the Historic Events in the

Growth of the American Nation
from the Birth to the Death of Lincoln

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln— 1809-1817

jgog — February 12; Abraham Lincoln born at
Hodgensville, Hardin County, Kentucky ;
parents, Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

February 28 ; Embargo Act repealed.

March i ; Territory of Illinois organized.

March 4 ; James Madison inaugurated fourth
President of the United States, succeed-
ing Thomas Jefferson.

1810 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's first birth-
day ; still living in log cabin where he was
born.

March 23 ; Napoleon, in his conquest of the
world, decrees that all American vessels
entering French ports shall be seized and
condemned.

June i ; Total population of the United States
7,239,822, of which 1,191,363 are colored
slaves.

1811 — January 9; Entire militia of New Orleans
is called out to suppress negro insurrection.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's second
birthday ; still living in log cabin where
he was born.

October n ; First steam ferry-boat in the
world across the Hudson river at New
York.

October 29 ; First steamboat on western
waters leaves Pittsburg for New Orleans.

November 7 ; Battle of Tippecanoe, in war-
fare with Indians.

November 9 ; Henry Clay, age 34, Speaker
of House of Representatives, having served
two terms in United States Senate.

1812 — January 9; Society is formed at Trenton for
organizing a colony of colored people.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's third birth-
day ; still living at cabin where he was
born.

March 9 ; President Madison reveals to Con-
gress a plot to destroy the Union.

April 30 ; Louisiana admitted into the Union.

June 4 ; Territory of Missouri established.

June 18; Congress declared war against
England ; the naval victories of the Ameri-
cans over the greatest of naval powers
aroused intense excitement.

June 18; New England threatens secession
from the Union (the first in United
States history) while repudiating war
with England.

June 23 ; First naval encounter in War of
1812.

July 12; First land engagements. Hull
invades Canada.

August 16; Surrender of Detroit to British.

August 19 ; Constitution destroys British
ship-of-war, Guerriere, off Banks of New-
foundland.

October 13; Americans attack Queenstown
Heights, in Canada, and are severely re-
pulsed.

October 13; Wasp victorious over the British
ship, Frolic, off the coast of North Car-
olina.

November i ; Daniel Webster enters political
life; age 30.

1813 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fourth
birthday ; moved during this year from
cabin in which he was born to Knob Creek,
fifteen miles distant, where he met the
first soldier he had ever seen, during War
of 1812 which was now raging.

1813 — March 4; Inauguration of James Madison
into his second term as President of the
United States.

March 20 ; Great Britain proclaims Atlantic
coast of America under blockade.

April 23 ; Birth of Stephen A. Douglas at
Brendon, in Vermont, who was to be-
come Lincoln's greatest political rival.

May 10 ; First ferry connects Brooklyn with
New York.

June i ; Chesapeake captured by the British
ship, Shannon. Captain Lawrence fatally
wounded.

1814 — January 14; Daniel Webster's first speech in
the House on the Enlistment Bill ; age 32.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifth birth-
day ; he begins his first schooling.

August 24 ; City of Washington captured by
the British ; President and Cabinet flee ;
National Capitol burned.

September 13; National hymn, "The Star
Spangled Banner," composed during bom-
bardment of Fort McHenry near Balti-
more.

December 15; Hartford Convention with ob-
ject of secession. Peace between England
and United States ended session. Feder-
alist party ruined.

December 19; Birth of Edwin B. Stanton at
Steubenville, Ohio, who was to become
Lincoln's great secretary of war.

December 24 ; Peace between England and
America negotiated through Treaty of
Ghent.

1815 — January 8; American victory at battle of
New Orleans, under Andrew Jackson.

June 30 ; Americans dictate terms of peace
at Algiers.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's sixth birth-
day ; during this year he barely escaped
drowning in Knob Creek.

March 3 ; United States declares war against
Algiers.

June 18; Hostilities cease between the United
States and England ; estimated cost of war,
$85,500,000.

August i ; First Peace Society in the world
is founded.

!8i6 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's seventh
birthday ; removed this year with his
parents to Gentryville, Spencer County,
Indiana, crossing the Ohio river from
Kentucky on a raft.

December 1 1 ; Indiana admitted into the
Union.

1817 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's eighth birth-
day ; living in open camp in Indiana wil-
derness; wielding the ax in the primeval
forest.

March 4 ; Tames Monroe of Virginia, inau-
gurated fifth President of the United States.

July 4 ; Construction of the Erie Canal be-
gins.

August 2 ; First steamship arrives at St.
Louis.

November 20 ; Outbreak of Seminole Indian
War.

December 10; Mississippi admitted into the
Union.

December 28 ; American Colonization So-
ciety organized at Washington to return
negroes to Africa.

146

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln— 1818-1827

i8i8 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's ninth birth-
day ; living in rough cabin of unhewn tim-
bers in Indiana, which he helped his father
to build.

April 4 ; Act establishing flag of the United
States, with thirteen horizontal stripes, al-
ternating red and white, and a white star
in a blue field for each state.

August 23 ; First steamboat trip on Lake
Erie.

October 5 ; Death of Nancy Hanks, Lincoln's
mother, at Pigeon Creek, Indiana; age 35.

December 3 ; Illinois admitted to the Union.

December 18; Great agitation of Slavery
Question by petition of Missouri for ad-
mission to Union as a slave state.

1819 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's tenth birth-
day ; living with his father and sister
Sarah (Nancy) in Indiana wilderness.

February 1 7 ; Bill presented to Congress for
the gradual emancipation of the slaves in
Missouri ; fails to pass Senate.

February 22 ; Treaty with Spain in which
the United States gains possession of
Florida and surrenders all claim to Texas.

May 26 ; First steamship crosses the Atlantic,
" The Savannah."

October 24 ; Erie Canal is open from Utica
to Rome.

December i ; First national financial crisis
occurs ; many banks barely escape in-
solvency; national debt $95,529,648.

December 2 ; Second marriage of Abraham
Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, to
Sarah Rush Johnston, at Elizabethtown,
Kentucky.

December 14 ; Alabama admitted to the Union.

1820 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's eleventh
birthday ; walking nine miles a day to and
from the frontier school.

March 2 ; Missouri Compromise temporarily
quells anti-slavery agitation.

March 3 ; Maine admitted into the Union.

5 ; Congress recognizes slave trade to
be piracy and prohibits citizens from en-
gaging in it under penalty of death; total
slaves 2,009,031. Webster and Calhoun de-
nounce agitators against the slave system.

June i ; First steamship line between New
York and New Orleans.

1821 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twelfth
birthday ; he was now under' the influence
of his stepmother, who had awakened in
him an eagerness for learning.

March 4 ; James Monroe of Virginia, inau-
gurated into his second term as President
of the United States.

August i ; Liberia is secured for the negro
colonization by the American Coloniza-
tion Society.

August 10; Missouri admitted into the
Union amid a tempest of political excite-
ment ; anti-slavery agitation becomes vio-
lent.

August 10; City Council of Charleston, South
Carolina, prohibits opening of night or
Sunday school for the instruction of negro
slaves.

1822 — February i ; First cotton mill is erected in
Massachusetts.

1822 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirteenth
birthday ; he was now working on the farm
and acting as chore boy for the neighbors,
devoting his leisure to ciphering on a
wooden shovel and on the logs of his
cabin.

April 27 ; Birth of Ulysses S. Grant at Point
Pleasant, Ohio, who was to bring victory
to Lincoln as commander of the armies
in the Civil War.

1823 — February i ; Stephen F. Austin obtains from
Mexico a grant of land in Texas for col-
onization.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fourteenth
birthday ; attending Andrew Crawford's
neighborhood school, where he wrote his
first essay against cruelty to animals.

June i ; First steam power printing press in
New York.

December 2 ; Declaration of the Monroe
Doctrine : a protest against interference
of any European power on the American
continent.

1824 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifteenth
birthday ; it was about this time that he
began to read eagerly, and is said to have
borrowed all the books within fifty miles
of his home.

May 22 ; Protective tariff bill adopted ; op-
posed by the South and New England.

August 10 ; Robert Owen of Scotland estab-
lishes a Communistic settlement in Indiana.

August 15; Lafayette revisits America.

1825 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's sixteenth
birthday ; employed in Indiana as ferry-
man and butcher at six dollars per month.

March 4 ; John Quincy Adams inaugurated
sixth President of the United States.

October i ; Working people begin to dis-
cuss question of shorter hours and greater
safety.

October 26 — Erie Canal completed, 363 miles
long; cost $7,500,000; connects Great
Lakes with seaboard at New York.

1826 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's seventeenth
birthday ; he now began to read his first
law book and wrote a paper on the Ameri-
can Government.

July 4 ; Fiftieth anniversary of American
Independence.

July 4 ; Death of John Adams, second pres-
ident, and Thomas Jefferson, the third.

October i ; Morgan Anti-Mason excitement in
politics.

October 7 ; First railroad in the United
States, three miles long, at Quincy, Massa-
chusetts.

October 10; Kerosene first used for illumi-
nating purposes.

December 3 ; Birth of George B. McClellan
at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was to
become Lincoln's first general in the Civil
War.

1827 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's eighteenth
birthday ; during this year he earned his
first dollar.

July 30 ; Protectionists hold a convention and
demand higher tariff.

July — ; Death of Lincoln's sister, Sarah
(Nancy), age twenty.

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln— 1828-1836

1828 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's nineteenth
birthday ; he was now a giant youth of
six feet, four inches ; went on his first
trip as a flat-boatsman down the Missis-
sippi to New Orleans, at eight dollars a
month.

May 15; First American dictionary of Eng-
lish language, by Noah Webster.

May 19; High protective tariff enacted, caus-
ing serious distress between the North
and the South.

December i ; Political party known as
Wprkingman's Association appears in
principal cities.

December — ; First steamboat in Boston
Harbor.

1829 — February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln's twentieth
birthday ; working as wood chopper, known
as a backwoods orator, arguing on slavery
and political subjects.

March 4 ; Andrew Jackson inaugurated
seventh President of the United States;
beginning of the Spoils System in Ameri-
can politics.

June 30 ; Robert E. Lee of Virginia,
twenty-two years old ; graduates at West
Point.

August 8 ; First locomotive in the United
States.

September 21 ; First public school in Balti-
more.

September — ; First asylum in the United
States for the blind, at Boston.

: William Lloyd Garrison advo-
cates immediate emancipation of the
slaves.

First emancipation of slaves on

American Continent when Mexico issued
a proclamation of emancipation.

1830 — February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-first

birthday ; preparing to leave Indiana with

family for Illinois.
April 6 ; First settlement of Mormons, in

Manchester, New York.
August 12; The first American railroad is

completed ; it connects Albany and Sche-

nectady.
October 5 ; American ports are re-opened to

British commerce.

1831 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-
second birthday ; helps his father build
their new home in Illinois ; works as a
flat-boatsman, later acting as clerk in store
at New Salem, Illinois. •

April 21 ; Beginning of the Black Hawk War
in Indiana.

April 26 ; Imprisonment for debt is abolished
in New York.

August 21 ; Negro insurrection in Virginia,
fifty whites killed.

1832 — January 6; Founding of American Anti-
Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garri-
son.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-
third birthday ; volunteers in the Black
Hawk War, and is chosen captain of his
company ; entered partnership in a store-
keeping project, which soon failed ; reads
a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries on
the Common Law.

May 21 ; First Democratic (so-called) Na-
tional Convention meets in Baltimore.

1832 — July 13; Henry R. Schqolcraft discovers the

source of the Mississippi River.
August — ; Abraham Lincoln defeated for

state Legislature in Illinois.
November i ; First street railroad in the

United States is opened between the City

Hall and i4th Street, New York.
December 1 1 ; Nullification Proclamation

issued by President Jackson.
December 31 ; Immigrants and other aliens

rush to America — 60,482 in fifteen months.
December — ; " My Country, 'tis of Thee "

is written by Samuel Francis Smith, New

Center, Massachusetts.
December — ; First house in Iowa is erected

near Davenport.

1833 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-
fourth birthday ; burdened with debt,
studies and practices surveying.

March 2 ; Bloody Bill passed by Congress to
enforce tariff of 1832 which was declared
null and void by South Carolina.

March 4 ; Andrew Jackson inaugurated into
his second term as President of the United
States.

March — ; Texas begins a war against Mex-
ico for independence.

March — ; Anti-slavery societies formed in
several states.

May 7 ; Abraham Lincoln appointed post-
master at New Salem, Illinois.

1834 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-fifth
birthday ; elected to the Legislature ; meets
Stephen A. Douglas ; appointed second
place on the Committee of Public Accounts
and Expenditures by Speaker Hon. James
Semple.

February 1 7 ; Treaty with Spain signed.

June 21 ; Invention of the reaping machine
patented by Cyrus H. McCormick, of Vir-
ginia, which became the foundation of
the great agricultural wealth of America.

June 30 ; Indian Territory is set apart ex-
clusively for Indians.

November — ; Abraham Lincoln elected to
the state Legislature of Illinois.

1835 — January 30; Attempted assassination of
President Jackson.

February 10; Philadelphia is first lighted
with gas .

February 1 2 ; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-sixth
birthday ; borrows money to be suitably
clothed before going to the state capitoJ
as a legislator ; • favors woman's suffrage,
and raises his voice against slavery.

December 16; Great conflagration in New
York City with a loss of $20,000,000.

December 23 ; Beginning of the Florida In-
dian War.

1836 — January u; A petition is presented to Con-
gress praying that the institution of slav-
ery may be abolished in the District of
Columbia.

February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-
seventh birthday ; licensed to practice law.

March 2 ; Texas declares her independence.

April — ; Abraham Lincoln commences the
practice of law in Springfield, Illinois.

May 14 ; Mexico acknowledges independence
of Texas.

June 15 ; Arkansas admitted to the Union
as the twenty-fifth state.

148

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln— 1836-1845

1836 — November — ; Abraham Lincoln is re-elected

to the Legislature of Illinois.
November — ; Territory of Wisconsin or-
ganized.

1837 — January 26; Congress admits Michigan into
the Union as the twenty-sixth state.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-
eighth birthday ; retired from postmaster-
ship at New Salem, Illinois.

March 3 ; Texas recognized as independent
by United States, England and France.

March 4 ; Martin Van Buren of New York
is inaugurated the eighth President of the
United States.

March — ; Abraham Lincoln protests against
the pro-slavery action of the majority in
the Legislature; entered on the journal
of the Assembly.

May 5 ; The Creek Indian war begins.

December i ; The Cherokee Indian disturb-
ance— caused by the enforced removal of
the Indians to the West.

December 8 ; Wendell Phillips's first "aboli-
tion " speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston, to
protest against the murder of Elijah P.
Lovejoy.

December — ; Samuel F. B. Morse first pub-
licly exhibits his telegraph.

December 29 ; American sympathizers with
Canadians in revolt against English rule
attacked in Niagara River; known as
"Patriot War."

1838 — February i ; John Ericsson patents first
screw-propeller.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's twenty-
ninth birthday ; enters partnership in prac-
tice of law with John T. Stuart in Spring-
field, Illinois.

November — ; Abraham Lincoln is re-elected
to the state Legislature, and becomes leader
of the Whigs.

November — ; Abolitionists organize a po-
litical party in New York.

December 1 1 ; Congress ; House passes a
slavery " Gag-law."

December — ; Government forcibly removes
Cherokee Indians beyond the Mississippi.

1839 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirtieth
birthday ; during this year he is arguing
against slavery, in the Legislature at Illi-
nois.

June — ; Governor of the territory of Florida
offers a reward of two hundred dollars for
every Indian killed or taken.

June — ; Daguerreotypes first taken in the
United States by Prof. J. W. Draper.

September i ; Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio en-
ters the Military Academy at West Point ;
age seventeen.

1840 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-first
birthday ; during this year he is again re-
elected to Legislature.

February — ; Another pro-slavery " Gag-law "
passes the House.

1841 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-sec-
ond birthday ; re-awakens interest in tem-
perance ; finds Stephen A. Douglas his
rival in state legislature.

March 4 ; William Henry Harrison of Ohio
is inaugurated ninth President of the
United States, dies within a month (April
4) and John Tyler is inaugurated tenth
President.

1841 — September 4, 5 ; A riot against abolitionists
and negroes occurs at Cincinnati.

October — ; Uprising of slaves in Virginia.

October — ; Elias Howe of Massachusetts,
a mechanic, invents the first practical sew-
ing machine.

1 842 — February 1 2 ; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-third
birthday.

February 22 ; Abraham Lincoln addresses
the Washingtonian Temperance Society at
Springfield, favoring total abstinence and
the temperance revolution.

March 30 ; First use of Anaesthetics in medi-
cal practice in America.

May 2 ; First governmental exploration of
western country beyond the Missouri.

August 9 ; Lord Ashburton and Daniel Web-
ster sign Treaty, establishing the North-
western boundaries, and those extending
westward along the Great Lakes ; provides
for the suppression of the African slave
trade, and makes provision for the extra-
dition of criminals.

September — ; Duel between Abraham Lin-
coln and General Shields.

November 4 ; Abraham Lincoln marries Mary
Todd of Lexington, Kentucky.

November — ; Earliest actual finding of gold
in California, in Los Angeles district.

November — ; Anti-slavery meetings are
broken up in many states ; buildings dam-
aged and its advocates assaulted.

1843 — February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-
fourth birthday.

March 3 ; Congress appropriates $30,000 to
aid Professor Morse in establishing the
first telegraph line, between Washington
and Baltimore.

June 30 ; Ulysses S. Grant graduates at West
Point ; he ranks number twenty-one in a
class of thirty-nine.

June — ; About 1,000 emigrants leave West-
port on the Missouri frontier on a journey
of 2,000 miles to Oregon and arrive in
October.

August i ; Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert
Todd Lincoln, born.

October 25 ; Fremont's expedition reaches the
Columbia River in Oregon.

1844 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-fifth

birthday.
February — ; Both political parties in the

North are divided by an anti-slavery and

a pro-slavery wing.
February — ; New England Workingmen's

Association is organized in Boston.

1845 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-sixth
birthday.

March 3 ; Florida (slave) admitted as the
twenty-seventh state.

March 3 ; Congress reduces postage on let-
ters to five cents within radius of three
hundred miles ; ten cents for greater dis-
tances.

March 4 ; James K. Polk, of Tennessee, is
inaugurated the eleventh President.

December 29 ; Texas admitted as the twenty-
eighth state; slavery is permitted.

December — ; Order of United American
Mechanics is founded.

U9

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln — 1845-1854

1845 — December — -; Whigs oppose slavery. South-
ern Whigs, under lead of Henry Clay, now
considered slavery an evil to be removed
in some practical way, at some distant
period, but not to be interfered with in
the states where it existed.

1846 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-
seventh birthday.
March 10; Abraham Lincoln's son, Edward

Baker Lincoln, born — but died in infancy.
April 25 ; First engagement of the Mexican

war at La Rosa.
May 8 ; American victory in battle of Palo

Alto.
May 9 ; American victory in battle of Resaca

de la Palma.
November — ; Abraham Lincoln is elected

to Congress from Illinois, a solitary Whig

among seven Democrats.
December 28 ; Iowa (free) admitted into

the Union as the twenty-ninth state.

Xg47 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-
eighth birthday.

February 23 ; American victory in battle of
Buena Vista.

February 23 ; American victory in battle
of Sacramento.

July 26 ; First electric locomotive was ex-
hibited and operated.

September 14; American army triumphantly
enters city of Mexico.

December — ; Abraham Lincoln and Andrew
Jackson in the House of Representatives
at Washington ; Stephen A. Douglas and
Jefferson Davis in the United States Sen-
ate.

December 22 ; Lincoln introduced his
" spots " resolutions in Congress.

First use of postage stamps un-
der governmental authority.

1848 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's thirty-
ninth birthday ; speaking in Massachusetts
in the summer of this year against the Free
Soil Party ; introduced bill for the aboli-
tion of slavery in the District of Columbia
late in the year ; meets Seward for the
first time.

February — ; Discovery of gold hastens emi-
gration to California.

May 29 ; Wisconsin (free) admitted to the
Union as the thirtieth state.

July 4 ; Peace with Mexico is proclaimed.

July -=— ; President Polk authorizes the United
States Minister at Madrid to offer Spain
$100,000,000 for Cuba; he obtains a curt
refusal.

1849- — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fortieth
birthday ; studies and masters Euclid ;
seeks appointment as Commissioner of the
General Land Office under President Tay-
lor ; fails to secure same ; returns to law
office in Springfield.

March 5 ; Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, in-
augurated the twelfth President of the
United States.

December — ; Exciting debates occur in
Congress on the Slavery Question ; several
Southern members threaten secession and
Civil War if slavery is excluded from the
territories.

December — ; Gold dollars are first coined.

1850 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-first
birthday ; declines lucrative offer to movr
to Chicago and enter partnership of lead-
ing law firm.

March 7 ; Daniel Webster delivers his mem-
orable address against his anti-slavery
friends, who regard it as a betrayal.

July 9 ; Death of President Taylor.

July 10 ; Vice-President Millard Fillmore of
New York is inaugurated the thirteenth
President of the United States.

July — ; President Fillmore favors compro-
mise measures with slavery.

September 9 ; New Mexico and Utah terri-
tories are organized.

September 9 ; California admitted into the
Union as the thirty-first state ; slavery ex-
cluded.

September 10; Congress passes the Fugitive
Slave Bill.

September 20 ; Slave trade suppressed in
District of Columbia to take effect Jan-
uary i, 1851.

September i ; Total slaves in the United
States, 3,204,313.

December 21 ; Abraham Lincoln's son, Wil-
liam Wallace Lincoln, born.

December — ; Chicago organizes a Board of
Trade ; the city is lighted with gas.

1851 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-sec-
ond birthday ; circuit lawyer.

February — ; Death of Abraham Lincoln's
father, Thomas Lincoln, age seventy-three
years.

December 24 ; Fire consumes part of the
National Capitol and the Congressional
Library at Washington.

1852 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-third
birthday; joins the Sons of Temperance
in Springfield.

June 29 ; Death of Henry Clay, age seventy-
five.

August • — ; Lone Star Society is organized
for the extension of National influence in
the Western Hemisphere, and for the ac-
quisition of Cuba and the Sandwich
Islands.

October 24 ; Death of Daniel Webster, age
seventy.

October — ; " Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Mrs
Harriet Beecher Stowe, causes sensation
and inflames public mind against slavery.

1853 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-fourth
birthday.

March 4 ; Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire
is inaugurated the fourteenth President of
the United States.

April 4 ; Abraham Lincoln's son, Thomas
Lincoln, born.

July 14; World's Fair; Crystal Palace open-
ing at New York.

July — ; " Know-Nothing " Society, a politi-
cal organization, springs up — soon disap-
pears.

July — ; Washington Territory is organized.

December 30 ; Gadsden purchase consum-
mated with Mexico securing additional ter-
ritory for New Mexico and Arizona.

1854 — January — ; Slavery agitation is re-opened
in Congress by Archibald Dixon of Ken-
tucky (Democrat) who gives notice that
the Missouri Compromise is to be repealed
and new states will be given to slavery.

150

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln— 1854-1861

1854 — January — ; Acrimonious debates on the ex-
tension of slavery engage the Senate for
four months.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-fifth
birthday.

March 31 ; Commodore Perry's treaty with
Japan.

April 20 ; Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Com-
pany is organized with a fixed capital
limited at $5,000,000.

May 30 ; President Pierce signs the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, which provides for the or-
ganization of the Kansas and Nebraska
territories.

July — ; Connecticut Legislature incorpo-
rates an Emigrant Aid Association.

October — ; Abra'ham Lincoln challenges
Stephen A. Douglas to a joint debate in
the canvass for Congress.

1855 — January — ; First bridge across the Missis-
sippi— completed at Minneapolis.

February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln's forty-sixth
birthday.

February — ; Anti-Slavery party becomes
generally known as the Republican party ;
Whig party rapidly disappears.

February — ; Struggle over the Slavery Ques-
tion in Kansas.

1856 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-sev-
enth birthday ; became Republican — and
name was presented for Vice-President to
the first National Convention.

May 22 ; Senator Sumner assaulted in Sen-
ate because of his anti-slavery speeches.

May 29 ; Lincoln delivers his famous " Lost
Speech " at organization of Republican
party at Bloomington, Illinois.

June 1 7 ; The Republican National Conven-
tion at Philadelphia denounces " those town
relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery."

August 29 ; A band of pro-slavery men, under
Captain Reid, defeats John Brown, the
abolitionist of Osawatomie.

1857 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-
eighth birthday.

March 4 ; James Buchanan of Pennsylvania
is inaugurated fifteenth President of the
United States.

March 6 ; Dred Scott case confirms North-
ern feeling against slavery.

1858 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's forty-ninth

birthday.

May — ; Abraham Lincoln wins Armstrong
murder trial as defending counsel.

May ii ; Minnesota (free) admitted into
the Union as the thirty-second state.

June 16; Lincoln delivers his celebrated open-
ing speech in his campaign for the Senate
at Springfield, Illinois.

August 5 ; Celebration of the successful lay-
ing of the Atlantic cable.

August 21 ; First of the famous Lincoln-
Douglas debates at Ottawa, Illinois.

August 27 ; Second Lincoln-Douglas debate
at Freeport, Illinois.

September 15; Third Lincoln-Douglas de-
bate at Jonesboro, Illinois.

September 18; Fourth Lincoln-Douglas de-
bate at Charleston, Illinois.

October 7 ; Fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate at
Galesburg, Illinois.

1858 — October 13; Sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate at

Quincy, Illinois.

October 15; Seventh Lincoln-Douglas debate
at Alton, Illinois.

1859 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fiftieth
birthday.

February 14 ; Oregon (free) admitted into
the Union as the thirty-third state.

September — ; Abraham Lincoln answers
Douglas in Ohio.

October 16; John Brown makes a raid at
Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, to free the
slaves.

October — ; Jefferson Davis addresses the
Democratic State Convention of Missis-
sippi in behalf of slavery and the extension
of the slave territory.

December 2 ; John Brown hanged for treason
at Charleston, West Virginia.

1860 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifty-first
birthday.

February 27 ; Abraham Lincoln delivers his
first great address in New York at Cooper
Union.

May 18; Abraham Lincoln of Illinois nom-
inated for President of the United States
by the Republican party at Chicago ; Han-
nibal Hamlin of Maine, Vice-President.

November 6 ; Abraham Lincoln elected Presi-
dent of the United States (Republican),
receiving 1,866,452 votes; Stephen A.
Douglas (Southern Democratic), 1,375,-
157; Breckinridge (Democratic), 845,763
Bell (Union), 589,581.

December 14; Senators and Representatives
from eight Southern states issue addresses
to their constituents, urging secession of
separate states for the purpose of organiz-
ing a Southern Confederacy.

December 20 ; South Carolina secedes from
the Union ; this leads to Civil War between
the North and the South.

December 26 ; Fort Sumter fortified by Ma-
jor Anderson.

December 27-30 ; South Carolinians take
possession of United States property in
their state, except Fort Sumter.

December 31 ; There are thirty-three states
in the Union ; eighteen free and fifteen
slave ; this gives the control of the gov-
ernment to the free states.

1861 — January 5; Steamship "Star of the West"
sails with reinforcements and supplies for
Major Anderson in charge of Fort Sum-
ter.

January 9 ; First shot is fired in the Civil
War, when the " Star of the West," ap-
proaching Fort Sumter, is attacked by
the batteries of Fort Moultrie and com-
pelled to retire.

January 9 ; Mississippi, the second state,
secedes.

January 1 1 ; Florida, the third state, secedes.

January 1 1 ; Alabama, the fourth state, se-
cedes.

January 19 ; Georgia, the fifth state, secedes.

January 26 ; Louisiana, the sixth state, se-
cedes.

January 29 ; Kansas (free) is admitted into
the Union as the thirty-fourth state.

February i ; Texas, the seventh state, se-
cedes.

151

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln — 1861-1863

1861 — February 4; Confederate Congress is or-
ganized in Alabama.

February 4 ; Peace Congress met at Wash-
ington.

February 4 ; Twenty-one states sent dele-
gates to Washington in response to Vir-
ginia's call for peace conference to avert
war. Conference failed.

February 1 1 ; Lincoln delivers farewell ad-
dress to his neighbors at Springfield, Illi-
nois, as he departs for Washington.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifty-second
birthday.

February 18; Inauguration of Jefferson Davis
as President of the Confederate States of
America.

February 22 ; Lincoln, at Philadelphia,
warned of a plot to assassinate him while
passing through Baltimore by Allan Pink-
erton, chief of the Secret Service.

February 22 ; Lincoln speaks in Independence
Hall at Philadelphia ; abandons his public
journey and makes a secret and hasty de-
parture in the night from Harrisburg for
Washington.

February 23 ; Lincoln arrives at Washington.

February 28 ; Congress organizes the terri-
tory of Colorado.

March 2 ; Congress organizes the territories
of Nevada and Dakota.

March 4 ; Abraham Lincoln of Illinois is
inaugurated the sixteenth President of the
United States.

March 4 ; President Lincoln delivers his
inaugural message and announces a change
of administrative policy.

March 1 1 ; Confederate Congress provides
for organization of an army.

April 12 ; Confederates open fire on Fort
Sumter at 4.40 A. M.

April 14 ; Major Anderson evacuates Fort
Sumter.

April 15 ; Lincoln calls for an extra session
of Congress and 75,000 volunteer soldiers.

April 17; Virginia, the eighth state, secedes.

April 18; First volunteer troops reach Wash-
ington.

April 19; First bloodshed in the Civil War,
on streets of Baltimore, Maryland.

April 29 ; Maryland house of delegates re-
jects ordinance of secession.

May 3; Lincoln calls for 500,000 volunteers;
700,680 respond.

May 6 ; Arkansas, the ninth state, seceded.

May 10 ; Lincoln proclaims martial law.

May 20 : North Carolina, the tenth state,
secedes.

June 3 ; Death of Stephen A. Douglas, age
forty-eight, on the eve of the Civil War.

June 8; Tennessee, the eleventh state,
secedes.

June 1 1 ; Forty counties in western part of
Virginia repudiate secession ordinance and
proclaim themselves a new state.

July 21 ; Confederates win battle of Bull
Run.

July 22 ; Federal Congress votes $500,000,-
ooo to support the war, and gives Lincoln
war-powers.

July 27 ; General George B. McClellan ap-
pointed to the command of the Army of
the Potomac.

1861 — November 8; Trent Affair — Mason and Sli-
dell, Confederate Commissioners, taken
from English ship, and England threatens
war. Mason and Slidell are released.

1862 — January 13; Lincoln calls Stanton to his
cabinet as Secretary of War.

February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln's fifty-third
birthday.

February 16; First great victory of the Fed-
eral arms ; capture of Fort Donelson.

February 20 ; Abraham Lincoln's son, Wil-
liam Wallace Lincoln, age twelve, dies
in the White House.

February 25 ; Congress passed Legal Ten-
der Act.

March 9 ; Ironclad " Monitor " repulses the
Confederate battleship " Merrimac " in
four hours' naval combat.

April 4 ; Beginning of Peninsula Campaign.

April 6-7 ; Confederate attack on Pittsburg
Landing repulsed.

April 16; Confederate Congress passed Con-
scription Acts, calling to military service
all able-bodied persons between 18-45
years of age.

April 1 6 ; Slaves in District of Columbia
emancipated by Congress.

April 25 ; Farragut wrests New Orleans from
Confederates after desperate battle.

June 28 ; Conference of loyal governors at
Altoona, Pennsylvania.

July 2 ; Lincoln calls for 300,000 volunteers
for three years.

August 4 ; Lincoln calls for 300,000 militia
for nine months.

August 30 ; Second defeat of the Federals
at Second Bull Run.

August 31 ; General Fremont (Federal) or-
dered slaves freed in Missouri, but Lin-
coln modified proclamation.

September 17; Federal army victorious at
battle of Antietam.

September 22 ; Lincoln issues the Emanci-
pation Proclamation.

October i ; Lincoln visits the battlefield of
Antietam.

October 4 ; Confederates defeated at Cor-
inth.

December 13; Battle of Fredericksburg.

December 19 ; Attempt of the Senate to
reconstruct the Cabinet.

December 31 ; Beginning of three days' bat-
tle at Murfreesboro.

jgg-j — January i ; Emancipation Proclamation takes
effect and slaves are declared free.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifty-fourth
birthday.

February 25 ; Congress established a na-
tional currency : National Bank Act
passed by Congress.

March 3 ; Draft Act passed calling every
able-bodied citizen of the United States
into military service.

May 2-3 ; Federal army retreats at battle of
Chancellorsville.

June 19 ; West Virginia, the thirty-fifth
state, admitted to the Union.

July 1-3 ; Federal army wins battle of Gettys-
burg.

July 4 ; Federal army captures Vicksburg.

152

Chronology of the Life of Lincoln — 1863-1865

1863 — July ii ; Washington threatened by Con-
federate hosts at its threshold.

July 13-16; Riots in New York City in op-
position to Draft Act — about a thousand
persons killed ; a million and a half dol-
lars' worth of property destroyed.

July 16; Second Conscription Act passed by
Confederate Congress.

August 6 ; National Thanksgiving was ob-
served for Union victories.

September 19-20; Federal army defeated at
Chickamauga.

October 17; Lincoln calls for 300,000 vol-
unteers.

November 19; Lincoln delivers his immortal
eulogy at the battlefield of Gettysburg.

November 23-25 ; Federal army wins battle
of Chattanooga.

1864 — February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifty-fifth

birthday.
March 9 : Grant made Commander-in-

Chief of Federal forces.
May 5-12; Battles of the Wilderness.
June 14 ; The beginning of the siege of

Petersburg, Virginia.
June 28 ; Secretary of the Treasury Chase

resigns.

July 3 ; Delaware placed under martial law.
July 18; Lincoln calls for 500,000 men.

July 18 ; Conference at Niagara Falls of
Horace Greeley and Confederate Com-
missioners.

September 2 ; Federals capture Atlanta.

October 31; Nevada, the thirty-sixth state,
admitted to the Union.

November 8 ; Abraham Lincoln re-elected
President of the United States; (Repub-
lican) 2,216,067 ; George B. McClellan
(Democrat) 1,808,725.

December 10-21 ; Federal army captures Sa-
vannah.

December 15-16; Federal army wins battle
of Nashville.

December 19; Lincoln calls for 300,000 vol-
unteers.

1-865 — February i ; Thirteenth Amendment, con-,
stitutionally prohibiting slavery, adopted
by Congress and ratified by states De-
cember 18, 1865.

February 3 ; Peace conference between Con-
federates and Federals at Hampton
Roads, Virginia.

February 9 ; General Robert E. Lee made
Commander-in-Chief of Confederate forces.

February 12; Abraham Lincoln's fifty-sixth
birthday.

March 4 ; Lincoln delivers his second inau-
gural address.

1865 — March 5 ; First negro ever entertained at
White House — Frederick Douglas.

March 22 to April 9 ; Lincoln visits Grant's
army at City Point, in Virginia.

April 3 ; Fall of Richmond, the capital of the
Confederacy.

April 4-5 ; President Lincoln visits the ruins
of the evacuated city of Richmond.

April 9 ; Surrender of Lee to Grant at Ap-
pomattox, Virginia.

April 1 1 ; Lincoln delivers his last speech
from one of the windows at the White
House.

April 14 ; Lincoln shot at Ford's Theater by
John Wilkes Booth, the actor ; the nation
thrown into consternation.

April 14; Secretary of State, Seward,
stabbed in bed. Failure of plot to assassi-
nate General Grant and Vice-President
Johnson.

April 15 ; Death of Abraham Lincoln at the
hour of 7:22 on Saturday morning; the
republic bows in grief ; the world extends
condolences.

April 15; Andrew Johnson of Tennessee
takes oath of office as seventee.nth Pres-
ident of the United States.

April 19; Funeral of Abraham Lincoln at the
the White House ; body borne to the
National Capitol, to lie in state ; memorial
services held throughout the nation at-
tended by more than 25,000,000 mourners.

April 21 ; Funeral train bearing remains of
Lincoln leaves Washington ; journey ot
nearly 2,000 miles ; one of the greatest
funeral pageants that the world had ever
known.

April 26; John Wilkes Booth, assassinator
of Lincoln, shot by " Boston " Corbett,
cavalry sergeant, in Garrett's tobacco-
house, near Bowling Green, in Virginia.

May 3 ; Arrival of funeral cortege of Lincoln
at Springfield, Illinois, a million Americans
having looked upon the face of the nation's
savior.

May 4 ; Burial of Lincoln at " Oak Ridge "
near his old home in Illinois ; the press
of the world paid tribute in eulogies to him
as " the Greatest American."

May 12; Trial of conspirators in assassina-
tion plot begins. General Grant one of
the first witnesses.

July 5 ; Mrs. Mary A. Surratt, Davey Herold,
George A. Atzerodt and Lewis Payne
found guilty and sentenced to be executed.
Michael O'Laughlin, Sam Arnold and Dr.
Samuel A. Mudd sentenced to life im-
prisonment. Edward Spangler sentenced
to imprisonment for 6 years.

July 7 ; Hanging of Mrs. Surratt, Herold,
Atzerodt and Payne in prison yard at
Washington, as conspirators in the assas-
sination of Lincoln.

Thy task is done ; the bond are free :
We bear thee to an honored grave,

Whose proudest monument shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.

Pure was thy life ; its bloody close

Hath placed thee with the sons of light,

Among the noble host -of those

Who perished in the cause of Right.

— William Cullen Bryant.

153

The Portrait Life of Lincoln

PART VI

A Handbook of the Famous Photographic

Portraits of Abraham Lincoln
Treasured in the Great American Collections

Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln

Page

First portrait taken of Lincoln when he entered National politics — age 37. This daguerreotype
is undoubtedly first time that Lincoln sat for his portrait. It was taken during his cam-
paign for Congress or shortly after his election, when he delivered his first speech — from
1846 to 1848. Photograph from original daguerreotype in possession of Honorable Robert
T. Lincoln of Chicago, Illinois 13

Photograph of Mary Todd, who married Abraham Lincoln, -in 1842 — Lincoln was now 33
years of age. This negative was taken some years later, at time of Lincoln's inauguration
for Presidency, and presents her in gown worn at Inaugural Ball — Original life negative
in collection of Americana — Owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 15

Photograph taken while Lincoln, age 45, was engaged in Missouri Compromise, in 1854. Original
was taken in an itinerant gallery in Chicago, for George Schneider, editor of " Staats
Zeitung" . < 17

Photograph taken in 1856 when Lincoln, age 47, was mentioned for Vice-President ' in first
- Republican Convention — Print in collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington,
D. C ' 17

First photograph of Lincoln circulated throughout the country for campaign purposes — Taken
in Chicago, in 1857 — Lincoln was now 48 years of age. Original negative, by Alexander
Hesler, burned in Chicago fire. Print in collection of Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois. . 19

Ambrotype taken in 1858, shortly after Lincoln's speech at Galesburg, Illinois. Print owned by

Mr.' O. H. Oldroyd of Washington . 19

Photograph Lincoln sat for in Springfield, Illinois, during the memorable campaign oi 1858 —

age 49 years. Print owned by Mrs. Harriet Chapman of Charleston, Illinois 21

Ambrotype taken at Pittsfield, Illinois, October 1, 1858, immediately after Lincoln had made
his speech on public square — age 49. Original by C. Jackson, owned by Miss Hattie
Gilmer of Pittsfield, Illinois. Print in collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York. . 21

Photograph of Stephen A. Douglas, taken during his debates with Lincoln in 1858 — Lincoln
was now 49 years of age; Douglas was 45 years. This negative was taken after Douglas
defeated Lincoln for United States Senate, which Was followed two years later by
Lincoln's defeat of Douglas for President of the United States. Original in the collec-
tion of American celebrities — Owned by Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C 23

Ambrotype taken August 25, 1858, at Macomb, Illinois, when Lincoln was campaigning against

Douglas for United States Senate — Owned by Mr. W. J. Franklin of Macomb, Illinois. ... 25

Photograph of Lincoln as he appeared in political campaign, in 1858 — age 49 — Original negative
owned by Dr. McWilliams of Dwight, Illinois. Print in possession of Mr. Stuart Brown
of Springfield, Illinois. 25

Ambrotype of Lincoln in linen coat, during Douglas debates at Beardstown, Illinois, in 1858 — •
Original now in Lincoln Monument Collection at Springfield, Illinois — Print in possession
of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington, D. C 27

Photograph taken during famous Lincoln- Douglas debates, in 1858 — age 49 — Collection of Mr.

J. C. Browne of Philadelphia 27

Photograph of Lincoln at time of John Brown's raid, at Harper's Ferry — age 50 — This negative,
taken in 1859, was destroyed in Chicago fire — Mrs. Lincoln considered it best likeness of
her husband she had ever seen — It presents Lincoln as he appeared just before his nomi-
nation for Presidency — Original negative by S. M. Fassett of Chicago, Illinois — Photograph
owned by Mr. William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, Massachusetts — Print in collection of
Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 29

Photograph of Lincoln taken in 1860 at the time of his "Cooper Institute Speech" in New York
during his campaign for the Presidency — age 51 — Original negative by Mathew Brady of
New York — Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C 31

Photograph taken in summer of 1860 for campaign purposes — Original negative owned by
Mr. M. C. Tuttle of St. Paul, Minnesota — Print from collection of Mr. Daniel Fish of Minne-
apolis, Minnesota '. - . 31

Photograph taken before the Republican National Convention at Chicago, in 1860 — Found in

collection of the late Mr. J. Henry Brown of Philadelphia 33

Photograph taken at his home in Springfield, Illinois, immediately after his nomination for
Presidency, in 1860 — age 51 — Original by Alexander Hesler of Chicago, destroyed during -
the fire — Print in collection of Mr. Herbert W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 33

Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in June, 1860 — Copyright, 1894, by Mr. George B.

Ayers — -Negative now owned by Mr. H. C. Brown of New York 35

Ambrotype taken at Springfield, Illinois, May 20, 1860— Original presented to Governor Marcus

L. Ward of New Jersey — Now in possession of the Ward family of Newark, New Jersey. 35

Photograph of Lincoln as he entered campaign for Presidency at 51 years of age — Original neg-
ative taken in June, 1860, at Springfield, Illinois — Copyright, 1881, by Mr. George B.
Ayers — Negative now owned by Mr. H. C. Brown of New York 37

Ambrotype taken August, 1860, when seventy thousand Westerners visited Lincoln at his home
in Springfield, Illinois — Age 51 years — Original in collection of Mr. William H. Lambert
of Philadelphia \ 37

156

Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln

Page

Photograph of Lincoln greeting his neighbors for last time at his old home — Photograph taken
at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, when Lincoln was bidding farewell to his townspeople
before going to inauguration at Washington — Negative in the collection of Americana,
owned by Mr. F. H. Meserve of New York 39

Photograph of Capitol at Washington when Lincoln went to his inauguration — Photograph
taken while crowd was gathering for inauguration, in 1861, showing National Capitol
of Republic in course of its construction — Negative in collection of Americana, owned
by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 40

Photograph of Lincoln at his home in Springfield — Photograph taken early in 1861 as Lincoln
stood with his two younger sons in his front yard — Print in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy
of Washington 41

Photograph of White House as Lincoln entered it — Photograph taken at Presidential mansion
in Washington, in 1861, in first spring of Lincoln's occupancy — Print in collection of
Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 41

Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln's election to the Presidency. Believed to be his first
portrait with beard, early in 1861, at 52 years of age — Owned by Mr. H. W. Fay, DeKalb,
Illinois 43

Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, just prior to Lincoln's departure for Washington, in
1861 — Original negative by F. M. McNulta — Now owned and copyrighted, 1894, by
Mr. Herbert Wells Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 43

Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1861, about time he entered White House — Original
negative by Alexander Hesler of Chicago — Print owned by Mr. Frank A. Brown of
Minneapolis 45

Photograph of Lincoln taken just before leaving Springfield for White House, in 1861, age 52 —

Original negative by C. S. German — Print owned by Mr. Allen Jasper Conant 45

Photograph of Lincoln at his inauguration — Negative taken while Lincoln was delivering inau-
gural address before great throng that had gathered at National Capitol — The judges
of the Supreme Court can be seen sitting at his left — Print in the Brady-Gardner Collec-
tion deposited at Springfield, Massachusetts 47

Photographs of members of President Lincoln's Cabinet — Original negatives taken from 1861-

1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington 49-55

Photograph of Lincoln's Vice-President in 1861-1865 — Hannibal Hamlin of Maine 49

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of War in 1861-1862 — Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania ... 49

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of War in 1862-1865 — Edwin M.-Stanton of Ohio 49

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of State in 1861-1865 — William H. Seward of New York . 49

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury in 1861-1864 — Salmon P. Chase of Ohio ... 51

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy in 1861-1865 — Gideon Welles of Connecticut . . 51

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior in 1861-1865 — Caleb B. Smith of Indiana . . 51

Photograph of Lincoln's Postmaster-General in 1861-1864 — Montgomery Blair of Maryland. . 51

Photograph of Lincoln's Attorney-General in 1861-1863 — Edward Bates of Missouri 53

Photograph of Lincoln's Assistant Secretary of War — Charles A. Dana of New York 53

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury in 1864-1865 — William P. Fessenden of Maine 53

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior in 1863-1865 — John P. Usher of Indiana .... 53

Photograph of Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury in 1865 — Hugh McCulloch of Indiana. ... 55

Photograph of Lincoln's Attorney-General in 1864-1865 — James Speed of Kentucky 55

Photograph of Lincoln's Postmaster-General in 1864-1865 — William Dennison of Ohio 55

Photograph of Lincoln's Second Vice-President in 1865 — Andrew Johnson of North Carolina. 55

Photograph of Lincoln seated with his Secretaries, Nicolay and Hay — Taken in Springfield,
Illinois, in 1861, just before leaving for Washington — Print in original Brady-Gardner
Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 57

Photograph presented by Lincoln to Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, on October 3, 1861, on which he
inscribed his autograph — Negative in the collection of Americana in possession of. Mr.
Frederick H. Meserve of New York 57

Photograph of Lincoln in camp with army at Antietam — Negative taken October 3, 1862, when
Lincoln was standing in front of General McClellan's tent — Taken by Mathew Brady,
government photographer — Original negative in the Brady Collection at Springfield,
Massachusetts — Copyrighted, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Company 59

Photograph of President Lincoln on battlefield of Antietam under guard of the Secret Service —
Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862; Lincoln was accompanied
by Allan Pinkerton (Major Allen), first chief of the Secret Service, standing at his right,
and General McClernand at his left — Deposited in the Original Collection of seven thou-
sand negatives valued at $150,000 at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyright, 1907, by
Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton, Hartford, Connecticut . . 60

157

Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln

Page

Photograph of Lincoln with his Generals — Original negative taken in Army of the Potomac
at Antietam, on October 3, 1862, -while Lincoln was addressing General McClellan and
staff — Negative in Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts— Copyright,
1907, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton, Hartford, Connecticut 61

Photograph of Lincoln with his soldiers at battle-line — Negative taken while Lincoln was
inspecting conditions in army at Antietam on October 3, 1862 — Original negative by
Mathew Brady — Print in collection of Mr. C. M. Derickson of Monessen, Pennsylvania 61

Photograph of President Lincoln in General McClellan' s tent at battle grounds of Antietam —
Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862, while Lincoln was in con-
ference with General McClellan a few days after the great battle — Now deposited in the
Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyright, 1907, by Mr. Edward
Bailey Eaton and valued at ten thousand dollars 62

Photograph of President Lincoln in the second year of the American Civil War — Original
negative taken by Mathew Brady in Washington, in 1862 — Print owned by Mr. Baldwin
Coolidge of Boston, Massachusetts 63

Photograph taken after first Emancipation Proclamation — Original negative by Mathew Brady
at Washington in September, 1862, age 53 years — Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy
of Washington, District of Columbia 65

Photograph of Lincoln shortly after signing of Emancipation Proclamation — Original negative
taken by Alexander Gardner at Washington, in 1863, when Lincoln, age 54, broke the
chains that had bound three million slaves — Negative in collection of Americana of
Frederick H. Meserve, New York 67

Photograph of President Lincoln's son, William Wallace Lincoln, who died in White House,
February 20, 1862, at twelve years of age — Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of
New York 69

Photograph of Thomas (Tad) Lincoln, born April 4, 1853, who became companion of President
Lincoln during his last years in White House — The oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln,
was in Harvard — Collection of Frederick H. Meserve 69

Photograph of Lincoln taken at Washington, in 1863, shortly after battle of Chancellorsville —

Original negative by Mathew Brady '. 71

Photograph taken the Sunday before Lincoln left for battlefield of Gettysburg in November,

1863 — Original negative by Mathew Brady 71

Photograph taken during Lincoln's speech on battlefield of Gettysburg — Original negative
by Alexander Gardner on November 19, 1863, while Lincoln was delivering his famous
Gettysburg address at consecration of the cemetery — Original in Brady-Gardner Collec-
tion at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyrighted, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Com-
pany 73

Photograph taken about time of "battle of Gettysburg, in 1863 — Original negative by Mathew

Brady 74

Photograph taken in Brady Gallery at National Capital, in 1863, during darkest days of Civil
War — Original negative by Mathew Brady — Life negative in collection of Americana of
Frederick H. Meserve of New York .*- 74

Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln called for a half million more men, in 1864 — Original

negative by Mathew Brady of Washington 75

Photograph taken when Lincoln Was seeking a new general for all the armies of the Republic,

in 1864 — Negative by Mathew Brady at Washington 75

Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1864 at request of Secretary Seward of his cabinet —
Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington — Now in the collection of Mr. L. C.
Handy at Washington 77

Photograph taken about time of battle of Spottsylvania Court House, in 1864 — Original nega-
tive by Mathew Brady — Deposited in the War Department Collection at Washington. . 77

Photograph of Lincoln about time Lincoln met Grant, in 1864 — Original negative by Mathew
Brady at Washington — Life negative in collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New
York 79

Photograph of Lincoln about time of Grant's taking command of the army, in 1864 — Original

negative by Mathew Brady — Print in collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 79

Photograph of Lincoln about time of his second nomination for Presidency of United States —
Negative taken in 1864, when political leaders were declaring that Lincoln could not be
re-elected and American people were demanding his leadership — Original negative by
Walker of Washington — Print from the collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at the Lincoln
Museum at Washington 81

Photograph of Lincoln at time of his second nomination for Presidency, in 1864 — Original
negative by Mathew Brady — From collection of Americana of Frederick H. Meserve of
New York 82

Photograph of Lincoln with his son Thomas (Tad), in 1864 — Original negative by Mathew

Brady at Washington 82

158

Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln

Page

Photograph of Lincoln with his son Thomas (Tad) in White House — Negative taken with
Lincoln in his characteristic attitude at home with his eleven-year-old son by his side —
His son William Wallace had died at the White House two years before — Original nega-
tive by Mathew Brady in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy at Washington 83

Photograph of Lincoln about time of second election as President, in 1864 — Original negative
by Walker, photographer for the Treasury Department at Washington — Print from
collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York. . .85

Photograph of Lincoln, age 56 years, shortly before his second inauguration, in 1865 — Original
negative by Alexander Gardner at Washington — Print from the collection of Mr. Fred-
erick H. Meserve of New York - 85

Photograph of Lincoln in closing days of American Crisis, in 1865 — Original negative by Alex-
ander Gardner at Washington — Print from the collection of Mr. L. C. Handy in Wash-
ington, District of Columbia 87

Photograph of Lincoln at his second inauguration, in 1865, age 56 years — Original negative
by H. F. Warren, Waltham, Massachusetts — Print in the collection of Mr. Osborn H.
Oldroyd at the Lincoln Museum in Washington 87

Photograph of President Lincoln about time of fall of Richmond, in 1865 — Original negative
taken a few days before Lincoln went to capital of Confederacy to look upon ruins of
historic city — Original negative by Mathew Brady — Deposited in Original Brady Col-
lection at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyright, 1909, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton. ... 89

Photograph of Lincoln at end of Civil War and Surrender at Appomattox — Original negative
taken in Washington, in 1865, shortly before the hosts of the South and the legions of
the North clasped hands in peace — Original negative by Mathew Brady, now considered
the greatest portrait of Lincoln ever taken — Deposited in the Original Brady Collection
at Springfield, Massachusetts — Copyright, 1908, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton 91

Last portrait of Lincoln ever taken — Photograph taken a few days before end of Lincoln's life,
in April, 1865, when war was over and American people were re-united into an inseparable
brotherhood — Original negative by Alexander Gardner at Washington — Collection of Mr.
M. P. Rice of Washington — Copyright, 1891 93

Photograph taken at Ford's Theater in Washington, after assassination on night of April 14,
1865 — Original negative by Alexander Gardner — Now deposited in the Original Brady
Collection of seven thousand negatives, at Springfield, Massachusetts 97

Photograph of President Lincoln's box in Ford's Theater as it appeared on night of tragedy 97
Photograph of chair in which President Lincoln was sitting when shot by John Wilkes Booth 97

Photograph of house in which President Lincoln died on Saturday morning, April 15, 1865 —
Photograph taken of building opposite Ford's Theater in which Lincoln spent last hours —
The house is now the famous Lincoln Museum established by Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at
Washington, D. C. — Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 99

Photograph of John Wilkes Booth, actor, who shot Lincoln at Ford's Theater, Friday night,

April 14, 1865 .v 101

Photograph of Sergeant Boston Corbett, 16th New York Cavalry, who fired shot that killed
fugitive Booth in a barn in Virginia, at 3.15 a. m., April 26, 1865 — Negatives in Original
Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 101

Photographs of conspirators hanged for assassination of Lincoln — Original Secret Service nega-
tives in Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 102

Photograph of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, an unfortunate widow and mother, whose home unwit-
tingly became the center of the conspiracy 102

Photograph of George Atzerodt, carriage painter, who, it was charged, was delegated to assas-
sinate Vice-President Johnson 102

Photograph of Davey Herold, boy who aided Booth to escape, and left his mother and seven

sisters heartbroken 102

Photograph of Lewis Payne (Powell), a Florida boy, in double irons. He attempted to assas-
sinate Seward at his home 102

Photographs of accessories imprisoned for assassination of Lincoln — Original Secret Service

negatives in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 103

Photograph of Michael O'Laughlin, sentenced for life and died during imprisonment; his remains

were sent to his mother 103

Photograph of Samuel Arnold, clerk in sutler's store, sentenced for life and pardoned after serv-
ing four years 103

Photograph of Edward Spangler, scene shifter, sentenced to six years; pardoned in four years,

and died eighteen months later 103

Photograph of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, physician, who, for harboring Booth, was sentenced for

life ; pardoned after four years 103 '

159

Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln

Page

Photograph of prison where conspirators were confined — Negative taken at old penitentiary
building on arsenal grounds at Washington, where accused were imprisoned in cells and
heavily chained and manacled — Original negative in Brady-Gardner Collection deposited
in Springfield, Massachusetts 104

Photograph of Military Court that tried Lincoln conspirators — Negative taken when com-
mission began to take testimony on.May 12, 1865 — -Lieutenant-General Grant, whose life
was also in conspiracy, was first witness — Print in collection of Americana of .Mr. Fred-
erick H. Meserve of New York 104

Photograph of gallows in prison yard where conspirators were hanged — Negative taken on
afternoon of July 7, 1865, when ropes were being noosed about conspirators — Original
negative by Alexander Gardner, government photographer, now in Brady-Gardner Col-
lection in Springfield, Massachusetts 105

Photograph of execution of convicted prisoners in Lincoln assassination — This remarkable
negative is silent witness of end of one of the world's greatest tragedies — Taken by Alex-
ander Gardner while those who paid penalty were hanging on gallows — Negative in
Springfield, Massachusetts 105

Photograph of funeral procession of Lincoln passing through streets of Washington at begin-
ning of sixteen hundred mile journey to his old home at Springfield, Illinois, on April
21, 1865 — Negative by Gardner 107

Photograph of bier on which President Lincoln rested in state while men, women, and children
wept over their lost leader on his funeral day on April 19, 1865, when twenty-five million
people throughout country bowed their heads in tribute— Original negatives by Alexander
Gardner now deposited in Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 107

Photograph of funeral catafalque of Lincoln passing through Philadelphia 108

Photograph while Lincoln's body was lying in state before great throngs at City Hall in New

York 108

Photograph of the funeral car bearing the dead Lincoln back to Springfield, Illinois — Prints

from the collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 108

Photograph taken while laying Lincoln in his tomb in beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery in Spring-
field, Illinois, on May 4, 1865 109

Photograph of tomb of Lincoln where Lincoln's body was left with a soldier's guard by a

mourning nation — Prints from the collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York. . 109

Photograph of national memorial at Lincoln's burial place in his old home city of Springfield,
Illinois — Massive marble column rising above the catacomb and memorial hall proclaims
the simple greatness of the man whom the whole world loves — Photograph taken shortly
after its erection, in 1874, showing the original tomb at the foot of the hill where Lincoln
lay for nine years — Print in collection of Americana owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve
of New York ..... . 110

This collection includes all the original photographs of Abraham Lincoln that are known
to be in existence. In many instances the original negatives have been destroyed and prints are
in possession of several collectors. It has been the desire of this handbook to give the credit to
the owner of the original negative whenever it is known to be in existence. Otherwise the credit
is given to the collection from which the print used in this volume is taken. During the exhaus-
tive investigations necessary in making this collection it was found that various coyprights on the
same print are held by several collectors, while the holder of the original negative seems to be
unprotected. -While there has been considerable democracy in copyright protections, it is not
probable that the collector holding merely a print has an equitable right to control another man's
property. This condition is probably partially due to the kinship which Abraham Lincoln holds
to the American people — a kinship which has made his portraits a common heritage of the genera-
tions. The actual property right is undoubtedly with the owner of the original negative. It has
been the desire of the investigator, however, to fully respect the claims of the various collectors
and to give them full credit for the courtesy that they have extended without entering into their
conflicting claims.

160

Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, A History— Ey his secretaries, John C. Nicolay and John Hay — A monumental
work in ten volumes, portraying the life of a man and the history of the times from intimate
association.

History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln — By his law partner, William H. Herndon,
assisted by Jesse William Weik — A true story of a great life by one who was with him when
he rose from obscurity — Recorded in two volumes.

Life of Abraham Lincoln — By Ida Minerva Tarbell — Testimony of many witnesses who knew Lincoln
in his early life, with reminiscences by his friends, including many exhibits of rare documents,
speeches f letters and telegrams — Recorded in two volumes.

The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln — By Francis F. Browne — Lincoln's life and character por-
trayed by those who knew him ; the friends, neighbors and associates during his whole career —
Estimates and impressions of distinguished men, with reminiscences, incidents, and tributes
from universal sources.

The True Abraham Lincoln — By William Eleroy Curtis — Entertaining and graphic pictures of
Lincoln from men who knew him — The simple story of a common man.

Abraham Lincoln, The Man of the People — By Norman Hapgood — Story of a man who became the
leader of the plain people — A virile expression of the character of Lincoln and qualities that
made him the greatest man of his times and yet the simplest and most humble.

Abraham Lincoln, The Boy and the Man — By James Morgan — A dramatic story of the struggles
and troubles of the common man; how he solved great problems by the plain reasoning of
common sense and wrought great deeds by the exercise of the common qualities of honesty
and courage, patience, justice and conscience.

Abraham Lincoln, American Statesman — By John Torrey Morse — An able and critical study of
Lincoln and his work — An estimate of his statesmanship and political greatness, in two volumes.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln — By Isaac Newton Arnold — An entertaining narrative by the lawyer
Who was associated with Lincoln at the bar of Illinois and as a member of Congress in war
time — The same author wrote The History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery,
immediately after Lincoln's death, in 1866.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln from His Birth to His Inauguration as President — By Ward Hill
Lamon — Personal recollections of Lincoln's law partner at Springfield, who, after Lincoln's
election as President, became his private secretary and later his marshal — His recollections
have also been edited by his daughter, Dorothy Lamon.

The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States — By
Henry Jarvis Raymond, who himself took a prominent part in the politics of the times — •
This is one of the first biographies of Lincoln and appeared in 1864-5, given with state papers,
speeches, messages, letters, and intimate descriptions of the closing scenes connected with
his life and death.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln — By Joseph Gilbert Holland, one of the journalists who knew Lincoln
intimately and was one of the first to write his biography in 1865-6 — He was a Northerner
who had lived in the South and knew the estimate of the man — His simple story is still one of
just and honest judgment.

Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln — -By Francis B. Carpenter, an artist who
painted one of the famous portraits of Lincoln and lived with him during the most critical
days of the American Crisis, portraying the inner life at the White House— This is an intimate
story written in 1866.

Life on the Circuit with Lincoln — By Henry Clay Whitney, a fellow circuit rider who knew the
simple manhood of Lincoln as the country lawyer — A characterized portrayal of Lincoln in
his most picturesque background.

Recollections of Abraham Lincoln — By Lucius Eugene Chittenden, an official in Lincoln's admin-
istration who gives his personal reminiscences and experiences with the President during the
war — Entertaining memories of one who was close to Lincoln in Washington.

Lincoln, Master of Men — By Alonzo Rothschild— A study of the character of Lincoln and his anility
as a leader — A brilliant estimate of his power, original in its treatment and executed with skill.

Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War — By James Roberts Gilmore — En-
tertaining glimpses into the personal characteristics of Lincoln with memoirs and anecdotes
of personal relations with him during the dark days of the Civil War.

Washington in Lincoln's Time — By Noah Brooks, a trusted friend of Lincoln who was associated
with the man and the events during the American Crisis — His books also include a biography
of Lincoln for young people ; a narrative of the worth and' early" manhood of Lincoln ; and his
connection with the downfall of slavery.

Abraham Lincoln, An Essay — By Carl Schurz, who was appointed minister to Spain by President
Lincoln and later became a member of President Hayes' cabinet — A luminous appreciation,
given with testimonies by Emerson, Whittier, Holmes and Lowell.

Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln — Twelve volumes containing several authentic lines known
to be in existence from the speeches and writings of Lincoln, including his letters, state papers,
and messages — With exhaustive Lincoln biography by Daniel Fish.

161

Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's Pen and Voice — Compiled by G. M. Van Buren — A complete compilation of his

letters, civil, political, and military; also his public addresses, messages to Congress, inaugurals

and others.
Abraham Lincoln' s Speeches Complete — Edited by J. B. McClure — From his first address in Papps-

ville, Illinois, 1832, to his last address in Washington, April 11, 1865.
Abraham Lincoln, Stories and Speeches- — Edited by J. B. McClure.
Lincoln's Early Speeches— Edited by Bliss Perry — Springfield speech- — Cooper Union speech —

Inaugural addresses — Gettysburg address — Selected letters — Lincoln's last speech.
Lincoln; Passages from His Speeches and Letters — With an introduction by R. W. Gilder.
The Table Talk of Abraham Lincoln — Edited by W. O. Stoddard.

Words of Abraham Lincoln — Selected, arranged and annotated by I. Thomas — For use in schools.
Words of Lincoln — Compiled by O. H. Oldroyd — With an introduction by M. W. Fuller and T. S.

Hamlin — Including several hundred opinions of his life and character by eminent persons of

this and other lands.
Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas — In the celebrated campaign

of 1858 in Illinois; including ,the preceding speeches of each at Chicago, and Springfield.
Political Speeches and Debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, 1854-1861 — Edited

by Alonzo T. Jones.
Abraham Lincoln, The Backwoods Boy — By Horatio Alger, Jr. — Story of how a Young Railsplitter

became President — Boyhood and Manhood Series of Illustrious Americans.
Life of Abraham Lincoln — By Joseph H. Barrett — With a condensed view of his most important

speeches, his messages, proclamations, letters, and a concise history of the war.
The Life and Public Services of Honorable Abraham Lincoln — By Davis Vandewater Golden

Bartlett.

The True Story of Abraham Lincoln, the American, Told for Boys and. Girls — Children's Lives of

Great Men — By Elbridge Streeter Brooks.
In the Boyhood of Lincoln — By Hezekiah Butterworth.
Abraham Lincoln — By Charles Carleton Coffin.
Life of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States — By Frank Crosby — Containing

his early history and political career; together with his speeches, messages, proclamations and

other official documents.
Greeley on Lincoln — Edited by Joel Benton — With Mr. Greeley's letter to Charles A. Dana and

a lady friend — Added reminiscences of Horace Greeley.
Abraham Lincoln: His Life and Public Services — Narrative by a Woman in 1865 — By Phebe Ann

Coffin Hanaford.
Assassination of Lincoln — By Thomas Mealey Harris — A history of the great conspiracy — Trial of

the conspirators by a military commission and a review of the trial of John H. Surratt.
Nancy Hanks — By Caroline Hanks Hitchcock — The story of Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy

Hanks.

Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery in the United States — By Charles Godfrey Leland.
Abraham' Lincoln and Men of War-Times — By Alexander Kelly McClure — Some personal recollec-
tions of war and politics during the Lincoln administration.
Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's Stories — By James B. McClure.
Life of Abraham Lincoln — By Clifton M. Nichols — Being a biography of Lincoln's life from his birth

to his assassination; also a record of his ancestors, and a collection of anecdotes attributed

to Lincoln.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln — By Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd — Flight, pursuit, capture,
and punishment of the conspirators, with an introduction by T. M. Harris.

The Lincoln Memorial; Album-Immortelles — Collected and edited by O. H. Oldroyd — Original life-
pictures, with autographs, from the hands and hearts of eminent Americans and Europeans,
contemporaries of the great martyr to liberty, Abraham Lincoln; together with extracts from
his speeches and sayings — With an introduction by M. Simpson, D. D., and a sketch of the
patriot's life by I. N. Arnold.

Abraham Lincoln — By John Carroll Power — His life, public services, death and great funeral
cortege, from Washington to Springfield, Illinois — With history and description of the national
Lincoln monument — History of the attempt to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln — Including
a history of the Lincoln guard of honor, with eight years Lincoln memorial services.

Lincoln in Story — By Silas Gamaliel Pratt — The life of the Martyr-President told in authenticated
anecdotes.

The Children's Life of Abraham Lincoln — By M. Louise Putnam.

Reminiscences of- Abraham Lincoln, By Distinguished Men of His Times — By Allen Thorndike
Rice — Contains articles by Ulysses S. Grant, Elihu B. Washburne, George W. Julian, R. E.
Fenton, J. P. Usher, George S. Boutwell, Benjamin F. Butler, Charles C. Coffin, Frederick
Douglass, Lawrence Weldon, Benjamin P. Poore, Titian J. Coffey, Henry Ward Beecher,
William D. Kelley, Cassius M. Clay, Robert G. Ingersoll, A. H. Markland, Schuyler Colfax,

162

Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln

Daniel W. Voorhees, Charles A. Dana, John A. Kasson, James B. Fry, Hugh McCulloch.
Chauncey M. Depew, David R. Locke, Leonard Swett, Walt Whitman, Donn Piatt, E. W-
Andrews, James C. Welling, John Conness, John B. Alley, and Thomas Hicks.

The First Published Life of Abraham Lincoln — By John Locke Scripps — Written in the year 1860;
reprinted in the year 1900, by the Cranbrook Press.

The Life, Stories, and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln — By Paul Selby — A compilation of Lincoln's
most remarkable utterances, with a sketch of his life.

Abraham Lincoln, A Character Sketch — By Robert Dickinson Sheppard — With anecdotes, character-
istics and chronology.

Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life — By William Osborn Stoddard — Showing the
inner growth, special training and peculiar fitness of the man for his work — Also Inside the
White House in War-Times, and Lincoln at Work; Sketches from Life.

Pioneer Home to the White House — By William Makepeace Thayer — Life of Abraham Lincoln —
With Eulogy by Honorable George Bancroft — The Pioneer boy, and how he became President.

Abraham Lincoln, The First American — By David D. Thompson.

Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln — Reproduction in facsimile of eighty-seven memorials
addressed by foreign municipalities and societies to the government of the United States —
Prepared under the direction of the Secretary of State at Washington.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; late President of the United States of America, and the
attempted assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Frederick W. Seward,
Assistant Secretary, on the evening of the 14th of April, 1865 — Expression of condolence and
sympathy inspired by these events — Washington; Government Printing Office, 1867.

Abraham Lincoln, Tributes from His Associates — Reminiscences of soldiers, statesmen and citizens —
By William Hayes Ward.

Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln — Edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay; with a general
introduction by Richard Watson Gilder, and special articles by other eminent persons.

Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley, with an introduction by Theodore
Roosevelt; together with The Essay on Lincoln, by Carl Schurz; The Address on Lincoln,
by Joseph H. Choate, and The Life of Lincoln, by Noah Brooks.

The Lincoln and Douglas Debates — The senatorial campaign of 1858 in Illinois, between Abraham
Lincoln and Stephen Arnold Douglas; containing also Lincoln's address at Cooper Institute,
with introduction and notes by Archibald Lewis Bouton.

Abraham Lincoln, a True Life — By James Baldwin.

The Lincoln Legion, the Story of Its Founder and Forerunners — By Louis Albert Banks.

Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency — By Joseph Hartwell Barrett.

The Genesis of Lincoln— By James H. Cathey — Truth is stranger than fiction.

Abraham Lincoln, The Liberator: A Biographical Sketch — By Charles Wallace French.

The Story of Abraham Lincoln — By Mrs. Eleanor Gridley — The journey from the log cabin to the
White House.

"Abe" Lincoln's Yarns and Stories — By Alexander Kelly McClure — A complete collection of the
funny and witty anecdotes that made Lincoln famous as America's greatest story teller; with
introduction and anecdotes — The story of Lincoln's life told by himself in his stories.

The Real Lincoln — By Charles Landon Carter Minor — From the testimony of Lincoln's contem-
poraries.

Abraham Lincoln — By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer — American Crisis Biographies.

Abraham Lincoln, A Character Sketch — By Robert Dickinson Sheppard — With Supplementary
Essay — By G. Mercer Adam — Also Suggestions from the Life of Lincoln — By Prof. Francis
W. Shepardson — The Early Years of Abraham Lincoln — By Prof. Goldwin Smith . . . together
with anecdotes, characteristics, and. chronology.

The Boy Lincoln — By William Osborn Stoddard.

Abraham Lincoln, the Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President — The story of his life — By
William Makepeace Thayer.

A List of Lincolniana in the Library of Congress — By G. T. Ritchie — Writings of Abraham Lincoln —
Writings relating to Abraham Lincoln — Washington; Government Printing Office, 1903.

Lincoln and the Freedmen — By J. Grant Eaton, in collaboration with Ethel Osgood Mason — Remi-
niscences of the Civil War, with special reference to the work for the contrabands and freedmen
of the Mississippi Valley.

History of the Administration of President Lincoln — By H. J. Raymond— Including Lincoln's
speeches, letters, proclamations and messages — With preliminary sketch of his life.

The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd — By N. Mudd — Containing Dr. Mudd's letters from Fort Jeffer-
son, Dry Tortugas Island, where he was imprisoned four years for alleged complicity in the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln, with statements of Mrs. Samuel A. Mudd, Dr. Samuel A.
Mudd, and Edward Spangler regarding the assassination and the argument of General Ewing
on the question of the jurisdiction of the military commission, and on the law and facts of the
case; also the "diary" of John Wilkes Booth.

163

Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln in the Telegraph Office — By D. H. Bates — Recollections of the United State military tele-
graph corps during the Civil War.

Lincoln the Lawyer — By F. T. Hill.

The Story-Life of Lincoln — By Wayne Whipple — A biography composed of five hundred true stories
told by Abraham Lincoln and his friends, selected from all authentic sources.

The Memory of Lincoln — Poems selected, with an introduction by M. A. DeW. Howe, Boston, 1899.

The Lincoln Album; life of the preserver of the Union, the liberator of a people, and the first Ameri-
can— Told by authentic picture — Facsimile, letters, speeches, quotations, genealogy, and a
chronological table giving the principal events of his career, with the dates of their occurrence.

The Lincoln Centennial Medal, presenting the medal of Abraham Lincoln by Jules Edouard Roine,
together with papers on the medal.

Abraham Lincoln — By George Haven Putnam, Litt. D. — The People's leader in the struggle for
national existence.

The Death of Lincoln — By Clara E. Laughlin — The story of Booth's plot, his deed and the penalty.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Its Expiation — By David Miller Dewitt.

O Captain ! My Captain !

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise- up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths — for you" the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

—Walt Whitman.

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