The writings of Abraham Lincoln

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FEDERAL EDITION
Limited to 1000 signed and numbered sets.

The Collector's Federal Edition of the Writings of
Abraham Lincoln is limited to six hundred signed
and numbered sets, of which this is

Number.

We guarantee that no limited, numbered edition,
other than the Federal, shall be printed from these
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VbraKnw CttkiMit

Statue of Abraham Lincoln, in Chicago

By Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The 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

Volume Eight
The Life of Lincoln

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London
Zbc fmicfterbocher press

1906

Copyright by
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1888

Tlbe fmfcftcrbocfeer press, Hew tforft

TO THE MEMORY OF

" TAD"

PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.

THE character of Abraham Lincoln, as the years
pass, becomes grander and more heroic; and,
as is usual when a commanding figure slowly rises
conspicuous in the history of humanity, traditions
and myths are already beginning to cluster around
his illustrious personality. The simplest truth is
always best; and the simpler and more direct the
biographical sketch of Abraham Lincoln, the more
deeply will his image be impressed upon the heart of
that 1 ' common people ' ' whom he loved so well and
of which he was the noblest representative. In this
book it has been the author's aim to present such a
picture of Lincoln and his times as shall leave upon
the mind of the reader a definite and authoritative
likeness of the man whose name is now enrolled
highest among the types of our national ideals.

v

PREFACE.

IN writing this brief biography, I have been moved
* by a desire to give to the present generation, who
will never know aught of Abraham Lincoln but what
is traditional, a lifelike picture of the man as many
men knew him. To do this, it has been necessary
to draw material from various sources, to paint in a
background of the history of the times in which he
lived, and to place the illustrious subject in his true
relation, as far as possible, to the events in which he
was so large a participant. So far as I have been
able, I have subordinated the events to the man.

In the preparation of the work, I have been greatly
helped by many authors ; and I have been especially
indebted to the writings of Colonel Ward H. Lamon,
the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, Dr. J. G. Holland, John G.
Nicolay, and Colonel John Hay. It was my good
fortune to know Lincoln with some degree of inti-
macy, our acquaintance beginning with the Fremont
campaign of 1856, when I was a resident of Illinois,
and continuing through the Lin coin -Douglas can-
vass, two years later. That relation became more
intimate and confidential when, in 1862, I met
Lincoln in Washington, and saw him almost daily
until his tragical death. This preliminary egotism
may be pardoned by way of explanation of the fact
that many things relating to his early life, herein set

vii

viii

Preface

down, were derived from his own lips, often during
hours of secluded companionship. If this little
book shall give new and inspiring views of Lincoln
to the English-speaking people, I shall be grateful
that I have been permitted to write it.

Noah Brooks.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
THE LINCOLN ANCESTRY pace

Condition of the People at the End of the War for Indepen-
dence — Migrations of the Earlier Lincolns — A Tragedy in
the Wilderness — Abraham Lincoln's Parents in Kentucky —
Birth of the Future President — The Old Kentucky Home
— Another Migration — A Great Disaster in Indiana . . i

CHAPTER II
THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

The Lincoln Home in Indiana — Hard Times — The Boy of the
Backwoods — Log Cabin Building — Abraham Lincoln's First
Letter — The Funeral in the Wilderness — The Boy's First 12
Book ' V

CHAPTER III

YOUNG MANHOOD

Thomas Lincoln's Second Marriage — Improvements in the Back-
woods Home — More Books for the Boy — His Horizon
Enlarges — He Learns to be Thorough — Down the Missis-
sippi— A Glimpse of Slavery — Coming out of the Wilderness 27

CHAPTER IV
THE LINCOLNS IN ILLINOIS

The Land of Full-Grown Men — Lincoln Attains his Majority
— Striking Out for Himself — Another River Voyage — An
Odd Introduction to New Salem — Some Rough and Tumble
Discipline — The Backwoodsman Conquers Friends — He Van-
quishes English Grammar 43

ix

X

Contents

CHAPTER V
A PLUNGE INTO POLITICS PAGE

Young Lincoln's Growing Passion for Knowledge — Candidate
for the State Legislature — Captain in the Black Hawk War
— A Gathering of Men Since Famous — Hardships of the
Volunteer Soldiers — Stump-Speaking and Defeat — Lincoln
as a Country Merchant — Lawyer and Surveyor . . .54

CHAPTER VI

THE YOUNG POLITICIAN

Elected to the Legislature — Stump Speaker and Political De-
bater— Encounters on the Stump — The Lincoln-Stone Pro-
test against Slavery — "The Long Nine" — Removal of the
State Capital to Springfield — Compliments to the Sangamon
Chief — Lincoln a Full-Fledged Lawyer — Riding the Illinois
Circuit — Distinguished Associates at the Bar — Lincoln as a
Harrison Man ......... 70

CHAPTER VII

WINNING HIS WAY

His First Love Affair — A Disappointment — Dark Days — The
Lincoln-Shields "Duel" — Good Advice on the Subject of
Quarrelling — Lincoln and Van Buren — A Roadside Sympo-
sium— Congressional Expectations ..... 80

CHAPTER VIII

THE RISING POLITICIAN

Lincoln's Admiration of Henry Clay — An Irresponsive Idol —
Slavery and the Tariff — Lincoln Elected to Congress — The
Mexican War — A Queer Nickname — Rise of the Free-Soil
Party — Election of General Taylor — Return to Springfield
— The Boys of Lincoln — A Shiftless Relative ... 99

CHAPTER IX

LINCOLN THE LAWYER

An Honest Advocate and Counsellor — M The Snow Boys " and
Old Man Case — Famous Lawsuits about Negroes — Jack
Armstrong's Son on Trial for Murder — Lincoln's Vindication
of his Old Friend — How the Attorney Looked and Spoke . 121

Contents

xi

CHAPTER X

A GREAT AWAKENING PAGB

Stupor Before Excitement — A Dead Sea of Politics — Repeal
of the Missouri Compromise — The Migration to Kansas —
Lincoln and Douglas Meet Again — A Memorable Debate —
Lincoln Withdraws from the Canvass — Lyman Trumbull
Elected to the Senate 131

CHAPTER XI
THE KANSAS STRUGGLE

Freedom and Slavery Wrestle with Each Other — "Bleeding
Kansas ' ' — The Troubles of Slave-Owners — The Irrepressible
Conflict — Lincoln's Slowness and Reticence . . . 144

CHAPTER XII
THE COMING MAN

Birth of the Republican Party — Nomination of Fremont — The
Party Lines Drawn — A Virulent Campaign — Election of
James Buchanan — Kansas Reluctant to Consent to
Slavery .......... 153

CHAPTER XIII
LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS

The Famous Contest for the Senatorship — A Battle of Giants
— Douglas and Lincoln Compared — Two Self-made Men —
Lincoln's Autobiography — A Series of Famous Debates —
The Country Intent on the Struggle — A Great Lesson in
American Politics 161

CHAPTER XIV
AFTER A GREAT STRUGGLE

Condition of the Two Contestants — The Crocodile and the
Negro — Douglas in the South — Lincoln Nominated by Illi-
nois Republicans — The Rail-Splitting Candidate — Some
Pithy Sayings — Lincoln Speaks in New York — The Man
from Illinois . . . . . . . . .179

xii

Contents

CHAPTER XV
ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY pagb
Rending of the Democratic Party — The National Convention of
i860 — Lincoln Nominated at Chicago — A Memorable Scene
— Popular Enthusiasm — Four Tickets in the Field —
Lincoln's Great Triumph . . . . . . .189

CHAPTER XVI

AFTER THE ELECTION

The President-Elect and the Office-Seekers — A Policy Demand-
ed — Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet — Organization of the
Rebel Confederacy — Alarm in the North — The Star of the
West Fired On — A Peace Congress in the Face of War . 203

CHAPTER XVII

FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON

Lincoln's Farewell to his Fellow-Townsmen — Prayers for the
President-Elect — Rush of the People to See Him — A Series
of Remarkable Speeches — Why the President Would
Wear a Beard — Rumors of Assassination — The Night
Journey from Harrisburg to the Capital . . . .219

CHAPTER XVIII

LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION

A Notable Gathering in Washington — The First Inaugural
Address — How it was Received North and South — Precau-
tions against Plots — Formation of the Cabinet — Represen-
tative Men 236

CHAPTER XIX

PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In the White House — Assembling of the Rebel Congress — Rebel
Emissaries Sent to Washington — A Vigorous Policy Clam-
ored for — The First Gun at Sumter — Great Excitement
throughout the Republic — A Nation in Arms — Attack on
the Sixth Massachusetts — Notable Deaths . . . 251

Contents

xiii

CHAPTER XX
BEGINNING OF THE GREAT STRUGGLE pagb

The Combatants Face to Face — The First Battle of Bull Run
— The Sting of Defeat — George B. McClellan — Effect of the
Great Disaster — A Message to Congress — Men and Money
Voted — How Foreign Nations Regarded the Struggle —
Seizure and Release of Mason and Slidell . . . .275

CHAPTER XXI

THE SLAVERY QUESTION ARISES

Fremont's Troubles in Missouri — His Policy Disapproved by
the President — General Hunter's Proclamation Revoked —
Irritation in the Border States — Lincoln Invites a Con-
ference— Arming the Freedmen Proposed — Lincoln's Letter
to Horace Greeley — The Emancipation Proclamation Issued 293

CHAPTER XXII

A DIFFICULT MILITARY SITUATION

Creation and Equipment of an Army — The Federal Military
Plan — Retirement of General Scott — General McClellan
in Full Command — Appearance of General U. S. Grant —
Fall of Forts Henry and Donelson — Criticism of McClellan
— Death of the President's Son Willie — Military Operations
on the Peninsula — McClellan's Extraordinary Delays — His
Advice to the President — Halleck Made General-in-Chief
— A Conference of Loyal Governors — The Second Bull Run
Defeat — Antietam — McClellan Relieved of His Command . 318

CHAPTER XXIII

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

The Battle of Fredericksburg — Rise of the Peace Party — Fac-
tions in Congress — The Battle of Chancellorsville — A Con-
scription Ordered and Martial Law Declared — Colored
Troops Enlisted — Great Financial Measures Afoot — Vallan-
digham's Expulsion and Return — Growth of the Anti-War
Sentiment — Fall of Vicksburg and Battle of Gettysburg —
Popular Rejoicings — The President's Proclamation of Thanks-
giving — Draft Riots in New York — Lincoln's Address on
the Field of Gettysburg — Grant and Sherman in the West 349

xiv

Contents

CHAPTER XXIV
POLITICAL COMPLICATIONS PAGB

A "President-Making" Congress — Activity of Lincoln's Op-
ponents— Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General — Beginning
of an Aggressive Campaign — Federal Successes in the
Southwest — Sheridan in the Valley of the Shenandoah —
Political Troubles in Missouri — Lincoln Renominated — Mc-
Clellan the Democratic Nominee — A Diversion in Favor
of Fremont — Peace Negotiations at Niagara — Five Hundred
Thousand Men Called Out — Lincoln Re-elected — Renewed
Talk of Peace — A Peace Conference at Hampton Roads
— "The President's Last, Shortest, and Best Speech" —
The Second Inauguration . . . . . . .382

CHAPTER XXV

THE FAMILY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Plain Living and Simple Manners — Lincoln's Kindness and
His Righteous Wrath — The Sons of Lincoln — The Boy of
the White House — Threats of Assassination — The President's
Dealings with Office-Seekers — Sundry Anecdotes . .415

CHAPTER XXVI
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET

Popular Expectation that Secretary Seward would be the
Leading Spirit of the New Administration — Mr. Lincoln's
Firmness and Kindness with the Secretary of State — Mr.
Stanton's Criticisms of Lincoln — Why Secretary Cameron
left the Cabinet — The Exit of Postmaster-General Blair —
Secretary Chase's Restiveness — His Subsequent Appoint-
ment as Chief -Justice — The President Deferred to the
Ministers 427

CHAPTER XXVII
END OF A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY

Symptoms of a Collapse of the Confederacy — Lee Seeks a Parley
with Grant — The Fall of Richmond — Flight of the Rebel

Contents

XV

Government — Lincoln in the Former Rebel Capital — He
Goes to the Front — The Surrender of Lee — Great Joy of
the People — The National Capital in a Frenzy of Delight
Lincoln's Last Public Speech — His Death and Funeral —
Conclusion . ...... ... 441

INDEX

459

ILLUSTRATIONS.

FAGB

Statue of Abraham Lincoln, in Chicago

Frontispiece

By Augustus Saint-Gaudens .

Abraham Lincoln 32

Front the painting by F. B. Carpenter at the Union League Club
New York.

Abraham Lincoln . .... 76

From an engraving, by John Sartain
{Courtesy of W. C. Crane, Esq.)

Abraham Lincoln . . . . .120

From a drawing from life by F. B. Carpenter.

John A. Dix ...... 212

After a photograph in the possession of his family.

Abraham Lincoln ..... 230

From a steel engraving.

Lincoln and his Cabinet .... 246

From a steel engraving.
{Courtesy of W. C. Crane, Esq.)

George B. McClellan ..... 284

From a photograph by Handy.

Abraham Lincoln ..... 2Q6

From an engraving by Hall.
{Courtesy of W. C. Crane, Esq.)

David Glasgow Farragut .... 324

From a steel engraving.
xrii

xviii Illustrations

PAGE

James A . Garfield ..... 336

Engraved by J. I. Pease.

George G. Meade ..... 366

After a photograph by Brady.

Facsimile of Gettysburg Address . . . 378
Montgomery Blair ..... jp2

From the painting by F. B. Carpenter at the Union League Club
New York.

William P. Fessenden ..... 434

From a steel engraving.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

AND

THE DOWNFALL OF AMERICAN SLAVERY

BY

NOAH BROOKS

The Life of Abraham Lincoln

CHAPTER I.

THE LINCOLN ANCESTRY.

Condition of the People at the End of the War for Independence —
Migrations of the Earlier Lincolns — A Tragedy in the Wilderness
— Abraham Lincoln's Parents in Kentucky — Birth of the Future
President — The Old Kentucky Home — Another Migration — A
Great Disaster in Indiana.

AT the end of the war of the American Revolution
the condition of the people of the United States
was one of deep poverty. The credit of the govern-
ment was not good. Money was scarce. There was
no mint for coinage of American specie, and the
paper currency authorized by the Continental Con-
gress was very low in value. Immediately after the
end of the war, the young republic had had a slight
wave of prosperity. Various kinds of useful manu-
factures had been established, and people dwelling
in cities were at ease, and they who dwelt on planta-
tions and farms were plentifully supported by the
yields of their acres, flocks, and herds.

But this did not last long. Very soon the coun-
try was deluged with English goods, and, instead
of being large exporters, the people of the United
States imported more than they sent away. During

VOL. VIII. — I .

I

2

Abraham Lincoln

the two years next succeeding the declaration of
peace, the value of goods imported from England
was about thirty million dollars, while those exported
did not amount to nine millions. At the beginning
of 1783, the public debt of the republic was about
forty-two millions, and the debts of the separate
States, added together, were about one half of that
sum. Specie went rapidly out of the country to pay
for imports, and the almost worthless currency
remaining was all that the people had for daily use.

So great was this depression among the towns and
villages of the old thirteen States that many families
began to turn their eyes and thoughts westward,
where, it was said, was a land of plenty. There, at
least, the soil yielded abundantly; the forests were
filled with game, the rivers with fish, and the prime
necessities of human life were easily met. Among
those who went with this wave of Western migration
was the family of Lincoln, from which was to spring,
in years to come, the President of illustrious name.

The Lincolns originally came from England,
settling in Hingham, Massachusetts, about the year
1638. Thence to Pennsylvania went Mordecai Lin-
coln, the great-great-grandfather of the President.
The later Lincolns who moved westward in 1782, at
the period of which we have just spoken, were
Abraham Lincoln and Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas,
his sons. They went from Rockingham County,
Virginia, to Mercer County, Kentucky, in the year
before mentioned. At that time, Kentucky was a
part of the great State of Virginia. It was almost
an untrodden wilderness, and the few settlers who

The Lincoln Ancestry

3

were scattered over its vast area were brave, hardy,
adventurous, and sometimes terrible men. To the
savages who roamed the forests they were indeed a
terror and a constant threat. The Indians, irritated
by the unceasing incoming of the whites, and vainly
thinking that they could stem the tide that poured
in upon them, were always at war with the intruders,
and they omitted no opportunity to pick them off
singly, or to drive them out by sudden and deadly
attacks on small settlements.

Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the President,
entered four hundred acres of land on the south side
of Licking Creek, under a government warrant. He
built a log cabin near the military post known as
Fort Beargrass, the site of the present city of Louis-
ville, Kentucky. Here the family began to open
their farm, breaking up the virgin soil and planting
their first crops. In the second year of their Ken-
tucky settlement, Abraham Lincoln and his son
Thomas being at work in the field, a sneaking Indian
waylaid the twain, and, firing from the brush, killed
the father at his task. Mordecai and Josiah, the
elder brothers, were chopping in the forest near at
hand, and, while Josiah ran to the fort for help,
Mordecai dashed into the cabin and seized the ever-
ready rifle. Looking through one of the port-holes cut
in the logs, he saw the Indian, who, taking advan-
tage of the flight of the boys, had seized little Tom,
then only six years old, and was making off with him
to the woods. Levelling his rifle, Mordecai shot and
killed the Indian, and, as he dropped to the ground,
the boy, liberated by the death of bis would-be captor,

4

Abraham Lincoln

sprang to his feet and fled to the cabin, where the
future father of the President was clasped in his
mother's arms. Josiah speedily returned from the
fort with a party of settlers, who took up the bodies
of Abraham Lincoln and his slayer.

This scene, as may be imagined, made a deep im-
pression on the minds of the three boys. It is said
that Mordecai, standing over the form of his slain
father, on the soil to be known for generations there-
after as "the dark and bloody ground," vowed that
that precious life should be richly paid for in Indian
blood. Certain it is that, from that time forth,
Mordecai Lincoln was the mortal enemy of the red
man, and many an Indian fell before his terrible rifle.

By this lamentable death, the widow of Abraham
Lincoln was left alone to care for five children —
Mordecai, Josiah, Thomas, Mary, and Nancy. Of
their struggles and hardships we know nothing
positively; but these can be imagined. Poverty
oppressed the entire republic. In the wilderness of
Kentucky there were few gleams of light : no schools,
scanty means for acquiring even the art of reading
and writing, and no apparent need of the higher
branches of a common-school education. In the
hard, rude life of the frontier, in ignorance and
poverty, the father of the President grew to man's
estate. In later years, his son Abraham, asked to tell
what he knew of his father's life, said: "My father,
at the time of the death of his father, was but six
years old, and he grew up literally without educa-
tion." He was a tall, well-built, and muscular man,
quick with his rifle, an expert hunter, good-natured

The Lincoln Ancestry

5

and easy-going, but neither industrious nor enter-
prising. Unable to read until after his marriage,
he invariably put on his lack of education all respon-
sibility for his failures in life ; and these were many.
To his credit it should be said that he resolved that
no child of his should ever be crippled as he had been
for lack of knowledge of the commonest rudiments
of learning.

While yet a lad, he hired himself to his uncle, Isaac
Lincoln, then living on a claim that he had taken on
Watauga Creek, a branch of the Holston River.
Manual labor filled the years of Tom's young man-
hood. Felling forests, breaking up the soil, building
the rude cabins of the time, and rearing the crops
needed for the sustenance of the hardy settlers and
their broods — these were the occupations of those
years. The woods were thickly tenanted by bears,
deer, catamounts, and other wild creatures, and so
far as hunting was a diversion from toil, this amuse-
ment was ready in abundance. But hunting was
necessary for procuring meat for the table and furs
and skins for clothing and for barter with distant
trading-posts. Thomas Lincoln was a laboring
man, working for others, and compelled to take for
wages whatever he could get in a region where every
man wrought with his own hands and few hired from
others.

Thomas Lincoln was married, in 1806, to Nancy
Hanks, formerly of Virginia. The young bride was
taken by her husband to a rude log cabin that he had
built for himself near Nolin Creek, in what is now
Larue County, Kentucky. The region was well

6

Abraham Lincoln

covered with timber, and, where cleared and planted,
bore good harvests. It was a picturesque and roll-
ing country, and some of the hills rise to the dignity
of mountains. One of these is called Shiny Moun-
tain and another is known as Blue Ball. Here and
there were clearings, and smiling fields were gradu-
ally taking the place of pathless woods.

In this cabin, February 12, 1809, was born Abra-
ham Lincoln, who was to be the 16th President of
the United States. While he was yet an infant, the
family removed to another log cabin, not far distant,
and in these two homes Abraham Lincoln spent the
first seven years of his life. One sister, Sarah, was a
year older than he; and one brother, Thomas, two
years younger, died in infancy. Mrs. Lincoln was
described by her son Abraham as of medium stature,
dark, with soft and rather mirthful eyes. She was
a woman of great force of character and passionately
fond of reading. Every book on which she could lay
hands was eagerly read, and her son said, years after-
wards, that his earliest recollection of his mother was
of his sitting at her feet with his sister, drinking in
the tales and legends that were read or related to
them by the house-mother.

Theirs was a very humble and even poverty-
stricken home. The mother was used to the rifle,
and not only did she bring down the bear, or deer,
and dress its flesh for the family table, but her skilful
hand wrought garments and moccasins and head-
gear from the skins. The most vivid impression that
we have of the mother of Abraham Lincoln is one of
sadness, toil, and unremitting anxiety. That was a

The Lincoln Ancestry

7

hard life for a sensitive and slender woman which
was led by the mother of the President. The
country was very poor in all that makes life easy.
The little family was far from any considerable settle-
ment. Father and mother were alike religious and
resolved to bring up their children in the fear of God ;
but places of worship, schools, and all the means of
even a common education were not near at hand.
Mrs. Lincoln taught her two children their first
lessons in the alphabet and spelling. When Abra-
ham was in his seventh year, Zachariah Riney came
into the vicinity and the lad was sent to his school.
Riney was a Catholic, and the Protestant children
that attended his humble school were withdrawn
from the little log schoolhouse whenever any relig-
ious exercises were held. In later years, Lincoln
spoke of this his first schoolmaster with respect and
esteem, although Riney did not long continue to
teach the future President. Later on, Caleb Hazel,
a spirited and manly young fellow, succeeded Riney
as teacher, and Abraham attended his school three
months. So rare were opportunities for going to
school in those days, that Lincoln never forgot the
lessons he learned of Caleb Hazel and the pleasure
that he felt in that great event of his life — going to
school.

In those primitive times, preaching was usually
had under the trees or in the cabins of those few who
were so fortunate as to have a bigger roof than most
of their neighbors. Lincoln was a full-grown lad
when he first saw a church, and it was only from the
lips of wandering preachers, devoted men of God,

8

Abraham Lincoln

that he heard the words of Christian doctrine, re-
proof, and admonition. At long intervals, Parson
Elkin, a Baptist preacher, took his way through the
region in which the Lincolns lived, and young
Abraham, fascinated by hearing long discourses fall
from the lips of the speaker, apparently without any
previous study or preparation, never failed to travel
far, if necessary, to attend on his simple services.
The boy's first notions of public speaking were taken
from the itinerant, and years afterwards the Presi-
dent referred to the preacher as the most wonderful
man known to his boyish experience.

Thomas Lincoln wearied of his Kentucky home.
There was great trouble in getting land titles ; even
Daniel Boone, the pioneer and surveyor of the land,
upon whom had been conferred a great grant, was
shorn of much of his lawful property, and a cloud
was laid on nearly every man's right to own his home-
stead. Slavery, too, was asserting itself in the
region, and, although a dislike for the institution of
slavery did not unsettle Thomas Lincoln, it is likely
that the fact that he was too poor to own slaves, and
would be brought into direct relations with men who
could own this peculiar kind of property, helped to
make him dissatisfied with his surroundings. But
the real cause of his hankering after a new home was
probably his thriftlessness. Like many another
pioneer, he saw something better far ahead. The
tales of wonderfully rich soil, abundant game, fine
timber, and rich pasturage that came to Kentucky
from Indiana were just like the rosy reports of the
riches and attractions of Kentucky that had enticed

The Lincoln Ancestry 9

the elder Lincolns from their home in Virginia, years
before. So Thomas resolved to "pull up stakes "
and move on, still to the westward.

Thomas found a new-comer who was willing to
take his partly-improved farm and log cabin for ten
barrels of whiskey and twenty dollars in cash. This
represented three hundred dollars in value, and was
the price that he had set upon his homestead.
Whiskey made from corn was, in those days, one of
the readiest forms of currency in the trading and
barter continually going on among the settlers ; and,
even where drunkenness was almost unknown, the
fiery spirit was regarded as a perfectly legitimate
article of daily use and a substitute for money in
trade. Aided by his boys, Thomas Lincoln built
a flatboat, and, launching it on the turbid waters
of the Rolling Fork, which empties into the Ohio, he
loaded it with his ten barrels of whiskey and the
heavier articles of household furniture. Then, push-
ing off alone, but followed by the hurrahs of his two
children, he floated safely down to the Ohio. Here
he met with a great disaster. Caught between
eddying currents, and entangled in the snags and
" sawyers" that beset the stream, Lincoln's frail
craft was upset and much of his stuff was lost.
With assistance, the boat was righted, and, with what
had been saved from the wreck, Thomas Lincoln
landed at Thompson's Ferry, found an ox-cart to
transport his slender stock of valuables into the
forest, and finally piled them in an oak-opening in
Spencer County, Indiana, about eighteen miles from
the river.

IO

Abraham Lincoln

Left at home, in their dismantled cabin, with a
scanty supply of provisions, the mother and little
ones made the most of their time. The two children
attended Caleb Hazel's school, but Abraham found
time to snare game for the family dinner-pot, and,
in an emergency, the house-mother could knock over
a deer at long range. One bedticking, filled with
dried forest leaves and husks, sufficed for their rest
at night, and, bright and early in the morning, the
future President was out in the nipping autumn air,
chopping wood for the day's fire. As the time drew
near for the father's return, Mrs. Lincoln, leading her
living boy, paid her last visit to the grave of the little
one whom she had lost in infancy. And his sad
mother's prayers and tears by the side of the un-
marked mound in the wilderness, soon to be left
behind by the emigrants, made an impression on the
mind of the lad that time never effaced.

But when Thomas Lincoln returned to his small
brood, it was not with any boastfulness. He had
met with what was to them a great loss. Much of
their meagre stock of household stuff and farming
tools was at the bottom of the Ohio River. Leaving
the rescued fragments in care of a friendly settler, he
had made a bee-line for the old Kentucky home;
and here he was with a flattering report of the rich-
ness of the land to which they were bound to go.

It was a long journey that was before them. Pro-
curing two horses, and loading them with the house-
hold stuff and wardrobe of the family, Thomas
Lincoln, wife, and two children took up their line of
march for the new home in Indiana. At night they

The Lincoln Ancestry

ii

slept on the fragrant pine twigs; and by day they
plodded their way toward the Ohio River. They
were like true soldiers of fortune, subsisting on the
country through which they marched. Here and
there it was needful to clear their way through
tangled thickets, and now and again they came to
streams that must be forded or swum. By all sorts
of expedients, the little family contrived to get on
from day to day, occupying a week in this transit
from one home to another. The nights were cool
but pleasant. No rain fell on them in the way, and
when, after a week of free and easy life in the woods,
they came to the bank of the river and looked over
into the promised land, they saw nothing but forest,
almost trackless forest, stretching far up and down
the stream, silent save for its ripplings and the
occasional note of some wandering bird.

CHAPTER II.

THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN.

The Lincoln Home in Indiana — Hard Times — The Boy of the Back-
woods— Log Cabin Building — Abraham Lincoln's First Letter—
The Funeral in the Wilderness — The Boy's First Book.

INDIANA had been admitted into the Union as a
State, and the tide of immigration setting into the
new State was full and far-spreading. But neigh-
bors were not uncomfortably near the Lincolns in
their new home. Picking up their property left in
charge of one of the scattered settlers by Thomas
Lincoln on his first visit, the forlorn family pushed
on into the wilderness, where, on a grassy knoll in the
heart of the untrodden forest, they fixed upon the
site of their future dwelling-place.

A slight hunter's camp was all that could be built
to shelter the new settlers during their first winter in
the woods of Southern Indiana. This was what was
sometimes called a 1 'half -faced camp," open on one
side and that the lower. Four uprights, forked at the
top, formed the corner-posts, the rear being higher
than the front. On these corner-poles were laid
the cross-pieces needed to form the edges of the roof,
and across these were the sloping rafters, covered
with split " shakes," or thin slabs from the trees
felled by the hardy backwoodsman and his boy.

12

The Boyhood of Lincoln

13

Poles set up against the outer framework and
' ' chinked in" with chips and clay made a shelter
from the blasts that howled around. The open front
was partially screened with "pelts," as the half-
dressed skins of wild animals were called. A fire-
place of sticks and clay, with a chimney of the same
materials, occupied one corner of the hut. Here
the future President of the republic spent his first
winter in the new State of Indiana.

Let us consider the lad and some of the circum-
stances of the time. He was now in his eighth year,
tall, ungainly, fast-growing, long-legged, and clad in
the garb of the frontier. Cotton and linen goods
were scarce and costly in those primitive days and in
that far-off wilderness. Abraham wore a shirt of
linsey-woolsey, a fabric home-spun of mixed cotton
and wool, and dyed, if at all, with colors obtained
from the roots and barks of the forest. According
to his own statement, he never wore stockings until
he was ' ' a young man grown. ' ' His feet were covered
with rough cowhide shoes, but oftener with mocca-
sins fashioned deftly by his mother's hands. Deer-
skin leggings, or breeches, and a hunting-shirt of
the same material completed his outfit, except for
the coon -skin cap that adorned his shaggy head, the
tail of the animal hanging down behind, at once an
ornament and a convenient handle when occasion
required.

A rifle only was needed to finish this picture of a
backwoodsman in miniature. But the lad did not
take kindly to hunting. He pursued the wild -woods
game only when the family demand for meat could

14

Abraham Lincoln

not be satisfied in any other way. Once, as he used
to tell of himself, while yet a child, he caught a
glimpse of a flock of wild turkeys feeding near the
camp, and, venturously taking down his father's
rifle from its pegs on the wall, he took aim through
a chink in the cabin and killed a noble bird. It was
his first shot at a living thing, and he never forgot
the mingled pain and pleasure that it brought — pain
because he dreaded to take life, and pleasure because
he had brought down his game.

It was a poor time all over the land in those early
years of the Lincoln family in Indiana. The War of
1 812 had just closed. The consequences of the long
embargo, when all American ports were closed to
commerce, none coming in and none going out, were
still felt in every town, city, and hamlet in the land.
The manufacturing industries of the republic were
feeble, and imported articles were so dear as to be out
of the reach of all but the rich. Thorns were used
for pins, slices of cork covered with cloth, or in-
geniously fashioned bits of bone, did duty for
buttons; except in times of plenty, crusts of rye
bread were substituted for coffee, and leaves of
sundry dried herbs took the place of Bohea tea.
Corn whiskey tempered with water was a com-
mon drink, and the stuff was one of the readiest
forms of business currency in the country of the
West.

As we have seen, the West was productive of the
means of sustaining life. The woods swarmed with
bears, deer, woodchucks, raccoons, wild turkeys, and
other creatures, furry or feathered, useful for the

The Boyhood of Lincoln

15

table or for furnishing forth the scanty wardrobe of
the settlers. None need starve, so long as snares and
ammunition were handy for the hunter and trapper.
But it was a hard life, hard for children, and hardest
of all for women. No neighbor dropped in for a few
minutes' friendly gossip, with the small news of the
day. No steamboat vexed the waters of the Western
rivers, the first steam craft of any kind having been
put on Lake Erie as late as 1818. A letter, pro-
vided the rude settler knew how to write, took
weeks, even months, in a leisurely journey of one
hundred miles. Only as a faint echo from out of
another world came the news of domestic politics,
foreign complications, and national affairs. James
Madison was President of the United States, and
Congress and the country were stirred greatly over
the admission of Missouri, the extension of slavery
westward of the Mississippi River, and other matters
of great moment then and thereafter.

It was in the autumn of 18 16 that the Lincolns
took up their abode in the wilds of Indiana. In
February of the following year, Thomas Lincoln,
with the slight assistance of little Abe, felled the logs
needed for a substantial cabin. These were cut to
the proper lengths, notched near the ends so as to fit
into each other when laid up; and then the neigh-
bors from far and near were summoned to the
" raisin which was an event in those days for
much rude jollity and cordial good-fellowship. A
raising was an occasion for merry-making, as well as
for hard work; and these opportunities for social
gatherings, few as they were, were enjoyed by young

i6

Abraham Lincoln

and old. The helpful settlers "snaked" the logs out
of the woods, fitted the sills in their places, rolled
the other logs up by means of various rude con-
trivances, and, before nightfall, had in shape the four
walls of the log cabin, with the gables fixed in posi-
tion, and poles fastened on with wooden pins to serve
as rafters, and even some progress was made in the
way of covering the roof.

The floor of this primitive habitation was the solid
ground, pounded hard. The cracks between the
bark-covered logs were " chinked " with thin strips
of wood split from the plentiful timber. Similar
labor "rived" or split the "shakes" with which the
roof was covered and from which the swinging door
was made. Later on, after his second marriage,
when Thomas Lincoln felt in a more industrious
mood, huge slabs of wood, split from oak and hickory
logs and known as "puncheons," were laid on floor
joists of logs and were loosely pinned in place by
long wooden pegs. In mature life, years afterwards,
when the pioneer boy had become the tenant of the
White House at Washington, he could remember
how he lay in bed, of a cold morning, listening for his
mother's footsteps rattling the slabs of the puncheon
floor, as she came to rouse him from a pretended
sleep.

Boys who have never lived in the Western wilder-
ness can have no notion of the meagre fare, the rude-
ness of the furniture, and the absence of those things
which we call the necessities of life, that character-
ized the humble homes of the Indiana settlers of those
distant days. In one corner of the cabin, two of its

The Boyhood of Lincoln 17

sides formed by the walls thereof, was built the bed-
stead of the father and mother. Only one leg was
needed, and this was driven down into the ground, a
forked top giving a chance to fit in the cross-pieces
that served for foot and side of this simple bit of
furniture. From these to the logs at the side and
head of the bedstead were laid split ' ' shakes," and
sometimes thongs of deerskin were laced back
and forth after the fashion of bedcording. On this
was placed the mattress, filled with dried leaves,
corn -husks, or whatever came handy. The children's
bed, a smaller contrivance, was sometimes fixed in
another corner, but when the wintry wind whistled
around the cabin, and the dry snow sifted through
the cracks, the little ones stole over to the parental
bed for warmth.

In making all these preparations for home-life
under their own roof, little Abe took an active part.
He early learned the use of the axe, the maul, and
the wedge. With the "froe," a clumsy iron tool,
something like a long wedge with a wooden handle
fitted into one end, he was taught to ' ' rive" the
shingle from the slab ; and with maul and wedges —
a highly-prized possession — he mastered the art of
splitting rails and billets of wood for building pur-
poses from the logs drawn from the forest. In
labors like these the lad hardened his sinews,
toughened his hands, and imbibed a knowledge of
woodcraft and the practical uses of every variety of
timber which he never lost while he lived. He
knew every tree, bush, and shrub, by its foliage and
bark, as far as he could see it. The mysterious

VOL. VIII. 2. 1

i8

Abraham Lincoln

juices that gave healing to wounds and bruises, the
roots that held medicinal virtues in their sap, and
the uses to which every sort of woody fibre was best
adapted, were all familiar to him.

It was impossible that a boy, so imaginative and
full of fancy as young Abe certainly was, should grow
up in these forests and shades without imbibing some
queer notions, as the country folk said, about men
and things. The times were superstitious. Men
saw all sorts of signs and omens in clouds, in plants,
and in other objects of nature. To the ignorant, the
woods were peopled with strange and uncanny
creatures, and Indian legends and stories were told
of many a stretch of trackless forest. Even to the
ear of the most practical of mankind there is an
awesome solitude in unexplored forest wilderness;
and the sighing of the winds, the roar of night-
growling animals, the hollow murmur of distant
streams, and the indescribable hum that goes up con-
tinually from the hidden life of the forest are ever
after in the memory of those who have spent much
of their childhood in scenes like these. It was from
the trackless forest that stretched around their home,
only faintly scarred by the woodman's axe, that the
Lincoln family drew their sustenance and their cloth-
ing, even the simple remedies that they required in
time of sickness. And it was a school in which the
brooding lad took in many a lesson, and which sug-
gested many a thought that could not be expressed
in words. Here he acquired habits of reflection, for
it must be confessed that he did not like work any
better than other boys of his age, and he did like to

The Boyhood of Lincoln

19

spend idle hours in roaming the wild-woods; and
Lincoln never to the latest day of his life forgot
the traditions and the scenery of the wilderness
in which his childhood was spent, never lost the les-
son of God's greatness and man's insignificance
that the boundless forest, with its occasional glimpses
of blue above and far-reaching vistas ahead, taught
him.

It was during their first year in Indiana, and when
Abraham was in his tenth year, that the children
suffered their first great sorrow and loss. Hard work,
exposure, and continual anxiety had told on the good
mother, and when, during the summer of 18 18, a
mysterious disease called "the milk-sick" appeared
in the region, the overworked woman was stricken
down with it. Exactly what "the milk-sick" was,
nobody nowadays seems to know. No physician
acknowledges any such form of sickness; but there
are traditions of it yet extant in the Western States,
and Mr. Lincoln, later in life, described it as resem-
bling a quick consumption. Cattle as well as human
beings were destroyed by it, and in the far-off wilder-
ness it was not then uncommon to find an entire
household prostrated with the disease, while flocks
and herds were dying uncared for. It was a sad and
gloomy time all through southern Indiana and
Kentucky when "the milk-sick" raged.

Nancy Lincoln, smitten with the disorder, was
nursed and tended by her husband and children.
No doctor ever came into that distant wilderness,
and no help could be procured from any source. In
the preceding autumn, Mrs. Betsy Sparrow and her

20

Abraham Lincoln

husband and her little nephew, Dennis Hanks, had
followed the Lincolns into Indiana and were settled
not far away in the half -faced camp. Dennis Hanks
was Abraham's playmate and distant cousin, for Mrs.
Sparrow was Nancy Lincoln's aunt. The Sparrows,
man and wife, were taken down with "the milk-
sick' ' and were removed to the Lincoln cabin, with
little Dennis Hanks, for better attendance. With
plague-stricken Thomas and Betsy Sparrow and
Mrs. Lincoln, the cares of housekeeping and nursing,
and the duty of providing for this feeble household,
poor Thomas Lincoln, unthrifty that he was, had his
hands full. The children were all small, and thus
early in life did Abraham find how hard was the lot
of the poor.

Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow first died, and were buried
on a little knoll in the forest within seeing distance of
the cabin. On the 5th of October, a few days later,
Nancy Lincoln died; and she too was buried in the
forest, under the shade of a spreading and majestic
sycamore. There were no funeral ceremonies, for
there was no man of God to conduct them. And
when the wayworn form of the mother was lowered
into the grave, enclosed in the rude casket of wood
shaped by the hands of Thomas Lincoln, and all was
over, little Abraham Lincoln, sitting alone on the
mound of fresh earth until the shadows grew deep and
dark in the forest, and the sound of night-birds
began to echo through the dim aisles, wept his first
bitter tears. Doubtless, he thought of all that his
mother, the faithful teacher and devoted Christian
guide and friend, had been to him. Long after,

The Boyhood of Lincoln

21

when the spot where she was buried 1 had been
covered by the wreck of the forest and almost hidden,
her son was wont to say, with tear-dimmed eyes,
" All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel
mother. ' '

It was the custom of those days, and of that
country, to have a funeral sermon preached by way
of memorial, any time within the year following the
death of a person. So, as soon as the good mother
was buried, Abraham Lincoln composed what he used
to say was his first letter, and addressed it to Parson
Elkin, the Kentucky Baptist preacher who had some-
times tarried with the Lincolns in their humble
home in Kentucky. It was a great favor to ask of
the good man; for his journey to preach a sermon
over the grave of Nancy Lincoln would take him one
hundred miles or more, far from his customary
"stamping-ground." But, in due time, Abraham
received an answer to his letter, and the parson
promised to come when his calls of duty led him
near the Indiana line.

Early in the following summer, when the trees
were in the greenest and the forest was most beauti-
ful, the preacher came on his errand of kindness.
It was a bright and sunny Sabbath morning, when,
due notice having been sent around through all the
region, men, women, and children gathered from far
and near to hear the funeral sermon of Nancy
Lincoln. There was the hardy forest ranger, come in

1 A stone has been placed over the site of the grave by Mr. P. E.
Studebacker of South Bend, Indiana. The stone bears the following
inscription: "Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died October 5th, a.d. 1818,
aged 35 years. Erected by a friend of her martyred son, 1879."

22

Abraham Lincoln

from his far-wandering quests to hear. There were
the farmers and their families, borne hither in rude
and home-made carts, new-comers some of them,
and homesick for their distant birthplaces — two
hundred of them, all told, some on foot, and some on
horseback, and others drawn in ox-carts. All were
intent on the great event of the season — the preach-
ing of Nancy Lincoln's funeral sermon.

The waiting congregation was grouped around on
"downtrees," stumps, and knots of bunch-grass, or
on wagon-tongues, waiting for the coming of the
little procession. The preacher led the way from
the Lincoln cabin, followed by Thomas Lincoln, his
son Abraham, his daughter Sarah, and little Dennis
Hanks, bereft now of father and mother and a mem-
ber of the Lincoln household. Tears shone on the
sun-browned cheeks of the silent settlers as the good
preacher told of the virtues and the patiently borne
sufferings and sorrows of the departed mother of
Abraham Lincoln. And every head was bowed in
reverential solemnity as he lifted up his voice in
prayer for the motherless children and the widowed
man. To Abraham, listening as he did to the last
words that should be said over the grave of his
mother, this was a very memorable occasion. He
had fulfilled a pious duty in bringing the preacher to
the place where she was laid. And as the words,
wonderful to him, dropped from the speaker's lips,
he felt that this was the end, at last, of a lovely and
gentle life. He might be drawn into busy and trying
scenes hereafter, and he might have many and
mighty cares laid on him, but that scene in the forest

The Boyhood of Lincoln

23

by the lonely grave of his mother was never to be
forgotten.

It was a miserable household that was left for the
three youngsters when shiftless Thomas Lincoln was
the only reliance of the little brood. We can im-
agine how unkempt and ragged the three became,
left almost wholly to themselves. Sarah, scarcely
twelve years old, was the housekeeper. Abe, two
years younger, came next, and Dennis Hanks, eighteen
months younger than young Lincoln, was the infant
of the family. Thomas Lincoln did not brood long
over his loneliness. His was a cheerful temper, and
he hoped that the good Lord would send them help,
somehow and some day; but how and when, he never
stopped to think. Deer-flesh and the birds of the
forest, broiled on the coals, were the staple of their
daily food. The father knew better than Sarah did
how to mix an ash-cake of corn-meal, and with milk
from the cow, and an occasional slab of "side-meat,"
or smoked side of pork, the family was never long
hungry. It was primitive and hard fare. But a
boy might nourish himself on that and live to be
President.

Little Abraham had what was more to him than
meat and drink — books. Boys of the present age,
turning over languidly the piles of books at their
command, beautiful, entertaining, instructive, and
fascinating, gay with binding and pictures, would
stand aghast at the slimness of the stock that made
Abraham Lincoln's heart glad. The first books he
read were the Bible, JEsop's Fables, and The Pilgrim's
Progress. On these three books was formed the

24

Abraham Lincoln

literary taste of Abraham Lincoln. He might have
fared worse. He thought himself the most fortunate
boy in the country, and so good use did he make of
these standard works that he could repeat from
memory whole chapters of the Bible, many of the
most striking passages of Bunyan's immortal book,
and every one of the fables of iEsop.

He early took to the study of the lives and char-
acters of eminent men, and a life of Henry Clay,
which his mother had managed to buy for him, was
one of his choicest treasures. From the day of his
first reading the biography of the great Kentuckian,
Lincoln dated his undying admiration for Henry
Clay. Ramsay's Life of Washington was another
book early found among the settlers and devoured
with a book-hunger most pathetic. Hearing of an-
other life of Washington, written by Weems, young
Lincoln went in pursuit of it and joyfully carried it
home in the bosom of his hunting shirt. Reading
this by the light of a "tallow-dip," or home-made
candle, until the feeble thing had burned down to its
end, Abraham tucked the precious volume into a
chink in the log wall of the cabin and went to sleep.
A driving storm came up in the night, and the book
was soaked through and ruined when the eager boy
sought for it in the early morning light. Here was a
great misfortune! It was a borrowed book, and
honest Abe was in despair over its destruction in his
hands. With a heavy heart, he took it back to its
owner. Mr. Crawford, who had lent it, looked at
Abraham with an assumed severity, and asked him
what he proposed to do about it. The lad offered

The Boyhood of Lincoln 25

to do anything that Mr. Crawford thought fair and
just. A settlement was made, young Abe covenant-
ing to pull "fodder," or corn-stalks, for three days,
by way of settlement.

"And does that pay for the book, or for the dam-
age done to it?" asked the shrewd boy, taking his
first lessons in worldly wisdom.

"Wal, I allow," said the kindly owner of the
precious book, "that it won't be much account to me
or anybody else now, and the bargain is that you
pull fodder three days, and the book is yours."

This was the first book that Abraham Lincoln
ever earned and paid for, and, discolored and blis-
tered though it was, it was to him of value incalcu-
lable. He laid to heart the lessons of the life of
Washington, and, years after, standing near the
battle-ground of Trenton, and recalling the pages of
the book hidden in the crevices of the log cabin in
the Indiana wilderness, he said : "I remember all the
accounts there given of the battlefields and the
struggles for the liberties of the country, and none
fixed themselves so deeply as the struggle here at
Trenton, New Jersey. I recollect thinking then,
boy even though I was, that there must have been
something more than common that those men
struggled for."

The boy had begun to think for himself when he
was searching for an explanation of the fervor and
determination with which the fathers of the republic
endured hardship and manfully plunged into the
desperate struggle.

And wheresoever the story of Abraham Lincoln's

26

Abraham Lincoln

life shall be told, this account of his first precious
possession shall be also narrated for a memorial of
him.

It is an odd fact, that may as well be recorded here,
that Lincoln, as boy and man, almost invariably
read aloud. When he studied it helped him, he
said, to fix in his mind the matter in hand, if, while
it passed before his eyes, he heard his own voice re-
peating what it so much desired to learn.

CHAPTER III.

YOUNG MANHOOD.

Thomas Lincoln's Second Marriage — Improvements in the Backwoods
Home — More Books for the Boy — His Horizon Enlarges — He
Learns to be Thorough — Down the Mississippi — A Glimpse of
Slavery — Coming out of the Wilderness.

JN the autumn of 1819, Thomas Lincoln went off
somewhere into Kentucky, leaving the children
to take care of themselves. What he went for, and
where he went, the youngsters never thought of ask-
ing. But in December, early one morning, they
heard a loud halloo from the edge of the forest ; and,
dashing to the door, they beheld the amazing sight
of the returning traveller perched in a four-horse
wagon, a pretty-looking woman by his side, and a
stranger driving the spanking team. Was it a
miracle? We might think so if we knew Thomas
Lincoln as well as his son did afterwards ; for Thomas
had returned with a step-mother for his little ones.
He had married, in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Mrs.
Sally Johnston, formerly Miss Sally Bush. It is be-
lieved that to Miss Sally Thomas Lincoln had paid
court before he married her who was the mother of
Abraham Lincoln. She had been known to the lad,
years ago, in Kentucky; and now that she had
come to be the new mother to Abe and his sister,
they were glad to see her.

27

28

Abraham Lincoln

The gallant four-horse team was the property of
Ralph Krume, who had married Sally Johnston's
sister ; and in the wagon was stored what seemed to
these children of the wilderness a gorgeous array of
housekeeping things. There were tables and chairs,
a bureau with real drawers that pulled out and dis-
closed a stock of clothing, crockery to replace the
rude tins that were used in the Lincoln homestead,
bedding, knives and forks, and numerous things that
to people nowadays are thought to be among the
necessaries of life, but which Nancy Lincoln had been
compelled to do without. By what magic Thomas
Lincoln had persuaded this thrifty and 1 1 forehanded "
widow to leave her home in Kentucky, and migrate
to the comfortless wilderness of Indiana, we can
only guess. But Thomas was of a genial and even
jovial disposition, and he had allured the good
woman to come and save his motherless bairns from
utter destitution and neglect.

The new Mrs. Lincoln, if she was disappointed in
the home she found in Indiana, never showed her
disappointment to her step-children. She took hold
of the duties and labors of the day with a cheerful
readiness that was long and gratefully remembered
by her step-son, at least. They were good friends at
once. Of him she said, years after : " He never gave
me a cross word or look, and never refused, in fact
or appearance, to do anything I requested of him.,,
Of her he said: ' 'She was a noble woman, affection-
ate, good, and kind, rather above the average
woman, as I remember women in those days." Mrs.
Lincoln brought with her three children by her first

Young Manhood

29

marriage, John, Sarah, and Matilda Johnston, whose
ages were not far from those of the three children
found in the Lincoln homestead. The log cabin was
full to overflowing. The three boys, Abraham Lin-
coln, John Johnston, and Dennis Hanks, were sent
to the loft over the cabin to sleep. They climbed
up a rude ladder built against the inner side of the
log house ; and their bed, a mere sack of dry corn-
husks, was so narrow that when one turned over all
three turned. Nevertheless, there was an abundance
of covering for the children, all. The new mother
had at once insisted that the openings in the cabin
should be filled with glass and sashes instead of
loosely hung sheets of muslin. The rickety frame
covered with split shakes, that had served as a door,
with its clumsy wooden hasp, was taken away, and
" a battened door " of matched boards, with a wooden
latch of domestic make, replaced it. Mats of deer-
skin were put down on the puncheon floor, and an
aspect of comfort, even luxury, was spread around.
It seems to have been an harmonious household. If
there were any family jars, history makes no men-
tion of them. And we must remember that that
history has come down to us in the reports of two of
those who were most interested in the household —
Abraham Lincoln and his step-mother.

About this time young Abe made the acquaintance
of a new source of pleasure, James Fenimore Cooper's
Leather-Stocking Tales, then novelties in the litera-
ture of the United States. Over these he hung with
rapturous delight. He had seen something of the
fast-receding Indian of the American forests; and

3Q

Abraham Lincoln

he had heard, many a time, of his father's thrilling
escape from the red man's clutches, and of his grand-
father's cruel death in the Kentucky "clearing";
and when he withdrew his fascinated attention from
the vivid pages of Cooper's novel, he almost expected
to see the painted savages lurking in the outskirts of
the forest so near at hand. Another book, borrowed
from one of the few and distant neighbors, was
Burns' s Poems, a thick and chunky volume, as he
afterwards described it, bound in leather and printed
in very small type. This book he kept long enough
to commit to memory almost all its contents. And
ever after, to the day of his death, some of the
familiar lines of the Scottish poet were as ready
on his lips as those of Shakespeare, the only poet
who was, in Lincoln's opinion, greater than Robert
Burns.

His step-mother said of him: "He read every-
thing he could lay his hands on, and when he came
across a passage that struck him, he would write it
down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it by
him until he could get paper. Then he would copy
it, look at it, commit it to memory, and repeat it."
In this way he collected a great many things from
books that he did not own and could not keep. We
have heard of writers and scholars who make a com-
monplace book in which may be recorded things
noteworthy and memorable. Abraham Lincoln, at
the age of ten, kept such a book. It was first
written on wooden "shakes" with charcoal. Trans-
ferred to paper with pen and ink, and repeated often,
the noble thoughts and melodious lines of famous

Young Manhood

3*

men had already become a part of the education of
the President that was to be.

But although young Lincoln devoured books with
a hunger that was almost pathetic, and sorely tried
his eyes with study by the light of blazing pine-
knots on the hearth, he was no milksop, no weakly
bookworm. In the athletic sports of the time, and
in the manual dexterity so helpful in those frontier
pursuits, he was the master of every other boy of his
age. He had learned the use of tools, could swing
the maul and chip out " shakes" and shingles, lay
open rails and handle logs as well as most men.
Although not a quarrelsome boy, he could " throw"
any of his weight and years in the neighborhood,
and far and near "Abe Lincoln" was early known
as a capital wrestler and a tough champion at every
game of muscular skill.

School and its coveted facilities for getting know-
ledge was now within reach. Hazel Dorsey was the
name of a new schoolmaster on Little Pigeon Creek,
a mile and a half from the Lincoln homestead; and
thither was sent the brood of young ones belong-
ing to the Lincoln family. These backwoods child-
ren had the unusual luxury of going all together to
a genuine school. True the schoolhouse was built
of logs; but all the youngsters of the school came
from log cabins; and even the new meeting-house,
which was an imposing affair for those woods, was
log-built up to the gables, and thence finished out
with the first sawn lumber ever used to any con-
siderable extent in the region.

Young Abraham made the most of his opportu-

32

Abraham Lincoln

nities, and, when he found the days too short for his
school studies and his tasks about the farm, he sat
up by the fire of ' ' lightwood ' ' late into the night.
What dreams had come to him in those far-off days ?
Did he begin to think that he might "be somebody"
in the great and busy world of which he had heard
faint echoes ? It would seem likely. Following the
plow, or whirling the mighty maul, as he wrought at
splitting rails, he pondered deeply the lessons that
he had learned at school and from the few books at
his command. When he was a grown man, it fell
to his lot to pronounce a eulogy on Henry Clay,
whom he had learned to idolize in his youth; and
the growing young statesman said of Clay, among
other things: "His example teaches us that one can
scarcely be so poor but that, if he will, he can acquire
sufficient education to get through the world re-
spectably." If the example of Abraham Lincoln,
the admirer and eulogist of Henry Clay, teaches any-
thing to the boys of this generation, it teaches just
what he said of Henry Clay's life. As his mental
vision widened, there was nothing too abstruse for
Lincoln to grapple with, nothing so far out of the
knowledge of those about him that he could not take
it up. Algebra, Euclid, Latin, came later on in life ;
but even in his early youth, hearing of these, he re-
solved to master them as soon as he could get the
needed books.

Through all the wide neighborhood, Abe Lincoln
was known as an honest, laborious, and helpful lad.
Coming home one night, when the early winter frosts
were sharp and nipping, he and a comrade found by

in the great and
faint echoes? Ii
plow, or whirling

his command.

ny. f ouowmg the
d, as he wrought at
ly the lessons that
m the few books at
grown man, it fell

Abraham Lfricblii ' 1 : 'KU one cfa

From the painting by FV B, Carpenter, at the Union Leagite CluBUre

New York, utrh the world re-

ectably." H ibm eawu&pie of Abraham Lincoln,

Lir

it up. Algehnfek- fSMBSQ&i 'fj»* jy.ter on in lite

but even in lita f#a#t5jr ■ 5j««i^-jl<»aring of these, he re
solved to master thern .as *rx>.rt as he could get tb

Through all the wide neighborhood, Abe hmoah

>y

Young Manhood

33

the roadside the horse of one of the settlers who was
a notorious drunkard. There had been a house-
raising in the vicinity, and the rider, overcome with
the strong drink too common on those semi-festive
occasions, had probably fallen off and been left by
his steed, while passing through the woods. Young
Lincoln was for hunting up the missing man. "Oh,
come along home," said his companion; "what
business is it of yours if he does get lost?"

"But he will freeze to death, if he is left on the
trail this cold night."

The kind-hearted young fellow, hater though he
was of the stuff that had laid low his neighbor, was
too compassionate to leave its victim to freeze. He
found the man, took him, all unconscious as he was,
on his own stalwart back, and actually carried him
eighty rods to the nearest house, where, after sending
word to his father that he must stay out all night, he
sat by the half -frozen man and brought him back to
consciousness and restored faculties. He saved the
life of the sinner while he hated the sin.

Before he was seventeen years old, he attended
court in Boonville, the county -seat of Warrick,
where a man was on trial for murder. It was his
first look into what seemed to him the great world
outside the wilderness. An accident led him into
the vicinity, and, hearing that one of the famous
Breckinridges of Kentucky was to speak for the de-
fence, he went on to Boonville, and, open-mouthed
with wonder, heard the first great speech of his life.
He could not restrain his admiration, and when the
arguments were over and the case had gone to the

VOL. VIII.— 3.

34

Abraham Lincoln

jury, and the eminent lawyer, flushed with conscious
pride, was passing out of the courthouse, he was in-
tercepted by a tall, overgrown youth, exceedingly
awkward, horny-handed and evidently of the ' 1 poor
white" class. The youth, his face shining with
honest enthusiasm, held out his brown hand to the
well-dressed lawyer, and told him how much he had
enjoyed his wonderful speech. The aristocratic
Breckinridge stared with surprise at the intrusive
stranger, and haughtily brushed by the future
President of the United States. This was not the
boy's first lesson in social distinctions, but it was his
first lesson in oratory; and he was just as grateful to
Breckinridge as he would have been if the great man
had been as gracious then as he was years after,
when he was reminded by the President, in Wash-
ington, of an incident in Boonville which the Breck-
inridge had forgotten and the Lincoln could notforget.

From that time, young Lincoln practised speech-
making. He took up any topic that happened to
be uppermost in the rural neighborhood — a question
of roads, or trails, the school-tax, a bounty on wolves
or bears offered by the Legislature, or any kindred
question of the day; or he got up mock trials, ar-
raigned imaginary culprits, and, himself, acted as
prosecuting attorney, counsel for the defendant,
judge, and foreman of the jury, making their appro-
priate addresses in due course. He threw himself
into these debates with so much ardor that his father
was obliged to interfere and forbid the speeches dur-
ing hours for work. The old man grumbled : * ' When
Abe begins to speak, all hands flock to hear him."

Young Manhood

35

One notable thing about this young man was that
when he began to study anything he was not satis-
fied until he got to the bottom of it. He went to
the roots of things. He wrote and rewrote all that
he wanted to commit to memory. He could not give
up any difficult problem. He kept at it until he had
mastered it; and in a community that was pretty
dark in all matters of book-learning he seldom had
any help outside of his book. He found time, now
and again, of an evening, to lounge with the other
young fellows in the country store at the crossroads,
and, beardless youngster though he was, he delighted
the rude backwoodsmen and settlers with his homely
wit and wisdom. He was accounted as being deeply
learned, too, in that benighted region. Great things
were prophesied of the lad.

Never neglecting any task on the farm, never
shirking any duty however unwelcome, young Lin-
coln studied almost incessantly. One of the com-
panions of his boyhood, Dennis Hanks, said of him:
"He was always reading, writing, ciphering, and
writing poetry." In a wonderfully strange school
God was training the President that should be.

There is in existence a manuscript book of Lin-
coln's, begun when he was seventeen years old, and
containing various mathematical problems under
the title of "Book of Examples in Arithmetic.,' One
of these, dated March i, 1826, is headed "Discount,"
and is divided as follows : "A Definition of Discount,"
"Rules for its Computation," and "Proofs and
Various Examples," all worked out in neat and cor-
rect figures. Following this is "Interest on Money."

36

Abraham Lincoln

And all this was carefully kept for ready reference
by the boy who was busily studying how to be master
of everything he attempted to learn. When he was
President, somebody came to him with a story about
a plot to accomplish some mischief in the govern-
ment. Lincoln listened to what was a very super-
ficial and ill-informed story, and then said: " There
is one thing that I have learned and you have n't.
It is only one word — 'thorough.' " Then bringing
his hand down on the table with a thump to em-
phasize his meaning, he added, " Thorough !"

We know now where Abraham Lincoln learned to
be thorough. It was when he was building his
character.

It was about this time, when he was eighteen years
old, that he conceived the mighty plan of building a
boat and taking down the river some of the products
of the home farm. He had had furtive glimpses of
the busy life outside the woods of southern Indiana,
and he longed for a closer look at it. The little craft
was built, chiefly by his own hands, and, loaded with
bacon, " garden truck," and such odds and ends as
were thought available for market, was paddled
down stream to the nearest trading-post. We have
no record of the result of the voyage, except that it
was on this momentous occasion that young Lincoln
felt the greed of money waked within him. Never
avaricious, never stingy, Lincoln was so trained to
habits of frugality that he always, to use a common
expression, "looked twice at a dollar before parting
with it." Loitering on the river bank, after he had
sold his little cargo, he saw what was to him then an

^cjuZw* ! t^^u^/^t^^

a^ocrfu^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^

Examples in Arithmetic.

Young Manhood

37

unusual sight, a steamer coming down the river.
Two men came to the river's edge seeking a boat to
take them to the approaching steamboat. In all
the throng of small craft, they singled out Lincoln's.
Without waiting to strike a bargain, he sculled the
two passengers and their trunks out to the boat, and
when he had put them on board with their luggage,
what was his astonishment to find in his hand, as his
fee, two silver half-dollars!

''I could scarcely believe my eyes," he said, when
telling this adventure, years afterward, to Secretary
Seward. "You may think it a very little thing;
but it was the most important incident in my life.
I could scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had
earned a dollar in less than a day. The world seemed
wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful
and confident being from that time."

The boy was waking to the possibilities of man-
hood. The two shining silver coins, honestly earned,
lying in his palm, were tokens of what might come
hereafter to well-directed labor.

It was one year later, when Lincoln was nineteen
years old, that he made his second voyage. This
was a great event in the young backwoodsman's
career. Mr. Gentry, the owner of the neighborhood
store, looking about him for a trustworthy man to
take a flatboat, or "broad-horn," to New Orleans
with a cargo of produce, could think of nobody so
safe as young Lincoln. Abraham had not been
much away from home, had no familiarity with
business or with river navigation, and had never even
seen the lower Mississippi. But the trader knew

38

Abraham Lincoln

his man, and an offer to Lincoln, placing him in full
charge of the venture, was accepted, as he afterwards
said, with a beating heart. His good-fortune seemed
wonderful. It was not the money to be made that
young Abraham was thinking of; it was the delight
of seeing the world. And when Lincoln and his
companion, young Allen Gentry, cut loose from
Gentryville and slowly drifted down Little Pigeon
Creek into the Ohio, on a voyage of eighteen hundred
miles, not Columbus sailing forth into unknown seas,
nor the master of the first steamship that ploughed
the Atlantic, could have been more impressed with
the mightiness of the prospect before him, than the
backwoods boy on his first expedition from the
forests of southern Indiana.

It was a momentous trip, but solely because it
opened a new field to the wide-open eyes of the
youthful voyagers. As they descended the mighty
Father of Waters, then flowing unvexed to the sea,
plantations began to dot the landscape. Here and
there friendly or inquisitive settlers came down to
the bank to ask them about their "load," as a cargo
is called on the Western waters. Or, when they
made fast to the most convenient tree at nightfall, a
far- wandering hunter came to share " pot-luck* ' and
the gossip of the region with the youthful adven-
turers. In this way they picked up a store of in-
formation, useful and otherwise, and many a queer
tale of frontier and settlers life, which at least one
of the party held fast ever after in his tenacious
memory. Now and again, too, they passed, or were
passed by, other flatboats, and much rude chaffing

Young Manhood

39

and hailing in outlandish slang went on from boat to
boat.

One incident, however, was more exciting and
dangerous than the fresh-water navigators had bar-
gained for. Tied up to a bank at night, as was their
custom, the twain slept soundly after their day of
toil, when they were waked by a scrambling near at
hand. Springing to his feet, Abraham shouted,
"Who 's there?" There was no reply, and, seizing
a handspike, he made ready for an attack. Seven
negroes, evidently on an errand of plunder, now ap-
peared. Abe held himself ready to 1 ' repel boarders,"
and the first man that jumped on board was received
with a heavy blow that knocked him into the water.
A second, a third, and a fourth, essaying the same
thing, were similarly received. The other three,
seeing that they were no match for the tall back-
woodsman and his ally, took to their heels, pursued
by Abe and Allen. Overtaking the negroes, a hand-
to-hand fight ensued, but the thieves finally fled
again, leaving on the future President a scar that he
carried to his grave.

The voyage to the lower Mississippi and return
occupied three months. The cargo was sold to good
advantage before reaching New Orleans. Then, the
empty boat being disposed of, for it would not pay
to take it home up-stream, the two adventurers,
elated with their first notable success, made then-
way homeward by steamboat. They had seen a bit
of the great world. And Abraham Lincoln had seen
what he never forgot, his first close view of human
slavery: slaves toiling on the plantations, slaves

40

Abraham Lincoln

bending beneath their tasks on the levees of the river
towns, and, what was more memorable than all,
slaves in squads and coffles, torn from old homes and
families far away, bound up the river on the steam-
boats that were now frequent on the busy Mississippi.
He who was to be known through all coming time as
The Emancipator had made his first study of his
fellow-man in hopeless bondage.

It is well to consider here that Abraham Lincoln,
up to this point, was what is called a self-made man
in the strictest sense of that word. What he had
learned, he had learned of himself. What he knew,
he knew with absolute accuracy. Self-taught and
self-dependent, he had all his resources, mental,
moral, and physical, well in hand. So self-reliant
and yet, withal, so modest and diffident a character
was probably never known before. Growing up in
the almost trackless forest, he had absorbed the in-
fluences of the wild-wood. He had been held close
to nature, had had as much time for solitary medita-
tion as was wholesome for him; and he had never
been for an hour dependent on other people, or on
other than the humblest means, for intellectual
stimulus. Such as he was, it may be said, God had
made and nurtured him in the wilderness. The man
that was within him was thoroughly original. He
was not a copy of any man, nor the imitator of any
human being.

Henceforth he was not to be hidden in the back-
woods. The backwoods, indeed, had begun to
recede before the onward march of civilization. Im-
migration was streaming into Indiana. It could be

Young Manhood

4i

no longer said of the settlers along Pigeon Creek that
they were so far apart that the smoke of one fireside
could not be seen from the next nearest. There
were neighborhoods almost populous; and with
these came social sports and occasional visitings,
house-raisings, husking-bees, Sabbath worship, and
something like a neighborly intimacy. In these
changes the stalwart young pioneer, now six feet
four inches tall, cut no mean figure. He could out-
run and outwalk any one of his comrades, and, as
has been said by those who knew him then, " he could
strike the hardest blow with axe or maul, jump higher
and farther than any of his fellows, and there was
no one, far or near, that could lay him on his back."

These accomplishments, we may be sure, counted
for much in a community where physical endurance
and muscular strength were needed for every day's
duties. But the honest-eyed and kindly youth,
strong though he was, had a gentle manner that en-
deared him to everybody that came in contact with
him. He had a wonderful power of narration. The
fables of ^Esop were new as they fell from his lips.
A grotesque incident, a comical story, or one of the
frontier traditions learned from his mother, was a
dramatic entertainment in his hands. He kept his
audiences at the country store until midnight, says
one of his comrades, listening to his shrewd wisdom,
native wit, and vivid recitals. Poor Dennis Hanks,
weary and sleepy, was often obliged to trudge home
without him, after vainly trying to coax the eloquent
and fascinating story-teller from the group of which
he was the admired centre.

42

Abraham Lincoln

Unconsciously to himself, this simple-hearted and
humble-minded young man was absorbing into his
own experience the rude lore of the backwoodsman.
He was studying character, filling his mind with
facts and experiences; and in after years, in other
scenes and in a far busier life than this, the fresh and
original pictures that he sketched in speech or story
came from the panorama of human action unrolled
before him in old Kentucky and southern Indiana.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LINCOLNS IN ILLINOIS.

The Land of Full-Grown Men — Lincoln Attains his Majority — Strik-
ing Out for Himself — Another River Voyage — An Odd Introduc-
tion to New Salem — Some Rough and Tumble Discipline — The
Backwoodsman Conquers Friends — He Vanquishes English
Grammar.

ONCE more the Lincoln family ' 1 pulled up
stakes" and moved westward. This time it
was to Illinois, which, in the Indian vernacular, sig-
nifies "the land of the full-grown men," that the
easily-entreated Thomas Lincoln went. Thomas
Hanks, one of the most steady and well-balanced of
this somewhat erratic group of people, had gone to
Macon County, Illinois, in the autumn of 1829. He
had been so favorably impressed with what he saw
and heard that he had written to Thomas Lincoln to
come on and bring the family. It does not appear
to have required much persuasion ever to induce
Thomas Lincoln to change his place. He had made
no progress in Indiana beyond providing for their
actual wants. He could do no worse in Illinois, ac-
counts of which as a land literally flowing with milk
and honey were already spreading over the older
States. So, in the spring of 1830, as soon as the
frost was out of the ground, Lincoln, having sold
crops, hogs, and farm improvements to Mr. Gentry,

43

44

Abraham Lincoln

packed all his remaining earthly possessions, and
those of his sons-in-law, into a wagon and set his face
westward.

The migrating family was as follows: Thomas
Lincoln and Sarah, his wife ; his only son, Abraham,
John Johnston, Mrs. Lincoln's son; Mrs. Hall and
Mrs. Hanks, daughters of Mrs. Lincoln, and their
husbands. Sarah Lincoln, Abraham's sister, had
married Aaron Grigsby, a few years before, and had
died recently. These eight people took their weary
way across the fat and oozy prairies, black with rich
loam, bound for the new land of Canaan. Two weeks
of tiresome travel were consumed in reaching the
place selected for them on the public lands near the
village of Decatur, Macon County, by Thomas Hanks.
The entire " outfit," consisting of one wagon drawn
by four yoke of oxen, driven by Abraham Lincoln,
came to anchor, as it were, on a patch of bottom-land
hitherto untouched by the hand of man. Young
Lincoln had settled finally in the State that in years
to come was to borrow new lustre from his name.
Undreaming of future greatness, the stalwart young
fellow lent a hand in the raising of the cabin that
was to be the home of the family. And when this
work was done, and the immigrants were securely
under cover, he and Thomas Hanks ploughed fifteen
acres of the virgin soil, cut down and split into rails
sundry walnut logs of the adjacent forest, worked
out rails, and fenced his father's first Illinois farm.

Now it was time for young Abraham to strike out
for himself. He had thought of doing that before,
but had been reminded that he was a servant to his

The Lincolns in Illinois 45

father until he was twenty-one years old. He was
now in his twenty-second year, able and anxious to
make his own living. During the summer of 1830
he worked at odd jobs in the neighborhood, always
alert and cheerful, ready to turn his hand to any
honest bit of work, and soon growing in favor with
the rude and simple pioneers of southern Illinois.
They were shrewd at making a bargain, necessarily
compelled to be chary with their little hard-earned
cash, greatly given to trade and barter, ingenious
with every known implement of the rudest sort of
labor, free from fear of theft or malicious violence,
and fond of roystering and the rough sports of the
frontier. As in all new countries, game was abund-
ant, and, although the days when skins were made
into garments had passed, hunting still supplied
many a family with the staple articles of diet. The
flesh of wild beasts and birds was supplemented by
the slab-like sides of smoked pork, and the corn that
grew thickly in the unctuous fields of the new-comers
furnished bread for the eater and seed for the sower.

In scenes like these Abraham Lincoln now grew to
man's estate. The tall young fellow speedily made
a name for himself as one of the most obliging, un-
gainly, strong, long-legged, and cheery fellows in the
Sangamon country. It was not until the winter of
the deep snow that Lincoln undertook any scheme
other than the desultory employment that he found
among the farmers from day to day. "The winter
of the deep snow ' 9 was that of 1 830-3 1 . This is unto
this day a memorable period of time in central
Illinois. It marks an historical epoch as distinct as

46 Abraham Lincoln

the great fire did in London, years before. The snow-
fall began on Christmas day. It continued until
the snow was three feet deep on a level. Then came
a drizzling rain that froze as it fell, the thermometer
sinking to twelve degrees below zero. The intense
cold, the difficulty of getting about, made that win-
ter famous forever after in the annals of the country.
Herds of deer were easily caught and killed, im-
prisoned as they were in the icy crust that broke
beneath their sharp feet. Game of all kinds was
slaughtered by the thousands of head by the hungry
settlers, as they came out of their scattered villages
in search of food, and from that day large game
never again was so plenty in the State. Roads
were finally broken from cabin to cabin and from
hamlet to hamlet by ' ' wallowing, ' ' as it was called — ■
the entire population, men, women, children, dogs,
oxen, and horses, turning out en masse and trampling
down and kicking out the snow. Long after plough-
ing had begun, next spring, the muddy-white founda-
tions of these rural roads remained, unmelted, to
stretch across the black soil of the prairies.

During the winter of the deep snow, young Lincoln
made the acquaintance of Denton Offutt, a small
trader of the region. Hearing that Lincoln and
Hanks were * ' likely young fellows," Offutt proposed
that they should take a boatload of provisions to
New Orleans for him. The boys were right glad
to take such an offer, especially as Offutt agreed to
"find them" — that is to say, to furnish their food —
and to pay them fifty cents a day, and, if the venture
was successful, to give them a further reward of

The Lincolns in Illinois

47

twenty dollars each. This was great prospective
riches to the youngsters, neither of whom had ever
had so much money at one time. John Johnston,
Abraham's foster-brother, was added to the crew,
and, having built their flat boat, the party, Offutt,
Abraham Lincoln, John Hanks, and John Johnston,
embarked on the roaring, raging Sangamon at
Springfield. Although the river was, to use a cur-
rent Western expression, booming with the spring
freshets, when the frail craft reached Xew Salem, a
mushroom village not far below the point of depart-
ure, it stuck on a milldam, and there it stuck and
hung, apparently hopeless of ever getting off. The
population of New Salem came down to the river's
margin, commented on the disaster, chaffed and
hectored the shipwrecked mariners, and generally
made merry over the affair, to the annoyance of the
owner. But ' 'the bow oar," a giant, as the shore
people thought him, rolled up his trousers, waded
into the stream, unloaded the barge, whose nose was
well out of water while her stern was well under it,
bored holes to let out the flood, and rigged up a con-
trivance to hoist the boat over the dam. This done,
the craft was again loaded, the holes being plugged,
and, amidst the cheers of the critical population, the
voyagers shot down stream on their rejoicing way.
Years after, when Lincoln was a practising lawyer,
he whittled out a model of his invention for hoisting
vessels over shoals and had it patented in Washing-
ton. The curious visitor to the Patent Office in the
national capital is shown to-day a little wooden boat
and an odd combination of strips and bars by which,

48

Abraham Lincoln

as Mr. Lincoln afterwards said, a man might lift
himself over a rail-fence by the waistband of his
breeches.

The adventurers had a swift and prosperous voy-
age down the river to New Orleans. This was Lin-
coln's second visit to the land of slavery. He saw
more of the peculiar institution than before. He
saw men and women whipped, bought, and sold,
families separated, children torn from their parents
and wives from their husbands, without any sign
of compunction on the part of buyers, sellers, and
owners. It was a thrilling sight to the young
pioneer of the West. In later years John Hanks
said : ' ' Lincoln saw it ; his heart bled ; said nothing
much, was silent, looked bad. I can say it, knowing
him, that it was on this trip that he formed his
opinions of slavery. It run its iron into him then
and there, May, 1831."

There is a tradition that it was during this visit to
Louisiana that Lincoln met an aged negress who
pretended to be a Voudoo seeress, or fortune-teller,
and that she said to him: "You will be President,
and all the negroes will be free." This is not au-
thenticated. It is not unlikely that the seeress had
said that same thing to a great many young men.
We do know that Lincoln was always superstitious.
He was brought up to regard signs and wonders,,
dreams and fortune-tellings. If he did hear this
from the Voudoo woman, he would be sure to
remember it all his days. And he never spoke of it
to his most intimate friends in later years.

On his return from New Orleans, so well had

The Lincolns in Illinois

49

Lincoln commended himself to Offutt that that
worthy man engaged him to take charge of a small
country store which he had opened at New Salem,
and the little community that had witnessed the
struggle and triumph of the long-legged young giant
on Rutledge's dam now made the acquaintance of
the hero of that exploit at closer range. He at once
established himself as a favorite with the people,
who, rude and rough though they were, readily ap-
preciated the good qualities of any stranger that
came among them. All were strangers to each other
at first, in those changeable times. Villages grew
and fell into nothingness again ; large tracts of land
were covered with cabins of settlers and were again
depopulated as the fancy of the wandering tribes
seized them. New Salem was very new when Lin-
coln was stuck on the dam before it; he spent
only a short time there, giving it an immortality of
name that few villages ever earn ; it faded away into
nothingness and its site was forgotten, after he went
away.

In managing the country store, as in everything
that he undertook for others, Lincoln did his very
best. He was honest, civil, ready to do anything
that should encourage customers to come to the
place, full of pleasantries, patient, and alert. On
one occasion, finding, late at night, when he counted
over his cash, that he had taken a few cents from a
customer more than was due, he closed the store and
walked a long distance to make good the deficiency.
At another time, discovering on the scales, in the
morning, a weight with which he had weighed out a

VOL. VIII. — 4.

5o

Abraham Lincoln

package of tea for a woman, the night before, he saw
that he had given her too little for her money; he
weighed out what was due and carried it to her,
much to the surprise of the woman, who had not
known that she was short in the amount of her pur-
chase. Innumerable incidents of this sort are related
of Lincoln ; and we should not have space to tell
of the alertness with which he sprung to protect
defenceless women from insult, or feeble children
from tyranny ; for in the rude community in which
he lived the rights of the defenceless were not always
respected as they should have been. There were
bullies then, as now.

Lincoln soon had a taste of the quality of some of
these. Not far from New Salem was a group of
farms in what was known as Clary's Grove. The
1 ' Clary's Grove boys," as the overgrown young men
of the settlement were called, were rude, boisterous,
swaggering, and tremendous fighters. They cast
their eyes on the young stranger at Offutt's store, so
well liked by the women, and resolved that he should
be " taken down a peg." Stories of young Lincoln's
prowess in wrestling had gone abroad, perhaps, and
the conceit which the boys of Clary's Grove thought
was in the stranger was to be taken out of him.
Jack Armstrong, the bully of the band, was pitched
upon to lay low Abe Lincoln. The crowd gathered
around to see the sport, but the stalwart young
Kentuckian soon showed that he was more than a
match for the champion of Clary's Grove. Jack
Armstrong was slowly sinking under the vigorous
wrestling of the long-limbed Lincoln, and the entire

The Lincolns in Illinois 51

gang were ready to break in and overwhelm him.
Jack resorted to foul play, in his desperation, and
Lincoln, stung by this meanness, seized the bully by
the throat, with both hands, and, putting forth all his
giant strength, flung him in the air, shaking him as
though he were a child, the legs of the champion
whirling madly over his head. At this astounding
performance, the gang of Clary's Grove broke into
the circle, and Lincoln, backing against the store,
calmly waited their onset ; but Jack Armstrong, with
what breath remained to him, warned off his com-
rades, and, touched by a feeling of chivalry, shook
his adversary by the hand, crying: ' ' Boys, Abe
Lincoln is the best fellow that ever broke into this
settlement! He shall be one of us!" That settled
it. Out of the fight that he had tried to avoid,
Lincoln emerged as champion. Thenceforth, no
truer friend, no more devoted ally than Jack Arm-
strong to Abraham Lincoln ever lived. In later
days, when Lincoln was out of money, out of work,
all that Jack had was his. And when, at very rare
intervals, some reckless fellow disregarded Lincoln's
claim to championship, he quickly learned from the
patient, long-suffering young giant, when he had
been pressed too far, that this man was the toughest
athlete in that settlement.

The reader should not be misled with a notion that
Lincoln loved fighting and strife ; far from it, he was
always a man of peace. It was only when he was
pushed and provoked beyond endurance that he
burst upon his tormentor and punished him so
thoroughly and speedily that, as the saying is, he did

52

Abraham Lincoln

not know what hurt him, and when the punishment
was over, the good-natured young giant was ready
to soothe the feelings of the vanquished. When he
had knocked down and mauled a bully, and had
rubbed his face with smart-weed, by way of ridicu-
lous discipline, he let him up, helped him to compose
his disorder and brought him water to assuage the
woes of his irritated countenance. Lincoln was no
fighter. He was brave, absolutely unafraid of any-
body or anything. He never played cards, nor gam-
bled, nor smoked, nor used profane language, nor
addicted himself to any of the rude vices of the times.
But far and wide he was reckoned a hero, worshipped
by the stalwart wrestlers and runners of the region,
cordially liked by the women, respected as a rising
and brave young fellow by the elders, and earning
for himself the title that stuck to him through life,
" honest Abe."

Abe Lincoln became, by general consent, the peace-
maker, the arbitrator of all the petty quarrels of the
neighborhood. Shunning vulgar brawls himself, he
attempted to keep others out of them. An abso-
lutely honest man, he advised exact justice to all
who sought his advice ; and, whenever there was too
much violence developed in debate around Offutt's
store door, the tall form of the young manager
was sure to be seen towering over the conflict ; and
when argument failed to quell the disturbance, the
terrific windmill of those long arms invariably
brought peace. In all his activities, however, Lin-
coln never for one moment knew what it was to
"let up" on his reading and studies. There is some-

The Lincolns in Illinois

55

thing saddening in the record of his struggles to
master everything that he thought worth knowing
that was within his reach. Very poor he was, but
he skimped himself and went without what many
boys would call necessary clothing to subscribe to the
Louisville Courier, then edited by that famous Whig
George D. Prentice, a witty and most brilliant man.
This was, as he afterwards said, his greatest luxury.
He read every word, and some of its articles were
committed to memory by sheer force of habit. Pon-
dering over the editorial articles of his favorite
newspaper, he attempted to discover how they were
constructed, and what were the rules by which lan-
guage was composed and sentences framed. Appli-
cation to the village schoolmaster gave him a hint
as to grammar, and he was not satisfied until he
had hunted down, somewhere in the region, a copy
of Kirkham's Grammar." This he carried home,
borrowed, in great triumph, nor did he pause until he
had mastered its contents. Speaking of it, long
afterwards, he said that he was surprised to find how
little there was in a work that was made so much of
by the schoolmaster. He had "collared" it in a
week, and had returned the book to its owner.

CHAPTER V.

A PLUNGE INTO POLITICS.

Young Lincoln's Growing Passion for Knowledge — Candidate for the
State Legislature — Captain in the Black Hawk War — A Gather-
ing of Men Since Famous — Hardships of the Volunteer Soldiers
— Stump-Speaking and Defeat — Lincoln as a Country Merchant
— Lawyer and Surveyor.

UP to this time, Lincoln had never held any office,
except that of an occasional clerk of election.
So far as we know, he never had any ambition for
office-holding. But the spring of 1832 found him out
of business, out of work. Offutt's store had gone to
pieces, that gentleman's numerous irons in the fire
having at last proved too many for him. If ever
Lincoln was at liberty to try his hand at politics, this
was the time. He had been trained, or rather had
grown up, in the backwoods, had gradually made the
acquaintance of mankind, had meditated and read as
no young man ever before had meditated and read,
and had accustomed himself to speak extemporane-
ously. He was a good story-teller, alert, quick-
witted, full of apt illustration and anecdote, was so
close a student of human nature that he was always
able to adapt himself to his little audience, whether
it was the group of loungers about the blacksmith's
shop at the crossroads, or the knot of farm laborers
that gathered about to hear him "make a speech"

54

A Plunge into Politics

55

on internal improvements. And, above all, by his
unvarying good-nature and helpfulness, he had made
friends of all who ever met him.

One historian, who happened to see him about this
time, says he found him lying on a trundle-bed,
reading intently while he rocked a cradle with his
foot. He had plenty of leisure; he was ready to
lend a hand (or foot) to any overworked housewife,
but he could not neglect his book. Always a book
was ready to his hand, and it is said of him that when
he had nothing else to do he laid himself at length
in the shade of a tree, wheeling around with the sun
all day long, reading, reading, always reading. At
the bottom of a barrel of "trash" that Offutt had
bought of some speculative person, or had taken in
exchange for goods, Lincoln found two old law books.
On these he fell like a hungry child, and he never left
them until he had mastered their contents, dry and
indigestible though they might have seemed to the
average youngster of his day. In this way, Lincoln
had absorbed a great deal of useful knowledge. He
was always thirsty for information. If he heard of a
new book — and new books were pretty scarce in those
days — he was restless until he had got a sight at
it. For this purpose he walked many a mile, count-
ing no labor, no privation, anything if it brought him
nearer the coveted information of men and things.
He was accounted very learned by those of his
neighbors who knew aught of his studies; not that
his knowledge was aired with any pride, but they
argued that nobody could read so much as he and
not be very erudite. And in the village debates,

56

Abraham Lincoln

held in the country store or at other lounging-places,
the admiring community united in the verdict that
"Abe Lincoln could out-argue any ten men in the
settlement."

Lincoln resolved to become a candidate for repre-
sentative to the Legislature, and in a circular, dated
March 9, 1832, he appealed to his friends and fellow-
citizens to vote for him. He had by this time be-
come a pronounced Whig in politics, following in the
footsteps of his great chief and pattern, Henry Clay.
But he hoped, and not without reason, to secure
many of the votes of those who knew and liked him
for his manly and admirable qualities. Before the
election came on, however, there was a call for volun-
teers to repel hostile Indians. The famous chief
Black Hawk was on the warpath. During the pre-
vious year, the Sacs, of whom Black Hawk was the
recognized leader, had given much trouble to the
settlers along the east bank of the Mississippi, in
Illinois. By treaty, the band had gone to the west
of the river and had given up all claim to their old
hunting-grounds and corn-fields on the other side of
the stream; but they insisted that they had been
wrongfully dealt with by the white man, and that
they still had a right to "make corn" in their old
haunts. It is a matter of record, too, that they had
been shamefully treated by some of the settlers, and
that, on the least provocation, they were made to
suffer the white man's vengeance. These troubles
came to a head in May, 1832, when Black Hawk, at
the head of about forty braves, crossed the Missis-
sippi near the mouth of the Rock River, in the

A Plunge into Politics

57

northern part of the State, and pursued his way up-
stream in a leisurely manner. The governor of the
State called for two thousand volunteers. The
country was panic-stricken.

Lincoln was among the first to volunteer. Whether
he went from pure love of adventure, or because he
thought his services in the expected war would help
him in his canvass, we can only guess. At the head
of a party of Sangamon County men, among whom
were many of the Clary's Grove boys, Lincoln made
his way to the north, where General Atkinson, then
in command of the small United States force operat-
ing in the region, was encamped. The company was
organized in Rushville, Schuyler County, and Lin-
coln was chosen captain. The only other candidate
for martial honors was one Kirkpatrick, a substan-
tial trader from the New Salem country, with whom
Lincoln had had a slight difference before that, owing
to Kirkpatrick' s overbearing manners towards the
young backwoodsman. The Clary's Grove boys
insisted that nobody but Lincoln should lead them
to the war. Word was given that all in favor of
Lincoln should range themselves by his side, as he
stood on the village green, and all who favored Kirk-
patrick should take position near him. When the
lines were formed, Lincoln's was three times as long
as Kirkpatrick's, and so he was joyfully declared to
be elected. This unsought honor, the first elective
office that he ever held, gave Lincoln so much pleas-
ure that years after, when he was President, he said
that nothing that came to him afforded him so much
solid satisfaction.

58

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's company was mustered into the service
of the United States at Dixon's Ferry, Rock River,
by Robert Anderson, a lieutenant and assistant in-
spector-general of the army. The little force re-
ported to Colonel Zachary Taylor, U. S. Army. In
later years, Robert Anderson commanded at Fort
Sumter when the first gun of the rebellion was fired.
As "Rough and Ready" General Taylor was en-
deared to the hearts of his countrymen, and he was
elected to the Presidency in 1848. The campaign
against Black Hawk was short and decisive.

Two incidents are related of Lincoln. An aged
Indian, half-starved and alone, came into camp
one day, bearing a safe-conduct from General Cass.
The soldiers, infuriated by some recent atrocities of
Black Hawk's men, fell upon him and would have
killed him. Lincoln, hearing the tumult, burst
excitedly into the group and, throwing up their
levelled muskets with his own hands, cried: "Boys!
You shall not do this thing! You shall not shoot at
this Indian!" For an instant, he stood defiantly
between the red refugee and his assailants, sheltering
him from their ready weapons, and it was for a time
doubtful if both would not bite the dust. But the
men, seeing the courage and manliness of their cap-
tain, lowered their guns and turned sullenly away.
One of Lincoln's faithful comrades, Bill Green, said
of this : " I never saw Lincoln so roused before."

When Lincoln was in the White House he told this
story : The only time he ever saw blood in this cam-
paign was one morning when, marching up a little
valley that makes into the Rock River bottom, to

A Plunge into Politics

59

reinforce a squad of outposts that were thought to be
in danger, they came upon the tent occupied by the
other party, just at sunrise. The men had neglected
to place any guard at night, and had been slaughtered
in their sleep. As the reinforcing party came up the
slope on which the camp had been made, Lincoln saw
them all lying with their heads toward the rising sun,
and the round red spots that marked where they had
been scalped gleamed more redly yet in the ruddy
light of the sun. This was Lincoln's first glimpse
of what war might be, and years afterwards, when the
land was being desolated, he recalled it with a certain
shudder.

The guide, philosopher, and friend of the troops
was John Dixon, even then known as Father Dixon,
the pioneer, who kept a ferry on the Rock River, at
the point where the Galena wagon-road to the lower
part of the State crossed the stream. Father Dixon
was well known to the Indians as "Na-chu-sa," or
"the white-haired.' 9 On that historic spot, where
met Lieutenant-Colonel Zachary Taylor, Lieutenant
Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant Robert Anderson, and
Private Abraham Lincoln, now stands the city of
Dixon, in Lee County. At that time it was only a
hamlet of log houses that marked the spot, and the
rope-ferry of Father Dixon was all the means of com-
munication between the shores now spanned by
sundry railroad and wagon thoroughfares. The ad-
vance guard of all scouting parties, according to
Father Dixon, was Lincoln, whose keen eyes and
subtle woodcraft enabled him to detect signs of
Indians that less skilful observers would fail to note.

6o

Abraham Lincoln

At night, loitering around the camp-fire, the volunteer
soldiers drank in with delight the jests and stories of
the tall captain. ^Esop's fables in new dress he gave
them, or he recounted the tales of war, humor, and
wild adventure that he had brought away with him
from Kentucky and Indiana. It was related of him,
too, that his inspiration was never stimulated by
recourse to the whiskey-jug. When his grateful and
delighted auditors pressed this on him, he had one
reply : ' ' Thank you, I never drink it. ' '

During the short campaign, the time for which the
men enlisted expired, and some of the tired soldiers
gladly went home. But Lincoln again re-enlisted,
this time serving as a private, and he was a second
time mustered in by Lieutenant Anderson. The
fighting, however, was practically over, and Lincoln
and his comrade George W. Harrison started for
New Salem, having been mustered out at White-
water.

In 1848, while Lincoln was in Congress, General
Lewis Cass was a candidate for the Presidency, and
his friends made much of his military record. To
Lincoln's mind, ever disposed to the humorous side
of things, this seemed absurd, and, addressing the
Chair, one day, in the course of debate, he said:

" Did you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a military hero? In
the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came
away. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as
near it as General Cass was to Hull's surrender; and,
like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is
quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none
to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one

A Plunge into Politics

61

occasion. If General Cass went in advance of me picking
whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on
the wild onions. If he saw any live righting Indians, it
was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody
struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I never
fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often
very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if ever I should conclude to
doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there
is of black-cockade Federalism about me, and thereupon
they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presi-
dency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as
they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me
into a military hero."

On their way home, the two heroes of the Black
Hawk war had their only horse stolen from them.
They had been proceeding in the manner known as
"ride and tie," taking alternate spells on the horse's
back; now they were forced to take "shanks mare"
and they made their weary way to Sangamon
County, where the tall champion story-teller and
debater had only ten days to make his canvass for the
seat in the Legislature to which he aspired. Part of
the way down the Illinois they floated in a canoe that
they bought at a great bargain, and then they walked
across country for New Salem. The election soon
came on, and, although Lincoln received a majority
of the votes of his own precinct, he was not chosen
to the Legislature. For member of Congress, both
candidates together received in New Salem 206
votes; Lincoln received 207. This tribute to his
personal popularity gratified Lincoln very much.
He had not built great hopes on his election, and he

62

Abraham Lincoln

was not seriously disappointed by his failure to get
a majority of all the votes in the district. In those
primitive days, it was not usual for candidates to
expend much money in a canvass, and this fact did
not make Lincoln's defeat so great a misfortune to
him as it might have been under other circumstances.

In his speeches, we are told, Lincoln announced
himself opposed to the party then in power. In the
circular before mentioned he had taken ground as a
Whig; and in one of the few speeches of which we
have scanty reports he said: "I am in favor of a
national bank ; I am in favor of the internal improve-
ment system, and of a protective tariff. These are
my sentiments and political principles. ' ' They were
sentiments and principles exactly opposed to the
party in power. Andrew Jackson was President of
the United States. He had informed the Demo-
cratic party with a spirit of proscription, and it had
been publicly announced that every man who was
not a " whole-hog Jackson man" was to be whipped
out of place and office — "like dogs out of a smoke-
house ' ' was the homely and striking phrase used. It
cost some effort, perhaps, for a poor and compara-
tively unknown young man, without family friends
to back him, to cast in his lot with the despised
minority. But in that path Lincoln followed.

Lincoln's canvass brought him into contact with
many of the prominent men of that part of the State.
His speeches were argumentative, interspersed with
racy anecdotes, full of humor, and more diffuse, per-
haps, than those delivered in later years. He had
already won a local repute for his shrewd reasoning,

A Plunge into Politics

63

and one who often heard him at that time has borne
testimony to the convincing character of his logic.
Dr. A. G. Henry, an intimate friend and neighbor,
said that men whose principles were opposed to
Lincoln's sometimes refused to hear him speak.
"He makes me believe him whether I will or no,"
said one of these unwilling "whole-hog Jackson
men." Of his personal appearance, another, Judge
S. T. Logan, said: "He was a very tall, gawky, and
awkward-looking young fellow then ; his pantaloons
did n't meet his shoes by six inches. But after he
began speaking, I became very much interested in
him. ' ' Lincoln's manner when 1 ' on the stump' 1 was
that of a man wholly at ease, awkward although his
personal appearance may have been.

In those far-off days, on the frontiers of the new
country, people were careless of dress, rude in man-
ners, and free and easy in their relations with each
other. To take the stump was to mount the most
convenient object around which people could gather,
even the stump of a newly felled tree, and address
the voters assembled in a homely, off-hand, and ar-
gumentative manner, urging the reasons why the
speaker should be chosen to the place for which he
was a candidate. It was not uncommon for the
audience to ask questions of the speaker, while he
was in full tide of his address. Lincoln always
answered these queries, when they were not imperti-
nent, with ready good-humor and generally with
what was called "an actual settler of an argument."
On one occasion, seeing from his elevation that a
friend of his in the crowd before him had been

64

Abraham Lincoln

attacked by a ruffianly fellow, and was getting the
worst of it, Lincoln descended from his temporary
rostrum, seized the assailant by the scruff of the
neck, threw him about ten feet, and then, having dis-
charged his duty as a keeper of the peace, calmly
remounted the stump and went on with his speech
as if nothing had happened to interrupt it. A man
who, on fit occasions, was as ready with his muscle as
with his mental power had many friends in the
frontier region.

Defeated in his race for the Legislature, a dis-
banded volunteer, with his late employer in bank-
ruptcy, Lincoln was forced to look around him for
some means of livelihood. He had none. He had
dabbled in politics and done some campaigning, and
these occupations had unfitted him for resuming his
place as a day laborer. Money was scarce with
everybody in those parts. Most financial transac-
tions required nothing more substantial than notes of
hand that passed from one to the other, mere prom-
ises to pay, which might or might not be made good
in the future. In this way Lincoln bought the half-
interest of one of the Herndon brothers in their
country store. Somehow, he was attracted to mer-
cantile pursuits. The business gave him ample
leisure for study. Customers were never too numer-
ous. The store of a neighboring merchant, one
Radford, had become offensive to the Clary's Grove
boys, for some unexplained reason, and they
promptly wrecked it, staving in the windows and
prying out one corner of its foundations. Radford
thought it best to move from thence, and he sold his

A Plunge into Politics

65

stock to a chance passenger named Greene, the price
being two hundred dollars — on paper. Lincoln was
called in to make an inventory of the contents of the
damaged building, and, being fascinated with the
possibilities of the stock, he offered two hundred
and fifty dollars for the lot. Greene gladly accepted
the proposition, and gave full possession of the es-
tablishment to Lincoln, making fifty dollars on his
bargain — also on paper. For not a cent of hard
money changed hands, the consideration being, as
usual, a note of hand.

In this venture Lincoln had a partner, one Berry,
an idle and dissolute fellow, from whom he was soon
obliged to separate, and in a very short time the
enterprise, begun with so much promise and so
many expectations, fell into ruin, and the goods
were sold in lots to suit purchasers, to close out the
concern. Lincoln was again on the world without
occupation, and loaded down with debts incurred in
this latest speculation. The store, as he expressed
it, had ' ' winked out," and he had no immediate
recourse. He had read law books in a desultory and
unaided way, and now he tackled them with more
energy than ever, dimly realizing that here, at least,
was a gleam of leading light for him. He borrowed
every book on law that he could find, the attorneys
of the region round about good-naturedly lending
him whatever they had. In his quest for informa-
tion of this sort, he often walked from New Salem
to Springfield, a distance of fourteen miles.

He also bought an old book of legal forms, and
amused himself and his neighbors with drawing up

VOL. VIII. — 5-

66

Abraham Lincoln

imaginary deeds, wills, and conveyances in which
fictitious property was disposed of at tremendous
prices; this by way of practice. But, whenever an
opportunity occurred, the people went to "Abe
Lincoln' ' for advice and assistance in the selling or
mortgaging of real estate, and thus he gradually
worked his way into something like a business. His
fees, he used to say, were generally necessaries of
life turned in to the family with whom he happened
to board. He also undertook small cases on trial
before the justice of the peace, and, to use his own
figure of speech, "tried on a dog" his legal eloquence
and lore. He was trying himself in these paths into
which he was to enter for life by and by. And it is
worthy of remark that Lincoln's friends and asso-
ciates unite in saying that he never undertook a
case that was not founded on justice and right, and
that when he did argue to a jury, as he sometimes did,
the impression was that he sincerely believed every-
thing he said. He was making reputation, as well
as preparing himself for work in his destined field.
And, in the matter of counsel, he was, as well as in
more violent quarrels and disputes, "everybody's
friend." About this time, too, that is to say, in
1833, he undertook the study of surveying, and, as in
other undertakings, he succeeded so well that he soon
became an expert. His instruments were few and
simple ; contemporaries have said that his first chain
was a grape-vine. But maps and plots of land
surveyed by Lincoln, still extant, show a neatness
and semblance of accuracy that testify to the rigid
care that he always exercised in all his work. Mr.

A Plunge into Politics

67

John Calhoun, county surveyor, was at this period
a useful friend to young Lincoln. The region round
about was full of mushroom cities springing up in a
day; they had to be surveyed in order that their
fortunate owners could describe to the guileless new
arrivals the location of streets, public squares, and
other features of future magnificence laid down — on
paper. Lincoln became an assistant to Calhoun,
and, when occasion required, was a surveyor ''on
his own hook."

In May, 1833, Andrew Jackson being President,
Abraham Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New
Salem. The office had very small revenues and no
political importance. It was given to Lincoln be-
cause all his neighbors wanted him to have it, and
he was the only man willing to take it and able to
make out the necessary returns to the post-office
department. The mail was light, and Lincoln, as
tradition runs, generally carried the post-office in
his hat. He could not keep at home, of course, and
when a villager met him and asked if there were
letters for him, the postmaster gravely searched
through his hat for an answer. But there were news-
papers brought to New Salem by this weekly mail,
and Lincoln religiously made it his duty to read
them all before they could be called for; this, he
used to say, made the office worth more to him than
many times the amount of the money income could
have been. In course of time, the population of
New Salem migrated to other and more promising
localities, and the post-office was discontinued. In
later years, an agent of the Post-office Department

68 Abraham Lincoln

hunted up the ex-postmaster and demanded the
small balance due to the government ; the amount
was seventeen dollars and some odd cents. His
friend and neighbor Dr. A. G. Henry happened to
be present when the agent made this unexpected
demand, and, knowing Lincoln's extreme poverty,
took him aside and offered to lend him the sum
required. "Hold on a minute," said Lincoln, "and
let 's see how we come out." Going to his sleeping-
room, he brought out an old stocking and, untying it,
poured on the table the exact amount, just as it had
been paid to him in pennies and small silver pieces.
Many a time had Lincoln been in bitter want, many
a time hard-pressed for money; but the receipts of
the little post-office were to him a sacred trust to be
kept until required of him.

The debt incurred by the "winking out" of the
store of Berry and Lincoln pressed upon him. So
vast did it seem that he was accustomed to speak of
it as "the national debt." But, unlike most na-
tional debts, it was ultimately paid. In the course
of business, the notes that he and Berry had given
for the stock-in-trade fell into the hands of a person
who was more than usually impatient; for every
man's credit, in those days, was unlimited. The
creditor in this case seized Lincoln's horse, saddle,
and bridle, and sold them under a sheriff's execu-
tion. One of Lincoln's steadfast friends, Bolin
Greene, attended the sale, from which Lincoln,
greatly cast down in his mind, absented himself.
Greene bought the outfit, and, to Lincoln's great
surprise and relief, gave them to him with the in-

A Plunge into Politics

69

junction: "Pay for them, Abe, when you get ready,
and if you never get ready, it 's all the same to me."
Not long after this, Bolin Greene, — long be his name
remembered! — died, and Lincoln was asked by his
townsmen of New Salem to deliver a eulogy at his
burial. The rising young lawyer attempted the
grateful task, but his voice failed him. The tears
ran down his cheeks as he rose to speak, and, over-
come with emotion, he sat down without saying a
word. More eloquent than words, his tears spoke
his affection for the man who had been his friend in
need.

CHAPTER VI.

THE YOUNG POLITICIAN.

Elected to the Legislature — Stump Speaker and Political Debater —
Encounters on the Stump — The Lincoln-Stone Protest against
Slavery — "The Long Nine" — Removal of the State Capital to
Springfield — Compliments to the Sangamon Chief — Lincoln a
Full-Fledged Lawyer — Riding the Illinois Circuit — Distinguished
Associates at the Bar — Lincoln as a Harrison Man.

FN 1834 Lincoln again became a candidate for the
* Legislature. This was to be expected. On the
previous occasion he had made what was a very good
run, although, as we have seen, he had a very few
days in which to finish his canvass after returning
from the wars. The election took place in August,
and, after a sharp fight, Lincoln was elected. Many
Democrats, we are told, voted for him from purely
personal and friendly reasons, and he was sure of the
united support of the Whigs. The four successful
candidates, with their votes, were as follows : Lincoln,
1376; Dawson, 1370; Carpenter, 1170; Stuart,
1 1 64; Lincoln thus leading the poll. To say that
Lincoln was elated would faintly express his satis-
faction over this great but not unexpected triumph.
He was now twenty-five years old, hardy, in perfect
health, manly, tolerably self-possessed, and not
ashamed to address himself to the discussion of any
of the questions of the day, and fully competent to

70

The Young Politician

7i

hold his own with the general run of debaters on the
stump, or in the Legislature. He had mastered the
elementary law-books, was familiar with legal phrases
and forms, knew every rod of the country roundabout
the region from which he was a representative, and,
above all, knew the people, their wants, their hopes,
fears, aspirations, habits, and manner of life. With
a few books he was on the most intimate terms.
These were the Bible, Shakespeare, Burns, ^Esop and
The Pilgrim's Progress. He was honest, truthful,
kind-hearted, patient, long-suffering, brave, and
tender. Without forming his literary style on any
model, indeed scarcely even thinking of style, he had
insensibly acquired a method of expressing himself,
both in reading and writing, which may well serve
as an example for the youth of to-day. He used
only words of one syllable, where that was practi-
cable, and, instead of diluting his thoughts with
many words, he went straight to the point, concisely
and without any delay. He was awkward in ap-
pearance, diffident, and, while not unduly distrustful
of himself, always preferred another before him-
self, and ever showed himself ready to give place to
others. Above all, and to the latest day of his life,
Lincoln was not ashamed to confess his ignorance of
any subject; he never lost an opportunity to get
instruction.

The capital of Illinois was then at Vandalia. The
Legislature was made up of men who, like Lincoln,
had been selected from their fellows by friends and
neighbors, chiefly for personal reasons, and by the
free suffrages of the voters. What are now known

72

Abraham Lincoln

as machine politics, in which corrupt and selfish
party interests are concerned, were unknown in
those primitive days. The members came together,
passed the laws thought most needful for the people,
and then went home. Clad in a suit of decent but
not especially elegant blue jeans, Lincoln, with his
commanding height, was a marked figure in the
Legislature. But we do not learn that he was re-
markable for anything else but his height, then six
feet and four inches. If he created any impression
otherwise, it was when, the day's session over, he
tilted his chair back in some place where the budding
statesmen chiefly congregated, and entertained them
with stories of which the repute has lasted long.
But the tall young backwoodsman, now passing into
the era of statesmanship, was keenly alive to all that
was going on. He held his place in the legislative
debates, but he listened to others. He introduced
few bills, but he narrowly observed what other men
were doing in this direction ; and, while he said little,
he took in everything and thought a great deal.
The session of that winter was not lost to him.

Next year he was again nominated for the Legisla-
ture and was again elected, this time receiving, as in
1834, the largest vote of any candidate voted for in
the region. In his appeal to the voters, that year,
Lincoln said: "I go for all sharing the privileges of
the government who assist in bearing its burdens.
Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the
right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no
means excluding females) . ' ' And again : * 1 Whether
elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of

The Young Politician

73

the sales of the public lands to the several States, to
enable our State, in common with other States, to
dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing
money and paying interest on it." At that time
there were two great questions before the people:
one was the right to vote of persons not born in the
United States ; and the other was the policy of mak-
ing public improvements, such as those named by
Lincoln, at public expense. Henry Clay was Lin-
coln's model and example in politics. And, in tak-
ing a broad and liberal view on these two leading
questions, Lincoln was not only most outspoken and
resolute, but he was following in the footsteps of the
great Whig chief. Nevertheless, many of Lincoln's
friends were amazed at the audacity and seemingly
needless courage of the young candidate for legisla-
tive honors.

During his canvass, Lincoln made additions to his
reputation for ready wit and humor. On one occa-
sion he was pitted against George Forquer, who,
from being a leading Whig, had become a bitter
"whole-hog Jackson man," and had been rewarded
for his apostasy with a good office. Forquer was not
a candidate in this canvass, but was called in to
boom" the Democratic nominee against Lincoln.
Riding into Springfield, where the meeting was to be
held, Lincoln's attention was drawn to Forquer's
fine house, on which was a lightning-rod, then a
great novelty in those parts. Lincoln had been
allotted to close the debate, and Forquer, who spoke
next before him, devoted himself to "taking down"
the young man from New Salem. He ridiculed his

74

Abraham Lincoln

dress, manners, and rough personal appearance, and,
with much pomposity, derided him as an uncouth
youngster. Lincoln, on rising to reply, stood for a
moment with flashing eyes and pale cheeks, betray-
ing his inward but unspoken wrath. He began by
answering very briefly this ungenerous attack. He
said:

" I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and
the trades of a politician ; but, live long or die young, I
would rather die now, than, like that gentleman, change
my politics, and with the change receive an office worth
three thousand dollars a year, and then feel obliged to
erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty
conscience from an offended God."

The effect upon the simple audience, gathered there
in the open air, was electrical. Here was a pompous
and vain-glorious man, who, as the settlers thought,
could not sleep in his fine house, compared with
which their rude cabins were poor indeed, without
setting up this unusual and heaven-defying instru-
ment. When Forquer rose to speak, later on in the
canvass, and in other years, people said: "That 's
the man who dared not sleep in his own house with-
out a lightning-rod to keep off the vengeance of the
Almighty."

At another time, Lincoln met on the stump Colonel
Richard Taylor, a self -conceited and dandified man,
who wore a gold chain, ruffled shirt, and other adorn-
ments to which the men of southern Illinois were
quite unaccustomed. It was the business of the
Democrats to rate themselves as the hard-working

The Young Politician

75

bone and sinew of the land, while the Whigs were
stigmatized as aristocrats, rufBed-shirted gentry.
This was Colonel Taylor's role, and he spoke with
his finery concealed under a long surtout. But,
making a sweeping gesture, Taylor's surtout became
torn open, and his gorgeous array of chains, seals,
pendants, and ruffles burst forth, to his manifest dis-
may. While he paused in embarrassment, Lincoln
seized upon the opportunity, and, standing in full
view, with his coarse attire and rough appearance
strongly contrasting with the dandified Colonel,
cried, laying his hand on his jeans-clad breast:
"Here is your aristocrat, one of your silk-stocking
gentry, at your service." Then, spreading out his
hands, bronzed and gaunt with toil : ' ' Here is your
rag-baron with lily-white hands. Yes, I suppose,
according to my friend Taylor, I am a bloated
aristocrat! " It was a long time before the amiable
Colonel Taylor heard the last of that exposure and
humiliation.

In the Legislature to which Lincoln was now
elected were not a few men whom we shall meet later
on in this strange, eventful history. One of these
was Edward D. Baker, a wonderful orator, after-
wards Lincoln's associate in the law, and subse-
quently United States Senator from Oregon, a general
in the army, and killed at Ball's Bluff. Another
was Stephen Arnold Douglas; others were John J.
Hardin, James Shields, William A. Richardson, John
Logan, and John A. McClernand. From Sangamon
County there were two senators and seven repre-
sentatives in the House, nine in all, and each man

76

Abraham Lincoln

very tall, Lincoln being the tallest of the nine, and
familiarly known as "the Sangamon chief/' more on
account of his height than from his mental leader-
ship. The combined height of this tall delegation
was fifty-five feet. No wonder that it was popularly
known as "the Long Nine." One of the most not-
able achievements of Sangamon County's "Long
Nine" that winter was the removal of the capital of
the State from Vandalia, Macon County, to Spring-
field, Sangamon County, a triumph for which
Lincoln received generous credit from his admiring
colleagues of the delegation.

At this session, too, Lincoln put himself on record
for the first time as opposed to the further extension
of the American system of human slavery. The
temper of the times, at least in that region, was
favorable to slavery. Illinois and Indiana were
affected by the proslavery influences of their nearest
neighbors, Kentucky and Missouri, rivals in trade
and commerce. The legislation of these two States
was designed to encourage slaveholding in the slave-
holding States and discourage all antislavery agita-
tion in non-slaveholding States. For at that time
a few bold men had begun to teach that slavery was
wrong, unjustifiable, even wicked. The entrance of
free colored people into Illinois was forbidden by
statute, and the infamous "black laws," long remem-
bered with shame as designed to curry favor with
slaveholding neighbors across the border, were
enacted. Certain resolutions on the subject of
slavery were passed by the Illinois Legislature dur-
ing the session of which we are writing; what they

Abra

very tall, Lincoln bein
familiarly known as "t
account of his height
ship.* The combined
was fifty-five feet. Vfe
known as "the Long .s
able achievements

">f the nine, and
chief," more on
i mental leader-
tall delegation
l was popularly

mon County

Nine " that winter was the removal of the capital of
the State from Vandalia, Macon County, to Spring-
field, Sangamon County, a triumph for which
Lincoln received generous credit from his admiring

colleaeues of th<> rUWat b»»

Abraham Lincoli

in engraving ta; John,

record

le

*w, least m trTat region, was
Illinois and Indiana were
slavery influences of their nearest
ry and Missouri, rivals in trade
ic legislation of these two States
ourage siaveholding in the slave-

' very agita-
f<:'-'''K States. For at that time
l*0m to teach that slavery was
-^PPft wicked. The entrance of
v Illinois was forbidden by
k laws/' long remem-
bered with shame as designed to curry favor with
siaveholding neighbors across the border, w«itf
enacted. Certain resolutions on the subject of
slavery were passed by the Illinois Legislature dur-
ing the session of which we are writing; what thev

holding Stat^ I
tion in non-slav
a few bold men 1
wrong, unjustiru
free colored peo
statute, and the i

The Young Politician

77

were, we cannot tell, for they have vanished into
oblivion; but undoubtedly they were intended to
convince slaveholding customers and traders that
Illinois could be relied upon to stem the rising tide
of ant isla very in the North. As their answer to
these utterances, Abraham Lincoln and Dan Stone,
the only men who dared to put themselves on
record in this way, drew up and signed the following
paper :

"March 3, 1837.

"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery
having passed both branches of the General Assembly
at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest
against the passage of the same.

" They believe that the institution of slavery is founded
on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulga-
tion of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than
abate its evils.

"They believe that the Congress of the United States
has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the different States.

" They believe that the Congress of the United States
has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not
to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the
District.

"The difference between these opinions and those con-
tained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering
this protest.

(Signed) " Dan Stone,

"A. Lincoln,
"Representatives from the county of Sangamon. "

78

Abraham Lincoln

This protest was received and ordered to be spread
on the journals of the House, much to the regret
of some of Lincoln's more timorous friends, who
probably did not believe that slavery could pass
away from the face of the land during the time of any
then living. At this late day, the paper reads like a
very harmless and even over-cautious document.
But it was, for those times, a bold and dangerous
thing to say that the institution of slavery was
founded on injustice and bad policy. Men had been
mobbed and treated with violence for saying no
more than this, so intolerant and brutal was the
spirit of the slave-owning and slavery-defending
class. So far as we know, this was Lincoln's first
blow at the institution that was bound to disappear
before his life and work were ended.

On the whole, the doings of Lincoln and the other
members of the "Long Nine" were highly accept-
able to the people of Sangamon County. The Lin-
coln-Stone protest was looked upon as a harmless
vagary, soon to be forgotten, and already over-
shadowed by the greatness of the feat of moving the
State capital to Springfield. The long-limbed group
was hailed with great acclaim, and numerous feasts
and festivities were given in their honor. Of the
toasts offered in praise of "the Sangamon chief "
were these that have come down to us from those
faroff days in 1837: "Abraham Lincoln: he has
fulfilled the expectations of his friends and disap-
pointed the hopes of his enemies." "A. Lincoln:
one of nature's noblemen."

In April, 1837, Lincoln went to Springfield, the

The Young Politician

79

new capital of the State, where he established him-
self in the practice of law, and where he remained
until his election to the Presidency. He had man-
aged, crippled though he was with 4 4 the national
debt," to earn a scanty livelihood, and to keep good
his credit. But the new venture was a doubtful
one, and he undertook it with many misgivings. He
rode into town on a borrowed horse, his earthly pos-
sessions packed in a pair of saddle-bags fastened to
the crupper of his saddle. Tying the horse to a fence-
post, Lincoln sought the store of his friend Mr.
Joshua F. Speed, formerly of Kentucky, and asked
for information concerning board and lodging. He
proposed to hire a room, furnish it, and, as he ex-
pressed it, 1 1 browse around" for his sustenance. To
his great dismay, the price of the barest necessaries
in the way of furniture would be seventeen dollars ;
and Mr. Speed included these articles in his pro-
miscuous stock-in-trade.

Lincoln said, sadly: "It is cheap enough, but I
want to say that, cheap as it is, I have not the money
to pay for it. But if you will credit me until Christ-
mas, and my experiment here is a success, I will pay
you then. If I fail, I will probably never be able to
pay you."

Impressed by Lincoln's sadness, Speed replied:
* ' I have a very large double bed which you are per-
fectly welcome to share with me, if you choose."

1 ' Where is your bed ? ' ' asked Lincoln.

"Upstairs," replied Speed. Lincoln took his
saddle-bags on his arm and went upstairs, set them
on the floor, took a swift survey of the premises, and

8o

Abraham Lincoln

then came down again, good-humoredly laughing,
and said: "Speed, I am moved." And Lincoln was
then settled in his new quarters with his steadfast
friend Mr. Speed.

The new capital of Illinois was a large village, its
population being about eighteen thousand. It was
the county-seat of Sangamon, and the United States
Court for that circuit was held there. These, with
the annual session of the Legislature, imparted to the
embryo metropolis considerable importance. Men
famous afterwards in the history of the county,
State, and the republic were found among the assem-
blies of the citizens. Some social grandeur was ap-
parent, and Lincoln has recorded his notion that
Springfield was putting on pretensions to elegance.
To the shy son of the Kentucky backwoods, doubt-
less, there was a great deal of "flourishing about"
among the people of the capital ; but we must make
allowance for the fact that Springfield, like Lincoln,
was only just emerging from the backwoods. The
courthouse was built of logs, and this was true of
nearly all the courthouses on the circuit. The judge
sat at a cloth-covered table, behind a rail that sepa-
rated the awful majesty of the bench from the bar
and people. The rest of the space was occupied by a
promiscuous crowd, and it was a very dull day when
the courthouse audience did not press hardly upon
the accommodations allotted for clerk, bar, and
official attendants at the trial. For the courthouse
afforded, in those days of few amusements, almost
the only in-door entertainment of the people. Here
they found tragedy, comedy, elocution, contests of

The Young Politician

81

wit and logic, and all that material for neighborhood
gossip that is needed so keenly in sparsely settled
communities.

The lawyers rode horseback from courthouse to
courthouse, trying cases and following the presiding
judges in their circuit. Each limb of the law carried
with him, in his saddle-bags, a change of raiment, a
few lawbooks, and the articles of use indispensable
to the hard-faring traveller. Manners were simple,
even rude, but kindly and hospitable. It was on
these long jaunts, travelled in company with judges,
witnesses, and jurymen, that Lincoln picked up a
vast proportion of the stories of wild Western life
and manners, that, in after years, made him famous
as an impromptu story-teller. Once, Lincoln, hav-
ing assisted the prosecuting attorney in the trial of a
man who had appropriated some of the tenants of his
neighbor's chicken -house, fell in, next day, jogging
along the highway, with the foreman of the jury who
had convicted the hen-stealer. The man compli-
mented Lincoln on the zeal and ability of the prose-
cution, and remarked : ' ' Why, when the country was
young and I was stronger than I am now, I did n't
mind backing off a sheep now and again. But
stealing hens!" The good man's scorn could not
find words to express his opinion of a man who would
steal hens.

On another occasion, while riding the circuit Lin-
coln was missed from the party, having loitered, ap-
parently, near a thicket of wild plum-trees where
the cavalcade had stopped to water their steeds.
One of the company, coming up with the others,

VOL. VIII.— 6.

82

Abraham Lincoln

reported, in answer to questions: 4 * When I saw him
last, he had caught two young birds that the wind
had blown out of their nest, and was hunting for the
nest to put them back." The men rallied Lincoln on
his tender-heartedness,when he caught up with them.
But he said: "I could not have slept unless I had
restored those little birds to their mother."

Lincoln formed a law partnership with John T.
Stuart, of Springfield, in April, 1837, and this relation
continued until April, 1841, when Lincoln associated
himself in business with Stephen T. Logan. This
partnership was dissolved in September, 1843, when
the law firm of Abraham Lincoln and William H.
Herndon was formed, and this copartnership was
not dissolved until the death of Lincoln, in 1865.

As a lawyer, Lincoln soon proved that the quali-
ties that had won him the title of honest Abe Lincoln,
when he was a store-keeper, still stuck to him. He
was an honest lawyer ; he never undertook a case of
doubtful morality. If it was a criminal whom he
was defending, and he became convinced of the guilt
of the prisoner, he lost all heart in the case. No fee,
no expectation of winning fame for his shrewdness,
would induce him to undertake a suit in which it
would be necessary to resort to quibbles and nice
little tricks to win. Perhaps there was less of that
sort of legal management in those days than now.
But he certainly never did resort to it. And, as those
who practised at the bar when he did have left this
record of him, it is evident that he was thought to be
peculiar, different from the rest of his associates.
There were men of ability and skill in the circuit in

The Young Politician

83

those days. Some of them became famous in later
years. Among these were Lyman Trumbull, after-
wards United States Senator from Illinois; O. H.
Browning, Senator, and Secretary of the Interior
under Lincoln's administration; W. H. Bissell,
Representative in Congress, and Governor of the
State ; David Davis, Senator, acting Vice-President,
and also a justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States; Stephen A. Douglas, Senator, and a candi-
date for the Presidency. So far as we know, none of
these men, afterwards eminent in their time, had any
expectation of their future successes in public life.
But the modest Lincoln was in training for his ex-
alted station : and it is worth while to note here that
his associations were those that inspired and lifted
him up, not dragged him down. It is likely that he
regarded those about him with a respect akin to awe
and that he never hoped at that time to be equal
to them in reputation. How they regarded him, it
is not necessary to inquire, except to know that no-
body ever thought that he would, in time, distance
them all in the race for distinction. He determined
to excel, not to outstrip anybody; to do his best,
leaving the results to God. Long after he had be-
come President, he said that the true rule of life was
to do one's " level best," leaving the rest to take care
of itself. He believed that the best preparation for
the duties of to-morrow was the faithful perform-
ance of the duties of to-day.

When we look at what young Lincoln had accom-
plished at the time of which we are writing, we shall
see that he had already begun to evince great talent,

84

Abraham Lincoln

although he may not have been a man of mark. For
example, in 1837, when he was not yet twenty-eight
years old, he was asked to deliver a lecture before an
association of young men in Springfield. He chose
for his theme 1 'The Perpetuation of our Political In-
stitutions," rather an ambitious topic, one might say.
But it was not a crude effort. Considering that it
was the work of a self-taught man, who had never
seen the inside of a college, it was remarkable as a
piece of literary composition. It was the address of
a thinking man, an ardent and devoted patriot. In
order that the reader may have some notion of the
earlier beginnings of Lincoln's statesmanship, one
extract from this speech is subjoined. Alluding to
our Revolutionary ancestors, he said:

" 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 it heretofore
has been. Even then, 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 to its own authenticity in the
limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received in the
midst of the very scene related ; a history, too, that could
be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the
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 the invading

The Young Politician

85

foeman could never do, the silent artillery of that time has
done — the levelling of its walls. They are gone. They
were sl forest of giant oaks; but the resistless hurricane
has swept over them and left only here and there a lonely
trunk despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, un-
shading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle
breezes and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few
more ruder storms, then to sink and be no more."

A little later, in 1839, there was a remarkable
debate in the Illinois Legislature, in which the Demo-
cratic disputants were Stephen A. Douglas, John
Calhoun, Josiah Lamborn, and Jesse B. Thomas.
The Whig speakers were Stephen T. Logan, Edward
D. Baker, Orville H. Browning, and Abraham Lin-
coln. All of these men were conspicuous figures in
Illinois politics, and most of them became celebrated
throughout the country in after years. During the
debate, one of the speakers taunted the other side
with the hopelessness of their cause and the fewness
of their numbers. In replying to him, Lincoln said:
" Address that argument to cowards and knaves.
With the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It
may be true; if it must, let it. Many free countries
have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but,
if she shall, let it be my proudest plume, not that I
was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her."

Martin Van Buren was then President, and all who
opposed his administration were denounced and per-
secuted with a virulence unknown in these more
liberal days. Alluding to this Lincoln said : ' 1 Bow to
it I never will. Here, before heaven, and in the face
of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause

86

Abraham Lincoln

of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love.
. . . The cause approved of by our judgment and
our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in death, we never
faltered in defending."

In 1840, the country was deeply stirred by the
Presidential campaign of that year. Martin Van
Buren was nominated by the Democrats, and General
William H. Harrison by the Whigs. Lincoln was one
of the Presidential electors on the Harrison ticket,
and he took a lively interest in the canvass, making
speeches and going on long expeditions for the sake
of his candidate. Harrison lived in Ohio, where he
had been one of the earlier pioneers. The dwelling
of the pioneer, of course, was a log cabin; his
favorite drink was supposed to be 1 'hard" or sour,
fermented apple cider. In a very short time the
Harrison campaign became * ' the log-cabin and hard-
cider campaign." Even in the staid, old-fashioned
cities and towns of the Eastern States, log cabins
were built for rallying-places. Barrels of hard cider
were kept on tap, and, instead of the customary tin
cup for drinking purposes, gourds were ostentatious-
ly hung out. Coon-skins were nailed on the outer
walls of these symbolic log cabins. In some places
extravagant expedients were resorted to in order to
rouse public enthusiasm. In Boston, for example,
a huge ball was made by covering a wood frame-
work, some fifty feet in circumference, with painted
cloth; and on the ends was lettered the legend,
1 'This is the ball that is rolling on." The novel
device was rolled through the streets of the city, on
the occasion of a log-cabin parade, the big ball being

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87

guided by ropes hitched to its axis. Campaign
songsters, flags, and all sorts of inventions to stir up
the people, were scattered broadcast all over the
country.

Lincoln threw himself heart and soul into this
extraordinary and memorable canvass. At a great
meeting in Springfield, Edward Baker, Lincoln's
close friend, was speaking in a large room next below
the floor on which Lincoln's office was. A trap-door,
once used for ventilating purposes, was cut in the
ceiling over the spot where the speaker stood.
Lincoln raised this slightly and listened to Baker's
harangue. Presently, Baker, losing his temper,
assailed the Democrats very hotly, and, as some of
these were present, they made a rush for the speaker,
crying: "Pull him off the platform!" To their
intense surprise, the trap-door was lifted, and Lin-
coln's large feet, well known by their proportions,
appeared; then his legs, and finally his body, slid
down, and the tall son of the backwoods stood
defiantly by the side of Baker. Quieting the rising
tide by a wave of his hand, Lincoln said: "Gentle-
men, let us not disgrace the age and country in which
we live. This is a land where freedom of speech is
guaranteed. Baker has a right to speak, and a right
to be permitted to do so. I am here to protect him,
and no man shall take him from this stand if I can
prevent it." Lincoln had sufficient reputation for
courage and muscle, as well as for fairness, to warrant
that Baker should have no further interruption.

CHAPTER VII.

WINNING HIS WAY.

His First Love Affair — A Disappointment — Dark Days — The Lincoln-
Shields "Duel" — Good Advice on the Subject of Quarrelling —
Lincoln and Van Buren — A Roadside Symposium — Congressional
Expectations.

WHILE Lincoln was living in New Salem, he
became tenderly attached to a young lady of
that village, Miss Ann Rutledge. It is not known
that the pair were ever engaged to be married, but it
is known that a very cordial affection existed between
the twain. At that time, Lincoln, who was ever
looking on the dark and practical side of life, was in
no condition to marry; he was not only poor, but
was burdened with debts, and with a very uncertain
future before him. It is hardly likely that he would
have engaged himself to marry while his prospects
in life were so very dim and discouraging. But Miss
Rutledge died suddenly, and while yet in the bloom
of youth. This sad event impressed Lincoln with the
deepest melancholy, and it is said that he never was
as cheerful afterwards. To the day of his death, it is
likely, the taking out of life of Ann Rutledge, who
seems to have been cut down most untimely, was
to Lincoln a forcible lesson of the vanity of human

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89

expectations. It was at this time, so far as we know,
that an old poem, beginning with the line —

" Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ?"

greatly impressed him with its sadness and pathetic
reminders of death, decay, and disappointment.
The poem sunk insensibly into his memory, and it
was a favorite with him ever after.

It does not appear that Lincoln was ever what is
called "a lady's man." He delighted in the society
and conversation of cultivated and sprightly women,
always, but he was not greatly addicted to such
society when a young man making his way in the
world. He was obliged to live laborious days, and
sit up far into the night pursuing his studies, his
reading, his course of thought. But in 1840 there
came to Springfield from Kentucky his destiny in
the person of Miss Mary Todd. She was a daughter
of Robert Todd. It was one of her relatives, John
Todd, who gave name to Lexington, Kentucky.
When, at the breaking out of the Revolution, John
Todd was encamped hard by the site of the present
city, he heard from the far East the news of the battle
of Lexington, and he bestowed on the settlement yet
unborn the title it wears unto this day. The Todd
family was one of ancient and honorable standing
in Kentucky. Mary Todd's sister was the wife of
Ninian W. Edwards, a man of substance in Spring-
field, and it was to visit her that Miss Todd had
reached the Illinois capital.

Mary Todd was courted and flattered by the young
men of Springfield, and as the young ladies of those

9o

Abraham Lincoln

days were more interested in politics than many of
the present age, she soon made the acquaintance of
Abraham Lincoln, then regarded as a rising man.
It will never be known just how a matrimonial
engagement between Lincoln and Miss Todd became
settled and then unsettled. It may be sufficient for us
to know that after the engagement was fixed there
was a misunderstanding betwixt the two, and that
Lincoln released the young lady from the engage-
ment, and that she declined to be released. Im-
mediately after, he fell into a state of the most
profound melancholy. He was tortured with the
idea that he might have been bound by other
obligations, or that he was not wholly a free man.
Certain it is that he was so affected by what seems to
have been a needless remorse, that his mind was in
danger of being unsettled. In this pitiable plight,
his friend Joshua F. Speed, who had closed out his
business in Springfield, returned to Kentucky, taking
Lincoln with him. There, in the restful quiet of the
Speed mansion, Lincoln recovered his mental health
and vigor, and then returned to Springfield.

At that time a well-known character in the city
was James Shields, a brisk and hot-headed young
man from the County Tyrone, Ireland. Shields was
an active Democrat, ever dipping into all sorts of
adventures, and he had lately been elected State
Auditor, an office of some importance, with a good
income attached to it. Lincoln anonymously printed
in the Sangamon Journal a witty letter purporting to
come from 4 'The Lost Townships," in which the
writer, who pretended to be a widow with political

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91

ideas in her head, bewailed the hard times and the
evil results of Democratic rule. In that letter some
satirical allusions were made to the heady young
Democratic Auditor, who was a fair mark for
ridicule, as he was most sensitive, as well as of a
fiery disposition. Shields was frantic with rage. He
vapored through the town, threatening death and
destruction to the unknown author of the satire.
The shot was followed by another, in which the
widow of "The Lost Townships" offered to square
matters by marrying Shields. These two letters,
which were the talk of the town, so tickled the fancy
of Miss Todd and another young lady that they con-
cocted a series of lampoons, verses, and skits, all of
which, like the little barbed weapons flung by a bull-
fighter, were designed to infuriate the rearing and
plunging Shields. In a rage, he went to the editor
of the journal, and demanded to know the name of
the author of these attacks. The editor, in great
distress of mind, applied to Lincoln for advice.
Shields would fight. The editor would not fight.
Lincoln told him to say that Abraham Lincoln was
responsible for the whole business from first to last.
Being so informed, Shields challenged Lincoln to
mortal combat. Lincoln accepted.

In those days, and in those regions, duelling was
not only common, but it was very highly thought of
as a means of setting a man right when his honor
had been assailed before the community. It seems
strange, now, to think that Lincoln could have
accepted a challenge to fight a duel. But it was the
custom of the country, although contrary to the

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Abraham Lincoln

laws. And perhaps Lincoln felt that there would be
no duel. Shields was a famous boaster. He and
his friends made great ado about the coming duel, so
that the affair was very widely advertised. Lincoln,
being the challenged party, had the choice of weapons
and he chose * 1 cavalry broadswords of the largest
size." If he had really desired to hew down Shields,
he might have done so, for, in his stout hands and
with his long arms, he could have mowed down any
man of ordinary build before he could have got near
Lincoln. But the fight did not come off. At the
last moment, Shields was ready to accept from
Lincoln the explanation that the letters from ''The
Lost Townships" were only intended for political
effect and not to reflect on the personal character of
Mr. Shields. Lincoln was no wrangler, and it is
very likely that he was greatly disturbed by this
unseemly quarrel, the first and the last of the sort
that he ever had ; and, if he could have escaped from
the duel without degradation, he would have done so.
It ended without humiliation to him except so far as
he felt humbled by having been drawn into a silly
fracas in which nobody could gain any credit to him-
self. Curiously enough, the seconds in this bloodless
affair fell into a wordy quarrel, and a vigorous cor-
respondence, which at one time threatened to result
in a real duel, was kept up for several weeks after the
famous "Lincoln and Shields duel" was declared
"off." But nothing serious came of this after-clap.
Years after, when he was President of the republic,
Lincoln had occasion to reprimand a young officer
of the army who had been brought before a court-

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93

martial for a quarrel with a brother officer. Pos-
sibly, these words, addressed to the culprit, may
have been suggested by his own unwelcome ex-
perience :

" The advice of a father to his son, 1 Beware of entrance
to a quarrel, but being in, bear it that the opposed may
beware of thee,' is good, but not the best. Quarrel not
at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can
spare time for personal contention. Still less can he
afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating
of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger
things to which you can show no more than equal right ;
and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better
give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in con-
testing for the right. Even killing the dog would not
cure the bite."

But out of the Shields affair, we may understand,
issued the marriage of Lincoln and Miss Todd. The
young lady was bright, vivacious, and roguish. Her
knight had shown his readiness to fight for her,
although, with genuine Kentucky- spirit, she had
declared her own willingness to cross weapons with
the redoubtable young Irishman, if need be. The
paper duel took place late in September ; the young
couple were married November 4, 1840. The newly
married pair took lodgings in the Globe Tavern, a
well-known and modest boarding-place not far from
the statehouse. In a letter written to a friend,
about this time, Lincoln speaks of his happiness in
the married state, of his comforts, and of the cheap-
ness of their living, which, he says, "is only four
dollars a week for board and lodging." On these

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Abraham Lincoln

modest terms did the future President begin married
life. Mrs. Lincoln was indeed a helpmate. Her good
management and thoughtfulness admirably supple-
mented her husband's unworldly absent-mindedness.
They were always what some people call "an old-
fashioned couple," content with each other, a devoted
husband and wife, to the end of their life together.

To Lincoln's inexpressible satisfaction, Harrison
was elected in 1840. The hard-cider and log-cabin
campaign was not fought through, however, without
many a hard struggle. The Democrats were over-
whelmed at last. The Whigs, after their long ex-
clusion from power, were correspondingly elated. It
was during this canvass that the old term of derision
"Locofoco" was again applied to the Democrats.
In 1834, so runs the tale, a party of Democratic
agitators were assembled in Tammany Hall, New
York, resolved on some very high-handed political
measure. The more moderate, after vainly attempt-
ing to stem the tide, turned off the gas all at once.
In those days, friction matches were a new invention
and were called "Locofoco matches," probably
from the Latin loco foco, in lieu of fire. Those who
were in favor of extreme measures drew their ' ' Loco-
focos" from their pockets, relighted the gas, and the
radicals carried their point. From this, the term
Locofoco spread all over the country; and it is
worthy of remark that Mr. Lincoln, clinging as he
did to old-fashioned phrases, frequently, even during
the Civil War, referred to Democrats by their old
name of Locofocos.

The log-cabin campaign having terminated to

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95

Lincoln's satisfaction, he spent the winter of his first
year of marriage very happily, as well as very busily.
Yet he found time to write an occasional newspaper
article on the growing power of the political South,
and, later on, to compose and deliver a very excellent
temperance address. About this time, too, possibly
this very winter, he wrote a lecture for a lyceum,
designed to show that there was nothing new under
the sun, that everything that was claimed as a new
invention had existed at some period, possibly very
remote, in the history of the world. This lecture was
not intended to be taken in cold-blooded earnest,
but as a bit of pleasantry, mixed with much sober
fact. The temperance address, however, was a
serious composition. Lincoln never, even to the
day of his death, could be persuaded to partake of
spirits or wine. He set out in life, surrounded by
drunkards and moderate tipplers, determined that
he would resist the temptation to drink of these
insidious beverages. He made no promises, but,
after a few years of manhood (as he used to say),
when his associates had become accustomed to his
abstemious habits, he had neither temptation nor de-
sire to drink. That part of Lincoln's lecture — which
was delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church,
Springfield, February 22, 1842 — that refers to the
drinking usages of society is interesting. He said:

" Let us see. I have not inquired at what period of
time the use of intoxicating liquors commenced ; nor is it
important to know. It is sufficient that to all of us who
now inhabit the world, the practice of drinking them is
just as old as the world itself — that is, we have seen the

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Abraham Lincoln

one just as long as we have seen the other. When all such
of us as have now reached the years of maturity first
opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found
intoxicating liquor recognized by everybody, used by
everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered
into the first draught of the infant, and the last draught
of the dying man. From the sideboard of the parson
down to the ragged pocket of the homeless loafer, it was
constantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, that,
and the other disease ; government provided it for soldiers
and sailors ; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or
* hoe-down 9 anywhere about without it was positively
insufferable. So, too, it was everywhere a respectable
article of manufacture and merchandise. The making of
it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who
could make most was the most enterprising and respect-
able. Large and small manufactories of it were every-
where erected, in which all the earthly goods of their
owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to
town; boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds
wafted it from nation to nation; and merchants bought
and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with precisely the
same feelings, on the part of the seller, buyer, and by-
stander, as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs,
beef, bacon, or any other of the real necessities of life.
Universal public opinion not only tolerated, but recog-
nized and adopted its use."

In June, 1842, Lincoln met Martin Van Buren,
then out of office. It was the first time that Lincoln
had ever seen the much-hated Democratic ex-Presi-
dent, and he was accustomed to say, in after years,
that it was no wonder that Van Buren's admirers
called him ' 'the little magician," for, according to

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97

Lincoln, Van Buren's manners were so affable and
delightful that 1 'he could charm the birds off the
trees. ' ' But, if Lincoln was pleased with Van Buren,
the ex-President was no less gratified by his meeting
with the young Whig leader of central Illinois.
Being weatherbound at a small town not far from
Springfield, the ex-President was forced to remain
overnight. Some of his Springfield friends, hearing
of Mr. Van Buren's plight, made up a party, and,
taking with them some refreshments, left Springfield
for the village aforementioned. Knowing Lincoln's
good-nature, as well as his powers of entertaining,
they besought his assistance to lighten the weary
hours of the ex-President's stay at the wretched inn
where he was detained. Lincoln, always ready to
do a good turn, went out with the party, and, as it is
recorded by one of the company, entertained the
wayfarers far into the night with Western anecdotes,
funny stories, and graphic descriptions of wild life on
the frontier. Van Buren was surprised and de-
lighted, saying that the only drawback to his enjoy-
ment was that his sides were sore, from laughing at
Lincoln's stories, for a week thereafter. The Demo-
cratic ex-President and the Whig leader parted on
such excellent terms that they ever after cherished
pleasant recollections of that night.

Lincoln had long desired to go to Congress, but it
so happened that his dearest friends, also Whigs, were
equally anxious to go from the district in which they
all lived. This was known as the Sangamon district,
and from 1839 to 1850 it was represented by men of
marked ability. Edward D. Baker was chosen in

VOL. VIII.— 7.

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Abraham Lincoln

1 843 . He had been preceded by Stephen A. Douglas.
He was succeeded by Abraham Lincoln. In the
various moves made to secure the nomination for
Congress, Lincoln's fairness and magnanimity were
conspicuous. The district was strongly Whig, and a
nomination was almost an election. But Lincoln,
always preferring his friend before himself, loyally
supported each of his most intimate associates, and
thought his to be the better claim. On one occa-
sion, having been a candidate for the nomination to
Congress, Lincoln was elected as a delegate to the
nominating convention, and was instructed to vote
for E. D. Baker. Of this predicament he good-
naturedly said: "I shall be fixed a good deal like
the fellow who is made groomsman to the man who
cut him out and is marrying his girl.'' At this time,
1842, John J. Hardin was nominated and elected.
He was one of Lincoln's truest friends; he was sub-
sequently killed at the battle of Buena Vista, during
the Mexican War.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RISING POLITICIAN.

Lincoln's Admiration of Henry Clay — An Irresponsive Idol — Slavery
and the Tariff — Lincoln Elected to Congress — The Mexican War
— A Queer Nickname — Rise of the Free-Soil Party — Election
of Gen. Taylor — Return to Springfield — The Boys of Lincoln — A
Shiftless Relative.

IT was said of Lincoln that he was a born politician
and that, as a political prophet, he made few
mistakes. But he was deeply and overwhelmingly
disappointed, in 1844, when his idol, Henry Clay,
was defeated for the Presidency by James K. Polk of
Tennessee. For once, Lincoln had no doubts, ap-
parently, as to the success of a campaign on which
he had staked so great expectations. But Clay was
defeated, and the Whigs, plunged into the depths of
grief, went to the length, in some localities, of wear-
ing mourning badges to show the hoplessness of their
woe. Clay was the idol of those who had supported
him for the Presidency; and Lincoln, sincere as was
his personal disappointment and grief, was only one
of thousands who felt as he did. The defeat was
unexpected, and its very unexpectedness made it
harder to bear. Long after this, Lincoln was ac-
customed to refer to the defeat of Clay as one of his
keenest personal sorrows.

It is very likely, however, that the edge of this

99

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Abraham Lincoln

grief was made less sharp by Clay's own conduct.
In 1846, Lincoln, learning that Clay was to speak in
Lexington, Kentucky, made a pilgrimage to that
place in order that he might hear the voice, grasp the
hand, and look in the magnetic eyes of his adored
leader. Clay's speech was on the subject of coloniz-
ing Africa with emancipated American slaves, an
expedient then attracting much attention in the
republic as a possible solution of the problem of
American slavery, now becoming more and more
difficult and more than ever discussed. Clay's
speech, on this occasion, was written out and was
read in a cold manner, very unlike what Lincoln had
expected of the fiery and impetuous Kentucky orator.
Lincoln, who had come so far to hear what was a
very commonplace address, was disappointed. Never-
theless, when the meeting was dissolved, he sought
the much-wished-for introduction to Clay. The
Kentuckian, knowing how true a friend was the
Illinois Whig leader, invited him to accompany him
to Ashland, the seat of the Clay family. We may
imagine the elation with which Lincoln accepted this
unexpected invitation from the object of his wor-
ship. But more disillusion was in store for him.
Clay was proud, distant, and haughty in his manner,
and he evidently regarded Lincoln as a clodhopper,
a rude backwoodsman, whose personal affection for
"the great Whig chief" must be rewarded by a few
curt words of welcome. He was conceited in himself,
impatient of suggestions or advice from others.
Lincoln was humble, conscious of his own short-
comings. Clay was sufficient unto himself. Lin-

The Rising Politician

IOI

coin's invariable habit was to defer to others. Clay,
in the fulness of his popularity, accepted the defer-
ence offered him as his due. Lincoln felt that his
hero-worship was an egregious blunder. He went
back to Springfield, as he afterwards expressed it,
"with the enthusiasm all oozed out of him." The
man who was to be President had learned a lesson
from him who never could be President. It was a
lesson never forgotten.

In 1846, Lincoln was nominated for Congress, and
one object of his ambition was within reach. His
competitor on the Democratic ticket was Peter Cart-
wright, a backwoods preacher and exhorter, famous
in his time for the vigor with which he pursued every
topic to which he addressed himself. It was thought
that Cartwright would poll a very much larger vote
than that usually given to a Democratic candidate in
the district, possibly might be elected. But Lincoln
astonished his opponents by the fulness of his vote.
His majority over Cartwright was sixteen hundred
and eleven, considerably more than any other Whig
candidate had a right to expect.

When Lincoln took the "stump " for himself in the
canvass, he had a plenty of material for his addresses
to the people. During the preceding winter, the
new State of Texas had been admitted to the Union,
a measure to which Lincoln, and other Whigs, was
bitterly opposed. Texas had first seceded from
Mexico, and, after a sharp war, had gained something
that was akin to independence. At least, the war
was temporarily suspended, according to Mexican
notions of the position of affairs, and the new State

102

Abraham Lincoln

proposed to join the family of the United States.
After various .expedients had been tried without
success, the Democratic administration of the Govern-
ment finally did secure the annexation of Texas.
This was done in order that a new slave State might
be added to the Union. The increase of population
in the North, so much more rapid than it was in the
South, made it necessary that something should be
done to maintain the political strength of the slave
States. The work of achieving the independence of
Texas was accomplished largely by Americans, and
it was felt that this was only to prepare the way to
bring the young republic into the Union. This
suspicion was certainty when the Southern States
insisted that Texas should be brought into the
Federal Union, without delay. This was finally
brought about, and Mexico, which had agreed to a
cessation of hostilities for a time, immediately began
a war with Texas and the United States. This, and
a reduction of the tariff on imported goods, for which
the Democrats were responsible, gave the Whigs
ammunition for their political campaign; and we
can understand how vigorously Lincoln used it in
his canvass. In fact, the encroachments of slavery
were exciting alarm and uneasiness among the more
thoughtful and observant of the people of the free
States. Mr. Lincoln, who apparently believed that
slavery could not be abolished without changing the
Constitution of the United States, was as uneasy as
any other man, and his speeches were all aimed,
although indirectly, at that power.

The Congress to which Lincoln was elected was

The Rising Politician 103

the Thirtieth, and Lincoln took his seat in it Decem-
ber 6, 1847. He was very much at home there, for
he had then been repeatedly a member of the State
Legislature, had "stumped" Illinois from one end
to the other, had made a great many public speeches,
had met all the leading men of that region, and had
been accustomed to hold his own in debate. Add to
all this the fact that he had, ever since boyhood, been
a diligent, almost hungry, student of political affairs,
and had heard them discussed in public places, or
had read in the newspapers, and we shall see that
he was no tyro in affairs that were likely to come
before Congress. He was familiar with all the great
questions, had debated them before the people, and
had so studied the history of his country that he
knew all that had happened to lead up to the crisis
in which the republic then found itself — with a for-
eign war on its hands and a new State in the Union,
the admission of which a great many public men,
in and out of Congress, regarded as a misfortune to
the republic. James K. Polk was President of the
United States, and, disappointed by a failure to dis-
pose of the Mexican question before he took office,
his messages to Congress were designed to show that
the war with Mexico was a just one, and that he had
been right in all that he had done to make that war
inevitable.

Lincoln's acute mind saw the inconsistency of the
President's position, and, in order to bring from
President Polk, if possible, a statement of the facts
on which he had pretended to base his messages,
Lincoln, as soon as he had fairly become used to his

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Abraham Lincoln

seat, introduced a series of resolutions asking the
President for information. These resolutions were
prefaced by a clear statement of the situation, as
it appeared to him, together with sundry extracts
from the President's messages of that year and the
year next preceding. The aim of these resolutions
will be seen by quoting the first three, as follows :

' ' That the President of the United States be respect-
fully requested to inform this house :

" First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citi-
zens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not
within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of
1819, until the Mexican revolution.

"Second. Whether this spot is or is not within the
territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolu-
tionary government of Mexico.

" Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settle-
ment of people, which settlement has existed ever since
long before the Texas revolution and until its inhabitants
fled before the approach of the United States army."

The questions were never answered. No answer
was probably expected. It was seen that if the
President or the President's friends should undertake
to reply, and admit the real facts, the position taken
by Mr. Polk, and those who defended the war,
would be surrendered. So, not being able to make
answer to the only Whig representative from Illinois,
the tall backwoods lawyer, they contented them-
selves with giving him a nickname. As he had used
the word ' ' spot" several times in the resolutions and
in the speech that followed, he was known for a

The Rising Politician

time, at least, as "Spot Lincoln." The speech,
which was delivered in the succeeding January, was
a masterly one, reviewing the causes of the Mexican
War and severely arraigning the administration for
its persistence in the matter of the annexation of
Texas, and thus involving the country in a bloody
and causeless fight with Mexico.

It is well to bear in mind that there were many
eminent men in Congress in those days. In the
Senate were Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, John A.
Dix, Thomas H. Benton, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson
Davis, Stephen Arnold Douglas, and other well-
known statesmen. In the House of Representatives
were such men as ex-President John Quincy Adams,
Caleb B. Smith, afterwards a member of Lincoln's
cabinet, John G. Palfrey, Robert C. Winthrop, An-
drew Johnson, elected Vice-President of the United
States when Lincoln was chosen for his second term ;
Alexander H. Stephens, afterwards Vice-President
of the Southern Confederacy; Robert Toombs, the
Southern slaveholder who promised to have his
slaves mustered to roll-call on Bunker Hill; Howell
Cobb, afterwards a general in the rebel army, and
many others famous in the stormy times then mak-
ing ready in the distance. In this illustrious com-
pany of legislators, Lincoln was recognized as a man
of marked ability. Speaking of him, long after-
wards, Alexander H. Stephens said:

" He always attracted and riveted the attention of the
House when he spoke. His manner of speech, as well as
thought, was original. He had no model. He was a man

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Abraham Lincoln

of strong convictions and what Carlyle would have called
an earnest man. He abounded in anecdote. He illus-
trated everything he was talking about with an anecdote,
always exceedingly apt and pointed; and socially he
always kept his company in a roar of laughter."

We see that many of the traits of the pioneer boy
still stuck to the mature man, now in Congress.
Lincoln took part in the debates of the House rather
more frequently than most new members did then, or
do in these later days. Some of his speeches, to be
found in the printed record of Congress, show char-
acteristic touches of humor. For example, speaking
of the attempt to make a military hero of General
Lewis Cass, who was to be the next Democratic can-
didate for President, and who was said to have been
an important figure in a small fight on the Canadian
border, Lincoln said, with rough sarcasm:

"He invaded Canada without resistance, and he out-
vaded without pursuit." "He was volunteer aid to
General Harrison on the day of the battle of the Thames,
and as you said, in 1840, that Harrison was picking
whortleberries, two miles off, while the battle was fought,
I suppose it is a just conclusion with you to say that Cass
was aiding Harrison to pick whortleberries."

It is to be noticed that Lincoln, while he disap-
proved of the Mexican War, always voted to reward
the bravery of the soldiers who fought the battles
and who were not in any way responsible for the
war. Later, when he and Douglas were holding a
political discussion, Douglas reproached Lincoln

The Rising Politician

107

with being an enemy of his country during the Mexi-
can War. Lincoln replied: "I was an old Whig,
and when the Democratic party tried to get me to
vote that the war had been righteously begun by the
President, I would not do it. But when they asked
for money, or land warrants, or anything to pay the
soldiers, I gave the same vote that Douglas did."
This was true, but it must be admitted that Whig
politicians who disapproved of the war, and were
compelled by public opinion to vote for war sup-
plies, had a hard time of it. If this was true of the
Whigs, Lincoln showed, with great force and caustic
scorn, that the Democratic President was also in
great perplexity. Speaking of the President's strug-
gles to set himself right, when he knew that he was
wrong, Lincoln said:

" He knows not where he is." " All this shows that the
President is by no means satisfied with his positions.
First, he takes up one, and, in attempting to argue us into
it, he argues himself out of it. Then he seizes another,
and goes through the same process ; and then, confused at
being able to think of nothing new, he snatches up the
old one again, which he has some time before cast off.
His mind, tasked beyond its powers, is running hither and
thither, like some tortured thing on a burning surface,
finding no position on which it can settle down and be at
ease."

This speech was made in the House of Represent-
atives after Taylor had been nominated at Phila-
delphia by the Whigs in 1848. Clay had been
supported in that convention as a candidate more fit

io8

Abraham Lincoln

than Taylor ; but Taylor had won fame on the field
of Buena Vista, during the Mexican War, and he had
not been in favor of carrying that war forward to
the. banks of the Rio Grande, the disputed boundary
between Texas and Mexico. He was urged in the
convention as the most available man for the nomi-
nation, and the word "availability" was repeated
with much scorn by Mr. Clay's friends afterwards.
Lincoln was a delegate to the Whig convention that
nominated Taylor, and he was enthusiastically in
favor of the "Hero of Buena Vista," as the General
was styled by his admirers. General Taylor's man-
ners were very blunt, and his usual address was
abrupt. His followers gave him the title of "Rough
and Ready," and the name was used as a battle-cry
all through the campaign. Indeed, the Whigs re-
sorted to all the tricks and devices that had made
the "Log-Cabin and Hard-Cider" campaign of Har-
rison and Tyler so successful. Lincoln was not only
enthusiastically in favor of Taylor's nomination, but
he was confident of his election. In a letter to a
friend, written a few days after the Philadelphia
convention, he said that, in his opinion, the Whigs
would have "a most overwhelming and glorious tri-
umph," and he added: "One unmistakable sign is
that all the odds and ends are with us — Barn-
burners, Native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed
office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what.
This is important, if in nothing else, in showing
which way the wind blows."

This queer list of party factions shows how par-
ties were then beginning to break up. The Barn-

The Rising Politician 109

burners were the antislavery seceders from the
Democratic party in New York. The Tyler men
were those who adhered to the fortunes and alleged
principles of John Tyler, who, having been elected
Vice-President with General Harrison by the Whigs,
afterward became President by the death of Harri-
son, and then went over to the Democratic party,
taking with him a fraction of his own party. In
August of that year, 1848, the New York anti-
slavery Democrats assembled at Buffalo, New York,
and organized the Free-Soil party. It was pledged,
not to the abolition of slavery, but to its restriction
to the territory it already occupied. The new party
was determined that the soil of the territories then
in existence, and thereafter to be acquired, should
be free; that there should be no more slave labor
outside of the States in which slavery existed, and
that every citizen of the United States should have
full liberty to speak his sentiments concerning any
topic before the people, even concerning slavery.
The slaveholders had begun to suppress newspapers
that were against slavery, and to oppress men who
dared to say that slavery was not right and just.
The battle-cry of the Free-Soilers in that canvass was
"Free Soil, Free Labor, and Free Speech." They
nominated Martin Van Buren for President and
Charles Francis Adams for Vice-President. The
Free-Soilers of that day included many eminent men,
some of whom had come out of the Democratic party
on account of its cringing attitude to slavery in the
United States. Among the Free-Soilers were Salmon
P. Chase, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme

no

Abraham Lincoln

Court of the United States; Charles Sumner; Henry
Wilson, afterward Senator from Massachusetts, and
then Vice-President of the republic ; William Cullen
Bryant; John P. Hale, then and afterward a Sena-
tor from New Hampshire ; and many others.

The Democrats, meantime, had nominated for
President Lewis Cass. This gentleman, as we have
seen, had had a very slight taste of war in the skir-
mish known as the battle of the Thames; and, as
the Whig candidate was hurrahed for as a military
hero, the Democrats attempted very unsuccessfully
to give Cass a military reputation. The experiment
failed. The slavery question, which could not any
longer be kept down, was judiciously omitted from
the platforms of the Whigs and the Democrats. The
Free-Soilers were sufficiently outspoken in their plat-
form; but we shall find that the speakers of the
other two parties, after all, were obliged to say
something about the great but much-dreaded ques-
tion. William H. Seward, afterwards Senator and
Secretary of State, said, in a speech supporting Tay-
lor's candidacy: "Freedom and slavery are two
antagonistic elements of society in America." "The
party of freedom seeks complete and universal eman-
cipation.' 9 Daniel Webster, who also supported
Taylor, insisted that the Whigs were the real Free-
Soilers. Lincoln avowed himself to be "a Northern
man, or, rather, a Western Free-State man, with a
constituency I believe to be, and with personal feel-
ings I know to be, against the extension of slavery."
The Congressional recess began in August, and Lin-
coln went immediately to New England, where he

The Rising Politician

in

took the stump for Taylor. His speeches were char-
acterized by their keenness of analysis, wit, humor,
and unanswerable logic. He was in close communi-
cation with the Whig leaders in Illinois, and con-
tinually wrote them, giving them advice, counsel,
and hints for the conduct of the campaign. Some
of these letters are very interesting as showing the
thoroughness of Lincoln's methods. In a letter to
his partner, W. H. Herndon, he says: "Let every
one play the part he can play best. Some can speak,
some can sing, and all can halloo." When he had
filled his engagements in New England and New
York he returned at once to Illinois, where he threw
himself into the canvass with great fervor, speaking
day and night until the election, which occurred in
November, 1848.

When the votes were counted, it was found that
General Taylor was elected, having 163 electors,
while Cass had 137. Van Buren, not having carried
any one State, had no electors. Of the total number
of votes cast in all the States, Taylor had 1,360,752;
Cass had 1,219,962; Van Buren had 291,342. Great
was the joy of the Whigs; bonfires and illumina-
tions flamed, and the Whig newspapers broke out
with cuts, big type, and other devices to show mani-
fest exultation, unknown in these days. There was
a general feeling of satisfaction all over the North,
for it was felt that the election of Taylor would,
somehow, prevent the further extension of slavery.
In fact, although probably very few, except such
shrewd politicians as Lincoln, saw it, the triumph
of the Whigs, assisted by the Free-Soil party, was

I 12

Abraham Lincoln

making ready for the formation of a new party that
was to bring to pass what none then thought possible
— the abolition of slavery. It should be borne in
mind that the votes cast for Van Buren would have
elected Cass had they all been given to him. And
the bulk of those votes had come out of the Demo-
cratic party.

When Congress reassembled in December of that
year, after the Presidential election, the aspect of
things was materially changed. Lincoln and other
ardent Whigs were no longer in a hopeless minority
in the country, and the Northern Democrats, who
believed that they had been sacrificed in the interest
of Southern slavery, were angry and sullen. They
were ready to wreak their spite on their Southern
Democratic friends. One of these, Mr. Root of
Ohio, very soon introduced a resolution favoring the
organization of the new Territories, California and
New Mexico, with constitutions that should exclude
slavery; this caused great uproar. The Territories
in question had been acquired by the treaty under
which the quarrel with Mexico was settled; and it
had been hoped and expected by the South that
slavery would be extended there, as it had been in
Texas. When the Root resolution came to a vote
in the House, the Southern men were solidly against
it ; eight Northern Democrats were with those of the
South; and all the Whigs from the North and all
the Northern Democrats but the eight referred to
voted for it. The resolution, however, got no far-
ther than the Senate, where it was killed by the
slavery majority.

The Rising Politician

In this, as in all measures designed to cripple the
institution of slavery, Lincoln voted with the friends
of freedom, although he did not take an active part
in the debate. He seemed to be waiting and watch-
ing, after his usual cautious fashion. Later in the
session, he introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia. He thought it a shame and a
disgrace that traffic in slaves should be carried on
right under the shadow of the Capitol in which the
National Congress assembled to transact the public
business. And, like many another Northern man,
his heart was stirred with indignation to see coffles,
or gangs, of slaves, handcuffed and linked in chains,
passing through the streets of Washington on the
way to the South. This was a good time to test the
feeling of the House of Representatives. His bill
provided that no person from without the District
should be held to slavery in it; and that no person
thereafter born in the District should be held in
slavery anywhere. It also provided for the gradual
emancipation of the slaves then in the District, the
owners of the same being paid for them by the Gov-
ernment of the United States. The bill was to be
voted on by the inhabitants of the District before it
should be a law. The bill seems to us, in these days
of enlightenment, very moderate. It recognized
property in persons, for it provided that the Govern-
ment should buy and free the slaves. But the bill
was framed so that it might, if possible, pass Con-
gress, not as an expression of what Lincoln thought
was just and right to the slave and the slaveholder.
But, temperate though the bill was, it excited a

VOL. VIII. — 8.

H4

Abraham Lincoln

storm of opposition. The Southern members were
determined that no bill that was calculated to weaken
slavery in any way, or to imply that slavery was
not everything that was lovely and of good report,
should ever pass Congress, if they could help it.
Lincoln's bill to abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia never came to a vote. Soon after, Con-
gress adjourned and Lincoln, his term of office being
out, went home to Illinois. When he was to return
to the national capital, twelve years later, it would
be to remain until slavery was abolished from one
end of the republic to the other.

Lincoln was not a candidate for re-election. As
his was the only Whig district in the State, and was
full of ambitious and able men who were Whigs, it
had become the custom of the party to give the
office of Congressman to no man twice in succession.
Any man who wanted it for a second time was
thought greedy. Edward D. Baker had just re-
turned from the Mexican War, covered with the
honors he had gained on the battlefield of Cerro
Gordo. He was nominated and elected to succeed
Lincoln. For the first and last time in his life, Lin-
coln became an applicant to an appointive office.
Taylor was now President, and, according to the
custom of the time, all the Democrats were to be
turned out of office and their places given to Whigs
who had done service in the campaign. Lincoln,
with a plenty of ideas concerning public improve-
ments and with some experience as a surveyor of
lands, thought he would like to be the Commissioner
of the General Land Office, a place in which he

The Rising Politician

115

would have charge of the sale and distribution of the
lands belonging to the United States Government.
To the surprise of his friends, and to his own great
disappointment, which he did not attempt to con-
ceal, Lincoln was refused the office he sought, but
was offered that of Governor of the Territory of
Oregon. This place, however, he declined. It was
not to his taste, and, most likely, he was beginning
to see that he had a greater work on this side of the
Rocky Mountains. Moreover, Mrs. Lincoln was de-
cidedly opposed to going to the Pacific coast. She
had had enough of frontier life. Years afterward,
when her husband had become President, she did
not fail to remind him that her advice, when he was
wavering, had restrained him from " throwing him-
self away" on a distant territorial governorship.
The bait held out to Lincoln at that time was that
Oregon would soon come into the Union as a State
and that he could probably return as a United States
Senator. This glittering prospect made him pause
until his wife's opposition determined him. It is a
curious coincidence that, when Lincoln was Presi-
dent, Edward D. Baker, who was Lincoln's friend
and his successor in Congress, went to Oregon from
California and was elected United States Senator
from that State.

During Lincoln's term in Congress, lasting from
December, 1847, to March, 1849, he retained his
home in Springfield, his wife being in Washington
with him only on brief visits. Their eldest son,
Robert Todd, was born August 1, 1843; the second,
Edward Baker, was born March 10, 1846; the third,

Abraham Lincoln

William Wallace, December 21, 1850; and the
fourth, Thomas, April 4, 1853. Of these, the second
died in infancy; the third died while his father was
President; the fourth survived his father, dying at
the age of nineteen. The eldest, Robert, Secretary
of War under Garfield and under Arthur, is the sole
survivor of the family. When Lincoln returned to
Springfield from Congress, he found his law practice
fallen away, so that, to use his own expression, he
had to begin all over again. But he had gained
reputation during his Congressional term, and he
rebuilt his practice with ready skill and untiring in-
dustry. He had bought a house and lot in Spring-
field, and there established himself and his family
under a roof of his own, which he was never to leave
until he left it for the last time, when he went to
take up his residence in the White House at Wash-
ington. We are told that it was a pleasant and
sunny home, where love and order reigned. In the
society of his children Lincoln took great delight.
It cannot be said that his was a stern rule. It was
well-nigh impossible for him to exercise any right of
government with his children. They were passion-
ately fond of their father ; but it must be admitted
that censorious visitors sometimes went away won-
dering why he so "indulged" his boys. Perhaps
he remembered his own hard childhood and the
scanty joys and comforts of those dark years.

As we have seen, Mr. Lincoln's father, Thomas
Lincoln, was settled near Decatur, Macon County,
Illinois, where his son Abraham, assisted by Thomas
Hanks, had fenced in, with rails of their own split-

The Rising Politician

"7

ting, a small section of a new farm. After Abraham
went out to seek his own fortune, his father moved
several times, never long satisfied to remain in one
place. He finally settled in " Goose Nest Prairie,"
a small farming community in Coles County, Illinois,
where he remained until his death, in 185 1, at the
age of seventy-three. Whatever he had thought of
the abilities of his son, who had bothered him with
his youthful habit of speech-making and his pro-
clivity to 11 talking politics," Thomas Lincoln lived
to see him one of the best-known men and leading
lawyers of the State. As soon as he could spare any-
thing from his own earnings, after his load of debt
was lifted, Lincoln helped his parents continually.
He bought lands for them, sent them good gifts, and
in many ways showed his filial affection to the end
of their stay on earth.

It may be said here that there were other members
of the Lincoln family, not holding so strong a claim
on Abraham's generosity, that were helped by the
warm-hearted man. John Johnston, Abraham's
step-brother, appears to have been an unthrifty and
easy-going person who needed a lift, and got it, now
and again, from the frugal and not over-rich Spring-
field lawyer. In a letter to John, written about the
time when he returned from Congress, Lincoln said:
"At the various times when I have helped you a
little, you have said to me, 'We can get along very
well now,' but in a short time I find you in the same
difficulty again." And in the most friendly and
affectionate way he went on to show how the diffi-
culty was in his unwillingness to work for small pay,

n8

Abraham Lincoln

work for small things, work for what could be got
then, rather than wait for something better to
turn up. Later, in November, 1851, Lincoln wrote
to John, giving him much wholesome advice, as
follows :

"Dear Brother: — When I came into Charleston, day
before yesterday, I learned that you are anxious to sell the
land where you live and move to Missouri. I have been
thinking of this ever since, and cannot but think such a
notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri
better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you
there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats
without work? Will anybody there, any more than here,
do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there
is no better place than right where you are ; if you do not
intend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere.
Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do
no good. You have raised no crop this year, and what
you really want is to sell the land, get the money, and
spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life upon
it, you will never after own a spot big enough to bury you
in. Half you will get for the land you will spend in mov-
ing to Missouri, and the other half you will eat and drink
and wear out, and no foot of land will be bought. Now,
I feel it is my duty to have no hand in such a piece of
foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own account, and
particularly on mother's account. The eastern forty
acres I intend to keep for mother while she lives. If you
will not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her ;
at least it will rent for something. Her dower in the
other two forties she can let you have, and no thanks to
me. Now, do not misunderstand this letter. I do not
write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, if possible,

The Rising Politician

to get you to face the truth, which truth is, you are desti-
tute because you have idled away all your time. Your
thousand pretences deceive nobody but yourself. Go to
work, is the only cure for your case."

We shall understand Lincoln better from this let-
ter to his step-brother. It shows him to be inde-
pendent, self-reliant, and disposed to make his own
way in the world without calling on others to carry
him along, as so many young men are in the habit
of doing. There are other letters extant that show
that Lincoln had repeatedly assisted this same step-
brother; and this letter gives touching evidence of
his care and anxiety for his step-mother. None of
these were kin to Lincoln, but they were, all the
same, a charge upon his generosity and affection,
just as though they were of the same blood. Brought
up in a hard school, Lincoln was early taught many
practical lessons in frugality and economy; but his
natural kindliness and open-handedness were never
spoiled by penury and need. He never, so say his
contemporaries, was able to make any money out-
side of his profession. The only possession he ever
had that was not gained by sheer hard work was a
tract of wild land in Iowa, given to him by the
United States Government (as it was to each volun-
teer), for his services in the Black Hawk war. When
he went to Washington to take the Presidency, the
sum total of all his wealth in goods, chattels, lands,
and cash was valued at a sum not so great as a single
fee sometimes paid in these later days to a lawyer
of the standing and ability he had at that time.

120 Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was thrifty only in the sense of working
hard for what he got and never spending for that
which was not absolutely needful for the comfort and
happiness of those dependent upon him. Parsimoni-
ous he never was.

Abraham Lincoln

n was thrifty only in the sense of working

or what he got and that
was not absolutely needful for the comfort and
ess of those dependent upon turn Parsimoni-

never was.

Abraham Lincoln

From a drawing from Iife by p. g Carpenter

CHAPTER IX.

LINCOLN THE LAWYER.

An Honest Advocate and Counsellor — The Snow Boys and Old Man
Case — Famous Lawsuits about Negroes — Jack Armstrong's Son
on Trial for Murder — Lincoln's Vindication of His Old Friend —
How the Attorney Looked and Spoke.

MENTION has already been made of Lincoln's
immovable honesty. This was not only con-
spicuous in his dealings with men, but in his course
as a politician and a lawyer. No man more than he
ever made so many concessions to his opponents in
a discussion, and yet succeeded in convincing those
who were to be carried by his argument, whether it
was a jury in a law-case, or an audience of the people
in a political canvass. Sometimes, those who were
with him, but did not, perhaps, understand his
methods, were dismayed as they heard him give away
point after point in the case that he presented.
Their surprise, therefore, was very great when he
began to sum up and, by the force of his reasoning,
won his suit. This was because he knew his case
thoroughly; he did not wait until its weak points
were disclosed by the speaker on the other side. He
relied on what lawyers call the equity of the case
that he presented to the minds of men ; and he was
sure to go to the very bottom of things before he
got through. It was the natural habit of his mind

121

122

Abraham Lincoln

to look at the objections that might be found against
any given course rather than to the advantages and
attractions of the same. People who knew him only
on the surface, as it were, said that he looked on the
dark side of things. This was not exactly true. He
considered difficulties, in order that he might be pre-
pared for failure and disappointment. He never
forgot the advice of Captain Davy Crockett: "Be
sure you are right, then go ahead."

Honest himself, he was intolerant of dishonesty in
others; and not a few cases are mentioned of his
fairly blazing with wrath when he presented to a jury
the facts which showed the craft and wickedness of
those who would escape their just deserts. He
seemed to seize upon all the salient points of his
opponent's case, before even they had attracted the
attention of the counsel for the other side. And,
what was remarkable, he seldom appealed to the
native sense of justice which is hidden in a jury
without success. A good instance of this was shown
in the suit of an old man named Case, brought
against "the Snow boys," to recover the amount of
a note given by them for three yoke of oxen and a
"breaking plough." This team was used for break-
ing up the soil of the virgin prairie and was abso-
lutely needful as part of the outfit of a prairie farmer,
in those days. The Snow boys were not of age.
They had bought the team and had given their note
for the amount of the purchase money, and, being
unable to pay when the note became due, they were
sued for the money. Their counsel appeared in
court and set up the plea that the defendants were

Lincoln the Lawyer

123

infants, or minors, when the note was given, and
were, therefore, in law, incompetent to make a con-
tract, and that the note was void.

As counsel for Case, Lincoln produced in court the
note signed by the Snow boys. It was admitted
that the note was given in payment for the plough
and oxen. Then the defendants' counsel offered to
prove that they were under age when they signed
the note.

"Yes," said Lincoln, "I guess we will admit that."

1 1 Is there a count in the declaration for oxen and
plough sold and delivered?" asked the justice.

"Yes," said Lincoln; "and I have only one or two
questions to ask of the witness who has been called
by the defendants' counsel to prove the age of his
clients."

"Where is that prairie team now?" asked Lincoln.
"On the farm of the Snow boys."
"Have you seen any one breaking prairie with it
lately?"

"Yes," said the witness, "the boys were breaking
up with it yesterday."

"How old are the boys now?"

"One is a little over twenty-one, and the other is
near twenty-three."

"That is all," said Lincoln.

"Gentlemen," said Lincoln to the jury, "these
boys never would have tried to cheat old farmer
Case out of these oxen and that plough, but for the
advice of counsel. It was bad advice, bad in morals,
bad in law. The law never sanctions cheating, and
a lawyer must be very smart indeed to twist it so

124

Abraham Lincoln

that it will seem to do so. The judge will tell you,
what your own sense of justice has already told you,
that these Snow boys, if they were mean enough to
plead the baby act, when they came to be men
would have taken the plough and oxen back. They
cannot go back on their contract and also keep what
the note was given for."

Without leaving their seats, the jury, made up of
men of the neighborhood, gave a verdict for Lin-
coln's client, old farmer Case.

A more celebrated case was that which Lincoln
tried in 1841, and was known as that of Bailey vs.
Cromwell. A negro girl named Nancy had been
sold, as a slave, or indentured servant, by Cromwell
to Bailey, and a promissory note taken in payment.
The note was not paid when it became due, and suit
was brought in the Tazewell County Court, Illinois,
to recover the amount, and judgment was given for
the plaintiff. The case was then taken to the Su-
preme Court of the State, and Lincoln appeared for
the maker of the note, Bailey. He argued that the
girl could not be held in slavery, since, under what
was known as the Ordinance of 1787, slavery was
prohibited in the Northwestern Territory, of which
Illinois was a part, as well as by the constitution of
that State, which expressly prohibited slavery. He
insisted that, as the consideration for which the note
was given was a human being, and, under the laws of
Illinois, a human being could not be bought and sold,
the note was void. A human being could not be an
object of sale and transfer in a free State. It will
be noticed that this involved some of the questions

Lincoln the Lawyer 125

which Lincoln afterwards took so large a part in
discussing. His argument, covering as it did the
existence and the rights claimed for human slavery
under the constitution of a State, the Ordinance of
1787, and the law of nations, was very carefully con-
structed. The court reversed the judgment and the
note was thus declared void, as Lincoln had alleged
that it was. At that time, the case attracted great
attention from its novelty as well as its importance.
Lincoln was then thirty-two years of age, and his
connection with so weighty and grave a suit un-
doubtedly occasioned him a very careful and thor-
ough examination of the questions related to slavery.

Another slave case in which Lincoln was concerned
was more interesting, because his heart was engaged
when the legal aspect of the affair had disappeared.
An old slave woman, living near Springfield, had
been born in slavery in Kentucky, and, with her
children, had passed into the possession of a man
named Hinkle. Hinkle had moved into Illinois,
bringing his slaves with him; but, as he could not
hold them there, he had given them their freedom.
In course of time, a son of the woman had hired
himself as a cabin waiter on a steamboat and had
voyaged down the Mississippi. At New Orleans the
boy had gone ashore, forgetting, or not knowing,
that he was liable to arrest. In accordance with the
custom of the times, he was seized by the police and
locked up, the rules of the city requiring that any
colored person found at large, after night, without a
written pass from his owner, should be confined in
the " calaboose." After some delay, the boy was

126

Abraham Lincoln

brought out, tried, and sentenced to pay a fine.
Meanwhile the steamboat had left, and the boy was
liable to be sold into slavery to pay his fine. Word
was sent to the boy's mother, in Illinois, and, in her
extremity, she came to Lincoln, who had gained
some reputation as being one of the very few lawyers
in Springfield who dared to undertake a case in-
volving what were called the rights of slavery. Lin-
coln was very much moved, and he besought his
partner, Mr. W. H. Herndon, to go and see the Gov-
ernor and ask if there was no way by which a free
negro, held in duress in New Orleans, could be
brought home. The Governor regretted very much
to say that there was no remedy provided by the
constitution or the laws for such a state of facts.
He could do nothing. Lincoln rose to his feet, in
great excitement, and said: "By the Almighty!
I '11 have that negro back soon, or 1 11 have a twenty
years' excitement in Illinois until the Governor does
have a legal and constitutional right to do some-
thing in the premises!" The twenty years' excite-
ment came in due time, but, meanwhile, the two
lawyers sent money of their own to New Orleans,
entrusting the case to a correspondent ; the fine and
other expenses were paid and the boy sent home to
his grateful mother.

It is related of Edward D. Baker, Lincoln's friend
and comrade, that, being once asked to undertake a
suit in which the rights of a fugitive slave were in-
volved, he said that, as a public man and a politician,
he did not dare to take it. An antislavery friend of
the man who was in trouble was next applied to for

Lincoln the Lawyer

127

advice, and he said : 1 ' Go to Lincoln. He 's not afraid
of an unpopular case. When I go for a lawyer to
defend an arrested fugitive slave, other lawyers will
refuse me, but if Lincoln is at home he will always
take my case."

The reader will remember that the leader of "the
Clary's Grove boys," Jack Armstrong, became Lin-
coln's steadfast friend and ally, after the tussle be-
tween him and young Lincoln, in Salem, during
Lincoln's rough apprenticeship in the company of the
frontiersmen. When Jack Armstrong was married,
and had become a steady -going householder, his home
was always open to the welcome visits of his old
friend. Here, when lack of employment cast him
down, Lincoln found a harbor of rest and refuge. It
was in Mrs. Jack Armstrong's house that a chance
visitor first saw Lincoln, prone on a trundle-bed,
rocking a cradle with one foot while he read aloud.
And in later years, when Jack Armstrong was dead
and his boy had grown to man's estate, his mother
came to Lincoln in great trouble. Her son, William
D. Armstrong, had been arrested for murder. Lin-
coln knew nothing of the case, but he undertook it,
and, after looking into the facts, became assured
that the lad was innocent.

It appeared that young Armstrong, in company
with some of his mates, had visited a camp-meeting
and had become involved in a quarrel. The diffi-
culty was prolonged into the night, and, in the
course of the fracas, a mortal blow was dealt to a
young man on the opposite side of the dispute, what-
ever it was. The evidence against the prisoner was

128

Abraham Lincoln

solid and substantial, although chiefly circumstan-
tial, except that one witness did swear that he saw
the prisoner inflict the fatal blow with a slung-shot,
by "the light of the moon, which was shining
brightly." Lincoln surprised everybody by his
calm, merciless, and destructive analysis of the evi-
dence, which, to him, looked like a conspiracy against
young Armstrong. But when he came to the evi-
dence of the man who had made oath that he beheld
the blow delivered by the light of the brightly shining
moon, he called for an almanac and showed that on
the night in question there was no moon at all! The
climax was reached, and the jury brought in a ver-
dict of "not guilty. " The widow had not been able
to endure the suspense in court, and had gone out
into a pasture to weep and pray alone. Before the
sun went down, a messenger came running to her
with the glad tidings: "Bill is free; your son is
cleared." For this inestimable service Lincoln
would take no fee. No record of the argument in
the case has been left, but one who heard it says his
plea was irresistible. Even before he reached the
climax of his argument, by his manly eloquence he
had succeeded in convincing the jury, as he had con-
vinced himself, that young Armstrong was innocent.
And this was done, too, when popular prejudice was
all against the prisoner, and when, in consequence of
the prevailing belief in his guilt, Lincoln had been
obliged to have the trial moved to another circuit.
It has been said that Lincoln resorted to a trick and
introduced an old almanac to deceive the jury. But
to those who knew him, this tale is simply incred-

Lincoln the Lawyer

129

ible. Lincoln never employed unworthy tricks.
The foreman of the jury afterwards offered to make
affidavit that the almanac used by Lincoln was of
the year of the murder.

While we are considering Mr. Lincoln as a lawyer,
it may be as well to read what an eminent judge said
of him. When the news of Lincoln's death, in 1865,
was officially noted in the courts of the State, Judge
Drummond, of Chicago, said: "I have no hesitation
in saying that he was one of the ablest lawyers I
have ever known." And, speaking of his personal
appearance and manner at the bar, the Judge said:

"With a voice by no means pleasant, and, indeed, when
excited, in its shrill tones sometimes almost disagreeable,
without any of the personal graces of the orator, without
much in the outward man indicating superiority of
intellect, without great quickness of perception, — still,
his mind was so vigorous, his comprehension so exact and
clear, and his judgment so sure, that he easily mastered
the intricacies of his profession, and became one of the
ablest reasoners and most impressive speakers at our bar."
" He always tried a case fairly and honestly. He never
intentionally misrepresented the evidence of a witness or
the argument of an opponent. He met them squarely,
and if he could not explain the one or answer the other,
substantially admitted it. He never misstated the law
according to his own intelligent view of it."

Lincoln's voice was not sonorous, and at times it
rose to a high, somewhat shrill key. In ordinary
conversation his tones were agreeable, and his enun-
ciation clear. When excited, in speaking, he rose
to a commanding height, so that one aged man hear-

VOL. VIII q.

130

Abraham Lincoln

ing him speak from a political platform, for the first
time after he had become famed in his own State,
said: "He seemed to be about twenty foot high!"
At such times Lincoln no longer was the homely and
ungainly man that he was reputed to be. His eyes
flashed fire; his appearance underwent a change as
though the inspired mind had transformed the body ;
his face, darkened with malarial influences and
seamed with the wrinkles of premature age, was
transfigured with that mysterious "inner light"
which some observers have said reminded them of a
flame glowing within a half -transparent vase. To
the end of his life Lincoln adhered to the old-fash-
ioned pronunciation of many familiar words. With
him a chair was a "cheer"; legislature was "legis-
latur," and so on. In presenting a close argument
he would stoop over towards his auditors, lower and
lower, until he had got to the point where the demon-
stration was shot home upon those who had followed
him. Then, with a sudden jerk, he would straighten
himself up, as somebody has said, "like a jack-
knife." Unconscious although this was, it was very
effective.

CHAPTER X.

A GREAT AWAKENING.

Stupor Before Excitement — A Dead Sea of Politics — Repeal of the
Missouri Compromise — The Migration to Kansas — Lincoln and
Douglas Meet Again — A Memorable Debate — Lincoln Withdraws
from the Canvass — Lyman Trumbull Elected to the Senate.

(N 1850 it looked to the eyes of most men that
human slavery was forever fixed in this country.
Congress had passed a series of measures that were
supposed to settle everything, but which satisfied
neither the slave States nor the free States, although
the friends of human freedom were deeply discour-
aged by the enactment of the so-called compromise.
Mr. W. H. Herndon relates that as he and Lincoln
were wayfaring together that year Lincoln gloomily
said: 11 How hard, ah, how hard it is to die and leave
one's country no better than if one had never lived
in it! The world is dead to hope, deaf to its own
death struggle, made known by a universal cry.
What is to be done ? Is anything to be done ? Who
can do anything ? And how is it to be done ? Do
you ever think of these things?"

In that year Thomas Lincoln died. Burdened
with many cares, Lincoln could not go to see his
father, who was reported to him as lying very low
in health. To the ill-faring step-brother, John

131

i32

Abraham Lincoln

Johnston, Lincoln wrote while his father was yet
alive :

" I sincerely hope that father may yet recover his
health; but, at all events, tell him to remember to call
upon and confide in our good and great and merciful
Father and Maker, who will not turn away from him in
any extremity. He notes the fall of the sparrow, and
numbers the hairs of our heads ; and he will not forget the
dying man who puts his trust in him. Say to him that,
if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not
be more painful than pleasant, but that if it be his lot to
go now, he will soon have a joyful meeting with the loved
ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the
mercy of God, hope ere long to join them."

In 1852 Lincoln accepted the place of elector on
the Whig ticket in his State. As he was wont to say,
he was "a standing candidate for Whig elector, but
seldom elected anybody." This time, as was ex-
pected, the Whig candidate was defeated, and the
Democratic nominee, Franklin Pierce, was chosen.
Lincoln, although accepting with reluctance the
nomination on the electoral ticket of his party, took
small part in a campaign in which he could have had
no heart. His party's platform had closed his mouth
on the only subject on which he felt very deeply. In
fact, the whole country seemed to be waiting in
dumb silence as if anticipating the storm that was
brewing. As Lincoln could not speak on the slavery
issue, he could not readily find other topics with
which the people could be stirred. During the two
years next succeeding there was very little to rouse

A Great Awakening

i33

a man of Lincoln's warm and deep emotional nature.
He stuck to his calling, and diligently pursued it,
practising at Springfield and before the Supreme
Court of the State.

In 1854 came the great awakening. Once more
the battle was to be fought between slavery and
freedom. By what was called the Missouri Compro-
mise, enacted in 1820, slavery was put forever out
of the Northwestern Territory. This had already
been secured by what is known as the Ordinance of
1787 ; but when Missouri was admitted to the family
of States, in 1820, it wTas as a slave State. If Mis-
souri had come in as a free State, the balance of
power would have been forever after with the free
States. By the compromise under which Missouri
came in, it was agreed that in all the territory north
of the northern boundary of that State, slaver}7
should be forever prohibited. In 1854 the new Ter-
ritories of Kansas and Nebraska were knocking at
the door for admittance. As these lay to the north
of Missouri they were included in the prohibition of
slavery. Stephen Arnold Douglas, Senator from
Illinois, introduced in the Senate a bill organizing
the two Territories, and leaving the question of
slavery to be settled by the voters of the region.
This was a repeal of the much-vaunted Missouri Com-
promise, which positively prohibited slavery in those
Territories.

Words can but feebly describe the excitement that
this bold and unexpected concession to the slave
States created throughout the North. It had been
thought that the Missouri Compromise gave slavery

134

Abraham Lincoln

an undue advantage. It gave that accursed institu-
tion one more State. To repeal it now would be
to remove the barrier that pent the flood of slavery
in its present limits, and throw open to it an area as
great as that covered by the thirteen original States.
Amidst the most intense excitement, Douglas's bill
was finally passed through Congress on the 8th of
May, 1854. The event was celebrated by the boom-
ing of an artillery salute fired on Capitol Hill, Wash-
ington. That boom was the death-knell of slavery
in the United States.

Instantly the whole North was aflame. Douglas
was everywhere denounced for having sold his birth-
right as a free man for a mess of pottage. It was
generally believed that his course had been prompted
by a desire to gain the support of the slave States in
his plans to be elected President of the republic.
With wonderful skill and audacity, he defended him-
self from the attacks that were rained down upon
him. He insisted that the popular will should be
sovereign, and that that will should determine
whether slavery or freedom should rule in each com-
munity. The settlers in a territory were called
"squatters." The slavery question, under the new
order of things, was to be left to them. The friends
of the Douglas programme invented as a watchword
the phrase "squatter sovereignty." And this, with
the next best phrase, "popular sovereignty," was
heard in every political discussion from one end of
the country to the other.

Then began a race to take possession of the new
Territory. From the Northern States went large

A Great Awakening 135

numbers of people bent on being early on the ground
to occupy the soil for freedom; and from the slave
States migrated others equally resolved to secure the
young Territory for the dominion of slavery. Kan-
sas, being readiest of access, received the full volume
of the wave of immigration. The free-State men
moved from the Western States nearest; northern
Illinois and Iowa more especially contributing com-
panies of actual settlers, as they called themselves,
to distinguish themselves from those who were
merely temporary occupants of the promised land.
But even as far off as New England were formed
organizations to assist those who would go to help
swell the free population of Kansas. Missouri and
Arkansas, however, both slave States, and both hav-
ing a large uneasy, floating population, had the ad-
vantage which those conditions gave them, and their
people, fired with a determination to save the Terri-
tory for slavery, swarmed over the border. These
movements, which began almost as soon as the bill
passed Congress, occupied the summer of that year.
Before three months had passed " free-State men"
and "prosla very men" had become familiar words all
over the West.

Lincoln, placidly engaged in his customary voca-
tions, but ever watchful of the progress of events,
was roused to tense attentiveness. He was still a
Whig in name, but the Whig party was dying. From
its ruins was to spring a new and vigorous organiza-
tion, to the leadership of which, in his own State,
he must move.

Congress adjourned in August, and the great chiefs

136

Abraham Lincoln

hurried home, astonished by the angry roar that
came up from the people of the North. Douglas,
dismayed by the burst of wrath directed against him
as a Northern man with Southern principles, hast-
ened to Illinois, confident that, with his crafty logic
and audacious declamation, he could convince the
people that the Kansas-Nebraska Bill did not con-
tain the pernicious and destructive influences that
they believed it did. In Chicago, where he first
tarried, his constituents refused to hear him. The
walls were placarded with hostile words against him,
and angry denunciations were heaped upon him.
He was not permitted to speak, and he went on to
Springfield.

Early in October, 1854, the great agricultural fair
of the State, at which men were wont to gather from
every part of Illinois, was held in Springfield. This
was Douglas's opportunity, and he eagerly embraced
it. It was noised abroad that Douglas was to speak
to the people in justification of his course and in
defence of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. By common
consent, all eyes were turned to Lincoln as the
speaker best qualified to answer the plausible and
overbearing Senator from Illinois. The day came,
and, amidst an excitement that only those who
witnessed this great conflict between the two intel-
lectual giants of the West can fully understand,
Douglas began his defence. He was the Democratic
leader of the West, the acknowledged head of his
party in the North, so that men had begun to call
themselves "Douglas Democrats. " He was self-
confident, wilful, at times arrogant and overbearing,

A Great Awakening 137

and full of all manner of guile and political expedi-
ents. He had already spoken in various parts of the
State, but with little effect. This was to be his
supreme effort. No report of the speech has been
preserved to us; but we know that Douglas's at-
tempt to make it appear that the repeal of the Mis-
souri Compromise was made in the interest of the
whole people and not in the interest of slavery was
ingenious, plausible, and as effective as it could have
been in the hands of any living man. That the at-
tempt was vain was owing to the immovable fact
that the repeal did open to slavery territories that
had been closed against it.

On the next day Lincoln replied to Douglas. All
accounts agree in saying that his was a wonderful
and a memorable speech. With his customary fair-
ness, he said that he did not wish to present any-
thing but the truth, the whole truth, and that if
Mr. Douglas, who was present, should detect him in
making any error he would be glad to be corrected
on the spot. Douglas availed himself of this invita-
tion to interrupt Lincoln frequently, to ask him
impertinent questions, and endeavor to break him
down by distracting his thought from the matter in
hand. Finally Lincoln lost patience, severely tried
by these unfair tactics, and said: "Gentlemen, I
cannot afford to spend my time in quibbles. I take
the responsibility of asserting the truth myself, re-
lieving Judge Douglas from the necessity of his im-
pertinent corrections.' ' From this point he was
allowed to speak without interruption to the end of
his speech, which occupied three hours and ten

138

Abraham Lincoln

minutes in delivery. The sensation produced by
this speech, so convincing, so powerful in its logic,
and so tremendous in its array of facts and argu-
ments, was indescribable. At last the lion had been
roused. Stung by the superciliousness and pre-
tended contempt as well as by the dishonest course
of Douglas towards him, Lincoln rose to the occasion
and spoke as he never spoke before. The enthusiasm
of his audience was raised to fever heat. It is a
misfortune that we have no report of that first great
speech of his life. But contemporary criticism re-
mains. The Springfield Journal, next day, said:

"Lincoln quivered with feeling and emotion. The
whole house was as still as death. He attacked the bill
with unusual warmth and energy, and all felt that a man
of strength was its enemy, and that he meant to blast it
if he could by strong and manly efforts. He was most
successful ; and the house approved the glorious triumph
of truth by loud and long-continued huzzas. Women
waved their white handkerchiefs in token of woman's
silent but heartfelt consent.' ' "Mr. Lincoln exhibited
Douglas in all the attitudes he could be placed in a friendly
debate. He exhibited the bill in all its aspects to show its
humbuggery and falsehoods, and when thus torn to rags,
cut into slips, held up to the gaze of the vast crowd, a
kind of scorn was visible upon the face of the crowd, and
upon the lips of the most eloquent speaker." "At the
conclusion of the speech, every man felt that it was un-
answerable— that no human power could overthrow it or
trample it under foot. The long and repeated applause
evinced the feelings of the crowd, and gave token, too, of
the universal assent to Lincoln's whole argument; and
every mind present did homage to the man who took

A Great Awakening 139

captive the heart and broke like a sun over the under-
standing."

It was in the5 course of this famous address that
Lincoln uttered one of those pithy sayings of his
which have since been identified with his name.
Douglas dwelt long and ingeniously on his favorite
doctrine that the right to introduce human slavery
into a territory or community, by vote of the people,
was acknowledgment of the right of popular sover-
eignty. He insisted that it was an insult to the emi-
grants to Kansas and Nebraska to intimate that they
were not able to govern themselves, voting slavery
in or out as they chose. Replying to this Lincoln
said: "I admit that the emigrant to Kansas and
Nebraska is competent to govern himself; but" —
and here the speaker rose to his full and towering
height — ' ' I deny his right to govern any other person
without that person's consent." That was the vital
point in the whole matter. It showed the fallacy
and the sophistry of so-called popular sovereignty.
Douglas would not recognize the inherent wicked-
ness and wrongfulness of slavery. Lincoln did.

Perhaps we shall understand both of these men
and motives better by accepting what Lincoln said
some time later in this debate ; for Lincoln was un-
doubtedly just to Douglas. He said, speaking of
Douglas's remark that this government was made
for the white man, and not for the negro:

11 Why, in point of fact, I think so too ; but in this remark
of Judge Douglas there is a significance which I think is
the key to the great mistake (if there is any such mistake)

140

Abraham Lincoln

which he has made in this Nebraska measure. It shows
that the Judge has no vivid impression that the negro is a
human ; and, consequently, has no idea that there can be
any moral question in legislating about him. In his view
the question whether a new country shall be slave or free
is a matter of as utter indifference as it is whether his
neighbor shall plant his farm with tobacco or stock it
with horned cattle.''

At the close of Lincoln's speech Douglas felt that
he was crushed. Excited, angry, and with lowering
brows, he took the platform and said that he had
been abused. Then, as if seeing that the vast au-
dience before him would detect the misstatement,
for they had paid close attention to all that had
been said, he added, 4 'but in a perfectly courteous
manner." He then attempted to make some reply
to Lincoln's masterly and unanswerable speech. He
faltered, then plucked up enough bravado to say
that he would continue his address in the evening.
When evening came, Douglas was not there, and the
remarks promised were never made.

Lincoln had agreed to speak in Peoria, 111., on
Monday, October 16th. Thither Douglas followed
him, as if determined to see his own annihilation.
Douglas spoke for three hours in the afternoon, and
Lincoln followed in the evening, speaking three
hours also. The result was the same as at Spring-
field. Lincoln's speech was materially different, but
it was, as subsequently written out by him, more
skilful and elaborate in its treatment of the great
question. Those who heard both of these memo-
rable addresses have said that the Peoria speech,

A Great Awakening 141

while perfect in its construction, a marvel of logical
force, was not so stirring as that delivered at Spring-
field. It was, however, distinguished above all
others for its manifestation of a full and exhaustive
knowledge of the slavery question and of all that
had at that time grown out of it. Probably no other
man then living could have produced so complete
and comprehensive a view of the subject presented,
both as to itself and its collateral branches.

At the close of this speech, Douglas said to Lin-
coln: "You understand this question of prohibiting
slavery in the Territories better than all the opposi-
tion in the Senate of the United States. I cannot
make anything by debating it with you. You, Lin-
coln, have, here and at Springfield, given me more
trouble than all the opposition in the Senate com-
bined.' ' He then appealed to Lincoln's magnanim-
ity, as we are told by at least one historian (Mr. W. H.
Herndon), to agree that there should be no more
joint discussions, and to this Lincoln assented. It
is likely, however, that some other motive was pre-
sented to move Lincoln's mind to this agreement.
At any rate, although they had appointed one more
joint debate, it was not held, and both withdrew for
the time being.

The Legislature elected that year was to choose a
successor to James Shields, then a Senator from
Illinois, a Democratic colleague with Douglas. This
was the same belligerent Shields who, some years
before, had proposed to fight a duel with the young
lawyer Lincoln. He was a candidate for re-election,
but Lincoln's bout with Douglas, and the fierce

142

Abraham Lincoln

excitement that swept the country, had endangered
his chances. It is not certain, perhaps, whether the
friendship of Douglas or the opposition of Lincoln
was the more destructive of Shields' s chances for a
renewal of his term in the Senate of the United
States. Fortunately for the Democrats, they had
several senators in the Legislature of the State
whose terms would not expire until the following
year; otherwise, the Legislature would have been
revolutionized; but, in the various composite ele-
ments in the Legislature, there was a clear majority
of two against Douglas, or, rather, against any man
that had Douglas's advocacy. Lincoln led the oppo-
sition, and, by general consent, was selected as can-
didate for the Senate against Shields. The two
old-time antagonists had met again. When the
Legislature came together the anti-Douglas men
were not united. Lyman Trumbull, an able lawyer
and accomplished debater, was one of the candi-
dates of the opponents of Douglas men ; Lincoln was
the other. On the first ballot Lincoln received forty-
five votes, Trumbull five, and Shields forty-one, and
there were some scattering votes. Repeated ballot-
ings produced no other result, until Joel A. Matteson,
Democrat, had been substituted for Shields, who was
withdrawn. On the tenth ballot, Lincoln having
besought his friends to go for Trumbull, or Matteson
would assuredly be elected, Trumbull received fifty-
one votes, Matteson forty-seven, and one vote was
cast for a man who was not a candidate. Thus the
contest terminated by the election of a man who was
inflexibly opposed to the Douglas policy, and who,

A Great Awakening 143

later on, was to be a conspicuous figure in the Senate
during Lincoln's Presidential term. To Lincoln's
unselfish devotion to principle was this triumphant
success of the new spirit of the freemen of Illinois
largely due. He ardently desired the senatorial
office, for he felt that in it he could accomplish great
things for free government. He relinquished all his
chances, and implored his friends, who were many
and steadfast, to leave him and vote for Trumbull,
rather than endanger the cause in which they were
all so deeply concerned. This generous concession
solidified the jarring elements of the new party and
made its after-successes possible. Nor is this gener-
osity lessened by the fact that Judge Trumbull had
never been the political friend of Lincoln, but his
opponent, and sometimes his unfriendly critic.

CHAPTER XI.

THE KANSAS STRUGGLE.

Freedom and Slavery Wrestle with Each Other — "Bleeding Kansas"
— The Troubler of Slave-Owners — The Irrepressible Conflict —

Lincoln's Slowness and Reticence.

JWIEANWHILE, immigrants from free States and
* * * slave States were pouring into Kansas. In
spite of the incursions of the proslavery men, the
hardy immigrants from Iowa, northern Illinois, and
New England were clearly in the majority. Some-
thing must be done to stem this tide and to turn it
back upon the free States. Violence was readily
resorted to. The swashbucklers who trooped over
the border from Missouri and Arkansas were as ready
to stuff ballot-boxes with fraudulent votes and mob
free-State men as they were to vote. One thing
they would not do — work. The free-State men were
indeed actual settlers. They took up land, planted
crops, and built log cabins for their families, evi-
dently intending to stay. The borderers, on the
other hand, were rough riders, sportsmen, gamblers.
They spent their time in drinking, shooting, scouring
the country for prey, and terrifying helpless women
and children. One of their favorite expressions was
that they " would make it hot for any Abolitionist/'
and another was that they " would cut the heart out
of any man who voted the Abolition ticket." Ag-

144

The Kansas Struggle 145

gressiveness like this soon engendered hatreds. The
proslavery men were known as " border ruffians,' '
and the free-State men were commonly called
"Abolitioners."

Under the lead of the notorious "Dave" Atchison
of Missouri, a Senator of the United States, secret
societies, known as "Blue Lodges," were formed for
the purpose of ridding the country of the hated free-
State men. Steamers bound up the Missouri River,
laden with free-State immigrants and their movable
property, were stopped by these ruffians, who
swarmed on board, drove off the immigrants, put
their cattle and goods ashore, and compelled the
officers of the steamers, who were only too willing
to be an unresisting party to this outrage, to go on
and leave their passengers behind. The border ruf-
fians had on their side the influence of the United
States officials, the Missouri State government, and
the State militia. They rode across the border,
burning fields of grain and cabins of the free-State
men, killing or running off their animals, and devas-
tating the country for miles around. Under the
leadership of Atchison and another of his kidney,
one Stringfellow, raids were planned for long forays
into the Territory, the raiders returning into Missouri
under the cover of the night, or camping in secluded
places along the border, ready for another excursion.
On the free-State side were such men as " Jim " Lane,
afterward a Senator from Kansas, and a redoubt-
able fighter; John Brown, then called Ossawattomie
Brown, from his pitching his tent on the Kansas
stream of that name; Charles Robinson, afterward

VOL. VIII. IO.

146

Abraham Lincoln

the Governor of the free State; Silas C. Pomeroy,
afterward Senator from the new State; and others
whose names are gratefully remembered by the early
settlers of that dark and troublous time.

When the local elections came on, the border ruf-
fians showed that they were more than a match for
the law-abiding and orderly free-State men. These
were astounded by the audacity and coolness with
which the border men took possession of the polls,
voted as often as they pleased, and carried things
generally with a high hand. In one instance, for
example, the borderers brought with them a direc-
tory of the city of St. Louis, and put page after page
of names from that book upon the poll-list, with
votes for the proslavery candidates for office and
for slavery, in precincts where there were but few
votes. In another precinct, they formed a lane of
their gangs, leading up to the door of the log cabin
where the ballot-box was put. When the voter
approached, he was obliged to show his ballot; if it
was for slavery, he was permitted to deposit it in the
box; if not, he was jocularly lifted to the roof of the
cabin, where a squad of stalwart men received him,
hurried him over the ridge-pole, and slid him down
on the other side, when he was permitted to escape,
glad to get away with his life. Outrages like these
were committed every day, and in more than one in-
stance, death followed the least resistance to tyranny.

Massacres were frequent, and the soil of the un-
happy young Territory was literally wet with blood.
The watchword 4 'Bleeding Kansas," which was de-
rided then and afterward by the friends of slavery,

The Kansas Struggle 147

described in a terse phrase the condition of the region
where the battle of freedom was being fought. In
these disturbances, a son of Ossawattomie Brown
was slain, and the father made a vow to avenge on
slavery the death of his son. Ruined homesteads
were to be seen on every hand, and for a time the
borderers, with the National Government at their
back and the militia troops of Missouri within as-
sisting distance, carried the day. Slavery was
"voted up" by such means as have been described,
and a government was established on the basis of
the right of any man to own human beings in the
new territory of Kansas. The story of these shame-
ful wrongs and outrages was spread abroad and
made a profound impression all over the country.
But the raiders did not stay on the soil they had
apparently conquered for slavery. They went back
to their haunts on the Missouri side of the border,
and after a while the institution for which they
had committed so many crimes grew more and
more feeble. The slaves ran away, for there were
free States near at hand where they could hide,
and pursuit in so unsettled a condition of the
country was almost hopeless. President Pierce, and
President Buchanan after him, appointed governor
after governor. The Territory must be saved to
slavery ; but this was more than any governor could
accomplish. And when the exactions of the pro-
slavery party at Washington became more oppres-
sive, each governor resigned and went home. Kan-
sas was grimly called "the graveyard of territorial
governors."

Abraham Lincoln

All this time Kansas was merely a Territory, sub-
ject to the rule of Congress, and governed by officers
appointed by the President — not by men elected by
the people. The time would come when the Territory
must be admitted into the family of States, and be
allowed to choose its own Legislature, governor, and
other officers. Slavery must be fixed upon the
people before that time arrived. The free-State
men, in their desperation, organized a State govern-
ment, framed a constitution with slavery left out,
and elected a Governor, Charles Robinson. They
established their State capital at Topeka. The
regular territorial Legislature and seat of govern-
ment were established at Lecompton. To say that
Lincoln's heart was stirred by the daily report of
outrages committed in Kansas, for the sake of
slavery, feebly expresses the indignation with which
he was inflamed. Yet, cool and calm, logical and
shrewd, as he always was, he made no inflammatory
speeches, and showed in public no signs of the ex-
citement that reigned within. About that time, he
wrote a letter to his well-beloved friend Joshua
Speed, of Kentucky — one who not only lived in a
slave State, but was still attached to the interests of
slavery. The following extract indicates the posi-
tion which these two friends then held towards
slavery in Kansas:

" You say if Kansas fairly votes herself a free State, as a
Christian you will rather rejoice at it. All decent slave-
holders talk that way, and I do not doubt their candor.
But they never vote that way. Although in a private
letter or conversation you will express your preference

The Kansas Struggle 149

that Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for
Congress who would say the same thing publicly. No
such man could be elected, from any district of any slave
State. You think Stringfellow & Co. ought to be hung;
and yet you will vote for the exact type and representa-
tive of Stringfellow. The slave-breeders and slave-
traders are a small and detested class among you, and yet
in politics they dictate the course of all of you, and are as
completely your masters as you are the masters of your
own negroes.' '

Up to the time of the setting up of the Kansas in-
famy, Lincoln was still reckoned as a Whig. That
party, to be sure, was in a dying condition. But no
new party had been formed to take its place, or to
receive those who were to come out from it. The
election of Trumbull, as Senator from Illinois, was
the only election of a Democrat who was opposed to
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. It astonished the friends
of Douglas, who had not believed that the opposition
could accomplish anything so formidable as this.
But, after all, the defeat of Lincoln showed that
there was only a split in the Democratic party, as
men then regarded the political situation. What
did Lincoln propose to do about slavery? Would
he abolish it altogether, and so put an end to this
everlasting agitation? He was shrewd enough to
know that the country could no longer live in peace
half slave and half free. There was no doubt that
he would do whatever he could to prevent the fur-
ther extension of slavery into Territories that were
hereafter to become States. But he knew that
slavery, confined to the States in which it existed,

Abraham Lincoln

would swell, and chafe, and threaten continually to
break over its bounds. In the speech delivered at
Peoria, in October, 1854, Lincoln said:

" If all earthly power were given me, I should not know
what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse
would be to free all the slaves and send them to Liberia —
to their own native land. But, if they were all landed
there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days ;
and there is not surplus shipping and surplus money
enough to carry them there in many times ten days.
What then?"

This was a question that Lincoln could not answer.
But, it must be remembered, this was in 1854.

To those who know what Lincoln did when he
became President, and who know how slavery came
to an end during his term in the Presidential office,
his reluctance to join what was at that time known
as the Abolition party may seem difficult of ex-
planation. But Lincoln was a statesman. If he
could have had supreme power, as he expressed it,
he would have undoubtedly made the slaves free.
But, as he did not have that power, it was his mis-
sion, clearly, to move in such a way as to bring to
pass, as soon as might be, the time when slaves
should be freed without violence, if possible, and
certainly without war. At once, as we have seen,
he took his stand against any further extension of
slavery. He knew better, probably, than anybody
else did that if slavery were shut out of the Terri-
tories it would, in the course of time, die of itself.
As he repeatedly expressed it, we could not exist

The Kansas Struggle 151

as a nation half slave and half free. "A house
divided against itself eannot stand." Now, how-
ever, the old Whig party was in ruins. A new
party, pledged to oppose all further extension of
slavery, was to rise and assert itself. It may be
said that this party occupied a middle ground be-
tween the Democratic party (pledged as that was,
in fact, to the support of slavery) and the Abolition-
ists, pledged to destroy slavery instantly and by
every possible means.

It must be apparent, then, to any one who has
followed this history, that Lincoln was the natural
leader of the Free-Soil party. In no other part of
the country could be found any man who had so
carefully studied the question of American slavery,
as it was related to our system of government and to
the political parties of the time, as Lincoln. More-
over, he was animated by a sincere love of liberty,
and he was a shrewd and even cunning politician.
As we have seen, he was early in politics, having
amused himself with these matters from his boy-
hood. Not at once, however, did he take the place
of leader. Not at once did he throw in his fortunes
with those who were to be the leaders of the new
Free-Soil party. He always moved slowly and with
a deliberation that deceived many and annoyed not
a few. They thought him too slow, over-cautious,
even waiting to see which was to be the winning
side. Nothing could be more unjust. Much of his
supposed hesitancy was to wait the inevitable con-
sequence of events. And it will help us to a better
understanding of Lincoln's purposes if we bear in

152

Abraham Lincoln

mind that, from the first, he saw that a conflict of
some kind was sure to come. But the time came
when he took his final stand and declared that he
must thenceforth be the champion of freedom
against slavery until, to use his own memorable
words, "the sun shall shine, the rain shall fall, and
the wind shall blow upon no man who goes forth to
unrequited toil."

CHAPTER XII.

THE COMING MAN.

Birth of the Republican Party — Nomination of Fremont — The Party
Lines Drawn — A Virulent Campaign — Election of James Bu-
chanan— Kansas Reluctant to Consent to Slavery.

A CONVENTION of men opposed to the Kansas-
Nebraska measure was called to meet in
Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856. It was a meet-
ing, in fact, of such persons residing in Illinois as
were opposed to the further extension of slavery.
Naturally the assemblage was made up of men who
were divided on many of the minor questions re-
lating to the conflict of slavery and freedom, and, in
fact, it soon became evident that they could not
unite on any declaration of principles beyond that
of hostility to slavery and all measures for its ex-
tension, without much difficulty. Lincoln was sent
for, and, finding the managers of this mass-meeting
in trouble, he proposed the following. He said:
"Let us, in building our new party, make our corner-
stone the Declaration of Independence. Let us
build on this rock, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against us." This simple and sufficient
"platform" met the approval of all who heard it.
The convention, if it may be dignified by that name,
adopted the following resolution, which was only an
expansion of Lincoln's idea:

153

154

Abraham Lincoln

"Resolved, That we hold, in accordance with the
opinions and practices of all the great statesmen of all
parties for the first sixty years of the administration of
the government, that, under the Constitution, Congress
possesses full power to prohibit slavery in the Territories ;
and that, while we will maintain all constitutional rights
of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the
principles of freedom, as expressed in our Declaration of
Independence and our national Constitution, and the
purity and perpetuity of our government require that that
power should be exerted to prevent the extension of
slavery into Territories heretofore free.,,

The Republican party was born.

Rising in the midst of that convention, which was
an assembly vast in proportions, of the most ardent
friends of freedom and some of the ablest leaders of
public opinion, Lincoln made a masterly speech,
kindling, thrilling, and stimulating. Like so many
of his earlier addresses in the cause of Republican
institutions, no report of the speech has been left
us. One who was present at the meeting says of the
address :

" Never was an audience more completely electrified by
human eloquence. Again and again, during the progress
of its delivery, they sprang to their feet and upon the
benches, and testified, by long-continued shouts and the
waving of hats, how deeply the speaker had wrought upon
their minds and hearts. It fused the mass of hitherto
incongruous elements into perfect homogeneity, and from
that day to the present they have worked together in
harmonious and fraternal union."

Similar proceedings had taken place in other

The Coming Man

i55

States, each State organizing its party for freedom
in its own way. The first national convention of the
Republican party met in Philadelphia, June 17,
1856. John Charles Fremont, of California, was
nominated for President, and William L. Dayton, of
New Jersey, for Vice-President. Lincoln's Illinois
friends, ever on the lookout for a chance to promote
what they thought were his interests, made an
effort to have him made the candidate for Vice-
President. Mr. Dayton received 259 votes and Lin-
coln no votes, there being many votes scattered
among leading members of the new party. When
Lincoln, who remained in Springfield, heard of the
votes cast for " Lincoln" for Vice-President, he said,
unconscious of his growing fame, ''That is probably
the distinguished Mr. Lincoln of Massachusetts. "

The Democratic convention, in the meantime, had
met in Cincinnati, June 2, 1856, and had nominated
James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for President ■
and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-
President. Douglas, Lincoln's frequent adversary,
had reason to expect that he might be named for
the Presidency as a reward for his advocacy of
measures designed to carry slavery into the new
Territories. This honor was denied him. On the
sixteenth and next to the last ballot, Buchanan re-
ceived 168 votes, of which 121 were from the free
States, and 47 were from the slave States. Douglas
received 122 votes, of which 49 were from free States,
and 73 from slave States. The Republican party,
in their platform of principles, denied the authority
of Congress, or of any Territorial Legislature, of any

156

Abraham Lincoln

individual or association of individuals, to give legal
existence to slavery in any Territory of the United
States. They furthermore declared that "the Con-
stitution confers upon Congress sovereign power
over the Territories of the United States for their
government,' ' and that in the exercise of that power
it is both the right and the duty of Congress to pro-
hibit in the Territories ' ' those twin relics of barbarism
— polygamy and slavery." On the other hand, the
Democratic convention adopted a skilfully worded
platform of principles, the verbiage of which was
designed to conceal ideas. The time for outspoken
utterances on the all-absorbing subject of slavery
evidently had not come. But the platform was an
unmistakable indorsement of the doctrine that the
people of Kansas and Nebraska could, as Douglas
had said, vote slavery up or down, as they chose.
The lines between the two parties were, after all,
pretty sharply drawn.

There was a third party in the field that year, its
members calling themselves the American party,
their principal article of faith being the restriction
of the right to vote to native-born citizens, to a
great degree, foreigners being allowed to use that
right very sparingly. The American party nomi-
nated Fillmore and Donelson, Mr. Fillmore being the
Vice-President who had succeeded to the Presiden-
tial office on the death of General Taylor. There
were, of course, many Whigs who did not see that
their party was dead; and these were relied on to
vote for Fillmore, who was elected with Taylor on
the Whig ticket in 1848.

The Coming Man

i57

Lincoln, as usual, was an elector from his State,
being at the head of the Republican electoral ticket
in Illinois. He took an active part in the canvass,
speaking from one end of the State to the other,
almost continually, through the summer of 1856.
His speeches were remarkable for their clearness,
closeness of logic, and merciless dissection of the
arguments and measures of the proslavery Democ-
racy under the local leadership of Douglas. There
was much material for the exercise of his peculiar
powers. The South and their Democratic allies in
the North were forcing slavery into the Territories,
and the work of their creatures in Kansas had
deluged that region with blood. At that very time
the fair young Territory was torn and wounded with
civil war. There was a determination to compel the
people of the Territory to adopt slavery as the rule,
although, under Douglas's specious plea of popular
sovereignty, the question was to be left to the whole
people to choose between free institutions and slav-
ery. During this campaign, while Lincoln was
speaking in one of the southern counties of the
State, where the proslavery sentiment was yet
strong, a man in the audience called out to him:
"Mr. Lincoln, is it true that you entered this State
barefoot, driving a yoke of oxen?" Lincoln paused
for an instant, as if at a loss whether to take notice
of a question so impertinent and so evidently mali-
cious, and then said that he presumed that there
were at least a dozen men in the crowd before him
by whom he could prove that he did, if this were
needful to the case in hand. But, as usual when he

158

Abraham Lincoln

was interrupted, he gathered new force from the
cruelty of the attempt to disconcert him, and, rising
to his full height, he described with glowing elo-
quence what freedom had done for him, what it did
for any man, and showed how slavery debased and
dragged down black and white together; and he
asked if it were not natural that he should hate
slavery and continue to agitate the question of its
final extinction. " Yes," said he, "we will speak for
freedom and against slavery as long as the Con-
stitution of our country guarantees free speech, until
everywhere on this broad land the sun shall shine
and the rain shall fall and the wind shall blow upon
no man that goes forth to unrequited toil."

The virulence of the campaign was excessive. In
default of arguments with which to overthrow
the Republicans, the proslavery party resorted to the
most offensive epithets and phrases to hurl at the
opposition. Fremont had once headed an expedi-
tion to California across the great American plains,
and he and his party suffered incredible hardships.
He had opened the first trial across the continent,
through the then trackless wilderness. His admir-
ing and his enthusiastic followers now called him
the "Pathfinder." To them he was a gallant hero.
The opposition party called him "a mule-eating
Black Republican," and his party was known as
the "Woolly-Horse" party, on account of some
tales of a woolly horse having been found by the
explorers. The election resulted as Lincoln had pri-
vately predicted that it would, in the election of James
Buchanan. The last fight for freedom had begun,

The Coming Man

i59

and the returns showed that every slave State but
one had voted for the Democratic candidate. The
total number of electoral votes for Buchanan was
174, the following slave States having voted for him:
Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia. The
free States for Buchanan were: California, Illinois,
Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. The free States
voting for Fremont were: Connecticut, Iowa, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New
York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin; a
total of 114 votes against Buchanan's 174. Mary-
land, a slave State, cast its electoral vote of eight for
Fillmore. Thus Buchanan had the votes of four-
teen slave States and five free States ; Fremont, the
votes of eleven free States; and Fillmore, that of
one slave State. Reckoning up the number of voters
in all the States, we find that Buchanan had, all
told, 1,838,169 votes, Fremont had 1,341,264, and
Fillmore had 874,534. In Illinois, Bissell, the Re-
publican candidate for governor, was elected, al-
though the electoral vote of the State was given to
Buchanan.

Meanwhile, the fight between freedom and slavery
still went on in Kansas. The proslavery men, by
denying the right of suffrage to the free-State men,
managed to elect a Legislature, which assembled at
Lecompton, and which was known as "the bogus
Legislature." A State constitution was also framed,
with the legalization of slavery in it, as a matter of
course. The free-State men refused to recognize the

i6o

Abraham Lincoln

legality of any of these doings, or to participate in
the mock elections. They called a mass-meeting of
the actual settlers, elected delegates to a constitu-
tional convention, which assembled at Topeka and
framed a constitution excluding slavery from the
Territory. Thenceforth politicians were known as
"Lecompton" or " Anti-Lecompton," as they fa-
vored or opposed the proposition to admit slavery
into Kansas. The Topeka Constitution was sub-
mitted to the people and almost unanimously
adopted. The people next proceeded to elect officers
under the free-State constitution. The Topeka Con-
stitution was the work of the real people of Kansas,
marshalled in numbers. The Lecompton Constitu-
tion was voted for by a mere handful of the persons
nominally resident in the Territory. Both of these
instruments were sent to Washington for the ap-
proval of Congress. Robert J. Walker, who had
been appointed governor of the Territory by Presi-
dent Buchanan, made haste to go to Washington to
protest against the acceptance of the Lecompton
Constitution, as he knew it to be false and fraudulent
as an exposition of the sentiments and wishes of the
people of the Territory. Before he reached the
national capital, the President had recommended
Congress to accept the Lecompton Constitution. The
free -State officers, acting under the Topeka Consti-
tution, were declared guilty of treason and were
arrested and lodged in jail. The Legislature was
dispersed by the regular army of the United States,
acting under the orders of the President. Kansas
was to be dragooned into accepting slavery as a State.

CHAPTER XIII.

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.

The Famous Contest for the Senatorship — A Battle of Giants — Doug-
las and Lincoln Compared — Two Self-made Men — Lincoln's Auto-
biography— A Series of Famous Debates — The Country Intent on
the Struggle — A Great Lesson in American Politics.

ONCE more were Lincoln and Douglas to be
pitted against each other. In 1858, the sena-
torial term of Douglas was drawing to a close. He
desired to be re-elected and to have the indorsement
of the people of Illinois. Seeing how the Lecompton
Constitution had been lawlessly framed, and realiz-
ing that slavery thus forced upon Kansas had already
made hosts of converts to the Republican party, he
had begun to differ, personally, with the President.
He soon, by his votes in the Senate, showed that he
was opposed to the Lecompton Constitution. It was
inconsistent for him to labor against that which his
own Kansas-Nebraska Bill had made possible. But
this he did, and not a few Republicans in the East-
ern States thought that he would hereafter be with
them. They advised that the Illinois Republicans
should vote for him. He was now an Anti-Lecomp-
ton Democrat, as the phrase went; he was sure, so
they thought, for freedom as against slavery. The
Republicans of Illinois knew Douglas better. They
refused to trust him, and when their convention

VOL. VIII. II.

l6l

l62

Abraham Lincoln

met, June 16, 1858, they declared that Abraham
Lincoln was their first and only choice for the United
States Senate to fill the vacancy about to be created
by the expiration of Mr. Douglas's term of office.
The Anti-Lecompton Democrats of the State, two
months before, had similarly nominated Douglas to
succeed himself.

Lincoln realized that this was to be a mighty
struggle. None better than he understood and ap-
preciated the great abilities and craftiness of Doug-
las. None better than he knew how tender the
people of Illinois yet were on the subject of human
slavery, half afraid of the stale epithet of "Aboli-
tionist." He framed his speech to the convention
that had nominated him, putting into it his final
platform, the platform from which he was to speak
to the people during the coming canvass. The men
who were to choose a senator — himself or Douglas
— were not yet chosen, except a few in the upper
house, who held over from the previous year. It
was to the people who elected senators and repre-
sentatives in the Legislature that he and Douglas
were to appeal. Lincoln read the manuscript of his
speech to his partner, Mr. W. H. Herndon. That
gentleman was somewhat dismayed by the very first
paragraph. It was almost an indorsement of the old
antislavery doctrine of disunion; for in it was the
since -famous declaration: "A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I believe this government can-
not endure permanently half slave and half free."
Mr. Herndon said this was all true; but he was
doubtful if it was discreet to say so at that time.

Lincoln and Douglas

Alluding to the phrase " a house divided," etc., Lin-
coln said: "The proposition has been true for six
thousand years. I will deliver this speech as it is
written." And he did.

In the course of that address he said:

" 1 do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not
expect the house to fall. But I do expect it will cease to
be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest
in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction,
or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become
lawful in all States, old as well as new, North as well as
South."

When Douglas opened the campaign, as he did in
Chicago early in the following month, he promptly
took up this utterance of Lincoln's as admitting, and
even advocating, a war of sections, North against
the South. We shall see later on how Lincoln an-
swered this misrepresentation.

When this memorable debate began, Lincoln and
Douglas were both in the full maturity of their physi-
cal and intellectual powers. Douglas was forty-five
years old, and Lincoln was forty -nine. Douglas was
a native of Vermont. He had been apprenticed to
a cabinet-maker, and had migrated at the age of
twenty to Illinois, where he earned his first money
as a clerk at an auction sale. Like Lincoln, then,
he was a self-made man, risen to eminence by the
sheer force of character and genius. At the age of
twenty -two he was elected Attorney -General of the

164

Abraham Lincoln

young State. Resigning this office, he was chosen
to the State Legislature, where he speedily made
his mark as a shrewd politician, a ready debater,
and a thoroughly "good fellow." Here it was that
he first met Lincoln — Lincoln, who was to be his
life-long adversary in the field of American politics.
Subsequently he was elected Representative in Con-
gress three times in succession. Before the time
came for him to take his seat in the House of Repre-
sentatives, after his third election, Douglas was
chosen Senator of the United States from Illinois.
He was now at the end of his second term as Sena-
tor, and was ready to appeal to the people to choose
members of the Legislature who should return him
to the Senate. Douglas was frank, hearty, and
affable in his manners. Although in debate he was
overbearing and imperious, towards his friends he
was familiar, and even affectionate. He was a bold,
dashing, and fearless debater, fluent, never hesitat-
ing for a word or phrase, aggressive, and sometimes
arrogant, full of all manner of guile, yet impressing
every one with his apparent sincerity and transpar-
ency of character. So attractive was he that he
bound his friends to him, as it were, with hooks of
steel. Small of stature, with long and grizzled hair,
at the time this chapter of history opens his ad-
mirers called him "The Little Giant of Illinois."
This was the man who was to meet Lincoln in a
popular canvass, in which the whole State was to
be traversed.

Lincoln was, as we know, of almost herculean
build. His head was massive, poised on a very long

Lincoln and Douglas

neck, with stiff and obstinate hair that usually stood
up in irregular waves. His face was dark and
seamed, his eyes deep-set beneath overhanging and
shaggy brows, beardless, and with a far-away look
on his often-sad features at times that struck even
the most casual observer as profoundly pathetic.
His manner, when he was alert, was bright, and
when with his congenial associates, even jovial. In
speaking he impressed every one with his directness,
simplicity, good sense, clearness of statement, wit
and humor, and purity and accuracy of language.
At this time he was asked for a brief biographical
sketch of himself. He complied with the following,
which is inserted here at a point that must be reck-
oned as one of the crises in the history of Abraham
Lincoln, son of the Kentucky backwoodsman :

" I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished
families — second families, perhaps I should say. My
mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the
name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and
others in Macon, Counties, Illinois. My paternal grand-
father, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham
County, Virginia, to Kentucky about 1781 or '2, where, a
year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle
but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in
the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to
Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to
identify them with the New England family of the same
name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of
Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi,
Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like.

Abraham Lincoln

" My father, at the death of his father, was but six years
of age, and he grew up literally without education. He
removed from Kentucky, to what is now Spencer County,
Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home
about the time the State came into the Union. It was a
wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still
in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools
so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a
teacher beyond ' readin,' writin', and cipherin' ' to the
Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand
Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was
looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing
to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I
came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I
could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three ; but
that was all. I have not been to school since. The little
advance I now have upon this store of education I have
picked up from time to time under the pressure of
necessity.

" I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was
twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and
passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to
New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard
County, where I remained a year as sort of clerk in a store.
Then came the Black Hawk war, and I was elected a
Captain of Volunteers, a success which gave me more
pleasure than any I have had since. I went [through]
the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same
year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I have ever
been beaten by the people. The next and three succeed-
ing biennial elections I was elected to the Legislature. I
was not a candidate afterwards. During this legislative
period I had studied law and removed to Springfield to
practise it. In 1846 I was once elected to the Lower

Lincoln and Douglas

167

House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election.
From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practised law more
assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics,
and generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active
canvasses. I was losing interest in politics, when the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again.
What I have done since then is pretty well known.

" If any personal description of me is thought desirable,
it may be said I am in height six feet four inches, nearly ;
lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and
eighty pounds ; dark complexion, with coarse black hair
and gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected.

" Yours, very truly,

"A. Lincoln.' 1

Not long before the opening of the debate between
Lincoln and Douglas, the Supreme Court of the
United States, Chief Justice Taney delivering the
opinion, had decided virtually that, by virtue of
the Constitution of the republic, slavery existed in
all the Territories, and that Congress had no right to
prohibit it. This was known as the Dred Scott de-
cision. A negro of that name sued for his freedom
and that of his wife and children, claiming that by his
having been carried by his owner into a Territory
north of the northern boundary of Missouri, wherein
slavery was excluded by the Missouri Compromise,
he had become freed by the operation of the law.
This decision made slavery national, freedom local.

Obviously, then, the two important topics before
the country were the effect that the Dred Scott
decision would have upon slavery and freedom, and
the struggle in Kansas. Although Douglas was now

Abraham Lincoln

an Anti-Lecompton Democrat, he was to be taken
to task before the country for the result in Kansas
of his advocacy of what he called popular sover-
eignty. This had made the Lecompton infamy pos-
sible. He also approved the Dred Scott decision;
but the dogma laid down hi that decision effectually
killed his own doctrine of popular sovereignty. It
put slavery into all the Territories of the United
States before the people of those Territories could
have an opportunity of saying whether it should be
voted up or down.

Replying to Douglas's speech in which that orator
accused Lincoln of advocating disunion of the States,
Lincoln said that he believed that the framers of
the Constitution expected that, in course of time,
slavery would become extinct; they had decreed
that slavery should not go into territory where it
had not already gone, and that when he had said
that the opponents of slavery would place that
institution where the public mind would rest in the
expectation of its ultimate extinction, he only meant
to say that they would place it where the fathers
of the Republic originally placed it. In Douglas's
speech, as was common in those days, when men
were cornered for want of logical answers to Repub-
lican arguments, the speaker had intimated that
Lincoln was in favor of a complete equality of the
black and the white races. In his reply, Lincoln
said: "I protest, now and forever, against that
counterfeit logic which presumes that because I do
not want a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily
want her for a wife. My understanding is that I

Lincoln and Douglas

169

need not have her for either; but, as God made us
separate, we can leave one another alone, and do
one another much good thereby/ '

This was the opening of the great debate in Chi-
cago in the summer of 1858. A few days later
Douglas spoke at Bloomington, and then in Spring-
field, on each occasion devoting himself to Lincoln's
previous speeches. Lincoln spoke in Springfield
also ; and, addressing himself to the expectation that
Douglas would, some day, be President of the
United States, and that the anxious politicians of
his party were waiting for that event with great
hopefulness, Lincoln said:

" They have seen, in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-
offices, land-offices, marshalships, and cabinet appoint-
ments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and
sprouting out, in wonderful luxuriance, ready to be laid
hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been
gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot,
in the little distraction that has taken place in the party,
bring themselves to give up the charming hope ; but with
greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and
give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions,
beyond what, even in the days of his highest prosperity,
they could have brought about in his favor. On the
contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President.
In my poor, lean, lank face nobody has ever seen that any
cabbages were sprouting out."

All this, however, was a contest at which both
disputants were, so to speak, at arm's length from
each other. Lincoln wanted a closer wrestle with

Abraham Lincoln

the ' ' Little Giant. ' ' Accordingly, he addressed a note
to Douglas asking him if he would agree to a joint
canvass of the State, each speaking from the same
platform and each having his own quota of time
allotted him. Douglas objected to this arrange-
ment, several reasons, satisfactory to himself, being
given. But, after some negotiation, arrangements
were made by which a joint debate was fixed for
seven different points, the first being at Ottawa,
August 21, 1858, and the last at Alton, October
15th. Meanwhile both speakers were industriously
canvassing the State, each in his own way and in-
dependently of the other.

The joint debate between these two men attracted
the attention of the entire country. It was a battle
of the giants. Nothing like it has ever before or
since been seen in the Republic. The gravest issues
— those of freedom and slavery — were involved in
the discussion. All men saw that this debate was
likely to settle the greatest question that had come
before the people since the adoption of the Consti-
tution; not that it would settle it as a judicial
decree would settle it, but it was seen that out of
this contest must issue the ultimate truth, the truth
on which parties in future must stand or fall. Lin-
coln travelled in an unostentatious and inexpensive
manner. Douglas moved from point to point on a
special railway train, accompanied by a brass band
and cannon, with the blare and volleying of which
his entrance to town was heralded. Douglas did
not always observe the proprieties of debate; and
too often the unmannerly followers of the * ' Little

Lincoln and Douglas

171

Giant" insolently interrupted the opponent of their
chieftain. Lincoln during this memorable canvass
was shamefully belied and misrepresented; but no
word of remonstrance or complaint ever escaped his
lips. Douglas resorted to the use of unworthy epi-
thets and insinuations. He continually harped on
the assertion that the Republicans were in favor
of negro social equality, and he invariably referred
to them as * ' Black Republicans," and employed
other terms to express his contempt. Now that we
can look back upon this remarkable episode in the
history of American politics, it must be admitted
that Lincoln's bearing, deportment, and general
behavior were all superior to Douglas's. The dig-
nity, immovable good-humor, and gentleness with
which Lincoln bore himself commend him to the
affection and respect of the student of history.

Mr. Douglas in these debates contended that each
State had a right to decide for itself just what rights,
if any, it should give to the negro; that the negro
had no natural equality; that the people of each
Territory had a right to say whether they would
have slavery or not; and that the Union and the
government could exist forever, so far as he could
see, half slave and half free. Especially did he in-
sist that those who differed with him were in favor
of negro social equality — the admission of negroes
to the homes and bosoms of those who were in favor
of limiting slavery to the States in which it then
existed, or of excluding it from the Territories. Lin-
coln, on the other hand, planted himself squarely
on the Declaration of Independence: that all men

172

Abraham Lincoln

were born free, and that they all had certain rights
from which they could not be justly deprived, such
as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The
negro, he insisted, was a man. Slavery was wrong,
and it should at least be confined in the States in
which it already existed; it should not be the nat-
ural condition of things in the Territories, as the
Dred Scott decision made it. On this point, he
sharply arraigned Douglas for his inconsistency.
Douglas clamored for popular sovereignty, the right
of the voters in a Territory to say whether slavery-
should exist with them or not, and the Dred Scott
decision declared that slavery was already in the
Territories. This, said Lincoln, is declaring that the
people have a right to drive away that which has a
right to go there.

It will be seen, therefore, that Douglas, by ac-
cepting the Dred Scott decision, admitted that slav-
ery was the natural condition of things in a Territory,
while at the same time he contended for the right,
under the name of popular sovereignty, of a people
of a Territory to say whether they would have that
which they already had, whether they liked it or
not. This glaring inconsistency we may be sure
was made conspicuous by Lincoln's merciless logic.
It was Lincoln's manifest purpose to compel Doug-
las to desert his seeming indifference to slavery, and
to say whether he thought it right or wrong in itself.
In his view, the Dred Scott decision and the Douglas
idea of popular sovereignty could not be held to-
gether in one man's belief. So he framed questions
designed to bring the matter before Douglas in such

Lincoln and Douglas

i73

a shape as to oblige him to admit or deny the ab-
stract rights of slavery. Lincoln's friends remon-
strated with him. "If you put that question to
him," they said, "he will perceive that the answer
giving practical force and effect to the Dred Scott
decision in the Territories inevitably loses him the
battle; and he will therefore reply by offering the
decision as an abstract principle, but denying its
practical application. He will say that the decision
is just and right, but it is not to be put into force
and effect in the Territories.,, "If he takes that
shoot," said Lincoln, "he can never be President."
Lincoln's anxious friends replied: "That is not your
lookout; you are after the senatorship." "No,
gentlemen," said he, "I am killing larger game.
The battle of i860 is worth a hundred of this."

Did Lincoln, even then, see so far ahead as to
perceive that he might be the Republican candidate
for the Presidency in i860? Did he see that it was
necessary that Douglas should be "killed off," as a
possible Democratic candidate against him? We
cannot tell. Lincoln was a wise man, and some of
his sayings were like prophecies. We know that
Lincoln did put those questions to Douglas; that
Douglas answered them in such a manner as to
ruin his chances with the South, which was watch-
ing this contest with vigilance, and that that answer
made his support by the South in i860 an utter
impossibility.

On the points here indicated, the seven joint de-
bates usually turned. Everybody felt that Lincoln
was, to use the common expression of the country,

i74 Abraham Lincoln

" getting the best" of Douglas. At some times, in-
deed, Douglas, by his manner, showed that he
thought so too. For example, at Charleston, 111.,
when they were in their fourth meeting, Lincoln's
reply to Douglas was powerful and intense in its
vigor. Douglas's evasions and shifty tricks were
exposed with a clearness of logic that was wonder-
ful, and so convincing that everybody saw it; even
Douglas's friends seemed to be seized with a panic,
and the great assembly was stirred with a strange
tremor. Douglas realized his overthrow, his in-
ability to reply, although he had the closing of that
day's debate. He lost his temper, left his seat, and,
watch in hand, paced up and down the rear of the
platform, behind the speaker, his impatience mani-
fest in his manner. One who saw the remarkable
scene says: "He was greatly agitated, his long
grizzled hair waving in the wind, like the shaggy
locks of an enraged lion." This took place when
Lincoln was striking his heaviest blows, his pitiless
reasoning falling like a maul, as some one said, upon
the unresponsive log of Douglas's argument. The
instant that the hands of Douglas's watch marked
the moment for Lincoln to stop, he turned the time-
piece towards Lincoln and eagerly cried: "Sit down,
Lincoln, sit down; your time is up."

Turning his face, lighted with the fire of his own
inspiration, to the speaker behind him, Lincoln
calmly said: "I will. I will quit. I believe my
time is up." "Yes," said one on the platform,
"Douglas has had enough. It is time you let him
up."

Lincoln and Douglas 175

These debates, as we have said, attracted great
and earnest attention all over the country. They
were made the occasion of vast outpourings of the
people of the State and of the neighboring region.
The two men were always promptly on the field to
fulfil their engagements; and they invariably found
a tremendous concourse of people waiting to hear
them. In those days, railroads were not so numer-
ous as now, although the great trunk lines were in
existence. People rode long distances in farm-
wagons, and the neighborhood of a town in which
one of the great debates was to be held indicated
the deep interest that the population took in what
was going on. Companies of men from a distance
camped for the night by creeks and under the trees,
patiently enduring fatigue and privation that they
might hear the mighty truths discussed that so in-
timately concerned the national well-being. Never
before in the history of the Republic had so good an
opportunity come for the teaching of the common
people the sublime principles that underlie our free
government. Never before were the elementary
ideas of popular government so lucidly, so eloquently,
and so attractively set before the men and women
of a great, thoughtful, and liberty-loving commu-
nity. The echo of the controversy penetrated every
nook and corner of the Republic, until weary slaves
on distant plantations heard the whisper of their
coming freedom; for this was but a preparation of
the larger struggle that was to come.

When the joint discussion was agreed upon, many
of Lincoln's friends, even among those who knew

176

Abraham Lincoln

him well, were timorous of the future, doubtful of
the result. They loved and trusted Lincoln, but
they were afraid of Douglas — Douglas, the powerful
and influential Senator, who had never yet been
defeated, and who bore down all opposition. Just
before the first meeting of the two disputants, a
friend of Lincoln's met him at a great political gather-
ing in Springfield, and expressed to him, as delicately
as possible, the fears of those who loved him so well,
for Lincoln was ever a dearly beloved man to those
who knew him. Greeting this man, and hearing
from him that his old acquaintances were looking
forward with some anxiety to the approaching dis-
cussion, a shade of sadness flitted over Lincoln's
careworn face; then a light flashed from his eyes,
and his lips quivered. In the half-jocular, half-
serious manner that was so peculiar to him, he said,
with lips compressed :

" My friend, sit down here a minute and I will tell you a
story. You and I have travelled the circuit together,
attending court, and have often seen two men about to
fight. One of them, the big or the little giant, as the case
may be, is noisy and boastful; he jumps high in the air
and strikes his feet together, smites his fists together,
brags about what he is going to do, and tries hard to
sheer the other man. The other says not a word. His
arms are at his side, his fists are clenched, his teeth set,
his head settled firmly on his shoulders; he saves his
breath and strength for the struggle. This man will
whip, just as sure as the fight comes off. Good-bye, and
remember what I say."

From that time the man who sat with Lincoln in

Lincoln and Douglas

177

the hotel doorway and heard the prophecy from his
unboastful friend never doubted that the victory
would be with the speaker.

Nevertheless, Douglas was elected United States
Senator. In the State Legislature were several
senators holding over from a previous year. They
were Democrats, although the districts from which
they had been elected were now Republican. The
dividing of the State into districts was also unfair
to the party that supported Lincoln, so that Demo-
cratic votes counted for more in the Legislature than
the same number of Republican votes. When the
returns were all in, it was found that 126,048 had
voted for Lincoln and 121,940 for Douglas. So,
although Douglas was subsequently chosen Senator
by the Legislature, Lincoln won the moral victory.
All over the Republic it was felt that he had come
off conqueror in the field of debate, had worsted the
hitherto unconquerable Douglas, the " Little Giant/ '
and had made for himself a name that should endure
so long as men love liberty and regard justice. In
one of the later speeches of this wonderful debate
Lincoln said :

" I say to you, that in this mighty issue it is nothing to
the mass of the people of the nation whether Judge
Douglas or myself are or shall ever be heard of after this
night. It may be a trifle to us, but, in connection with
this mighty issue upon which, perhaps, hang the destinies
of the nation, the United States senatorship is absolutely
nothing."

During this debate, many points made by Lin-
coln were suggestive of his early training : his figures

VOL. VIII. — 12.

i78

Abraham Lincoln

of speech were almost always drawn from his per-
sonal experience in the backwoods, on the farm, or
from his more recent studies in American history.
To one who has followed the history of the man, an
examination of these remarkable traces of Lincoln's
mental habits and earlier pursuits is exceedingly
interesting. For example, after he had been ad-
mitted to the bar, noticing the frequent use of the
word ' 1 demonstrate," and feeling that a mathemati-
cal proposition, as demonstrated, was a good illus-
tration of the power of truth, he manfully went at
the study of Euclid, and, to use his own expression,
" collared it" before he left it. In the debates with
Douglas he was irritated with Douglas's constant
iteration of the charge that he, Lincoln, had in-
dorsed certain statements of Senator Trumbull's,
that were, as Douglas said, untrue. Finally, Lincoln
said:

" Why, sir, there is not a single statement in Trumbull's
speech that depends on Trumbull's veracity. Why does
not Judge Douglas answer the facts? ... If you
have studied geometry, you remember that by a course of
reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle
are equal to two right angles. Euclid has shown how to
work it out. Now, if you undertook to disprove that pro-
position, to prove that it was erroneous, would you do it
by calling Euclid a liar ? That is the way Judge Douglas
answers Trumbull."

CHAPTER XIV.

AFTER A GREAT STRUGGLE.

Condition of the Two Contestants — The Crocodile and the Negro —
Douglas in the South — Lincoln Nominated by Illinois Republi-
cans— The Rail- Splitting Candidate — Some Pithy Sayings — Lin-
coln Speaks in New York — The Man from Illinois.

n^HE election was over, and the two champions

1 were left in a condition that varied with each.
It had been a long and exhaustive struggle, but it
was observed of Lincoln that, though weary, he
appeared more like an athlete just entering a struggle,
not just coming out of one. His sinewy form was
as erect and elastic as ever, his eye was bright, and
his face, though naturally sallow, was lighted with
animation. Here his early training and abstemious
habits stood him in good stead. He had " never
applied hot and rebellious liquors to his blood," and
in this time of sore trial he came out unscathed.
The hundred days of a tense and exciting canvass
left no mark on him. Douglas, on the other hand,
was badly shattered ; his voice was almost gone, and
he scarcely spoke above a whisper. He showed
great fatigue, and he sought rest and repose as soon
as he could get away from his friends. But Douglas,
too, had an iron constitution, and he soon rallied his
physical forces, and was himself again after a few
days of rest. Later on, he went through several of

i8o

Abraham Lincoln

the Southern States, descending towards the Gulf of
Mexico by the Mississippi River. At various points
down the stream he was received with acclaim, and
his speeches manifested his desire to recover with
the slave-owning people of the South whatever he
might have lost in the debate on the free soil of
Illinois. He said at Memphis, Tenn., for example,
that wherever the climate and soil of a State or
Territory made it for the interest of the people to
encourage slave labor, there they would have a
slave code. At that time, the Buchanan adminis-
tration cherished, among other darling plans for the
acquisition of more slave territory, one for the pur-
chase of Cuba. Douglas said that this was neces-
sary. In New Orleans, he said that wherever a race
showed itself incapable of self-government, the
stronger race must govern it; and that the negro
was of such a race. Indeed, his speeches were all
designed to strengthen himself with men who be-
lieved that slavery was right, just, and needful to
the white race.

It was during this brief tour that Douglas made
use of the famous "crocodile" figure of speech,
afterwards taken up by Lincoln. Douglas said : "As
between the crocodile and the negro, I take the side
of the negro ; but, as between the negro and the white
man, I would go for the white man, every time."
Lincoln, at home, noted that; and afterwards, when
he had occasion to refer to the remark, he said :

" I believe that this is a sort of proposition in proportion,
which may be stated thus : ' As the negro is to the white
man, so is the crocodile to the negro; and as the negro

After a Great Struggle

181

may rightfully treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile,
so the white man may rightfully treat the negro as a
beast or reptile.' Now, my brother Kentuckians, who
believe in this, you ought to thank Judge Douglas for
having put that in a much more taking way than any of
yourselves have done.,,

This, however, was somewhat later in the year.
Lincoln now belonged, apparently, to politics. He
resumed his practice of law, and to all appearances
had given up thoughts of political preferment; but
he did not conceal his regret at the failure of his
party to carry the Legislature and secure his own
election to the United States Senate. When asked
by a friend how he felt when his defeat was assured
by the returns of the election, he said, in his usual
good-natured and jocose way, that he felt "like
the boy who stubbed his toe, too badly to laugh and
too big to cry." By this time, we must remember,
he was accustomed to defeat. He had been in a
minority too long to regard the victory of others
over him as an unmixed evil.

Lincoln's affability, perfect simplicity, good-nat-
ure, and home-like freedom of manner had by
this time made him, as it were, an inmate of every
household in the West. Everybody among those
plain people recognized him as "one of us," a man
to be loved and admired, and not at a distance
either. The Lincoln-Douglas debate, however, gave
him a wider fame. The speeches had been so exten-
sively read, and the joint canvass was in itself so
unique an affair to Eastern people, that they all
thought they knew now the two men who had

182

Abraham Lincoln

figured on this national stage. Invitations came pour-
ing upon Lincoln from all over the Northern States,
seeking to secure his services in the battle being
fought in each State. During the winter of 1858-9,
he devoted himself to his own private affairs, listen-
ing, we may suppose, to the beating of the popular
heart as indicated in the newspapers and in the po-
litical meetings that the excited condition of public
affairs made it necessary to hold all over the country.

In May, 1859, he was called upon to say, as a
possible candidate for the Presidency, what were his
views concerning the attempts made in some States
to curtail the political privileges of naturalized for-
eigners. Dr. Theodor Canisius, a German citizen of
Illinois, wrote him a letter asking him what he
thought of such an attempt as this, lately made in
Massachusetts. Lincoln, while declining to criticise
Massachusetts, said he should be sorry to see any
such proposition brought up in Illinois, and he would
oppose it wherever he had the right to do so.

"As I understand the spirit of our institutions," said
he, "it is designed to promote the elevation of men. I
am, therefore, hostile to anything that tends to their
debasement. It is well known that I deplore the de-
pressed condition of the blacks, and it would, therefore,
be very inconsistent for me to look with approval upon
any measure that infringes upon the inalienable rights of
white men, whether or not they are born in another
land or speak a different language from our own."

The Republicans of Illinois held their annual con-
vention in Decatur, Macon County, May 10, 1859.

After a Great Struggle 183

Lincoln was present, and as soon as his tall form
was seen on the platform, the entire assemblage,
forgetting everything else, rose as one man and
cheered and cheered again, until, as one who was
present has said, "it seemed as if they never would
stop." Not often do men who have passed through
defeat receive such a greeting as that given to the
non-elected candidate for United States Senator.
When order was restored, the Republican Governor
of the State, Richard Oglesby, said that there was
at the door an old-time Macon County Democrat
who had a contribution to make to the convention.
The curiosity of the delegates was stimulated, and
they looked — to see two ancient fence rails, decorated
with ribbons of red, white, and blue, borne into
the hall by Thomas Hanks, on the rails being the
inscription: " Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Candidate
for the Presidency in i860. Two rails from a lot
of three thousand, made in 1830 by Thomas Hanks
and Abe Lincoln, whose father was the first pioneer
in Macon County.' ' This was Lincoln's first public
nomination to the Presidency. The effect of the
demonstration can only be faintly imagined.

These were rails split by Lincoln and Hanks when,
as we know, young Abraham tarried with his father,
after building a log cabin and ploughing their first
field in Illinois, long enough to fence in a small
parcel of land sown with grain. Years after, Lin-
coln, being asked if he supposed those were the
veritable rails that he and Hanks had made, said:
"I wouldn't make my affidavit that they were.
But Hanks and I did make rails on that piece of

Abraham Lincoln

ground, although I think I could make better rails
now; and I did say that if there were any rails that
we had split, I would n't wonder if those were the
rails."

Lincoln did not believe in what we call " stage
tricks," and he was not greatly pleased with the rail
incident, although he was gratified by the enthusi-
asm of his friends when they saw this evidence of
his humble and useful youthful toil. He took good
care to say that the introduction of these reminders
of the past life of the young backwoodsman was a
surprise to him. He never ceased to be sorry that,
when he was obliged to split rails, he could not have
been in college, or devoting his time to great and
useful study. But for all that, from that day for-
ward Lincoln was hailed as "the rail-splitter of
Illinois." And when he became in fact a regular
candidate before the people, some said: "Will he
split the Union as he used to split rails?"

During the winter of 1859-60, Lincoln visited,
for the first time in his life, the Territory of Kansas,
for which he had done so much. Tremendous en-
thusiasm greeted him wherever he appeared. In
Leavenworth, it is said, notwithstanding a great
storm that raged in the streets, he was met by a
great procession of people who escorted him to his
hotel, vast throngs being gathered on the sidewalks
cheering, every available coign of vantage being
occupied by persons greedy for a sight of him.

In September, 1859, Lincoln spoke several times
in Ohio, and, being near the Kentucky border, at
Cincinnati he addressed a part of his speech to

After a Great Struggle 185

natives of that State, asking them, among other
things, what they would do with their part of the
Union, if they took it away, as they were now be-
ginning to threaten that they would. "Are you
going to keep it alongside of us outrageous fellows?"
he asked. "Or are you going to build up a wall,
some way, between your country and ours, by which
that movable property of yours can't come over
here any more, to the danger of your losing it?"

Early in i860, Lincoln received an invitation to
speak in Plymouth Church, of which Henry Ward
Beecher was pastor, in Brooklyn. He accepted the
invitation, but the place of assembling was subse-
quently changed to the Cooper Union, one of the
largest halls in the United States. It was filled
when Lincoln, somewhat dismayed by this his first
introduction to the people of the Eastern States,
rose to speak. He had been presented to the
audience by William Cullen Bryant, poet and editor.
On the platform and around him were some of the
great men of the age and city — jurists, scholars,
orators, and critics. He had prepared a very differ-
ent sort of speech from that which some before him
had expected. This was not a crowd to be amused
with queer stories, rough wit, and comical anecdotes.
The speech was one of the most remarkable ever
delivered in the city of New York. It was a masterly
exposition of the history of the early days of the
Republic, when our political institutions were in pro-
cess of formation, special reference being made to
the slavery question as then considered. It was
a scholarly, skilfully framed, and closely logical

Abraham Lincoln

address. His style of delivery was so fresh and
vigorous, his manner of illustration so clear and
easily understood, that the audience drank in every
word with delight. The vast auditorium was as
hushed as death (save for Lincoln's own voice) when
he was drawing out some fine point, some new line
of argument supported by facts hitherto unknown or
forgotten ; and irrepressible thunders of applause burst
forth when, the way being cleared, the proposition
sought to be established was set before the people.

This is the testimony of one who was present on
that historic occasion :

''When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disap-
pointed. He was tall, tall — oh, how tall! and so angular
and awkward that I had, for an instant, a feeling of pity
for so ungainly a man. His clothes were black and ill-
fitting, badly wrinkled — as if they had been jammed
carelessly into a small trunk. His bushy head, with the
stiff black hair thrown back, was balanced on a long and
lean head-stalk, and when he raised his hands in an
opening gesture, I noticed that they were very large. He
began in a low tone of voice — as if he were used to speak-
ing out-doors and was afraid of speaking too loud. He
said 'Mr. Cheertnan,' instead of 'Mr. Chairman,' and
employed many other words with an old-fashioned pro-
nunciation. I said to myself : 1 Old fellow, you won't do ;
it 's all very well for the wild West, but this will never go
down in New York. ' But pretty soon he began to get into
his subject ; he straightened up, made regular and grace-
ful gestures ; his face lighted as with an inward fire ; the
whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his
personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities.

After a Great Struggle 187

Presently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet with the
rest, yelling like a wild Indian, cheering this wonderful
man. In the close parts of his argument, you could hear
the gentle sizzling of the gas-burners. When he reached
a climax, the thunders of applause were terrific. It was a
great speech. When I came out of the hall, my face
glowing with excitement and my frame all a-quiver, a
friend, with his eyes aglow, asked me what I thought of
Abe Lincoln, the rail-splitter. I said : ' He 's the greatest
man since St. Paul/ And I think so yet."

The impression made by Lincoln on the much-
dreaded Eastern people was highly favorable to his
training, ability, and genius. The backwoodsman
at last had conquered one of the most critical and
cultivated audiences to be gathered in the Republic.
It may be said here that Lincoln took for his theme
that night the saying of his old adversary, Douglas :
"Our fathers, when they framed the government
under which we live, understood this question [the
question of slavery] just as well, and even better
than we do now." This, as Lincoln said, gave him
and Douglas a common starting-point for discussion.
His speech was devoted, for the most part, to an
inquiry into what the fathers who framed the
government thought of and did about slavery; and
he showed, by conclusive and irrefutable argument
and citations from history, that the fathers, whom
Douglas so confidently referred to, acted as though
they believed that the Federal Government had no
power to put slavery into the Territories. The next
section of his speech was a kindly and almost
affectionate address to the people of the South.

i88

Abraham Lincoln

The concluding part was addressed to Republicans,
and he closed with these words: "Neither let us be
slandered from our duty by false accusations against
us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction
to the Government. 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."

All who read or heard that speech marvelled
greatly at its pure logic, its keen analysis, and its
lucid and unimpeachable English. It was widely
circulated next day in the morning newspapers of
the city, and went far and wide as a campaign docu-
ment from the rooms of the Republican Committee.
A professor of rhetoric in Yale College came to hear
Lincoln. He was so impressed by what he heard
that he took out his note-book, made notes of the
address, and next day gave this to his class as a
model; and, not satisfied with that, followed him to
Meriden, Connecticut, where he again drank in the
orator's marvellous eloquence. All this was to Lin-
coln "very extraordinary," as he expressed it. He
had never, in his modest estimate of his own abilities,
expected to create any such marked impression in
the East. He had imbibed the current half -jealous
notions of the West, whose people too commonly
regarded their brothers of the Eastern States as
more likely to estimate a man by what he seemed
to be than by what he did. He went home gratified by
his discovery that he was recognized as an original
and powerful man, gifted with genius, and com-
mending himself to the people by his great-hearted-
ness and native nobility.

CHAPTER XV.

ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY.

Rending of the Democratic Party — The National Convention of i860
— Lincoln Nominated at Chicago — A Memorable Scene — Popu-
lar Enthusiasm — Four Tickets in the Field — Lincoln's Great
Triumph.

IN the spring of i860 the South was dismayed. All
hope of securing Kansas as a slave State was
gone. A hostile majority in the House of Repre-
sentatives made impossible the admission of Kansas
under the odious and fraudulent Lecompton Con-
stitution. The purchase of Cuba was now also im-
possible. California had long since been admitted
as a free State, in spite of the threats and promises
of the pro-slavery administration. All schemes for
the acquiring of new territory for the expansion of
the slave power had failed utterly. A new President
was about to be chosen. The Democratic party
was rent into two seemingly forever irreconcilable
parties — Lecompton and Anti-Lecompton. Threats
of secession were freely made. Many thought that
these were mere bluster, words intended to be taken
back if the South could be reassured. And some
timorous people wanted the South to be reassured.
In his Cooper Union speech, Lincoln, addressing
himself to the threatening class, said:

"You say you will destroy the Union; and then you

189

190

Abraham Lincoln

say the great crime of having destroyed it will be put upon
us. That is cool. A highwayman holds 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 ; but it was no more my own than my vote
is my own; and a threat of death to me to extort my
money, and threat of destruction to the Union to extort
my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle."

With these mutterings in the air, the Democratic
convention to nominate a candidate for the Presi-
dency assembled in Charleston, South Carolina,
April 23, i860. It does not now seem likely that
the Northern and the Southern leaders expected to
be able to unite on any candidate. Douglas was
the one man most prominent in the party. The
Northern Democrats would have him and no other.
But his speeches during the canvass with Lincoln,
as well as his later opposition to the Lecompton
Constitution for Kansas, had ruined his chances
with the South. Nothing short of an unconditional
declaration in favor of slavery would satisfy these
determined champions of slavery. After days of
fruitless discussion, the Democratic convention was
torn into pieces. The pro-slavery delegates with-
drew in a body, and organized in another building
what they called a " constitutional convention."
No nominations were made, however, at that time,
and the convention adjourned to meet in Richmond,
Virginia. The other wing of the party remained in
convention in Charleston, and, after fifty-seven un-
successful ballotings, they, too, gave it up and ad-

Elected to the Presidency 191

journed to meet in Baltimore, June 18th. May 9th,
there met in Baltimore a convention of elderly
Whigs and "Know-Nothings," who nominated John
Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward
Everett, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. This
was the so-called conservative ticket, intended to
pour oil on the troubled waters, and elect a President
that should have no ideas, no notions, no policy, on
the subject of slavery.

The Richmond convention, composed of pro-
slavery Democrats, nominated John C. Breckin-
ridge, afterward a Rebel general, for President.
Subsequently, the regular convention, as it was to
be considered (although only the anti-Lincoln Dem-
ocrats were left in it), met in Baltimore, and nomi-
nated Stephen A. Douglas for President. The breach
between the Northern and Southern Democrats was
complete, irreparable.

There was intense excitement all over the Republic
when the Republican national convention assembled
in Chicago, June 17, i860. Everybody felt that a
crisis in the affairs of the nation had now come.
The Democratic party was hopelessly divided on
the great and vital question of human slavery. At
that time there were nearly four millions of human
beings held in bondage in the United States, bought
and sold as if they were cattle, or chattels. The
States in which slavery was recognized as a divine
and righteous institution were solidly united in an
attempt to force that institution into the free Terri-
tories, and so make the laws of the free Republic that
slave property would be safe everywhere, that black

192

Abraham Lincoln

men and women should be sacred as property in
every State in the Union, and no fugitive from
bondage should be safe anywhere on any rood of
land over which the American flag waved. The
party now about to set its candidates in the field
was irrevocably opposed to the further extension of
the alleged rights of slavery in any direction what-
ever. No man could be nominated by that party
who was not irretrievably and unmistakably in favor
of the fundamental principle to which, through Lin-
coln's advice, it had been already pledged, that "all
men are endowed by their Creator with certain in-
alienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness."

The city of Chicago was crowded with strangers
from every part of the United States. It was es-
timated that twenty thousand people were gathered
in and around the vast building, called the "Wig-
wam," in which the convention was to be held, only
a small portion of whom could obtain admittance.
The platform of resolutions adopted by the con-
vention contained the political principles that had
already been announced in many different forms by
Lincoln, during his unparalleled canvass of the
Northern States. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, an
old-time anti-slavery man, offered for the conven-
tion one more plank, the phrase from the Declara-
tion of Independence affirming the birthright of
freedom granted to every man. Strange to say,
there was some opposition to the adoption of this
immortal sentence. There lingered in the conven-
tion some little element of timidity on the anti-

Elected to the Presidency 193

slavery issue. A few men in the party were yet
afraid of being confounded with the long-hated and
dreaded "Abolitionists." George W. Curtis, an
impetuous and eloquent young delegate from New
York, made an impassioned plea for the phrase
offered by Giddings. It was accepted, and the
whole series of ringing and courageous resolutions
were adopted by the convention amid the wildest
enthusiasm. A tremendous roar went up from
the assembled thousands in the building. Other
throngs without took up the cheer, and a vast wave
of sound went thundering down the lake-side, telling
the world that at last a great national party had
asserted in unmistakable language the right of man
to freedom.

Then the balloting began. Mr. William M. Evarts,
of New York, placed before the convention the name
of William H. Seward, of that State. In like man-
ner, Mr. Judd, of Illinois, nominated Abraham Lin-
coln. Mr. Dayton, of New Jersey, Simon Cameron,
of Pennsylvania, Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Ed-
ward Bates, of Missouri, and John McLean, of Ohio,
were subsequently named. But only the names of
Seward and Lincoln, the two great leaders of the
new party, provoked much enthusiasm. When
these were mentioned, their friends sent up shouts
that reverberated like the surges of the sea smiting
on the shore. Now the audience adjusted itself to
the real business of the day. Telegraph operators
sat ready with their instruments to send the news
abroad. An army of newspaper reporters, their
pencils poised to note events that were coming,

VOL. VIII. — 13

i94

Abraham Lincoln

crowded the platform allotted to the press. The
air was hushed. Everybody knew that the supreme
moment had arrived. A great act in the drama of
national history was about to begin. The roll of
the States was called for the first ballot. It was
evident that this would be inconclusive; but every
ear was strained to catch the slightest whisper from
the delegations that were to cast the vote of their
several States. Now and again a roar of applause
would break forth, as if the delegates were unable
to restrain themselves, intense as was their desire to
hear the result from each other. Such a burst went
up whenever New York steadily cast her seventy
votes for Seward, the well-beloved son of the Em-
pire State. And such a burst shook the air when
Indiana and Illinois gave their solid votes to Lincoln.
The first ballot was as follows : William H. Seward,
one hundred and seventy-three and a half; Abraham
Lincoln, one hundred and two; Edward Bates,
forty-eight; Simon Cameron, fifty and a half; Sal-
mon P. Chase, forty-nine. The remaining forty-two
votes were scattered among John McLean, Benjamin
F. Wade, William L. Dayton, John M. Reed, Jacob
Collamer, Charles Sumner, and John C. Fremont.
There was no choice, two hundred and thirty-three
of the total four hundred and sixty-five votes cast
being necessary to nominate.

On the second ballot, Lincoln gained seventy-nine
votes from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Pennsyl-
vania, receiving one hundred and eighty-one, all
told. Seward gained eleven, having one hundred
and eighty-four and a half, all told. The third

Elected to the Presidency 195

ballot began amid the most tense interest, for all
felt that this must determine the contest for the
nomination. Thousands on the floor and in the
galleries followed the ballotings with their pencils,
silently keeping tally of the votes as they were an-
nounced to the chairman by the spokesmen of the
several delegations of the States. Before the secre-
taries could figure up and verify the result, it was
whispered about the convention, which fairly trem-
bled with suppressed excitement, that Lincoln came
near to a nomination. He had two hundred and
thirty-one and a half votes, lacking only a vote and
a half of the nomination. Then, while the house
was as still as if it were empty, Mr. Carter, of Ohio,
rose and said that four of the votes of that State
were changed to Abraham Lincoln. The work was
done. Lincoln was nominated.

Turning his face upward to a skylight in the roof,
where stood an intent watchman, one of the secre-
taries cried, 1 1 Fire the salute ! Lincoln is nominated ! ' '
The elate watchman fled along the roof of the Wig-
wam and shouted the glad tidings to those below.
Inside the building, after an instant's pause, like
that in the midst of a storm, a hurricane of en-
thusiasm, almost maddening, broke forth. Men
flung away their hats, danced in a wild delirium of
delight, hugged and kissed each other, and cheered
and cheered again, as if they could find no vent to
their overpowering joy. The vast Wigwam shook
with the torrent of noise. Without, surging crowds
broke forth into answering roars as the cheering
inside died away, and this was taken up by those

196

Abraham Lincoln

within, and thus tumult replied to tumult. On the

roof of a great hotel, not far away, a battery of
cannon volleyed and thundered ; the multitudinous
wave of sound spread through the city, its streets
and lanes, and drifted far over Lake Michigan, tell-
ing the world that Lincoln, the beloved, the great,
grand man, scarce known outside of his own repub-
lic, was nominated. And in this way, the son of
Thomas Lincoln, the backwoodsman, stepped out
upon the mighty stage on which was to be enacted
one of the most tremendous tragedies the world has
ever seen.

The convention adjourned for an hour, and later
in the day Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was nomi-
nated for Vice-President with Lincoln. At home,
in Springfield, Lincoln waited in a newspaper office,
surrounded by friends, for the news that should
make him the national candidate of his party, or
place him on the retired list of American politicians.
At last, a messenger, bearing the fateful message in
his hand, came in from the telegraph office, with
difficulty keeping his face from showing his inward
excitement. With great solemnity, he advanced to
Lincoln's side and said: "The convention has made
a nomination, and Seward is — the second man on
the list." Then jumping on a table, he cried:
"Three cheers for Abraham Lincoln, the next Presi-
dent of the United States!" We can imagine with
what a hearty good- will those cheers were given, and
how the notes thereof rang out in the streets of
Springfield and were echoed far and wide. After
shaking hands with his friends and receiving their

Elected to the Presidency 197

fervent congratulations, Lincoln pocketed the tele-
gram, and, saying 1 ' There is a little woman on Eighth
Street who would like to hear about this," walked
home to tell the news to his household.

It was the duty of the convention to give Lincoln
formal and official notice of his nomination. A
committee, with Mr. George Ashmun, of Massachu-
setts, at its head, was accordingly appointed to wait
upon the nominee and serve him with the usual
notice. Meantime, however, the citizens of Spring-
field had fired a salute of one hundred guns to speak
their joy over the nomination of one who was un-
doubtedly their popular idol. Then a vast con-
course of the people streamed up the street where
Lincoln's humble cottage stood, and invaded the
hospitable home, as many as could crowd in, eager
to take his hand and tell him how glad they were
that this great honor had been laid upon him. Some
of his devoted Springfield admirers, thinking that a
delegation from the great national convention would
expect to receive a more liberal supply of refresh-
ment than the total abstainers of the Lincoln family
would be likely to have in the house, sent him a
supply of wines for this occasion. These unfamiliar
fluids gave Lincoln some uneasiness, and, accepting
the advice of another, he sent them to their donors,
with a courteous explanation of his inability to use
them. He had never offered wines to his friends;
he could not do it now. The committee arrived.
They drank the health of the President that was to
be, in water from the spring.

On the 23d of June, Lincoln wrote a formal letter

Abraham Lincoln

accepting the nomination to the Presidency. It was
a very short and straightforward document. He
accepted the platform of principles laid down by the
convention and concluded in the following words :

" Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and
with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were
represented in the convention, to the rights of all the
States and Territories and people of the nation, to the
inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union,
harmony, and prosperity of all, I am most happy to co-
operate for the practical success of the principles declared
by the convention."

The Presidential canvass of that year was unique
in the history of the American Republic. The en-
thusiasm of the people of the free States broke over
all bounds. To use a common Western expression,
it swept the country like a prairie fire. The friends
of freedom organized semi-military companies, the
like of which have appeared in political campaigns
since that day. These were called " Wide-awakes,"
and, uniformed and carrying torches at night, or
bannerets in the daytime, they turned out in vast
numbers whenever there was a demonstration by
the Republicans; and this was very often. Cam-
paign songs were composed, set to music, and sung
all over the North, the rousing choruses being taken
up and made as familiar to everybody as household
words. The log cabin of the Harrison campaign
was brought out to do duty again as a token of the
humble origin of the candidate. Rails and rail-
splitting were popular symbols, and innumerable de-

Elected to the Presidency 199

vices were invented to rouse to a still higher pitch
the fervor of the Republicans, and to sweep into the
onrushing wave the halting and the vacillating.

It must not be understood that there was no oppo-
sition to Lincoln. On the contrary, as the election
returns showed, there was a very strong opposition ;
and the leaders of this party manifested their hatred
of the Republicans and their candidate by the most
violent and abusive language. The terms "Black
Republicans," 4 4 Negro Lovers," and the like were
among the least offensive of the epithets showered
upon the members and candidates of the new, ag-
gressive party. Douglas, to the surprise of many of
his best friends and followers, took the stump in his
own behalf. It had never been the usage for a
Presidential candidate to speak in advocacy of his
own election, although men had often done this,
especially in the West, when they were candidates
for less important offices. Many felt that this was
a doubtful experiment for Douglas to make; and
many said that it showed how desperate was his
case. His speeches were designed to prove that he
was the only safe candidate before the people,
Breckinridge representing the sectionalism of slavery,
and Lincoln the sectionalism of anti -slavery ; but it
appeared that both sections of the country had re-
solved to have no more experiments. This time
the question of slavery extension or slavery limita-
tion was to be settled forever.

Lincoln stayed quietly at home, although he was
sometimes well-nigh overwhelmed with visitors from
every part of the Union. Some of these came from

200

Abraham Lincoln

idle curiosity ; some to put in a good word for them-
selves, in case the candidate should be chosen and have
offices to fill. Others came honestly encouraging
the candidate, now widely celebrated and so greatly
loved as a man of the people. A handsome room in
the State capitol was assigned to Lincoln, and here
he received his visitors during the exciting months
that intervened between the nomination in June
and the election in November. But he made no
speeches, and refrained, with his usual wisdom,
from making any public demonstration whatever.

When the votes were in, at the end of that famous
canvass, it was found that Lincoln had one hundred
and eighty of the electoral votes of the States, and
1,866,452 men had voted for him. Breckinridge had
seventy-two electoral votes, and he had been the
express choice of 847,953 voters. Douglas had
twelve electoral votes; his popular vote was 1,375,-
157. Bell had thirty-nine electoral votes, and a
popular vote of 590,631. Lincoln had received a
majority of the electoral votes, but it will be noticed
that he had not a majority of all the votes of the
people, the four candidates in the field having divided
the popular votes unusually; but, notwithstanding
this, he had the largest popular vote that had been
polled, at that time, for any Presidential candidate.

Lincoln took his election with a composure not
untinged with sadness. A tremendous responsibility
was now certain to be placed upon him. The South
had openly and repeatedly declared an intention to
break up the Union, by leaving it, in case of the
election of the Republican candidate. He was op-

Elected to the Presidency 201

pressed with many weighty and anxious thoughts.
On the day when the news came of his triumph, a
strange thing happened to him. Years after, when
he had been nominated and elected a second time to
the Presidency, he told this story to the writer of
these pages:

" It was just after my election in i860, when the news
had been coming in thick and fast all day, and there had
been a great ' Hurrah, boys ! 1 so that I was well tired out,
and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge
in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau,
with a swinging glass upon it " — [and here he got up and
placed furniture to illustrate the position] — "and, look-
ing in that glass, I saw myself reflected, nearly at full
length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate and
distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about
three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little
bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the
glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again I
saw it a second time — plainer, if possible, than before;
and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler,
say five shades, than the other. I got up and the thing
melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the
hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the
thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little
pang, as though something uncomfortable had happened.
Later in the day I told my wife about it, and a few days
after I tried the experiment again, when [with a laugh],
sure enough, the thing came again ; but I never succeeded
in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried
very industriously to show it to my wife, who was worried
about it somewhat. She thought it was 'a sign' that I
was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the

202

Abraham Lincoln

paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not
see life through the last term."

With his usual good-sense, Lincoln studied this
for a while and came to the conclusion that it was an
optical illusion caused by a flaw in the mirror. Mrs.
Lincoln thought it was "a warning/ ' and that it
signified that her husband would have to be twice
President and would not live through his second
term. As both of these persons talked with the
writer about the matter, and this story was told in
an article written by him in Harper's Magazine, in
July, 1865, while Mrs. Lincoln was yet alive to see it,
the facts are here set down as originally stated.

CHAPTER XVI.

AFTER THE ELECTION.

The President-Elect and the Office-Seekers — A Policy Demanded —
Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet — Organization of the Rebel Con-
federacy— Alarm in the North — The Star of the West Fired On —
A Peace Congress in the Face of War.

JT is difficult for anybody, at this distance of time,
and when all things are at peace throughout the
Republic, to realize how great was the burden placed
upon Lincoln by his election to the Presidency.
There were two great troubles — the office-seekers
and the impending war. The first of these, of
course, was the smaller, but it was none the less a
grievous trial. For, in addition to the strain that it
brought upon his patience, it interfered very seriously
with his attempt to think over the greater and far
more trying questions that must soon be settled.
Lincoln was good-natured, patient, kind, desirous of
doing whatever was asked of him, in reason. It was
always irksome for him to refuse a favor, even when
the petitioner was not altogether reasonable or de-
serving. He disliked to refer applicants to others,
his subordinates. He never turned a deaf ear to any
petitioner, however humble, however importunate.
It was truly said of him that his patience was almost
infinite. It is easy to see, therefore, how difficult it

203

204

Abraham Lincoln

was for his immediate friends to protect him from
the incursions of curiosity-seeking and office-seeking
visitors, then and afterwards.

But, with all his good-humored and cheerful man-
ner towards those who came, it soon became evident
that he did not intend to promise places as readily
as a spendthrift, newly come into an inheritance,
might spread abroad his gold. He was sublimely
wise in his treatment of all who came to him, listen-
ing to their 4 'claims' ' (for all had these) and always
manifesting the native kindness that distinguished
him. But men who had been on familiar terms with
him, who had met him "riding the circuit, " had lis-
tened to his unfailing good stories, had done his
party real service in the late fight, or had been
friendly neighbors, soon learned that these were not
sufficient to extort from him the promise of a good
office when he should be in the place where offices
were to be given out. He manifested his generosity
towards his opponents by sketching out a programme
that included in the office-holders of his administra-
tion many who had opposed the Republican party
in its very latest canvass. He would have, if possi-
ble, one or two Southern men of prominence in his
Cabinet; and he would not disturb many, then in
office, who had proved themselves honest, faithful,
and competent public servants. When this outline
of policy was disclosed, some of his friends were not
only disappointed, but irritated. Not that they
wanted offices for themselves or their associates,
but it was contrary to the policy and the practice
of the time and of all who had occupied the Presiden-

After the Election

205

tial office in recent years. Nobody had then even
suggested that variety of reform that was afterwards
known as the Civil-Service Reform. A Democratic
Secretary of State, William L. Marcy, had invented
the taking phrase, "To the victors belong the spoils,"
and Democratic Presidents, from Andrew Jackson
down, had rigidly enforced the doctrine taught by
that maxim. President Buchanan had been un-
usually severe in his treatment of office-holders who
differed with him and his administration in matters
of political policy. During the time when the schism
in the Democratic party was widening the breach
between "Lecompton Democrats" and "Anti-Le-
compton Democrats," Buchanan and his secretaries
had made strict inquisition among all office-holders
for those who espoused the cause of Douglas and
those who represented what was loosely called
Douglas Democracy. In California, for example,
David C. Broderick, an Anti-Lecompton Democrat,
and a friend of Douglas, had been elected to the
United States Senate. The other Senator from that
State was William M. Gwin, a Southerner by birth
and devoted to the slave-holding interest. All the
official patronage of the State was handed over to
Gwin, and the recommendations to office by Brod-
erick were treated with contemptuous indifference.
In course of time, so furious were the Lecompton
Democrats against their opponents within the Demo-
cratic party, Broderick was inveigled into a duel by
the friends of the Buchanan administration, and was
cruelly killed by a judge, who, when the war broke
out, became an officer in the Rebel army.

206

Abraham Lincoln

In such a condition of affairs as this, with all the
public offices filled with the appointees of a pro-
scriptive and unrelenting partisan administration,
most Republican leaders were unable to see why
Lincoln should hesitate to make "a clean sweep"
when he came into power. Of course, those patri-
otic gentlemen who had expected the rewards of
office could not possibly understand why a single
Democrat should be allowed to stay in office after
the newly elected President should himself be fairly
installed; and it is not too much to say that there
were many of these applicants who, temporarily, at
least, were more concerned about the just disposition
of the offices than they were about the condition of
the whole country, now trembling on the brink of
civil war. Then, again, since matters had grown so
grave, thousands of well-meaning people were ex-
ceedingly anxious to know what Lincoln proposed to
do in case the Southern States should secede from
the Union. Would he make any concessions in
order to keep them from taking this step? What
would he offer them to induce them to stay in the
Union? There were many ready to advise the
President-elect ; and some of them offered the most
fantastic counsel. More than one timorous soul
proposed that, now that the principle of self-govern-
ment had been vindicated at the polls, and the people
had expressed their hostility to slavery, Lincoln
might show his magnanimity and patriotism by re-
signing the Presidency, and demand a new election
on the basis of reconciliation with the South.

But while to some of these more absurd sugges-

After the Election

207

tions Lincoln gave a ready and decisive answer, on
the whole, he maintained the same sagacious silence
that he had kept while the canvass for the Presidency
was going on. To all comers he said, in effect, that
it would be time to indicate what his policy was to be
when he had taken office at Washington. He told
applicants that his past record, his public utterances,
and his speeches ought to make manifest what his
course as President would be. Beyond that, he
would say nothing. His inaugural address must
needs be the first official declaration of his intentions,
purposes, wishes, and desires.

Many of these inquisitive inquirers were put off
with a comical story or a bit of wise humor ; and they
did not like it any better that their rebuff should
take this shape. They went home and sourly re-
ported that the President-elect was a buffoon, a
joker, a merry-andrew. There were not a few who
were glad to hear anything to the discredit of Lin-
coln, and so it came to pass that a grave injustice
was done him, long before he took his seat in the
Presidential chair. Perhaps Lincoln sometimes made
the mistake natural to men of a natural and un-
affected turn of mind, and presumed that the good-
sense of his visitors would make allowance for an
artful sportiveness and fancy. But many of these
went away troubled in mind and full of wrong no-
tions of Lincoln. Nobody that ever knew Lincoln
could possibly have said of him that he was a trifler
or an inveterate joker. He was a serious and deeply
grave man, when seriousness and gravity were in
order ; and much of his playfulness was assumed for

208

Abraham Lincoln

a purpose, or to lighten his load of care and divert
his mind from heavy troubles. On the whole, those
who knew him best unite in saying that his disposi-
tion was a sad one by nature.

How Lincoln regarded religion and religious things
at this time may be best illustrated in a report from
Mr. Newton Bateman, of Illinois, regarding a con-
versation he held with Lincoln just before the elec-
tion of November, i860. Mr. Bateman was State
Superintendent of Public Schools, and occupied an
office near the apartment surrendered to Lincoln in
the statehouse during the campaign. The Repub-
lican Committee had made a careful canvass of the
city of Springfield, showing how nearly every man
was to vote at the Presidential election. Lincoln
turned over the leaves of this book, one day, while
Mr. Bateman was in his company, the two men being
alone together. Lincoln scanned the list of the
Springfield clergymen, and, with a sad face, said that
of the twenty all but three were against him, and
that very many of the members of the churches of
these clergymen were also arrayed on that side.

"I am not a Christian," he said. "God knows I
would be one. But I have carefully read the Bible,
and I do not so understand this book" ; and here he
drew a New Testament from his bosom. "These
men well know," he continued, "that I am for free-
dom in the Territories, freedom everywhere as far as
the Constitution and the laws will permit, and that
my opponents are for slavery. They know this;
and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of
which human knowledge cannot live a moment, they

After the Election

are going to vote against me. I do not understand
it at all."

Here his voice was choked with emotion, and he
rose and walked about the room until he regained
his self-possession. Then, with his face wet with
tears, he continued:

" I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and
slavery. I see the storm coming, and 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 every-
thing. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is
right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told
them that a house divided against itself cannot stand,
and Christ and reason say the same thing; and they
will find it so. Douglas does n't care whether slavery is
voted up or voted down, but God cares, and humanity
cares, and I care ; and with God's help I shall not fail. I
may not see the end, but it will come and I shall be
vindicated; and these men will find that they have not
read their Bibles aright."

Much of this, and other words to the same import,
was said as if Lincoln was thinking aloud, soliloquiz-
ing, as was sometimes his wont. Then he went on,
saying: "Doesn't it appear strange that men can
ignore the moral aspects of this contest ? A revela-
tion could not make it plainer to me that slavery or
this Government must be destroyed. The future
would be something awful, as I look at it, but for
this rock on which I stand," alluding to the Testa-
ment which he held in his hand; "especially with
the knowledge of how these ministers are going to

VOL. VIII. 14.

2IO

Abraham Lincoln

vote. It seems as if God had borne with this thing
[slavery] until the very teachers of religion had
come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it
a divine character and sanction ; and now the cup of
iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured
out."

These words, like many others of Lincoln's,
uttered before he was chosen to the Presidency —
even before he was nominated, as some of them were,
— indicate almost a certain knowledge of coming
events which is very like prophecy. It is not un-
likely that Lincoln saw long before anybody else did
that he would be the nominee of his party in i860,
and it is certain that he saw that his election was
assured as soon as the nominations were all made.
There is something awful in his standing here at the
parting of the ways, his private life on the one hand
and his public life on the other, and solemnly pre-
dicting, as it were, the day of wrath that was coming
upon the people of the United States. Not in the
South alone, but even in New England, were found
clergymen who taught and preached that slavery
was right and just, of divine origin, and that men
who raised their hands against it were guilty of a
species of high treason. Lincoln had looked into the
heart of things; and, like Thomas Jefferson, regard-
ing this great wrong against humanity, he trembled
for his country when he remembered that God is
just.

Threats of leaving the Union came loud and
vociferous from the slave States as soon as Lincoln's
election was assured and the returns were all in. It

After the Election

211

is more than likely that these threats were only in
consequence of a long-laid plan to leave the Union
on the very first offering of an excuse. The South
could not live amicably alongside of free territory.
Lincoln spoke only the absolute truth when he said
that the Government could exist no longer half slave
and half free. Now that the triumph of what they
called a sectional party had given them an excuse,
they were ready to go ; but they must needs make a
great deal of bluster about it. They went out with
a grand display of resolutions and fiery speeches.

Meanwhile, however, the allies of treason and re-
bellion in the Cabinet were doing what they could to
make things easier for the Rebel States when the final
blow should come. John B. Floyd, a Southern man,
was Secretary of War, and he scattered the army all
over the South, one of its largest sections being sent
as far away as possible in the interior of Texas, so
that it should not be at hand when the new President
should come to the national capital. Floyd also
moved large quantities of arms and munitions of
war from the forts and arsenals in the North to those
in the South. Mr. Isaac Toucey, a Northern man,
but completely in the hands of the conspirators,
sent the little navy of the United States to the four
quarters of the globe, so that no naval force should
be available when the conspiracy should be ripe.
Howell Cobb, of Georgia, afterwards a general in
the Rebel army, was then Secretary of the Treasury,
and after he had purposely involved the national
finances in difficulty, he resigned. He left the
Treasury empty. Attorney-General Black had given

212

Abraham Lincoln

his official opinion that neither Congress nor the
President could carry on any war against any State.
James Buchanan, a weak old man, was nominally
President, but the conspirators in the Cabinet carried
forward their plans with a high hand. Everything
that happened in governmental circles in Washing-
ton was immediately known in the councils of the
secessionists, South Carolina being the hotbed of
treason. The Southern Senators and Representa-
tives, almost without exception, remained in Wash-
ington, occupying their desks in the Senate and
House, drawing pay and official perquisites up to
the last moment ; and, holding possession of the Gov-
ernment as these men did, they were at the same
time plotting to overthrow it.

Some of the Northern Democrats who had stood by
Buchanan and his party until now began to murmur
at his supple willingness to help the cause of the
rebellion, now assuming formidable proportions.
Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigned because the
President refused to send reinforcements to Major
Anderson, who was shut up with a little force in Fort
Moultrie, Charleston Harbor. This is the same
Anderson, then a lieutenant, who mustered Abraham
Lincoln into the service of the United States, at
Dixon's Ferry, during the Black Hawk war. As
soon as South Carolina should secede from the Union,
Fort Moultrie and other fortifications in Charleston
Harbor were certain to be seized. Mr. Black, too,
resigned, and Edwin M. Stanton, a staunch Demo-
crat and Unionist, was appointed in his place. Gen-
eral John A. Dix, of New York, succeeded Howell

n Lincoln

has official opinion that neither Confirm oar the

President could carry on any war aga«j< mv State.

Jfcrnes Buchanan, a weak old man. wa* wammallv
President, but the conspirators in the Cabiaet cggried

forward their plans with a high hand, f- iimJM^,
that happened in governmental circles m V9*&*n%
ton was immediately known in the councils of the

secessionists, South Carolina being the hotbed of
treason. The Southern Senators and Representa-
tives, almost without exception, remained in Wash-
ington, occupying their desks in the Senate and

riouse. drawing pav and official perquisites up to
the la*t jbmmvI,- a*& %dftm pmmmkai of the Gov-
ernment m ttmm mm m> %kmy mm at the samr
"1n • " JfrhnA. Dix

' ' After a pftotdgraph iri the possession of his family.

'° ou,,Hrc txj neip ute tnuse ot tne

reoeuion, now *£SKmsr>g formtdaftti propottlajH
Lewis Lass, becmary of State, resigned because thfc
President refu4ied to send reinforcements to Major
Anderson, who was shut up with a little force in Fort
Moultrie, Charleston Harbor. This is the same
Anderson, then a lieutenant, who mustered Abraham
Lincoln into the service of the United States, at
Dixon's Ferry, during the Black Hawk war. As
soon as South Carolina should secede from the Union,
Fort Moultrie and other fortifications in Charleston
Harbor were certain to be seized. Mr. Black, too,
*»gned, and Edwin M. Stanton, a staunch Demo-
; rat nnd Unionist, was appointed in his place. Gen-
eral John A. Dix, of New York, succeeded Howell

After the Election

213

Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury. It was this un-
flinching Union man, General Dix, who, while in the
Cabinet of Buchanan, sent to the commander of a
threatened revenue cutter the famous despatch:
"If any man attempts to haul down the American
flag, shoot him on the spot! " Joseph Holt, of Ken-
tucky, also a strong Union man, took the office of
Secretary of War, made vacant by Floyd, who had
added official dishonesty to treason.

Stanton, in the Attorney-General's office, was a
very different sort of man from Black, who had re-
tired to Pennsylvania. The infamous Jacob Thomp-
son, who kept his office of Secretary of the Interior
for the purpose, apparently, of helping his fellow-
conspirators in the slave States, advised a surrender
of the forts in Charleston Harbor and the withdrawal
of Major Anderson and his little force. Stanton said
to the President:

" Mr. President, it is my duty, as your legal adviser, to
say that you have no right to give up the property of the
Government, or abandon the soldiers of the United States
to its enemies ; and the course proposed by the Secretary
of the Interior, if followed, is treason, and will involve
you, and all concerned, in treason."

For the first time, treason had been called by its
right name in the Cabinet councils of James Bu-
chanan. It was none too soon. The traitors now
saw that their work in Washington must close; the
times were ripe for open revolt; and while some
waited until the open secession of their States called
them home, others hastened southwards, eagerly

214

Abraham Lincoln

taking part in what they fondly deemed to be the
formation of a new and prosperous confederacy.
According to the programme of the secessionists,
South Carolina led off in the formal proceedings of
leave-taking. That State had long been the home of
disunion, and there was a certain propriety in con-
ceding to it the leadership of the new movement. The
ordinance of secession was adopted by South Caro-
lina November 17, i860. Mississippi followed Janu-
ary 9, 1 861; Florida, January 10th; Alabama,
January nth; Georgia, January 19th; Louisiana,
January 25th; and Texas, February 1st. So that
by the time Lincoln was ready to go to Washington
to take the oath of office, seven States had declared
themselves out of the Union. They did not at once
form a separate confederacy, but each State de-
clared itself independent of the union of the States
to which each had belonged. Thus in South Caro-
lina, after the ordinance of secession had been passed,
declaring that the union then subsisting between
South Carolina and other States under the name of
the United States of America was dissolved, Pickens,
Governor of the State, issued a proclamation de-
claring South Carolina to be "a free, sovereign, and
independent State." This action filled the city of
Charleston, the headquarters of rebellion, with de-
lirious joy and every manifestation of delight.
Popular gatherings of every description and private
festivities celebrated the event to which the people
of that devoted city had so long looked forward with
eager expectation. Hatred for the union of the
States was evinced in every possible way, the Amer-

After the Election

215

ican flag being covered with indignity of the most
childish description. At one of the secession balls
the dancers went through the idle ceremony of
dancing on the flag, spread out on the floor of the
room.

On the 4th of February, 1861, representatives of
the seceding States assembled in Montgomery, Ala-
bama, formed a confederacy of States, and elected
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, provisional President,
and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-Presi-
dent. This is the same Davis who was engaged in
the Black Hawk war when Lincoln was, being then
an officer of the United States army. He had been
educated at the West Point Military Academy at
the expense of the Republic. The machinery of the
new confederacy was now set up, and, by appointing
secretaries for the different executive departments
of the government, Davis took the first step in the
direction of putting that machinery in action.

Lincoln, at Springfield, lingering in his home until
such time as was necessary for him to depart for
Washington, beheld all these revolutionary proceed-
ings with profound anxiety. He was powerless to
lift a hand against the traitors who were seeking the
destruction of the Federal Union, for, although he
had been called to be President of the United States,
he was as yet a private citizen. And while the loyal
people of the Republic longed and prayed for a strong
man at the helm of the National Government, and
waited for the fourth of March to come and see
Abraham Lincoln in the chair of state, he remained
passive, counselling patience and moderation to all

2l6

Abraham Lincoln

with whom he came in contact, and framing in his
mind the pleading, expostulating, and generous in-
augural address that he subsequently delivered.
Jefferson Davis, on the other hand, gave voice to the
hatred and vindictiveness of the slavery leaders,
when, on his way from his home to be inaugurated
in Montgomery, he said: "We will carry the war
where it is easy to advance, where food for the sword
and the torch awaits our armies in the densely
populated cities.'' On the one side were forbear-
ance, magnanimity, and Christian patience. On the
other side were hatred, vaporing, and threats of
violence.

But it should not be hastily assumed that all the
Southern men of prominence were in this frame of
mind. There were among them not a few who re-
garded these delirious performances with inexpres-
sible sadness, and who looked on the acts of secession
as supreme folly. Thus Alexander H. Stephens,
one of the ablest of the Southern leaders, endeavored
to dissuade the convention of his State from passing
the ordinance of secession. He knew Lincoln well ;
and he knew his generosity, his justness, and his
ardent patriotism. Speaking to the convention,
Stephens said: "Pause, I entreat you, and consider
for a moment what reasons you can give that will
even satisfy you in your calmer moments — what
reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the
calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons
can you give to the nations of the earth to justify
it?" And, speaking of the slave property, to pre-
serve which the South proposed to invite war, he

After the Election

217

said that they might lose all, and have their last
slave wrenched from them by stern military rule,
"or by the vindictive decree of a universal emanci-
pation, which may reasonably be expected to follow. "

Lincoln had, from the first, believed that the Gov-
ernment could not exist half slave and half free. By
the act of rebellion against the Union, the Southern
States were inviting war; and war, as their future
Vice-President now told them, might reasonably be
expected to bring universal emancipation of the
slaves. Stephens put into the form of words what
Lincoln had seen from afar was possible. Lincoln
knew that in the shock of war slavery must go down ;
but he resolutely set his face against doing any-
thing that should hasten the day of emancipation
except by such means as he believed to be constitu-
tional and lawful. He determined to preserve, if
possible, the Union. Slavery must take care of it-
self ; he would not touch it. The South rushed upon
its doom.

Meanwhile, sundry well-intentioned men were
doing what they thought best to counteract the wave
of hostility that had begun to rise in the North. A
steamer chartered by the government to take pro-
visions to the United States troops shut up in
Charleston Harbor had been fired on from the Rebel
works on the shore, and the attitude of the South
was gradually growing more and more warlike. This
kindled indignation and bitterness in the Northern
States. A peace congress assembled in Washington
to concert measures for the averting of war. Union
meetings were held in New York and other large

218

Abraham Lincoln

cities in the free States, everybody being desirous,
apparently, of doing whatever could reasonably be
done to pacify the South, angry at the election of a
* ' sectional candidate. ' ' The Southerners forgot that
they had made freedom sectional.

It should be said, also, that in communities where
the trade and commerce of the Southern people had
been large, there was something like a panic at the
near prospect of a war with the slave States. Cotton,
that great staple of the Gulf States, was one of the
great needs of the manufacturing States of the North.
The Southern States did not manufacture many
goods, and their dependence on the North was also
one reason why these latter should not go to war.
They would lose their profitable customers. Thus
the desire in the North for peace was natural and
strong.

CHAPTER XVII.

FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON.

Lincoln's Farewell to His Fellow-Townsmen — Prayers for the Presi-
dent-Elect— Rush of the People to See Him — A Series of Remark-
able Speeches — Why the President Would Wear a Beard —
Rumors of Assassination — The Night Journey from Harrisburg
to the Capital.

N the nth of February, 1861, Lincoln, accom-

panied by his family and a few personal
friends, left his modest and happy home in Spring-
field for the national capital. No man can know
what sad forebodings, what thoughts of possible
disaster to him, to his country, and to his beloved
family may have oppressed his mind, as he looked
for the last time on the familiar scenes of his Illinois
home. Already threats of assassination had been
whispered abroad, and it had been boasted by the
enemies of the Union that Lincoln would never reach
Washington alive. And, in any case, the certain
approach of war was now a matter weighing on every
heart, and the man who was to conduct the affairs of
the nation, under God, was bowed down with this
great anxiety as he bade farewell to his fellow-
townsmen. As if conscious that this was indeed a
last parting, his voice trembled and his eyes were
suffused with moisture as he spoke from the platform

220

Abraham Lincoln

of the railway train these beautiful words, breathing
a spirit of Christian trust and manly affection for his
friends and neighbors:

" My friends, no one not in my situation can appreciate
my feelings 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
an affectionate farewell.' '

It is good to remember that this last request of
Lincoln of his neighbors and townsmen was heeded.
From that day to the dark hour when his earthly re-
mains were brought back to be laid in the earth,
from innumerable homes went up the daily prayer
for the President of the United States in his sore
need. And not only from the people of Illinois, who
loved this man so well, but from every nook and
corner of the land of liberty and freedom, were the
petitions of faithful Christian men and women
offered continually for him, for his counsellors, and
all others in authority.

Passing from Illinois, on his way to the national

From Springfield to Washington 221

capital, Lincoln traversed the States of Indiana,
Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Maryland. Enthusiasm and curiosity combined to
draw prodigious crowds to the stations through
which Lincoln's train passed, or stopped. The
outpouring of the people was something unprece-
dented. The crowds continually called for a speech.
They could not understand why Lincoln, the master
orator of the West, should not make haste to reply
to their demand for a speech. He was reluctant to
break his rule not to outline any part of his future
policy. But the burning questions of the hour
would not be evaded ; and, if he spoke at all, he must
needs touch on some of these. At Indianapolis,
where he was greeted with great acclamation, and
was escorted to his hotel by a procession of the mem-
bers of the Legislature of the State, he broke his rule,
and said a few words about "invasion" and "coer-
cion." At that time these phrases were on every
man's lips. The South and its friends in the North
were very much exercised at the suggestion that the
North, that is to say, the Government of the United
States, would "invade" the States that had seceded,
for the purpose of maintaining the authority of the
United States. It had been expressly declared by
those who were President Buchanan's legal advisers
that it was neither lawful, nor constitutional, nor
possible, for the Government of the United States
to "coerce" any State that chose to leave the
Union. The professed friends of peace and union
rang the changes on these two words. Coercion, they
said, was wrong, and the invasion of a State was

222

Abraham Lincoln

unconstitutional and wicked, even treasonable. Lin-
coln said:

"What, then, is 'coercion'? What is * invasion'?
Would the marching of an army into South Carolina,
without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent
toward them, be invasion? I certainly think it would,
and it would be coercion also if the South Carolinians were
forced to submit. But if the United States should merely
hold and retake its own forts and other property, and
collect the duties on foreign importations, or even with-
hold the mails from places where they were habitually
violated, would any or all of these things be invasion or
coercion? . . . Upon what principle, what rightful
principle, may a State, being no more than one-fiftieth
part of the nation in soil and population, break up the
nation, and then coerce a proportionably larger sub-
division of itself in the same way ? "

It will be noticed that Lincoln asserted nothing.
He asked these questions and left them for the people
to think about. This was one of his favorite methods
of putting a case. He made no arrogant assertions,
no "thus-saith-the-Lord" declarations. He pre-
ferred, whenever that was possible, to leave the case
with the people to decide for themselves, having
first cleared the ground by asking a few weighty
questions. At other points, Lincoln was called upon
to address the throngs that pressed to see him, to
hear his voice. It was contrary to his nature to dis-
appoint them; and, although he made no more re-
marks like those at Indianapolis to indicate what his
public policy might be, he responded whenever the

From Springfield to Washington 223

time allowed him. Thus at Lawrenceburgh, Indiana,
he said, in the course of a very brief speech :

" Let me tell you that if the people remain right, your
public men can never betray you. If, in my brief term
of office, I shall be wicked or foolish, if you remain right
and true and honest, you cannot be betrayed. My
power is temporary and fleeting ; yours as eternal as the
principles of liberty."

At Cincinnati, the great city of Ohio, the populace
went wild with enthusiasm. Nothing like it had
ever before been seen in the beautiful and easily-
moved "Queen City of the West," as its people are
proud to call their home. Lincoln was almost bodily
carried to his hotel, so vast was the pressure of the
wave of people that surged in volumes through the
gayly decorated streets. At night the buildings were
illuminated, and the city wore a festal appearance
while the party tarried. Lincoln made a little speech
full of good feeling; and, as he was now on the
borders of Kentucky, a slave State, in which were
not a few who longed to take the State out of the
Union, he addressed himself to Kentuckians, his old-
time friends, with peculiar warmth and tenderness.
Referring to the words that he had used when
speaking to the South aforetime, he said: "Fellow-
citizens of Kentucky — may I call you such ? In my
new position I see no occasion, and I feel no inclina-
tion, to retract a word of this. If it shall not be
made good, be assured that the fault will not be
mine." In this way, making an enthusiastic pro-
gress, but constantly pleading for peace, good-will,

224

Abraham Lincoln

forbearance, and patriotic concessions to the right-
eousness of the cause of liberty, Lincoln approached
the scene of his future labors.

At every point where he could be induced to stop,
even for an hour or two, the greetings of affection
and respect were unmistakable, and it is likely that
Lincoln was glad of this opportunity to show him-
self to the people, and to speak reassuring words. It
is more than likely that, averse as he was to display,
he would have hurried on to Washington, but for
the fact, more clear in his mind than in the minds of
others, that this was his last opportunity to say a
few words to "the plain people/' on whom he relied
so thoroughly, and in whose patriotism he confided
so much. Thus at Pittsburg he said he was gratified
deeply by the information that the magnificent recep-
tion tendered him was by citizens generally, without
distinction of party. And he added: "If we don't
all join now to save the good old ship of the Union,
this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her
on another voyage.' ' It is very likely, by the way,
that Lincoln had in his mind at that time the stanza
of Longfellow's Building of the Ship, which, later in
the course of his life, he was fond of reciting:

"Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!"

An entertaining incident occurred at North East
station, a minor point between Erie, Pennsylvania,

From Springfield to Washington 225

and Buffalo, New York. Up to the time of his nomi-
nation for the Presidency, Lincoln's face was clean-
shaven. As his neck was long and his cheeks rather
hollow and dusky, it must be admitted that the advice
given him by an unknown admirer during the cam-
paign was very good. A young girl, writing from this
same North East station, counselled him, in a simple
little letter, that if he would let his whiskers grow,
he would look very much better. Lincoln followed
her advice, after consulting his wife ; and bearing in
mind the name of the place whence the writer had
advised him, he now asked that a little stop might be
made there. In response to the tumultuous greeting
of the assembled crowds, he said, after a few words,
that he had received a letter from a fair young towns-
woman of theirs, who, among other things, had ad-
monished him to raise whiskers, and that he had, as
they would see, followed her counsel. If she were in
the assemblage before him, he would be glad to wel-
come her. In answer to this unexpected request, a
blushing little damsel made her way to the Presi-
dent, was assisted to the platform of the railway-car,
and kissed by the President-elect, to the great delight
of the crowd, who cheered heartily as Lincoln and
his young correspondent met for the first and last
time.

At Albany, the capital of the great State of New
York, he was met by the usual vast crowds, and he
had accepted the invitation of the State, tendered
him by the Governor, Hon. E. D. Morgan, afterwards
known as the redoubtable, generous, and patriotic
' 'War Governor" of the Empire State. Lincoln's

VOL. VIII. — 15.

226

Abraham Lincoln

speech at this point, delivered in the statehouse,
was characterized by a beautiful simplicity and
diffidence. He said that he was awed by the influ-
ences of the place in which he spoke, associated as it
was in his mind with some of the great men of the
nation, and he was disposed to shrink from address-
ing the audience. Then he added: " It is true that,
while I hold myself, without mock-modesty, the
humblest of all the individuals who have ever been
elected President of the United States, I yet have a
more difficult task to perform than any one of them
has encountered. " Then, alluding to the prevailing
anxiety to hear some exposition of his future policy,
he said: "I deem it just to the country, to myself, to
you, that I should see everything, hear everything,
and have every light that can possibly be brought
within my reach, to aid me before I shall speak
officially, in order that when I do speak, I may have
the best means of taking true and correct grounds.' '
This was always, to the last of his life, Lincoln's way.
He would do nothing in a hurry.

He was given, as might be expected, a wonderfully
fine reception in the great metropolis of New York.
Under very different circumstances from those of his
last visit did he now return to the chief city of the
Republic. Then he was comparatively a stranger;
his address at Cooper Union had been his first intro-
duction to the people of the Eastern States. Now
he came as the elected choice of the nation, chief
magistrate of the Republic. At that time, Fernando
Wood, who was for a time in favor of making New
York a free and independent city of the Republic,

From Springfield to Washington 227

like Antwerp and others, was mayor, and in his
official capacity he received the President-elect.
Mr. Wood dwelt with some emphasis on the fact that
New York was the chief port, as well as the chief city,
of the United States, and that it was greatly con-
cerned that there should be peace always; he said
that war would be destructive of its highest interests.
In his response, Lincoln said, with his usual shrewd-
ness and wisdom, after renewing his expressions of
devotion to the Union, that the whole country, as
well as the great city of New York, was concerned
in the preservation of the Union under which all the
States had acquired their due measure of greatness.
And he added :

" I understand the ship to be made for the carrying and
the preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can
be saved with the cargo, it should never be abandoned,
unless there appears to be no possibility of its preserva-
tion, and it must cease to exist, except at the risk of
throwing overboard both freight and passengers. So
long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and the
liberties of the people be preserved in this Union, it shall
be my purpose at all times to use all my powers to aid in
its perpetuation."

Earlier in this story, we have seen how Lincoln
dwelt on his study of the character of Washington,
as it was drawn in the first book which, as the poor
boy of the backwoods, was his first literary possession
— Weems's Life of Washington. At Trenton, New
Jersey, where he was in sight of some of the most
famous battle-fields of the Revolutionary War, Lin-
coln recalled to the minds of the people before him

228

Abraham Lincoln

the fact that very few of the States among the old
thirteen original States had more battle-fields within
their limits than New Jersey. And he added:

" May I be pardoned if upon this occasion I mention
that, away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my
being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as
few of these younger members have ever seen, Weems's
Life of Washington. I remember all the accounts there
given of the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties of
the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagina-
tion so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey.
The crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians,
the great hardships endured at that time, — all fixed them-
selves on my memory more than any single Revolutionary
event ; and you know, for you have all been boys, how
these early impressions last longer than any others. I
recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there
must have been more than common that those men strug-
gled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing they
struggled for, that something even more than national in-
dependence, that something that held out a great promise
to all the people of the world to all time to come — I am ex-
ceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and
the liberties of the people, shall be perpetuated in accord-
ance with the original idea for which the struggle was
made; and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be
an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and
of this His almost chosen people, for perpetuating the
object of that great struggle."

The poor boy, grown to man's estate, undoubtedly
recalled to mind, as he spoke to the Legislature and
the people of New Jersey, some of the trials and

From Springfield to Washington 229

boyish griefs of the time when, with the rain-stained
book of Weems in his hand, he went sorrowfully to
ask its surly owner what was to be done to meet this
irreparable disaster; and Lincoln, President-elect,
had carried all through life what was better than the
lesson of that dark, childish trouble — the lesson of
the lives of the patriot fathers of the Republic.

There had been vague rumors and suspicions afloat
concerning a conspiracy to assassinate the President-
elect while he should be on his way to Washington.
Lincoln himself paid very little heed to these rumors.
It was always difficult for him to place upon his own
person the value and importance of the office he
held. Even later, when he had been in his exalted
position for years, he seemed incapable of realizing
that he was, in his own proper person, a man of
great importance to the people. But, as the party
drew near the seat of government, which was almost,
in point of fact, within the Rebel lines, with the re-
bellious State of Virginia on the south and the
turbulent and disloyal State of Maryland on the
north, the whispers of conspiracy and plot became
more and more articulate. The nest of the conspir-
acy seemed to be in Baltimore, and all indications
pointed directly to that city of slaveholders and un-
disguised sympathizers with rebellion. The Union
element in Baltimore, which asserted itself after-
wards, was cowed and silenced by the more noisy
and riotous portion of the population. To all in-
tents, the city was a hotbed of rebellion.

Personal friends employed detectives to follow up
the slight clews which were given them, and it was

230

Abraham Lincoln

absolutely settled that there was a plot to assassinate
Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore. This in-
formation, with evidence establishing it beyond a
doubt, was laid before Lincoln on his arrival in
Philadelphia. At the same time, Gen. Winfield
Scott, then commanding the army of the United
States, and residing in Washington, was by his
secret agents apprised of the existence of the
plot aforementioned. Here were two independent
sources of information, and, in conjunction with
Senator Seward, of New York, a trusty messenger,
Mr. Frederick W. Seward, was sent to Philadelphia,
by Gen. Scott and Mr. Seward, to warn Lincoln, and
to urge him to take every precaution to avoid danger
on his way to Washington. Lincoln was very much
disturbed by these two confirmatory reports. He
was still unwilling to believe that any attempt would
be made to waylay and murder him; and he could
not persuade himself that any one so base and
wicked as to take his life causelessly could be found.
He had agreed to meet the citizens of Philadelphia at
Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was written and signed, and to raise a flag
over that historic building on Washington's birth-
day, February 2 2d. He had also accepted an invi-
tation to meet the Legislature of Pennsylvania, at
Harrisburg, the State capital, on the afternoon of
that day. To all expostulations and advice, the
President-elect said: "Both of these appointments I
shall keep, if it costs me my life.,> The flag-raising
took place as previously arranged. Lincoln was
formally presented to a great company of people,

Abrahar

fccly settled that there was a plot to assassinate

1 as he passed through Baltimore. This m-

was laid oetore Lincoln on his &mv£|
ilphia. At the same time, Gen. Wtfdktft
then commanding the army of the United'

and residing in Washington, was by his
agents apprised of the existence of the
orementioned. Here were two independent
i of information, and, in conjunction with
r Seward, of New York, a trusty messenger,
edenck W. &mm*4* frag sent to Philadelphia,

Abraham Lincoln

From a steel engraving.

and
nd.

m

State capital, on the afternoon of
all expostulations and advice, the
aid: "Both of these appointments I
costs me my life." The flag-raising

previously arranged Lincoln*™

From Springfield to Washington 231

gathered from far and wide, — among them doubtless
being some of the men who were concerned in the
assassination plot. With cheerfulness and dignity,
Lincoln made an admirable address. Standing in
the room where the immortal Declaration was
signed, weighed down with contending emotions,
not the least oppressive of which, we may be sure,
was that inspired by his patriotic advocacy of the
principle laid down in that famous Declaration,
Lincoln again pleaded for the maintenance of the
doctrines of universal liberty. It was this, he said,
that gave promise that in due time the weight should
be lifted from the shoulders of all men. And he
added: "If this country cannot be saved without
giving up that principle, I was about to say I would
rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender
it." Only those few who knew at that time of the
wicked plot against his life, noticed the allusion to
what was evidently in Lincoln's mind — the danger
of assassination that then menaced him.

Passing out upon a platform that had been built
in front of Independence Hall, Lincoln took hold of
the halyards and ran to the top of the flag-staff the
beautiful banner of stars and stripes that had been
prepared for this special occasion. Amid the cheers
of the vast multitude, the national ensign, now an
object of hatred and contempt in so many States of
the Union, floated brilliantly from the mast-head,
raised by the willing hands of the man who, of all
others in the Republic, had been most faithful to the
principles and sentiments of the Declaration pro-
claimed from this sacred spot.

232

Abraham Lincoln

Later in the day, when Lincoln addressed the as-
sembled Legislature of the State, in Harrisburg, he
said, speaking of the flag-raising:

" Our friends there had provided a magnificent flag of
the country. They had arranged it so that I was given
the honor of raising it to the head of its staff. And when
it went up I was pleased that it went to its place by the
strength of my own feeble arm. When, according to the
arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it flaunted glori-
ously to the wind without an accident, in the bright
glowing sunshine of the morning, I could not help hop-
ing that there was in the entire success of that beautiful
ceremony at least something of an omen of what is to
come. Nor could I help feeling then, as I often have felt,
that in the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble
instrument. I had not provided the flag ; I had not made
the arrangements for elevating it to its place. I had ap-
plied but a very small portion of my feeble strength in
raising it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of
the people who had arranged it; and if I can have the
same generous cooperation of the people of the nation, I
think the flag of our country may yet be kept flaunting
gloriously.' 1

When Lincoln had been welcomed to Harrisburg,
on his arrival, the Speaker had uttered some words,
rather unadvisedly perhaps, as to the military sup-
port that Pennsylvania would give the imperilled
Union in case of need. Right royally did the State
fulfil that implied promise; but Lincoln deprecated
any reference to the possibility, much more to the
probability, that we should have a war with the

From Springfield to Washington 233

South. And in his speech at the State capitol he
said:

" I recur for a moment to some words uttered at the
hotel in regard to what has been said about the military
support which the General Government may expect from
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a proper emergency.
To guard against any possible mistake do I recur to this.
It is not with any pleasure that I contemplate the pos-
sibility that a necessity may arise in this country for the
use of the military arm. While I am exceedingly gratified
to see the manifestation upon your streets of your military
force here, and exceedingly gratified at your promise here
to use that force upon a proper emergency — while I make
these acknowledgments, I desire to repeat, in order to
preclude any possible misconstruction, that I do most
sincerely hope that we shall have no use for them ; that it
will never become their duty to shed blood, and most
especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that,
so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a
result shall in any wise be brought about, it shall be
through no fault of mine."

The general expectation was that Lincoln, with the
party that had come on from the West with him,
should take a late train that night for Washing-
ton, passing through Baltimore. In order to frus-
trate the plans of the conspirators, it was privately
arranged that he should take an earlier train and
depart from Harrisburg without the usual public
announcement being given by telegraph. Accord-
ingly, the telegraph wires were cut in every direc-
tion. Harrisburg was isolated from the rest of the
country, so far as this means of communication was

234

Abraham Lincoln

concerned, and Lincoln, accompanied by two or
three devoted personal friends, took a special train
to Philadelphia, drove at once to the railway station,
found ready the Washington train, and so passed
through Baltimore hours before he was expected to
arrive there. There have been many absurd stories
circulated since then as to Lincoln being compelled
to assume a disguise for this dangerous part of the
journey. It is sufficiently disgraceful to the Republic
of the United States that its lawfully elected chief
magistrate should have been put in danger of his life
when proceeding from his home to the seat of govern-
ment. But the tales of a masquerading disguise,
donned for this occasion, were invented, for the most
part, by those who secretly sympathized with the
would-be assassins. Unfortunately, some of these
idle tales have survived, to be repeated by careless
writers.

Speaking of this sad episode long afterwards, Lin-
coln said: "I did not then, nor do I now, believe I
should have been assassinated had I gone through
Baltimore as first contemplated, but I thought it
wise to run no risk where no risk was necessary. "
Washington was surprised to wake up early on the
morning of February 23, 1 861, to find that the
President-elect, so soon to be President in fact, had
arrived safely. His family came on soon after him,
and the party were installed at temporary quarters
in a hotel, pending his formal inauguration into the
great office to which he had been chosen. Washing-
ton was intensely secession in its social sympathies.
It had been dominated for years by the Southern

From Springfield to Washington 235

and slaveholding element. The leaders of society
hated the " Black Republicans" and all connected
with them. They were glad that a war for slavery
was coming, and they showed their disloyalty to
the Union by every possible means, serious or silly.
The Rebels had adopted Dixie as a 11 national" air
for the new confederacy, and this and other alleged
Rebel tunes poured from the windows of the houses
of the Rebel-sympathizers, day and night, until some
of the regiments that occupied Washington later in
the year took up the so-called Rebel strains and
made them too common to be regarded any longer as
exclusively Rebel property. These envenomed and
irritated people were at a loss for slanders vile enough
and epithets unsavory enough to express their de-
testation of Lincoln and all that appertained to him.
To this day, undoubtedly, many honest and worthy
people entertain false notions of Lincoln, his family,
his antecedents, and his conduct in office, derived
from the malicious gossip of those who hoped, for
a time, that he would be sent back to Illinois dead
or alive, and that "President Davis" would come
and take his place. All this was of short duration.
The truth of history sooner or later is vindicated.
But it is worth while to put on record, as a faithful
chronicle of the time, the fact that no man was more
thoroughly misunderstood or more bitterly maligned
than was Abraham Lincoln when, on the brink of
civil war, he took up the reins of government.

CHAPTER XVIII.

LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION.

A Notable Gathering in Washington — The First Inaugural Address
— How it was Received North and South — Precautions against
Plots — Formation of the Cabinet — Representative Men.

IT was a notable gathering of men that was assem-
bled about Lincoln when he was inaugurated
President of the United States, March 4, 1861.
Among these were many whose names will always
hold place in the history of our country. James
Buchanan, the weak and irresolute, was just relin-
quishing the reins of government to the new man
4 'from the West." Taney, Chief Justice of the
United States, whose name is forever linked with the
Dred Scott decision, administered the oath of office
to the incoming President. W. H. Seward, formerly
Governor of and then Senator from New York, soon
to be Secretary of State, was there. Senators Sum-
ner and Wilson, of Massachusetts, early Free-Soilers,
and each destined to occupy prominent places in
the management of public affairs, were also there.
Senator "Ben" Wade, of Ohio, another Free-Soil
leader; General Scott, the great military leader of
the time; Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's old rival;
Edward D. Baker, Lincoln's friend and dearly-
beloved companion, and many more who were

236

Lincoln's Inauguration

237

either famous then or subsequently became so, —
these all formed a group of historic interest. The
ceremony of inauguration took place on a platform
constructed at the east front of the Capitol, then not
fully finished, overlooking a large and open esplanade,
at the outer verge of which a marble statue of Wash-
ington shone whitely in the brilliant sunshine.
Curiosity to see the face of the new President, and
anxiety to hear what he might say, had drawn enor-
mous crowds to the national capital. The pressure
of people wras something unprecedented, even in
Washington, where the inauguration of an adminis-
tration had always been a great event, once in four
years. The multitudes of office-hunters doubtless
added greatly to the press of people. The major
portion of the crowd that thronged the capital was
made up of people who were profoundly impressed
with a sense of the gravity of the occasion, the
solemnity of the crisis through which the nation was
now about to pass. Treason lurked in every quarter.
Not only were the departments of the Government
and the halls of Congress poisoned by the presence of
open or secret Rebels, but many officers of the army
and navy were ready to serve in the ranks of the
seceders. Some of these had already accepted ap-
pointments and commissions from the so-called
1 1 Confederate States of America," while they were
yet in the service of the Republic. Men distrusted
each other. Spies were known to be about, and sus-
picions of a plot to assassinate the President-elect
were rife. Even while the eager throngs surged
about the platform, high above their heads, on which

238

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln stood with his friends around him, many a
man half -expected that he might hear a gunshot, or
see a sudden rush of conspirators from the marble
colonnades that formed the picturesque back-
ground of the scene. Doubtless, much of this ap-
prehension was not well-founded. It is the unknown
that is most dreaded. So many stories, more or less
exaggerated, had been put into circulation concern-
ing the plans of the conspirators, their possible plots
and desperate hatred, that a suspense, most painful
and tense, pervaded the people. All over the coun-
try, on that famous day, hundreds of thousands of
patriotic citizens waited with almost suspended
breath, to hear portentous news from Washington.

In the midst of that vast concourse Lincoln stood,
calm, dignified, self-possessed, undaunted, and un-
shrinking. The fateful hour had come. He stood
on the threshold of the high office which he was never
to surrender but with his life. His mind was more
occupied with the grave events slowly unfolding in
the history of his country than with anything per-
sonal to himself. He was about to outline and define
his future policy, to give formal expression to his
feelings and sentiments, to indicate, as far as this was
possible in an inaugural address, what course he
would pursue to the States that had declared them-
selves outside of the American Union. Many people,
ardent friends and followers of Lincoln, were even
then afraid that he would take what they called a
" radical' ' view of the situation, and would say some-
thing to anger and exasperate the sullen and hostile
Rebels. They were needlessly alarmed. Lincoln's

Lincoln's Inauguration

239

oration was a model of a generous, pleading, kindly,
and withal reasoning address. His arguments were
more implied than assertive, put in his favorite
form of questions, rather than in declarations.
Clearly, he hoped, as many others then did, that
reason and persuasiveness might yet be brought to
bear upon the masses of the Southern people so that
they would forsake their wilful leaders, or brush
them aside and declare for the Union. To reach
these, through their judgment and their patriotism,
was the main purpose of Lincoln's inaugural ad-
dress. This was a disappointment to the Southern
leaders, and great pains were taken to suppress or
distort some portions of the oration when it was
subsequently printed in the South.

Lincoln took occasion, early in this address, to re-
assure the Southern people of his intention to let
slavery alone where it then existed. It had been
said that the accession to the Presidency of a man
who had been nominated by the Republicans was,
in itself, a threat against slavery; that he would
urge legislation to abolish domestic servitude, and
would instantly begin his administration with
measures designed to encourage slave insurrections
and a general unsettlement of Southern institutions.
To dispel this delusion, which had been industriously
fostered, Lincoln said:

"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the
Southern States that, by the accession of a Republican ad-
ministration, their property and their peace and personal
security are to be endangered. There never has been

240

Abraham Lincoln

any reasonable 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 ad-
dresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches
when I declare that ' I have no purpose, directly or in-
directly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the
States where it exists : I believe I have no lawful right to
do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with
the full knowledge that I had made this and many
similar declarations, and had never recanted them."

These were reassuring words ; words anxiously de-
signed to conciliate the South, to remove possible
misapprehensions, and allay groundless suspicions.
We shall see how ineffectual they were to change the
determination of the men who had resolved upon
rebellion. In like manner he committed himself to
the doctrine, enunciated in the Federal Constitution,
that a slave who escapes from a slave State into a
free State is not thereby made free ; for the doctrine
of the Republicans was that only the voluntary
bringing of a slave into free territory emancipated
him. And it was shocking to some of Lincoln's
more radical friends that he should thus justify the
Fugitive Slave law as constitutional. Lincoln merely
insisted on such an administration of the law that no
free man, under any circumstances, should be sur-
rendered as a slave.

He traced the process by which the Union of the
States had been formed and the Constitution had
become the fundamental law of the Republic, from
which he argued that an act of secession, so-called,

Lincoln's Inauguration

241

was of no effect ; that no State could leave the Union
without the assent of the other States of that Union.
This is the way he put the case: "It follows from
these views that no State, upon its own mere motion,
can lawfully get out of the Union ; that 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 insurrection-
ary, or revolutionary, according to circumstances.' '
Then Lincoln, having shown by a clear and luminous
argument that no State could "lawfully get out of
the Union," proceeded to say that the oath to sup-
port the Constitution expressly enjoined on him the
duty of seeing that the laws of the United States
were faithfully executed in all the States ; and that
he should do this until the sovereign people, the
rightful masters, should refuse to supply him with
the means of enforcing that authority or in some
authoritative manner direct to the contrary. But
he immediately added, as if solicitous that his peace-
ful and amicable intentions should be fully appre-
ciated : "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace,
but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it
will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In
doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and
there shall be none unless it is forced upon the na-
tional authority,"

It was this express, solemn, and emphatic de-
claration of the incoming President that discon-
certed the Rebel leaders. They had expected that
Lincoln would threaten ; but, with his usual sagacity,
he laid upon his enemies, the enemies of the Union,

VOL. VIII.— 16.

242 Abraham Lincoln

the responsibility of beginning the war, if war was to
be. Lincoln was always, as we have seen, fair and
generous in his treatment of his opponents. This
generosity breathed in every line of his inaugural
address. Nevertheless, nothing would move him to
surrender a principle once accepted as truth. Pass-
ing from this pleading for full faith and confidence
in his peaceable intentions, he immediately added:
"The powTer confided to me will be used to hold,
occupy, and possess the property and places belong-
ing to the Government." The men who, even then,
were planning to seize forts, arsenals, and other gov-
ernmental property, as their "share" of the property
of the old Union, were doubtless glad to hear this
utterance. They wanted war. Lincoln said that
there would be no invasion ; but this property of the
Republic would be held and defended. The Rebel
leaders knew that they were ready to seize this prop-
erty, and that bloodshed and violence must needs
come. Lincoln's plea for peace, while it was pur-
posely designed to appease the South, had the effect
of turning upon the Rebel leaders the responsibility
of beginning and inviting hostilities.

Lincoln also argued against the possibility of a
complete separation of the Northern States and the
Southern States, even should both consent, or agree,
to such an attempt at a division of the Republic.
"Physically speaking," he said, "we cannot sepa-
rate ; we cannot remove our respective 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

Lincoln's Inauguration

2-3

other, but the different parts of our country cannot
do this." And he showed that they must remain
face to face, either as friends or enemies, and that
there must be intercourse between the two ; and that
it would not be possible to make that intercourse
more advantageous as aliens than it then was as
friends. Lincoln showed his undying faith in the
people by saying, after he had argued pleadingly for
his proposition that the whole matter in dispute
should be left to the people: ' 'While the people
retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration,
by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seri-
ously injure the Government in the short space of
four years.' 1

As Lincoln's voice, trained to open-air speaking,
rang out, clear and resonant, above the vast throngs
of people before him, the feelings of those who heard
him were deeply stirred. The intense, passionate
love for the Union that had been developed since its
existence had been threatened, manifested itself in
spontaneous cheering whenever any allusion to that
sacred compact fell on their ears. Everybody hoped
for the best — hoped that the Union might be saved
and war averted. But it was also true that the
people cheered lustily at every expression of the new
President's determination to maintain the dignity of
the Government and defend the public property. It
was evident that those who heard the inaugural ad-
dress were, like Lincoln, glad to avail themselves of
every honorable device to keep the peace and avoid
war, but likewise determined to surrender no vital
principle for the sake of present peace. Lincoln's

244

Abraham Lincoln

voice was naturally plaintive, and it sounded sadly
and with pathetic pleading as he ended his address
with the eloquent words :

" I am loth to close. 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 cords of memory, stretching from every battle-
field 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.'*

The oration was done. Its affectionate and tender
appeal fell on unheeding ears, so far as it was ad-
dressed to the South and to the Southern leaders.
They were resolved on war — war for which they had
long been secretly preparing. Their response to
these loving words was only in terms of coarse jest
and derision. But a responsive shout of approval
went up from the loyal North. Lincoln's speech was
especially indorsed by the calm judgment of patriotic
people. And among those who pressed about Presi-
dent Lincoln, when he had solemnly taken his oath
to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the Republic, was Stephen A. Doulgas, Lincoln's
ancient opponent in the field of politics. When Lin-
coln rose to begin his address, he held his hat in his
hand. Looking about in the press for a place to
bestow his head-covering, his eye caught that of
Douglas, who immediately reached forward and took
it; and he held Lincoln's hat while he delivered his
inaugural oration. When it was finished, Douglas

Lincoln's Inauguration

245

restored the hat to its owner, and, at the same
time, grasped the new President's hand and warmly
assured him that he, his sometime political rival, not
only congratulated him on his accession to high office,
but pledged him that he would stand by him and
give him hearty support in upholding the Constitu-
tion and enforcing the laws of the country. The
two men clasped hands, and the "Sangamon Chief"
and the ' ' Little Giant of Illinois ' ' were friends ever
after.

It had been feared that some attempt would be
made on Lincoln's life while on his way to or from
the Capitol, where the inauguration ceremony took
place. Gen. Scott, who was in charge of the military
arrangements, used every possible precaution to
thwart any such plot as might have been on foot.
But, even then, many timid people were afraid that
sharp-shooters might be concealed on the roofs or
in the upper floors of the houses along the route of
the procession, and fire at Lincoln as he was slowly
driven to and fro. Therefore, everybody felt relieved
when the ceremony was over and President Lincoln
was safely in the White House, his family about him,
and his term of office formally begun. Mr. Buchanan
the outgoing President, accompanied Mr. Lincoln to
the Capitol and returned with him to the White
House, where, after shaking hands with his suc-
cessor, ex-President Buchanan left him. He was
undoubtedly glad to lay down the cares of the
Government ; and, having so administered affairs as
to make things very difficult for him who came after
him in office, he went away leaving few people to

246

Abraham Lincoln

regret his going out of office. Buchanan went out of
place when the affairs of the Government were in the
most hopeless condition of disorder and confusion.
Lincoln came in when treason was rampant in every
department of the Government ; the army and navy
were scattered far and wide; the national treasury
was empty and the national credit at a very low ebb ;
an armed rebellion was threatening the existence of
the Union and the permanency of the Government ;
and many people who were not friends of the seces-
sionists were uncertain whether the National Govern-
ment had the lawful right, if it had the power, to
prevent the Southern States from going out of the
Union and staying out of it, as they proposed to do.
Even at this late day, when Lincoln was inaugurated,
there were not a few loyal men who thought that it
would be best, rather than resort to blows, to say to
the Southern States, "Erring sisters, go in peace. "
Lincoln could not possibly take that view of the case.
How would he try to preserve the Federal Union?
Everybody was asking this grave question.

The first duty of the President was the formation
of his Cabinet. These were the men selected for the
purpose of assisting Lincoln in carrying on the
Government in the trying times that were coming:
Secretary of State, William H. Seward; Secretary of
War, Simon Cameron; Secretary of the Treasury,
Salmon P. Chase; Secretary of the Navy, Gideon
Welles; Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair;
Secretary of the Interior, Caleb B. Smith; Attorney-
General, Edward Bates.

It will be noticed that of these seven men, four —

if §&t

rf ffri t his going out of office Bitchanon went out of
place when the affairs of the Government were in the
most hopeless condition of diaonVr and confusion.

Lincoln came in when treats* n\ waa rampart u> every
department of the Government ; the army and navy
were scattered far and wide ; the national treasury

was empty and the national credit at a very low ebb;

an armed rebellion was threatening the existence of
the Union and the permanency of the Government ;
and many people who were not friends of the seces-
sionists were uncertain whether the National Govern-
ment had the lawfirf tight, if it had the power, to
prevent the Southern $tfe&& fmm flotaf **t of the

Lincoln and his Cabinet

From a steel engraving.
V^OUiU. be best, F&5tiftesv of W. C. Crane Esa) ^

the Southern States, "Brrmg sisters, go m peace."
Lincoln could not possibly take that view of the case?
How would he try to preserve the Federal Union?
Everybody was asking this grave question.

The first duty of the President was the formation
of his Cabinet. These were the men selected for the
purpose of assisting Lincoln in carrying on the
Government in the trying times that were coming:
Secretary of State, William H. Seward; Secretary of
War, Simon Cameron; Secretary of the Treasury,
Salmon P. Chase; Secretary of the Navy, Gideon
Welles; Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair;
Secretary of the Interior, Caleb B. Smith; Attorney-
General, Edward Bates.

It will be noticed that of these seven men four*^-

Lincoln's Inauguration 247

Seward, Chase, Bates, and Cameron — had been
candidates for the Presidential nomination when
Lincoln was, in i860; but Mr. Cameron's candidacy
was not very seriously pressed. Many of Lincoln's
friends were troubled by his having selected for
Cabinet councillors men who were ambitious of
occupying the Presidential office, and who might
prove mischievous by scheming for the next nomina-
tion, which would be made in 1864. Mr. Seward and
Mr. Chase, especially, were men who each had a great
political following, and who might naturally be
active in schemes to secure the Presidential office by
and by. But, although Lincoln's friends were thus
disturbed, the President was sure he was right. It
was necessary, he thought, to unite in the support of
his administration all the factions and all the con-
tending interests of the loyal States, as far as that was
possible. With one exception, that of Mr. Welles,
each man in the Cabinet represented a large political
following and a different section of the country at
large. Lincoln said to his personal advisers: "The
times are too grave and perilous for ambitious schemes
and personal rivalries." He could not believe it
possible that statesmen of the ability and renown of
those whom he had called around him could cherish
plans for their personal aggrandizement while the
life of the Republic was in danger. "I need them
all," he said; "they enjoy the confidence of their
several States and sections, and they will strengthen
the administration." To others associated with him
in the management of affairs, he said: "Let us for-
get ourselves and join hands, like brothers, to save

248

Abraham Lincoln

the Republic. If we succeed, there will be glory-
enough for all."

It is not generally the custom of our people to call
any man the leader of the Cabinet, the premier, but
Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, was a statesman of
commanding ability and wisdom; and his high
qualities as a scholar, diplomatist, writer, and
speaker, unquestionably adorned his office and shed
lustre on the Lincoln administration. During his
term, for the first time in our history, the Secretary
of State was often spoken of as "the premier,"
although that title was never officially recognized.
Mr. Seward had been Governor of the great State of
New York, and Senator of the United States. A
skilful politician and a most persuasive orator, he
had done much to consolidate and harmonize the
Republican party. His selection to what is popu-
larly regarded as the first place in the Cabinet greatly
pleased the people.

Of the other members of the Cabinet, Mr. Chase
was probably the best known and respected, after
Mr. Seward. He, too, had been Governor of his
State (Ohio) as well as Senator of the United States.
He was a more advanced, or radical, Republican
than any of his colleagues in the Cabinet, having been
regarded as an Abolitionist. He framed the plat-
form of the Liberty, or Free-Soil, party that was
adopted in Buffalo in 1848. He was a lawyer of
profound learning, and his mind was judicial and
well-balanced. He had had much to do with the
upbuilding of the Republican party, and, like Mr.
Seward, had been the beloved candidate of many

Lincoln's Inauguration 249

ardent party men when Lincoln was made the final
choice of the organization. Mr. Cameron, as Secre-
tary of War, was also an active and useful politician
and leader of men. He was accused of giving out
profitable contracts and lucrative offices to his
friends, as he had the power to do ; and, after a few
months of service, he retired from the War Depart-
ment, giving place to Edwin M. Stanton, who had
been Buchanan's Attorney -General toward the
stormy close of that administration. The Blair
family, always Democratic, had exercised great
influence in national affairs, Francis P. Blair, senior,
having been a close friend of President Andrew
Jackson, and, as editor of the Washington Globe, a
leader of public opinion. The sons, Montgomery
and Francis P. Blair, junior, were active and zealous
politicians. Montgomery, as Postmaster-General,
represented Maryland, one of the border States.
New England was represented in Gideon Welles,
of Connecticut, as Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Caleb
B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, was of Illinois,
and had been in Congress when Lincoln represented
the Sangamon district in that body. Edward Bates,
whom many supported for the Presidential nomina-
tion in i860, was a gentleman of refinement, great
learning, and dignity. He was a lawyer, and, as
Attorney-General, had served his country with
eminent skill. He was formerly a Whig, and, being
of Missouri, was a border State representative. Thus,
the States represented in the Cabinet by these men,
all of them amply qualified for the proper discharge
of their duties, were New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,

250 Abraham Lincoln

Maryland, Connecticut, Illinois, and Missouri. Mr.
Stanton, who subsequently succeeded Mr. Cameron
in the War Department, was a resident of Ohio. It
will be seen that these seven men represented a great
variety of political sentiments and opinions. They
did not always agree. Lincoln sometimes facetiously
referred to the Cabinet as the Happy Family.

By those who knew Seward and did not know
Lincoln, it was supposed that the former would be
virtually the President, and that beyond the signing
of important papers Lincoln would have very little
to do with shaping the policy of the administra-
tion. Mr. Seward undertook to revise and rewrite
the inaugural address above described. Subse-
quently, he mapped out a plan of administrative
operations for the President, volunteering to take
the general direction of affairs, if this were required
of him. It was not required of him, and they who
had expected that Mr. Seward or anybody else
would act as President in place of Lincoln were soon
undeceived. By his vigor, firmness, and unshrink-
ing determination, Lincoln speedily showed the
world that he, and not another, was the President of
the United States.

CHAPTER XIX.

PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

In the White House — Assembling of the Rebel Congress — Rebel Emis-
saries Sent to Washington — A Vigorous Policy Clamored for —
The First Gun at Sumter — Great Excitement throughout the
Republic — A Nation in Arms — Attack on the Sixth Massachu-
setts— Notable Deaths.

WHEN he installed himself in the White House,
the official residence of Presidents of the
United States, Lincoln found that two lamentable
features of affairs were really not wholly unobjection-
able, from one point of view. He was surrounded
by hordes of office-seekers; the country was on the
brink of war. Nevertheless, with his ready way of
finding something encouraging, even in calamities,
he said that if the people of the loyal States did not
have implicit confidence in the stability of the Union
and the Government they would not flock in such
numbers to Washington to hunt for places under
that Government. And, although Buchanan's ad-
ministration had gone out of power leaving every-
thing in the wildest confusion, it had left no policy
for Lincoln to revoke or modify. As he expressed
it, there was nothing to be undone. Buchanan had
merely let things drift. The Rebels, meanwhile,
had been busily engaged in beginning their so-called
Confederacy. But they made very little progress.

251

252

Abraham Lincoln

No troops had been sent against them. They had
no " armed invader" to repel, as they had expected.
Although the bulk of the United States army was
practically in their hands, they had no excuse for
fighting, none for that invasion of the North which
their leaders had promised and some of their allies
in the free States had expected.

The Rebel Congress assembled at Montgomery,
and, on the ninth of March, 1861, passed a bill for the
organization of an army. This was an insurrec-
tionary measure, and was intended to draw the fire,
so to speak, of the Government. But no steps were
taken by Lincoln. Next, two commissioners, or
emissaries, Mr. Forsyth of Alabama, and Mr. Craw-
ford of Georgia, were sent to Washington to nego-
tiate a treaty with the United States Government,
just as if they represented a foreign government.
They presented themselves at the State Department,
but no official reception was accorded them, and
when they applied to Lincoln, the President refused
to see them, but sent them, with a certain grim
humor, a copy of his inaugural address as an intima-
tion of the views which, as President of the United
States, he had just enunciated. They were in a
quandary. Doubtless they expected to be arrested,
as they might have been, being openly in rebellion
against the Government and liable to be tried for
treason. Still, the President did nothing. The
commissioners dallied in the national capital for a
time, in communication with their friends in the
South, and gleaning what information they could.
In order to delay their departure, they had asked

President Abraham Lincoln 253

that the reply of the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward,
should be given to them as late as the eighth of
April, and this request was acceded to. It was,
taken altogether, a most extraordinary situation.
Several States of the Union were formally in revolt
against the Government of the Republic, with a so-
called Congress in session, a full-fledged Government
in running order, an army and navy in process of
formation, and diplomatic agents at the capital of
the nation. Lincoln made no sign.

While the commissioners, Forsyth and Crawford,
were hanging about Washington, Mr. Talbot, a
lieutenant in the United States army, had been sent
to Charleston, South Carolina, by the President, to
notify the authorities of that State and Gen. Beau-
regard, commander of the Rebel forces, that Fort
Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, would be provisioned
at all hazards. This determination of the Govern-
ment was also communicated to Forsyth and Craw-
ford in Washington. On the eighth of April, Secre-
tary Seward's formal reply was given to the com-
missioners, although it was dated March fifteenth.
In the document, which was a memorandum merely,
Mr. Seward formally told the commissioners that
they could have no recognition from the Govern-
ment of the United States.

In their reply, the commissioners said that they
had expected the document earlier, although they
acknowledged that they had, as they expressed
it, ''consented" to a delay; and they intimated
that this delay had been availed of by the United
States Government to prepare for war. Referring to

254

Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln's expressed intention to send relief
to Fort Sumter, they said that this was, in effect, "a
declaration of war against the Confederate States,"
and that, as representatives of their people, they
accepted "the gage of battle there thrown down to
them." They accordingly departed to their own
country, hopeful that the Government had forced
upon them an attitude of defence. Still, no overt
act of warfare was permitted by Lincoln, who
patiently waited for the Rebels to fire the first gun.
He had not long to wait.

The city of Charleston was seething with a mob of
secessionists, impatient for the war to open. The
newspapers and the more prominent leaders clamored
for hostilities to be begun by the Southern States.
In a public speech, delivered in Charleston, April 10,
1 86 1, Mr. Roger A. Pry or, of Virginia, declared that
no terms of agreement could be acceptable to the
South short of recognition of the Confederacy. Other
Southerners expressed similar opinions. The senti-
ment in the South was overwhelmingly in favor of
beginning active hostilities against "the old Union,"
as the phrase went. The leaders were determined,
if possible, to trick the President into giving them a
pretext for war. On his part he was equally
determined that the overt act, for which everybody
was waiting and about which everybody was talking,
should come from the Rebels.

The delay was exasperating to many of the people
of the loyal States. Men clamored for "a vigorous
policy," although just such a policy had been dis-
tinctly laid down in the inaugural of the President.

President Abraham Lincoln 255

They wanted something done, and they could not
see why Lincoln should wait. The newspapers and
public speakers of the North generally demanded
that the traitors should be arrested and punished.
Especially was the attention of the whole people,
North and South, fixed upon Fort Sumter, where
Major Robert Anderson was in command of a very
small force of United States troops. The Rebels
regarded the occupation of that fort as a standing
menace to the city of Charleston, and they had,
moreover, all along insisted that all forts, arsenals,
and other public property of the United States
within the limits of the so-called Confederacy were
now the property of the seceded States, being their
" share' ' of the joint property of the now divided
Union. The garrison of Fort Sumter had been on
the mainland previously, but when the troubles
began, Major Anderson moved his command to Fort
Sumter one night, to the great wrath of the Rebels,
who construed this as "an overt act" of hostility
from the Government of the United States. The
Major Anderson to whom reference is here made is
the same who, as Lieutenant Anderson, swore
Abraham Lincoln into the military service of the
United States during the Black Hawk war, in 1832.
Since that time many changes had occurred. One
of the three regular officers who were at Dixon's
Ferry, preparing for the war with Black Hawk's
men, was now in command of beleaguered Sumter.
Another, Zachary Taylor, had been President of the
United States, and was dead. Another, Jefferson
Davis, was President of the Rebel Confederacy. And

256

Abraham Lincoln

the volunteer captain was President of the United

States.

The Rebels erected batteries on the land command-
ing Fort Sumter, and their guns were trained upon
the fortification with a view to compelling its sur-
render. The feeling of the men who were nearest to
the President was that the fort should be reinforced
and provisioned and held at all hazards. It was
the pivotal point of the impending struggle, it was
said, and the fort should be held as a token that the
authority of the Government was yet unbroken in
the South. Fort Pickens, in the harbor of Pensacola,
had been relieved by orders from Washington, and the
Rebels were greatly enraged thereat. General Scott,
on the other hand, advised that the fort in Charles-
ton Harbor should be abandoned, as a military
necessity. Finally, President Lincoln notified Beau-
regard, commanding the Rebel forces at Charleston,
that Fort Sumter would shortly be provisioned.
This would be an act of humanity. The garrison
were suffering for lack of food. But the Rebel
authorities were determined to consider the sending
of provisions to Sumter as that "overt act" for which
they had been so long waiting. Accordingly, Beau-
regard, April 1 2th, sent a message to Anderson
demanding the surrender of Fort Sumter. Anderson
declined to surrender. He was then asked if he
would evacuate the fort, to which he replied that he
would leave it on the 15th, provided he did not
receive instructions to the contrary, or succor from
the North before the day arrived. Beauregard
then sent word in a despatch, dated at Charleston,

President Abraham Lincoln 257

April 12, 1 86 1, 3:30 a.m., that in one hour he would
open fire on Fort Sumter. At half -past four in the
morning, true to his word, Beauregard fired the first
gun. An aged secessionist — Ruffin by name — was
permitted the privilege of firing the first gun. It
was said that this was the final knell of the Union,
and many estimable men and women in Charleston,
as well as throughout the South, envied the amateur
gunner that which was thought to be a very precious
and glorious privilege. The fort was feebly de-
fended. The entire force left to man the fortifica-
tions in Charleston Harbor by the treacherous Floyd,
Buchanan's Secretary of War, was only sixty-five
men, instead of the one thousand or more usually
required. The troops were now nearly famished,
and, after a few replies to the fierce cannonading
from the Rebel batteries, the flag of the United
States fell from Fort Sumter. On the following day,
April 13th, according to stipulations under which
Anderson had surrendered, the flag was again hoisted
and saluted with fifty guns. Then the brave fellows
marched out, and the fortress was in possession of
the troops of the Rebel Confederacy.

No words can accurately describe the burst of
patriotic wrath that now swept over the North.
The Rebels had insulted the flag of the Republic,
had driven a little fragment of the widely scattered
army out of one of the national defences, and had
hoisted over that work the new-fangled emblem of a
power that could never be recognized as lawful by
any citizen of the United States. Up to that
moment there had been many loyal persons who

VOL. VIII. — 17.

258

Abraham Lincoln

were doubtful as to the right of the National Govern-
ment to ' ' coerce' 1 a State. The doctrines so sedu-
lously preached during Buchanan's last days in office
had many supporters in the free States. Even up to
the day before Sumter fell, prominent politicians
were found in the North ready to advocate the
organization of a great compromise party, with the
Union so reconstructed that slavery would be recog-
nized and protected everywhere by the law of the
land. In an instant, as it were, all this rubbish
was swept away by the flood-tide of patriotism that
rose in the States of the North. With a certain
passionateness that would listen no longer to talk of
compromise, the loyal people demanded that the
insult to the Republic should be avenged and the
culprits pursued. Up to that time, there had been
no preparations for war except those that were
privately and even secretly carried on by the orders
of Lincoln, who knew that the day was coming when
the Rebels would take the responsibility of beginning
the war. Now, in consequence of his long-suffering
forbearance and his wise slowness, the gun had been
fired by them. The North was all aflame.

Party ties disappeared. There was but one party
— that for the preservation of the Union, the defence
of the insulted Republic. In the rush and clamor of
an excited public opinion, the voice of partisanship
was hushed. Nobody dared to whisper a word about
the unlawfulness of coercion, or the impolicy of pro-
voking the people of the seceded States. There was
but one voice, and that demanded that treason
should be suppressed. President Lincoln issued a

President Abraham Lincoln 259

call for seventy-five thousand troops, in a procla-
mation dated April 15, 1861. In that document,
after reciting the fact that powerful combinations to
obstruct the execution of the laws of the United
States existed in certain specified States, the Presi-
dent appealed to all loyal citizens to promote, as far
as possible, the effort made to defend and protect
the national Union and to redress wrongs already
long enough endured. He declared, furthermore,
as follows :

" I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to
the force hereby called forth will probably be to repossess
the forts, places, and property which have been seized
from the Union ; and in every case the utmost care will be
observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to
avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference
with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens of
any part of the country."

Even in this extreme and trying moment, with the
full assurance of a long war before him, Lincoln was
determined that nobody should justly say that he
had let loose the dogs of war without anxious desire
to save from harm all innocent persons. In this
proclamation, also, the persons in rebellion against
the Government were exhorted and commanded to
lay down their arms and disperse. At the same
time, in view of the gravity of the crisis that had
arisen, both houses of Congress were summoned to
meet at the national capital, July 4, 1861.

The South had been long preparing for war. The
Northern States were almost wholly unprepared.

260

Abraham Lincoln

Members of Buchanan's Cabinet, who had had
facilities for doing so, had crowded into the States
of the South every valuable means of assault and
defence that the Government owned. In the North,
Lincoln's call for men was received with tremendous
enthusiasm. In the South, it was greeted with
shrieks of derision. In the border States (the States
lying between those that were already, as they
believed, out of the Union, and the free States) the
call for troops was received with coldness. The
attitude of these States — Virginia, Missouri, Tennes-
see, Maryland, and others — had been an object of
great anxiety to the President and his advisers.
Indeed, for a long time after the war actually began,
what the border States would say and do was thought
to be of very great importance. If they joined the
Rebel Confederacy, all was lost. If they preserved a
neutral attitude, it was felt that their inclinations
would be towards the Rebels, and that their territory
would be a convenient camping-ground for men bent
upon an invasion of the loyal North. This latter
idea was industriously cultivated in the South, and
newspapers and speakers of that time constantly
referred to the certainty that the Confederate flag
would soon float over the Capitol at Washington, and
that Lincoln and his Cabinet would become fugitives.

The Governor of Delaware issued a call for troops
to defend the property and citizens of that State
from violence, and, taking the ground that he had
no authority to respond with State troops to a call
from the National Government, he said that troops
volunteering might choose between defending home

President Abraham Lincoln 261

interests and offering their services to the National
Government. The Governor of Maryland called out
four regiments of militia to serve within the limits
of the State. The Governor of Virginia replied to the
call in a letter addressed to the President, in which
he denounced Lincoln's call for troops as an attempt
to subjugate the South ; and he defied the adminis-
tration in bitter terms. The Governor of North
Carolina replied in a similar vein, declaring that he
would be no party to "this war upon the liberties of
a free people." The Governor of Kentucky made
answer that that State would "furnish no troops for
the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern
States." The Governors of Tennessee and Arkansas
replied in a like strain ; and the Governor of Missouri,
who afterwards took part in the war against the
Government, said: "Your requisition is illegal,
unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical,
and cannot be complied with."

These singular utterances of Governors of States
forming parts of the American Republic are of inter-
est now as showing, in some degree, the condition of
feeling that existed along that line between the old
cotton-growing, slave-breeding section of the Union
and the free States of the North.

Far different was the response from the loyal
North. Massachusetts was the first to reply with
troops ready for the march. John A. Andrew, then
and afterwards a devoted friend of the Union, and a
patriot of unswerving fidelity, was Governor of the
State. He responded with four regiments of men
within forty-eight hours after Lincoln's proclamation

262

Abraham Lincoln

was received. It should be said here that the readi-
ness of Massachusetts to answer with fighting men
was largely due to the vigilance of Nathaniel P.
Banks, who, when Governor of that State, some years
before, placed the militia on a footing of such effi-
ciency as to armament and drill that they were pre-
pared for the call which, as he had long believed,
must eventually come. The Governor of Rhode
Island, William Sprague, called the Legislature
together, offered the Government one thousand
infantry and a battalion of artillery, and, placing
himself at the head of these forces, marched to
Washington. Governor Morgan, of New York, and
Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, responded with a
like promptness and with the tender of the vast
resources of these two great States. It was a
Pennsylvania regiment, hastily despatched, that
first reached the national capital, just in time to
defeat a seizure by the Rebel forces. In the North-
west, where Lincoln was idolized by the people, the
rush to arms in defence of the Union was wonderful.
Under the call for men, Ohio's quota was thirteen
thousand men. Within a week after that call was
issued, seventy-one thousand had offered their ser-
vices to the Governor of that State, the patriotic
Dennison.

This fiery and determined temper prevailed
throughout the free States of the North. It is no
exaggeration to say that men fought for the privilege
of fighting for the country and the flag. Those who
were compelled to remain behind regarded their more
fortunate fellow-townsmen with envy. Lincoln had

President Abraham Lincoln 263

called for seventy-five thousand. More than five
hundred thousand had sprung to arms in response to
the call. Those who were chosen were the citizen
soldiers of the Republic. They were drawn from
homes and families in which the lessons of patriotism
had been taught them from childhood. They were
the sons of honorable men and women, many of
whom were the direct lineal descendants of those who
fought for the independence of the Republic. They
went forth to battle for the imperilled Union fol-
lowed by the prayers and cheered by the willing con-
sent of fathers and mothers. Such an outpouring
has never been seen elsewhere on the face of the
earth. " Liberty and Union" was the watchword of
these ardent men. In the churches, prayers were
continually offered for the maintenance and preserva-
tion of the Union and the safety and triumph of the
armies defending it. Great moneyed corporations
proffered loans to the impoverished National Govern-
ment. State Legislatures and capitalists subscribed
vast sums of money for the same purpose, and to
provide for the families of those who had gone to the
war. In the streets, in the houses of the people, and
in every place of public amusement war-songs were
sung, war-cries were shouted, and the popular idol of
the hour was the volunteer bound for the devious
verge of battle to be fought. Senators, members of
Congress, civilians of prominence in the nation, and
men who could not possibly have been expected to
enlist in the war, pressed to Washington, pleading for
some opportunity to serve the Government. Arms
for this great multitude were not readily obtainable,

264

Abraham Lincoln

and the State which, like Massachusetts, had been
ready betimes, occupied an enviable position among
its sister States.

Just before the gun was fired on Sumter, Lincoln
was seeing his darkest days. He was profoundly de-
pressed. While he yet retained his abiding faith in
the loyal people, he was, nevertheless, somewhat
influenced by the croakings and the lamentations of
some of those who were around him and who were
despondent over the difficulties of the situation. In
the midst of this gloom, while doubt and uncertainty
hung like a mist over the nation, obscuring cheerful
sights and magnifying shadows, the voice of a mighty
people, as the voice of one man, burst upon the ear of
the melancholy President. A great and free people,
determined that the slaveholders' rebellion should
be crushed, encouraged and stimulated the President
of the Republic. The tread of hundreds of thousands
of feet resounded along the highways and byways of
the North. It was the tread of the mighty army
that should never retire until the country was saved
from disunion and the flag had been restored to the
staff from which it had been lowered in disgrace.

Great intensity was added to this feeling when one
of the regiments marching to the relief of Washington
was fired upon by a secession mob in Baltimore.
This was the 6th Massachusetts regiment, the first
to be despatched to the national capital. The march
of this fine body of men was a novel and startling
event in the history of the country. Everywhere it
provoked a fresh burst of patriotism. Its route to
the borders of the free States was one line of glorious

President Abraham Lincoln 265

welcome and cheer. Women thronged to the railway
trains bearing these young heroes, offering gifts and
refreshments, and vast crowds greeted them with
flags, music, and words of hearty encouragement.
The sight and the news of their march awoke thou-
sands of other young men to dreams of mighty deeds,
and another impetus was given to the volunteering
movement all over the land. The march of this com-
pact body of men through the great metropolitan
city of New York was an event long to be remem-
bered by those who beheld it. The merchant forsook
his ledger and the workman his bench to look upon
the wonderful spectacle of a regiment of fighting men
on the way to the front of battle. Tidings of its
coming awoke the rough and traitorous element of
the population of Baltimore, the same city which
had threatened the life of Lincoln when he was en
route for the national capital. A mob, carrying a
Rebel flag and hurriedly armed, attacked the regiment
in transit, and, on the nineteenth of April, several
members of the 6th Massachusetts were killed in
the streets of that city. Others were wounded, and
the city was in an uproar, the more conspicuous por-
tion of the people declaring that further passage of
troops was not to be permitted.

This event produced a prodigious sensation
throughout the whole land. In the North, the feel-
ing was one of burning indignation. In the South,
there was great rejoicing. The deluded Rebels saw
in the affair confirmation of their belief that no loyal
troops would be allowed to pass over the soil of a
border State to the defence of the capital. Maryland

266

Abraham Lincoln

was a slaveholding State. In the recent election
for President, Lincoln had been given only about
two thousand votes of its ninety-two thousand cast
for the various candidates. Mr. Hicks, the Governor
of the State, was thoroughly frightened, and he im-
plored the President that no more troops should be
permitted to pass through Baltimore. He would
not be answerable for the consequences. He even
suggested that the "dispute" between the North and
South should be referred to the British Minister in
Washington, Lord Lyons, for arbitration. As to
the bringing of troops through Baltimore, Lincoln
said that he did not insist on that, if it could be
avoided, and he left the matter to General Scott, who
had said that men could be carried around the city,
and all possibility of a collision avoided, unless the
citizens sought occasion for a quarrel. As for the
proposition to submit the matters in dispute to arbi-
tration, Lincoln, with his usual wisdom, referred
Governor Hicks to the Secretary of State. In an
admirable reply to the Governor, Secretary Seward,
referring to the burning of the capital of Maryland
by the British, in the war of 1812, said that "there
had been a time when a general of the American
Union, with forces designed for the defence of its
capital, was not unwelcome anywhere in Maryland" ;
and he added that "if all the other nobler sentiments
of Maryland had been obliterated, one, at least, it
was hoped would remain, and that was that no do-
mestic contention should be referred to any foreign
arbitrament, least of all to that of a European
monarchy."

President Abraham Lincoln 267

The attack on the 6th Massachusetts was fol-
lowed by the destruction of the bridges that connect
Baltimore with the Northern and Western States.
For a time, railway communication with the national
capital was interrupted and the danger to that city
was for a time heightened. Its sole defence, during
those days of peril, was a small but loyal body of
volunteer troops under the command of Colonel
Charles P. Stone, an officer who had rendered the
country most valuable service in detecting and dis-
arming a conspiracy headed by men who subse-
quently fled into the Rebel Confederacy. This con-
spiracy had for its object the seizure of the capital
and the public property. The railways being de-
stroyed, troops were compelled to go around Balti-
more by sea. In spite of the protests of Governor
Hicks, General B. F. Butler, commanding the
Massachusetts regiments and the 7th New York,
took his men to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland,
by water, and thence sent them to the defence of
Washington. One dark and stormy night, General
Butler marched into Baltimore, seized and occupied
Federal Hill, a fortified position commanding the
city. The Rebels were overawed. Many of them
were arrested and lodged in jail; others fled into
the Confederacy. The conspiracy was broken up,
and thenceforward Union troops went unmolested
through Baltimore. In due time, the loyal elements
of the population of the State asserted themselves,
and Maryland, true to the Union, refused to pass any
act of hostility to the Government, and furnished
thousands of troops, subsequently, for the defence

268

Abraham Lincoln

of the integrity of the Republic. During the war,
Governor Hicks, his term of office having expired,
was elected to the United States Senate, and there
served his country faithfully until his death.

Another remarkable event that marked the recog-
nition of a state of war was a proclamation issued by
President Lincoln, April 19, 1861, declaring the ports
of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
Florida, and South Carolina in a state of blockade
and closed against the commerce of the world. A
week later, Virginia and North Carolina having been
swept into the whirlpool of secession by the arts of
the Rebel leaders, the ports of those two common-
wealths were added to the list of blockaded points
by a supplementary proclamation by the President.
Another call for troops was issued by President Lin-
coln, May 3, 1 86 1, thirty-nine regiments of infantry
and one regiment of cavalry being asked for ; and at
the same time eighteen thousand volunteer seamen
were called for. The President also directed a con-
siderable increase of the regular army, bringing the
maximum efficiency of the force up to 22,714 men.
The war had fairly begun. The seaports of the
States that had passed acts of secession were closed
to prevent communication with the rest of the world.
The national capital was occupied by troops. Ample
provision was made for the army and navy of the
Republic.

While the Virginia convention was in session, that
body sent a delegation to wait upon President Lin-
coln to ask him what policy he intended to pursue
towards the so-called Confederate States. We may

President Abraham Lincoln 269

suppose that, as the convention was intended by the
Rebel leaders to pass an ordinance of secession de-
claring Virginia out of the Union, this message to
Lincoln was merely a pretext for such action. Lin-
coln gave a formal and written reply to the request,
in which, after expressing his surprise and regret that
he had not already been sufficiently understood, he
said that his policy had been outlined very fully and
clearly, as he thought, in his inaugural address. And
he added: "As I then and therein said, the power
confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and
possess property and places belonging to the Govern-
ment and to collect duties and imposts ; but beyond
what is necessary for these objects, there will be no
invasion, no using of force against or among people
anywhere." Furthermore, he declared that it was
his purpose to repossess Fort Sumter and all other
places seized and taken from the Government, and
he would meet force with force, so far as that was
needed to accomplish that purpose. In consequence
of the seizure of Fort Sumter, he said, it might be
found needful to withdraw the service of the United
States mails from the States that pretended to have
seceded from the Union. He closed by saying that
he would not attempt to collect the revenues by
armed invasion of any part of the country; his ob-
vious meaning being that force would only be used
to recapture military posts seized by the Rebels.

This was certainly clear enough for any candid
person's understanding. Lincoln's policy, again and
again declared, was to defend the public property.
If force was employed to seize it, he must use force

270

Abraham Lincoln

to retake it or to defend it against all comers. Up
to that time, as will be noticed, the mails had been
carried through all the States under the direction of
a Postmaster-General appointed by President Lin-
coln, just as though nothing had happened to
disturb the relations existing between the so-called
Confederate States and the National Government.
Lincoln clung with great patience to the notion, en-
tertained by many, that the rebellious States might
be won back to their allegiance, and, even if he
did not really expect that happy issue of all these
troubles, he was determined to do nothing that
should make it difficult or impossible. The Rebel
leaders were burning to begin an aggressive war.
The President was anxious to have no step taken,
under authority of the Government, that should have
the effect of provoking war. The Rebels longed for
an excuse to begin fighting. Lincoln was determined
to do nothing except what was absolutely necessary
to maintain the rights and dignities of the United
States Government.

It was all in vain. The reply of Lincoln to the
Virginia delegates fell on unheeding ears. By a vote
of eighty -eight to fifty -five that State "went out of
the Union," as the current phrase was, and Virginia
was made thereafter the main battle-field of the war.
Richmond, the capital of the State, became the
capital of the Confederacy, the offices of that organi-
zation being moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to
the city. The vote was taken on the 17th of April,
and the Confederate capital was transferred on the
2 1 st of the following month. Meanwhile, the Rebels

President Abraham Lincoln 271

had seized Harper's Ferry, Virginia, an important
strategic point on the border of the State, well
stocked with arms and materials for their manufac-
ture; also Gosport Navy Yard, near Norfolk, Vir-
ginia. Both of these points were of great value to
the Rebels. The navy yard was the depot of stores
and property — guns, ships, ammunition, and vari-
ous naval equipments — valued at eight or ten mil-
lions of dollars. It had been left defenceless by the
treachery of former members of the National Govern-
ment; additional treachery and treason threw it
into the hands of the Rebels. With Harper's Ferry,
its arsenal and its military supplies, and the Gosport
Navy Yard and its ships and naval stores in their
hands, although damaged by fire, the boastful Rebels
now believed themselves invincible. They promised
to hoist their flag on the Capitol at Washington;
"perhaps on Faneuil Hall, in Boston," said some of
the more sanguine of the leaders.

Early in the momentous summer of 1861, there
occurred two deaths that came very near to Lincoln.
Among those who had accompanied the President-
elect on his journey from Illinois to the national
capital was Elmer E. Ellsworth, a young man who
had been employed in the law office of Lincoln &
Herndon, Springfield. He was a brave, handsome,
and impetuous youth, and was among the first to
offer his services to the President in defence of the
Union, as soon as the mutterings of war were heard.
Before the war, he had organized a company of
zouaves from the Chicago firemen, and had de-
lighted and astonished many people by the exhibi-

272

Abraham Lincoln

tions of their skill in the evolutions through which
they were put while visiting some of the chief cities
of the Republic. Now, being commissioned a second
lieutenant in the United States army, he went to
New York and organized a similar regiment, known
as the nth New York, from the firemen of that
city. Colonel Ellsworth's Zouaves, on the evening
of May 23d, were sent with a considerable force to
occupy the heights overlooking Washington and
Alexandria, on the banks of the Potomac, opposite
the national capital. Next day, seeing a Rebel flag
flying from the Marshall House, a tavern in Alexan-
dria, kept by a secessionist, he went up through the
building to the roof and pulled it down. While on
his way down the stairs, with the flag in his arms, he
was met by the tavern-keeper, who shot and killed
him instantly. Ellsworth fell, dyeing the Rebel flag
with the blood that gushed from his heart. The
tavern-keeper was instantly killed by a shot from
private Brownell, of the Ellsworth Zouaves, who was
at hand when his commander fell. The death of
Ellsworth, needless though it may have been, caused
a profound sensation throughout the country, where
he was well known. He was among the very first
martyrs of the war, as he had been one of the first
volunteers. Lincoln was overwhelmed with sorrow.
He had the body of the lamented young officer taken
to the White House, where it lay in state until the
burial took place, and, even in the midst of his in-
creasing cares, he found time to sit alone and in
grief-stricken meditation by the bier of the dead
young soldier of whose career he had cherished so

President Abraham Lincoln 273

great hopes. The life-blood from Ellsworth's heart
had stained not only the Rebel flag, but a gold medal
found under his uniform, bearing the legend "Non
solum nobis, sed pro patria" — 1 ' Not for ourselves alone,
but for the country.' '

On the third of June died Stephen Arnold Douglas,
after a few days of illness. On the fourteenth of
April, in company with a friend, he had called upon
Lincoln at the White House, to offer his sympathy
and advice. The country was ablaze with excite-
ment. Fort Sumter had been fired on, and, even as
these two eminent men sat together in council
— Lincoln and Douglas, former foes in politics, now
united in a common purpose — the tramp of armed
men, on the way to the front, was beginning to be
heard. Douglas warmly, and even affectionately,
commended the course pursued by Lincoln up to
that time, although he said he would have called for
two hundred thousand men instead of seventy-five
thousand if he were in the President's place. Warmed
by his unmistakable devotion to his country, Douglas
enlarged upon the theme and gave Lincoln many
suggestions of practical value. After the interview
had closed and Douglas had departed, the gentlemen
with him asked that the details of the notable meet-
ing be sketched in the form of a despatch and given
to the country, in the belief that the loyal sentiment
would be thereby strengthened. This was done, and
the despatch, having been read and approved by
Douglas, was transmitted through the Associated
Press agency at Washington, with precisely the
effect upon the people that was expected of it. Dur-

VOL. VIII. 18.

274

Abraham Lincoln

ing the following month, Douglas addressed large
meetings of Union men in Ohio and Illinois, urging
such measures as would strengthen the hands of
those who were carrying on the government of the
Republic. Towards the latter part of May he sick-
ened, and died, as before said, June 3d, greatly
lamented by his fellow-countrymen, among whom
the sad-hearted Lincoln mourned with a great and
exceeding sorrow.

CHAPTER XX.

BEGINNING OF THE GREAT STRUGGLE.

The Combatants Face to Face — The First Battle of Bull Run— The
Sting of Defeat — George B. McClellan — Effect of the Great Disas-
ter— A Message to Congress — Men and Money Voted — How For-
eign Nations Regarded the Struggle — Seizure and Release of
Mason and Slidell.

T last, then, freedom and union, for which Lincoln

had so long and so zealously contended, stood
to defend itself against slavery and disunion. The
arena was transferred from the West to the wider
plane of the Republic. Jefferson Davis, a man of
high culture, educated at the Military Academy of
the United States, familiar with high politics and
conversant with persons of social dignity, himself an
aristocrat, was now pitted against the man who had
been born in the obscurity of the American back-
woods, reared in a life of poverty and privation, edu-
cated by dint of hard struggles and under unfriendly
circumstances, and coming late into the possession
of those advantages, social and mental, which are
denied to the children of adversity. Davis and his
followers had set up the plea that a State was sover-
eign, that the Union was subject to the State, and
that the rights of any single State were paramount
to all others that could be considered by the citizens
thereof. Lincoln, on the other hand, had always

275

276

Abraham Lincoln

insisted that the nation, composed of the people of
the several States, was the paramount authority.
He held that no State could leave the Union, and,
by so leaving, break it up and dissolve the bond,
without being committed thereby to an act of treason.
One of his familiar illustrations of this his position
was that as a county, a political subdivision of a
State, could not lawfully leave that State, so an indi-
vidual State could not lawfully leave the Republic of
States, thereby coercing a dissolution of that Repub-
lic. What Davis would have done, if, after the so-
called Confederacy had been established, some one
State should have seceded from it, was never clearly
understood. This advocate of State rights never
had a good opportunity of showing how he would
have wrestled with that problem.

When these two hostile camps, freedom and
slavery, were pitched against each other, in the sum-
mer of 1 86 1, the population of the States in rebellion
was 9,103,333, of which more than one third were
slaves. The population of the loyal and free States
was 22,046,472. This disparity in the number liable
to be drawn into battle attracted the attention of the
Rebel leaders, and it excited the alarm of some of
those who were likely to be called on to fight for the
Confederacy. These timorous persons were cheered
by the common remark that one Southern man was
equal to at least five " Yankees" of the North, a say-
ing that undoubtedly helped many young and inex-
perienced recruits to bear the early burdens of the
Civil War, as the Rebel army was formed. When
some of these, later on, were captured and taken

Beginning of the Great Struggle 277

north, they saw with amazement the crowds that
filled the large cities, just as though other thousands
of men were not absent fighting the battles of the
Union. They felt and said that they had been im-
posed upon, and that the number of men of the loyal
States, fit for duty, was so enormously greater than
that of the South that their cause was hopeless from
the first.

The slaves of the South were thought by the people
of that region to be an element of strength. The
slaveholders relied on the faithful attachment of
these unfortunate creatures, a reliance that was
seldom misplaced. The slaves had once been taught
that the "Abolitionists" were a species of monsters
that infested the North and devoured escaped black
people. And, so long as they had food and protec-
tion from their masters, the bondmen did not leave
their masters, even when the war began. They were
useful in making preparations for battles, marches,
and sieges. They were teamsters, workmen on forts,
and diggers of intrenchments. In the eyes of all the
people, North and South, the slaves were still prop-
erty. And it was the custom of most officers of the
United States army to give up the few fugitive ne-
groes that came into their lines. Gen. B. F. Butler,
however, while in command at Fortress Monroe, Vir-
ginia, perceived that the slaves were used by the
Rebels precisely as horses or mules would have been ;
they were employed in promoting the efficiency of the
Rebel military wTorks. Accordingly, when slaves
came into his lines, he refused to give them up,
declaring that, like war material, they were "contra-

278

Abraham Lincoln

band of war." This was a new idea, and from that
time the African slave inside of the Union lines was
known as a contraband. The word not only gave a
new name to the escaping slave, but it suggested a
line of policy that afterwards troubled greatly the
warlike slaveholders and the Rebel leaders. They
had no longer any power to enforce the law concern-
ing fugitive slaves, about which they had once been
much concerned.

The battle of Bull Run, begun on the nineteenth
of July and ended on the twenty-first, was a great
defeat to the Union forces, although the losses on
each side were not far from equal. But it was the
first real advance of the Army of the Potomac, which
had been accumulating on the soil of Virginia and
around Washington. Both sides had been making
large and hurried preparations for this fight, and the
newspapers of the North had been clamorous for an
advance upon the Rebel capital by the Union troops.
The Rebels had been more and more defiant, con-
fident, and threatening. They had withdrawn their
forces from Harper's Ferry, taking with them what
war material had been spared by the flames, and were
now concentrating for an attack on the Federal cap-
ital, or, as they expressed it, to repel the invader.
The first call of troops issued by Lincoln was for men
to serve for three months, and the time of some of
these was now about to expire. The first flush of
their military enthusiasm had passed. They were
still raw and undisciplined. Indeed, so far as the
rank and file were concerned, they knew nothing
whatever of the stern realities of war, and they were

Beginning of the Great Struggle 279

impatient of military discipline. Many of the
officers were lately from civil life and were unfamiliar
with their duties. And the people at home, equally
inexperienced, but more impatient, demanded that
the army should do something to justify its existence
and its cost.

Lincoln viewed the situation with great anxiety.
He knew that the army, portentous as it appeared,
was not in a condition to risk a great battle ; and yet
it might be attacked any day. He was excessively
desirous of meeting the expectations of the people,
without whose hearty cooperation no forces could be
maintained. The Union troops held Fortress Mon-
roe and the region round about, a defeat at Big
Bethel, which happened on the tenth of June, having
been incurred while the troops at that point were
endeavoring to extend our lines. They also guarded
Baltimore and its approaches, and were driving the
Rebels from the western part of Virginia, under Gen.
Geo. B. McClellan, a very capable young officer of
the regular army. It seemed imperatively needful,
whatever were the objections and the dangers, that
an advance should be made in Virginia.

On the other side, there was much boasting and
confidence. Although the rank and file of the Rebel
army were as raw and untrained as ours, they were
officered by men who had been professionally edu-
cated to the military service, among them being
Generals Johnston, Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson,
Longstreet, Kirby Smith, Ewell, Jubal Early, Lee,
Holmes, Evans, Elzey, Jordan, and others of less
note. They were commanded by Gen. Beauregard,

28o

Abraham Lincoln

who was subsequently joined by Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston. The two commands thus consolidated
numbered 18,000 of the rank and file, with forty-four
guns. The Union forces were commanded by Gen.
Irvin McDowell, and numbered 17,676 of the rank
and file, with twenty-four guns. Gen. Patterson, in
command of a contingent of Union forces, was ex-
pected to hold in check the troops under Johnston,
who was at Winchester, on the left of the Rebel line,
their right being at Manassas, under Beauregard.
At first, the attack of the Union forces was successful,
but the tide turned in favor of the Rebels. The ar-
rangements for the supplying of McDowell's men
were imperfect ; Patterson did not hold Johnston in
check, and the first weakening of the Union lines
became a rout. The troops broke and fled in the
wildest confusion, some of them abandoning their
arms in their flight, but many marching off the field
in good order. In a few hours, the great army upon
which Lincoln had rested so many hopes, and of
which the people expected such great things, was
pouring into Washington over the bridges of the
Potomac and filling the capital with most exag-
gerated and alarming stories of defeat. Many
civilians, members of Congress, and visitors, had
gone out to see the fight. These, in their reckless
haste to reach a place of safety, added to the panic
and confusion. An overturned carriage in the way
caused a block of the retreat on that line, and terror
almost ludicrous seized upon the fugitives. But the
Rebels, not knowing their own advantage, did not
pursue, and Washington, then at their mercy, was

Beginning of the Great Struggle 281

left unattacked. The panic on the Union side of the
lines was no stranger than the ignorance that pre-
vailed on the other.

The Rebels, complete though their means of secur-
ing information was supposed to be, believed that
they were opposed by at least 50,000 men, as reports
of their commanding generals subsequently showed.
The Union loss in this memorable defeat was 460
killed, 1 1 24 wounded, and 13 12 captured or missing,
being a total of 2896. The Rebel loss in killed was
387, in wounded 1582, and 13 captured or missing,
being a total of 1982. The difference in the return
of 1 'captured or missing," comparing the Union and
the Rebel figures, is suggestive. It was facetiously
said that some of the Union soldiers were so "de-
moralized" that they never ceased running until they
reached their own homes. Certain it is that more than
one regiment whose time was out shouldered arms and
marched off the field before the fight was fairly begun.

The effect of the disaster upon the loyal people
was not unlike that of the firing of the first gun on
Sumter. It is difficult to determine whether wrath
or mortification was the more prominent throughout
the North, at this time. It was mortifying to the
national pride that the first considerable battle had
gone against the defenders of the Union; but the
very danger of the situation only inspired the loyal
people to renewed activity. The rush of volunteers
was unprecedented. Popular indignation somewhat
recklessly expended itself on the alleged incompe-
tence of military commanders and advisers, as well
as on the Rebels. Some of those who had clamored

282

Abraham Lincoln

for an advance forgot that they had incited what was
now thought to be a premature and ill-advised move-
ment, and insisted that the blame lay with those who
had conducted the ill-starred advance upon the
Rebel lines. But public opinion, although fickle and
unjust towards some of the able and devoted mili-
tary men engaged in the battle of Bull Run, did not
slacken in the direction of the real defence of the
Union. The disaster dismayed for a time the people,
and it greatly encouraged the Rebels and their sym-
pathizers in the North; but more troops and more
military material were eagerly furnished, and the
tide of determined patriotism rose even higher than
ever before.

Upon Lincoln the effect of the Bull Run defeat was
most depressing. It was well for him that he had an
unshakable faith in the sturdy patriotism and the
hearty support of the people. Even in the midst of
his sorrows, he felt that the nation would rally, as it
subsequently did, to the defence of the national in-
tegrity. He lamented, with a bitterness that none
but those who knew his gentle and kind heart could
understand, the needless sacrifice of human life;
for, unaccustomed as the people then were to war
and its deadliness, the list of killed at Bull Run
seemed most dreadful and gory. But most of all he
feared the effect of this their first success upon the
minds of the Rebels of the South. He was hoping,
always hoping, that the Southern people might yet
see the error of their ways and return to the fold of
the Union. Their elation over the defeat of the
Federal troops, he knew, put further off than ever all

Beginning of the Great Struggle 283

prospect of this greatly desired object of his prayers.
But even then, doubtless, there were some among
the friends and advisers of Lincoln who thought they
saw in this defeat some grains of consolation. If the
war were to be ended then and there, slavery would
be saved alive; a long war would certainly kill the
cursed institution that had caused the war.

One or two naval and military expeditions were
fitted out at once. Fort Hatteras, on the coast of
North Carolina, was captured from the Rebels by one
of these, and later, Port Royal, South Carolina, was
surrendered to the Union forces. In the meanwhile,
General McClellan had driven the Rebels out of that
part of the State of Virginia that lies west of the Blue
Ridge, and the inhabitants, most of whom had been
loyal to the Union, repudiated the ordinance of seces-
sion that had been passed by the Richmond conven-
tion, and organized a new and independent State, to
be known as West Virginia, of which Mr. Francis H.
Pierpont was the first provisional governor. Subse-
quently Congress ratified the act of separation "as a
war measure," and West Virginia has remained an
independent State unto this day.

Congress was in session when the battle of Bull
Run was fought, having, as before said, been called
together on the fourth of July. By this time the
country had become somewhat accustomed to the
idea that civil war was necessary to preserve the
Union. The result justified Lincoln's wise patience.
He had been expected by many impetuous persons
to call Congress together as soon as Sumter was fired
upon. He had waited for further developments,

Abraham Lincoln

although he was besought by some of his immediate
friends to convene Congress at once. His message
to Congress was a calm and almost colorless history
of the struggle, up to that date. After reciting the
events that had taken place, he declared that the
Rebels had forced the issue of war or dissolution of
the Union, and that this issue

" embraced more than the fate of these United States. It
presents to the whole family of man the question whether
a constitutional republic or democracy — a government of
the people by the same people — can or cannot maintain
its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes. It
presents the question whether discontented individuals,
too few in numbers to control administration according to
organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretences
made in this case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily,
without any pretence, break up their government, and
thus practically put an end to free government upon the
earth. It forces us to ask, 1 Is there in all republics this
inherent and fatal weakness?' 'Must a government, of
necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people
or too weak to maintain its own existence?' "

It will be noticed that in this message, as shown
by the above extract, Lincoln was only enforcing
here just such ideas of self-government as, during all
his life, he had been so clearly expounding to the
people; and here, too, will be seen the germ of the
famous speech that he pronounced on the field of
Gettysburg, years after, when the war was nearly
over. Alluding to the attempt of some of the border
States, notably Kentucky, to maintain a system of
neutrality, Lincoln employed once again a figure

At

■ whi by mediate

friends to convene Congress at once. His message
to Congress was a calm and almost colorless history
of the struggle, up to that date. After reciting the

events that had taken place, he declared that the
Rebels had forced the issue of war or dissolution of

the Union, and that this issue

11 embraced more than the fate of these United States. It
presents to the whole family of man the question whether
a constitutional republic or democracy — a government of
the people by the same people — can or cannot maintain
its territorial int. - own domestic foes. It

present* tJbe Q\^km vtattor discontented individuals,

George B. McClellan •

From a photograph by Handy. ■ ent and

thus practically put an end to free government upon the
earth. It forces us to ask, ' Is there in all republics this
inherent and fatal weakness?' 'Must a government, of
necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people

or too weak to maintain its own existence?'"

It will be noticed that in this message, as shown
by the above extract, Lincoln was only enforcing
here just such ideas of self-government as, during all
his life, he had been so clearly expounding to the
people ; and here, too, will be seen the germ of the
famous speech that he pronounced on the field of
Gettysburg, years after, when the war was nearly
over. Alluding to the attempt of some of the border
Suites, notably Kentucky, to maintain a system of
neutrality, Lincoln employed once again a figure

Beginning of the Great Struggle 285

familiar to those who have followed his course of
thought. He said that the notion that these border
States could maintain a neutral ground over which
no armies, Federal or Rebel, should be allowed to
pass, was not to be entertained for a moment. This
would be

"building an impassable wall along the line of separation,
and yet not quite an impassable one, for, under the guise
of neutrality, it would tie the hands of Union men, and
freely pass supplies from among them to the insurrec-
tionists, which it could not do to an open enemy. At a
stroke, it would take all the trouble off the hands of
secession, except only what proceeds from external
blockade."

This message gave great satisfaction to the country,
especially that part which may be considered as an
answer to the artful and insidious plea made in the
message of Jefferson Davis, President of the so-called
Confederate States. Davis had argued that the right
of secession was a right for which American citizens,
as defenders of popular liberty, were bound to fight,
if necessary. Lincoln said, in the message from
which we have been quoting, that it was a sophism,
false reasoning, to say that a State may peaceably
get out of the Union of the States, pretending that
this getting out was constitutional and right.

"The sophism," he said, "is that any State of the Union
may, consistently with the national Constitution, and
therefore lawfully and peacefully, withdraw from the
Union without consent of the Union or any other State.

286

Abraham Lincoln

The little disguise, that the supposed right is to be ex-
ercised only for just cause, themselves to be the judges of
its justice, is too thin to merit any notice. With rebellion
thus sugar-coated they have been drugging the public
mind of their section for more than thirty years, and until
at length they have brought many good men to a willing-
ness to take up arms against the Government the day after
some assemblage of men has enacted the farcical pretence
of taking their State out of the Union, who would have,
could have, been brought to no such thing the day before."

Nothing could be more clear than the terms and
illustrations which Lincoln employed in this message.
In the sentence just quoted, the phrase "sugar-
coated" appears. When this caught the eye of the
public printer, Mr. Defrees, who had confidential
relations with the President, he ventured to say,
in answer to Lincoln's question how he liked the
message, that the phrase was hardly dignified.
"Well, Defrees," said the President, with great good-
nature, "if you think the time will ever come when
the people will not understand what * sugar-coated 1
means, I '11 alter it; otherwise, I think I will let it
go." The phrase was allowed to stand, and thus it
went to Congress and to the world.

Congress responded very readily and liberally to
the requests of the President for men and money.
He asked for four hundred millions of dollars and
four hundred thousand men. Congress appro-
priated five hundred million dollars, and authorized
him to call half a million of troops. The nation was
now very much in earnest, and had settled to the
belief that the war would be a long one. Recruiting

Beginning of the Great Struggle 287

went on very briskly, and the country was alive with
the sounds of preparation. In every village and
hamlet in the Northern States there were organized
societies to help on the good cause. For a time, at
least, it seemed as if the people, men and women, had
laid aside their usual amusements and employments
and had devoted themselves exclusively to the busi-
ness of helping to put down the rebellion. The most
popular song at that time was that which had for its
refrain —

" We 're coming, Father Abraham,
Six hundred thousand strong."

It was a matter of great concern to both of the
combatants, North and South, that the issue between
the Government of the United States and that of the
Rebel Confederacy should be considered by foreign
nations in a way favorable to either one or the other.
The National Government had declared a blockade of
all the Southern ports. The Rebels had no navy;
but the National Government did have a small naval
force, and it was daily growing larger. Would other
nations recognize that such a blockade existed ? Or
would they disregard it and sail their ships into the
closed ports just as if there were no blockade? If
the Rebel Confederacy were recognized as a nation,
the United States Government would be compelled
to prove, by a strong navy and with an actual closing
of the ports, that the blockade was effectual. Other-
wise the powers that recognized the so-called Con-
federate States would send their vessels into those
ports, supplying the Rebels with all they needed.

288

Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln, very early in the beginning of the
conflict, showed his anxiety on this point. But
soon, almost as soon as hostilities began, the govern-
ments of England and France recognized the Rebel
Government as a belligerent power, with the same
rights on sea and land that it would have had if it
were an independent nation. This was a severe blow
to the Government of the United States and to the
administration.

While the country, North and South, was discuss-
ing what was sometimes called "the paper blockade,"
the Rebel Government sent to Europe, as envoys,
James M. Mason and John Slidell. These men had
been members of the United States Senate, and had
left Washington at the beginning of the war to take
sides with their States. By the Rebel Government
Mason was sent to England and Slidell to France, to
induce, if possible, those great powers to recognize
the Confederacy as a nation. First sailing for Cuba,
the two envoys took passage on the British packet-
ship Trent for St. Thomas, a British port, intending
to sail thence for England. This was on the 7th of
November, 1861. On the following day, the Trent
was overhauled by the United States man-of-war
San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes, who, having fired a
shot across the bows of the Trent to bring her to, sent
a boat alongside and took off the two envoys and
their secretaries and carried them to Boston, where
they were lodged in Fort Warren.

This event created great excitement and enthu-
siasm throughout the country. The action of the
English and French Governments had aroused the

Beginning of the Great Struggle 289

wrath of the people, and the capture was regarded
by many as a threatening answer to those govern-
ments. The people everywhere were filled with ani-
mated joy over the capture of the Rebel envoys. The
demand of the British Government that the envoys,
having been taken from under the British flag, and
in spite of the protests of the commander of the
Trent, should be surrendered, only inflamed the
popular indignation. "They shall never be given
up!" was the cry everywhere. The Rebels, on the
other hand, were overjoyed at the turn that affairs
had taken. They said that there would now be war
between England and the United States, and, in the
commotion, their Confederacy would secure inde-
pendence. In England, very few men, apparently,
sympathized with the United States in its struggle
to preserve the Union, and the seizure of Mason and
Slidell was regarded as a menace, an insult. The
London newspapers declared that the war would
now be terrible ; the power of England would be with
the South, and the result would be the eternal divi-
sion of the States, North and South.

None of these things seemed to move the people of
the loyal States. They were determined that the
envoys should never be surrendered. Congress
passed a vote of thanks to Captain Wilkes. The
Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Gideon Welles, wrote him
a letter congratulating him on "the great public ser-
vice" he had rendered to the country, and Mr.
Stanton, who afterwards replaced Mr. Cameron as
Secretary of War, cordially approved of the capture
of the Rebel emissaries. Secretary Seward was also

VOL. VIII. IQ.

290

Abraham Lincoln

opposed to making any concession to the demands of
the British Government.

In the midst of all this excitement and debate,
Lincoln remained thoughtful, anxious, determined.
From the first he was doubtful of the lawfulness of
the seizure. And, as he examined the case and
studied its bearings, he became convinced that the
emissaries must be given up. Now that the world
has seen and acknowledged the justice as well as the
wisdom of Lincoln's position, we may well admire
the courage and the sagacity with which he stood
out for what was then regarded as a cowardly and
ill-advised action. He was firm in the face of popu-
lar clamor and popular rage. And it is difficult for
those who did not feel the influence of those exciting
times to realize how easy it would have been to swim
with the tide and rush into a war with England, as
our people were then bent on doing. Said Lincoln :
"Once we fought Great Britain for doing just what
Captain Wilkes has done. If Great Britain protests
against this act and demands their release, we must
adhere to our principles of 181 2. We must give up
these prisoners. Besides, one war at a time.',

This declaration from Lincoln filled the country
with dismay. Give up the Rebel emissaries? The
thought was madness. If the proposition had come
from any man but Abraham Lincoln, it would have
been laughed down, overwhelmed with popular deri-
sion, no matter what was the official function of the
man who made it. As it was, not a few of the more
radical and violent politicians were greatly incensed
against the President. Thus John P. Hale, as Sena-

Beginning of the Great Struggle 291

tor from New Hampshire, said: "If this administra-
tion will not listen to the voice of the people, they
will find themselves engulfed in a fire that will con-
sume them like stubble ; they will be helpless before
a power that will hurl them from their places."
Nevertheless, Lincoln remained firm. The envoys
must be surrendered. Lincoln could not follow the
dictates of passion or prejudice in this matter ; and
it required a lofty regard for what was right, just,
and expedient for him to rise above the commotions
of the hour and insist that the claim of Great Britain
must be allowed at any cost of private resentment.
Secretary Seward was won over to Lincoln's view of
the case, and, in a paper of singular ingenuity and
skill, he gave answer to the demand of the British
Government. The envoys were surrendered.

Great was the derision of the Rebels over this act.
Great also was the wrath and humiliation of most of
the loyal people of the North. The Rebel Govern-
ment, always hoping for full recognition and assist-
ance from foreign governments, were dismayed and
angry that this provocation to war had been averted
by Lincoln's sagacity and sense of justice. They
heaped upon his head every possible epithet to de-
note their contempt and hatred. And in the North,
it must be admitted, men were slow in arriving at
the rational conclusion that Lincoln had done the
Republic a service invaluable. His enemies and
critics were clamorous and bitter. But, serene, con-
fident of the strength of the position he had taken
in this weighty affair, Lincoln remained silent; he
waited for time to vindicate the wisdom of his course.

292 Abraham Lincoln

During all those years of darkness and trial, the
attitude of the European governments was most un-
friendly towards the United States. Our envoys
were, however, instructed to assure the courts to
which they were sent, that under no circumstances
would the Government of the United States consent
that the Civil War should be regarded by any foreign
nation as other than a domestic disturbance, to be
dealt with after our own ideas of public policy, and
to be ended by an exercise of the sovereign power of
the Republic. But it required all of Lincoln's mag-
nanimity, all his wisdom, all his influence with the
people of the United States, to restrain and guide
public opinion so that the Republic should not be
hurried into an unnecessary war. Smarting under
repeated insults offered to the American name and
flag in foreign lands, Americans everywhere were
irritated and resentful towards English leaders and
European governments. But Lincoln never, as
President, allowed his resentments to influence his
public policy. As the man Lincoln had been pa-
tient under great provocation, forgiving, kind, and
merciful, so the President showed in his high office
the same noble qualities, the same elevated character.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION ARISES.

Fremont's Troubles in Missouri — His Policy Disapproved by the
President — Gen. Hunter's Proclamation Revoked — Irritation in
the Border States — Lincoln Invites a Conference — Arming the
Freedmen Proposed — Lincoln's Letter to Horace Greeley — The
Emancipation Proclamation Issued.

NTEW trials of patience and sagacity now arose.
* ^ The irrepressible slavery question came to the
surface and would not be long disregarded. Two
generals of the Federal army, McClellan and Fre-
mont, took views on this question that were directly
opposed to each other. Lincoln stood between. Mc-
Clellan, by a series of brilliant victories in West
Virginia, and by his short and pungent bulletins an-
nouncing the same, had won the hearts of the people,
and had inspired the popular belief that he was the
great military genius that was to put down the re-
bellion. Fremont, who had been the Presidential
candidate of the Republicans four years before Lin-
coln's election, had hurried home from Europe on
the breaking out of the Rebellion, and had thrown
himself enthusiastically into the war for the pre-
servation of the Union. Almost on the same day in
July, 1 86 1, Fremont was commissioned a major-
general and McClellan was assigned to command of
the Army of the Potomac, then numbering about

293

294

Abraham Lincoln

two hundred thousand men. Fremont was assigned
to command of the Department of the West, with
headquarters at St. Louis. Missouri was plunged
in a state of wild disorder. Murders, neighborhood
feuds, assassinations, secret crimes of various de-
grees of turpitude, and outrages of every sort were
common. The State was classed as doubtful for the
Union, being overrun with secessionists, although
the local government had not declared for separa-
tion. It was time that something vigorous and de-
cisive in character should be done. The State was
distressed with all the horrors of bloody feuds and
guerilla warfare.

On the 31st of August, General Fremont issued a
proclamation declaring Missouri to be under martial
law, defining the lines of the army of occupation, and
notifying the people that all persons found within
those lines with arms in their hands, unless in the
service of the United States, would be put to death.
Furthermore, the proclamation declared that the
property of all persons in a state of rebellion against
the authority of the United States would be seized
and confiscated, and that the slaves of such persons
would be free under the operation of his proclamation.

These declarations fell on the people of the United
States with astounding effect. They were, in brief,
a proclamation of a policy of confiscation of Rebel
property and emancipation of the slaves of Rebels.
In the loyal States, the people were thrilled with the
thought that a heavy blow had been struck at the
institution of slavery. The Rebels, on the other
hand, were infuriated. Up to this time, no sacri-

The Slavery Question Arises

295

legions hand had been laid on the time-honored
right of property in slaves. Here was a proclama-
tion of emancipation from a general of the army.
For a space, all men held their breath and waited.
What would Lincoln say ?

There were many reasons why he should disap-
prove of the proclamation of a policy of emancipa-
tion, confiscation, and "no quarter." Congress had
already passed a bill to confiscate property used
for insurrectionary purposes; and the people had
become somewhat used to the idea that slaves, as
property, employed in military operations, could be
confiscated. In the next place, Lincoln was even
then trying to soothe the angry and uneasy feelings
of the people of the border States and induce them to
remain loyal to the Union, and, if possible, prepare
the way for a gradual emancipation. The sudden
order of Fremont would be sure to make Lincoln's
task more difficult. And the notification that armed
men inside the lines of the army of occupation would
be shot would certainly provoke reprisals from the
Rebels. In fact, almost as soon as Fremont's pro-
clamation was issued, Jeff. Thompson, a brigadier
commanding Rebel forces in Missouri, put forth a
counter -proclamation announcing that for every
soldier of the State guard, or of the Confederate
army, so executed, he would "hang, draw, and quarter
a minion of Abraham Lincoln,' ' thereby meaning any
person who remained true to the Federal cause.

It should be understood that Fremont was very
popular in the West, where he was looked upon not
only as the ideal soldier, but as a champion and

296

Abraham Lincoln

leader of the cause of freedom. His nomination as
the Republican candidate for the Presidency, in
1856, gave him a certain political prestige that was
not readily weakened, and which undoubtedly still
was very dear to him. As the famed "Pathfinder"
and explorer, there was some degree of romantic
interest attached to his name, and thousands of
people who did not consider all the consequences of
his acts were ready to cheer whatever he said or did.
Lincoln was greatly distressed by this act of insub-
ordination (for such it was) on the part of Fremont,
and was troubled by the necessity of rebuking a man
whose services he hoped to find useful in the sup-
pression of the Rebellion. But he determined to
allow Fremont an opportunity to recall and modify
his proclamation. Accordingly, he sent him by a
private messenger a letter asking him to make such
changes in the proclamation as would conform it to
the act of Congress already referred to. "Should
you shoot a man, according to the proclamation,' '
said Lincoln, "the Confederates would very certainly
shoot our best men in their hands, in retaliation;
and so on, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order
that you allow no man to be shot without first having
my approbation or consent/'

As for the other part of Fremont's manifesto,
Lincoln said : "I think there is great danger that the
closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of
property and the liberating of slaves of traitorous
owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and
turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair
prospect for Kentucky." He asked Fr6mont (as if

Abraham Linco

leader of the cause of freedom. His nomination an

the Republican candidate for the Presidency, m

1856, gave him a certain political prestige that was
not readily weakened, and which undoubtedly still
was very dear to him. As the famed 4 'Pathfinder'*

and explorer, there was some degree of romantic
interest attached to his name, and thousands of
people who did not consider all the consequences of
his acts were ready to cheer whatever he said or did.
Lincoln was greatly distressed by this act of insub-
ordination (for such it was) on the part of Fremont,
and was troubled by the necessity of rebuking a man

whose services h* h&pdd <Jnd useful in the sup-
r A* Abraham Lincoln ^Lmmm*m^M +^

private messenger a tester asking him to make such
changes in tin; pn^ds&taation as would conform it to
the act of Congress already referred to. "Should
you shoot a man, according to the proclamation,' jj
said Lincoln, "the Confederates would very certainly
shoot our best men in their hands, in retaliation;
and so on, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order
that you allow no man to be shot without first having
my approbation or consent."

As for the other part of Fremont's manifesto,
Lincoln said : "I think there is great danger that the
closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of
property and the liberating of slaves of traitorous
owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and
turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair
prospect for Kentucky." He asked Fr&noiit' (as if

The Slavery Question Arises 297

of his own motion, and not with the public under-
standing that he had been overruled from Washing-
ton) to modify the proclamation so as to have it
conformable to the laws of Congress and the rules
of war already suggested. At that time there were
not a few persons who thought, when the President's
letter was made public, that Lincoln desired to have
Fremont bear the brunt of the unfriendly criticism
that might be made on a modification of his now
famous proclamation, while Lincoln should escape
that censure. Perhaps Fremont thought this. But
Lincoln's kindness of heart undoubtedly did suggest
this means of escape for Fremonc from the dilemma
in which he had been involved. Fremont was fixed,
however, in his opinions. He declined to recall or
change any part of his admired proclamation ; and
Lincoln, in an order dated September 11, 1861, did
so modify the proclamation of Fremont that it
should not transcend the provisions of the act of
Congress before mentioned. General Fremont sub-
sequently wrote to one of the Rebel officers com-
manding in Missouri, qualifying and explaining that
part of his proclamation relating to shooting pris-
oners, and declaring that it was not intended to
apply to any men engaged in military operations in
the field, or to ignore the ordinary rights of humanity
with respect to wounded men. Thus terminated
that important and exciting incident.

At this point it may as well be recorded that
General David Hunter, commanding the Military
Department of the South, with headquarters at
Hilton Head, S. C, did, in the following May, also

298

Abraham Lincoln

issue a proclamation of emancipation not unlike
that of Fremont. In this document he recited the
fact that martial law had been proclaimed in the
States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, and
that, as slavery and martial law were incompatible
with each other in a free country, all persons in those
three States, "heretofore held as slaves, are therefore
declared forever free." This extraordinary procla-
mation was revoked by Lincoln without delay, and.
with none of the gentle consideration he had shown
to Fremont. Hunter had before him the example
of Fremont's being overruled, and Lincoln justly
thought that his offence was therefore less excusable
than the indiscretion of Fremont. In a proclama-
tion issued by the President as soon as Hunter's
manifesto could reach Washington, some doubt was
expressed as to the genuineness of the document
signed by General Hunter. But the President pro-
claimed ' ' that neither General Hunter nor any other
commander or person has been authorized by the
Government of the United States to make proclama-
tion declaring the slaves of any State free; and
that the supposed proclamation, now in question,
whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far
as respects such declaration." He further said, to
settle forever all doubt on this grave matter, that he
reserved to himself the right to determine whether
it should become a necessity, indispensable to the
maintenance of the Government, to exercise the sup-
posed power of proclaiming emancipation to the
slaves. He could not delegate that authority to
commanders in the field under any circumstances.

The Slavery Question Arises 299

Although Lincoln quoted, for the benefit of these
over-hasty generals, the act of Congress relating to
the confiscation of Rebel property, it is evident that
he would not permit that to stand in the way of an
emancipation of the slaves whenever he thought the
time had come for that act. He saw from the first
that freedom for the slaves would be one of the re-
sults of the Rebellion. He looked for that ; but he
reserved for himself the right of declaring when the
time had arrived. Lincoln was a rigid defender of
the Constitution, and he had even declared that so
long as the Constitution allowed slavery to exist, a
law to reclaim fugitive slaves was permissible. And
so long as the border States were to be saved to the
Union, he was reluctant to allow anything to happen,
that he could avert, to alienate and anger the people
of those States. He hated slavery, and he would be
glad to sweep it from the land ; but his first duty was
to the Federal Union; and he declared that if he
could save the Union, with or without slavery, he
would do that, and that alone.

On this line of policy the Secretary of State was
instructed to assure the governments of European
nations that no change in the domestic institutions
of the Southern States was proposed. It was true
that many persons, hostile to Lincoln, hostile to the
Federal Union, both at home and abroad, had all
along insisted that the war was waged for the aboli-
tion of slavery; and it was not uncommon for these
to stigmatize the Union soldiers and the Federal
officers as " abolition hirelings." General McClellan
showed that he was particularly sensitive to re-

300

Abraham Lincoln

proaches of this sort, and, in his letters to the Presi-
dent, he urged that every assurance be given to
pledge the administration to the protection of the
peculiar institution. McClellan's attitude upon this
question was so marked that many of Lincoln's im-
patient friends murmured at the General's being, as
they said, more anxious about the rights of the slave-
holders than for the prosecution of the war. These
attacks upon McClellan, coming as they did when
Lincoln was obliged to overrule the doings of Fre-
mont, gave the President infinite anxiety, and added
to his accumulating burdens. He was brutally
criticised by political opponents in the North ; he was
reproached by his ardent and indiscreet friends. On
the one hand, he was accused of going too fast in the
direction of the destruction of slavery. On the other
hand, he was bitterly assailed for his slowness in the
same direction. The opponents of the war, for these
had begun to show themselves, called him an Aboli-
tionist. The radical Republicans declared that he
was a ' ' pro -slavery Republican."

But while these things harassed Lincoln, they did
not swerve him in the least from the course he had
marked out for himself. In pursuance of his plan to
provide for a gradual abolition of slavery, com-
pensating the loyal slaveholders for their losses, he
sent to Congress, on the 6th of March, 1862, a mes-
sage recommending the passage of a joint resolution
declaring that the United States ought to cooperate
with any State that should institute measures for
the gradual emancipation of the slaves, extending to
such State pecuniary aid for the compensation of

The Slavery Question Arises 301

those whose slaves should be made free by the acts
of the States. In that message Lincoln said :

" If the proposition contained in the resolution does not
meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is an
end ; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of
importance that the States and people immediately inter-
ested should at once be distinctly notified of the fact, so
that they may begin to consider whether to accept or
reject it."

Furthermore, he said that if resistance to the na-
tional authority should cease, the war would cease.
That was an intimation that if the war ended then,
or soon, slavery wTould be saved unharmed. "If,"
he added, ' ' resistance continues, the war must also
continue ; and it is impossible to foresee all the inci-
dents which may attend, and all the ruin which may
follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may
obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the
struggle, must and will come." This was rightly
understood to mean that it was possible that, if
gradual and compensated emancipation were not
accepted, slavery would be destroyed by the long
continuance of the war.

Congress adopted the resolution. The border
States, for which it was intended to make provision,
regarded the measure with sullen indifference. Most
of the border-State men in Congress voted against
the resolution or let it severely alone. In his
anxiety, Lincoln invited a conference at the White
House between himself and the border-State Con-
gressmen. He wanted to avert from them, if it

302

Abraham Lincoln

were possible, the losses that he saw must fall upon
them, sooner or later. If they would only accept
the plan that he had outlined for their compensation,
in case slavery should be abolished by their own con-
sent, all might yet be well. To these representative
Congressmen he read a carefully prepared paper,
urging upon them the necessity and expediency of
their acceding to his plan. He had been, as we have
seen, an advocate of the policy of colonization, once
proposed by such men as Henry Clay, and, in this
address to the border-State men, he said: ' 'Room in
South America for colonization can be obtained
cheaply and in abundance ; and, when numbers shall
be large enough to be company and encouragement
for one another, the freed people will not be so
reluctant to go."

In this remarkable address the President allowed
to escape him only one phrase that indicated his own
troubles. Speaking of Hunter's emancipation edict,
he said that in repudiating it he had given offence
and dissatisfaction to many whose support the
country could not afford to lose; and he added:
"The pressure in this direction is still upon me, and
is increasing." The fact was that the loyal people
of the country had grown weary of seeing the war
delayed, as they believed, by the apparent deter-
mination of the Government to protect slavery at all
hazards. Many people who were cordial supporters
of Lincoln's general policy denounced some of the
generals of the army as "slave-catchers" and de-
fenders of the peculiar institution. They were
almost as unreasonable as the border-State men, who

The Slavery Question Arises 3°3

refused to be moved by the plaintive appeal of the
much-harassed President. The conference between
the President and the border -State men bore no
fruit. The majority of those whom he addressed
responded adversely to his appeal. He might have
said, then, that the consequences of their refusal
were soon to be visited upon them and their con-
stituents. He uttered no reproach, no warning.

The conference here alluded to took place in July,
1862. It seems strange that the representatives of
the border States did not take warning by what had
already been done by Congress. A bill to abolish
slavery in the District of Columbia had passed
Congress. When Lincoln signed the bill that gave
freedom to the slaves at the seat of the National
Government, he said: 1 ' Little did I dream, in 1849,
when I proposed to abolish slavery at this capital, and
could scarcely get a hearing for the proposition, that
it would be so soon accomplished/ * There was a cer-
tain poetic justice that the man who, thirteen years
before, had had the courage to ask that slavery be
expelled from the capital of the nation should be
permitted to set his signature, as President of the
United States, to the measure he had vainly prof-
fered as a representative of the people.

About this time, that is to say, during the summer
of 1862, the question of arming the freedmen began
to be seriously considered. There were many of
these people now inside the lines of the Union army.
They acted as hewers of wood and drawers of water;
were employed as cooks, teamsters, and laborers.
Lincoln immediately favored the proposition to arm

30A

Abraham Lincoln

some of the thousands of able-bodied colored men
who swarmed the Union camps, subsisting on rations
furnished them by the Government. He said:
" Negroes, like other people, act from motive. Why
should they do anything for us if we do nothing for
them ? If they stake their lives for us, they must be
prompted by the strongest of motives, even the
promise of freedom. And the promise, being made,
must be kept." With his usual shrewdness, Lincoln
saw in the arming of the freedmen another reason,
another excuse, for their liberation from the bonds
that still were held in reserve for them, as it were.
Accordingly, when the proposition authorizing the
enlistment of colored troops became a law, it con-
tained a clause giving freedom to all who served in
the army, and to their families as well.

The war yet lagged. Military operations in various
parts of the country were carried on without any
startling or decisive results, and the Army of the
Potomac, commanded by McClellan, from which the
people expected so much, remained inactive near
Washington. The levying of troops and the collect-
ing of new and burdensome taxes went on, to the
growing discontent of the people, who naturally
asked for what purpose was this expenditure if
nothing was done to end the war and restore the
Federal authority in the so-called seceded States.
This discontent, in many instances, took the form of
a protest against Lincoln's hesitation to abolish
slavery everywhere by proclamation. By act of
Congress, slavery had not only been excluded from
the District of Columbia, but, by another act, it was

The Slavey Question Arises

305

declared illegal in the Territories of the United States.
Probably the best expression of the demand for an
emancipation proclamation from the President,
made by the more radical of Lincoln's friends, was in
a letter addressed to Lincoln and published in the
New York Tribune by its editor, Horace Greeley.
In his letter Mr. Greeley employed language that was
intemperate and even dictatorial. Mr. Lincoln's
immediate friends were astonished that he should
appear in a newspaper, in reply to a letter addressed
to him. But he was preparing the way for the
emancipation proclamation which subsequently ap-
peared. This was his opportunity to aid in that
preparation. Accordingly, under date of August
22, 1862, he sent to Mr. Greeley a letter which may
be introduced here as an admirable example of
Lincoln's lucidity of style, as well as a good illustra-
tion of his frankness and simplicity of character. It
may be said, too, that though Lincoln was criticised
severely for taking any notice of Mr. Greeley's some-
what heated and ungenerous utterances, these critics
did not understand that Lincoln was glad of an
opportunity to address the people through Mr.
Greeley's paper. Following is the letter:

" Hon. Horace Greeley:

M Dear Sir: — I have just read yours of the nineteenth
instant, addressed to myself through the New York
Tribune.

" If there be in it any statements or assumptions of facts
which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here
controvert them.

VOL. VIII. IQ.

3o6

Abraham Lincoln

" If there be any inferences which I may believe to be
falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against them.

" If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dicta-
torial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose
heart I have always supposed to be right.

"As to the policy I ' seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I
have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save
the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the
Constitution.

" The sooner the national authority can be restored, the
nearer the Union will be — the Union as it was.

" If there be those who would not save the Union unless
they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree
with them.

" If there be those who would not save the Union unless
they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not
agree with them.

" My paramount object is to save the Union, and not
either to save or destroy slavery.

" If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I
would do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I
would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and leav-
ing others alone, I would also do that.

" What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do be-
cause I believe it helps to save this Union; and what I
forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help
to save the Union.

" I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing
hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe
doing more will help the cause.

" I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors,
and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to
be true views.

" I have here stated my purpose according to my views

The Slavery Question Arises 3°7

of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-
expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be
free.

"Yours,

"A. Lincoln."

Meanwhile, the Rebel army, under General Lee,
had achieved some important successes, and, flushed
with victory, had crossed the Potomac into Mary-
land. A border State, yet loyal to the Union, had
been invaded. The news created something like a
panic throughout the country. Lincoln was pro-
foundly stirred. He had been considering the
issuing of a proclamation of emancipation. He had
even prepared a draft of such a document. But
when others urged it upon him he almost invariably
argued against it; and in this way, as had been his
wont when he was in the profession of the law, he
found the weakest as well as the strongest points of
the case under consideration. He seemed to hesitate.
But, as he subsequently admitted, when Maryland
was invaded by the Rebel forces, and the national
capital was put in jeopardy, he made a solemn vow to
God that, if the invader should be expelled, he would
thereupon issue the long-deferred proclamation. The
battle of South Mountain was fought September
14th, the battle of Antietam on the seventeenth of
the month. The Rebels were whipped, routed, and
broken into pieces. They retreated across the Po-
tomac, and Maryland and Pennsylvania were saved.
On the twenty-second of September, 1862, the Presi-
dent issued his immortal proclamation declaring free-
dom to the slaves in bondage.

308 Abraham Lincoln

The Emancipation Proclamation was hailed with
great acclaim throughout the free States. Bonfires,
illuminations, salvos of artillery, and public meetings
manifested the people's joy over what was declared
to be the downfall of slavery. The " house divided
against itself " would no longer exist so divided. In
many towns and cities thanksgiving services were
held, resolutions of approval and congratulation
were adopted, and the President was assured, by
every possible form of words, of the hearty coopera-
tion of the nation in the work yet remaining to be
done. From this time forward, the war took on a
new aspect. It was a war for the re-establishment
of the Union — the Union without slavery. Lincoln,
by the terms of his proclamation, exempted from its
provisions those States and parts of States in which
the Federal authority was acknowledged. He was
faithful to his promise not to interfere with the
peculiar institution in the loyal States. And in the
final issue of the proclamation, New Year's Day,
1863, he mentioned by name the parts of the Federal
Union thus exempted. But these exceptions were
felt to be comparatively inconsiderable. Virtually,
slavery was abolished everywhere. In a few months,
at furthest, freedom, not slavery, would be the rule
over every inch of territory of the United States,
and the ancient reproach would be removed from
the Republic.

The right of a military power to seize and con-
fiscate the property of the persons with which it was
contending is unquestioned. Slaves, being regarded
as property, were liable to confiscation. According

The Slavery Question Arises 309

to the laws of war, the Government of the United
States had a clear right to treat the Rebels as public
enemies, and the act of emancipation exercised by
the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army
and Navy of the United States, weakening the power
of those public enemies, was strictly in accordance
with the laws and usages of civilized nations. In
due course of time, however, Congress so exercised
its civil power, by the entire abolition of slavery in
the Republic, that any possible doubt as to the
efficacy of the President's act disappeared.

It should be said that the members of the Presi-
dent's Cabinet not only cordially approved of the
issuing of the proclamation, but they filled their
proper functions as advisers of the President in this
matter. Lincoln had prepared his proclamation
earlier in the year. He was ready to issue it in July.
When the subject was laid before the Cabinet for
final approval, Secretary Seward strongly urged
that its promulgation be postponed for a while. At
that time the Rebel army under General Lee was
marching northward to invade Pennsylvania. The
military fortunes of the Republic were at a low ebb.
There was great depression of spirit everywhere.
Mr. Seward argued that the issuing of the emanci-
pation at that critical juncture would be generally
regarded as a cry for help; or, as Lincoln put it,
when reporting the fact afterwards, "our last shriek
on the retreat." It was then that Lincoln agreed to
put off the day of proclamation, and subsequently
made the vow to God to issue the portentous and
solemn document if Lee should be driven back. It

Abraham Lincoln

was at Mr. Seward's suggestion, too, that the word
" maintain' ' was inserted, so that the clause thus
amended read: "I do order and declare that all
persons held as slaves within said designated States
and parts of States are, and henceforth shall be, free ;
and that the executive Government of the United
States, including the military and naval authorities
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of
said persons." Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the
Treasury, penned the concluding paragraph, which,
being approved by the President, was added, as fol-
lows: "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be
an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution,
upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate
judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of
Almighty God." The words "upon military neces-
sity," however, were inserted by Lincoln before the
paragraph was adopted by him as a part of this
immortal document.

The people of foreign countries, especially of Eng-
land, poured across the Atlantic their congratu-
lations that slavery was at last abolished in the
Republic of the United States. Lincoln had been
assured by many of the more advanced Republicans
who were nearest him, that the British Government
would cordially respond to this declaration of uni-
versal freedom. In this he was disappointed. Lord
John Russell, who, as Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, was the official mouthpiece of the British
Government in matters outside of the kingdom, in
a despatch to the British Minister at Washington,
mildly sneered at the proclamation as "a measure of

The Slavery Question Arises 31*

a very questionable kind," "an act of vengeance on
the slaveowner." With evident ill-nature and dis-
position to cavil, his lordship said: "It professes to
emancipate slaves where the United States authori-
ties cannot make emancipation a reality, but emanci-
pates no one where the decree can be carried into
effect." His lordship lived to see the decree carried
into effect in every part of the American Republic.

But in spite of the unconcealed hostility of govern-
ments that bore only ill-will to the Republic, in spite
of the moral assistance given by these to the slave-
holders' rebellion, the fiat had gone forth throughout
all the land that slavery should be no more. For a
brief season the hated system clung to the earth on
which it had fattened. Thenceforward its struggles
were fainter and more faint. The son of the soil, he
wTho embodied in himself the genius of America and
its highest manhood, had set his hand to the decree of
universal freedom.

The preliminary proclamation of September 22,

1862, and the final proclamation, dated January 1,

1863, are as follows:

" I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States
of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that here-
after, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the
object of practically restoring the constitutional relation
between the United States and each of the States, and
the people thereof, in which States that relation is or
may be suspended or disturbed.

" That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Con-
gress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical

312

Abraham Lincoln

measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance
or rejection of all slave States, so called, the people where-
of may not then be in rebellion against the United States,
and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual
abolishment of slavery within their respective limits;
and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent
with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere, with
the previously obtained consent of the Governments
existing there, will be continued.

"That, on the first day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all
persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part
of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever free ; and the Executive Government of the
United States, including the military and naval authority
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons,
or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their
actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts
of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively
shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and
the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that
day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the
United States by members chosen thereto at elections
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State
shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi-
dence that such State, and the people thereof, are not in
rebellion against the United States.

"That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress

The Slavery Question Arises 313

entitled 'An act to make an additional article of war,*
approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words
and figures following :

" ' Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assem-
bled, that hereafter the following shall be promulgated as
an additional article of war, for the government of the
army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and
observed as such :

" 'Article. — All officers or persons in the military or
naval service of the United States are prohibited from
employing any of the forces under their respective com-
mands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service
or labor who may have escaped from any persons to
whom such service or labor is claimed to be due, and any
officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of
violating this article shall be dismissed from service.

" ' Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that this act shall
take effect from and after its passage/

" Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled
1 An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and
rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and
for other purposes,' approved July 17, 1862, and which
sections are in the words and figures following :

" ' Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of
persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against
the Government of the United States, or who shall in any
way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such per-
sons and taking refuge within the lines of the army ; and
all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them,
and coming under the control of the Government of the
United States ; and all slaves of such persons found on [or]
being within any place occupied by rebel forces and after-
wards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall

3H Abraham Lincoln

be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of
their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

"'Sec. io. And be it further enacted, That no slave
escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of
Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up,
or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except
for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the
person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that
the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive
is alleged to be due is his lawful owner and has not borne
arms against the United States in the present rebellion,
nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no
person engaged in the military or naval service of the
United States shall, under any pretence whatever,
assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any per-
son to the service or labor of any other person, or sur-
render up any such person to the claimant, on pain of
being dismissed from the service.'

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons
engaged in the military and naval service of the United
States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respec-
tive spheres of service, the act and sections above recited.

"And the Executive will in due time recommend that
all citizens of the United States who shall have remained
loyal thereto throughout the rebellion shall (upon the
restoration of the constitutional relation between the
United States and their States and people, if that relation
shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated
for all losses by acts of the United States, including the
loss of slaves.

" In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Washington this twenty-second
day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand

The Slavery Question Arises 3l5

eight hundred and sixty-two, and the independence of
the United States the eighty-seventh.

" Abraham Lincoln.

"By the President:

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State."

" Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty- two, a proclamation was issued by the President of
the United States containing, among other things, the
following, to wit :

" 'That on the first day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- three, all
persons held as slaves within any State or designated
part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebel-
lion against the United States, shall be then, thencefor-
ward, and forever free ; and the Executive Government
of the United States, including the military and naval
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom
of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such
persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
their actual freedom.

"'That the Executive will, on the first day of January
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts
of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively,
shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and
the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that
day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the
United States by members chosen thereto at elections
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State
shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence

3*6 Abraham Lincoln

that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in
rebellion against the United States.'

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United
States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the
authority and Government of the United States, and as a
fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebel-
lion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in
accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed
for the full period of one hundred days from the day first
above mentioned, order and designate as the States and
parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively,
are this day in rebellion against the United States, the
following, to wit :

" Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St.
Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St.
James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche,
St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of
New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight coun-
ties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of
Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York,
Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk
and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the
present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

" And by virtue of the power and for the purpose afore-
said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves
within said designated States and parts of States are, and
henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive
Government of the United States, including the military
and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain
the freedom of said persons.

The Slavery Question Arises 3J7

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to
be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary
self-defence ; and I recommend to them that, in all cases
when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

" And I further declare and make known that such per-
sons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed
service of the United States to garrison forts, positions,
stations and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts
in said service.

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of
justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind
and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Washington this first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the
United States of America the eighty-seventh.

"Abraham Lincoln."

CHAPTER XXII.

A DIFFICULT MILITARY SITUATION.

Creation and Equipment of an Army — The Federal Military Plan —
Retirement of General Scott — General McClellan in Full Com-
mand— Appearance of General U. S. Grant — Fall of Forts Henry
and Donelson — Criticism of McClellan — Death of the President's
Son Willie — Military Operations on the Peninsula — McClellan's
Extraordinary Delays — His Advice to the President — Halleck
Made General-in-Chief — A Conference of Loyal Governors — The
Second Bull Run Defeat — Antietam — McClellan Relieved of His
Command.

HILE the steps that led up to the issuing of

* ▼ the emancipation proclamation were being
taken, Lincoln was greatly troubled by the difficul-
ties and dangers of the military situation. The eyes
of the people, for the most part, were turned toward
Washington, where was the focus of all intelligence
relating to the conduct of the war as well as to
political affairs. The operations around the national
capital were, for various reasons, more interesting
than were those of greater real importance in other
parts of the country. In that direction, it seemed,
nothing was done but to make elaborate and exten-
sive preparations. General McClellan was now in
the zenith of his fame and popularity. He was yet
young, barely turned of thirty-six, but he had already
made himself a favorite with the army and the peo-
ple. From the first, Lincoln was profoundly anxious

A Difficult Military Situation 319

to find generals who could command popular confi-
dence and also win battles. This was not an easy
task. The larger number of the men who appeared
to be available were not skilled in military tactics
and strategy ; they had had very little experience in
real war. Of the veterans of the war with Mexico,
General Scott and General Wool were now well ad-
vanced in years. The abilities of the younger
graduates of the Military Academy at West Point
had not yet been developed. Affairs were in a con-
fused and chaotic condition.

Many men fresh from civil life were commissioned
as major and brigadier generals. Some of these
proved good soldiers, and many of them proved in-
competent. The losses entailed by the preliminary
trials and schooling of these civilian generals were
doubtless very great. When McClellan, fresh from
victorious fields, assumed command of the Army of
the Potomac, in the summer of 1861, he found a fine
body of men, fifty thousand in number, waiting for
his organizing hand. Fresh levies of troops were
pouring in, and before the year closed, his command
was roughly estimated to contain about two hun-
dred thousand men. As early as October 27, 1861,
General McClellan's official reports to the Secretary
of War showed that he had 147,695 men ready for
duty; and the arriving levies almost immediately
available would increase this number to 168,318.
It must be said that the nucleus of this great army
was gathered by Lincoln, who, as Commander-in-
Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, had
strained his authority to the utmost to collect a

320 Abraham Lincoln

force for the defence of the capital and to serve as a
framework on which should be organized a large and
aggressive fighting army.

His general plan, adopted after much anxious con-
sultation with his most trusted advisers, was as fol-
lows : To blockade the entire coast-line of the Rebel
States ; to acquire military occupation of the border
States so as to protect Union men and repel invasion ;
to clear the Mississippi River of Rebel obstructions,
thus dividing the Rebel Confederacy and relieving the
West, which was deprived of its natural outlet to the
sea ; to destroy the Rebel army between Washington
and Richmond and capture the Rebel capital. This
vast plan had been formed in the mind of Lincoln by
the very necessities of the situation. It was con-
sidered and brooded over while preparations for its
execution were being made, and while the great
questions of the emancipation of the slaves and the
confiscation of Rebel property were also under con-
sideration. If we remember that at this time, also,
the foreign relations of the Government were strained,
and that the financial resources were severely taxed,
we shall have some notion of the prodigious cares
that weighed down the man who, far into the morn-
ing watch, walked the lonely corridors of the White
House, thinking, thinking, while others slept.

Early in November, General Scott, who held the
highest command in the army of the United States,
having been offended by General McClellan, asked to
be relieved from active duty, and placed on the
retired list. His request was granted; and Lincoln,
accompanied by the members of his Cabinet, visited

A Difficult Military Situation

321

the old veteran at his mansion in Washington, and
presented to him, in person, a most affectionate and
generous farewell address. Subsequently, in a mes-
sage to Congress, Lincoln dwelt with warm praise
on the services that General Scott had rendered to
the country, expressing his belief that, whatever
could be done to reward him, the nation would still
be in debt to General Scott. McClellan was now in
supreme command.

Naturally, Lincoln, being a Western man, felt the
supreme necessity for the speedy opening of the
Mississippi River. The strongest and most numer-
ous opponents of the war were in the West, and their
complaints of the hardships entailed on the people,
in consequence of the prolonged hostilities, seemed
to have more influence than in the Eastern States,
where those hardships were less perceptible — per-
haps less real. Lincoln's anxiety was not very well
appreciated by the Eastern people, or by the generals
and politicians that thronged in Washington. When,
in course of time, the river was opened, the elation
of the President showed itself in many odd expres-
sions. He gloried in the fact that "the Father of
Waters went un vexed to the sea." And, in a mes-
sage to Congress, greatly to the scandal of some of
the more fastidious of his friends, he referred to the
gunboats on the Mississippi as "Uncle Sam's web-
feet," that went whither they chose. But, as yet,
all this was unaccomplished.

In pursuance of his programme, General U. S.
Grant, then rising somewhat in the popular esteem,
attacked and destroyed Belmont, a military depot of

VOL. VIII.— 21.

322

Abraham Lincoln

the Rebels, in Missouri; General Garfield defeated
Humphrey Marshall at Middle Creek, Kentucky,
and General George H. Thomas defeated Generals
Zollikoff er and Crittenden at Mill Spring, in the same
State. These victories did much to hem the Rebels
within the lines of the so-called seceded States, and
also crippled them much. This was followed up by
the capture of Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and
Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. These
streams, emptying into the Ohio River, were very
necessary to help in military operations against the
southwestern Rebel States. The forts were taken
and the rivers cleared by General Grant, commanding
the land forces, and Admiral Foote, in command of a
fleet of " Uncle Sam's web-feet." Fort Donelson
was commanded by the Rebel Generals Buckner and
Floyd, the latter being the same traitor who, as
Secretary of War, had done his best to hamper the
Government while he yet held office under President
Buchanan. The Rebel generals asked Grant for a
parley to settle terms of surrender. To this Grant
replied: "No terms except unconditional surrender
can be accepted. I propose to move immediately
on your works." This gave Grant his popular title
of "Unconditional Surrender Grant." The Rebels
did not wait. Floyd, conscious of the darkness of his
guilt, fled in the night with a small force. Buckner
surrendered twelve thousand prisoners of war and
much material for fighting.

This was in February, 1862. Kentucky was now
cleared of Rebels, and Tennessee was opened to the
occupation of the Federal forces. Early in March,

A Difficult Military Situation

323

Gen. S. R. Curtis fought the battle of Pea Ridge,
and the Union flag was once more floating in the
State of Arkansas. A few days later, General John
Pope moved down the valley of the Mississippi, and,
by a series of successes, yet further broke the armed
opposition to the progress of the Federal army and
the gunboats. On the 6th of April, 1862, was
fought the great and terrible battle of Shiloh, or
Pittsburgh Landing, in which the carnage on both
sides was awful, and many brave and distinguished
officers, including General Albert Sidney Johnston,
the Rebel commander, were killed. The defeated
Rebels were sent flying to their fortified line at Cor-
inth, Miss., where they were attacked by General
Halleck, driven out, and compelled to retreat, leaving
behind them, in their precipitate flight, a vast accu-
mulation of military stores. Thus, by the end of
May, 1862, the Rebels saw Missouri, Arkansas, Ken-
tucky and Tennessee torn from their grasp, and the
United States flag floating once more over these
recovered States.

That part of the programme which required the
blockade and occupation of the Atlantic ports of the
Rebel States was not overlooked meanwhile. During
the months of March and April, 1862, Roanoke Is-
land, N. C, was captured with great stores of arms
and ammunition and many prisoners by Admiral
Goldsborough and General Burnside. Newbern,
N. C, fell next, and Fort Pulaski and Fort Macon,
on the same coast-line, soon followed in surrender.
In the autumn of 1 861, an expedition under General
B. F. Butler landed at Ship Island, in the Gulf of

324

Abraham Lincoln

Mexico, about midway between New Orleans and
Mobile. A fleet of armed vessels under Admiral
Farragut soon after arrived, and on the 17th of April
Farragut appeared below the forts that guarded the
approaches to the city of New Orleans. After bom-
barding these impregnable fortifications for several
days, the gallant Admiral resolved to run past them.
Making due and skilful preparations for the desperate
undertaking, amid a storm of bombs and solid shot
Farragut passed the forts, and, destroying the Rebel
fleet above them, ascended the Mississippi, and ap-
peared before New Orleans, to the amazement and
consternation of its people. Baton Rouge, the
capital of Louisiana, next fell, and the surrender of
Natchez, May 12th, opened the Mississippi as far
north as Vicksburg, a city which, with its fortifica-
tions, now remained almost the sole impediment to
the free navigation of the Father of Waters.

These events, here noted in the order of their
happening, were scattered over several months in
their occurrence. Grant fought the battle of Bel-
mont in November, 1861. The Mississippi was open
as far as Natchez about the middle of May, 1862.
Many of the decisive important military and naval
operations, therefore, were undertaken in the winter.
But May, 1862, found McClellan still inactive before
Washington. Is it any wonder that Lincoln, be-
sieged as he was by importunities for aggressive
movement by the Army of the Potomac, commanded
by General McClellan, was greatly troubled by the
sluggishness of that large and costly force? The
General's headquarters were in the city of Washing-

Abraham Lin

Mexico, about midway between Hew Orleans and
Mobile. A fleet of armed vm§ under Admiral

rarragut appeared below the forts that ^sftrded the

approaches to the city of New Orleans. Alter »%»
barding these impregnable fortifications for several
days, the gallant Admiral resolved to run past them.

Making due and skilful preparations for the desperate

undertaking, amid a storm of bombs and solid shot
Farragut passed the forts, and, destroying the Rebel
fleet above them, ascended the Mississippi, and ap-
peared before New Orleans, to the amazement and
consternate David Glasgow Farrttgnnt Rouge, the

From a steel engraving, -v. '-irrender of

Natches, If** ratik tium^ th, "wri,,,tt5^'r >*» ***

1 j ' • e t ^ents, nere noted m the order of their
happening, were scattered over several months in
their occurrence. Grant fought the battle of Bel-
mont in November, 1861. The Mississippi was open
as far as Natchez about the middle of May, 1862.
Many of the decisive important military and naval
operations, therefore, were undertaken in the winter.
But May, 1862, found McClellan still inactive before
Washington. Is it any wonder that Lincoln, bt*
sieged as he was by importunities for aggressive
movement by the Army of the Potomac, commanded
by General McClellan, was greatly troubled by the
1 ,h: ■> ss of that large and costly force? The
GeTun\ I s headquarters were in the city of Washing-

A Difficult Military Situation

325

ton, where he maintained great state, surrounded by
a large and brilliant staff, many of whom were gentle-
men of distinction, American and foreign. Here was
all the show and parade of war, but no fighting. In
Washington, too, were the politicians in great num-
bers. The former successes of General McClellan
had suggested to the minds of many that he would
be available as a Presidential candidate, and it was
not long before that idea was uppermost in the mind
of the General himself. As he was conservative,
and opposed to the policy of emancipation, then
actively discussed everywhere, and was disposed to
regard the institution of slavery as something too
sacred to be interfered with or disregarded in the
military operations then on foot, he was naturally
the choice of the Democratic politicians.

It was a long time before the mass of the people
lost their faith in McClellan. He was to them still
the 4 'Young Napoleon" who had done so much in his
earlier campaigns in western Virginia, and who, it
was fondly believed, would march directly upon
Richmond, when he should once determine to move.
Meantime, he wanted many things to perfect his
army. When these were furnished, he found that
other imperfections were to be removed. People
seemed to think that McClellan's inaction was due
to the tardiness with which the Government sup-
plied his necessary wants. Great was the popular
discontent. It would appear that even the brilliant
and highly important successes elsewhere availed
nothing as long as no portentous movement was
made upon Richmond. "On to Richmond!" was

326

Abraham Lincoln

the cry of the Northern newspapers and of the
politicians. Washington was the centre toward
which the active elements of the war constantly
tended. Sooner or later, it appeared, everybody
went to Washington during the progress of the war.
The national capital was not only a vast military
camp, it was the place where offices were dispensed,
where the friends of those in any of the armies, east
or west, went for tidings of their kin, and to secure
for these the promotions or the exchanges desired.
The seat of government always attracts a prodigious
concourse of people from every rank in life. Con-
gressmen, ministers to foreign countries, newspaper
correspondents, and the infinite variety of men who
make and mould public opinion, all were there.
These all, though representing every section of the
loyal States, clamored for active operations by the
vast army that was encamped just across the
Potomac River, opposite Washington, and which
filled the capital with its gayly uniformed officers,
and with showy preparations for a movement that
was unaccountably delayed.

Lincoln was in frequent and anxious consultation
with General McClellan and the other generals and
military men gathered at the capital. Lincoln,
with that insatiate desire to know all that man could
know by hard study, read all the books on war and
strategy that he could find, and speedily mastered
all that these could teach him. Far into the night,
when the ceaseless importunities of those who
desired audience with him would allow him an hour
or two of seclusion, he pored over books and maps,

A Difficult Military Situation

327

plans of battles and sieges, slowly absorbing the
details of military science, as he had, in earlier years
in the backwoods, grasped the parts of the various
knowledge that he had made his own. McClellan
regarded all this with some contempt. He grew
impatient of Lincoln's questioning, his suggestions,
and his visits. For the President, anxious to avoid
taking up too much of the time of the commander,
refrained, as far as possible, from sending for the
General to come to him. The President humbly
went to the head-quarters of the General in Washing-
ton. On one occasion, the great General denied him-
self to the President on the plea that he was too busy
with his staff to receive him; and the President,
although he knew that the great man was taking his
luncheon with his staff, and so secluded himself,
showed no sign of anger or restiveness at this rebuff.
With infinite patience, Lincoln did his best to silence
criticism of McClellan, while he essayed by all means
in his power to induce the General to move the army,
that, like a vast holiday-making pageant, still ate
and drank, marched to and fro, and maintained a
brilliant show on the banks of the Potomac. The
only sign of impatience that the President ever
showed was once when, a movement seeming im-
possible, he grimly said: "If General McClellan has
no use for the Army of the Potomac, I should like to
borrow it for a little while."

Toward the latter part of January, 1862, Lincoln
had issued an order specially intended to direct the
movements of the Army of the Potomac, in which,
among other things, the army was commanded to

328

Abraham Lincoln

seize upon and occupy a point on the railroad south-
west of Manassas Junction. The details of this
movement were to be left to the judgment of the
general commanding. To this McClellan demurred,
and, in a long letter to the Secretary of War, he
detailed his objections, the chief of which was that
the roads would be bad at that season of year.
He wished that the movement, if it were undertaken,
should be by another route — that by the lower Rap-
pahannock, the base of supplies being at the small
town of Urbana. Upon this line he could throw
forward somewhere between one hundred and ten
thousand and one hundred and forty thousand
troops of various arms. In reply, the President ad-
dressed a letter to McClellan, in which he said that
he would gladly yield his own plan to that of the
General if the latter would give a satisfactory
answer to the following questions :

"i. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger ex-
penditure of time and money than mine?

"2. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan
than mine?

"3. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan
than mine?

"4. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this: that
it would break no great line of the enemy's communica-
tions, while mine would?

"5. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more
difficult by your plan than mine?"

This letter was ridiculed by some of the military
critics, and the frequent use of the word ' 'plan"
was specially the butt of the small wits of the day,

A Difficult Military Situation 329

who recalled Lincoln's use of the word "spot" in his
speech on the President's message to Congress con-
cerning the Mexican war, while Lincoln was in Con-
gress, years before. But others were convinced that
the good sense of the President was far more valuable
than the masterly inactivity of General McClellan.
The General again demurred, but his reply, addressed
to the Secretary of War, and not to the President,
was not satisfactory, and the President agreed to
submit the two plans to a council of war, to consist
of twelve general officers. The council decided, by a
vote of eight to four, in favor of McClellan's plan,
and Lincoln readily acquiesced. Information of
these debates having reached the Rebels, they with-
drew from Manassas to the farther side of the Rappa-
hannock, thereby rendering both plans useless. By
this time, two weeks had elapsed since the President's
order directing a general advance of all the armies.

After the enemy had abandoned his line at Ma-
nassas, McClellan moved forward for a day or two,
but almost immediately after returned to his in-
trenched position at Alexandria, on the Potomac,
near Washington. He found that every possible de-
vice had been resorted to by the Rebels to exagger-
ate their formidable appearance, while they remained
at Centreville, near Manassas, wooden guns being
among these appearances of defence on the outworks.
A greatly inferior force had occupied the works all
winter, while McClellan, distrustful of the enemy, had
remained quiet on the banks of the Potomac.

To add to Lincoln's trials and burthens, he was at
this time visited by great domestic affliction. His

33° Abraham Lincoln

two younger sons, Willie and Thomas (familiarly-
known as "Tad"), were stricken by disease. The
younger of the two, "Tad," finally rallied and re-
covered, but Willie, a bright and beautiful lad,
about eleven years old, died, after a few days' illness.
The blow was heavy and hard to bear. Lincoln's
sorrowful vigil by the bedside of the dying boy was
often interrupted that he might consider pressing
military events.

General McClellan was now in the field, and on
the nth of March he was relieved from command of
other departments of military activity, and was left
in sole and immediate command of the Army of the
Potomac, of which he said, in one of his famous
bulletins : ' ' The Army of the Potomac is now a real
army — magnificent in material, admirable in dis-
cipline, excellently equipped and armed. Your
commanders are all that I could wish."

The change of front by the Rebels made necessary
a change of the base of operations of the Federal
forces, and a council of war, held by direction of the
President, decided that the new base should be at
Fortress Monroe, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
In the meantime, the fight between the iron-clad
Rebel Merrimac and the Federal Monitor had taken
place near Fortress Monroe, the former having been
beaten back to Norfolk, where she had been built at
the abandoned Federal navy-yard from the hull of a
frigate. The new plan of operations proposed cer-
tain conditions that should keep the Rebel ram in
check. It also proposed that a force large enough to
protect Washington should be left near Manassas.

A Difficult Military Situation

33i

A great fleet of transports was provided for Mc-
Clellan to move his troops, in case any new base, or
other change of plan, should be deemed necessary.
There was much alarm felt in Washington as to the
smallness of the force left for the defence of the
national capital, but McClellan, in his anxiety to
collect an immense army for his offensive operations,
was not inclined to spare a larger force for defensive
purposes. His immediate field of operations was on
the peninsula formed by the York and James Rivers.
The enemy were behind a line of intrenchments that
stretched across the peninsula, the key of the situa-
tion being Yorktown, on this line. McClellan unac-
countably delayed any active operations against this
line of defence. On the 3d of April, the President
ordered the Secretary of War to direct McClellan to
begin active operations; but he demurred, and said
to the President, in a letter dated on the 5th of that
month, that he was sure that the enemy was in large
force in front of him, beh nd formidable works. He
added: " I am of the opinion I shall have to fight all
the available force of the Rebels not far from here."
He wanted more men.

Lincoln was overwhelmed and in despair at this
delay, so inexplicable and apparently so inexcusable.
He was confident that General McClellan exaggerated
the strength of the force in front of him, and he
besought Secretary Stanton to hurry forward every-
thing that McClellan seemed to think needful to in-
sure the safety of an advance of the Federal army.
It afterwards transpired that the Rebel force was
only about 9300 effective men. In a report sub-

332

Abraham Lincoln

sequently made to the Richmond government, by
the Rebel General Magruder, he said: "With five
thousand men, exclusive of the garrisons, we stopped
and held in check over one hundred thousand of the
enemy. To my surprise, he [McClellan] permitted
day after day to elapse without any assault."

The line held by the Rebels was about thirteen
miles long. Much of the force behind that line was
scattered to defend points in the rear. McClellan,
with his one hundred thousand men, sat down
deliberately and began, with shovels and picks, a
regular siege. On the 9th of April, 1862, Lincoln
wrote him a letter full of kindly feeling, but remon-
strating with him for his unaccountable reluctance
to move. The following extracts will show the gentle-
ness and admirable temper of the President :

" I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to
you is with you by this time, and if so, I think that it is
the precise time for you to strike a blow. By delay, the
enemy will relatively gain upon you — that is, he will gain
faster by fortifications and reinforcements than you can
by reinforcements alone ; and once more let me tell you,
it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am
powerless to help this. You will do me the justice to
remember I always insisted that going down the bay in
search of a field, instead of fighting near Manassas, was
only shifting, not surmounting, the difficulty. . . .
The country will not fail to note — and it is now noting —
that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched
enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated. I beg to
assure you I have never written ... in greater
kindness, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far

A Difficult Military Situation 333

as in my most anxious judgment I consistently can. But
you must act."

In answer to McClellan's importunate call for more
troops, the President yielded and sent him General
Franklin's division, which had been retained to
defend the line between Richmond and Washington.
So, on the 13th of April, McClellan's army, according
to official reports, had 130,378 men, of whom 112,392
were effective. According to McClellan's letters to
the War Department, he was now "confident of
results," and was "getting up the heavy guns,
mortars, and ammunition quite rapidly." Still he
complained of "heavy rains and horrid roads/' but
he was "making progress all the time," and soon
would "be at them." At this time, too, he called
for Parrott guns, to the infinite consternation of the
President, who wrote him, on the 1st of May: " Your
call for Parrott guns from Washington alarms me —
chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastination.
Is anything to be done?"

Nothing was done, and, on the 25th of May, Lin-
coln telegraphed to McClellan : "I think the time is
near at hand when you must either attack Richmond
or give up the job, and come to the defence of Wash-
ington." Meanwhile, the Rebels, disconcerted by the
arrival of fresh troops, and beginning to fear an
attack, abandoned their line across the peninsula
and retreated up to their second line of works. On
the 2 1st of June, McClellan, from his camp in the field,
wrote to the President, asking permission to address
him on the subject of "the present state of military

334

Abraham Lincoln

affairs throughout the whole country." The Presi-
dent, with his unfailing good-nature, replied: "If it
would not divert your time and attention from the
army under your command, I should be glad to hear
your views on the present state of military affairs
throughout the whole country."

Another cause of disagreement between Lincoln
and McClellan was the organization of the Army of
the Potomac into corps. The corps were not of
McClellan's choosing. He applied to the Secretary
of War for permission to suspend the organization
and to reorganize them. It was well known that the
three corps commanders, Sumner, Heintzelman, and
Keyes, were not favorites with General McClellan.
His plan of reorganization was to drop them out of
their commands. On this point Lincoln wrote to
McClellan, and, in a very frank and friendly letter,
expressed his opinion of McClellan's new scheme.
He said, among other things :

" I ordered the army-corps organization not only on the
unanimous opinion of twelve generals of division, but also
on the unanimous opinion of every military man I could
get an opinion from, and every modern military book,
yourself only excepted. Of course, I did not, on my own
judgment, pretend to understand the subject. I now
think it indispensable for you to know how your struggle
against it is regarded in quarters which we cannot entirely
disregard. It is looked upon as merely an effort to pam-
per one or two pets, and to persecute and degrade their
supposed rivals. I have no word from Sumner, Heintzel-
man, or Keyes. The commanders of these corps are, of
course, the highest officers with you. But I am constantly

A Difficult Military Situation 355

told that you have no consultation or communication
with them, that you consult and communicate with
nobody but Fitz John Porter, and perhaps General Frank-
lin. I do not say that these complaints are true or just ;
but, at all events, it is proper that you should know of
their existence/ '

After the receipt of this letter, McClellan decided
not to make the change in the organization of the
army which he had, up to that time, urged was very
essential. He created two additional and "pro-
visional" corps, one of which was to be commanded
by Fitz John Porter and the other by Franklin, the
two generals whom Lincoln had mentioned as 1 1 pets "
to be pampered at the expense of their supposed
rivals.

It was during a brief sojourn at Fortress Monroe
that an affecting incident then occurred. One day
Lincoln, to beguile the tedium of waiting, took up a
volume of his favorite, Shakespeare, and read aloud
to General Wool's aide, Colonel Cannon, who
chanced to be near him, several passages from
Hamlet and Macbeth; then, after reading from
the third act of King John, he closed the book and
recalled the lament of Constance for her boy, begin-
ning:

" And, Father Cardinal, I have heard you say
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.
If that be true, I shall see my boy again.' 1

The words, he said, had reminded him of the many
times when, as in a vision, he seemed to see his lost

33^

Abraham Lincoln

boy near him; yet he knew the dream must fade.
So saying, he bowed his face in his hands and silently
wept.

To go back a little in this chapter of military
history, in which Lincoln was so deeply interested.
On account of the Rebel occupation of Norfolk, and
the dread of the Rebel ram Merrimac, lying there
ready for a sortie at any time, the line of the James
River was impracticable for Federal naval vessels.
The capture of Norfolk and the destruction of the
ram were indispensable. The President went to
Fortress Monroe, and, after a consultation with
General Wool, there commanding, an expedition was
fitted out against Norfolk. As Lincoln subsequently
related to General Garfield how this was an effectual
movement, the account written by Garfield may as
well be transcribed here :

" By the way, Garfield, do you know that Chase, Stan-
ton, General Wool, and I had a campaign of our own?
We went down to Fortress Monroe in Chase's revenue
cutter, and consulted with Admiral Goldsborough on the
feasibility of taking Norfolk by landing on the north shore
and making a march of eight miles. The Admiral said
there was no landing on that shore, and we should have
to double the cape, and approach the place from the south
side, which would be a long journey and a difficult one.
I asked him if he had ever tried to find a landing, and he
replied that he had not. I then told him a story of a fel-
low in Illinois who had studied law, but had never tried a
case. He was sued, and, not having confidence in his
ability to manage his own case, employed a lawyer to
manage it for him. He had only a confused idea of the

Abraham Lit

JTo go back a little in tins chapter of rniJit^iry
history, in which Lincoln was so deeply interested.

On account of the Rebel occupation of Norfolk, and
the dread of the Rebel ram Merritnac, lying there
ready for a sortie at any time, the line of the James
River was impracticable for Federal naval vessels.
The capture of Norfolk and the destruction of the
ram were indispensable. The President went to
Fortress Monroe, and, after a consultation with
General Wool, there commanding, an expedition wras

We went down to Fortress Monroe in Chase';
cutter, and consulted with Admiral Goldsborou
feasibility of taking Norfolk by landing on the n<
and making a march of eight miles. The Adi
there was no landing on that shore, and we sh(
to double the cape, and approach the place from

replied that he had not. I then told him a story of .
low in Illinois who had studied law, but had never tr
case4. He was sued, and, not having confidence ft
ability to manage his own case, employed a laffy
manage it for him. He had only a confused idea o

A Difficult Military Situation 337

meaning of law terms, but was anxious to make a display
of learning, and, on the trial, constantly made suggestions
to his lawyer, who paid but little attention to him. At
last, fearing that his lawyer was not handling the oppos-
ing counsel very well, he lost all his patience, and springing
to his feet cried out : ' Why don't you go at him with a
capias or a sur-rebutter or something, and not stand there
like a confounded old nudumpactum?' ' Now, Admiral, 1
said I, 'if you don't know that there is no landing on the
north shore, I want you to find out.' The Admiral took
the hint ; and taking Chase and Wool along, with a com-
pany or two of marines, he went on a voyage of discover}',
and Stanton and I remained at Fortress Monroe. That
night we went to bed, but not to sleep, for we were very
anxious for the fate of the expedition. About two o'clock
the next morning I heard the heavy tread of Wool ascend-
ing the stairs. I went out into the parlor and found
Stanton hugging Wool in the most enthusiastic manner,
as he announced that he had found a landing and had
captured Norfolk."

The greater part of the month of June, 1862, was
spent by the army under McClellan in fighting, ad-
vancing, retreating, and in various manoeuvres not
readily understood, even at this distance of time.
At one time a portion of the troops was within four
miles of Richmond without meeting any considerable
force of the enemy. The Rebels had sent reinforce-
ments to that part of their army that was threatening
Washington, and, alarmed by these demonstrations
on the peninsula, they began to collect troops to
won*}' McClellan, whose failure to attempt any seri-
ous attack was to them inexplicable. On the 27th
of June he announced his intention to retreat to

VOL. VIII. 2 2.

338

Abraham Lincoln

the James River, and, in an extraordinary letter
to the Secretary of War, he said: "If I save this
army, I tell you plainly I owe you no thanks, nor
to any one at Washington. You have done your
best to destroy this army."

Lincoln was greatly disturbed by the insulting
and unjust tone of this despatch. It was a severe
tax on his patience to be told by a subordinate officer
that he, the President, who had strained all the
resources at his command to meet the demands of
McClellan, had virtually done nothing for the Army
of the Potomac. The army, harassed by the Rebel
forces hanging on its rear, and occasionally turning
at bay, retreated to Malvern Hill, and the ignoble
campaign of the peninsula was over.

By this time it had been understood by the politi-
cians of the Northern States that McClellan was the
candidate of that portion of the Democratic party
which was dissatisfied with the war and with the
emancipation measures then under contemplation.
Accordingly, on the 7th of July, writing to the
President from Harrison's Landing, McClellan ad-
dressed Lincoln at great length, not on the general
conduct of the war, but upon the general conduct of
the administration. It should be borne in mind
that McClellan was yet a young man, not thirty-seven
years of age. Excepting his brief and spirited cam-
paign in western Virginia, he had had no active
military experience, but, as a civil and military
engineer, he had seen service. He had had very
little to do with politics or statesmanship, and had
gained his highest renown as the president of a rail-

A Difficult Military Situation

339

road corporation before the war began. But he had
now the temerity to offer advice and instruction to
President Lincoln and his Cabinet, and to solve, in his
camp on the James, problems in statecraft that
seemed to the wisest men in the world almost im-
possible of solution.

To Lincoln he said : * ' Let neither military disaster,
political faction, nor foreign war shake your settled
purpose to enforce the equal operation of the laws
upon the people of every State." Then, after ad-
vising him as to the conduct of the war, the General
said: "Neither confiscation of property, political
executions of persons, territorial organizations of
States, or forcible abolition of slavery should be
contemplated for one moment." Then, as if by way
of threat, he said that unless his views "should be
made known and approved, the effort to obtain the
requisite forces will be almost hopeless. A declara-
tion of radical views, especially upon slavery, will
rapidly disintegrate our present armies."

This amazing communication, addressed to the
President from a general who had just shown his in-
competence to command an army engaged in offen-
sive operations, did not anger the patient and
much-enduring President. He was discouraged and
profoundly depressed. Possibly he would have re-
moved McClellan at this time, as he was importuned
to do by many who reflected the impatience of the
whole country at the dilatoriness that had char-
acterized the operations against the Rebel capital and
its lines of communication. In order to see for him-
self what was the condition of the army, Lincoln

340

Abraham Lincoln

visited the head-quarters of General McClellan at
Harrison's Landing, on the 7th of July. Guided by
the General, he examined the rosters of the troops,
the reports of the chiefs of divisions, and the records
which showed the effectiveness of the forces under
the command of General McClellan. It was the
President's judgment that the army should be
recalled to Washington, and in this conclusion he
was supported by the corps commanders. To this
McClellan was opposed. He was unwilling to aban-
don the campaign so auspiciously begun and so
ignobly concluded. He wanted Burnside's army,
then operating in North Carolina, sent to him ; and,
with large reinforcements, he was confident of
achieving success, although it was now evident that
he had failed more than once to take advantage of the
chances offered him to assault Richmond on this
line of attack.

Returning to Washington, and calling for the
records of the War Department that showed the
number of troops sent to McClellan in answer to his
importunate demands, Lincoln found that McClellan
had had one hundred and sixty thousand men with
him. He wrote to the General reminding him of this
fact, and of the other fact that when he visited the
General, a few days before, he found that there were
only eighty-six thousand effective men on duty.
Making liberal allowance for death by disease and in
battle, and for the sick and wounded, fifty thousand
men yet remained to be accounted for. Where were
these fifty thousand? In reply, McClellan said
38,250 men were absent "by authority." And yet

A Difficult Military Situation

34i

McClellan complained of his lack of men, and of the
failure to give him the army of Burnside, or of some
other general, operating in other and more distant
parts of the Republic.

Lincoln felt the need of a military adviser who
should be always at hand and readily accessible.
The successes of the generals in the western part of
the Republic, contrasting as they did with the
humiliating failures of the campaigns around Wash-
ington and in Virginia, suggested the designation of
some one of these men to the post to be created.
General H. W. Halleck accordingly was called to
Washington, on the nth of July, with the rank and
title of General-in-Chief. Another Western general
called to the East was General John Pope, whose suc-
cesses in the valley of the Mississippi had given him
fame. General Pope took command of a new military
organization of three army corps commanded by
Generals Fremont, Banks, and McDowell. This
was known as the Army of Virginia, and its creation
was naturally regarded by McClellan and his partisans
with jealousy, a jealousy that was heightened by an
intemperate and indiscreet address issued by Pope
on taking command. In this address, Pope assumed
a tone of confidence and boasting that was appar-
ently designed to contrast the deeds he proposed to
do with the failures of the Army of the Potomac. This
aroused an intense and bitter hostility among the offi-
cers of the Army of the Potomac, and greatly vexed
and disappointed Lincoln, who, from that moment,
was apprehensive that Pope would raise up enemies
against himself and impair his usefulness as a soldier.

342

Abraham Lincoln

On the 28th of June, 1862, there assembled at
Altoona, Penn., the famous conference of loyal
governors. It was a meeting of the governors of
seventeen States to confer on the best means for
supporting the President in carrying on the war.
They united in an address to the President, assuring
jhim of the readiness of the States to respond to calls
for more troops, and to support the most vigorous
measures for carrying on the war. Thereupon the
President issued a call for three hundred thousand
men. Notwithstanding defeats and reverses, delays
and sluggishness, the spirit of the country was un-
broken. It was felt that this was a struggle for life
or death.

Pope's command, numbering thirty-eight thousand
men, was employed to defend Washington, against
which point Lee was now advancing with a large
force of the Rebels. Pope was also to hold the valley
of the Shenandoah, in which active and aggressive
squadrons of Rebel cavalry were manoeuvring. If
McClellan now made a bold attack on Richmond
from his position on the James, Lee's attention would
be diverted from Pope, and keep him on the defensive.
But McClellan, it was evident, could not be expected
to execute any such movement. The Army of the
Potomac was, accordingly, ordered to the line of the
Potomac, to support Pope. The situation was full
of peril. Lee's army was being massed to crush
Pope, before he could be reinforced by McClellan,
whose forces were in Virginia, farther from Washing-
ton than were Lee's. McClellan was repeatedly
ordered to make haste. He delayed and dallied, as

A Difficult Military Situation

343

if sullen and unwilling to obey orders. On the 13th
of July he was ordered to send away his sick and pre-
pare for his return to the Potomac. He waited, and
on the 3d of August he was directed to move his army
to Acquia Creek, a small stream emptying into the
Potomac below Washington. He remonstrated and
said he would obey "as soon as circumstances would
permit." Again, on the 9th of the month, General
Halleck, at the direction of the President, admon-
ished McClellan of the dangers that menaced Pope,
and told him that he must move with all possible
celerity. Next day Halleck telegraphed McClellan
that the Rebels had crossed the Rapidan and were
attacking Pope ; and he added : ' ' There must be no
further delay in your movements." Still the tardy
and slow-moving McClellan did not respond. Fi-
nally, on the 23d of August, he sailed from Fortress
Monroe, arriving at Acquia Creek on the following
day, and at Alexandria on the Potomac on the
27th, nearly one month after receiving his orders.

Meanwhile, Pope was being driven towards Wash-
ington, assailed in turn by the Rebel forces under
Jackson, Longstreet, and Lee. Not one of McClel-
lan's trusted and favorite lieutenants came to Pope's
relief, although they were within supporting dis-
tance. Fitz John Porter heard the guns of the
hardly pressed Pope, as well as those of the Rebel
army assailing him ; he knew the desperate condition
of the Army of Virginia. He refused to go to its
relief. For this he was tried by a military court,
found guilty, and sentenced to be dismissed from the
army. The President approved this sentence.

344

Abraham Lincoln

Pope was driven back upon Washington. His
humiliation was complete. The army was torn by
dissensions and cabals. Party spirit ran high, not
only in Congress and in the country, but in the camps
around Washington and in Virginia. In the field
were disaster and defeat; in the Cabinet, divided
counsels; and in Congress, virulent and heated de-
bate, and a growing opposition to the war, with, now
and again, a recommendation that terms for peace
be offered to the Rebel Government. It was a dark
and gloomy time. Lincoln, alone in his sublime
trust in God and in the righteousness of the cause
of the Federal Union, did not hesitate to manifest
his unshaken belief in the ultimate triumph of the
Federal arms and in the power of the people to quell
the slaveholders' rebellion. Men who listened to
him, in those days of peril, went away marvelling at
his patience, fortitude, and courage.

Once more McClellan had an opportunity offered
him to achieve a great success. Yielding to what
seemed a military necessity, Lincoln placed him at
the head of a newly reorganized army. He now had
under him the Army of the Potomac, the remnants
of Pope's Army of Virginia, and the forces brought
from North Carolina by General Burnside. To these
were added reinforcements from the raw levies,
making the force under McClellan the largest that
had ever been massed together in one army — more
than two hundred thousand, all told. If ever "the
young Napoleon" was to win laurels, this was his
time and opportunity. But he seemed impatient
and discontented that any troops should be under

A Difficult Military Situation 34S

a command separate from his own. He wished that
the force retained in the defence of Washington
should be sent to him, saying that the capture of
Washington would not be so great a calamity to the
country as a single defeat of the Army of the Potomac.
He asked that the twelve thousand troops holding
Harper's Ferry should be sent to him, and when told
that if he would open communications with that
point, Harper's Ferry would be included in his com-
mand, he failed to take the necessary steps, although
he knew that a Rebel force was marching against
Harper's Ferry. He delayed, did not seize the pre-
cious opportunity to strike at Lee's army while it
was divided, and did not relieve Harper's Ferry,
which, on the 15th of September, surrendered to the
Rebels.

Lee, meantime, was advancing into Maryland, and
it became absolutely imperative that he should be
checked. McClellan, finally roused, but one day too
late, attacked Lee, and the bloody battle of Antie-
tam was fought, September 17th. The Rebels were
thoroughly whipped, and began a sullen retreat
across the Potomac. It would appear that Mc-
Clellan might have followed, one entire corps of his
army not having been in the fight. But he remained
where he was, and called for more reinforcements.
This amazing demand, following the delay to move,
alarmed the President, and he made a personal visit
to the army to see for himself how affairs stood. On
his return to Washington he issued an order, dated
October 6, 1862, through General Halleck, directing
McClellan to "cross the Potomac and give battle to

346 Abraham Lincoln

the enemy or drive him south." This order McClel-
lan declined to obey. On the ioth of that month,
J. E. B. Stuart, a dashing Rebel cavalry officer,
crossed the Potomac, going as far north as Cham-
bersburg, Penn., which he raided, and made the en-
tire circuit of McClellan's army before he recrossed
into Virginia.

A few days after this daring exploit, which McClel-
lan had confidently predicted would end in his
"bagging" the whole of Stuart's command, Lincoln
wrote a long and friendly letter to McClellan, in
which he begged for a forward movement, arguing
the case from a military point of view with much
acuteness. Still McClellan did not move. He com-
plained that his horses were fatigued and had the
sore tongue. Lincoln could not help asking what
his cavalry had done since the battle of Antietam,
fought more than a month before, that they should
be fatigued. McClellan showed that he resented
this home thrust, and Lincoln, ready to plead his
own desire to be exactly just, wrote to the General
to say that he was very sorry if he had done the
General any injustice. He added, however: "To be
told, after five weeks' total inactivity of the army,
and during which period we had sent to that army
every fresh horse we possibly could, amounting in the
whole to 7918, that the cavalry horses were too much
fatigued to move, presented a cheerless, almost hope-
less, prospect for the future." It may be added to
this that the winter was now close at hand, when ac-
tive operations in the field, always difficult, would be
impossible under McClellan's command.

A Difficult Military Situation

347

Finally, on the 5th of November, 1862, just one
month after the order to cross had been issued, the
army did cross the Potomac. By this time, of course,
the Rebels, recovering from their defeat at Antietam,
were ready for battle or for a retreat. It was too late.
General McClellan was relieved from command of the
Army of the Potomac on the 5th of November, and
was ordered to Trenton, New Jersey. His military
career was closed, and we hear no more of him until
he emerged, in 1864, as the Presidential candidate of
the Democratic party.

This long and interesting chapter of military history
is valuable as showing forth the patience, forbearance,
and sagacity of Lincoln. Again and again, he was
urged by the impatient and fiery spirits around him
to remove McClellan, and subject him to trial by court-
martial for disobedience of orders. Even those who
did not advise these extreme measures with the Gen-
eral, counselled the President to withdraw McClellan
from command. But Lincoln knew that many of the
subordinate commanders in the Army of the Potomac
were warm champions of McClellan 's military genius,
believers in his mysterious power to win great victo-
ries. They would support any other commander with
lukewarmness, if they supported him at all. There
was no such rigid and severe discipline in the Union
army as exists in the military organizations of Eu-
ropean states. Military councils were something in
the nature of condensed town meetings. The rank
and file maintained an exchange of sentiment and
judgment that corresponded exactly to the public
opinion of towns, cities, and other communities. The

348

Abraham Lincoln

country was slow to give up its faith in the young
General, who, in the very opening of the war, achieved
military successes in western Virginia and won for
himself a name before other men had had a chance
to distinguish themselves. Lincoln was reluctant to
rouse animosities and harsh judgments by a removal
of McClellan while he yet had a chance to retrieve
himself. He remained to encourage popular and
military confidence. It was not until McClellan had,
so to speak, worn out his reputation, that he was
removed.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

The Battle of Fredericksburg — Rise of the Peace Party — Factions in
Congress — The Battle of Chancellorsville — A Conscription Ordered
and Martial Law Declared — Colored Troops Enlisted — Great
Financial Measures Afoot — Vallandigham's Expulsion and Re-
turn— Growth of the Anti-War Sentiment — Fall of Vicksburg and
Battle of Gettysburg — Popular Rejoicings — The President's Pro-
clamation of Thanksgiving — Draft Riots in New York — Lincoln's
Address on the Field of Gettysburg — Grant and Sherman in the
West.

GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE succeeded
McClellan as commander of the Army of the
Potomac. General Burnside was a graduate of the
United States Military Academy, but had been, like
his predecessor, engaged in other pursuits than that
of the military service, before the beginning of the war
of the Rebellion. He was " every inch a soldier" in
appearance, of fine figure and address, amiable, loyal,
and patriotic. He undertook the command of the
army with many misgivings. McClellan 's favorite
generals, it was probable, would not support him with
cordiality, and, although he had proved his ability
while handling a corps, as at the battle of Antietam,
he took command of the Army of the Potomac with
diffidence. Assuring himself, as far as he was able,
of the co-operation of his comrades in arms, he as-
sumed command, after much persuasion, on the 9th
of November, just at the beginning of winter.

349

35o

Abraham Lincoln

At the outset, there was a disagreement between
Burnside, Halleck, and Lincoln as to the best line of
attack upon the Rebel forces. Burnside's plan was to
make a sudden and aggressive movement towards
Richmond by the way of Fredericksburg, on the
Rappahannock. Halleck preferred the line reaching
through Gordonsville, farther to the west. Lincoln
was asked to decide between the two. Inclined as he
was to defer to the judgment of the general who was
to conduct the movement, he favored Burnside's
plan. Accordingly, he went over the situation in
council with Halleck, and then wrote to Burnside
that Halleck approved the Fredericksburg route,
provided Burnside should move with rapidity. Other-
wise, he was sure that that route would not be the
best. Burnside's army was directed towards Fred-
ericksburg, but, owing to a delay in furnishing him
with the pontoons required for crossing the river,
Lee was able to occupy and fortify the heights above
the city, and before Burnside was ready to put in his
pontoon bridges, he was confronted with Lee's con-
centrated army. Burnside arrived at Falmouth, on
the northern side of the Rappahannock, November
19th; his pontoons did not arrive until the 25th.
The attack was made, in the face of difficulties almost
hopeless to overcome, on the 15th of December. Lee
occupied the heights above Fredericksburg, his artil-
lery commanding every approach from the opposite
side of the river. The assault was made, however,
and, as many despondent military critics had pre-
dicted, the Army of the Potomac was repulsed with
frightful slaughter. It was a great disaster. Wash-

The Turning of the Tide

35i

ington was filled with the wounded who were brought
up from the base at Acquia Creek, on the Potomac,
and the hospitals, that now occupied churches and
other public buildings at the capital, were crowded
with the wounded and the dying. Congress was in
session, and the politicians of both sides were alert to
take advantage of this military reverse to press their
several policies upon the attention of the President,
Congress, and the country.

The year closed in gloom. The Rebels had suc-
ceeded in scaring McClellan from Richmond, although
he had been within a few miles of the Rebel capital at
one time. They had inflicted a severe blow upon the
Army of the Potomac under Burnside; previous to
which they had, so to speak, whipped Pope in detail
while he was left to struggle against a superior force,
his own army being unsupported and brought up in
sections to the slaughter. Stonewall Jackson had
swept the valley of the Shenandoah, eluding Mc-
Dowell and Fremont and driving Banks across the
Potomac. Nor was the military situation in the
West much more hopeful. Buell had been forced
back in Kentucky, and the Rebel General Bragg had
entered that State and a provisional Rebel govern-
ment had been organized at Frankfort, the capital
of Kentucky, an event that was designed to encourage
the Rebel element in the border States and the anti-
Union element in the North, heretofore somewhat
kept under. The cities of Louisville, Kentucky, and
Cincinnati, Ohio, were menaced, and it was found
needful to fortify them. At the end of December
the combined Union forces under Generals Sherman

352

Abraham Lincoln

and McClernand made a vigorous assault upon the
defences of Vicksburg, that city still holding the
Mississippi for the Rebels, but were repulsed with
much loss. A solitary gleam of light flashed up on
the closing of the year, when Rosecrans fought the
battle of Stone River, in which the Rebels were de-
feated with great loss, but were able, under General
Bragg, to retreat to the southward.

Meanwhile, the party that hoped for peace on some
other terms than those of the overthrow and punish-
ment of the Rebels had been gaining ground. When
the military successes of the Union cause were pro-
nounced, these men kept silence. As soon as the tide
of war went with the Rebels, the clamor for a cessation
of hostilities and an ending of the sacrifice of life in
battle grew loud. Lincoln was besieged, on the one
hand, with demands for the reinstatement of McClel-
lan and a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and
on the other with importunities for an armistice, or
truce, during which negotiations for a settlement
should be carried on. There was another class who,
while calling for more vigorous tactics on the part of
the administration, were eager for a change of gen-
erals. Among others, General Banks was repre-
sented to be the favorite for whom the Army of the
Potomac was anxiously waiting. The Peace Demo-
crats, as they were called, grew more and more im-
portunate for some attempt at settlement that should
include leaving undisturbed the peculiar institution,
slavery.

An interesting correspondence between Lincoln
and Fernando Wood, Mayor of New York, took

The Turning of the Tide

353

place toward the end of 1862. This was the same
Wood who, when Lincoln was first chosen President,
had advocated the erection of New York into a free
city and its neutrality as a belligerent. He now
informed Lincoln that he was credibly informed that
the Southern States would send representatives to
Congress and resume their old-time relations, pro-
vided a full and general amnesty were proclaimed.
In his reply, Lincoln said that he strongly suspected
that Mr. Wood's information would prove to be
without foundation.

" Nevertheless," he said, " I thank you for communicat-
ing it to me. Understanding the phrase in the paragraph
quoted, ' the Southern States would send representatives
to the next Congress,' to be substantially the same as that
'the people of the Southern States would cease resistance,
and would reinaugurate, submit to, and maintain the
national authority, within the limits of such States, under
the Constitution of the United States,' I say that in such
case the war would cease on the part of the United States,
and that if, within a reasonable time, a full and general
amnesty were necessary to such an end, it would not be
withheld."

Wood had quoted from Lincoln's inaugural ad-
dress and to this had added many arguments and
protestations of the alleged loyal purposes and inten-
tions of the Southern people. Lincoln passed by all
these, and, returning to the phrases quoted by Wood
from the inaugural, as above, gave these as the only
reasonable basis on which any hope of an amnesty
could be founded. Lincoln thought, and said,

VOL. VIII. — 23.

354

Abraham Lincoln

that an amnesty would be forthcoming when the
Rebels should cease to resist the Federal authority,
not before. Wood urged that Lincoln ought to
verify, if possible, the statement that the Rebels
were ready to consider terms of adjustment and
peace. This could only be done by opening a cor-
respondence with the Southern leaders. Meantime,
military operations must cease. To this Lincoln had
but one reply: it was not the time to stop military
operations for the purpose of opening negotiations.
Here the correspondence ended. But the insistence
of the Peace Democrats did not end here. With
varying arguments and in various keys, they con-
tinued to demand a cessation of hostilities, even until
the end of the war.

Congress was divided into factions. The Cabinet
was not wholly harmonious. The loyal press of the
country was bitter and arrogant in its criticisms of
the administration. Mr. Greeley declared in favor
of foreign intervention, and, in private conversations,
reported to the President, deplored the fact that his
favorite statesman, Secretary Chase, had not been
placed at the head of the Army of the Potomac long
before. In the army there were mutterings of dis-
content. General Hooker openly derided Burnside
as "a butcher," and declared that he had fought the
battle of Fredericksburg on his ' ' deportment."
Others of the army began to say that the country
needed a dictator, a military hero. An old officer
of the army was arrested for saying publicly that the
Army of the Potomac, with 4 4 little Mac" at its head,
should "clean out Congress and the White House."

The Turning of the Tide

355

In the midst of these disquieting and depressing
scenes and rumors, Lincoln alone was calm, resolute,
and uncomplaining. He never for an instant re-
laxed his efforts to push the war ; never faltered even
in the face of what seemed inevitable defeat. To a
sympathizing friend who asked how he was getting on
with the prosecution of the war, he sadly and grimly
said: "Oh, I am just pegging away." And, long
after, when the war was wellnigh over, and another
friend congratulated him on his pluck and endur-
ance in sticking to the work when all seemed hopeless,
he said: " Well, there was nothing else to be done."

On the 26th of January, 1863, Lincoln wrote to
General Hooker the following characteristic letter :

"Executive Mansion,
" Washington, D. C, January 26, 1863.
" Major -General Hooker.

" General: — I have placed you at the head of the Army
of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what
appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it
best for you to know that there are some things in regard
to which I am not satisfied with you. I believe you to be
a brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like. I also
believe that you do not mix politics with your profession,
in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself,
which is a valuable, if not indispensable quality. You
are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does
good rather than harm ; but I think that during General
Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel
of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you could,
in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a
most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have

356 Abraham Lincoln

heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently say-
ing that both the army and the Government needed a
dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it,
that I have given you the command. Only those generals
who gain success can be dictators. What I now ask of
you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
The Government will support you to the utmost of its
ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and
will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit
which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising
their commander and withholding confidence from him,
will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I
can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he
were alive again, could get any good out of an army while
such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness.
Beware of rashness, but, with energy and sleepless
vigilance, go forward and give us victories.

"Yours, very truly,

"A. Lincoln."

It must be said that this brotherly and almost
affectionate letter, while it was appreciated by its
recipient, did not strike him as being particularly
pertinent and well-deserved. Just before the battle
of Chancellors ville, while Lincoln and a few personal
friends were at the head-quarters of the Army of the
Potomac on a visit, General Hooker said to one of the
party, in the privacy of his tent, late at night: "I
suppose you have seen this letter, or a copy of it?"
The gentleman replied that he had, and Hooker, with
that magnificent air that characterized him, said:
4 'After I have been to Richmond I shall have the
letter published in the newspapers. It will be amus-

The Turning of the Tide

357

ing." When this was told to Lincoln, he said, with
a sigh: ' 'Poor Hooker! I am afraid he is incor-
rigible."

During the visit above referred to, the Army of the
Potomac was reported to be ready for immediate
action. The rosters examined by the President
showed 216,718 men on the rolls, of whom 16,000
were on detached service; 136,720 were in active
duty, 1771 absent without authority, 26,000 sick,
and the actual effective force was 146,000, which
number could be increased at any time to 169,000
by calling in the men from outlying stations. The
reviews held during the President's stay, which
lasted for a whole week, were the last that were had
before the battle of Chancellors ville, which was begun
late in April. During the reviews the President rode
everywhere with General Hooker and his staff, ac-
companied by little Tad, his youngest son, who,
attended by an orderly, hung on the flanks of the
brilliant cavalcade, his gray cloak fluttering in the
wind. Often Lincoln turned his face anxiously in
the direction of the lad's flight, for the youngster was
a fearless rider.

The battle of Chancellorsville was another and yet
more crushing disaster. Up to a certain point, all
went well with the army; but, that being reached,
the plan of campaign seemed to crumble, and nothing
further was done. There was some delay in return-
ing the army to the north bank of the Rappahannock
after the repulse that nearly had ended the campaign.
No news reached Washington, and an expectation
that Hooker would even yet retrieve the admitted

358

Abraham Lincoln

disaster was entertained. Lincoln clung desperately
to this hope. But, after vainly seeking for informa-
tion from the army, Lincoln received, early in the
afternoon of May 6th, a despatch from General But-
terfield, Hooker's Chief of Staff, announcing that the
Army of the Potomac had safely recrossed the Rap-
pahannock and was then encamped on its old
ground. The President seemed stunned. Taking
the despatch in his hand, he passed into another
room in the White House, where were two of his
intimate friends who had been with him during the
recent inspection of the army, and handing it to one
of them, he said, by a motion of his lips, ' ' Read it."
It was read aloud, and Lincoln, his face ashy gray
in hue and his eyes streaming with tears, finally
ejaculated: "My God! my God! What will the
country say? What will the country say?" He
refused to be comforted, for his grief was great.

Within an hour, amidst a pouring rain, Lincoln,
accompanied by General Halleck, took a small
steamer from the Washington navy-yard and was on
his way to the army, by the way of Acquia Creek.
The wildest rumors flew around the capital; the
most credible being that the Secretary of War had
resigned, and the President had gone to the front to
put Halleck in command. Neither of these things
were true; and, as soon as the torn and bleeding
Army of the Potomac could be reinforced and re-
cruited, it was once more put on a fighting basis.
But, for a time, the losses sustained by the Union
army, about ten thousand in all, and the disappoint-
ment endured by the country, seemed to plunge every

The Turning of the Tide 359

loyal element into the deepest gloom, both in the
camps and in the towns.

It was necessary that stringent measures for the
calling out of the available forces of the United States
should be taken. A lawr authorizing a conscription
or draft was enacted, being bitterly opposed by the
Democrats in Congress. Acting under the provision
of the Constitution permitting it, the President
suspended the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus,
by which the citizen deprived of his liberty could
appeal to the courts for an examination into his case.
The President, under the same authority, also pro-
claimed martial law, under which any offender
against the peace and dignity of the United States
could be tried and condemned by a court-martial,
without the privilege of appealing to the civil courts.
These acts, severely criticised at the time, were
justified by what are called the war powers of the
President of the United States, under the Constitu-
tion. Conscription was expected to fill up the armies.
Martial law was to arrest and hold mischievous and
traitorous persons engaged in obstructing the draft,
or otherwise interfering with the operations of the
Government. The suspension of the privileges of
the writ of habeas corpus made martial law practi-
cable. The confiscation of Rebel property, author-
ized by Congress, crippled the resources of the Rebels,
particularly on the border, and kept in check their
sympathizers in the border States. Another im-
portant act wTas the authorizing of the enlistment of
negro troops. All of these measures were stead-
fastly opposed by those who had opposed the wrar.

360

Abraham Lincoln

The arming of the ex-slaves, and putting upon them
the uniform of the United States, was greeted with
a cry of rage and execration, North and South. It
was not until, somewhat later on, it was found that
black men were eligible as substitutes for white men
drafted to military service, that the clamor against
arming the blacks subsided. From first to last, the
number of negro troops enlisted in the war was
178,975.

Among the measures passed by Congress about this
time was one authorizing the Secretary of the Treas-
ury to borrow money to carry on the war. The
total amount which he was given leave to raise on
the obligations of the Government of the United
States was nine hundred millions of dollars. The
bonds were to bear six per cent, interest, and to be
redeemed in not less than ten years nor more than
forty years. To meet the pressing exigencies of the
times, much money being due to the soldiers and
sailors, the Secretary was authorized to issue one
hundred millions of dollars in United States treasury
notes. When the President signed this measure,
which he did promptly, he sent to Congress a message
in which he expressed his regret that so large an
amount of paper money was found needful to be
issued. He had already recommended the formation
of national banks, with a uniform currency, based on
United States bonds, to be deposited by the banks
with the treasury of the United States. These and
other financial measures were regarded with grave
concern by many able financiers. The finances of the
country were in a disordered condition. Silver and

The Turning of the Tide

gold had disappeared from circulation. Even the
small change needed in the every-day transactions
of the people was now of paper. At first, postage
stamps were used for small change, and the word
' ' stamps" was universally used to express the idea
of money, in amounts large or small. The fractional
notes subsequently issued by the Treasury Depart-
ment were popularly called " shin-plasters," and the
opponents of the war, who had now also become
opponents and enemies of the public credit, took
every opportunity to weaken the faith of the people
in the circulation of Government paper and excite
derision concerning these issues.

The prices of everything that entered into the
daily uses of the people had greatly increased, so
that the cost of living had gone far above real values.
Artful politicians fanned the flames of popular dis-
content, and every imaginable or real ill was charged
to the account of the war. Even the law permitting
drafted men to hire substitutes, or escape military
service by paying an exemption fine of three hun-
dred dollars, was assailed as a provision for the
benefit of the rich and the oppression of the poor. In
this way agitation against the war was sedulously
recommenced, and meetings, some of them violent
and almost treasonable in tone, were held in various
parts of the country. In the Western States there
were formed secret societies for the propagation of
seditious doctrines and the encouragement of those
who were prepared to resist the Government. Some
of these organizations were reputed to hold corre-
spondence with the Rebels, and to lend them aid and

362

Abraham Lincoln

comfort. Altogether the times were critical. Every-
man suspected his neighbor's loyalty.

One of the most violent and vituperative of these
opponents of the war was Clement L. Vallandigham,
a Representative in Congress from Ohio. In Congress
he had steadily and ardently opposed every measure
designed to strengthen the hands of the President
and other officers of the Government in the prosecu-
tion of the war, and had introduced resolutions of
censure directed at the President, on which he had
made bitter and excited speeches designed to sow
dissension and foment popular discontent. He
especially aimed to weaken the Government by dis-
couraging enlistments, and excite in the minds of the
people, and of the men already in the army, the
notion that the war and all the operations of the
Government pertaining to it were illegal, unconstitu-
tional and wrong.

General Burnside, commanding the military de-
partment in which the State of Ohio was included,
issued an order in which he gave notice that there-
after all persons within his lines who should be guilty
of acts designed to assist the enemy would be
arrested as traitors and spies, tried, and, if convicted,
be put to death. Vallandigham immediately de-
nounced this order in a flaming speech, in which he
called upon the people to resist. He was arrested,
tried, convicted, and sentenced to be confined in
some fortress of the United States, to be designated
by General Burnside, who named Fort Warren,
Boston Harbor, as the place of imprisonment. The
President was besieged by men who remonstrated

The Turning of the Tide

363

against what they stigmatized as an act of outrageous
tyranny. The incident excited much interest and
debate all over the country. Lincoln, it was very
well understood, would not have originated any such
prosecution as that which had now resulted in the
placing of Vallandigham in the light of a hero and a
martyr. He changed the penalty to an expulsion
through the Union lines into the Rebel States. This
sentence was carried out and Vallandigham was sent
to the Rebel outposts under a guard and flag of truce.
Received hospitably by his friends the Rebels, Val-
landigham was given a safe-conduct through the
Confederacy, and soon appeared in Canada, then a
safe refuge for all sorts of fugitives and suspects.

Meanwhile, meetings to denounce the expulsion of
Vallandigham had been held in various towns and
cities, and Lincoln was presented with sundry
remonstrances by committees of these gatherings.
The Democrats of Ohio nominated Vallandigham
for Governor of that State, and sent a deputation to
wait on the President to demand a recall of their
missing candidate. To this deputation Lincoln said:
"Your own attitude encourages desertion, resistance
to the draft, and the like, because it teaches those
who incline to desert and to escape the draft to
believe it is your purpose to protect them." More-
over, he told the deputation that his treatment of
Vallandigham was "for prevention, not for punish-
ment; an injunction to stay an injury"; and he in-
timated that his modification of General Burnside's
order was a more agreeable way, at least to Mr.
Vallandigham, to stay the injury contemplated than

364

Abraham Lincoln

imprisonment would have been. Replying to another
appeal, in which it was intimated that his reasons for
the 4 'persecution7' of Vallandigham were selfish, he
said that Vallandigham was not arrested because he
was likely to damage the political prospects of the
administration, but "because he was damaging the
army, upon the existence and vigor of which the
life of the nation depends." And he added: "Must
I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts,
while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator
who induces him to desert ? I think that, in such a
case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not
only constitutional, but withal a great mercy."

In course of time, Vallandigham came secretly
back to the United States, and soon began to vapor
prodigiously as to what he would do if again arrested.
By that time, however, his power for mischief was
lessened on account of the better condition of public
sentiment. Meanwhile, his party had been defeated
in Ohio by the phenomenal majority of one hundred
thousand for the Republican candidate. The Gov-
ernment took no further notice of Vallandigham, and
he speedily sank into obscurity.

The turning-point in the military history of the re-
bellion came during the month of July, 1863. In
that month fell Vicksburg, thus opening the Missis-
sippi River ; and in that month was fought the bat-
tle of Gettysburg, by which the last frantic effort to
invade the North was frustrated and an irreparable
damage inflicted upon the Rebel cause.

Grant had begun, by the end of 1862, to attract
the attention of loyal men throughout the Union as

The Turning of the Tide

3^5

the possible " coming man," for whom all patriots
had been looking to lead our armies to victory.
Detraction was speedily on his trail, and there were
those who sought to destroy him with slander. Some
said that his habits were intemperate, to which
Lincoln sarcastically said that, if intoxication gave
him ability to win such victories as he had accom-
plished, he would send some of the same sort of liquor
to other generals of the Union army. The outlook
was discouraging when, in February, 1863, Grant
took command before Vicksburg with the intention
of capturing the city. After due preparation, Grant's
fleet of gunboats, above Vicksburg, ran the gauntlet
of the Rebel batteries, receiving a fire that was terrific.
But the fleet succeeded in reaching a point below the
city, where a junction was effected with the Union
troops that had been marched down by land on the
opposite side of the river. The campaign resulted,
first, in a complete investment of the city of Vicks-
burg, and finally, July 4, 1863, in the surrender of
the place, with a large force and ammunition for
sixty thousand men. The country was electrified by
the announcement of this long-hoped-for victory.
The Father of Waters now flowed un vexed to the sea.
The Rebel Confederacy was split in twain.

Words cannot describe the flame of excitement, the
wave of tumultuous joy, that swept through the
loyal North when it was known that Vicksburg, the
so-called impregnable Gibraltar of the West, had
fallen at last. Bells were rung, fireworks lighted,
and bonfires set blazing on the hills of the joyful
Western States, so long deprived of a natural outlet

366

Abraham Lincoln

to the Gulf of Mexico; and everywhere men con-
gratulated themselves that the end of the war might
soon be seen. In a glow of generous gratitude to
Grant for his magnificent services to the country,
Lincoln wrote him the following warm-hearted
letter:

"My Dear General: — I do not remember that you
and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful
acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you
have done the country. I wish to say a word further.
When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I
thought you should do what you finally did — march the
troops across the neck, run the batteries with the trans-
ports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith,
except a general hope that you knew better than I, that
the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed.
When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf,
and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and
join General Banks; and when you turned northward,
east of the Big Black, I thought it was a mistake. I now
wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were
right and I was wrong."

The battle of Gettysburg was brought on by Lee's
attempt to carry the war, as had been often threatened
by the Rebels, into the States of the loyal North.
Crossing the upper Rappahannock with all the avail-
able troops that could be gathered from the region
east of the Alleghany Mountains, the Rebel chief
passed to the westward of Washington and sent his
skirmishers across the Potomac and entered Mary-
land at Dranesville. Bodies of cavalry invaded

Abraham Uncoln

to the Gulf of Mexico; and everywhere men con-
gratulated themselves that the end of the war might
soon be seen. In a glow of generous gratitude to
Grant for his magnificent services to the country,
Lincoln wrote him the following warm-hearted
letter:

"My Dear General: — I do not remember that you
and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful
acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you
have done the country. I wish to say a word further.
When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I
thought you should do what you finally did— march the
troops swTug* tlto JiMkr two idfec Thittwwfl with the trans-
George G. Meade -i-h,

After a photograph by Brady.

and vicinity, 1 thought yoi
join General Banks; and
east of the Big Black, I th<
wish to make the personal ;
right and I was wrong. "

i should go down the river and
when you turned northward,
night it was a mistake. I now
acknowledgment that you were

The battle of Gettysburg was brought on by Lee's
attempt to carry the war, as had been often threatened
by the Rebels, into the States of the loyal North.
Crossing the upper Rappahannock with all the avail-
able troops that could be gathered from the region
east of the Alleghany Mountains, the Rebel chief
passed to the westward of Washington and sent his
skirmishers across the Potomac and entered Mary-
land at Dranesville. Bodies of cavalry invaded

The Turning of the Tide 367

Pennsylvania; one under Jenkins went as far as
Greencastle, in that State, carrying panic and terror
wherever it appeared. It was Lee's manifest inten-
tion to cut the communications west and north of
Baltimore and then push on, possibly engaging in a
great battle somewhere near Philadelphia. On the
27th of June, a Rebel army corps, under General
Ewell, reached Carlisle, Pa., and his scouts recon-
noitred Harrisburg, the capital of the State, the
citizens of which hurriedly prepared for an attack.
Consternation everywhere prevailed. Meanwhile,
General Hooker had been succeeded in command of
the Army of the Potomac by General George G.
Meade, the failure of Hooker to discover Lee's aims
and circumvent them having excited the indignation
of the authorities at Washington. Meade's idea
was to prevent the Rebel army from crossing the
Susquehanna and striking at Baltimore. He ac-
cordingly extended his line so as to occupy the valley
between the Susquehanna on the north and the
Potomac on the south. He soon found, however,
that the Rebel army was being concentrated at
Gettysburg, a small city to the north and west of
the position occupied by himself.

As Meade had also intended to concentrate his
forces at the same point, a collision between the two
armies became inevitable by this coincidence. The
battle-field lies between two small streams, Wil-
loughby Run to the west of the town, and Rock
Creek on the east. Northwest of the city is a group
of hills, Oak Hill, Seminary Hill, and Seminary
Ridge, the general direction of the line being north

368

Abraham Lincoln

and south. Southeast of this is another group,
Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, Round Top, and
Little Round Top. Still farther to the east is a third
group, of which Culp's Hill is the most northerly and
Power's Hill the most southerly.

This system of hills draws together at one con-
verging point all the roads that would be available
for a military movement from the north and west
(where Lee's army now was being concentrated)
towards those parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania
that were presumably the objects of his attack.
Three turnpikes and seven country roads pass
through the town. It was here then that a stand
must be made against the farther advance of the
invading army. The Rebels were amazed by the
richness of the pastoral and farming country in
which they found themselves, as contrasted with
their own impoverished and battle-swept country.
They rioted in agricultural luxury.

Fighting began on the ist day of July, the con-
flict being precipitated almost by accident. In this
preliminary fight, General Reynolds, commanding
the First Army Corps of the Federal troops, was
killed. The odds were greatly against the Federals,
the bulk of their army not having come up. The
battle raged all day, the Rebels flinging themselves
desperately against the Federal line of defence in the
attempt to force their way through the system of
hills before-mentioned. Night came with the con-
flict still undecided, and to be renewed on the follow-
ing day, when the great battle was fought. We
need not here recite the oft-told tale of that historic

The Turning of the Tide

369

fight that raged around the hills, in which so much
valor and desperation were exhibited on both sides.
Again night came down on the bloody field to end a
conflict that left neither party a decided advantage.
The Federal troops had suffered great losses. Nearly
all the brigades had been engaged. More than
twenty thousand men had been killed, wounded, or
captured, and numerous stragglers and deserters,
streaming off in the rear towards Baltimore, carried
panic and alarm with them. A night council-of-war
decided to hold the position and renew the fight next
day. The lines were re-formed during the night,
and the battle of the 3d of July decided the fate
of the Rebel army. It was finally repulsed, after a
terrific struggle, and, beaten, broken, bleeding, and
decimated, Lee's forces retired sullenly but in good
order. The Rebel invasion was over, and Lee's
army had suffered a stunning defeat.

The effective force under Meade in this three days'
battle was from 82,000 to 84,000 men, with 300
pieces of artillery. Lee's effective force was 80,000
men, with 250 guns. The total of killed, wounded,
and missing in this fight was about 46,000 men, each
side having suffered equally. Twenty generals were
lost by the Federal army, six being killed. The
Rebels lost seventeen generals, three being killed,
thirteen wounded, and one taken prisoner. The
number of heavy guns employed during the battle
attracted world-wide attention. The artillery duels
that occurred during the last two days' fighting were
a remarkable feature of the contest.

The popular rejoicing over this victory was dimmed

VOL. VIII. — 24.

37o

Abraham Lincoln

somewhat by the failure of Meade to capture, as
many supposed he would, the Rebel army, which
escaped across the Potomac at Falling Waters,
Maryland, where it had been hemmed in by the
Federal forces. Escape was thought to be impossible,
and Meade consumed some ten days in rallying his
army and preparing for another attack. Lincoln
was extremely solicitous that as little delay as pos-
sible should occur now. Hooker had been relieved
of command of the Army of the Potomac, when
Meade replaced him, because he had failed to dis-
cover Lee's movements and aims. As early as the
4th of June, Washington was filled with rumors of
an intended advance of Lee into the Northern States,
and Lincoln had been informed of these. But this
was nothing new. It was common to expect a
" Rebel invasion'' that never came. The President
felt confident that Hooker was so well informed con-
cerning Lee's movements, that, in reply to sugges-
tions from friends, he said: " I am sure that nothing
of the kind is to take place, unless, indeed, Hooker is
again to be out-generalled," referring to the failure at
Chancellors ville .

Lee's resources for an escape across the Potomac
after Gettysburg were thought so inadequate that
he might be " bagged" whenever Meade chose to
take the steps to accomplish that feat. Lincoln grew
more and more urgent. Rumors reached Washing-
ton that Lee had already begun to cross, and Halleck,
at Lincoln's order, sent messages to Meade informing
him of the danger. These warnings were repeated,
somewhat to the vexation of General Meade, who

The Turning of the Tide 371

had their substance repeated in general orders to
his corps commanders, the feeling being that the
solicitude in Washington was unwarranted. Never-
theless, by means of improvised pontoon bridges,
Lee's army successfully escaped into Virginia from
Maryland, only one brigade, left to cover the re-
treat, being captured as the tardy advance of the
Army of the Potomac came up. But, in spite of
this, great joy spread through the loyal North.
The fall of Vicksburg and the loss inflicted upon
the defeated Rebel army of invasion were thought
to be harbingers of the day when the war should
cease.

On the 4th day of July, Lincoln issued an an-
nouncement to the people of the United States,
briefly but gladly stating the result of the battle of
Gettysburg, and saying that the Army of the Poto-
mac had been covered with the highest honor. He
concluded with these words: ' 'The President espe-
cially desires that on this day ' He whose will, not ours,
should evermore be done ' be everywhere remem-
bered and reverenced with profoundest gratitude."
That evening, the President was visited by a vast
throng of excited and joyful people, and a band
played patriotic airs under the White House windows.
There had not been of late so many victories for the
Federal arms that occasions like these were common.
The President appeared at the window, the one
central under the portico of the mansion, where he so
often afterwards stood to address similar gatherings,
and made a short congratulatory address to the
multitude.

372

Abraham Lincoln

He said: "I do most sincerely thank God for the
occasion of this call." Then, reminding the people
of the day being the anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, and recalling the immortal words
of that Declaration, which were the foundation of his
political faith, he said : " How long ago is it ? Eighty-
odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first
time in the history of the world, a nation by its
representatives assembled and declared, as a self-
evident truth, that all men are created equal. That
was the birthday of the United States of America/ '
He was deeply moved by the occurrence on this day,
above all others in the year, of events calculated to
impress upon the minds of Americans the ideas
declared in 1776, so dear to every patriotic citizen,
so profoundly fixed in his own mind, as the under-
lying principles of human political freedom. And,
after referring to historic events of national impor-
tance related to Independence Day, he added: " And
now at this last Fourth of July just passed we have
a gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of which is an
effort to overthrow the principle that all men are
created equal. We have the surrender of a most
important position and an army on that very day."
The President, it will be noticed, referred to the fall
of Vicksburg and the victories in Pennsylvania at
the same time, and he alluded to the latter, taking
place on the previous days, as the triumph of the
Federal arms over those who opposed the Declaration
of Independence.

On the fifteenth day of July the President issued
his proclamation for a day of national thanks-

The Turning of the Tide

373

giving, the first of his administration, in which he
said:

"It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the sup-
plications and prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouch-
safe to the army and the navy of the United States
victories on the land and on the sea, so signal and so
effective as to furnish reasonable ground for augmented
confidence that the union of these States will be main-
tained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and
prosperity permanently restored. But these victories
have been accorded not without sacrifice of life, limb,
health, and liberty, incurred by brave, loyal, and patriotic
citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of the country
follows in the train of these fearful bereavements. It is
meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of
the Almighty Father, and the power of his hand, equally
in these triumphs and these sorrows.' '

He then invited all the people to assemble the
sixth day of August to

"render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the
wonderful things he has done in the nation's behalf, and
invoke the influences of his holy spirit to subdue the anger
which has so produced and so long sustained a needless
and cruel rebellion ; to change the hearts of the insurgents ;
to guide the counsels of the Government with wisdom
adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit
with tender care and consolation, throughout the length
and breadth of our land, all those who, through the vi-
cissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges,
have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate ;
and, finally, to lead the whole nation, through paths of

374

Abraham Lincoln

repentance and submission to the divine will, back to the
perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace."

Later in the year, on the 3d of October, Lincoln
instituted the permanent national festival of Thanks-
giving, heretofore observed without any general con-
currence. His proclamation set apart the last
Thursday in November to be observed as a day of
national giving of thanks to God for all his mercies.
From that time forward the day has annually been
observed as so designated by President Lincoln.

Right on the heels of these victories of July, in
fact on the very day that Lee recrossed the Potomac
(July 13th), came dangerous and destructive riots
in New York, occasioned by the enforcement of the
conscription laws. Opposition to the war had all
along been more bitter among certain classes of the
foreign population than any other, notwithstanding
the fact that some of the most patriotic volunteers in
the war, officers and privates, were adopted citizens
of the Republic. When it was found necessary to
enforce the draft in New York, this opposition took
the form of open violence. A mob broke into and
set fire to the building in which were the head-quar-
ters of the officers who were conducting the drafting
operations. The rioters prevented the firemen from
subduing the flames, and much property was de-
stroyed by fire and by the mob. The criminal classes,
like birds of prey, rose at the sight, and for several
days the city was almost at the mercy of a mob of
desperate men. Murder, pillage, and incendiarism
ran riot for a time; the police, nobly although they

The Turning of the Tide 375

fought to preserve order, were too few in numbers to
quell the disturbances that broke out in various parts
of the city. The State militia were absent defending
the lines in which the rebellion had been hitherto
confined.

The fury of the rioters appeared to be especially
directed against the colored people. An asylum for
colored half -orphans was set on fire, and its helpless
inmates were driven into the streets. Wherever the
rioters could find a colored man, he was caught, mal-
treated, and in some instances hung to the nearest
lamp-post or tree. The worst elements of the city
were on top, and for a time it appeared as if a
volcano had broken through the social crust of the
city. At first the President proposed to send
General Kilpatrick, a dashing cavalry officer, to the
scene of the riot, thinking that his name would be a
terror to the lawless gangs that had ravaged the city.
Horatio Seymour, Governor of the State, harangued
the mob in dulcet tones, addressing them as "My
friends," and urging them to disperse. But sterner
measures were soon required; troops were recalled
from Pennsylvania, and after a demonstration of
military force the riot was suppressed and order
restored.

In August, Lincoln was invited with great urgency
to attend a meeting called to assemble in Springfield,
Illinois, to concert measures for the maintenance of
the Union and to consider the condition of public
affairs. In a letter written August 26th, he ex-
pressed his regret that he could not attend the meet-
ing, and in a few well-chosen sentences he outlined

376

Abraham Lincoln

his policy. Alluding to the notion — then beginning
to be more prevalent than it had been — that there
might be a peaceful compromise with the Rebels,
he asked how such a compromise could disband or
expel from Northern soil the Rebel army. He urged
that the strength of the rebellion was its army, and
that a compromise, to be effective, must be with
those who controlled that army. And he promised
that any proposition coming from any persons able
to control the Rebel forces should be entertained.
He showed by many forcible illustrations that war
was destructive, and that in time of war property
must be destroyed. Taking the common view that
slaves are property, he argued that the destruction
of African slavery in the Southern States was one of
the means adopted for the crippling of the rebellion.
And in answer to the oft-repeated assertion that
certain objectors would not fight to free negroes, he
urged them to fight to save the Union. The closing
paragraphs of this letter, admirable examples of
Lincoln's homely and forcible figures of speech, were
as follows :

"The Father of Waters again goes un vexed to the sea.
Thanks to the great Northwest for it ; nor yet wholly to
them. Three hundred miles up they met New England,
Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and
left. The sunny South,, -too, in more colors than one,
also lent a helping hand. On the spot, their part of the
history was jotted down in black and white. The job
was a great national one, and let none be slighted who
bore an honorable part in it. And while those who have
cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not

The Turning of the Tide

377

all. It is hard to say that anything has been more
bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro,
Gettysburg, and on many fields of less note. Nor must
Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery
margins they have been present, not only on the deep sea,
the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the
narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a
little damp, they have been and made their tracks.
Thanks to all. For the great Republic — for the principle
it lives by and keeps alive — for man's vast future —
thanks to all.

" Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it
will come soon and come to stay; and so come as to be
worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have
been proved that among freemen there can be no success-
ful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who
take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the
cost. And there will be some black men who can remem-
ber that with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady
eye and well-poised bayonet they have helped mankind
on to this great consummation, while I fear there will be
some white ones unable to forget that with malignant
heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it."

On the 19th of November, 1863, the battle-field of
Gettysburg was solemnly dedicated as a burying-
place for the repose of the remains of those who had
yielded up their lives on that now historic ground.
The services were solemn and impressive. The
principal oration was made by Edward Everett, of
Massachusetts. A few days before the ceremony
Mr. Everett sent the President a copy of his address,
printed on one sheet of a Boston newspaper. It was

378

Abraham Lincoln

very long. Lincoln looked it over with great gravity
and said: "It was very kind in Mr. Everett to send
me this, in order that I might not go over the same
ground that he has. There is no danger that I shall.
My speech is all blocked out. It is very short."

The speech was written out in Washington, but
Lincoln revised it somewhat after he reached Gettys-
burg. As he read it from the manuscript, he made
a few verbal changes. These changes did not appear
in the report printed at the time by the newspapers,
but they were embodied in the draft made for per-
manent publication, afterwards, by Lincoln. As
delivered and corrected by its illustrious author, the
speech was as follows :

" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty,
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal.

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

FAC-SIMILE OF GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

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The Turning of the Tide 379

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."

This wonderful address, so compact of wisdom and
the simplest elements of eloquence, was received with
becoming solemnity. Many were moved to tears.
But it must be admitted that the oration of the silver-
tongued Everett, then one of the most admired of
American orators, momentarily attracted greater
attention. The very shortness of Lincoln's little
speech caused it to be almost overlooked at the
time. But in a few days, when the people of the
country at large had fairly digested it, and its pa-
triotic and human lesson had sunk into the minds of
men, public opinion seized upon it and glorified it as
one of the few masterpieces in oratory that the world
has received. As time has rolled away, these preg-
nant sentences have become classic, and generations
yet unborn may wonder that they did not at once
arouse great enthusiasm.

About this time, too, Lincoln put forth another re-
markable utterance. In his visits to the army he
had been pained to see that the Sabbath was very
scantily observed by the men while in camp, and
that much and frequent needless profanity disfigured

38o

Abraham Lincoln

the talk of men and officers. He issued an order.
He knew that an army could not be expected to be a
strict keeper of the Sabbath, but he saw that many
of the occupations of the soldiers were glaringly and
unnecessarily out of harmony with the day. But in
this letter, for it was only a circular and hardly an
order, he said :

"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 sentiment of a
Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will
demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be
reduced to the measure of strict necessity. The dis-
cipline and character of the national forces should not
suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the
profanation of the day or the name of the Most High."

And on the latter-mentioned habit, that of pro-
fane swearing, he took occasion to admonish a cer-
tain general, himself addicted to the vice, to use his
authority to correct it among his men.

The year closed auspiciously, so far as military
operations in the West were concerned. In October,
Grant took command of a large force, being stationed
at the head of the military division of the Mississippi,
with head-quarters at Louisville, Kentucky. The
departments of the Ohio and the Cumberland were
merged in this division, General George H. Thomas
being in command of the latter army. Hooker,
with fifteen thousand men, was sent from the East to
the West, and Sheridan and Sherman were sub-
ordinate commanders in this new and formidable

The Turning of the Tide 381

combination under Grant. The battles of Mission-
ary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, and Chattanooga
followed, and the Rebels were sent flying out of Ten-
nessee. Burnside was shut up in Knoxville, Ten-
nessee, for a time, and there was great solicitude all
over the country on his account, as his communica-
tions with the North were temporarily cut off. One
day Washington was startled. The long silence
concerning Burnside's movements was broken by
an urgent call from him for succor. Lincoln, re-
lieved by the news that Burnside was safe, at least,
said that he was reminded of a woman who lived in a
forest clearing in Indiana, her cabin surrounded by
hazel-bushes, in which some of her numerous flock
of children were continually being lost. When she
heard a squall from one of these in the distance,
although she knew that the child was in danger, per-
haps frightened by a rattlesnake, she would say:
"Thank God! there's one of my young ones that isn't
lost."

Sherman was sent to the relief of Burnside, and, by
forced marches, reached him and sent the Rebel army
under Longstreet back into Virginia. The loyal
mountaineers were delivered from their persecutors,
and Tennessee was delivered from what proved to be
the last formidable attempt to hold the State for the
Confederacy.

CHAPTER XXIV.

POLITICAL COMPLICATIONS.

A "President-Making" Congress — Activity of Lincoln's Opponents —
Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General — Beginning of an Aggres-
sive Campaign — Federal Successes in the Southwest — Sheridan
in the Valley of the Shenandoah — Political Troubles in Missouri
— Lincoln Renominated — McClellan the Democratic Nominee —
A Diversion in Favor of Fremont — Peace Negotiations at Niagara
— Five Hundred Thousand Men Called Out — Lincoln Re-elected
— Renewed Talk of Peace — A Peace Conference at Hampton
Roads — "The President's Last, Shortest, and Best Speech" —
The Second Inauguration.

DURING the winter of 1863-4 there was no little
President-making in Congress ; for the session
before the time for nominating Presidential candidates
is usually known as a President-making Congress.
This time, however, there was less of this sort of
political skirmishing than ever before or since. The
Democrats, whose stock-in-trade, so to speak, was
opposition to the war, were largely in a minority.
The Republicans, although divided in their counsels,
were bent on a more energetic support of the ad-
ministration than ever, believing as many did that
the war was now nearing its close, and that it would
really come to an end before the next Presidential
term ended — March 4, 1869. The Republican op-
position to Lincoln came from those who did not
consider him sufficiently radical for the time. These
demanded radical measures affecting slavery in the

382

Political Complications

383

border States ; and they thought that a more vigor-
ous prosecution of the war might be had under the
leadership of a more determined and alert President.
The radical Republicans, as a rule, favored the nomi-
nation of Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury.
Some, however, expressed a preference for General
Fremont, whose unfortunate career in Missouri had
excited their sympathies, if not their indignation
against Lincoln.

On his part, Lincoln made no sign of anxiety for a
renomination by his party. With more sagacity
than most of his friends possessed, and with all the
springs of action within his reach, he doubtless knew
that events would so shape themselves that his re-
nomination was inevitable. He made no secret,
among his personal friends, of his desire to be elected
to a second term. In conversation with one of these
he said: "I am only the people's attorney in this
great affair. I am trying to do the best I can for my
client — the country. But if the people desire to
change their attorney, it is not for me to resist or
complain. Nevertheless, between you and me, I
think the change would be impolitic, whoever might
be substituted for the present counsel." To another
he said, with his inveterate habit of putting a large
truth in the form of a pleasantry : "I don't believe it
is wise to swap horses while crossing a stream." In
truth, after men had anxiously canvassed the names
of all who were in the least worthy to be considered
eligible to the Presidency, succeeding Lincoln, they
almost invariably returned to him as the only man to
be thought of with seriousness.

384

Abraham Lincoln

One of the important military events of that winter
was the appointment of General Grant to the rank
of lieutenant-general. Hitherto, the highest rank
in the army had been that of major-general. The
title of general-in-chief , borne by Halleck, was tem-
porary, a mere expedient, and not distinctly recog-
nized by usage. The rank of lieutenant-general was
created by act of Congress, with the tacit under-
standing that it was to be conferred upon Grant,
whose almost unbroken series of victories in the West
had by this time convinced the people that here was
at last "the coming man " for whom they had so long
waited. The act creating the rank, giving its wearer
command of all the armies of the United States, was
warmly approved by Lincoln, and was zealously sup-
ported in Congress by Elihu B. Washburne, of Illi-
nois, a steadfast and influential friend of Grant, from
the time when this soldier, then unknown and unap-
preciated, began his career as Colonel of the Twenty-
first Illinois Regiment.

On the 2 2d of February, 1864, the President sent to
Congress a message approving the act creating the
rank of Lieutenant-General of the Armies of the
United States, and nominating U. S. Grant, of Illi-
nois, to that rank. The nomination was confirmed
on the 2d of March, and the President immediately
requested the presence in Washington of the newly
appointed Lieutenant-General. It was one of the
scandals of the time that army officers of every grade
visited the national capital in great numbers to seek
promotion in rank or to advance their private ends
in some other way. So great an abuse did this self-

Political Complications 385

seeking become, that the War Department was com-
pelled to issue an order forbidding army officers to
visit the capital without official permission. Up to
that time, Grant had never gone into Washington,
nor had he asked for permission. He attended to his
duties as a soldier until summoned to the seat of
government by the President.

Grant arrived in Washington, to accept his new
commission, on the 8th of March. That evening
there chanced to be a Presidential levee at the White
House. It was a public reception, open to all who
chose to come. Thither went Grant, entering the
reception room unannounced. He was instantly
recognized by those who had seen his portraits,
printed in the newspapers and circulated by means
of the photographs then becoming common. He
was greeted very warmly, almost affectionately, by
Lincoln, and it was speedily noised about that the
hero of Vicksburg was in the rooms, and the pressure
to see him was so great that the modest General was
induced to stand on a sofa, where he rose above the
crowd and was regarded with admiring eyes. When
he bade the President good-night, he said: "This is a
warmer campaign than I have witnessed during the
war."

Next day, by appointment, he waited upon the
President, who, in the presence of members of the
Cabinet and a few personal friends, presented him
with his commission, saying:

"General Grant, the nation's appreciation of what you
have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to

VOL. VIII. — 25.

386

Abraham Lincoln

be done in the existing great struggle, are now presented
with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant-
General in the Army of the United States. With this
high honor devolves upon you also a corresponding
responsibility. As the country here intrusts you, so,
under God, it will sustain you. I need scarcely add that
with what I here speak for the nation goes my own hearty
personal concurrence.* '

General Grant accepted the commission in a few
modest- words expressive of appreciation of the high
honor conferred upon him, and acknowledging his
sense of responsibility, his dependence upon the
valorous armies, and, above all, as he said, "the
favor of that Providence which leads both nations
and men." The General immediately visited the
Army of the Potomac, of which General Meade still
retained command. Then he returned to Washing-
ton, where, without his knowledge, a dinner had been
arranged by Mrs. Lincoln, at the White House, at
which he was to be the principal guest. At the close
of an important interview with the President, during
which the General outlined his plan of military
operations, so far as they could be arranged at that
time, he announced his intention of leaving at once
for the West. Lincoln told him of the expected
dinner, but Grant quietly insisted that he must go.
" Besides,' ■ said the General, "I have had enough of
this show business, Mr. President." And the Gen-
eral left for the West without waiting for the dinner
and the brilliant invited company. This incident
greatly pleased Lincoln, who up to that time had not

Political Complications 387

met any military officer who was so willing to forego
"the show business."

General Sherman was assigned to the command of
the military division of the Mississippi, succeeding
Grant, who, in an order dated March 17, 1864, took
command of the armies of the United States, with
head-quarters in the field, and, until further notice,
with the Army of the Potomac. Heretofore there
had been no concert of action between the armies in
the West and those in the East. They had acted
independently of each other; and between the two
great divisions there had been innumerable jealousies
and heart-burnings, both as to relative merits and as
to military promotions. Henceforth this was to
cease. These bodies would not any longer be, as
Grant said, "like a balky team, no two ever pulling
together " ; thereby enabling the enemy, who operated
on interior lines, to attend to the one, or the other,
that happened to be active while the other was not in
motion. Henceforth the enemy was to be pressed
on all sides, and without cessation. Lincoln, on his
part, sent Grant into the field with these words:
"You are vigilant and self-reliant. Pleased with
this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or con-
straints upon you. If there be anything in my power
to give, do not fail to let me know. And now, with
a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. ' '

When the invincible hero of the West pitched his
tent with the Army of the Potomac, on the banks of
the Rapidan, everybody felt that the time had now
come when the fate of the Confederacy wras to be
determined. To use Grant's own words, the policy

388

Abraham Lincoln

now was "to hammer continuously against the
armed force of the enemy and his resources, until, by
mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be
nothing left for him but an equal submission with
the loyal section of our common country to the Con-
stitution and laws of the land."

The campaign against the Rebel capital opened in
May, Meade commanding the Army of the Potomac,
which was now reinforced by the Ninth Corps, under
Burnside. The other corps commanders were Han-
cock, Warren, and Sedgwick. The army moved at
midnight, on the 3d of the month. On the 5th and
6th were fought the bloody battles of the Wilderness,
battles that once more filled Washington with
wounded, and were the beginning of the long series
of struggles with the enemy that resulted at last in
his overthrow and surrender. Success generally
crowned the Federal arms, and the Rebels were
steadily pressed backward upon Richmond, although
not without a gallant and desperate resistance. The
excitement in Washington at this time was intense.
At every sound of victory from the front, the Presi-
dent was visited by bands of enthusiastic citizens,
who, with music and cheering, invited Lincoln to
come to the now historic window of the White House
and speak to the crowds. On one of these occasions,
May 1 ith, Lincoln read to the enthusiastic assembly
a despatch just received from Grant, in which he said :
"Our losses have been heavy, as well as those of the
enemy, and I propose to fight it out on this line, if it
takes all summer."

On another occasion, near the end of the war,

Political Complications 389

apparently being at a loss for anything further to say
after he had congratulated the people on a victory of
the Federal arms, he asked that the band should play
Dixie, the favorite air of the Rebels; and he ex-
plained his request by saying that he always did like
that tune, and " General Grant has captured it
now, I believe, and henceforth it is ours by the laws
of war." He said, privately, that a speech in reply
to a serenade was the most difficult job that he under-
took in the line of speech-making. "For," he said,
"while I am glad to congratulate the people on our
victories, I do not like even to seem to glorify our-
selves at the expense of a fallen foe. And, besides,
after you have said you are glad, what more is there
to say?"

Not only with victories of the Army of the Poto-
mac, but with those of the armies of the West were
the people now glad. Sherman had opened his cam-
paign on the western side of the Alleghanies at the
same time that Grant had begun his aggressive
movements. The Rebels had measurably recovered
from their overwhelming defeat at Missionary Ridge,
and had filled up their depleted ranks once more.
Sherman pressed the enemy, after serious fighting all
along the line, driving him back, almost inch by inch,
into Georgia, fighting the battles of Resaca, Alla-
toona, and around Kennesaw, and finally invested
Atlanta. On the 2 2d of July, Atlanta fell into his
hands, and, requiring that important railroad centre
for a base of supplies, he sent out the people of the
city. It was in vain that the Rebel general, Hood,
and the mayor of the city protested against what they

39°

Abraham Lincoln

called an act of barbarity. In his reply Sherman
said that the war must be prosecuted, and that war
was barbarous. " You cannot qualify war in harsher
terms than I will," he said. 4 'War is cruelty, and
you cannot refine it; and those who have brought
war upon our country deserve all the curses and
maledictions that a people can pour out." These
sentiments appalled the Rebels, who had been accus-
tomed to remonstrate effectively, like so many
politicians, when they saw the cause they held being
seriously crippled by the tactics of those against
whom they defended it.

Hood, hoping to drive Sherman to the northward,
moved against the Tennessee country once more,
passing to the right of Atlanta. The Federal lines,
under Thomas and Schofield, were formed in front of
Nashville. Then Hood was attacked in his turn,
and after a fierce and bloody fight, continuing
through two days, the Rebel army under Hood was
ignominiously put to flight. The Rebels broke and
fled in the utmost confusion, giving up several
thousand prisoners and a vast amount of arms,
ammunition, and artillery. Some fragments of the
once proud army of Hood joined themselves to other
organizations, but the army itself disappeared from
the campaign. This memorable annihilation of
Hood's force astonished and delighted all the loyal
people. Lincoln, elated by the defeat of what had
so long been a menacing force on the borders of
Tennessee, was reminded by its collapse of the fate of
a savage dog belonging to one of his neighbors, in the
frontier settlement in which he lived in his youth.

Political Complications 391

The dog, he said, was the terror of the neighborhood,
and its owner, a churlish and quarrelsome fellow,
took pleasure in the brute's formidable attitude.
Finally, all other means having failed to subdue the
creature, a man loaded a lump of meat with a charge
of powder, to which was attached a slow fuse. This
was dropped where the dreaded dog would find it,
and the animal gulped down the tempting bit.
There was a dull rumbling, a muffled explosion, and
fragments of the dog were seen flying in all directions.
The grieved owner, picking up the shattered remains
of his cruel favorite, said: " He was a good dog, but,
as a dog, his days of usefulness are over." ' ' Hood's
army was a good army," said Lincoln, by way of com-
ment, "and we were all afraid of it ; but, as an army,
its usefulness is gone."

Military operations on the line of the James River,
Virginia, were a part of Grant's plan, and General B.
F. Butler took possession of the City Point, on the
James, where Grant subsequently established a base
of supplies. Butler, being attacked here, fell back on
the peninsula between the James and the Appo-
mattox, where, being shut in by a line of Rebel in-
trenchments, he was "bottled up" as Grant said at
the time.

General Hunter was sent to clear the valley of the
Shenandoah of the enemy, but, being confronted by a
superior force, he was compelled to retire by the way
of the Kanawha.

The Rebel General Early, being only temporarily
delayed by the opposition offered him by the Federal
forces under General Lew Wallace, pressed on toward

392

Abraham Lincoln

Washington, entered Maryland once more, and
plundered and burned residences not more than seven
miles from the national capital, the house of Mont-
gomery Blair being one of these. Grant promptly
despatched two army corps, intercepted the Rebel
advance, and saved Washington from attack. But
it was for a time a season of panic and alarm in the
capital. From Fort Stevens, in the outer line of
defences, Lincoln saw the repulse of Early and the
flight of the Rebels.

Later in the year, Grant sent his trusty lieutenant,
Sheridan to clear the valley effectually of the raiding
Rebels, who gathered their supplies from the rich
farms of the Shenandoah region. In August and
September of 1864, Sheridan did his work so well that
his truthful boast was that a crow flying over the
valley would have to carry his rations with him.

During this summer, political feeling ran high.
The conventions for the nomination of Presidential
candidates were drawing near, and all parties were
marshalling their forces for the struggle. A con-
siderable faction inside the Republican party opposed
the renomination of Lincoln. These radicals, as
they were called, were the malcontents who were
dissatisfied with the policy of the administration, so
far as that related to politics. They thought it not
sufficiently pronounced, especially as it related to
slavery and the treatment of the South and the border
States. They were also of the opinion that a more
vigorous prosecution of the war was needed. A
fierce political quarrel in Missouri, fomented by the
friends and the opponents of the Blairs, who were in-

Abraham Lincoln

Washington, entered • Maryland once more, and
pkxndered and burned residences not more than seven
miles from the national capital, the house of Mont-
gomery Blair being one of these. Grant promptly
despatched two army corps, intercepted the Retw*§
advance, and saved Washington from attack. But
it was for a time a season of panic and alarm in the
capital. From Fort Stevens, in the outer line of
defences, Lincoln saw the repulse of Early and the
flight of the Rebels.

Later in the year, Grant sent his trusty lieutenant,
Sheridan to clear the valley effectually of the raiding

• ■• • " Montgomery Blair work so well that

. From the painting by C arpenter, :it the I'nion League Cht!>, u_"

e malcontents who were
of the administration, so
ics Thev thought it not

•eatment of the South and the border
ere also of the opinion that a more
ition of the war was needed £
uarrel in Missouri fomented bv the

I I

Political Complications

393

fluential in the councils of the Government, was also
in progress, and the radical Republicans of that State
were opposed to Lincoln as well as to the Blairs.
Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, was one
of those who violently spoke and wrote against the
renomination. And several active politicians in
Washington set on foot measures to defeat that step
on the part of the Republican party. Some of these
prepared a secret circular designed to solidify the
anti-Lincoln feeling and bring about the nomination
of Mr. Chase, or some other advanced anti-slavery
candidate.

Lincoln was not unaware of these movements, but
he took no steps to counteract them. When he was
told that some of his opponents were considering the
name of General Grant as a possible candidate for the
Presidency, he said: 1 'If the people think that Gen-
eral Grant can end the rebellion sooner by being in
this place, I shall be very glad to get out of it." And
when remonstrated with, on account of his making
appointments of those who were notoriously opposed
to his renomination, he said: "If this man is likelv
to make a good and faithful public officer, as I
believe he is, have I any right to inquire further ?"

In fact, Lincoln trusted the people, and he knew
that the people trusted him. The result justified
this calm and unruffled confidence. The Republican
national convention was held in Baltimore, June 8,
1864. By this time Lincoln's renomination was so
assured that almost no man who offered himself as a
delegate to that convention was opposed to him.
The only strife in the convention was for the honor

394

Abraham Lincoln

of being the first to bring Lincoln's name before the
delegates for their approval. Lincoln was nomi-
nated with scarcely a dissenting vote, and in the
midst of a vociferous enthusiasm that rivalled that of
the famous Chicago convention of i860, when the
name of the son of the backwoods and the frontier
was first brought before the people of the United
States as a candidate for the chief magistracy.
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, who had won popular
confidence and renown as military governor of that
State, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency. This
nomination was made from motives of political policy.
Johnson, born in a slave State, was a fierce and un-
compromising supporter of the Union, and corre-
spondingly fierce in his hatred of rebellion. In the
coming struggle to make a satisfactory readjust-
ment of the terms of union, when the war should
be over, it was thought he would strengthen the ad-
ministration, as he would now strengthen the ticket.
The only votes cast against Lincoln in the conven-
tion were those of the Missouri delegation, acting
under instructions.

In accepting the nomination, Lincoln said: I view
this call to a second term as in nowise more flattering
to myself than as an expression of the public judg-
ment that I may better finish a difficult work than
any one less severely schooled to the task." At
that time an amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, forever prohibiting slavery, was
pending, and, referring to that, Lincoln said: "Such
an amendment as is now proposed becomes a fitting
and necessary conclusion to the final success of the

Political Complications

395

Union cause. Such alone can meet all cavils. The
unconditional Union men, North and South, per-
ceive its importance and embrace it. In the joint
names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it
legal form and practical effect.' '

In August of that year, the Democratic national
convention met in Chicago. There were two factions
in that party, as in the Republican party, although
the Republicans were not seriously disturbed by
partisan jealousies. One of the factions was in
favor of carrying on the war, the other was inclined
to favor a policy of peaceful compromise. Multi-
tudes of so-called "War Democrats,' ' however, were
now virtually acting with the Republicans, man-
fully supporting the war policy of the administration
and likely to vote for Lincoln's re-election. Speak-
ing of the embarrassed position of the Democrats,
just before the convention of that party in 1864,
Lincoln shrewdly said : ' ' They must nominate a war
candidate on a peace platform, or a peace candidate
on a war platform, and, so far as I am personally
concerned, I don't much care which they do."

The result justified Lincoln's sagacity. General
George B. McClellan was nominated for the Presi-
dency, and the platform declared that, "After four
years of failure to restore the Union by war, . . .
immediate efforts should be made for a cessation of
hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of
the States, or other practicable means, to the end
that peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal
Union of the States."

The two conventions had now presented the great

396 Abraham Lincoln

issue to the people. The Baltimore convention that
nominated Lincoln had declared for a vigorous pro-
secution of the war for the maintenance of the Union
under the leadership of Lincoln, who had thus far
been at the head of the National Government. The
Chicago convention, giving the sentiments and opin-
ions of the Democrats, had declared in favor of an
armistice, a cessation of hostilities, in order that
some form of compromise might be agreed upon, and
had nominated McClellan, popularly believed to be
a failure as a general. Associated with him, as
candidate for the Vice-Presidency, was George H.
Pendleton, of Ohio, a Democratic Representative in
Congress, who had consistently opposed the war
and every legislative act necessary for its mainte-
nance.

Meanwhile, however, the radical Republicans had
held a convention at Cleveland, Ohio, the call for
which had declared that the liberties of the people
were in danger, and insisted on the ' ' one-term princi-
ple " being applied to the Presidential office. It was
to this convention that Lincoln applied the epithet
of the "Cave of Adullam," into which were gathered
all who were in distress, or in debt, or trouble, or who
had a grievance. General Fremont was nominated
for the Presidency, and John Cochrane, of New York,
was chosen candidate for the Vice-Presidency. In
due course of time, this ticket and the movement
that produced it crumbled into pieces, having no
reasonable foundation, and the candidates disap-
peared beneath the surface of American politics and
were heard of no more.

Political Complications 397

The condition of the Rebel Confederacy was now
growing more and more hopeless, as the lines of the
Federal forces, tinder Grant's management, were
tightened around it. Naval successes along the
Atlantic coast, and the pressure from every direction
on the land, made themselves felt in the heart of the
Confederacy. Significantly, as it would appear, the
talk in the North about the possibility of securing
peace by some sort of compromise grew more and
more common. It seemed to be the intention of the
Northern friends of the Rebels to make men familiar
with this idea. The horrors and miseries of war were
dwelt upon with greater persistence as the hope of
finally crushing the rebellion became more reasonable.

Finally, two Rebel emissaries, Clement C. Clay, of
Alabama, and Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi
(formerly Secretary of the Interior under President
Buchanan), appeared on the Canadian border, not
far from Niagara, and put themselves in communica-
tion with Horace Greeley, the erratic but patriotic
editor. This gentleman, on the 7th of July, 1864,
wrote to Lincoln, asking him to grant a safe-conduct
to these emissaries, in order that they might come to
Washington and discuss terms of peace. Mr. Greeley
said:

" I venture to remind you that our bleeding, bankrupt,
almost dying country longs for peace — shudders at the
prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale
devastations, and of new rivers of human blood; and a
widespread conviction that the Government and its sup-
porters are not anxious for peace, and do not improve
proffered opportunities to achieve it, is doing great harm

398

Abraham Lincoln

now, and is morally certain, unless removed, to do far
greater in the approaching elections."

In his letter Mr. Greeley submitted a basis of
negotiations, the first two items of which were the
restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery.

To this, Lincoln replied in writing, as follows: "If
you can find any person, anywhere, professing to
have authority from Jefferson Davis, in writing,
embracing the restoration of the Union and the
abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces,
say to him that he may come to me with you."
Some correspondence thereupon ensued, and Mr.
Greeley went to Niagara Falls to hold an interview
with the Rebel emissaries. The President sent, by
the hand of Colonel John Hay, one of his private
secretaries, the following missive :

" Executive Mansion,

" Washington, July 18, 1864.
" To whom it may concern:

"Any proposition which embraces the restoration of
peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandon-
ment of slavery, and which comes by and with an au-
thority that can control the armies now at war against the
United States, will be received and considered by the
Executive Government of the United States, and will be
met on liberal terms on substantial and collateral points ;
and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe-conduct
both ways. "Abraham Lincoln."

It was soon apparent that the agents who desired
to go to Washington had no authority whatever to
treat for peace. They insisted that they were in the

Political Complications 399

confidential employment of the Richmond govern-
ment, but for what purpose they would not declare.
They professed great disappointment that there
should have been "a rude withdrawal of a courteous
overture for negotiation, at the moment when it was
likely to be accepted," and they straightway departed
to their own place. The fact was that Lincoln was in
a far better position to ascertain the desires and
wishes of the Rebel leaders than any private citizen
could be, and that from the first he knew that no sin-
cere proposition, such as Mr. Greeley hoped might be
forthcoming, would be made by the government at
Richmond. That government was unlikely to con-
sent to any terms that would involve its own dissolu-
tion. The incident, however, was made much cf by
the so-called Peace Democrats, as well as by some of
the less steady of the Republicans. Experiments
like this at Niagara Falls were discussed eagerly by
the opponents of Lincoln's re-election, and this dis-
cussion influenced the managers of the Democratic
convention of that year to declare for a peaceful
compromise with the Rebels — as if that were possible
or practicable.

Many leading Republican Congressmen were angry
with the President for what they considered his in-
discreet negotiations with Rebel envoys. He was not
long in finding this out, and one day, after asking a
friendly visitor what people were talking about, he
said, wearily: ' ' Well, it 's hardly fair to say that this
won't amount to anything. It will shut up Greeley,
and satisfy the people who are clamoring for peace.
That 's something, anyhow. "

400

Abraham Lincoln

In October of this year Maryland, by a popular
vote, amended its constitution, and abolished
slavery. This was a gratifying event to all friends
of freedom, and Lincoln was greatly elated thereby.
To a friend he said : * * It is worth many victories in
the field. It cleans up a piece of ground." This
homely figure, suggested by his backwoods experi-
ences, is full of meaning to those who know the
almost endless difficulties of clearing a piece of the
wilderness and making it fit for good seed. In
answer to a serenade from enthusiastic Marylanders,
about that time, Lincoln said, referring to a current
statement that he would do his best to prevent any
successor to himself from taking the office, in case of
an election that should defeat him:

" I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to
overthrow it. I am struggling specially to prevent others
from overthrowing it. I therefore say that, if I live, I
shall be President until the 4th of next March, and that
whoever shall be constitutionally elected in November
shall be duly installed on the 4th of March; and, in the
interval, I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the
helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible
chance for saving the ship."

The losses of the war required that fresh levies of
troops should be made. Many timid people, anxious
for Lincoln's re-election, advised that a call for men
and the enforcement of a draft should be put off
until after the election had taken place. To such
advice Lincoln turned a deaf ear. He replied that
more men must be had, if the war was to go on to a

Political Complications 401

successful termination, and that the consequences
to him, personally, or to the party that had nomi-
nated him, were so insignificant, compared with the
actual necessities of the countrv, that he could not for
a moment consider them. The call was accordingly
issued for five hundred thousand men. If the re-
quired number did not appear by the 5th of Septem-
ber, 1864, then a draft must be ordered. Lincoln's
timorous friends were aghast at the prospect.

The election resulted in an overwhelming majority
for Lincoln. Every State that voted that year
declared for Lincoln and Lincoln's policy, three
alone excepted. These were Delaware, Kentucky,
and New Jersey. The two first -named were formerly
slave-holding States. The total number of votes
cast in all the States was 4,015,902, of which Lincoln
had a clear majority of 411,428, and 212 of the 233
electoral votes, McClellan having twenty-one electoral
votes. Lincoln very naturally felt gratified by this
mark of popular approval and confidence. He said
this to the first party that came to congratulate him
on his re-election — a company of Pennsylvania^ in
Washington. And he added: " If I know my heart,
my gratitude is free from any taint of personal
triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one
opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph
over any one ; 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."

To a personal friend he said: " Being only mortal,
after all, I should have been a little mortified if I had
been beaten in this canvass before the people; but

vol. viii. — a6.

402

Abraham Lincoln

the sting would have been more than compensated
by the thought that the people had notified me that
my official responsibilities were soon to be lifted off
my back." On the day after the election, he asked
this friend to send to his old companion, Dr. A. G.
Henry, formerly of Springfield, but then in Washing-
ton Territory, a despatch, which he would dictate,
announcing the result of the election. That matter
having been disposed of, the two men fell to talking
about the election and the term of office now drawing
to an end. Lincoln was in good spirits, and even
jovial. Then, with solemn gravity, he said: "I
should be the veriest shallow and self-conceited
blockhead upon the footstool, if, in my discharge of
the duties that are put upon me in this place, I should
hope to get along without the wisdom that comes
from God and not from men."

Lincoln had been tolerably certain of his renomina-
tion; he was not wholly confident of his re-election.
On the day of the election, he said: "I am just
enough of a politician to know that there was not
much doubt about the result of the Baltimore con-
vention ; but about this thing I am not certain. I
wish I were certain."

This is the cautious way in which Lincoln author-
ized the announcement of his re-election to be sent to
his old friend on the Pacific border, on the day after
the election :

" Washington, November 9, 1864.
"To A. G. Henry, Surveyor-General,

" Olympia, Washington Territory.
"With returns, and States of which we are confident,

Political Complications

403

the re-election of the President is considered certain,
while it is not certain that McClellan has carried any-
State, though the chances are that he has carried New
Jersey and Kentucky."

When he was reminded that Dr. Henry would pre-
fer that the telegram should be verified by Lincoln's
signature, he said: "Oh, no, you sign it for me. You
see, it is written that way; and though I should like
to please the good old doctor, I don't think it would
look well for a message from me to go travelling
around the country blowing my own horn. You
sign the message and I will send it." The result of
the Delaware election was in doubt for several days,
and when it was definitely decided, Lincoln, even in
the midst of his cares and overwhelmed with con-
gratulations and visits, recalled the fact that he had
omitted to send word to his old friend in the far-off
Pacific Territory that three States, instead of two,
had voted for McClellan, and a supplementary tele-
gram was sent. "Not because the doctor would n't
hear of it," he explained, "but because he might
think it odd that I should not correct my first state-
ment and clear it up."

With great persistence the Northern friends of
Southern Rebels renewed the talk about peace and
compromise, during the winter of 1864-5. The
atmosphere of Washington was full of rumors, and,
as it subsequently transpired, messengers, more or
less official, were flitting between the capital and the
Rebel lines. One of these was the venerable Francis
P. Blair, senior, a private citizen, with large political
influence and experience. Armed with a safe-con-

Abraham Lincoln

duct, or pass, signed by Lincoln, Mr. Blair went to
Richmond, saw Jefferson Davis, and returned to
Washington with a letter addressed to himself by the
President of the Rebel Confederacy, the contents of
which he was authorized to communicate to Lincoln.
In that document Davis said that he was willing, and
always had been, to send commissioners to Wash-
ington "to enter into a conference with a view to
secure peace in the two countries/ ' Of course, this
phrase "the two countries " showed that Davis was
not prepared to discuss peace on any basis of union.
But Lincoln, who was weary of the constant criticism
of his course by those who insisted that he could end
the war honorably, if he chose to, gave Mr. Blair a
note in which he stated that he had read the note
from Jefferson Davis, and that he, Lincoln, was ready,
as he always had been, and would continue to be, to
receive any agent or influential person sent to him by
the Rebel authorities to treat on terms of peace with a
view of securing peace to the people of "our common
country."

The correspondence thus opened resulted in the de-
spatching of three agents by Davis to meet the Presi-
dent and confer with him concerning peace, on the
basis of Lincoln's letter to Blair. These commission-
ers, Messrs. Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter,
and John A. Campbell, were received at General
Grant's camp and were given Lincoln's basis of
agreement, which was as follows:

"First. The restoration of the national authority
throughout all the States.

"Second. No receding by the Executive of the United

Political Complications

405

States on the slavery question from the position assumed
thereon in the late annual message to Congress and in
preceding documents.

" Third. No cessation of hostilities, short of the dis-
banding of all forces hostile to the Government."

Obviously, unless some great change had come
over the men who managed the Rebel government,
not one of these indispensable conditions could be
agreed to by them. They were asked to give up
their cherished scheme of a slave confederacy; and
they would not be permitted to expect that the
military lines now closing in upon them would be in
the least relaxed, whatever negotiations might be
pending. Secretary Seward was charged by the
President with the duty of representing the national
authority in the proposed conference. The excite-
ment in Washington was very great when it was
noised abroad that Seward had gone to Fortress
Monroe to meet three Rebel commissioners. But
excitement was turned to indignation when it was
learned that the President, solicitous as to the com-
plexion that the interview might take, had followed
the Secretary. The enemies of Lincoln, especially
those of the radical class, affected wrath and mortifi-
cation that he had so far forgotten his dignity as to
meet in amity the representatives of the enemy whom
we were fighting in the field. It was also charged
that the President, afraid that Seward would not
make sufficiently large concessions, had gone to
Fortress Monroe to make sure that everything that
the Rebel commissioners asked should be granted, if
possible.

406

Abraham Lincoln

Congress was in session and excited politicians
went about the Capitol, eagerly discussing the scanty
news relating to the conference that had been allowed
to leak out. It was a time of general suspense and
anxiety. Meanwhile, the President and the Secre-
tary of State had met the three Rebel commissioners
on board a steamer anchored in the roadstead off
Fortress Monroe. The conference lasted several
hours, during which the commissioners were ex-
plicitly informed that there could be no receding
from the position taken by the Government of the
United States on the slavery question; that the
emancipation proclamation of the President could
not be recalled or amended; that Congress had
passed an amendment to the Constitution of the
United States abolishing slavery; that this amend-
ment would doubtless be ratified by the requisite
number of the States — three fourths of the whole;
and that none of these matters could be modified
in any way.

The commissioners urged in vain that there should
be a cessation of hostilities while negotiations were
pending, and they manifested willingness to negoti-
ate on the basis prepared by Lincoln. But Lincoln
saw, as he afterwards declared, that the sole purpose
of the conference was to secure an armistice, or truce,
under some pretence of debate, during which renewed
preparations of war should be made by the almost
defeated Rebels. Lincoln turned a deaf ear to all
suggestions of this sort; on the contrary, while
the matter was yet pending, he wrote to General
Grant, saying: 4 'Let nothing that is transpiring

Political Complications

407

change, hinder, or delay your military movements or
plans."

Lincoln saw, from the beginning, that the con-
ference would be resultless. Great relief was felt
in Washington when the President and the Secretary
returned from Fortress Monroe, and the public
curiosity to learn what had happened was stimu-
lated to a painful pitch. It soon leaked out, how-
ever, that the conference had been fruitless, and
hostile critics and unfriendly politicians were sure
that the President had needlessly abased himself.
The House of Representatives passed a resolution
calling on the President for a report of his doings, so
far as this could be consistent with the public welfare.
The documents sent in answer to this request were
read to the House in the midst of a breathless
silence.

The reading of the papers submitted lifted a great
load from the minds of loyal men. They saw that
the President had not abated one jot or tittle of his
official dignity; that his sagacity and shrewdness
had been once more triumphantly vindicated, and
that the question of peaceful and honorable com-
promise was now forever settled. The clamor of
the advocates of a peaceful adjustment was effectu-
ally silenced. As the reading of the documents
went on in the House, the clouds of doubt and sus-
picion rolled away; the friends of the President
were elated, and, when the reading was concluded, a
burst of uncontrollable applause followed, and men
saw and honored the wisdom with which Lincoln
had conducted the whole affair, from first to last.

4o8

Abraham Lincoln

He had exhausted all honorable means to secure
peace.

The Vice - President of the Confederacy, Mr.
Stephens, who was one of the Rebel commissioners,
greatly admired the character of Lincoln, and, on
his return to his own place, he authorized a publi-
cation of an informal report of the doings at the
Hampton Roads conference. It was highly credit-
able, on the whole, to Lincoln, and, being repro-
duced in Northern newspapers, added to the popular
affection for the President.

The reproach that Lincoln had gone to assist
Seward at the conference was removed when people
saw, in Lincoln's instructions to Seward, the phrase
"You are not on any account to conclude anything
definitely." Another point that attracted general
attention and satisfied the people was Lincoln's
steadfast and determined refusal to recognize the
commissioners as official personages, or representa-
tives of official personages. He would not admit the
separate independence of any States that were a part
of the American Republic. "That," he said, "would
be doing what you have so long in vain asked Europe
to do, and be resigning the only thing the armies of
the Union have been fighting for." In pressing the
point upon Lincoln's mind, one of the commissioners,
Mr. Hunter, insisted that the recognition of Davis's
power to make treaties was the first and indispen-
sable step towards peace; and he cited the corre-
spondence between King Charles I., of England, and
his Parliament as a good precedent j ustif ying him in
taking that step. To this Lincoln replied: "Upon

Political Complications 4°9

questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward,
for he is posted in such things, and I don't pretend to
be bright. My only distinct recollection of the
matter is that Charles lost his head." That settled
Mr. Hunter for a while.

About the time that Lincoln was preparing his
message to Congress, which assembled in December
of that year, Sherman was on his way from Atlanta
to the sea. The object of his march was unknown to
the general public, but so implicit was the people's
confidence in the great General that there was no dis-
quiet as to his ultimate success. Some supposed
that he would be heard from, after a while, at some
point on the Rebel line of the Gulf of Mexico, and
others believed that he would come out of ''the
bowels of the land" at an Atlantic port. On this
point Lincoln maintained a strict silence. Sherman
had cut loose from all connections, and was plough-
ing his way through the heart of the Confederacy.
That was all that was known outside of a small
official circle. Lincoln delayed the conclusion of his
annual message as long as possible, hoping to be
able to report in it the successful termination of
Sherman's march to the sea. When the message
was sent to Congress, he contented himself with a
vague reference to Sherman's movements, from
which he intimated good results would come.

While this message was in course of preparation
he had an interview with two ladies, wives of Rebel
officers, prisoners of war in one of the Federal strong-
holds of the North. Taking one of the stiff strips of
cardboard on which his message was first sketched,

4Jo Abraham Lincoln

he wrote out and gave to a personal friend a report
of the interview, which he called "the President's
last, shortest, and best speech." This he submitted
to the critical judgment of his friend, adding that if
he thought it worth while it might be printed in the
newspapers. It was as follows :

" On Thursday of last week two ladies from Tennessee
came before the President, asking the release of their hus-
bands, held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They
were put off until Friday, when they came again, and
were again put off until Saturday. At each of the inter-
views one of the ladies urged that her husband was a
religious man. On Saturday, when the President ordered
the release of the prisoners, he said to this lady : * You say
your husband is a religious man ; tell him when you meet
him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but
that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel
and fight against their government because, as they think,
that government does not sufficiently help some men to
eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not
the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.' "

It will be seen that one figure in this little story,
that of ' • eating their bread in the sweat of other men's
faces," reappears in Lincoln's second inaugural.

The second inauguration of Lincoln took place
March 4, 1865. The day was dark and dismal in the
opening hours, but the rain ceased when the proces-
sion from the White House to the Capitol began to
move; and, as Lincoln rose to deliver his inaugural
address, the sun burst through the clouds, irradiating
the scene with splendor and light. It was a hopeful

Political Complications

411

omen, and, speaking of it next day, Lincoln, with
tears gathering in his eyes, said : " It made my heart
jump! Let us accept it as a good sign, my dear
friends." A tinge of superstition pervaded Lin-
coln's nature, and more than once he spoke of the
sunburst that had illumined the sky as he stood on
the steps of the beautiful Capitol to assume the
obligations of another term of the Presidency,
obligations from which death was so soon to release
him. It was a brilliant scene, and many thousands
were impressed with the solemnity as well as the
joyousness of the occasion, as they called to mind
the gloom, doubt, and uncertainty that had charac-
terized the first inauguration. With a clear, reso-
nant voice, standing bareheaded under the March sky,
now softened and suffused with sunlight, Lincoln
pronounced his masterly address, as follows:

" Fellow-Couxtrymen : At this season, appearing to
take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occa-
sion for an extended address than there was at first.
Then, a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be
pursued seemed very fitting 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 satis-
factory 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,

412

Abraham Lincoln

all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil
war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid 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
with war — seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the
effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but
one of them would make war rather than let the nation
survive, and the other would accept war rather than let
it perish; and the war came. 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 by war, while the Government claimed no right to
do more than to 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 prayer 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 offences ;
for it must needs be that offences come, but woe to that
man by whom the offence cometh ! ' If we shall suppose

Political Complications

4i3

that American slavery is one of these offences which in
the providence of God must needs come, but which, hav-
ing 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 offence
came, shall we discern there 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 bondsman'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 by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago,
so still it must be said, that ' 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
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for
his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations."

It is impossible to describe the effect of the reading
of this paper upon those who heard it, and those who
subsequently read it. Its lofty tone and grand
majesty reminded one of the Hebraic prophecies;
and its dispassionate and almost merciless dissection
of the issues of the struggle for the preservation of
the Union, and the dying contortions of the monster
slavery, were received with a feeling of awe. The
impression made by the inaugural was profound. It
was conclusive of the genius and the intellectual

414

Abraham Lincoln

greatness of its author. From that time forth, the
world gave among its orators and statesmen a high
place to Abraham Lincoln. The noblest and richest
type of American manhood had at last reached his
culminating period.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE FAMILY IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

Plain Living and Simple Manners — Lincoln's Kindness and His
Righteous Wrath — The Sons of Lincoln — The Boy of the White
House — Threats of Assassination — The President's Dealings with
Office-Seekers — Sundry Anecdotes.

SIMPLICITY was the main characteristic of the
life of the Lincoln family in the White House.
Lincoln's nature, as we have seen, was averse to dis-
play of any sort that made him or his prominent in
the eyes of men. No man was ever more free from
affectation, and the distaste that he felt for form,
ceremony, and personal parade was genuine. Yet
he was not without a certain dignity of bearing and
character that commanded respect. At times, too,
he rebuked those who presumed too far on his
habitual good-nature and affable kindness. On one
occasion a deputation of citizens concerned in the
distribution of offices in a distant State waited upon
him, with a remonstrance against certain pending
appointments. Their objections were committed
to writing, and the spokesman of the party read it to
the President. It chanced that the paper contained
an implied reflection on his old friend, Senator Baker,
then a guest in the White House. Lincoln listened

silently to the reading of the document, a faint flush

415

416

Abraham Lincoln

mounting his sallow cheeks. Then he said, taking
the paper: "Is this paper mine, to do with as I
please?" The spokesman replied: "Certainly, Mr.
President." The President calmly laid the docu-
ment on the blazing coals in the fireplace and said:
1 1 Good-morning, gentlemen. ' '

Afterwards, speaking of the anger that the delega-
tion were said to have manifested when they went
out of the audience-chamber, Lincoln said :

M The paper was an unjust attack upon my dearest per-
sonal friend, Ned Baker, who was at that time a member
of my family. The delegation did not know what they
were talking about when they made him responsible,
almost abusively, for what I had done, or proposed to do.
They told me that that was my paper, to do with as I
liked. I could not trust myself to reply in words : I was
so angry. That was the whole case."

On another occasion, a still more audacious
petitioner, introduced by a strong letter from a
Senator of the United States, so far forgot himself as
to break out with profane language in the presence of
Lincoln. The President, when the offence was
repeated a second time, rose with great dignity,
opened the door of the audience -chamber and said:
' ' I thought that Senator had sent me a gentle-
man. I find I am mistaken. There is the door, sir.
Good-evening."

While he was in the White House, as President of
the United States, Lincoln had few amusements.
The times, so full of trouble, and lamentation for the
dead in the war, were not favorable to the giving of

The Family in the White House 4l7

social or formal entertainments. There were occa-
sional dinner parties, and early in the first Presi-
dential term there was one large evening party, or
ball ; but that was all. He went often to the theatre,
usually accompanied only by a friend, and taking
pains to enter the place unrecognized. He sought
the theatre only as a means of amusing a spare hour,
diverting his mind from the cares and sorrows that
weighed him down. Naturally fond of music, he was
glad, when he had an opportunity, to listen to the
singing or the playing of some visitor who might call
on the family of an evening. And he seemed to find
his greatest pleasure in simple and pathetic ballad
music. Generally, however, he was kept too busy
in his cabinet, during the evening, to go down to the
parlor, where Mrs. Lincoln received her friends. It
was her custom, when those called whom she thought
the President would like to see, to send him word;
and his excuses, if he did not come, were readily
accepted.

He cared little for the pleasures of the table, and he
seldom partook of any but the plainest and simplest
food, even when a more elaborate repast than usual
was spread upon the board. Wine was set on the
table when those who used it were guests; but
Lincoln only maintained the form of touching it.
When engrossed with the cares of his office, which
was almost habitually, he ate irregularly, and the
family were accustomed to see him come to the table
or stay away, as it suited his convenience. Even
when his anxious wife had sent to his cabinet, where
he was engaged, a tray of food, he was often too busy

VOL. VIII. 27.

4i8

Abraham Lincoln

or too abstracted to touch it. And when Mrs. Lin-
coln was away from home, as sometimes happened,
he neglected his meals altogether, or, as he expressed
it, "browsed around," eating when his hunger
moved, when and how he could most conveniently.
His youngest son, "Tad," as he was called, could
bring him out of his working or meditative moods
more readily than any other of the family. When
the Lincolns entered the White House, in 1861, there
were three sons and no other children. The eldest
was Robert, eighteen years old; Willie, a little more
than ten; and Thomas, or Tad, then nearly eight
years old. This little fellow celebrated his eleventh
birthday in the White House, April 4, 1863. Robert
was a student in Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H.,
when his father became President, and he entered
Harvard University soon after that time. He was
graduated subsequently, studied law, and was ap-
pointed Secretary of War, several years after his
father's death, serving under President Garfield and
President Arthur.

Willie, the second son, died in February, 1862,
during the darkest and most gloomy time of the long
and oppressive era of the war. Possibly this
calamity made Lincoln less strict with his youngest
boy than he should have been. He found it well-
nigh impossible to deny Tad anything. But the
little fellow, always a hearty, happy, and lovable
boy, did not abuse his privileges. He roamed the
White House at will, a tricksy and restless spirit, as
well known to habitual visitors as the President him-
self. Innumerable stories might be told of the

The Family in the White House 4J9

child's native wit, his courage, his adventurousness,
and his passionate devotion to his father. He
invaded Cabinet councils with his boyish griefs or
tales of adventure, climbed in his father's lap when
the President was engaged with affairs of state, and
doubtless diverted and soothed the troubled mind of
the President, who loved his boy with a certain
tenderness that was inexpressible. It was Tad, the
mercurial and irrepressible boy of the White House,
on friendly terms with the great and the lowly, who
gave to the executive mansion almost the only joy-
ous note that echoed through its corridors and
stately drawing-rooms in those troublous times.
The boy survived his father, dying at the age of
eighteen years, after the family had left Washington.

The President and Mrs. Lincoln usually addressed
each other in the old-fashioned manner as " Father"
and "Mother," and it was very seldom that Mrs.
Lincoln spoke of her husband as "the President."
And Lincoln, on his part, never, if he could avoid it,
spoke of himself as President. If he had occasion
to refer to his high office, he spoke of it as "this
place." When the occasion required, however, his
native dignity asserted itself, and a certain simple
and yet influential grandeur was manifested in his
deportment and demeanor. One soon forgot in his
immediate presence the native ungainliness of his
figure, and felt that he was in the personal atmosphere
of one of the world's great men. Although Lincoln
was genial and free in his manners, even with
strangers, there was something in his bearing that
forbade familiarity. Much has been said about his

420

Abraham Lincoln

disregard for dress and personal appearance, but
much of this is erroneous. He was neat in his per-
son, scrupulously so, and his garb was that of a gentle-
man always. If, in the seclusion of his home, he was
sometimes called out late at night, to hear an im-
portant message or decide instantly an affair of great
moment, and he did not wait to array himself, some-
thing was excused to his preoccupation and anxiety.

Mrs. Lincoln went to Washington when that city
was a hotbed of secession and treason. Many of the
women of the time were exceedingly bitter against
the new-comers, and they put in circulation a num-
ber of injurious and absurd stories concerning the
manners and habits of the members of the Lincoln
family. When the President became better known,
men marvelled at the wantonness and the ground-
lessness of the tales that related to him. But Mrs.
Lincoln could not enjoy that opportunity of vindi-
cating, by her amiable and dignified life, her own
much-misrepresented character. To this day, doubt-
less, the slanders of the gossips survive in some degree
those evil times; and there may be people who
really believe that Mrs. Lincoln did not fully sympa-
thize with her husband in his sorrows and trials, but
secretly favored the rebellion which, if successful,
would have expelled Lincoln from Washington, if it
had spared his life. The relations of Lincoln and his
wife were a model for the married people of the
republic of which they were then the foremost pair.

In the summer the family lived in a stone cottage
on the reservation belonging to the Government, in
the suburbs of Washington, known as the Soldiers'

The Family in the White House 421

Home. A few servants were then kept at the White
House, and in case of extraordinary business being
on hand the President tarried there all night. But
usually he was driven out at the close of the day's
work, and the evenings at the Soldiers' Home
cottage were often very delightful. The distance
from the city kept away importunate office-seekers
and other petitioners, and familiar friends would call
and help to pass the evening in social chat. One or
two would sometimes be invited to spend the night,
and the family circle was then more like that of a
private household than at any other time during the
Presidential term.

The drives to and from the Soldiers' Home and the
White House were often undertaken in the darkness
of late hours, and friends of the President, alarmed
by rumors of attempted attacks upon the person of
the chief, insisted that he should have a small body-
guard of cavalry to accompany him to and fro. The
proposition was most unpalatable to Lincoln, and he
resisted it as long as he could. When he finally con-
sented, the little show of the cavalry escort was
almost distressful to him, and he repeatedly ex-
pressed his disgust at the ''jingling and the jangling"
of the troops. A guard was also mounted at the main
entrance of the White House ; and this too annoyed
him not a little, especially as it was needful, in the
observance of military discipline, that they should
salute him when he passed in and out. On one
occasion Tad, having been sportively commissioned
a lieutenant in the United States army by Secretary
Stanton, procured several muskets and drilled the

422

Abraham Lincoln

men-servants of the house in the manual of arms
without attracting the attention of his father. And
one night, to their consternation, he put them on
duty and relieved the regular sentries, who, seeing
the lad in full uniform, or perhaps appreciating the
joke, gladly went to their quarters. Robert Lincoln,
hearing of this extraordinary performance, indig-
nantly went to his father to remonstrate against the
servants being compelled to do special duty when
their day's work was done. Tad insisted on his
rights as an officer. The President laughed and de-
clined to interfere. But when the lad had lost his
little authority in his boyish sleep, the Commander-
in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States
went down and personally discharged the sentries his
son had put on post.

No warning of suspected attempts upon his life
seemed to move Lincoln. In deference to his wife's
fears he did sometimes carry a stout cane, when in
the darkness and loneliness of the night he took his
solitary way through the tree-studded grounds of the
White House to confer with the late watchers in the
War Department, or at General Halleck's headquar-
ters. But he laughed grimly at this slight weapon of
defence. Once he said, somewhat seriously:

" I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to
kill me he will do it. If I wore a shirt of mail and kept
myself surrounded by a body-guard, it would be all the
same. There are a thousand ways of getting at a man if it
is desirable that he should be killed. Besides, in this case,
it seems to me, the man who would come after me would
be just as objectionable to my enemies — if I have any."

The Family in the White House 423

If Mr. Lincoln cherished any personal resentments,
they were never apparent in his official conduct. A
Washington office-holder, who had zealously advo-
cated the claims of Mr. Chase to succeed Mr. Lincoln,
was subsequently an applicant for a promotion in
office. He got what he asked for, and the President,
when remonstrated with by a friend who was not so
magnanimous, said:

1 ' Well, I suppose Judge E., having been disappointed
before, did behave pretty ugly, but that would n't make
him any less fit for this place; and I have Scriptural
authority for appointing him. You remember that when
the Lord was on Mount Sinai getting out a commission for
Aaron, that same Aaron was at the foot of the mountain
making a false god for the people to worship. Yet Aaron
got his commission, you know."

Alluding to the pressure for office, applied to him so
steadily that he was almost compelled to neglect
measures for the maintenance of the Federal Union,
he said: "If this keeps on, I shall be in the position
of a man who is so busy renting rooms at one end of
his house that he has no time to put out the fire that
is consuming it at the other end."

As Lincoln was no stickler for his own dignities
and honors, he was not offended when some of the
great civil or military dignitaries of his time were
shocked by want of due respect to their official
station. When he was leaving Hooker's head-
quarters, after a visit, a short time before the battle
of Chancellorsville, the troops cheered him right
lustily, being drawn up in line ; and a soldier in the

424

Abraham Lincoln

rank nearest the President added, with a volunteer
soldier's freedom of manner, "And send along the
greenbacks." Lincoln was greatly amused by the
incident, and, explaining to Tad that the men had not
been paid, the lad said, with great innocence : ' ' Why
don't Governor Chase print some more greenbacks?"

Later in the war, Secretary Stanton visited the
Federal lines at Port Royal, South Carolina, and was
taken up Broad River on board a small steamer.
Reaching the pickets, one of them roared from the
bank: "Who have you got aboard that tug?" An
officer replied, with freezing dignity: "Major-
General Foster and the Secretary of War." The
picket shouted back, without a sign of abashment:
"We 've got major-generals enough up here. Why
don't you bring up some hard-tack?" This was
reported to Lincoln, who repeated the story with
great delight for a long time thereafter.

On one occasion, while steaming down the Poto-
mac, bound for Fortress Monroe, the President
called attention to a vessel which he called a ship.
Being told that it was a three-masted schooner, he
laughed at his mistake and said: "I shall certainly
know a three-masted schooner from a ship the next
time I ever see either. When I came into this place
I was deplorably ignorant of all marine matters,
being only a prairie lawyer. But I do think that I
knew the difference between the bow of a ship and
her stern, and I don't believe Secretary Welles did."

It was, perhaps, a weakness in Lincoln that he
seemed to think that he should attend to many of
the small details of his office that might have been

The Family in the White House 425

turned over to the members of his Cabinet, to be by
them referred to their subordinates. If he sent ap-
plicants to the departments, it was not until he had
made some examination of the case presented.
Once, being puzzled by the illegible writing of an
application for an office, he indorsed it: " Brigadier-
general, I guess." An officer in the army, related
to a very distinguished general, reluctant to ask
the President for promotion, implored the aid of
one of the President's friends. This gentleman,
presenting the case to Lincoln, said that the officer
in question had remarked that his own relationship

to General was a disadvantage, for it kept

him down. Lincoln jumped from his chair, and,
shrieking with laughter, said: 4 'Keeps him down?
Keeps him down? That's all that keeps him up! "

An old acquaintance of the President, whom he
had not seen for many years, visited Washington.
Lincoln desired to give him a place. Thus encour-
aged, the visitor, who was an honest man, but wholly
inexperienced in public affairs or in business, asked
for a high office. The President was aghast, and
said: "Good gracious! why didn't he ask to be
Secretary of the Treasury and have done with it?"
Afterward he said: "Well, now, I never thought M.
had anything more than average ability, when we
were young men together — and he wants to be super-
intendent of the mint!" He paused, and added,
with a queer smile : ' 1 But, then, I suppose he thought
the same thing about me, and — here I am!"

Numberless anecdotes are told of Lincoln's kind-
ness of heart. As to appeals to him in behalf of men

426 Abraham Lincoln

condemned to death for violations of rules and regu-
lations of military discipline, or for the discharge of
minors or persons of infirm mind, held to military ser-
vice, it may be said in general terms that these were
never made in vain. He was readily accessible to
petitioners of every grade and rank in life. It was
his habit to receive first those who came by special
appointment, or were privileged by official station,
and then to have the doors of his cabinet opened and
all who were in waiting brought in, each in his order,
to a general audience. This was very exhausting to
the President, especially if he had, as he often had, a
weight of apprehension on his mind by reason of some
military crisis or similar complication.

Lincoln was accustomed to fits of abstraction from
which no ordinary call could rouse him. At such
times his eyes had a far-away look, as if his soul were
wandering in space and must be deaf to the voice of
any caller. Once, at the close of an unusually ex-
hausting day, an intimate friend found Lincoln sunk
in a state of collapse, as it were, with the old far-
away look in his eyes. Being brought back by
repeated calls of his name, the President laughed
cheerily, and explained that he had had a hard day
and his wits "had gone wool-gathering."

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET.

Popular Expectation that Secretary Seward would be the Leading
Spirit of the New Administration — Mr. Lincoln's Firmness and
Kindness with the Secretary of State — Mr. Stanton's Criticisms
of Lincoln — Why Secretary Cameron lef the Cabinet — The Exit
of Postmaster-General Blair — Secretary Chase's Restiveness — His
Subsequent Appointment as Chief-Justice — The President De-
ferred to the Ministers.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S relations with his
Cabinet ministers were always friendly and
cordial. With each member he was habitually frank
and sincere in his treatment of all questions that
affected the personal relations of each. It was not
the habit of any of the Cabinet ministers, excepting
Secretary Seward, to visit the White House on purely
social and informal errands. Mr. Seward lived not
far from the Executive Mansion, and, more than any
other of his associates, he was accustomed to make
casual calls upon the President and his family. It
may be remembered, to the credit of both of these
eminent men, that it was Mr. Seward, rather than any
other member of the Cabinet, who might have had
occasion to feel restive over his own position in the
councils of the President. Mr. Seward was the most
prominent and conspicuous rival of Mr. Lincoln for
the Presidential nomination in i860. He may have

427

428

Abraham Lincoln

felt that his failure to secure that honor was due to an
accident rather than to Mr. Lincoln's fitness for the
place into which he was installed. We cannot say
what was the estimate which Lincoln put on the
qualifications of Seward for the Presidential office;
but we may be sure that Seward once thought him-
self the greater man of the two. Undoubtedly he
was not alone in holding that opinion Many
patriotic and intelligent men thought Seward was
not only the greatest man in the new administration,
but they expected and believed that he would be the
author and director of its policy. It is possible that
this was also Mr. Seward's expectation.

Very early in the history of the Lincoln Adminis-
tration this question was to be settled once for all.
When Mr. Lincoln had written his inaugural address
to be delivered March 4, 1 861, he submitted it to the
criticism of several persons who were near to him,
among others, Mr. Seward. Returning the document
to the President-elect, Mr. Seward suggested numer-
ous changes and emendations, some of which Mr.
Lincoln adopted and others he rejected. It may be
said that the joint labors of the two resulted in the
production of a State paper of great power and
dignity; that Mr. Seward's share in this work was,
after all, inconsiderable ; but the fact that the Presi-
dent-elect, then regarded as a raw and unskilled
statesman, from whom no greatness could be ex-
pected, was willing to accept corrections and sugges-
tions from the future Secretary of State was enough
to give Mr. Seward encouragement to magnify his
office as "premier" of the new administration.

The President and His Cabinet 429

The next step in the direction of addition to the
dignity and importance of his office was taken by Mr.
Seward at the end of the first month of the new
administration, April 1, 1861. Although State after
State had passed ordinances of secession from the
Union, public opinion all over the North was in a
greatly confused condition. Nobody knew what
would be the result of these so-called secessions,
whether there would be war, a peaceful breaking up
of the Federal Union, or a series of concessions that
would pacify the Southern seceders and restore
things on a new basis of union. Even patriotic men
wrere in some instances ready to make compromises
for the sake of peace, and others equally patriotic
were willing that the new administration should
secure ''peace at any price."

Perhaps as good an illustration as any other of the
too prevailing popular opinion about Lincoln's
abilities may be found in the letters of Edwin M.
Stanton, written about this time. Mr. Stanton was a
loyal and upright man, devoted to the cause of the
Union; and afterwards, as Secretary of War under
President Lincoln, he achieved fame for his hercu-
lean labors in defence of that cause. Yet, waiting in
June, 1 86 1, he gave currency to the belief that the
Rebels would be in possession of Washington " within
thirty days," and in consequence of that "painful
imbecility of Lincoln " to which he referred with
grim sarcasm in a letter written about that time.
While men were wondering what the new adminis-
tration would do, and if it would do anything but
parcel out the offices, Secretary Seward wrote for

430

Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln's consideration a memorandum in
which the general depression and uncertainty were
dwelt upon, and a line of policy was marked out.
Briefly, this extraordinary paper proposed that the
topic of slavery extension as a political question be
laid aside, and "Union or Disunion?" be substituted
therefor; and, having set this forth as the local
policy, the Secretary proceeded to suggest that ex-
planations for alleged unfriendly acts be demanded
from the governments of Spain, France, Great
Britain, and Russia, that agents be sent to the colo-
nial dependencies of some of these to stir up strife,
and that, in default of satisfactory replies from Spain
and France, war be declared against them. In other
words, the newly installed President was asked to
turn his back on the party that had elected him, and
to divert the attention of the Southern rebels from
their rebellion by an invitation to join in a series of
foreign wars.

This scheme of the Secretary of State had in it a
certain suggestion of arrogance, because it contained
a very direct hint that he expected to be the officer
charged with the duty of carrying out the policy
which he had thus boldly outlined. He said that if
the President did not choose to manage this under-
taking, he should ' ' devolve it on some member of his
Cabinet. ' ' He added : ' ' Once adopted, all debates on
it must end, and all agree and abide. It is not my
especial province. But I neither seek to evade nor
assume responsibility." The Presidents reply to
this amazing communication was simple, direct, and
in admirable temper. Having disposed of the Sec-

The President and His Cabinet 43 1

retary's criticisms on an alleged lack of domestic and
foreign policy, Lincoln then took up the scheme
outlined by Seward, and said: "I remark that, if this
must be done, I must do it." This effectually settled
any question which Mr. Seward might have enter-
tained in his own mind as to the primacy of any man
in that Cabinet. It should be said, to the credit of
Lincoln, the wise, kindly, and generous statesman,
that until after his death this paper, which might
have wrought ruin to its author, remained locked as
securely in secrecy as the fact that the newly installed
Secretary of State had sought to assert himself as the
power behind the throne. And to the end of his
own heroic life Lincoln kept his unwavering trust in
Seward, who, in his turn, served his country and his
illustrious chief with an equally unwavering devotion.

Another incident which illustrates the intimacy
and candor of the relations existing between the
President and Secretary Seward was the revision of
an important despatch sent from the Department of
State to Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Minister of the
United States to Great Britain. This despatch was
written in May, 1861, when our relations with several
of the greater European powers wTere in a strained
and delicate condition, and there was danger that
those powers might interfere in behalf of the Rebel
Confederacy and embarrass the Federal cause, if not
bring disaster upon it. The Secretary's original
draught of that important and memorable despatch,
amended and corrected by the President, is still in
existence. The Secretary had been rather peremp-
tory in some of his statements, and a part of the duty

432

Abraham Lincoln

of the President, as the document now shows, was to
soften these asperities without lowering its tone and
without injury to its dignity. For example, where
the Secretary had said that the President was " sur-
prised and grieved" that Mr. Adams's predecessor
in office had not done certain things, Mr. Lincoln sub-
stituted the word "regrets" for the stronger phrase;
and he changed the word "wrongful," as applied to
the possible course of Great Britain, so that that
course might appear to be "hurtful." A study of
these verbal changes in one of the most important
state papers of the Lincoln Administration would be
highly useful for one who desires to become ac-
quainted with some of the delicate shades of mean-
ing of which the English language is capable. And,
be it said, this was the work of that "backwoods
lawyer" whom so many well-seasoned American
statesmen of that time affected to deride.

Mr. Cameron, Lincoln's first Secretary of War,
was another member of the Cabinet who was early
taught that the President, although he wore "a
glove of velvet," yet had that "hand of steel" which
all must have who would govern well. One of the
most vociferous cries of the Southern Confederacy
was to the effect that the North was ready to incite a
servile war by stirring up and arming the slaves.
Conservative men in the North were afraid of this
cry, and some of them thought that it was not an
unreasonable one. On the other hand, many of the
more advanced Republicans early besieged the Presi-
dent to take steps to use the freedmen in the military
service; Secretary Cameron was one of those who

The President and His Cabinet 433

believed that this policy was necessary and just. In
his annual report to the President, which was
designed to be sent to Congress in December, 1861,
Secretary Cameron took the ground that abandoned
and fugitive slaves should be formed into marching
regiments and employed against the Rebels. This
suggestion was premature, and if it had been made
public at that time it would have caused a terrible
outcry, although the day did come, but long after-
wards, when not only the Union armies were rein-
forced by black soldiers, but the Rebels began to
arrange for a similar contingent for themselves.
Secretary Cameron, as if aware that his declaration
in favor of arming the freedmen would not be ap-
proved by the President, had sent out printed copies
of his report in advance of its delivery to Congress,
without first submitting it to the President, to whom
official usage required that it should be addressed.
But the President, not finding the document on his
table, made inquiry and was then given a copy of the
report, which was to accompany his annual message
to Congress. Fortunately, the copies of the War
report were still in the hands of postmasters in cities,
with directions to deliver to newspaper offices at a
certain date. They were all recalled by telegraphic
orders, and the document was reprinted with the
objectionable parts stricken out.

It may be supposed that this incident somewhat
nettled Secretary Cameron, who does not appear to
have accepted his implied reproof as gracefully as
Secretary Seward accepted disapproval of his cher-
ished " policy." At any rate, the Secretary of War

VOL. VIII. 28.

434 Abraham Lincoln

soon began to complain of the irksomeness of his
official duties, and to signify his desire to go abroad.
Accordingly, in January of the following year, the
President wrote him a note, and, after referring to the
Secretary's frequently expressed desire for a change
of place, accepted the situation for him and offered
him the post of Minister to Russia. The offer was
accepted by General Cameron, who resigned from
the Cabinet and went abroad. He was succeeded
by Mr. Stanton, who had been Attorney-General
during the closing weeks of the Buchanan Admin-
istration. It is worthy of remark here that Lincoln's
faculty for holding the friendship of those who were
once allied to him did not fail him in this instance.
Whatever may have been the cause of Cameron's
departure from the Cabinet, Lincoln remained his
steadfast friend. Several months after Cameron's
withdrawal, some of his enemies in Congress made a
fierce attack upon him in a series of resolutions con-
demning him for certain acts done in the first days
of the rebellion. Whereupon the President sent to
Congress a special message in which he stated that
the transactions complained of were not the exclu-
sive work of the Secretary of War, but were ordered
by the President, with the full concurrence of all the
members of his Cabinet. Cameron gratefully ac-
knowledged this unsought and manly defence of his
official honor, and remained Lincoln's steadfast
friend.

Lincoln apparently found Mr. Chase, the Secretary
of the Treasury, more difficult to satisfy than any
other of the members of his so-called official family.

434 Abraham Lincoln

soon began to complain of the irksomeness of

official duties, and to signify his desire to go abre
Accordingly, in January of the following year,

President wrote him a note, and, after referring to
Secretary's frequently expressed desire for a chai
of place, accepted the situation for him and offe
him the post of Minister to Russia. The offer \
accepted by General Cameron, who resigned fr
the Cabinet and went abroad. He was succeec
by Mr. Stanton, who had been Attorney-Genr
during the closing weeks of the Buchanan Adm
istration. It is worthy of remark here that Lincol
faculty for holding the friendship of those who w

William P. Fessenden * ot Camero

From a steel en gr ■ i v i ag*fUU3lwP tfWBfctr

O W** W»**XX. N-XWXXW XXX ««V XXX W»V M

of the rebellion. Whereupon the President sent
Congress a special message in which he stated t
the transactions complained of were not the exc
sive work of the Secretary of War, but were orde
by the President, with the full concurrence of all
members of his Cabinet. Cameron gratefully
knowledged this unsought and manly defence of
official honor, and remained Lincoln's steadf
friend.

Lincoln apparently found Mr. Chase, the Secret;
of the Treasury, more difficult to satisfy than s
other of the members of his so-called official fan-

The President and His Cabinet 435

As Governor of the great State of Ohio, United
States Senator, and a leader of the advanced wing of
the Republican party, Mr. Chase very naturally had
had political ambitions ; and these were not laid aside
when he entered the Cabinet. He had a large and
admiring following, and many of those who did not
like Lincoln's policy of administration turned to
Chase as the most promising candidate to succeed
Lincoln in office. It is possible that these considera-
tions disturbed the serenity of Mr. Chase's mind, and
made him at times querulous and petulant. His
diary, published after his death, shows that, while he
was a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, he was greatly
dissatisfied with the conduct of public affairs, and
that he longed to take the reins of power and show
how the country should be governed. He was so
jealous of his own official rights and privileges that
he was frequently at odds with the good President,
and he more than once resigned his office, or threat-
ened to resign it, unless he was permitted to have his
own way. He was disturbed by the schemes which
well-meaning friends set on foot to make him the
Presidential candidate in 1864; and he had for some
time advocated the proposition that no man should
have a second term of the Presidential office. Finally,
in June, 1864, the Secretary once more tendered his
resignation, and it was accepted. David Tod, of
Ohio, was first nominated by the President to take
the place thus made vacant; and on his declining
the honor, it was tendered to William Pitt Fessenden,
then United States Senator from Maine, and was by
him accepted.

436

Abraham Lincoln

If Mr. Chase departed from the Cabinet with any
unfriendliness towards the President, we may be
sure that Lincoln did not hold any such feeling to-
wards Chase. When Roger B. Taney, Chief -Justice
of the United States, died in 1864, the friends of Mr.
Chase clamorously demanded that the ex-Secretary
of the Treasury should take the place thus made
vacant on the bench of the Supreme Court. Indeed,
there was a very general public feeling that this ap-
pointment would be a wise one, although Mr. Lin-
coln's immediate friends, mindful of Chase's conduct
in the Cabinet, remonstrated against his elevation to
the lofty post of Chief -Justice. While this discus-
sion was going on, the writer of these lines had
occasion to visit the President in his private office.
The President, who was in a happy frame of mind,
jocularly asked, "What are people talking about
now?" His caller replied that they were discussing
the probability of Chase's being appointed Chief -
Justice. The smile on the President's face faded,
and he said with gravity and sadness: "My friends
all over the country are trying to put up the bars
between me and Governor Chase. I have a vast
number of messages and letters, from men who think
they are my friends, imploring and warning me not to
appoint him." He paused for a moment, and then,
pointing to a pile of telegrams and letters on the
table, said: "Now, I know meaner things about
Governor Chase than any of those men can tell me ;
but I am going to nominate him." Three days after
that the appointment was made public.

Mr. Montgomery Blair was another member of the

The President and His Cabinet

437

Cabinet who, after much patient forbearance on the
part of President Lincoln, was finally dismissed in
such a way as to let him out of the council without
in the least injuring his feelings. From the first,
Mr. Blair had not been very kindly disposed towards
Secretary Chase; these two men represented the
extreme wings of the party, Chase being the more
radical, and Blair the ultra-conservative. Among
other offences of the Postmaster-General was the
delivery of a caustic speech at Rockville, Md., during
the summer of 1864, in which he set forth his griev-
ances against the ''radicals," and assumed, as a
member of the Cabinet, to defend the President
against the attacks of said "radicals." This grieved
and worried the President, and when these things
became no longer endurable, the President, towards
the end of September, 1864, wrote Mr. Blair a note
in which he reminded the Postmaster-General that
he (Mr. Blair) had generously offered on more than
one occasion to give the President his resignation.
"The time has come," continued Lincoln, reminding
Mr. Blair that this accepting of a resignation never
formally made in writing would be a relief to the
Chief Executive. Mr. Blair took his dismissal with-
out anger, and he was thereafter a loyal friend of
Lincoln to the end.

Previous to this departure of Mr. Blair from the
Cabinet, there had been some unpleasantness among
his colleagues on account of certain remarks which
the Postmaster-General was alleged to have made,
greatly to the wrath of General Halleck and Secretary
Stanton, which last-named functionary Mr. Blair did

438

Abraham Lincoln

not love. The matter was brought to the attention
of the President, who, at the next meeting of the
Cabinet, as if he were aware that some of the members
of the Cabinet were hoping that the difficulty would
end by crowding the Postmaster- General out, pre-
pared a paper, which he read to them, as follows:

" I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and
when to remove any one of you from his position. It
would greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavoring
to procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice
him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong
to me, and, much worse, a wrong to the country. My
wish is that on this subject no remark be made nor ques-
tion asked by any of you, here or elsewhere, now or
hereafter.' '

This remarkable little address should be read by
any one who has been led to believe that President
Lincoln was without authority in the administration
that bears his name.

During the great popular depression which pre-
vailed just before the Democratic party made its
Presidential nomination in 1864, and when the cam-
paign of the Republicans lagged with indescribable
languor, and the military situation was dark and
cloudy, Lincoln began to share in the prevailing
impression that he would not be re-elected. Then
his enemies circulated the absurd rumor that the
President and his Cabinet, being assured of defeat at
the polls, would willingly help on the ruin which
they had not been able to avert. With these things
in view, Mr. Lincoln, on the 23d of August, wrote the
following memorandum:

The President and His Cabinet

439

"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceed-
ingly probable that this administration will not be re-
elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with
the President-elect as to save the Union between the
election and the inauguration; as he will have secured
his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it
afterwards."

If Lincoln were defeated by the Democratic candi-
date, who had not then been named, the successful
nominee must have been pledged to a line of policy
which would be destructive of the Union. So, hav-
ing pledged himself to co-operation with the Presi-
dent-elect, whoever he might be, Mr. Lincoln folded
the sheet on which he had written the memorandum
above quoted, and, having pasted its edges, re-
quested each member of his Cabinet to sign his name
on the back thereof, none but the President knowing
the contents of the paper. In November, when
Lincoln had been re-elected, he recalled to the minds
of his Cabinet ministers this incident, reminding
them that it had occurred at a time when his ad-
ministration, pending the nomination of the Demo-
cratic candidate, 1 'had no adversary, and seemed to
have no friends. ' ' Then the paper was unsealed, and
the ministers present for the first time saw how sin-
gularly the President had pledged himself and them
to a loyal and sincere acceptance of the result of the
Presidential election, whatever that result might be.

It may be truly said of Lincoln that, in spite of his
alleged slowness, he never took one backward step.
Each step was taken with great care, but, having
"put his foot down," he was immovable. Neverthe-

440

Abraham Lincoln

less, in considering any important move, he con-
sulted with his Cabinet ministers frankly and fully,
not as some generals held councils of war, abiding by
the vote of the majority of those present, but heark-
ening to the council and pursuing his own course
afterwards. The most striking instance of his open-
ness to arguments opposed to his own convictions is
that of the proposed payment of a large sum of
money to the Rebel States for the extinguishment of
slavery within their borders. The President had
calculated that this payment would end the war and
save many precious lives. He submitted his plan to
the Cabinet at a meeting held in February, 1865,
very soon after the celebrated conference between
himself and the Rebel commissioners at Hampton
Roads. To his great surprise, the members of the
Cabinet were unanimously opposed to the proposed
scheme. They did not believe Congress would be
willing to consent to paying the Rebel States for the
freeing of their slaves ; and it was urged that if the
scheme were made public and failed of consummation
it would result in harm. According to the report of
those present, Lincoln sadly said: ' 'You are all op-
posed to me, and I will not send the message." The
document, which was in the form of a message to Con-
gress recommending the plan here outlined, was folded
by the President, and indorsed with the simple state-
ment that the plan therein contained had been
unanimously disapproved by the Cabinet. This was
Lincoln's simple way of disposing of a matter which
he felt he could not undertake to carry through with-
out the concurrence of his constitutional advisers.

CHAPTER XXVII.

END OF A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY.

Symptoms of a Collapse of the Confederacy — Lee Seeks a Parley with
Grant — The Fall of Richmond — Flight of the Rebel Government
— Lincoln in the Former Rebel Capital — He Goes to the Front —
The Surrender of Lee — Great Joy of the People — The National
Capital in a Frenzy of Delight — Lincoln's Last Public Speech —
His Death and Funeral — Conclusion.

HE spring of 1865 opened with every prospect of

« a speedy and complete ending of the rebellion.
Sherman's march to the sea had once more rent the
dying Confederacy, even more disastrously than the
opening of the Mississippi had previously split it into
two large fragments. Everywhere, on land and sea,
the arms of the Union had been crowned with
victory. Sherman's movements in the Carolinas had
compelled the abandonment of Charleston. The
capture of Fort Fisher by General Terry had virtu-
ally closed the last Atlantic port against possible
supplies from abroad for the Rebel forces. The
scattered remnants of their armies were forced to
concentrate and rally around Lee for the defence of
the Rebel capital, and on the 3d of March, the day
before the second inauguration of Lincoln, news
reached him that Lee had at last sought an interview
with Grant for the purpose of seeing if any terms of
peace could be considered. True to their settled

442

Abraham Lincoln

purpose, and desperate to the last, the Rebels sought
to make peace for themselves and retain something
more than would be exacted by a conqueror. Lin-
coln ordered the Secretary of War to send a message
to Grant, directing him to hold no conference with
Lee, except for the purpose of receiving a capitula-
tion of his army, or on some other purely military
matter. There must be no discussion of any political
question. Such matters the President would hold
in his own hands; and, meantime, Grant must press
to the utmost his military advantages.

On the 27th of March a conference of Lincoln,
Grant, and Sherman was held on board of a steamer
lying in the James River, near Grant's head-quarters,
at which the final and decisive measures of the cam-
paign were discussed. Lincoln was informed that
one more fierce and bloody battle would be neces-
sary; at that prospect his humane spirit revolted,
and he exclaimed: ' 'Must blood be shed? Cannot
this bloody battle be avoided?" It was avoided, as
Lincoln had hoped and prayed, by Lee's despairing
and unconditional surrender. Sheridan, who had
been manoeuvring far to Grant's left, by dint of ten
days' rapid marching and almost incessant fighting,
had cut off the last avenue of Lee's escape southward
with the Army of Virginia, the last prop of the Con-
federacy, and had made its surrender merely a matter
of a few days, at the furthest. Closely followed by
Grant, Sheridan had now drawn a line completely
around Lee's army. Lee sent an imperative message
to Richmond ordering three hundred thousand
rations for his starving army. The message fell into

End of a Strange Eventful History 443

Sheridan's hands, and he sent it on with the inten-
tion of waylaying and capturing the supplies. This
was accomplished, and the Rebel forces were with-
out food. The Rebel lines were everywhere drawn in,
their forces operating to the north of the James being
now joined to the main army. Petersburg fell into
the hands of the victorious Union troops, and on
Sunday morning, April 2d, the tolling of the bells of
Richmond sounded the knell of the rebellion, while
the rolling of the drums called the citizens of the
Rebel capital to rally and take the places of soldiers
withdrawn forever. Jofferson Davis, seeing that all
was lost, fled in disguise southward, but was sub-
sequently captured and sent to Fortress Monroe, a
prisoner.

On Monday morning, April 3d, the Federal troops,
under command of General Weitzel, hoisted the flag
of the Union over the building in Richmond that had
been occupied by the Rebel congress, and the political
power of the Confederacy vanished. Lincoln was at
City Point, near Grant's old head-quarters, waiting
for the final and great result of all these military
movements. Accompanied by Tad, he entered the
fallen capital of the Confederacy as soon as possible
after the news of its downfall reached him. The
scene of his entry has been often described as a
triumphal one ; but no representative of a conquer-
ing force ever moved with less ceremony and pomp.
Unattended, save by a boat's crew from a gun-
boat near at hand, and leading his little boy by the
hand, Lincoln entered the late capital of the Rebel
Confederacy, over which the national ensign now

444

Abraham Lincoln

peacefully waved. He walked as one in a dream.
Richmond, so long and so painfully the object of
Union hopes and desires, was in the hands of the
United States, its Congress and bureaus dispersed, and
the members of its exploded government fugitives.

Multitudes of colored people, apparently the only
persons left in the city, flocked around the Liberator.
They rent the air with their frenzied shouts. They
danced, they sang, they prayed for blessings on the
head of their deliverer; they wept, kneeling at his
feet. In that supreme moment Lincoln was speech-
less. He wore no look of triumph over a fallen foe,
evidences of whose poverty and great trial were
thick about him. The tears streamed down his
cheeks, furrowed with many cares, and, simply bow-
ing his thanks, or raising his hat to the jubilant and
almost hysterical crowds of freed persons, he passed
on to the interior of the city. The statesman reared
by God's wonderful providence and disciplined in the
rough school of adversity, with the memories of his
hard struggle in life still upon him, was in the last
stronghold of the broken slave power. His life-
work was done.

Meanwhile, Grant and Sheridan were drawing their
lines more closely about the Rebel army under Lee,
who, like a hunted fox, vainly turned this way and
that to escape the net in which he was enveloped.
Grant tarried at Petersburg long enough to meet
the President, who pressed on to see him for a
moment. The two men met. Lincoln seized Grant
by the hands, and poured forth his thanks and con-
gratulations with a glowing radiance on his counte-

End of a Strange Eventful History 445

nance. Lincoln had hardly expected that the end
would have come so suddenly, and that the "one
more bloody battle " could have been thus mercifully
averted. He had thought that it would be necessary
to bring up Sherman's army, now operating to the
southward, before the final surrender of Lee's army
could be made certain and Richmond captured. But
the collapse of the Confederacy had come without
much bloodshed at the last.

Leaving the President, who returned to Wash-
ington, Grant hurried on westward, following the
leading columns of infantry, and on the 7th of April,
1865, from the little village of Parmville, Virginia,
he opened with General Lee the correspondence that
resulted in the surrender of the Army of Northern
Virginia, April 9th, in the village of Appomattox
Court-House, Virginia. The two great and famous
generals met face to face. There were no impres-
sive doings at the surrender. The terms were un-
conditional. The number of men surrendered was
over 28,000; and as they were in sore need of food,
General Grant ordered that they be supplied at once
with rations from the Union army commissariat. It
was now the opening of the agricultural year, and
many of the Rebel soldiers were in haste to go home
and prepare the ground for seeding, so soon did the
pursuits of peace follow in the trail of war. Grant
permitted them to take with them their own horses
to work in the long-neglected fields. The Rebellion
was over.

The North was delirious with joy. First came the
news of the capture of Petersburg, announced in a

446

Abraham Lincoln

despatch from President Lincoln to the War Depart-
ment, and received in Washington about 10 o'clock
in the morning of the 3d of April. Three quarters
of an hour later, a despatch from General Weitzel
told the glad tidings of the fall of Richmond. Al-
though Lee had not been overtaken, these despatches
were sufficient to set the people wild. The end of the
rebellion was at hand. Davis a fugitive, men recog-
nized Lee as the real head of the Rebellion, but did
not wait to hear of his surrender. The national
capital was in a tumult of excitement and triumph.
Thence the wave spread all over the country; the
news penetrated remote villages and hamlets in an
incredibly short space of time. Flags were spread to
the breeze. Guns were fired, and bands, processions,
and every outward form of jubilation were used to
express the joy of the people. The prevailing feeling
was not one of victory over a fallen foe, but of relief
that the war was over. No more fighting; no more
dying on fields of battle; no more enlistments and
drafts; no more anxious measures for the mainte-
nance of the Union. The war was over. This was
the burden of the song that flowed from the hearts
of millions of men and women, relieved at last from
an intolerable trial of patience.

In Washington the rejoicings took the form of a
national celebration; the public departments were
closed as for a holiday. Flags flew from all the
government buildings, and the War Department or-
dered a salute of eight hundred guns, five hundred
for Richmond and three hundred for Petersburg.
Bands paraded the streets, and the members of the

End of a Strange Eventful History 447

Cabinet, in the absence of the President, were called
out to address the excited crowds. Congress had ad-
journed, but the city was full of Congressmen; and
multitudes of men, bent on seeing the end of the
Rebellion, as it was celebrated in the capital of the
nation, had gone thither. The cheering and the con-
gratulations lasted far into the night. The city was
given up to a mighty impromptu festivity. On the
following day these demonstrations were renewed,
and on the night of the 4th of April the city was
illuminated. Public and private buildings were a
blaze of light, and bonfires, fireworks, and every
possible contrivance for the making of light and
noise were resorted to by the happy people.

Late in the night of April gth, Palm Sunday, the
news of the surrender of Lee reached Washington
and was communicated to Lincoln, who had returned
and was waiting for it. Early on the following
morning Washington was startled from its slumbers
by the boom of cannon announcing the great news.
Once more the capital went wild with joy. The city
took a general holiday. Once more the air resounded
with the boom of cannon and the blare of martial
music. Government clerks assembled in the great
rotunda of the Treasury building and sang "Praise
God from whom all blessings flow." A great throng
of excited citizens, dragging howitzers, poured into
the grounds of the White House, rending the air with
the explosion of gunpowder and lusty cheering. Lin-
coln, radiant with happiness, appeared at the his-
toric window under the great porch, and bowed and
smiled his thanks. The crowd would not depart

448

Abraham Lincoln

without a speech, for which they loudly called. At
sight of the well-beloved face, the throng broke into
promiscuous cries, blessing the name of Lincoln,
shouting all manner of joyous recognition of his ser-
vices, and uttering wild and whirling words of love.
Men threw up their hats, embraced each other, and
stretched forth their hands in passionate adoration
of the savior and liberator of his country.

When order was restored and, at a motion from
Lincoln's hand, a breathless silence fell on the crowd,
he brushed the tears from his face, and briefly con-
gratulated the people on the grand result that had
called out such unrestrained enthusiasm. "But,"
he said, ' ' I understand there is to be a more elaborate
celebration of this momentous event later on, and I
shall have nothing to say then if it is all dribbled out
of me now." This homely saying pleased the peo-
ple, who laughed good-humoredly and listened to the
few words with which Lincoln concluded, calling for
the "captured tune of Dixie" which, he said, was
ours by the laws of war. Then the President, wav-
ing his hand, proposed three cheers for General Grant
and the officers and men under him; then three
more for the officers and men of the navy. These
were given with a will, and the crowd reluctantly
dispersed.

On the evening of the nth of April, Washington
was illuminated by the Government, and again every
possible token of national rejoicing was put into
requisition. This was the formal celebration that
Lincoln had alluded to and for which he was prepared.
Coming into the drawing-room that night, after a

End of a Strange Eventful History 449

little company of friends of the family had dined
together, he laid a roll of manuscript on a table, and,
noticing a look of surprise on the countenance of one
of these, he said :

11 1 know what you are thinking about. You think it
mighty queer that an old stump-speaker like myself
should not be able to address a crowd like this outside
without a written speech. But you must remember I
am, in a certain way, talking to the country, and I have
to be mighty careful. Now, the last time I made an off-
hand speech, in answer to a serenade, I used the phrase,
as applied to the Rebels, 1 turned tail and ran.' Some very
nice Boston folks, I am grieved to hear, were very much
outraged by that phrase, which they thought improper.
So I resolved to make no more impromptu speeches if I
could help it."

Subsequently he said that it was Senator Sumner
who had given voice to the complaint of "the nice
Boston folks," and with considerable emphasis.

It was a notable, even an historic occasion. At
last the war was over. Outside of the house was a
vast crowd, cheering and shouting with a roar like
that of the sea. A small battery from the navy
yard occasionally rent the air with a salute, and the
clamor of brass bands and the hissing of fireworks
added to the confusion and racket in front of the
mansion. Lincoln and a few friends lingered until it
was time for him to begin his speech. As the little
party mounted the stairs to the upper part of the
house, there was a tremendous din outside, as if roars
of laughter were mingling with the music and cheers.

VOL. VIII. — 29.

45o

Abraham Lincoln

Inside of the house, at one of the front windows on
the right of the staircase, was old Edward, the con-
servative and dignified butler of the White House,
struggling with Tad and trying to drag him back from
the window, from which he was waving a Confederate
flag, captured in some fight and given to the boy.
The crowd recognized Tad, who frantically waved
the flag as he fought with Edward, while the people
roared with delight.

Edward conquered, and, followed by a parting
cheer from the throng below, Tad rushed to his
father with his complaints. But the President, just
then approaching the centre window overlooking the
portico, stood with a beaming face before the vast
assembly beneath, and the mighty cheer that arose
drowned all other sounds. The speech began with
the words, "We meet this evening not in sorrow, but
in gladness of heart."

As Lincoln spoke, the multitude below was as
silent as if the great court -yard were deserted. Then
as his speech was written on loose sheets, and the
candles placed for him were too low, he took a light
in his hand and went on with his reading. Soon
coming to the end of a page, he found some difficulty
in handling the manuscript and holding the candle-
stick. A friend who stood behind the drapery of
the window reached out and took the candle, and
held it until the end of the speech, and the President
let the loose pages fall on the floor one by one, Tad
picking them up as they fell and impatiently calling
for more as they fluttered from his father's hand.

The speech, it must be said, was not what the peo-

End of a Strange Eventful History 45 1

pie had expected. It was not a shout of jubilation
and triumph. It was a political address. The
Unionists of Louisiana had formed a State Legisla-
ture, abolished slavery, and enacted a law giving the
blacks the right to vote. Many conservative per-
sons thought this was too rapid a movement, and
that there was no legal right residing in the so-called
Legislature to pass such measures. Much of Lin-
coln's speech on this occasion, after a few sentences
referring to the great topic of the day, was devoted to
a discussion of the Louisiana question, as it was
already called. One of his illustrations was this:
" Concede that the new government of Louisiana is
only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl,
we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching it than
by smashing it." This figure of speech was disliked
by those who did not agree with Lincoln.

Lincoln had made his last speech. Great events
hurried after each other from that night to the morn-
ing of the 14th of April, 1865. These marked the
disappearance of the last vestiges of the fallen and
broken Confederacy. At noon on the 14th was held
the last meeting of the Cabinet, at which General
Grant was present. While waiting for the latest
arrival of the ministers, Lincoln was observed to wear
a grave look. He explained that he had had a
strange dream, — a remarkable presentiment. What
it was he did not say, but abruptly proceeded to
business. After the Cabinet meeting, he drove out
for an hour with Mrs. Lincoln, talking cheerfully
about their plans for the future and what would be
possible and best for them and the boys when they

452

Abraham Lincoln

should finally leave the White House, at the end of
his second term. Mrs. Lincoln desired to visit
Europe, and Lincoln was not wholly certain whether
it would be best to fix his residence finally in his old
home in Springfield, or in California, where he thought
the boys might have a better start in life than in any
of the older portions of the Republic.

That night, as had been arranged, Mr. and Mrs.
Lincoln, accompanied by General Grant and a few
personal friends, were to visit the theatre. The fact
had been announced in the newspapers, and an un-
usually large audience collected. General Grant was
detained by business, and the President, Mrs. Lin-
coln, Miss Clara Harris (a daughter of Senator Ira
Harris, of New York), and Major Rathbone, of the
army, occupied a box near the stage, in the upper
tier of boxes. John Wilkes Booth, an actor, had
conspired with certain others to take the President's
life on the first convenient occasion. This man, so
far as known, had no personal grievance of which
to complain. He had been possessed by an insane
notion that Lincoln was an inhuman tyrant whose
death was desirable. He and his companions had
made their plans with great care and forethought.
On this night he had a fleet horse ready in the rear
of the theatre to bear him away when the deed should
be done.

At half -past ten o'clock in the evening, while those
present were absorbed in what was happening on the
stage, the assassin, who had passed unnoticed into
the rear of the box occupied by the President and his
friends, held a pistol within a few inches of the head of

End of a Strange Eventful History 453

Lincoln, near the base of the brain, as he crept
behind his illustrious victim, and fired. The ball
entered the brain, and Lincoln fell forward insensible.
The shot startled the great audience, but the posi-
tion of the box did not allow many to see what had
happened. Major Rathbone sprang to his feet and
attempted to seize the assassin, who, drawing a long
knife, stabbed Rathbone in the arm, and, profiting
by the Major's repulse, jumped from the box to the
stage. Striding across the stage, he brandished the
knife, crying: " Sic semper tyrannis!" — the motto of
the State of Virginia — "Ever so to tyrants." Then
adding, "The South is avenged!" he vanished and
was seen no more.

In the midst of confusion and lamentation inde-
scribable, the insensible form of Lincoln was carried
from the theatre to a private residence across the
street, and his family were sent for, and members of
the Government made haste to assemble. Robert
Lincoln, his mother, the secretaries of the President,
members of the Cabinet, and a few of the personal
friends of the family watched by the bed of the dying
President through the night. No human skill could
save that precious life, and all that science could do
was merely to support the vigorous and well-trained
natural powers as they struggled involuntarily with
approaching death. The President uttered no word,
and gave no sign of being conscious of what had taken
place, or of the presence of those about him. The
tremulous whispers of medical attendants, the sup-
pressed sobs of strong men, and the labored breath-
ing of the dying man were the only sounds that broke

454

Abraham Lincoln

the stillness of the chamber. At twenty-two minutes
past seven o'clock, on the morning of April 15th, the
mighty heart had ceased to beat. Lincoln was dead.

While this tragedy was taking place in the theatre,
other members of the gang had attempted to take the
lives of other members of the Government. Plans to
assassinate Vice-President Johnson and Secretary
Stanton, of the War Department, were turned aside
by what seemed to be accidental circumstances.
Secretary Seward was confined to his bed by an acci-
dent, and one assassin contrived to elude the keeper
of the house-door and penetrate to the Secretary's
sick-room, where he attacked the invalid and in-
flicted several frightful dagger-wounds upon his face
and head. Mr. Seward's son and others of the
family were able to thwart the ruffian's purpose and
save the life of the venerable Secretary. The would-
be assassin escaped for a time, but was afterwards
caught. Several of his accomplices were arrested
and, after trial and conviction, were put to death,
Mr. Seward's assailant among the number. The man
who assassinated Lincoln was hunted down finally,
caged in a barn in Maryland, and shot like a dog.

As the sun rose red over Washington on the
morning of April 15th, the body of Lincoln was
carried to the White House, followed by a little pro-
cession of weeping but stern-faced men. Grief and
a vague desire for revenge for this cruel and needless
crime struggled for the mastery. This was the feel-
ing all over the country, when the heavy tidings of
the foul and most unnatural murder went forth over
the length and breadth of the land. Flags that had

End of a Strange Eventful History 455

been flying in triumph were lowered to half-mast in
sorrow. It is no stretch of imagination to say that a
great wave of lamentation, spontaneous and exceed-
ing bitter, swept over the Republic. Bells were
tolled and minute-guns were fired. For days all
ordinary business, except that of the most impera-
tive importance, was practically suspended, and the
nation seemed abandoned to its mighty grief.

Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President of the United
States, by virtue of his office now succeeded to the
Presidency, and, shortly after the body of Lincoln
had been borne to the White House, he was sworn
into office.

On Wednesday, April 19th, the funeral of the dead
President took place at the White House, in the
midst of an assemblage of the chief men of the
nation. From the mansion in which the beloved
Lincoln had suffered and toiled so much for the good
of the people, his form was carried to the Capitol of
the nation, in the rotunda of which it lay in state for
one day, guarded by a company of high officers of
the army and navy and a detachment of soldiers.
Thousands of men, women, and children passed
through the building to take their last look of the
face of Lincoln, white in his coffin. It was a memor-
able spectacle, and sighs and sobs attested the
genuine grief of those who crowded in weeping
throngs to see the Emancipator for the last time.

Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, near
Springfield, Illinois. The funeral train left Washing-
ton on the 21st of April, and traversed nearly the
same route that had been passed over by the train

45^

Abraham Lincoln

that bore him, President-elect, from Springfield to
Washington four years before. It was a funeral
unique, wonderful. Nearly two thousand miles were
traversed; the people lined the entire distance,
almost without interval, standing with uncovered
heads, mute with grief, as the sombre cortege swept
by. Even night and falling showers did not keep them
away from the line of the sad procession. Watch-fires
blazed along the route in the darkness, and by day
every device that could lend picturesqueness to the
mournful scene and express the woe of the people
was employed. In some of the larger cities the coffin
of the illustrious dead was lifted from the funeral
train and carried through from one end to the other,
attended by mighty processions of citizens, forming
a funeral pageant of proportions so magnificent and
imposing that the world has never since seen the like.
Thus, honored in his funeral, guarded to his grave
by famed and battle-scarred generals of the army,
Lincoln's body was laid to rest at last near his old
home. Friends, neighbors, men who had known and
loved homely and kindly honest Abe Lincoln, assem-
bled to pay their final tribute of affection and honor
at his burying-place. And, with the remains of his
darling little son Willie by his side, he was left whose
life had begun in the poverty and obscurity of an
American wilderness, and ended in the full blaze of
the white light that beats upon a place conspicuous
in the world's wide fame. In due time a noble
monument, reared by the loving hands of the people
to whom he had dedicated his life, rose to mark the
spot.

End of a Strange Eventful History 457

It seemed as if the whole civilized world were
arrested in its daily concerns of life by this tragic
calamity. From every quarter of the globe, from
kings and queens, emperors, senates, and legislative
assemblies, from private individuals, high and low,
and from convocations of the plain people of many
lands, came messages of sympathy, condolence,
respect, and sincere sorrow. It was a tribute un-
precedented and spontaneous to the ended life and
completed services of Abraham Lincoln.

The author of this brief biography has imperfectly
carried out his purpose if he has failed to show how
the character of Lincoln was developed and shaped
by his early training; how he was raised up and
fitted, in the obscure seclusion of humble life, by the
providence of God, for a special and peculiar service ;
how he became the type, flower, and representative of
all that is worthily American ; how in him the com-
monest of human traits were blended with an all-
embracing charity and the highest human wisdom;
and how, with single-hearted devotion to the right,
he lived unselfishly, void of selfish personal ambition,
and, dying tragically, left a name to be remembered
with love and honor as one of the best and greatest
of mankind.

INDEX.

Altoona, conference of governors
at, 342

American party, 156

Anderson, Major Robert, in the
Black Hawk War, 58; in Fort
Sumter, 255; surrender of , 256

Andrew, John A., Governor of
Massachusetts, 261

Antietam, battle of, 307

Anti-Lecompton, 160

Appomattox, surrender at, 445

Arkansas, reply to call for troops,
261; Halleck in, 323

Arming the freedmen, 303

Armstrong, Jack, encounter with
Lincoln, 50; Lincoln defends
his son on trial for murder, 127

Army of the Potomac, McClellan
commander of, 319, 324; pro-
posed reorganization of, 334;
ordered to support Pope, 342;
Lincoln visits, 356; at Gettys-
burg, 371; Sabbath-breaking,
379; Grant's headquarters
with, 387; Meade in command
cf, 388; corps commanders of,
388; battles of the Wilderness,
388; at Appomattox, 445

Ashmun, George, chairman of
Republican Convention of i860,
197

Assassination, threats against Lin-
coln before inauguration, 219

Atchison, David R., in the Kan-
sas troubles, 145

Autobiography, Lincoln's, 165-
167

Awakening on slavery question,
133

B

Baker, Col. Edward D., law part-
ner with Lincoln, 75; Lincoln

rescues, from mob, 87; elected
to Congress, 97; friendship
with Lincoln, 415

Baltimore, Sixth Massachusetts
Regiment fired on in, 264

Banks, Gen. Nathaniel P., Gov-
ernor of Massachusetts, 262;
under Pope, 341

Barn -burners, 108, 109

Bateman, Newton, Lincoln's in-
terview with, 208

Beauregard, Gen. P. G. T.,in com-
mand at Charleston, 256; de-
mands surrender of Fort Sum-
ter, 256; at Bull Run, 279

Bell, John, and Edward Everett
nominated, 191

Berry, partner of Lincoln, 65

Big Bethel, Federal defeat at, 279

Bissell, William H., Representa-
tive in Congress from Illinois,
83

Black Hawk War, 56-60

Black, Jeremiah S., Attorney-
General in Buchanan's Cabinet,
211

Blair, Francis P., Sr., visits Rich-
mond, 404

Blair, Montgomery, house de-
stroyed by Rebels, 392; dis-
missed by Lincoln, 437

Blockade of Southern ports de-
clared, 268

Bonds, six per cent., ordered, 360

Boone, Daniel, Kentucky pioneer,
8

Boonville, Lincoln attends court
at, 33

Booth, John Wilkes, 452
Breckinridge, Robert J., Lincoln

meets, at Boonville, 34
Breckinridge, John C, nominated

for President, 191
Broderick, David C, his death in

California, 205
Brown, John, in Kansas, 145

459

460

Index

Browning, O.H., lawyer in Spring-
field, 111., 83

Buchanan, James, nominated for
President, 155; elected, 158;
at Lincoln's inauguration, 236

Buell, Gen. Don Carlos, in Ken-
tucky, 351

Bull Run, first battle of, 278;
second battle of, 343

Burns' s poems, Lincoln reads,
3°

Burnside, Gen. Ambrose E., at
Roanoke Island, 322; succeeds
McClellan, 349; at the battle
of Fredericksburg, 350; arrests
Vallandigham, 362; in Knox-
ville, 381

Butler, Gen. Benjamin F., at An-
napolis, 267; Fortress Monroe,
277; Ship Island, 323; City
Point, 391

Butterfield, Gen. Daniel, despatch
from Army of Potomac, 358

C

Cabinet, Lincoln's, 246

Call for troops, 259 ; call and draft
ordered, 400

Cameron, Simon, Secretary of
War, 432; proposes to form
negro regiments, 433; ap-
pointed Minister to Russia,
434; defended by Lincoln, 434

Camp, half -faced, 12

Cart wright, Peter, candidate for
Congress, 101

Cass, Gen. Lewis, in Black Hawk
War, 60; Lincoln's sarcasm
concerning, 106; nominated
for President, no; Secretary
of State, 212

Chancellorsville, battle of, 357

Charleston, 111., Lincoln's speech
in, 174

Charleston, S. C, Democratic
Convention in i860, 190; har-
bor fortifications, 212

Chase, Salmon P., favored by
radical Republicans, 383; his
dissatisfaction, 435; resigns
Treasury portfolio, 435; ap-
pointed Chief-Justice, 436

Chicago Convention, i860, 191;
Lincoln nominated by, 195;
Hamlin nominated by, 196

Cincinnati menaced by Rebel
raids. 351

Clary's Grove boys, 50

Clay, Henry, Lincoln reads life of,
24; Lincoln's eulogy of, 32; de-
feated for President, 99 ; visited
by Lincoln, 100

Cobb, Howell, Secretary of Treas-
ury in Buchanan's Cabinet, 211

Cochrane, John, nominated for
Vice-President, 396

Condition of people of the United
States in 1789, 1

Confederacy, Rebel, organized,
214

Confiscation of Rebel property

authorized by Congress, 359
Conscription, ordered, 359; riots

in New York, 374
"Contraband," first use of the

word, 277, 278
Cooper Institute, Lincoln's speech

in, 185

Cooper's novels read by young

Lincoln, 29
Crocodile, Douglas's figure of

speech, 180
Curtin, Andrew G., Governor of

Pennsylvania, 262

D

Davis, David, lawyer in Spring-
field, 111., 83

Davis, Jefferson, elected Provi-
sional President of Confederacy,
215; his threats against the
North, 216; plea for State
sovereignty, 275, 285; repre-
sented at Niagara Falls Con-
ference, and visit from F. P.
Blair, Sr., 403 et seq.

Debt, public, in 1783, 2

Decatur County, 111., Lincoln
settles in, 44

Democratic Convention, of i860,
190; of 1864, 395 ; Breckin-
ridge nominated by, 191; Mc-
Clellan nominated by, 395

Dennison, Governor of Ohio, 262

Dix, John A., succeeds Howell
Cobb as Secretary of Treasury,
212

Dixie, a national air, 235; cap-
tured, 389

Index

461

Dixon, John, guide in Black
Hawk War, 39

Donelson, Fort, capture of, 322

Dorsey, Hazel, Lincoln's school-
master, 31

Douglas, Stephen A., a lawyer in
Springfield, 111., 83; denounced
for pro-slavery sentiments, 134;
speech in Springfield, 111., 137;
with Lincoln in Peoria, 140;
opens the joint debate with
Lincoln, 163; his early history,
163; elected Senator, 177;
nominated for the presidency,
191; on the stump in i860, 199 ;
at Lincoln's inauguration, 236,
244; death of, 274

Draft, ordered, 359; riots in New
York, 374

E

Early, Jubal A., Rebel general,
threatens Washington, 391

Electoral vote, 1856, 159; i860,
200; 1864, 401

Elkin, Parson, border preacher,
8; funeral sermon at Mrs. Lin-
coln's burial, 22

Ellsworth, Elmer, death of, 272

Emancipation, proclamations of
Fremont and Hunter, 295, 297;
Lincoln's message concerning
same, 298; Lincoln considers
his proclamation, 307; it is
issued, 308; full text of, 311-
3*7

Ewell, Richard S., Rebel general,
invades Pennsylvania, 367

F

Farragut, Admiral David G.,
operations in Gulf of Mexico,
324; at New Orleans, 324

Fessenden, William Pitt, accepts
the Treasury, 435

Fillmore, Millard, and Donelson
nominated, 156

Fisher, Fort, capture of, 441

Floyd, John B., Secretary of War
in Buchanan's Cabinet, 211; at
Fort Donelson, 322

Forquer, George, Lincoln's en-
counter with, 73

Fort Beargrass, 3

Free Soilers, organize, 109; Lin-
coln leader of, 151

Fremont, John C, nominated for
President, 1856, 155; anti-
slavery views, 293; emancipa-
tion proclamation, 294; popu-
larity, 295; nominated for
President, 1864, 396

G

Garfield, James A., defeats Rebel
general, H. Marshall, 322; re-
port of Lincoln's capture of
Norfolk, 336

Gettysburg, battle of, 366; dedi-
cation of cemetery at, 377

Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., his rising,
321; 1 1 unconditional surren-
der," 322; capture of Forts
Henry and Donelson, 322; at
Vicksburg, 365 ; Lieutenant-
General, 384; at the Rapidan,
387; "fight it out on this line,"
388; suggested for the presi-
dency, 393; Lee seeks inter-
view with, 441; conference
with Lincoln and Sherman,
442 ; envelops Lee's army, 444

Greeley, Horace, Lincoln's letter
to, 305; favors a foreign arbi-
tration, 354; opposes Lincoln,
393; at Niagara Conference,
398

Greene, Bolin, death of, 68
H

Hale, John P., comments on Trent
affair, 290, 291

Half -faced camp, 12

Halleck, Henry W., at Corinth,
Miss., 323; called to Washing-
ton, 341 ; his warning to Meade,
37o

Hamlin, Hannibal, nominated

Vice-President, 196
Hampton Roads Conference, 405
Hanks, Dennis, 20
Hanks, Nancy, 5

Hanks, Thomas, 43 ; helping Lin-
coln, 44; brings rails into con-
vention, 183

Hardin, John J., elected to Con-
gress, 98

462

Index

Harper's Ferry, seized by Rebels,
270, 271; again in hands of
Rebels, 345

Harrison, William Henry, nomi-
nated for President, 86 ; elected
94

Hatteras, Fort, capture of, 283
Hay, Col. John, at Niagara Falls

Conference, 398
Hazel, Caleb, Lincoln's school-
master, 7, 10
Henry, Fort, capture of, 322
Herndon, William H., Lincoln's
partner, 82; report of conver-
sation with Lincoln, 131
Holt, Joseph, Secretary of War,
213

Hood, Rebel general, 390
Hooker, Joseph, criticises Burn-
side, 354; letter from Lincoln
to» 355 ! at Chancellorsville,
357; succeeded by Meade, 367;
in the West, 380
Hunter, David, his emancipation
proclamation, 297, 298; in the
Valley of the Shenandoah, 391

I

Inauguration of Lincoln, 186 1,
236; 1865, 410

Independence Hall, Lincoln at
flag-raising, 230

Indiana, early times in, 8; ad-
mitted to the Federal Union,
12; condition of, after War of
18 1 2, 14

J

Jackson, "Stonewall," in the
She nandoah Valley, 351

Johnson, Andrew, nominated for
Vice-President, 394; succeeds
Lincoln, 455

Johnston, Albert Sidney, Rebel
general in Tennessee, 323;
nOed at Shiloh, 323

Johnston, John, Lincoln's foster-
brother, 47 ; Lincoln's letter to,
1 18

K

Kansas, migration to, 135; great
excitement in, 144; John
Brown in, 145; election methods
in, 146; governors appointed

to, 147; Free-State capital, 148;
Lecompton, 148; Lincoln's
visit to, 184
Kentucky, part of Virginia, 2;
reply to call for troops, 261;
provisional Rebel government
of, 35i

L

Lane, James H., in Kansas, 145
Lecompton, pro-slavery capital

of Kansas, 148
Lecompton politicians, 160
Lee, Rebel general, in Maryland,
307; seeks an interview with
Grant, 441; his surrender, 445
Lincoln, the original family, 2
Lincoln, Abraham, born, 6; boy-
hood, 13; early labors, 17; his
first letter, 21; motherless, 23;
his first books, 23 ; his Weems's
Life of Washington, 24; habit
of reading aloud, 26; his step-
mother, 27-29; reads Cooper's
novels, 29; Burns's poems, 30;
love of reading, 30; a wrestler,
31; eulogy of Henry Clay, 32;
mathematical studies, 32 ; saves
life of a neighbor, 33; attends
court at Boonville, 33; prac-
tises speech-making, 34; exam-
ples in arithmetic, 35 ; builds a
nat-boat, 36; first earnings, 37;
second voyage down the Missis-
sippi, 37; his bargain with
Gentry, 37; adventure with
midnight marauders, 39; first
view of slavery, 39; stalwart
young pioneer, 4 1 ; love of story
telling, 41; settlement of Lin-
colns in Illinois, 44; strikes out
for himself, 44; disaster at New
Salem, 47; his invention, 47;
second visit to the land of
slavery, 48; the Voudoo sccrcss,
48; settles in New Salem, 49;
encounter with Jack Armstrong
50; as a peacemaker, 52; his
newspaper reading, 53; studies
grammar, 53; his first law
books, 55; candidate for Legis-
lature, 56; in the Black Hawk
War, 57-60; defeated for Legis-
lature, 61 ; personal appearance
as young man, 63; buys a half
interest in a country store, 64;

Index

463

Lincoln — Continued.

his studies, 65 ; appointed post-
master, 67; settlement of an
old account, 68; elected to
Legislature, 70; re-elected, 72;
his political platform, 72; tilt
with George Forquer, 73; en-
counter with Col. Richard
Taylor, 74; the Lincoln-Stone
protest, 7 7 ; removes to Spring-
field, 78; friendship with Speed,
79; travels the circuit, 81;
partnership with Stuart, 82;
with S. T. Logan, 82; with W.
H. Herndon, 82; writes a lec-
ture, 84; love for Ann Rutledge
88; matrimonial engagement
with Miss Mary Todd, 90; the
Shields - Lincoln "duel," 91;
advice to a young officer, 93;
marriage, 93; lecture on drink-
ing usages, 95; meets Martin
Van Buren, 96; visits Henry
Clay, 100; nominated to Con-
gress, 101; elected, 102; reso-
lutions on the Mexican War,
104; Alexander H. Stephens's
opinion of him, 105 ; Lincoln on
Cass, 106; on Polk, 107; goes
to New England, no; bill to
abolish slavery in the District
of Columbia, 113; candidate
for Land Commissioner, 114;
offered governorship of Oregon,
115; letter to his step-brother,
118; value of his Springfield
property, 118; the "Snow
boys'" case, 122; case of
Nancy, the negro girl, 124; the
negro boy seized in New Or-
leans, 125; his oratorical man-
ner, 130; his despondency, 131;
elector on Whig ticket, 132;
speaks in Springfield, 137 ; with
Douglas in Peoria, 140; candi-
date for the U. S. Senate, 142;
letter to Speed, 148; his views
on colonization, 150; leader of
the Free-Soil party, 151; speech
in the Republican Convention,
Bloomington, 154; nominated
for Senator, 162; Lincoln-
Douglas campaign arranged,
163; his autobiography, 165;
facetious speech on his political
prospects, 169; speech at

Charleston, IU., 174; views on
naturalized foreigners, 182 ; first
named for presidency, 183;
visits Kansas, 184; speech at
Cooper Union, 185 ; nominated
for President at Chicago, 196;
accepts nomination, 197, 198;
elected President, 200; curious
optical illusion, 201; Cabinet-
making, 203; his policy, 207;
his humor, 207; his religious
views, 208; prediction of day
of wrath, 209; departure for
Washington, 219; threats
against his life, 219; journey to
Washington, 219-234; inaugu-
ration, 236; names his Cabinet,
246; besieged by office-seekers,
251; refuses to receive Rebel
emissaries, 252; sends a mes-
sage to Charleston, 253; first
call for troops, 259; his dark
days, 264; declares a blockade,
268; reply to Virginia dele-
gates, 269; depressed by Bull
Run defeat 282; message to
Congress, July, 1861, 284; his
demand for men and money,
286; overrules Fremont and
Hunter, 298; special message
to Congress, March, 1862, and
border-State conference, 300-
303; letter to Horace Greeley,
305; considers the issuing of
an emancipation proclamation,
307; proclamation issued, 307;
plan of military operations, 320 ;
farewell to Gen. Scott, 321;
reads military strategy, 326;
letterto McClellan, 328 ; death of
his son Willie, 330 ; letter of re-
monstrance to McClellan, 332;
sends Franklin's division to Mc-
Clellan, 333 , causes of disagree-
ment with McClellan, 334; his
capture of Norfolk, 336, re-
ceives McClellan's Harrison
Landing letter, 338; visits Mc-
Clellan, 339, 340; importuned
to reinstate McClellan, 352;
correspondence with Fernando
Wood, 352; "pegging away,''
355; letter to Hooker, 355;
visits Hooker's headquarters,
356; after the battle of Chan-
cellorsville, 358; deals with

464

Index

Lincoln — Continued.

Vallandigham, 363; letter to
Grant, 366 ; announces victories
of Army of the Potomac, 371;
speech at serenade, 371; pro-
clamation of Thanksgiving, 372 ;
letter to Springfield war meet-
ing, 376; address at Gettysburg
battle-ground, 378; letter about
Sabbath-breaking in the army,
380; joke as to Burnside's
being lost, 381; "swap horses
while crossing a stream," 383;
address to Grant, 385; on
Hood's defeat, 390; his re-
nomination opposed, 392; on
Grant's possible nomination,
393; his second nomination,
393; letter accepting nomina-
tion, 394; Niagara Falls Con-
ference, 398; issues call for
500,000 men, 401 ; his despatch
announcing his election, 402;
Hampton Roads Conference,
406 ; reply to two Rebel ladies,
410; second inauguration, 410;
family life in the White House,
415 ei seq.; his relations to E.
D. Baker, 415; his love of
music, 417; his sons, 418; his
habits in Washington, 421;
details of office work, 426; his
relations with his Cabinet, 427;
his reply to Seward, 430; re-
lations with Seward, 431; re-
vises Seward's foreign despatch,
432; defends Cameron, 434;
appoints S. P. Chase Chief-
Justice, 436; does not expect
re-election, 438; his firmness,
439 ; proposes payment for free-
dom of slaves, 440; conference
with Grant and Sherman, 442;
at City Point, and visits Rich-
mond, 443; serenaded on his
return, 447; his last speech,
450; his assassination and
death, 452-454; his funeral,
.455. 456

Lincoln, Abraham, grandfather
of the President, 3

Lincoln, Tosiah, 3

Lincoln, Mary, 4

Lincoln, Mordecai, 3

Lincoln, Nancy, 4

Lincoln, Robert, 418

Lincoln, Thomas, father of the
President, his escape from an
Indian, 3; a laboring man, 5;
marriage, 5; migrates to In-
diana, 8-1 1 ; builds a cabin, 15 ;
his second marriage, 27; death
of, 131

Lincoln, Thomas ("Tad"), 418

Lincoln, Willie, 418

"Loco-Foco," origin of, 94

Logan, Stephen T., associated
with Lincoln, 82

Log-cabin, building, 16; cam-
paign, 86

"Long Nine," the, 76

"Lost Townships," letters from,
90

Louisville Ky., menaced by
Rebels, 351

M

McClellan, Gen. George B., in
West Virginia, 283; his early
fame, 293; views on slavery,
293, 300; inactive near Wash-
ington, 304; zenith of his fame,
318; choice of Democratic
politicians, 325; demurs to
plan of operations, 328; letter
from Lincoln as to plans, 328;
peninsular campaign, 331?/ scq.;
receives Franklin's division,
333; asks permission to give
political views to Lincoln, 333;
Sitter letter to Secretary of
War, 338 ; his views on the gen-
eral situation, 338 ; fails to sup-
port Pope, 343; at the head of
reorganized army, 344; re-
lieved of his command, 347;
nominated for President, 395
McDowell, Irvin, at Bull Run, 280
Manassas, abandoned by the
Rebels, 329 ; its "Quaker guns,"
329

Marcy, William L., Secretary of
State, 205

Martial law proclaimed, 359

Maryland, response to call for
troops, 261; vote for President
in i860, 266; Seward's rebuke
of, 266; invaded by Lee, 307;
abolishes slavery, 400

Mason and Slidell, seizure of, etc.,
288-291

Index

465

Massachusetts, Sixth Regiment
fired on in Baltimore, 264

Meade, George G., succeeds
Hooker, 367; at the battle of
Gettysburg, 370; warned by
Halleck, 370

Mexican War, Lincoln's opposi-
tion to, 105

Migration, Western, in 1783, 2

"Milk sick," the, 19

Missouri, reply to call for troops,
261; Fremont in, 294; dis-
orders in, 294

Missouri Compromise, repeal of,
133

Monitor and Merrimac, fight of,
33°

Morgan, Edwin D., Governor of
New York, 262

N

Nancy, negro girl, Lincoln tries

case of, 124
Naturalized foreigners, Lincoln's

views concerning, 182
Navy yard at Norfolk seized by

Rebels, 271
Negro troops enlisted, 359
New Orleans, Lincoln's visit to,

48; slave case in, 125 ; capture

of, 324

New Salem, 111., Lincoln's disaster
at, 47 ; he takes up his residence
in, 49; is postmaster of, 67

Newspapers suppressed by slave-
holders, 109

Niagara Falls Conference, 397

Nolin Creek, the Lincoln residence
near, 5

North Carolina, reply to call for
troops, 261

O

Optical illusion, Lincoln's story
of, 201

Ordinance of secession adopted,
214

Oregon, Lincoln offered governor-
ship of, 115

P

Patterson, Gen. Robert, at the
battle of Bull Run, 280

Peace, Congress in Washington,

217; Democrats, 352
Pea Ridge, battle of, 323
Pendleton, George H., nominated

for Vice-President, 396
Peninsular campaign, 331 et seq.
Peoria, 111., Lincoln and Douglas

in, 140

Pickens, Fort, relieved, 256

Pierpont, Francis H., Governor of
West Virginia, 283

Polk, James K., elected President,
99; Lincoln criticises, 107

Pope, Gen. John, on the Missis-
sippi, 323; called to the East,
341; takes a new command,
341; Army of the Potomac to
support him, 342; driven back
upon Washington, 343

Porter, Fitz-John, his failure to
support Pope, 343

Port Royal, South Carolina, cap-
ture of, 283

Preaching, backwoods, 7

Pryor, Roger A., Rebel leader, 254

Public debt, 1783, 2

R

Rails and rail-splitting, 198
Rebel Congress at Montgomery,
252

Rebel emissaries in Washington,
252

Rebel leaders, disconcerted by

Lincoln, 241
Republican party, birth of, 153;

Convention of , i860, 192; 1864,

393

Richmond, capital of Confeder-
acy, 270; capture of, 446

Riney, Zachariah, » Lincoln's
schoolmaster, 7

Roanoke Island, capture of, 323

Robinson, Charles, early Govern-
or of Kansas, 145 146

Rosecrans, W. S., at battle of
Stone River, 352

Russell, Lord John, derides Eman-
cipation Proclamation, 310

Rutledge, Ann, Lincoln's early
love, 88

S

Scott, Dred, decision in case of,
167

466

Index

Scott, Winfield, warns Lincoln at
Harrisburg, 230; at Lincoln's
inauguration, 236; a veteran of
the Mexican War, 319 ; retired,
320

Secession of seven States, 214
Settlers, early, in Indiana, 1 5
Seward, W. H., supports Gen.
Taylor's candidacy, no; candi-
date before the Chicago Conven-
tion, i860, 193; as "Premier,"
248 ; rebuke to Maryland,
266; at Hampton Roads Con-
ference, 406; and Lincoln's in-
augural address, 1861, 428;
estimate of Lincoln, 428; pro-
poses a foreign war, 430; as-
sault on, 454
Sheridan, Philip H., in Shenan-
doah Valley, 392; encircles
Rebel army at Appomattox,
442; captures Lee's supplies,
443

Sherman, William T., at Vicks-
burg, 351, 352; under Grant,
380, 381; succeeds Grant in
command of Division of the
Mississippi, 387; invests At-
lanta, 389; march to the sea,
409; conference with Lincoln
and Grant, 442

Shields, James, "duel" with Lin-
coln, 91 ; Senator from Illinois,
141

Shiloh, battle of, 323
Ship Island, 323

Slavery, Lincoln's first view of,
39; bill to abolish, in District
of Columbia, 113; death knell
of, 134; abolished in Maryland,
400

"Snow boys," Lincoln tries suit

against, 122
South Mountain, battle of, 307
Sparrow, Mrs. Betsey, 19
Speed, Joshua, Lincoln's friend,

148; Lincoln's letter to, 148
Spencer County, Ind., the Lin-

colns in, 9
"Spot" Lincoln, 105
Sprague, William, Governor of

Rhode Island, 262
Springfield, 111., Lincoln removes

to, 78; first great speech in, 136

Lincoln in, 215; his departure

from, 219

Stanton, Edwin M., Attorney-
General in Buchanan's Cabinet,
213; Secretary of War under
Lincoln, 249; anecdote of, 424;
first opinion of Lincoln's war
policy, 429

Steamboat, first, on Lake Erie, 15

Stephens, Alexander H., Vice-
President of Confederacy, 215;
endeavors to dissuade secession
216; at Hampton Roads Con-
ference, 404; his report of, 408

Stone, Dan, and Lincoln protest
against slavery, 77

Stone, Charles P., in command at
Washington, 267

Stone River, battle of, 352

Stuart, James E. B., Rebel gen-
eral, raids Chambersburg, Pa.,
346

Stuart, John T., Lincoln's part-
ner, 82

"Sugar-coated," Lincoln's use of

phrase, 286
Sumter, Fort, surrender of, 257
Superstitions of frontier settlers,

18

Surveyor, Lincoln as, 66
T

Taney, Roger B., Chief -Justice,
Dred Scott case, 167 ; succeeded
by S. P. Chase, 436

Taylor, Richard, on the stump in
Illinois, 74

Taylor, Zachary, in Black Hawk
War, 58; nominated for Presi-
dent, 107; elected, in

Tennessee, reply to call for troops,
261

Texas admitted to the Union, 101
Thanksgiving for Union victories,
372

Thomas, George H., defeats Gen-
erals Zollikorfer and Crittenden,
322; in command of Army of
the Cumberland, 322; at Nash-
ville, 390

Thompson, Jacob, Secretary of
Interior in Buchanan's Cabinet,
397

Tod, David, declines the Treasury
435

Todd, Mary, letters from "Lost
Townships," 91; marries Lin-
coln, 93

Index

467

Topeka, Kan., free-State capital,
148

Toucey, Isaac, Secretary of Navy

in Buchanan's Cabinet, 211
Treason in Washington, 246
Trent affair, The, 288-291
Trumbull, Lyman, on Illinois cir-
cuit, 83 ; candidate for Senator,
142

Tyler, John, Vice-President and
President, 109

V

Vallandigham, Clement L., op-
poses the war, 362; expelled
from the North, 363; nomi-
nated for Governor of Ohio,
363; his return to the North,
364

Van Buren, Martin, nominated
for President, 86; meets Lin-
coln, 96

Vicksburg, assaulted by Sherman,

351, 352; fall of, 364
Virginia, reply to call for troops,

261; convention of 1861, 268;

secession of, 270

Vote, electoral, 1856, 159; i860,

200; 1864, 401
Voudoo seeress, 48

W

Washington, treason in, 246; news
of Lee's surrender in, 442

Weems, Mason L., Life of Wash-
ington, 24; Lincoln's reference
to book, 227

Weitzel, Godfrey, in Richmond,
443

Western immigration in 1873, 2
West Virginia organized, 283
Whiskey as currency, 9
"Wide-awakes" organized, 198
Wilderness, battle of the, 388
Wilkes, Captain Charles, and the

Trent affair, 288
Wines sent to Lincoln on nomi-
nation, 197
Wood, Fernando, favors making
New York a free city, 226; his
correspondence with Lincoln,
352

I