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diff --git a/12800.txt b/12800.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..166210e --- /dev/null +++ b/12800.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9882 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., by John T. Morse + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I. + +Author: John T. Morse + +Release Date: July 1, 2004 [EBook #12800] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VOL. I. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Illustration: Abraham Lincoln] + + + + +American Statesmen + +STANDARD LIBRARY EDITION + + +[Illustration: _The Early House of Abraham Lincoln_.] + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY + +JOHN T. MORSE, JR. + +IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. + + +1899 + + + + + +EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION + + +The fifth and final group of biographies in the American Statesmen +series deals with the Period of the Civil War. The statesmen whose lives +are included in this group are Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward, +Salmon P. Chase, Charles Francis Adams, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus +Stevens. + + +The years of the civil war constitute an episode rather than an +independent period in our national history. They were interposed between +two eras; and if they are to be integrally connected with either of +these, it is with the era which preceded them rather than with that +which followed them. They were the result, the closing act, of the +quarter-century of the anti-slavery crusade. When the war came to an end +the country made a new start under new conditions. Yet it is proper to +treat the years of the war by themselves, not only because they were +filled by the clearly defined and abnormal condition of warfare, but +because a distinct group of statesmen is peculiarly associated with +them. The men whose lives are found in this group had been struggling +for recognition during the years which preceded the war, but they only +arrived at the control of affairs after that event became assured. Soon +after its close their work was substantially done. + +For a long while before hostilities actually broke out, it was evident +that a civil war would be a natural result of the antagonism between the +South and the North; it is now obvious enough that it was more than a +natural, that it was an absolutely inevitable result. Looking backward, +we can only be surprised that wise men ever fancied that a conflict +could be avoided; but, as usual, the strenuous hope became father to an +anxious belief. Abraham Lincoln, in the first year when he gave +indication of his political clear-sightedness, said truly that the +country could not continue half slave and half free. That truth involved +war. There was no other possible way to settle the question between the +two halves; talk of freeing the slaves by purchase, or by gradual +emancipation and colonization, was simple nonsense, the forlorn schemes +of men who would fain have escaped out of the track of inexorable +destiny. Yet the vast majority of the nation, appalled at the vision of +the great fact which lay right athwart their road, was obstinate in the +delusive expectation of flanking it, as though there were side paths +whereby mankind can circumvent fate and walk around that which _must +be_, just as if it were not. Thus it came to pass that when the South +seceded, as every intelligent man ought to have been perfectly sure +would be the case, a confusion fell for a time upon the North. In that +section of the country there was for a few months a spectacle which has +no parallel in history. There was paralysis, there was disintegration; +worse than either, there was an utter lack of straight sense and clear +thought. There were politicians, editors, writers, agitators, reformers +in multitudes whose reiteration of their moral convictions, whose +intense addresses and uncompromising articles, had for years been +bringing about precisely this event; yet when it came, it appeared that +no one of them had contemplated it with any realizing appreciation, no +one of them was ready for it, no one of them had any sensible, practical +course of action to recommend. There was no union among them, no +cohesion of opinion or of purpose, no agreement of forecast; each had +his own individual notion as to what could be done, what should be done, +what would be the train of events. Politically speaking, society was a +mere parcel of units, with topical proximity, but with no other element +of aggregation. The immensity of the crisis seemed to shake men's minds; +the enigma of duty involved such possibilities, in case of a wrong +solution, that the wisest leaders, becoming dazed and overawed, uttered +the grossest follies. Men who had been energetic and vigorous before, +when they were pursuing a purpose, who became so again afterward, when +the distinct issue had taken shape, now lost for a time their +intellectual self-possession. The picture of the country during three or +four months, or rather an observant study of the prominent men of the +country, is sufficiently interesting historically, but is vastly more so +psychologically. I know of no other period in history in which this +peculiar element of interest exists to anywhere near an equal degree. It +is the study of human nature which for a brief time absorbs us, much +more than the study of events. + +But this condition was, by its nature, transitory. Events moved, and +soon created defined and clean-cut issues, in relation to which +individuals were compelled to find their positions,--positions where +they could establish a belief, whether that belief should prove at last +to be right or wrong; positions wherein they were willing to abide to +the end, be that end victory or ruin. Primarily everything depended upon +Abraham Lincoln. If he should prove to be a weak man, like his +predecessor, or if he should prove to be a man of merely ordinary +capacity and character like the presidents who had followed Van Buren, +then all was over for the North. With what anxiety, with how much +doubt, the people of the Northern States scanned their singular and +untried choice can never be fully appreciated by persons who cannot +remember those wearisome, overladen days. He was an unknown quantity in +the awful problem. In his debates with Douglas he had given some +indication of what was in him, but outside of Illinois not one man in a +hundred was familiar with those debates. Nor did even they furnish +conclusive proof of his administrative capacity, especially in these +days of novel and mortal stress. For a time he seemed to wait, to drift; +until the day of his inauguration he gave no sign; then in his speech +the people, whose hearts were standing still in their eagerness to hear, +found reassuring sentences. Yet nothing seemed to follow during many +anxious weeks; the suns rose and the suns set, and still the leader +raised no standard around which the people could rally, uttered no +inspiring word of command which could unite the dissevered political +cliques. What was in his mind all this while can never be known, though +no knowledge could be more interesting. Was he in a simple attitude of +expectancy, awaiting the march of events, watchful for some one of them +to give him the cue as well as the opportunity for action? Many believe +that this was the case; and if it was, no other course could have been +more intelligent. In due time events came which brought decision with +them, the crisis shaped itself, and he was ready with clear and prompt +action. When it was known what he would do, matters were settled. The +people, once assured that the fight would be made, entered upon it with +such a temper and in possession of such resources that, in spite of +those trying fluctuations which any wise man could have foreseen, they +were sure in the end to win. + +It would be out of place in these prefatory paragraphs, to attempt any +skeleton picture of the momentous struggle. I believe that the story is +told very completely in the lives which compose this group. The +statesmen who controlled events during the war were a new group; they +were not young men, neither were they unknown or untried in public +affairs; but they were for the first time in control. In their younger +days they had been under the shadow and predominance of the old school +of statesmen, whose object had been to prevent, or at least to defer +indefinitely, precisely that crisis which was now present. They +themselves, on the other hand, had been strenuously advocating the +policies which had at last brought that crisis into existence. But the +election of Abraham Lincoln was their first, and as yet their only +triumph. In all previous trials of strength they had been defeated. +Their present success was like the bursting of a torrent through a dam. +At the instant when they attained it they found themselves involved in a +political swirl and clash of momentous difficulties. It was a tremendous +test to which they were being subjected. The part which Lincoln played, +at their head, I have endeavored to depict in his life. The manner in +which he controlled without commanding, his rare combination of +confidence in his own judgment with entire absence of self-assertion, +his instinctive appreciation of the meaning and bearing of facts, his +capacity to recognize the precise time until which action should be +postponed and then to know that action must be taken, suggesting the +idea of prescience, his long-suffering and tolerance towards impolitic, +obstructive, or over-rash individuals, his marvelous gift of keeping in +touch with the people, form a group of qualities which, united in the +President of the United States at that mortal juncture, are as strong +evidence as anything which this generation has seen to corroborate a +faith in an overruling Providence. Conceive what might have happened if +it had been some other of our presidents who had happened to have his +term begin in 1861! Yet, after all the study that can be made of him, +there are unexplainable elements in Lincoln's character which will leave +him forever an enigma. If the world ever settles down to the acceptance +of any definite, accurate picture of him, it will surely be a false +picture. There must always be vague, indefinable uncertainties in any +presentation of him which shall be truly made. + +Of the men who labored with him, I have left myself room to say little, +nor need much be said here. Their lives tell their stories. Taken +together, these biographies contain the history, upon the civil side, of +the war period. Seward represents the policy of the administration as a +whole, for all civil business centred in the office of the secretary of +state. He was a man of extraordinary ability. It is true that he made a +strange blunder or two, at the outset, odd episodes in his intelligent, +clear-sighted, cool-headed career,--psychologically interesting, as has +been suggested; but he immediately recovered himself and settled down to +that course of wise statesmanship which was justly to be expected of +him. + +Chase handled the finances of the country with brilliant success. People +have criticised him, especially have said that his legal-tender scheme +was a needless and mischievous measure. But his task was immeasurably +difficult, and he had to act with great promptitude, having little time +for consideration, obliged to provide instantly for immediate +exigencies, forced to respect the present state of feeling among the +moneyed classes, though it might be transitory, and to be controlled by +the possibilities of the passing moment. He met the gigantic daily +outlay without even a temporary interruption, and the country grew rich, +not only nominally in an inflated currency, but actually in a great +development of material resources, beneath his management of the +treasury. To find fault with him, and to talk of the "_might have been_" +seems unworthy; also unsatisfactory, since the consequences of a +different policy are wholly matter of supposition. + +Charles Sumner, the preacher of the crusade, stands for the moral +element. Possibly his most important work came before the war. But the +prestige which he had gained made him a man to be reckoned with, and he +had a following of fervent and resolute men in the country so numerous +that his support was essential and his opinions had to be treated with +respect. + +The career of Charles Francis Adams in England will be read for the +first time in the life which forms a part of this series. It has been +written by his son, of course with every possible advantage, and it is +one of the most interesting chapters in the history of the civil war. Of +him, too, it may be said that he seems to have been specially raised up +for precisely the duty which he had to fulfill. A blunder on the part +of our envoy to Great Britain would have possibly led to consequences +which one trembles to contemplate even in imagination. The services of +Franklin in France and the positive good of the French alliance in the +Revolution, may be compared with the services of Mr. Adams in England +and the negative advantage of non-interference by England on behalf of +the South in the civil war. Mr. Adams's coolness, his unerring judgment, +and the prestige of his name, in combination, made him the one man in +the United States who ought by fitness to have held his post. That he +did hold it was, perhaps, one of the two or three essential facts which +together made Northern success possible, by the elimination of unfair +and extrinsic causes of defeat. + +One part only of the picture remains to be drawn, the House of +Representatives. It is by no means conducive to a cheerful patriotic +pride to contemplate the general throng of the politicians of the +country during the war. In plain truth, they did themselves little +credit. Amid the excitement of the times they utterly failed to +appreciate their true position, their personal and official limitations. +They could not let military matters alone; they did not often recognize +the boundaries of their own knowledge, and the proper scope of their +usefulness. They intermeddled ceaselessly, embroiled everything, and as +a consequence they obstructed success in the field almost as much as if +they had been another Confederate army. It has been with some difficulty +that any one from among them has been found whose life it was desirable +to write. But Thaddeus Stevens was really a man of great power and note. +Intense and earnest, he exerted a magnificent influence in the way of +encouragement and inspiration. He adhered, if not altogether so closely +as he ought, yet at least more closely than did many others, to the +proper sphere of his duties as a civilian. Influential in oratory, +skillful in political management, masterful in temperament, and of +unflinching loyalty, he was long the genuine leader of the House. In +recalling the several members of that body he stands forth as the one +striking and dominant figure. Nor did his activity cease with the war; +he continued preeminent in the questions which immediately succeeded it, +so that the reconstruction of the country, without which our story would +be incomplete, finds its proper place in his biography. Therewith, I +think, the series reaches completion. + +JOHN T. MORSE, JR. + +September, 1898. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE RAW MATERIAL + II. THE START IN LIFE + III. LOVE; A DUEL; LAW, AND CONGRESS + IV. NORTH AND SOUTH + V. THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS JOINT DEBATE + VI. ELECTION + VII. INTERREGNUM + VIII. THE BEGINNING OF WAR + IX. A REAL PRESIDENT, AND NOT A REAL BATTLE + X. THE FIRST ACT OF THE MCCLELLAN DRAMA + XI. MILITARY MATTERS OUTSIDE OF VIRGINIA + XII. FOREIGN AFFAIRS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +From an original, unretouched negative, made in 1864, at the time he +commissioned Ulysses S. Grant Lieutenant-General and Commander of all +the armies of the Republic. It is said that this negative, with one of +General Grant, was made in commemoration of that event. + +Autograph from the copy of the Gettysburg Address made by Lincoln for +the Soldiers' and Sailors' Fair at Baltimore, in 1864, and now in the +possession of Wm. J.A. Bliss, Esq., of that city. + +The vignette of Lincoln's early home on Goose-Nest Prairie, near +Farmington, Ill., is from a drawing after a photograph. This log cabin +was built by Lincoln and his father in 1831. + + +LYMAN TRUMBULL + +From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at +Washington. + +Autograph from the Brady Register, owned by his nephew, Mr. Levin C. +Handy, Washington, D.C. + + +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS + +From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at +Washington. + +Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library. + + +EDWIN M. STANTON + +From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at +Washington. + +Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library. + + +THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC + +From the painting by W.F. Halsall in the Capitol at Washington. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE RAW MATERIAL + + +Abraham Lincoln knew little concerning his progenitors, and rested well +content with the scantiness of his knowledge. The character and +condition of his father, of whom alone upon that side of the house he +had personal cognizance, did not encourage him to pry into the obscurity +behind that luckless rover. He was sensitive on the subject; and when he +was applied to for information, a brief paragraph conveyed all that he +knew or desired to know. Without doubt he would have been best pleased +to have the world take him solely for himself, with no inquiry as to +whence he came,--as if he had dropped upon the planet like a meteorite; +as, indeed, many did piously hold that he came a direct gift from +heaven. The fullest statement which he ever made was given in December, +1859, to Mr. Fell, who had interrogated him with an eye "to the +possibilities of his being an available candidate for the presidency in +1860:" "My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished +families,--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother ... was of a +family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now remain in Adams, some +others in Macon, counties, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham +Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about +1781 or 1782.... 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." This effort to connect the +President with the Lincolns of Massachusetts was afterward carried +forward by others, who felt an interest greater than his own in +establishing the fact. Yet if he had expected the quest to result +satisfactorily, he would probably have been less indifferent about it; +for it is obvious that, in common with all Americans of the old native +stock, he had a strenuous desire to come of "respectable people;" and +his very reluctance to have his apparently low extraction investigated +is evidence that he would have been glad to learn that he belonged to an +ancient and historical family of the old Puritan Commonwealth, settlers +not far from Plymouth Rock, and immigrants not long after the arrival of +the Mayflower. This descent has at last been traced by the patient +genealogist. + +So early as 1848 the first useful step was taken by Hon. Solomon +Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, who was struck by a speech delivered +by Abraham Lincoln in the national House of Representatives, and wrote +to ask facts as to his parentage. The response[1] stated substantially +what was afterward sent to Mr. Fell, above quoted. Mr. Solomon Lincoln, +however, pursued the search farther, and printed the results[2]. Later, +Mr. Samuel Shackford of Chicago, Illinois, himself a descendant from the +same original stock, pushed the investigation more persistently[3]. The +chain, as put together by these two gentlemen, is as follows: Hingham, +Massachusetts, was settled in 1635. In 1636 house lots were set off to +Thomas Lincoln, the miller, Thomas Lincoln, the weaver, and Thomas +Lincoln, the cooper. In 1638 other lots were set off to Thomas Lincoln, +the husbandman, and to Stephen, his brother. In 1637 Samuel Lincoln, +aged eighteen, came from England to Salem, Massachusetts, and three +years later went to Hingham; he also was a weaver, and a brother of +Thomas, the weaver. In 1644 there was a Daniel Lincoln in the place. All +these Lincolns are believed to have come from the County of Norfolk in +England[4], though what kinship existed between them is not known. It +is from Samuel that the President appears to have been descended. +Samuel's fourth son, Mordecai, a blacksmith, married a daughter of +Abraham Jones of Hull;[5] about 1704 he moved to the neighboring town of +Scituate, and there set up a furnace for smelting iron ore. This couple +had six children, of whom two were named respectively Mordecai and +Abraham; and these two are believed to have gone to Monmouth County, New +Jersey. There Mordecai seems to have continued in the iron business, and +later to have made another move to Chester County, Pennsylvania, still +continuing in the same business, until, in 1725, he sold out all his +"Mynes & Minerals, Forges, etc."[6] Then, migrating again, he settled in +Amity, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, where, at last, death caught +up with him. By his will, February 22, 1735-36, he bequeathed his land +in New Jersey to John, his eldest son; and gave other property to his +sons Mordecai and Thomas. He belied the old motto, for in spite of more +than three removes he left a fair estate, and in the probate proceedings +he is described as "gentleman."[7] In 1748 John sold all he had in New +Jersey, and in 1758 moved into Virginia, settling in that part of +Augusta County which was afterward set off as Rockingham County. Though +his will has not been found, there is "ample proof," says Mr. Shackford, +that he had five sons, named Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas, and John. Of +these, Abraham went to North Carolina, there married Mary Shipley, and +by her had sons Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas, who was born in 1778. In +1780 or 1782, as it is variously stated, this family moved to Kentucky. +There, one day in 1784, the father, at his labor in the field, was shot +by lurking Indians. His oldest son, working hard by, ran to the house +for a gun; returning toward the spot where lay his father's body, he saw +an Indian in the act of seizing his brother, the little boy named +Thomas. He fired, with happy aim; the Indian fell dead, and Thomas +escaped to the house. This Thomas it was who afterward became the father +of Abraham Lincoln.[8] Of the other sons of Mordecai (great-uncles of +the President), Thomas also went to Kentucky, Isaac went to Tennessee, +while Jacob and John stayed in Virginia, and begat progeny who became in +later times ferocious rebels, and of whom one wrote a very comical +blustering letter to his relative the President;[9] and probably +another, bearing oddly enough the name of Abraham, was a noted +fighter.[10] It is curious to observe of what migratory stock we have +here the sketch. Mr. Shackford calls attention to the fact that through +six successive generations all save one were "pioneers in the settlement +of new countries," thus: 1. Samuel came from England to Hingham, +Massachusetts. 2. Mordecai lived and died at Scituate, close by the +place of his birth. 3. Mordecai moved, and settled in Pennsylvania, in +the neighborhood which afterward became Berks County, while it was still +wilderness. 4. John moved into the wilds of Virginia. 5. Abraham went to +the backwoods of Kentucky shortly after Boone's settlement. 6. Thomas +moved first into the sparsely settled parts of Indiana, and thence went +onward to a similar region in Illinois. + +Thus in time was corroborated what Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1848 in one +of the above-mentioned letters to Hon. Solomon Lincoln: "We have a vague +tradition that my great-grandfather went from Pennsylvania to Virginia, +and that he was a Quaker." It is of little consequence that this "vague +tradition" was stoutly contradicted by the President's father, the +ignorant Thomas, who indignantly denied that either a Puritan or a +Quaker could be found in the line of his forbears, and who certainly +seemed to set heredity at defiance if such were the case. But while thus +repudiating others, Thomas himself was in some danger of being +repudiated; for so pained have some persons been by the necessity of +recognizing Thomas Lincoln as the father of the President, that they +have welcomed, as a happy escape from this so miserable paternity, a bit +of gratuitous and unsupported gossip, published, though perhaps with +more of malice than of faith, by Mr. Herndon, to the effect that Abraham +Lincoln was the illegitimate son of some person unknown, presumably some +tolerably well-to-do Kentuckian, who induced Thomas to assume the role +of parent. + +Upon the mother's side the ancestral showing is meagre, and fortunately +so, since the case seems to be a bad one beyond reasonable hope. Her +name was Nancy Hanks. She was born in Virginia, and was the illegitimate +child of one Lucy Hanks.[11] Nor was she the only instance of +illegitimacy[12] in a family which, by all accounts, seems to have been +very low in the social scale. Mr. Herndon calls them by the dread name +of "poor whites," and gives an unappetizing sketch of them.[13] +Throughout his pages and those of Lamon there is abundant and +disagreeable evidence to show the correctness of his estimate. Nancy +Hanks herself, who certainly was not to blame for her parentage, and +perhaps may have improved matters by an infusion of better blood from +her unknown father, is described by some as a very rare flower to have +bloomed amid the bed of ugly weeds which surrounded her. These friendly +writers make her a gentle, lovely, Christian creature, too delicate long +to survive the roughness of frontier life and the fellowship of the +shiftless rover to whom she was unfittingly wedded.[14] Whatever she may +have been, her picture is exceeding dim, and has been made upon scant +and not unquestionable evidence. Mr. Lincoln seems not often to have +referred to her; but when he did so it was with expressions of affection +for her character and respect for her mental qualities, provided at +least that it was really of her, and not of his stepmother, that he was +speaking,--a matter not clear from doubt.[15] + +On June 10, 1806, Thomas Lincoln gave bond in the "just and full sum of +fifty pounds" to marry Nancy Hanks, and two days later, June 12, he did +so, in Washington County, Kentucky.[16] She was then twenty-three years +old. February 12, 1807, their daughter Sarah was born, who was married +and died leaving no issue. February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born; +no other children came save a boy who lived only a few days. + +The domestic surroundings amid which the babe came into life were +wretched in the extreme. All the trustworthy evidence depicts a +condition of what civilized people call misery. It is just as well to +acknowledge a fact which cannot now be obscured by any amount of +euphemism. Yet very many of Lincoln's biographers have been greatly +concerned to color this truth, which he himself, with his honest nature, +was never willing to misrepresent, however much he resisted efforts to +give it a general publicity. He met curious inquiry with reticence, but +with no attempt to mislead. Some of his biographers, however, while +shunning direct false statements, have used alleviating adjectives with +literary skill, and have drawn fanciful pictures of a pious frugal +household, of a gallant frontiersman endowed with a long catalogue of +noble qualities, and of a mother like a Madonna in the wilderness.[17] +Yet all the evidence that there is goes to show that this romantic +coloring is purely illusive. Rough, coarse, low, ignorant, and +poverty-stricken surroundings were about the child; and though we may +gladly avail ourselves of the possibility of believing his mother to +have been superior to all the rest of it, yet she could by no means +leaven the mass. The father[18] was by calling a carpenter, but not good +at his trade, a shiftless migratory squatter by invincible tendency, +and a very ignorant man, for a long while able only to form the letters +which made his signature, though later he extended his accomplishments a +little. He rested not much above the very bottom of existence in the +pioneer settlements, apparently without capacity or desire to do better. +The family was imbued with the peculiar, intense, but unenlightened form +of Christianity, mingled with curious superstition, prevalent in the +backwoods, and begotten by the influence of the vast wilderness upon +illiterate men of a rude native force. It interests scholars to trace +the evolutions of religious faiths, but it might be not less suggestive +to study the retrogression of religion into superstition. Thomas was as +restless in matters of creed as of residence, and made various changes +in both during his life. These were, however, changes without +improvement, and, so far as he was concerned, his son Abraham might have +grown up to be what he himself was contented to remain. + +It was in the second year after his marriage that Thomas Lincoln made +his first removal. Four years later he made another. Two or three years +afterwards, in the autumn of 1816, he abandoned Kentucky and went into +Indiana. Some writers have given to this migration the interesting +character of a flight from a slave-cursed society to a land of freedom, +but whatever poetic fitness there might be in such a motive, the +suggestion is entirely gratuitous and without the slightest +foundation.[19] In making this move, Thomas's outfit consisted of a +trifling parcel of tools and cooking utensils, with ever so little +bedding, and four hundred gallons of whiskey. At his new quarters he +built a "half-faced camp" fourteen feet square, that is to say, a +covered shed of three sides, the fourth side being left open to the +weather. In this, less snug than the winter's cave of a bear, the family +dwelt for a year, and then were translated to the luxury of a "cabin," +four-walled indeed, but which for a long while had neither floor, door, +nor window. Amid this hardship and wretchedness Nancy Lincoln passed +away, October 5, 1818, of that dread and mysterious disease, the scourge +of those pioneer communities, known as the "milk-sickness."[20] In a +rough coffin, fashioned by her husband "out of green lumber cut with a +whip-saw," she was laid away in the forest clearing, and a few months +afterward an itinerant preacher performed some funeral rites over the +poor woman's humble grave. + +For a year Thomas Lincoln was a widower. Then he went back to Kentucky, +and found there Mrs. Sally Johnston, a widow, whom, when she was the +maiden Sarah Bush, he had loved and courted, and by whom he had been +refused. He now asked again, and with better success. The marriage was a +little inroad of good luck into his career; for the new wife was thrifty +and industrious, with the ambition and the capacity to improve the +squalid condition of her husband's household. She had, too, worldly +possessions of bedding and furniture, enough to fill a four-horse wagon. +She made her husband put a floor, a door, and windows to his cabin. From +the day of her advent a new spirit made itself felt amid the belongings +of the inefficient Thomas. Her immediate effort was to make her new +husband's children "look a little more human," and the youthful Abraham +began to get crude notions of the simpler comforts and decencies of +life. All agree that she was a stepmother to whose credit it is to be +said that she manifested an intelligent kindness towards Abraham. + +The opportunities for education were scant enough in that day and place. +In his childhood in Kentucky Abraham got a few weeks with one teacher, +and then a few weeks with another. Later, in Indiana, he studied a few +months, in a scattered way. Probably he had instruction at home, for the +sum of all the schooling which he had in his whole life was hardly one +year;[21] a singular start upon the road to the presidency of the United +States! The books which he saw were few, but a little later he laid +hands upon them all and read and re-read them till he must have absorbed +all their strong juice into his own nature. Nicolay and Hay give the +list: The Bible; "Aesop's Fables;" "Robinson Crusoe;" "The Pilgrim's +Progress;" a history of the United States; Weems's "Washington." He was +doubtless much older when he devoured the Revised Statutes of Indiana in +the office of the town constable. Dr. Holland adds Lives of Henry Clay +and of Franklin (probably the famous autobiography), and Ramsay's +"Washington;" and Arnold names Shakespeare and Burns. It was a small +library, but nourishing. He used to write and to do sums in arithmetic +on the wooden shovel by the fireside, and to shave off the surface in +order to renew the labor. + +As he passed from boyhood to youth his mental development took its +characteristics from the popular demand of the neighborhood. He +scribbled verses and satirical prose, wherein the coarse wit was adapted +to the taste of the comrades whom it was designed to please; and it must +be admitted that, after giving due weight to all ameliorating +considerations, it is impossible to avoid disappointment at the +grossness of the jesting. No thought, no word raised it above the low +level of the audience made up of the laborers on the farms and the +loungers in the groceries. The biographer who has made public "The First +Chronicles of Reuben" deserves to be held in detestation.[22] + +A more satisfactory form of intellectual effervescence consisted in +writing articles on the American Government, Temperance, etc., and in +speech-making to any who were near at the moment of inspiration. There +is abundant evidence, also, that already Lincoln was regarded as a witty +fellow, a rare mimic, and teller of jokes and stories; and therefore was +the champion of the fields and the favorite of all the primitive social +gatherings. This sort of life and popularity had its perils, for in that +day and region men seldom met without drinking together; but all +authorities are agreed that Lincoln, while the greatest talker, was the +smallest drinker. + +The stories told of his physical strength rival those which decorate the +memory of Hercules. Others, which show his kindly and humane nature, are +more valuable. Any or all of these may or may not be true, and, though +they are not so poetical or marvelous as the myths which lend an antique +charm to the heroes of classic and romantic lore, yet they compare +fairly well with those which Weems has twined about the figure of the +youthful Washington. There is a tale of the rescue of a pig from a +quagmire, and another of the saving of a drunken man from freezing. +There are many stories of fights; others of the lifting of enormous +weights; and even some of the doing of great feats of labor in a day, +though for such tasks Lincoln had no love. These are not worth +recounting; there is store of such in every village about the popular +local hero; and though historians by such folk-lore may throw a glamour +about Lincoln's daily life, he himself, at the time, could hardly have +seen much that was romantic or poetical in the routine of ill-paid labor +and hard living. Until he came of age his "time" belonged to his father, +who let him out to the neighbors for any job that offered, making him a +man-of-all-work, without-doors and within. In 1825 he was thus earning +six dollars a month, presumably besides board and lodging. Sometimes he +slaughtered hogs, at thirty-one cents a day; and in this "rough work" he +was esteemed especially efficient. Such was the making of a President in +the United States in this nineteenth century! + +Thomas Lincoln, like most men of his stamp, had the cheerful habit of +laying the results of his own worthlessness to the charge of the +conditions about him, which, naturally, he constantly sought to change, +since it seemed that no change could bring him to a lower level than he +had already found. As Abraham approached his "freedom-day," his luckless +parent conceived the notion that he might do better in Illinois than he +had done in Indiana. So he shuffled off the farm, for which he had never +paid, and about the middle of February the family caravan, with their +scanty household wares packed in an ox team, began a march which lasted +fourteen days and entailed no small measure of hardship. They finally +stopped at a bluff on the north bank of the north fork of the Sangamon, +a stream which empties into the Ohio. Here Thomas Lincoln renewed the +familiar process of "starting in life," and with an axe, a saw, and a +knife built a rough cabin of hewed logs, with a smoke-house and +"stable." Abraham, aided by John Hanks, cleared ten or fifteen acres of +land, split the rails and fenced it, planted it with corn, and made it +over to Thomas as a sort of bequest at the close of his term of legal +infancy. His subsequent relationship with his parents, especially with +his father, seems to have been slight, involving an occasional gift of +money, a very rare visit, and finally a commonplace letter of Christian +comfort when the old man was on his deathbed.[23] + +At first Abraham's coming of age made no especial change in his +condition; he continued to find such jobs as he could, as an example of +which Is mentioned his bargain with Mrs. Nancy Miller "to split four +hundred rails for every yard of brown jeans dyed with white walnut bark +that would be necessary to make him a pair of trousers." After many +months there arrived in the neighborhood one Denton Offut, one of those +scheming, talkative, evanescent busybodies who skim vaguely over new +territories. This adventurer had a cargo of hogs, pork, and corn, which +he wanted to send to New Orleans, and the engagement fell to Lincoln and +two comrades at the wage of fifty cents per day and a bonus of $60 for +the three. It has been said that this and a preceding trip down the +Mississippi first gave Lincoln a glimpse of slavery in concrete form, +and that the spectacle of negroes "in chains, whipped and scourged," +and of a slave auction, implanted in his mind an "unconquerable hate" +towards the institution, so that he exclaimed: "If ever I get a chance +to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard." So the loquacious myth-maker John +Hanks asserts;[24] but Lincoln himself refers his first vivid impression +to a later trip, made in 1841, when there were "on board ten or a dozen +slaves shackled together with irons." Of this subsequent incident he +wrote, fourteen years later, to his friend, Joshua Speed: "That sight +was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I +touch the Ohio or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to +assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually +exercises, the power of making me miserable."[25] + +Of more immediate consequence was the notion which the rattle-brained +Offut conceived of Lincoln's general ability. This lively patron now +proposed to build a river steamboat, with "runners for ice and rollers +for shoals and dams," of which his redoubtable young employee was to be +captain. But this strange scheme gave way to another for opening in New +Salem a "general store" of all goods. This small town had been born only +a few months before this summer of 1831, and was destined to a brief but +riotous life of some seven years' duration. Now it had a dozen or +fifteen "houses," of which some had cost only ten dollars for the +building; yet to the sanguine Offut it presented a fair field for retail +commerce. He accordingly equipped his "store," and being himself engaged +in other enterprises, he installed Lincoln as manager. Soon he also gave +Lincoln a mill to run. + +Besides all this patronage, Offut went about the region bragging in his +extravagant way that his clerk "knew more than any man in the United +States," would some day be President, and could now throw or thrash any +man in those parts. Now it so happened that some three miles out from +New Salem lay Clary's Grove, the haunt of a gang of frontier ruffians of +the familiar type, among whom one Jack Armstrong was champion bully. +Offut's boasting soon rendered an encounter between Lincoln and +Armstrong inevitable, though Lincoln did his best to avoid it, and +declared his aversion to "this woolling and pulling." The wrestling +match was arranged, and the settlers flocked to it like Spaniards to a +bull-fight. Battle was joined and Lincoln was getting the better of +Armstrong, whereupon the "Clary's Grove boys," with fine chivalry, were +about to rush in upon Lincoln and maim him, or worse, when the timely +intervention of a prominent citizen possibly saved even the life of the +future President.[26] Some of the biographers, borrowing the license of +poets, have chosen to tell about the "boys" and the wrestling match +with such picturesque epithets that the combat bids fair to appear to +posterity as romantic as that of Friar Tuck and Robin Hood. Its +consequence was that Armstrong and Lincoln were fast friends ever after. +Wherever Lincoln was at work, Armstrong used to "do his loafing," and +Lincoln made visits to Clary's Grove, and long afterward did a friendly +service to "old Hannah," Armstrong's wife, by saving one of her vicious +race from the gallows, which upon that especial occasion he did not +happen to deserve. Also Armstrong and his gang gave Lincoln hearty +political support, and an assistance at the polls which was very +effective, for success generally smiled on that candidate who had as his +constituency[27] the "butcher-knife boys," the "barefooted boys," the +"half-horse, half-alligator men," and the "huge-pawed boys." + +An item less susceptible of a poetic coloring is that about this time +Lincoln ransacked the neighborhood in search of an English grammar, and +getting trace of one six miles out from the settlement, he walked over +to borrow or to buy it. He brought it back in triumph, and studied it +exhaustively. + +There are also some tales of his honesty which may stand without +disgrace beside that of Washington and the cherry-tree, and may be +better entitled to credit. It is said that, while he was "keeping shop" +for Offut, a woman one day accidentally overpaid him by the sum of +fourpence, and that he walked several miles that night to restore the +sum to her before he slept. On another occasion, discovering that in +selling half a pound of tea he had used too small a weight, he started +instantly forth to make good the deficiency. Perhaps this integrity does +not so much differentiate Lincoln from his fellows as it may seem to do, +for it is said that honesty was the one distinguishing virtue of that +queer society. None the less these legends are exponents, which the +numerous fighting stories are not, of the genuine nature of the man. His +chief trait all his life long was honesty of all kinds and in all +things; not only commonplace, material honesty in dealings, but honesty +in language, in purpose, in thought; _honesty of mind_, so that he could +never even practice the most tempting of all deceits, a deceit against +himself. This pervasive honesty was the trait of his identity, which +stayed with him from beginning to end, when other traits seemed to be +changing, appearing or disappearing, and bewildering the observer of his +career. All the while the universal honesty was there. + +It took less than a year for Offut's shop to come to ruin, for the +proprietor to wander off into the unknown void from which he had come, +and for Lincoln to find himself again without occupation. He won some +local reputation by navigating the steamboat Talisman up the Sangamon +River to Springfield; but nothing came of it. + +The foregoing narrative ought to have given some idea of the moral and +physical surroundings of Lincoln's early days. Americans need to carry +their memories hardly fifty years back, in order to have a lively +conception of that peculiar body of men which for many years was pushed +out in front of civilization in the West. Waifs and strays from highly +civilized communities, these wanderers had not civilization to learn, +but rather they had shuffled off much that belonged to civilization, and +afterwards they had to acquire it afresh. Among them crudity in thought +and uncouthness in habits were intertwined in odd, incongruous crossings +with the remnants of the more respectable customs with which they had +once been familiar. Much they forgot and much they put away as being no +longer useful; many of them--not all--became very ignorant without being +stupid, very brutal without being barbarous. Finding life hard, they +helped each other with a general kindliness which is impracticable among +the complexities of elaborate social organizations. Those who were born +on the land, among whom Lincoln belonged, were peculiar in having no +reminiscences, no antecedent ideas derived from their own past, whereby +to modify the influences of the immediate present. What they should +think about men and things they gathered from what they saw and heard +around them. Even the modification to be got from reading was of the +slightest, for very little reading was possible, even if desired. An +important trait of these Western communities was the closeness of +personal intercourse in them, and the utter lack of any kind of barriers +establishing strata of society. Individuals might differ ever so widely; +but the wisest and the dullest, the most worthless and the most +enterprising, had to rub shoulder to shoulder in daily life. Yet the +variety was considerable: hardy and danger-loving pioneers fulfilling +the requirements of romance; shiftless vagrants curiously combining +utter inefficiency with a sort of bastard contempt for hardship; +ruffians who could only offset against every brutal vice an ignoble +physical courage; intelligent men whose observant eyes ranged over the +whole region in a shrewd search after enterprise and profit; a few +educated men, decent in apparel and bearing, useful in legislation and +in preventing the ideal from becoming altogether vulgarized and debased; +and others whose energy was chiefly of the tongue, the class imbued with +a taste for small politics and the public business. All these and many +other varieties were like ingredients cast together into a caldron; they +could not keep apart, each with his own kind, to the degree which is +customary in old established communities; but they all ceaselessly +crossed and mingled and met, and talked, and dealt, and helped and +hustled each other, and exerted upon each other that subtle inevitable +influence resulting from such constant intercourse; and so they +inoculated each other with certain characteristics which became common +to all and formed the type of the early settler. Thus was made "the new +West," "the great West," which was pushed ever onward, and endured along +each successive frontier for about a generation. An eternal movement, a +tireless coming and going, pervaded these men; they passed hither and +thither without pause, phantasmagorically; they seemed to be forever +"moving on," some because they were real pioneers and natural rovers, +others because they were mere vagrants generally drifting away from +creditors, others because the better chance seemed ever in the newer +place, and all because they had struck no roots, gathered no +associations, no home ties, no local belongings. The shopkeeper "moved +on" when his notes became too pressing; the schoolmaster, after a short +stay, left his school to some successor whose accomplishments could +hardly be less than his own; clergymen ranged vaguely through the +country, to preach, to pray, to bury, to marry, as the case might be; +farmers heard of a more fruitful soil, and went to seek it. Men +certainly had at times to work hard in order to live at all, yet it was +perfectly possible for the natural idler to rove, to loaf, and to be +shiftless at intervals, and to become as demoralized as the tramp for +whom a shirt and trousers are the sum of worldly possessions. Books were +scarce; many teachers hardly had as much book-learning as lads of +thirteen years now have among ourselves. Men who could neither read nor +write abounded, and a deficiency so common could hardly imply much +disgrace or a marked inferiority; many learned these difficult arts only +in mature years. Fighting was a common pastime, and when these rough +fellows fought, they fought like savages; Lincoln's father bit off his +adversary's nose in a fight, and a cousin lost the same feature in the +same way; the "gouging" of eyes was a legitimate resource. The necessity +of fighting might at any moment come to any one; even the combination of +a peaceable disposition with formidable strength did not save Lincoln +from numerous personal affrays, of which many are remembered, and not +improbably many more have been forgotten. In spite of the picturesque +adjectives which have been so decoratively used in describing the +ruffian of the frontier, he seems to have been about what his class +always is; and when these fellows had forced a fight, or "set up" a +match, their chivalry never prevented any unfairness or brutality. A +tale illustrative of the times is told of a closely contested election +in the legislature for the office of state treasurer. The worsted +candidate strode into the hall of the Assembly, and gallantly selecting +four of the largest and strongest of those who had voted against him, +thrashed them soundly. The other legislators ran away. But before the +close of the session this pugilist, who so well understood practical +politics, was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court and county +recorder.[28] + +Corn bread was the chief article of diet; potatoes were a luxury, and +were often eaten raw like apples. To the people at large whiskey +"straight" seemed the natural drink of man, and whiskey toddy was not +distasteful to woman. To refuse to drink was to subject one's self to +abuse and suspicion;[29] Lincoln's notorious lack of liking for it +passed for an eccentricity, or a physical peculiarity. The customary +social gatherings were at horse-racings, at corn-shuckings, at political +speech-makings, at weddings, whereat the coarse proceedings would not +nowadays bear recital; at log-rollings, where the neighbors gathered to +collect the logs of a newly cleared lot for burning; and at +house-raisings, where they kindly aided to set up the frame of a cabin +for a new-comer; at camp-meetings, where the hysterical excitement of a +community whose religion was more than half superstition found clamorous +and painful vent;[30] or perchance at a hanging, which, if it met public +approbation, would be sanctioned by the gathering of the neighbors +within a day's journey of the scene. At dancing-parties men and women +danced barefoot; indeed, they could hardly do better, since their +foot-wear was apt to be either moccasins, or such boots as they +themselves could make from the hides which they themselves had cured. In +Lincoln's boyhood the hunting-shirt and leggings made of skins were a +sufficiently respectable garb; and buckskin breeches dyed green were +enough to captivate the heart of any girl who wished a fashionable +lover; but by the time that he had become a young man, most +self-respecting men had suits of jeans. The ugly butcher's knife and +tomahawk, which had been essential as was the rapier to the costume of +gentlemen two centuries earlier, began now to be more rarely seen at the +belt about the waist. The women wore linsey-woolsey gowns, of home +manufacture, and dyed according to the taste or skill of the wearer in +stripes and bars with the brown juice of the butternut. In the towns it +was not long before calico was seen, and calfskin shoes; and in such +populous centres bonnets decorated the heads of the fair sex. Amid these +advances in the art of dress Lincoln was a laggard, being usually one of +the worst attired men of the neighborhood; not from affectation, but +from a natural indifference to such matters. The sketch is likely to +become classical in American history of the appearance which he +presented with his scant pair of trousers, "hitched" by a single +suspender over his shirt, and so short as to expose, at the lower end, +half a dozen inches of "shinbone, sharp, blue, and narrow." + +In the clearings the dwellings of these men were the "half-faced camp" +open upon one side to the weather, or the doorless, floorless, and +windowless cabin which, with prosperity, might be made luxurious by +greased paper in the windows, and "puncheon" floors. The furniture was +in keeping with this exterior. At a corner the bed was constructed by +driving into the ground crotched sticks, whence poles extended to the +crevices of the walls; upon these poles were laid boards, and upon these +boards were tossed leaves and skins and such other alleviating material +as could be found. Three-legged stools and a table were hewed from the +felled trees with an axe, which was often the settler's only and +invaluable tool, and which he would travel long miles to sharpen. If a +woman wanted a looking-glass, she scoured a tin pan, but the temptation +to inspect one's self must have been feeble. A very few kitchen utensils +completed the outfit. Troughs served for washtubs, when wash tubs were +used; and wooden ploughs broke up the virgin soil. The whole was little, +if at all, more comfortable than the red man's wigwam. In "towns," so +called, there was of course somewhat more of civilization than in the +clearings. But one must not be misled by a name; a "town" might signify +only a score of houses, and the length of its life was wholly +problematical; a few days sufficed to build the wooden huts, which in a +few years might be abandoned. In the early days there was almost no +money among the people; sometimes barter was resorted to; one lover paid +for his marriage license with maple sugar, another with wolf-scalps. +More often a promise sufficed; credit was a system well understood, and +promissory notes constituted an unquestioned and popular method of +payment that would have made a millennium for Mr. Micawber. But however +scant might be cash and houses, each town had its grocery, and these +famous "stores" were by far the chief influence in shaping the ideas of +the Westerner. There all congregated, the idlers all day long, the busy +men in the evening; and there, stimulated by the whiskey of the +proprietor, they gossiped about everybody's affairs, talked about +business and the prospects of the neighborhood, and argued about the +politics of the county, the State, and even of the nation. Jokes and +stories, often most uncouth and gross, whiled away the time. It was in +these groceries, and in the rough crucible of such talk, wherein +grotesque imagery and extravagant phrases were used to ridicule +pretension and to bring every man to his place, sometimes also to escape +taking a hard fact too hardly, that what we now call "American humor," +with its peculiar native flavor, was born. To this it is matter of +tradition that Lincoln contributed liberally. He liked neighborly chat +and discussion; and his fondness for political debate, and his gifts in +tale and jest, made him the most popular man in every "store" that he +entered. It is commonly believed that the effect of this familiarity +with coarse talk did not afterward disappear, so that he never became +fastidious in language or in story. But apologists of this habit are +doubtless correct in saying that vulgarity in itself had no attraction +for him; it simply did not repel him, when with it there was a flavor of +humor or a useful point. Apparently it simply meant nothing to him; a +mental attitude which is not difficult of comprehension in view of its +origin.[31] + +Some of the most picturesque and amusing pages of Ford's "History of +Illinois" describe the condition of the bench and bar of these +times.[32] "Boys, come in, our John is going to hold court," proclaimed +the sheriff; and the "boys" loitered into the barroom of the tavern, or +into a log cabin where the judge sat on the bed and thus, really from +the woolsack, administered "law" mixed with equity as best he knew it. +Usually these magistrates were prudent in guiding the course of +practical justice, and rarely summed up the facts lest they should make +dangerous enemies, especially in criminal cases; they often refused to +state the law, and generally for a very good reason. They liked best to +turn the whole matter over to the jurors, who doubtless "understood the +case, and would do justice between the parties." The books of the +science were scarce, and lawyers who studied them were perhaps scarcer. +But probably substantial fairness in decision did not suffer by reason +of lack of sheepskin learning. + +Politics for a long while were strictly personal; the elections did not +turn upon principles or measures, but upon the popular estimate of the +candidates individually. Political discussion meant unstinted praise +and unbounded vilification. A man might, if he chose, resent a vote +against himself as a personal insult, and hence arose much secrecy and +the "keep dark" system. Stump-speaking, whiskey, and fighting were the +chief elements of a campaign, and the worst class in society furnished +the most efficient backing.[33] + +Such was the condition of men and things in the neighborhood where +Abraham Lincoln was shaping in the days of his youth. Yet it was a +condition which did not last long; Illinois herself changed and grew as +rapidly as any youngster within her borders. The rate of advance in all +that goes to make up what we now regard as a civilized society was +astonishing. Between the time when Lincoln was fifteen and when he was +twenty-five, the alteration was so great as to be confusing. One hardly +became familiar with a condition before it had vanished. Some towns +began to acquire an aspect of permanence; clothes and manners became +like those prevalent in older communities; many men were settling down +in established residence, identifying themselves with the fortunes of +their neighborhood. Young persons were growing up and staying where they +had been "raised," as the phrase of a farming community had it. +Comfortable and presentable two-story houses lent an air of prosperity +and stimulated ambition; law-books began to be collected in small +numbers; and debts were occasionally paid in money, and could often be +collected by legal process. These improvements were largely due to the +swelling tide of immigration which brought men of a better type to push +their enterprises in a country presumably emerging from its disagreeable +stage. But the chief educational influence was to be found in the +Anglo-American passion for an argument and a speech. Hand in hand, as +has so long been the custom in our country, law and politics moved among +the people, who had an inborn, inherited taste for both; these +stimulated and educated the settlers in a way that only Americans can +appreciate. When Lincoln, as is soon to be seen, turned to them, he +turned to what then and there appeared the highest callings which could +tempt intellect and ambition. + +The preeminently striking feature in Lincoln's nature--not a trait of +character, but a characteristic of the man--which is noteworthy in these +early days, and grew more so to the very latest, was the extraordinary +degree to which he always appeared to be in close and sympathetic touch +with the people, that is to say, the people in the mass wherein he was +imbedded, the social body amid which he dwelt, which pressed upon him on +all sides, which for him formed "the public." First this group or body +was only the population of the frontier settlement; then it widened to +include the State of Illinois; then it expanded to the population of the +entire North; and such had come to be the popular appreciation of this +remarkably developed quality that, at the time of his death, his +admirers even dared to believe that it would be able to make itself one +with all the heterogeneous, discordant, antagonistic elements which then +composed the very disunited United States. It is by reason of this +quality that it has seemed necessary to depict so far as possible that +peculiar, transitory phase of society which surrounded his early days. +This quality in him caused him to be exceptionally susceptible to the +peculiar influences of the people among whom his lot was cast. This +quality for a while prevented his differentiating himself from them, +prevented his accepting standards and purposes unlike theirs either in +speech or action, prevented his rising rapidly to a higher moral plane +than theirs. This quality kept him essentially one of them, until his +"people" and his "public" expanded beyond them. It has been the fashion +of his admirers to manifest an extreme distaste for a truthful +presentation of his earlier days. Some writers have passed very lightly +over them; others, stating plain facts with a formal accuracy, have used +their skill to give to the picture an untruthful miscoloring; two or +three, instinct with the spirit of Zola, have made their sketch with +plain unsparing realism in color as well as in lines, and so have +brought upon themselves abuse, and perhaps have deserved much of it, by +reason of a lack of skill in doing an unwelcome thing, or rather by +reason of overdoing it. The feeling which has led to suppression or to +a falsely romantic description seems to me unreasonable and wrong. The +very quality which made Lincoln, as a young man, not much superior to +his coarse surroundings was precisely the same quality which, ripening +and expanding rapidly and grandly with maturing years and a greater +circle of humanity, made him what he was in later life. It is through +this quality that we get continuity in him; without it, we cannot evade +the insoluble problem of two men,--two lives,--one following the other +with no visible link of connection between them; without it we have +physically one creature, morally and mentally two beings. If we reject +this trait, we throw away the only key which unlocks the problem of the +most singular life, taken from end to end, which has ever been witnessed +among men, a life which many have been content to regard as an unsolved +enigma. But if we admit and really perceive and feel the full force of +this trait, developed in him in a degree probably unequaled in the +annals of men, then, besides the enlightenment which it brings, we have +the great satisfaction of eliminating much of the disagreeableness +attendant upon his youthful days. Even the commonness and painful +coarseness of his foolish written expressions become actually an +exponent of his chief and crowning quality, his receptiveness and his +expression of humanity,--that is to say, of all the humanity he then +knew. At first he expressed what he could discern with the limited, +inexperienced vision of the ignorant son of a wretched vagrant pioneer; +later he gave expression to the humanity of a people engaged in a +purpose physically and morally as vast and as grand as any enterprise +which the world has seen. Thus, with perfect fairness, without wrenching +or misrepresentation or sophistry, the ugliness of his youth ceases to +be his own and becomes only the presentation of a curious social +condition. In his youth he expressed a low condition, in later life a +noble one; at each period he expressed correctly what he found. His day +and generation uttered itself through him. With such thoughts, and from +this point of view, it is possible to contemplate Lincoln's early days, +amid all their degraded surroundings and influences and unmarked by +apparent antagonism or obvious superiority on his part, without serious +dismay. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Two letters, now in the possession of Mr. Francis H. Lincoln of +Boston, Mass. + +[2] _New England Hist. and Gen. Register_, October, 1865. + +[3] _Ibid._ April, 1887, vol. xli. p. 153. + +[4] See articles in _N.E.H. and G. Reg._ above cited. Mr. Lincoln's +article states that in Norwich, Norfolk County, Eng., there is a +"curious chased copper box with the inscription 'Abraham Lincoln, +Norwich, 1731;'" also in St. Andrew's Church in the same place a mural +tablet: "In memory of Abraham Lincoln, of this parish, who died July 13, +1798, aged 79 years." Similarities of name are also noted. + +[5] A town adjoining Hingham, Mass. + +[6] His brother Abraham also resided in Chester County, and died there, +April, 1745. + +[7] N. and H. i. 3. + +[8] A different pedigree, published in the _Lancaster Intelligencer_, +September 24, 1879, by David J. Lincoln of Birdsboro, Berks County, +Penn., is refuted by George Lincoln of Hingham, Mass., in the _Hingham +Journal_, October 10, 1879. + +[9] N. and H. i. 4 note. + +[10] N. and H. i. 4 note. + +[11] Herndon, 3. + +[12] The unpleasant Dennis Hanks was an illegitimate son of an "aunt of +the President's mother." Herndon, 13; and see Lamon, 12. + +[13] Herndon, 14. + +[14] Holland, 23; Lamon, 11; N. and H. i. 24; Herndon, 13, 28; Raymond, +20; but Raymond is no authority as to Lincoln's youth, and Holland is +little more valuable for the same period. + +[15] Lamon, 32. But see Herndon, 13. + +[16] N. and H. 23; Herndon, 5; but see Lamon, 10. + +[17] For instance, see the pages of the first chapter of the Life by +Arnold, a book which becomes excellent after the author has got free +from the fancied necessities of creating an appropriate background for +the origin and childhood of the hero. So, more briefly, Raymond, who +gives no authority to support the faith which is in him. + +[18] For description of him, see Lamon, 8, 9; Herndon, 11. + +[19] Herndon, 19; Lamon, 16; Holland, 25. + +[20] Herndon, 25-28; Lamon, 26-28. + +[21] Herndon, 34-37, 41; Lamon, 34-36; Holland, 28. + +[22] Mr. Herndon did this ill deed; 50-54. Lamon prefers to say that +most of this literature is "too indecent for publication," 63. + +[23] Thomas Lincoln died January 17, 1851. + +[24] Herndon, 75, 76; Lamon, 82; Arnold, 30; N. and H. i. 72. + +[25] N. and H. i. 74. + +[26] Lamon, 92, 93, has the best account of this famous encounter. + +[27] Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, 88. + +[28] Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, 81. + +[29] See anecdote in _The Good Old Times in McLean County_, 48. + +[30] "The jerks" was the graphic name of an attack not uncommon at these +religious meetings. + +[31] See Herndon, 104, 118; Holland has some singular remarks on this +subject, p. 83; N. and H., i. 121, say that Lincoln was "clean of +speech,"--an agreeable statement, for which one would like to have some +authority. + +[32] Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, 82-86. + +[33] Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, 55, 86, 88,104; Herndon, 103; N. and H. +i. 107; Lamon, 124, 230. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE START IN LIFE + + +In Illinois during the years of Lincoln's boyhood the red man was +retiring sullenly before the fatal advance of the white man's frontier. +Shooting, scalping, and plundering forays still occurred, and in the +self-complaisant reminiscences of the old settlers of that day the +merciless and mysterious savage is apt to lend to the narrative the +lively coloring of mortal danger.[34] In the spring of 1832 a noted +chief of the Sacs led a campaign of such importance that it lives in +history under the dignified title of "the Black Hawk war." The Indians +gathered in numbers so formidable that Governor Reynolds issued a call +for volunteers to aid the national forces. Lincoln, left unemployed by +the failure of Offut, at once enlisted. The custom then was, so soon as +there were enough recruits for a company, to elect a captain by vote. +The method was simple: each candidate stood at some point in the field +and the men went over to one or another according to their several +preferences. Three fourths of the company to which Lincoln belonged +ranged themselves with him, and long afterward he used to say that no +other success in life had given him such pleasure as did this one. + +The company was attached to the Fourth Illinois Regiment, commanded by +Colonel Samuel Thompson, in the brigade of General Samuel Whiteside. On +April 27 they started for the scene of conflict, and for many days +endured much hardship of hunger and rough marching. But thereby they +escaped serious danger, for they were too fatigued to go forward on May +12, when the cavalry battalions rode out gallantly, recklessly, perhaps +a little stupidly, into ambush and death. It so happened that Lincoln +never came nearer to any engagement than he did to this one of +"Stillman's Run;" so that in place of military glory he had to be +content with the reputation of being the best comrade and story-teller +at the camp fire. He had, however, an opportunity to do one honorable +act: the brief term of service of the volunteers expired on May 27, and +most of them eagerly hastened away from an irksome task, without regard +to the fact that their services were still much needed, whereas Lincoln +and some other officers reenlisted as privates. They were made the +"Independent Spy Battalion" of mounted volunteers, were given many +special privileges, but were concerned in no engagement, and erelong +were mustered out of service. Lincoln's certificate of discharge was +signed by Robert Anderson, who afterward was in command at Fort Sumter +at the outbreak of the rebellion. Thus, late in June, Lincoln was again +a civilian in New Salem, and was passing from war to politics. + +Nomination by caucus had not yet been introduced into Illinois,[35] and +any person who wished to be a candidate for an elective office simply +made public announcement of the fact and then conducted his campaign as +best he could.[36] On March 9, 1832, shortly before his enlistment, +Lincoln issued a manifesto "To the People of Sangamon County," in which +he informed them that he should run as a candidate for the state +legislature at the autumn elections, and told them his political +principles.[37] He was in favor of internal improvements, such as +opening roads, clearing streams, building a railroad across Sangamon +County, and making the Sangamon River straight and navigable. He +advocated a usury law, and hazarded the extraordinary argument that "in +cases of extreme necessity there could always be means found to cheat +the law; while in all other cases it would have its intended effect." A +law ameliorated by infractions is no uncommon thing, but this is perhaps +the only instance in which a law has been befriended on the ground that +it can be circumvented. He believed that every man should "receive at +least a moderate education." He deprecated changes in existing laws; +for, he said, "considering the great probability that the framers of +those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with +them." The clumsy phraseology of his closing paragraph coupled not badly +a frank avowal of ambition with an ingenuous expression of personal +modesty. The principles thus set forth were those of Clay and the Whigs, +and at this time the "best people" in Sangamon County belonged to this +party. The Democrats, on the other hand, did not much concern themselves +with principles, but accepted General Jackson in place thereof, as +constituting in himself a party platform. In the rough-and-tumble +pioneer community they could not do better, and for many years they had +controlled the State; indeed, Lincoln himself had felt no small loyalty +towards a President who admirably expressed Western civilization. Now, +however, he considered himself "an avowed Clay man,"[38] and besides the +internal improvement system he spoke also for a national bank and a high +protective tariff; probably he knew very little about either, but his +partisanship was perfect, for if there was any distinguishing badge of +an anti-Jackson Whig, it certainly was advocacy of a national bank. + +After his return from the "war," Lincoln set about electioneering with +a good show of energy. He hardly anticipated success, but at least upon +this trial trip he expected to make himself known to the people and to +gain useful experience. He "stumped" his own county thoroughly, and is +said to have made speeches which were blunt, crude, and inartificial, +but not displeasing to his audiences. A story goes that once "a general +fight" broke out among his hearers, and one of his friends was getting +roughly handled, whereupon Lincoln, descending from the rostrum, took a +hand in the affray, tossed one of the assailants "ten or twelve feet +easily," and then continued his harangue. Yet not even thus could he +win, and another was chosen over his head. He had, however, more reason +to be gratified than disappointed with the result; for, though in plain +fact he was a raw and unknown youngster, he stood third upon a list of +eight candidates, receiving 657 votes; and out of 208 votes cast in his +own county he scored 205.[39] In this there was ample encouragement for +the future. + +The political campaign being over, and legislative functions postponed, +Lincoln was brought face to face with the pecuniary problem. He +contemplated, not without approbation, the calling of the blacksmith; +but the chance to obtain a part interest in a grocery "store" tempted +him into an occupation for which he was little fitted. He became junior +partner in the firm of Berry & Lincoln, which, by executing and +delivering sundry notes of hand, absorbed the whole grocery business of +the town. But Lincoln was hopelessly inefficient behind the counter, and +Berry was a tippler. So in a year's time the store "winked out," leaving +as its only important trace those ill-starred scraps of paper by which +it had been founded. Berry "moved on" from the inconvenient +neighborhood, and soon afterward died, contributing nothing to reduce +the indebtedness. Lincoln patiently continued to make payments during +several years to come, until he had discharged the whole amount. It was +only a few hundred dollars, but to him it seemed so enormous that +betwixt jest and earnest he called it "the national debt." So late as in +1848, when he was a member of the House of Representatives at +Washington, he applied part of his salary to this old indebtedness. + +During this "store"-keeping episode he had begun to study law, and while +"keeping shop" he was with greater diligence reading Blackstone and such +other elementary classics of the profession as he could borrow. He +studied with zeal and became absorbed in his books. Perched upon a +woodpile, or lying under a tree with his feet thrust upwards against the +trunk and "grinding around with the shade," he caused some neighbors to +laugh uproariously, and others to say that he was daft. In fact, he was +in grim earnest, and held on his way with much persistence. + +May 7, 1833, Lincoln was commissioned as postmaster at New Salem. His +method of distributing the scanty mail was to put all the letters in his +hat, and to hand them out as he happened to meet the persons to whom +they were addressed. The emoluments could hardly have gone far towards +the discharge of "the national debt." His incumbency in this office led +to a story worth telling. When New Salem, and by necessity also the +post-office, like the grocery shop, "winked out," in 1836, there was a +trifling balance of sixteen or eighteen dollars due from Lincoln to the +government. Several years afterward, when he was practicing law in +Springfield, the government agent at last appeared to demand a +settlement. Lincoln went to his trunk and drew forth "an old blue sock +with a quantity of silver and copper coin tied up in it," the identical +bits of money which he had gathered from the people at New Salem, and +which, through many days of need in the long intervening period, he had +not once touched. + +Fortunately an occupation now offered itself which was more lucrative, +and possessed also the valuable quality of leaving niches of leisure for +the study of the law. The mania for speculation in land had begun in +Illinois; great tracts were being cut up into "town lots," and there was +as lively a market for real estate as the world has ever seen. The +official surveyor of the county, John Calhoun, had more work than he +could do, and offered to appoint Lincoln as a deputy. A little study +made him competent for the work, which he performed for some time with +admirable accuracy, if the stories are to be believed. But he had not +long enjoyed the mild prosperity of this new career ere an untoward +interruption came from a creditor of the extinct grocery firm. This man +held one of the notes representing "the national debt," and now levied +execution upon Lincoln's horse and surveying instruments. Two friends, +however, were at hand in this hour of need, and Bolin Greene and James +Short are gratefully remembered as the men who generously furnished, in +that actual cash which was so scarce in Illinois, the sums of one +hundred and twenty-five dollars and one hundred and twenty dollars +respectively, to redeem these essential implements of Lincoln's +business. + +The summer of 1834 found Lincoln again a candidate for the legislature. +He ran as a Whig, but he received and accepted offers of aid from the +Democrats, and their votes swelled the flattering measure of his +success. It has usually been stated that he led the four successful +candidates, the poll standing: Lincoln, 1,376; Dawson, 1,370; Carpenter, +1,170; Stuart, 1,164. But Mr. Herndon adduces evidence that Dawson's +number was 1,390, whereby Lincoln is relegated to the second place. +Holland tells us that he "shouldered his pack and on foot trudged to +Vandalia, then the capital of the State, about a hundred miles, to make +his entrance into public life." But the correcting pen of the later +biographer interferes with this dramatic incident also. For it seems +that, after the result of the election was known, Lincoln visited a +friend, Coleman Smoot, and said: "Did you vote for me?" "I did," replied +Smoot. "Then," said Lincoln, "you must lend me two hundred dollars!" +This seemed a peculiar _sequitur_, for ordinary political logic would +have made any money that was to pass between voter and candidate move +the other way. Yet Smoot accepted the consequence entailed in part by +his own act, and furnished the money, whereby Lincoln was able to +purchase a new suit of clothes and to ride in the stage to Vandalia. + +The records of this legislature show nothing noteworthy. Lincoln was +very inappropriately placed on the Committee on Public Accounts and +Expenditures; also it is recorded that he introduced a resolution to +obtain for the State a part of the proceeds of the public lands sold +within it. What has chiefly interested the chroniclers is, that at this +session he first saw Stephen A. Douglas, then a lobbyist, and said of +him: "He is the least man I ever saw." Lincoln's part seems to have been +rather that of an observer than of an actor. The account given is that +he was watching, learning, making acquaintances, prudently preparing for +future success, rather than endeavoring to seize it too greedily. In +fact, there is reason to believe that his thoughts were intent on far +other matter than the shaping of laws and statutes. For to this period +belongs the episode of Ann Rutledge. The two biographers whose personal +knowledge is the best regard this as the one real romance of Lincoln's +life. Heretofore he had held himself shyly aloof from women's society, +but this maiden won his heart. She comes before posterity amid a glamour +of rhetorical description, which attributes to her every grace of form +and feature, every charm of character and intellect. She was but a +schoolgirl of seventeen years when two men became her lovers; a year or +more afterward she became engaged to one of them, but before they could +be married he made a somewhat singular excuse for going to New York on +family affairs. His absence was prolonged and his letters became few. +People said that the girl had been deceived, and Lincoln began to hope +that the way was clearing for him. But under the prolonged strain Miss +Rutledge's health broke down, and on August 25, 1835, she died of brain +fever. Lincoln was allowed to see her as she lay near her end. The +effect upon him was grievous. Many declared him crazy, and his friends +feared that he might go so far as to take his own life; they watched him +closely, and one of them at last kindly took him away from the scene of +his sufferings for a while, and bore him constant and cheering company. +In time the cloud passed, but it seems certain that on only one or two +other occasions in his life did that deep melancholy, which formed a +permanent background to his temperament, take such overmastering, such +alarming and merciless possession of him. He was afflicted sorely with +a constitutional tendency to gloom, and the evil haunted him all his +life long. Like a dark fog-bank it hung, always dull and threatening, on +the verge of his horizon, sometimes rolling heavily down upon him, +sometimes drawing off into a more or less remote distance, but never +wholly disappearing. Every one saw it in his face and often felt it in +his manner, and few pictures of him have been made so bad as not in some +degree to present it. The access of it which was brought on by this +unhappy love affair was somewhat odd and uncouth in its manifestations, +but was so genuine and sincere that one feels that he was truly +undergoing the baptism of a great sorrow. + +At no other point is there more occasion to note this trait of +character, which presents a curious and interesting subject for study. +Probably no exhaustive solution is possible. One wanders off into the +mystery of human nature, loses his way in the dimness of that which can +be felt but cannot be expressed, and becomes aware of even dimmer +regions beyond in which it is vain to grope. It is well known that the +coarse and rough side of life among the pioneers had its reaction in a +reserved and at times morose habit, nearly akin to sadness, at least in +those who frequented the wilderness; it was the expression of the +influence of the vast, desolate, and lonely nature amid which they +passed their lives. It is true that Lincoln was never a backwoodsman, +and never roved alone for long periods among the shadowy forests and the +limit-less prairies, so that their powerful and weird influences, +though not altogether remote, never bore upon him in full force; yet +their effect was everywhere around him, and through others he imbibed +it, for his disposition was sensitive and sympathetic for such purposes. +That there was also a simple prosaic physical inducement cannot be +denied. Hardship and daily discomfort in all the arrangements of life +counted for something, and especially so the bad food, greasy, +unwholesome, horribly cooked, enough to afflict an ostrich with the blue +devils of dyspepsia. The denizen of the town devoured messes vastly +worse than the simple meal of the hunter and trapper, and did not +counteract the ill effect by hard exercise in the free, inspiring air. +Such facts must be considered, though they diminish the poetry which +rhetoricians and sentimentalists have cast over the melancholy of +Lincoln's temperament. Yet they fall far short of wholly accounting for +a gloom which many have loved to attribute to the mysticism of a great +destiny, as though the awful weight of his immense task was making +itself felt in his strange, brooding nature long years before any human +prophet could have forecast any part of that which was to come. In this +apparent vague consciousness of the oppression of a great burden of +toil, duty, and responsibility, casting its shadow so far before, there +is something so fascinating to the imagination of man that we cannot +quite forego it, or accept any explanation which would compel us +altogether to part with it. The shuddering awe and terrible sense of +fate, which the grandeur of the Greek tragedies so powerfully expresses, +come to us when we contemplate this strange cloud which never left +Lincoln in any year after his earliest youth, although some traits in +his character seemed often incomprehensibly to violate it, and like +rebellious spirits to do outrage to it, while, in fact, they only made +it the more striking, picturesque, and mysterious. But, after all +explanations have been made, the conclusion must be that there is no one +and only thread to guide us through the labyrinth to the heart of this +singular trait, and each of us must follow that which his own nature +renders intelligible or congenial for him. To us, who know the awful +closing acts of his life-drama, it seems so appropriate that there +should be an impressive unity, and so an inevitable backward influence +working from the end towards the beginning, that we cannot avoid, nor +would avoid, an instinctive belief that an occult moral and mental +condition already existed in the years of Lincoln's life which we are +now observing, although the profound cause of that condition lay wholly +in the future, in the years which were still far away. There is a charm +in the very unreason and mysticism of such a faith, and mankind will +never quite fail to fancy, if not actually to believe, that the life +which Lincoln had to live in the future wrought in some inexplicable way +upon the life which he was living in the present. The explanation is not +more strange than the enigma. + +Returning now to the narrative, an unpleasant necessity is encountered. +It must be confessed that the atmosphere of romance which lingers around +this love-tale of the fair and sweet Ann Rutledge, so untimely taken +away, is somewhat attenuated by the fact that only some fifteen months +rolled by after she was laid in the ground before Lincoln was again +intent upon matrimony. In the autumn of 1836 Miss Mary Owens, of +Kentucky, appeared in New Salem,--a comely lass, with "large blue eyes," +"fine trimmings," and a long and varied list of attractions. Lincoln +immediately began to pay court to her, but in an ungainly and morbid +fashion. It is impossible to avoid feeling that his mind was not yet in +a natural and healthy condition. While offering to marry her, he advised +her not to have him. Upon her part she found him "deficient in those +little links which make up the chain of woman's happiness." So she would +none of him, but wedded another and became the mother of some +Confederate soldiers. Lincoln did not suffer on this second occasion as +he had done on the first; and in the spring of 1838 he wrote upon the +subject one of the most unfortunate epistles ever penned, in which he +turned the whole affair into coarse and almost ribald ridicule. In fact +he seems as much out of place in dealing with women and with love as he +was in place in dealing with politicians and with politics, and it is +pleasant to return from the former to the latter topics.[40] + +The spring of 1836 found Lincoln again nominating himself before the +citizens of Sangamon County, but for the last time. His party denounced +the caucus system as a "Yankee contrivance, intended to abridge the +liberties of the people;" but they soon found that it would be as +sensible to do battle with pikes and bows, after the invention of +muskets and cannon, as to continue to oppose free self-nomination to the +Jacksonian method of nomination by convention. In enjoying this last +opportunity, not only of presenting himself, but also of constructing +his own "platform," Lincoln published the following card:-- + + + +NEW SALEM, June 13, 1836. + +TO THE EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL:-- + +In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication over the signature +of "Many Voters" in which the candidates who are announced in the +"Journal" are called upon to "show their hands." Agreed. Here's mine. + +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). + +If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative, I shall be governed by their will +on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will +is; and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will +best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for +distributing the proceeds of the sales of public lands to the several +States to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and +construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the interest on +it. + +If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White +for President. + +Very respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +The canvass was conducted after the usual fashion, with stump-speaking, +fighting, and drinking. Western voters especially fancied the joint +debate between rivals, and on such exciting occasions were apt to come +to the arbitrament of fists and knives. But it is pleasant to hear that +Lincoln calmed rather than excited such affrays, and that once, when +Ninian W. Edwards climbed upon a table and screamed at his opponent the +lie direct, Lincoln replied by "so fair a speech" that it quelled the +discord. Henceforward he practiced a calm, carefully-weighed, +dispassionate style in presenting facts and arguments. Even if he +cultivated it from appreciation of its efficiency, at least his skill in +it was due to the fact that it was congenial to his nature, and that his +mind worked instinctively along these lines. His mental constitution, +his way of thinking, were so honest that he always seemed to be a man +sincerely engaged in seeking the truth, and who, when he believed that +he had found it, would tell it precisely as he saw it, and tell it all. +This was the distinguishing trait or habit which differentiates Lincoln +from too many other political speakers and writers in the country. Yet +with it he combined the character of a practical politician and a stanch +party man. No party has a monopoly of truth and is always in the right; +but Lincoln, with the advantage of being naturally fair-minded to a rare +degree, understood that the best ingenuity is fairness, and that the +second best ingenuity is the appearance of fairness. + +A pleasant touch of his humor illumined this campaign. George Forquer, +once a Whig but now a Democrat and an office-holder, had lately built +for himself the finest house in Springfield, and had decorated it with +the first lightning-rod ever seen in the neighborhood. One day, after +Forquer had been berating Lincoln as a young man who must "be taken +down," Lincoln turned to the audience with a few words: "It is for you, +not for me, to say whether I am up or down. The gentleman has alluded to +my being a young man;[41] I am older in years than I am in the tricks +and trades of politicians. I desire to live, and I desire place and +distinction as a politician; but I would rather die now than, like the +gentleman, live to see the day when I should have to erect a +lightning-rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God." + +There are other stories of this campaign, amusing and characteristic of +the region and the times, but which there is not room to repeat. The +result of it was that Sangamon County, hitherto Democratic, was now won +by the Whigs, and that Lincoln had the personal satisfaction of leading +the poll. The county had in the legislature nine representatives, tall +fellows all, not one of them standing less than six feet, so that they +were nicknamed "the Long Nine." Such was their authority that one of +them afterward said: "All the bad or objectionable laws passed at that +session of the legislature, and for many years afterward, were +chargeable to the management and influence of 'the Long Nine.'" This +was a damning confession, for the "bad and objectionable" laws of that +session were numerous. A mania possessed the people. The whole State was +being cut up into towns and cities and house-lots, so that town-lots +were said to be the only article of export.[42] A system of internal +improvements at the public expense was pushed forward with incredible +recklessness. The State was to be "gridironed" with thirteen hundred +miles of railroad; the courses of the rivers were to be straightened; +and where nature had neglected to supply rivers, canals were to be dug. +A loan of twelve millions of dollars was authorized, and the counties +not benefited thereby received gifts of cash. The bonds were issued and +sent to the bankers of New York and of Europe, and work was vigorously +begun. The terrible financial panic of 1837 ought to have administered +an early check to this madness. But it did not. Resolutions of popular +conventions instructed legislators to institute "a general system of +internal improvements," which should be "commensurate with the wants of +the people;" and the lawgivers obeyed as implicitly as if each delegate +was lighting his steps by an Aladdin's lamp. + +With this mad current Lincoln swam as wildly and as ignorantly as did +any of his comrades. He was absurdly misplaced as a member of the +Committee on Finance. Never in his life did he show the slightest +measure of "money sense." He had, however, declared his purpose to be +governed by the will of his constituents in all matters in which he knew +that will, and at this time he apparently held the American theory that +the multitude probably possesses the highest wisdom, and that at any +rate the majority is entitled to have its way. Therefore, in this +ambitious enterprise of putting Illinois at the very forefront of the +civilized world by an outburst of fine American energy, his ardor was as +warm as that of the warmest, and his intelligence was as utterly misled +as that of the most ignorant. He declared his ambition to be "the DeWitt +Clinton of Illinois." After the inevitable crash had come, amid the +perplexity of general ruin and distress, he honestly acknowledged that +he had blundered very badly. Nevertheless, no vengeance was exacted of +him by the people; which led Governor Ford to say that it is safer for a +politician to be wrong with his constituents than to be right against +them, and to illustrate this profound truth by naming Lincoln among the +"spared monuments of popular wrath." + +"The Long Nine" had in this legislature a task peculiarly their own: to +divide Sangamon County, and to make Springfield instead of Vandalia the +state capital. Amid all the whirl of the legislation concerning +improvements Lincoln kept this especial purpose always in view. It is +said that his skill was infinite, and that he never lost heart. He +gained the reputation of being the best "log-roller" in the +legislature, and no measure got the support of the "Long Nine" without a +contract for votes to be given in return for the removal of the state +capital. It is unfortunate that such methods should enjoy the prestige +of having been conspicuously practiced by Abraham Lincoln, but the +evidence seems to establish the fact. That there was anything +objectionable in the skillful performance of such common transactions as +the trading of votes probably never occurred to him, being a +professional politician, any more than it did to his constituents, who +triumphed noisily in this success, and welcomed their candidates home +with great popular demonstrations of approval.[43] + +A more agreeable occurrence at this session is the position taken by +Lincoln concerning slavery, a position which was looked upon with +extreme disfavor in those days in that State, and which he voluntarily +assumed when he was not called upon to act or commit himself in any way +concerning the matter. During the session sundry resolutions were +passed, disapproving abolition societies and doctrines, asserting the +sacredness of the right of property in slaves in the slave States, and +alleging that it would be against good faith to abolish slavery in the +District of Columbia without the consent of the citizens of the +District. Two days before the end of the session, March 3, 1837, +Lincoln introduced a strenuous protest. It bore only one signature +besides his own, and doubtless this fact was fortunate for Lincoln, +since it probably prevented the document from attracting the attention +and resentment of a community which, at the time, by no means held the +opinion that there was either "injustice" or "bad policy" in the great +"institution" of the South. It was within a few months after this very +time that the atrocious persecution and murder of Lovejoy took place in +the neighboring town of Alton. + +In such hours as he could snatch from politics and bread-winning Lincoln +had continued to study law, and in March, 1837, he was admitted to the +bar. He decided to establish himself in Springfield, where certainly he +deserved a kindly welcome in return for what he had done towards making +it the capital. It was a little town of only between one and two +thousand inhabitants; but to Lincoln it seemed a metropolis. "There is a +great deal of flourishing about in carriages here," he wrote; there were +also social distinctions, and real aristocrats, who wore ruffled shirts, +and even adventured "fair top-boots" in the "unfathomable" mud of +streets which knew neither sidewalks nor pavements. + +Lincoln came into the place bringing all his worldly belongings in a +pair of saddle-bags. He found there John T. Stuart, his comrade in the +Black Hawk campaign, engaged in the practice of the law. The two +promptly arranged a partnership. But Stuart was immersed in that too +common mixture of law and politics in which the former jealous mistress +is apt to take the traditional revenge upon her half-hearted suitor. +Such happened in this case; and these two partners, both making the same +blunder of yielding imperfect allegiance to their profession, paid the +inevitable penalty; they got perhaps work enough in mere point of +quantity, but it was neither interesting nor lucrative. Such business, +during the four years which he passed with Stuart, did not wean Lincoln +from his natural fondness for matters political. At the same time he was +a member of sundry literary gatherings and debating societies. Such of +his work as has been preserved does not transcend the ordinary +productions of a young man trying his wings in clumsy flights of +oratory; but he had the excuse that the thunderous declamatory style was +then regarded in the West as the only true eloquence. He learned better, +in course of time, and so did the West; and it was really good fortune +that he passed through the hobbledehoy period in the presence of +audiences whose taste was no better than his own. + +Occasionally amid the tedium of these high-flown commonplaces there +opens a fissure through which the inner spirit of the man looks out for +an instant. It is well known that Lincoln was politically ambitious; his +friends knew it, his biographers have said it, he himself avowed it. +Now and again, in these early days, when his horizon could hardly have +ranged beyond the state legislature and the lower house of Congress, he +uttered some sentences which betrayed longings of a high moral grade, +and indicated that office and power were already regarded by him as the +opportunities for great actions. Strenuous as ought to be the objection +to that tone in speaking of Lincoln which seems to proceed from beneath +the sounding-board of the pulpit, and which uses him as a Sunday-school +figure to edify a piously admiring world, yet it certainly seems a plain +fact that his day-dreams at this period foreshadowed the acts of his +later years, and that what he pleased himself with imagining was not the +acquirement of official position but the achievement of some great +benefit for mankind. He did not, of course, expect to do this as a +philanthropist; for he understood himself sufficiently to know that his +road lay in the public service. Accordingly he talks not as Clarkson or +Wilberforce, but as a public man, of "emancipating slaves," of +eliminating slavery and drunkenness from the land; at the same time he +speaks thus not as a politician shrewdly anticipating the coming popular +impulse, but as one desiring to stir that impulse. When he said, in his +manifesto in 1832, that he had "no other ambition so great as that of +being truly esteemed by his fellow-men," he uttered words which in the +mouths of most politicians have the irritating effect of the dreariest +and cheapest of platitudes; but he obviously uttered them with the +sincerity of a deep inward ambition, that kind of an ambition which is +often kept sacred from one's nearest intimates. Many side glimpses show +him in this light, and it seems to be the genuine and uncolored one. + +In 1838 Lincoln was again elected a member of the lower house of the +legislature, and many are the amusing stories told of the canvass. It +was in this year that he made sudden onslaught on the demagogue Dick +Taylor, and opening with a sudden jerk the artful colonel's waistcoat, +displayed a glittering wealth of jewelry hidden temporarily beneath it. +There is also the tale of his friend Baker haranguing a crowd in the +store beneath Lincoln's office. The audience differed with Baker, and +was about to punish him severely for the difference, when Lincoln +dangled down through a trap-door in the ceiling, intimated his intention +to share in the fight if there was to be one, and brought the audience +to a more pacific frame of mind. Such amenities of political debate at +least tested some of the qualities of the individual. The Whig party +made him their candidate for the speakership and he came within one vote +of being elected.[44] He was again a member of the Finance Committee; +but financiering by those wise lawgivers was no longer so lightsome and +exuberant a task as it had been. The hour of reckoning had come; and the +business proved to be chiefly a series of humiliating and futile +efforts to undo the follies of the preceding two and a half years. +Lincoln shared in this disagreeable labor, as he had shared in the mania +which had made it necessary. He admitted that he was "no financier," and +gave evidence of the fact by submitting a bill which did not deserve to +be passed, and was not. It can, however, be said for him that he never +favored repudiation, as some of his comrades did. + +In 1840[45] Lincoln was again elected, again was the nominee of the Whig +party for the speakership, and again was beaten by Ewing, the Democratic +candidate, who mustered 46 votes against 36 for Lincoln. This +legislature held only one session, and apparently Holland's statement, +that "no important business of general interest was transacted," is a +fair summary. Lincoln did only one memorable thing, and that +unfortunately was discreditable. In a close and exciting contest, he, +with two other Whigs, jumped out of the window in order to break a +quorum. It is gratifying to hear from the chronicler of the event, who +was one of the parties concerned, that "Mr. Lincoln always regretted +that he entered into that arrangement, as he deprecated everything that +savored of the revolutionary."[46] + +The year 1840 was made lively throughout the country by the spirited +and rollicking campaign which the Whigs made on behalf of General +Harrison. In that famous struggle for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," the +log cabin, hard cider, and the 'coon skin were the popular emblems which +seemed to lend picturesqueness and enthusiasm and a kind of Western +spirit to the electioneering everywhere in the land. In Illinois Lincoln +was a candidate on the Whig electoral ticket, and threw himself with +great zeal into the congenial task of "stumping" the State. Douglas was +doing the same duty on the other side, and the two had many encounters. +Of Lincoln's speeches only one has been preserved,[47] and it leads to +the conclusion that nothing of value was lost when the others perished. +The effusion was in the worst style of the effervescent and exuberant +school of that region and generation. Nevertheless, it may have had the +greatest merit which oratory can possess, in being perfectly adapted to +the audience to which it was addressed. But rhetoric could not carry +Illinois for the Whigs; the Democrats cast the vote of the State. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[34] _The Good Old Times in McLean County_, passim. + +[35] It was first advocated in 1835-36, and was adopted by slow degrees +thereafter. Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, 204. + +[36] _Ibid._ 201. + +[37] Lamon, 129, where is given the text of the manifesto; Herndon, 101; +N. and H. i. 101, 105; Holland, 53, says that _after_ his return from +the Black Hawk campaign, Lincoln "was applied to" to become a candidate, +and that the "application was a great surprise to him." This seems an +obvious error, in view of the manifesto; yet see Lamon, 122. + +[38] N. and H. i. 102. Lamon regards him as "a nominal Jackson man" in +contradistinction to a "whole-hog Jackson man;" as "Whiggish" rather +than actually a Whig. Lamon, 123, 126. + +[39] Herndon, 105. But see N. and H. i. 109. + +[40] The whole story of these two love affairs is given at great length +by Herndon and by Lamon. Other biographers deal lightly with these +episodes. Nicolay and Hay scantly refer to them, and, in their +admiration for Mr. Lincoln, even permit themselves to speak of that most +abominable letter to Mrs. Browning as "grotesquely comic." (Vol. i. p. +192.) It is certainly true that the revelations of Messrs. Herndon and +Lamon are painful, and in part even humiliating; and it would be most +satisfactory to give these things the go-by. But this seems impossible; +if one wishes to study and comprehend the character of Mr. Lincoln, the +strange and morbid condition in which he was for some years at this time +cannot possibly be passed over. It may even be said that it would be +unfair to him to do so; and a truthful idea of him, on the whole, +redounds more to his credit than a maimed and mutilated one, even though +the mutilation seems to consist in lopping off and casting out of sight +a deformity. Psychologically, perhaps physiologically, these episodes +are interesting, and as aiding a comprehension of Mr. Lincoln's nature +they are indispensable; but historically they are of no consequence, and +I am glad that the historical character of this work gives me the right +to dwell upon them lightly. + +[41] It is amusing-to compare this Western oratory with the famous +outburst of the younger Pitt which he opened with those familiar words: +"The atrocious crime of being a young man which the honorable gentleman +has with such spirit and decency charged upon me," etc., etc. + +[42] For the whole history of the rise, progress, and downfall of this +mania, see Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, ch. vi. + +[43] Ford, _Hist. of Illinois_, 186; Lamon, 198-201; Herndon, 176, 180. +N. and H., i. 137-139, endeavor to give a different color to this +transaction, but they make out no case as against the statements of +writers who had such opportunities to know the truth as had Governor +Ford, Lamon, and Herndon. + +[44] N. and H. i. 160; Holland, 74; Lamon, 212; but see Herndon, 193. + +[45] For the story of _The Skinning of Thomas_, belonging to this +campaign, see Herndon, 197; Lamon, 231; and for the Radford story, see +N. and H. i. 172; Lamon, 230. + +[46] Lamon, 216, 217. Nicolay and Hay, i. 162, speak of "a number" of +the members, among whom Lincoln was "prominent," making this exit; but +there seem to have been only two besides him. + +[47] N. and H. i. 173-177. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LOVE; A DUEL; LAW, AND CONGRESS + + +Collaterally with law and politics, Lincoln was at this time engaged +with that almost grotesque courtship which led to his marriage. The +story is a long and strange one; in its best gloss it is not agreeable, +and in its worst version it is exceedingly disagreeable. In any form it +is inexplicable, save so far as the apparent fact that his mind was +somewhat disordered can be taken as an explanation. In 1839 Miss Mary +Todd, who had been born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818, came +to Springfield to stay with her sister, Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards. The +Western biographers describe her as "gifted with rare talents," as +"high-bred, proud, brilliant, witty," as "aristocratic" and +"accomplished," and as coming from a "long and distinguished ancestral +line." Later in her career critics with more exacting standards gave +other descriptions. There is, however, no doubt that in point of social +position and acquirements she stood at this time much above Lincoln. + +Upon Lincoln's part it was a peculiar wooing, a series of morbid +misgivings as to the force of his affection, of alternate ardor and +coldness, advances and withdrawals, and every variety of strange +language and freakish behavior. In the course of it, oddly enough, his +omnipresent competitor, Douglas, crossed his path, his rival in love as +well as in politics, and ultimately outstripped by him in each alike. +After many months of this queer, uncertain zigzag progress, it was +arranged that the marriage should take place on January 1, 1841. At the +appointed hour the company gathered, the supper was set out, and the +bride, "bedecked in veil and silken gown, and nervously toying with the +flowers in her hair," according to the graphic description of Mr. +Herndon, sat in her sister's house awaiting the coming of her lover. She +waited, but he came not, and soon his friends were searching the town +for him. Towards morning they found him. Some said that he was insane; +if he was not, he was at least suffering from such a terrible access of +his constitutional gloom that for some time to come it was considered +necessary to watch him closely. His friend Speed took him away upon a +long visit to Kentucky, from which he returned in a much improved mental +condition, but soon again came under the influence of Miss Todd's +attractions. + +The memory of the absurd result of the recent effort at marriage +naturally led to the avoidance of publicity concerning the second +undertaking. So nothing was said till the last moment; then the license +was procured, a few friends were hastily notified, and the ceremony was +performed, all within a few hours, on November 4, 1842. A courtship +marked by so many singularities was inevitably prolific of gossip; and +by all this tittle-tattle, in which it is absolutely impossible to +separate probably a little truth from much fiction, the bride suffered +more than the groom. Among other things it was asserted that Lincoln at +last came to the altar most reluctantly. One says that he was "pale and +trembling, as if being driven to slaughter;" another relates that the +little son of a friend, noticing that his toilet had been more carefully +made than usual, asked him where he was going, and that he gloomily +responded: "To hell, I suppose." Probably enough, however, these +anecdotes are apocryphal; for why the proud and high-tempered Miss Todd +should have held so fast to an unwilling lover, who had behaved so +strangely and seemed to offer her so little, is a conundrum which has +been answered by no better explanation than the very lame one, that she +foresaw his future distinction. It was her misfortune that she failed to +make herself popular, so that no one has cared in how disagreeable or +foolish a position any story places her. She was charged with having a +sharp tongue, a sarcastic wit, and a shrewish temper, over which +perilous traits she had no control. It is related that her sister, Mrs. +Edwards, opposed the match, from a belief that the two were utterly +uncongenial, and later on this came to be the accepted belief of the +people at large. That Mrs. Lincoln often severely harassed her husband +always has been and always will be believed. One would gladly leave the +whole topic veiled in that privacy which ought always to be accorded to +domestic relations which are supposed to be only imperfectly happy; but +his countrymen have not shown any such respect to Mr. Lincoln, and it no +longer is possible wholly to omit mention of a matter about which so +much has been said and written. Moreover, it has usually been supposed +that the influence of Mrs. Lincoln upon her husband was unceasing and +powerful, and that her moods and her words constituted a very important +element in his life.[48] + +Another disagreeable incident of this period was the quarrel with James +A. Shields. In the summer of 1842 sundry coarse assaults upon Shields, +attributed in great part, or wholly, to the so-called trenchant and +witty pen of Miss Todd, appeared in the Springfield "Journal." Lincoln +accepted the responsibility for them, received and reluctantly accepted +a challenge, and selected broadswords as the weapons! "Friends," +however, brought about an "explanation," and the conflict was avoided. +But ink flowed in place of blood, and the newspapers were filled with a +mass of silly, grandiloquent, blustering, insolent, and altogether +pitiable stuff. All the parties concerned were placed in a most +humiliating light, and it is gratifying to hear that Lincoln had at +least the good feeling to be heartily ashamed of the affair, so that he +"always seemed willing to forget" it. But every veil which he ever +sought to throw over anything concerning himself has had the effect of +an irresistible provocation to drag the subject into the strongest glare +of publicity.[49] + +All the while, amid so many distractions, Lincoln was seeking a +livelihood at the bar. On April 14, 1841, a good step was taken by +dissolving the partnership with Stuart and the establishment of a new +partnership with Stephen T. Logan, lately judge of the Circuit Court of +the United States, and whom Arnold calls "the head of the bar at the +capital." This gentleman, though not averse to politics, was a close +student, assiduous in his attention to business, and very accurate and +methodical in his ways. Thus he furnished a shining example of precisely +the qualities which Lincoln had most need to cultivate, and his +influence upon Lincoln was marked and beneficial. They continued +together until September 20, 1843, when they separated, and on the same +day Lincoln, heretofore a junior, became the senior in a new partnership +with William H. Herndon. This firm was never formally dissolved up to +the day of Lincoln's death. + +When Lincoln was admitted to the bar the practice of the law was in a +very crude condition in Illinois. General principles gathered from a few +text-books formed the simple basis upon which lawyers tried cases and +framed arguments in improvised court-rooms. But the advance was rapid +and carried Lincoln forward with it. The raw material, if the phrase may +be pardoned, was excellent; there were many men in the State who united +a natural aptitude for the profession with high ability, ambition, and a +progressive spirit. Lincoln was brought in contact with them all, +whether they rode his circuit or not, because the federal courts were +held only in Springfield. Among them were Stephen A. Douglas, Lyman +Trumbull, afterward for a long while chairman of the Judiciary Committee +of the national Senate, David Davis, afterward a senator, and an +associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; O.H. +Browning, Ninian W. Edwards, Edward D. Baker, Justin Butterfield, Judge +Logan, and more. Precisely what position Lincoln occupied among these +men it is difficult to say with accuracy, because it is impossible to +know just how much of the praise which has been bestowed upon him is the +language of eulogy or of the brotherly courtesy of the bar, and how much +is a discriminating valuation of his qualities. That in the foregoing +list there were better and greater lawyers than he is unquestionable; +that he was primarily a politician and only secondarily a lawyer is +equally beyond denial. He has been described also as "a case lawyer," +that is to say, a lawyer who studies each case as it comes to him simply +by and for itself, a method which makes the practitioner rather than the +jurist. That Lincoln was ever learned in the science is hardly +pretended. In fact it was not possible that the divided allegiance which +he gave to his profession for a score of years could have achieved such +a result.[50] But it is said, and the well-known manner of his mental +operations makes it easy to believe, that his arguments had a marvelous +simplicity and clearness, alike in thought and in expression. To these +traits they owed their great force; and a legal argument can have no +higher traits; fine-drawn subtlety is undeniably an inferior quality. +Noteworthy above all else was his extraordinary capacity for statement; +all agree that his statement of his case and his presentation of the +facts and the evidence were so plain and fair as to be far more +convincing than the argument which was built upon them. Again it may be +said that the power to state in this manner is as high in the order of +intellectual achievement as anything within forensic possibilities. + +As an advocate Lincoln seems to have ranked better than he did in the +discussion of pure points of law. When he warmed to his work his power +over the emotions of a jury was very great. A less dignified but not +less valuable capacity lay in his humor and his store of illustrative +anecdotes. But the one trait, which all agree in attributing to him and +which above all others will redound to his honor, at least in the mind +of the layman, is that he was only efficient when his client was in the +right, and that he made but indifferent work in a wrong cause. He was +preeminently the honest lawyer, the counsel fitted to serve the litigant +who was justly entitled to win. His power of lucid statement was of +little service when the real facts were against him; and his eloquence +seemed paralyzed when he did not believe thoroughly that his client had +a just cause. He generally refused to take cases unless he could see +that as matter of genuine right he ought to win them. People who +consulted him were at times bluntly advised to withdraw from an unjust +or a hard-hearted contention, or were bidden to seek other counsel. He +could even go the length of leaving a case, while actually conducting +it, if he became satisfied of unfairness on the part of his client; and +when a coadjutor won a case from which he had withdrawn _in transitu_, +so to speak, he refused to accept any portion of the fee. Such habits +may not meet with the same measure of commendation from professional +men[51] which they will command on the part of others; but those who are +not members of this ingenious profession, contemning the fine logic +which they fail to overcome, stubbornly insist upon admiring the lawyer +who refuses to subordinate right to law. In this respect Lincoln +accepted the ideals of laymen rather than the doctrines of his +profession.[52] + +In the presidential campaign of 1844, in which Henry Clay was the +candidate of the Whig party, Lincoln was nominated upon the Whig +electoral ticket. He was an ardent admirer of Clay and he threw himself +into this contest with great zeal. Oblivious of courts and clients, he +devoted himself to "stumping" Illinois and a part of Indiana. When +Illinois sent nine Democratic electors to vote for James K. Polk, his +disappointment was bitter. All the members of the defeated party had a +peculiar sense of personal chagrin upon this occasion, and Lincoln felt +it even more than others. It is said that two years later a visit to +Ashland resulted in a disillusionment, and that his idol then came down +from its pedestal, or at least the pedestal was made much lower.[53] + +In March, 1843, Lincoln had hopes that the Whigs would nominate him as +their candidate for the national House of Representatives. In the +canvass he developed some strength, but not quite enough, and the result +was somewhat ludicrous, for Sangamon County made him a delegate to the +nominating convention with instructions to vote for one of his own +competitors, Colonel Edward D. Baker, the gallant gentleman and +brilliant orator who fell at Ball's Bluff. The prize was finally carried +off by Colonel John J. Hardin, who afterward died at Buena Vista. By a +change of election periods the next convention was held in 1844, and +this time Lincoln publicly declined to make a contest for the +nomination against Colonel Baker, who accordingly received it and was +elected. It has been said that an agreement was made between Hardin, +Baker, Lincoln, and Judge Logan, whereby each should be allowed one term +in Congress, without competition on the part of any of the others; but +the story does not seem altogether trustworthy, nor wholly corroborated +by the facts. Possibly there may have been a courteous understanding +between them. It has, however, been spoken of as a very reprehensible +bargain, and Lincoln has been zealously defended against the reproach of +having entered into it. Why, if indeed it ever was made, it had this +objectionable complexion is a point in the inscrutable moralities of +politics which is not plain to those uninitiated in these ethical +mysteries. + +In the year 1846 Lincoln again renewed his pursuit of the coveted honor, +as Holland very properly puts it. Nothing is more absurd than statements +to the purport that he was "induced to accept" the nomination, +statements which he himself would have heard with honest laughter. Only +three years ago[54] he had frankly written to a friend: "Now, if you +should hear any one say that Lincoln don't want to go to Congress, I +wish you, as a personal friend of mine, would tell him you have reason +to believe he is mistaken. The truth is I would [should] like to go very +much." Now, the opportunity being at hand, he spared no pains to +compass it. In spite of the alleged agreement Hardin made +reconnoissances in the district, which Lincoln met with +counter-manifestations so vigorous that on February 26 Hardin withdrew, +and on May 1 Lincoln was nominated. Against him the Democrats set Peter +Cartwright, the famous itinerant preacher of the Methodists, whose +strenuous and popular eloquence had rung in the ears of every Western +settler. Stalwart, aggressive, possessing all the qualities adapted to +win the good-will of such a constituency, the Apostle of the West was a +dangerous antagonist. But Lincoln had political capacity in a rare +degree. Foresight and insight, activity and the power to organize and to +direct, were his. In this campaign his eye was upon every one; +individuals, newspaper editors, political clubs, got their inspiration +and their guidance from him.[55] Such thoroughness deserved and achieved +an extraordinary success; and at the polls, in August, the district gave +him a majority of 1,511. In the latest presidential campaign it had +given Clay a majority of 914; and two years later it gave Taylor a +majority of 1,501. Sangamon County gave Lincoln a majority of 690, the +largest given to any candidate from 1836 to 1850, inclusive. Moreover, +Lincoln was the only Whig who secured a place in the Illinois +delegation. + +Though elected in the summer of 1846, it was not until December 6, 1847, +that the Thirtieth Congress began its first session. Robert C. Winthrop +was chosen speaker of the House, by 110 votes out of 218. The change in +the political condition was marked; in the previous House the Democrats +had numbered 142 and the Whigs only 75; in this House the Whigs were +116, the Democrats 108. Among the members were John Quincy Adams, Andrew +Johnson, Alexander H. Stephens, Howell Cobb, David Wilmot, Jacob +Collamer, Robert Toombs, with many more scarcely less familiar names. +The Mexican war was drawing towards its close,[56] and most of the +talking in Congress had relation to it. The whole Whig party denounced +it at the time, and the nation has been more than half ashamed of it +ever since. By adroit manoeuvres Polk had forced the fight upon a weak +and reluctant nation, and had made to his own people false statements as +to both the facts and the merits of the quarrel. The rebuke which they +had now administered, by changing the large Democratic majority into a +minority, "deserves," says von Holst, "to be counted among the most +meritorious proofs of the sound and honorable feeling of the American +nation."[57] But while the administration had thus smirched the +inception and the whole character of the war with meanness and dishonor, +the generals and the army were winning abundant glory for the national +arms. Good strategy achieved a series of brilliant victories, and +fortunately for the Whigs General Taylor and General Scott, together +with a large proportion of the most distinguished regimental officers, +were of their party. This aided them essentially in their policy, which +was, to denounce the entering into the war but to vote all necessary +supplies for its vigorous prosecution. + +Into this scheme of his party Lincoln entered with hearty concurrence. A +week after the House met he closed a letter to his partner with the +remark: "As you are all so anxious for me to distinguish myself, I have +concluded to do so before long," and what he said humorously he probably +meant seriously. Accordingly he soon afterward[58] introduced a series +of resolutions, which, under the nickname of "The Spot Resolutions," +attracted some attention. Quoting in his preamble sundry paragraphs of +the President's message of May 11, 1846, to the purport that Mexico had +"invaded _our territory_" and had "shed the blood of our citizens on +_our own soil_" he then requested the President to state "_the spot_" +where these and other alleged occurrences had taken place. His first +"little speech" was on "a post-office question of no general interest;" +and he found himself "about as badly scared and no worse" than when he +spoke in court. So a little later, January 12, 1848, he ventured to call +up his resolutions and to make an elaborate speech upon them.[59] It was +not a very great or remarkable speech, but it was a good one, and not +conceived in the fervid and florid style which defaced his youthful +efforts; he spoke sensibly, clearly, and with precision of thought; he +sought his strength in the facts, and went in straight pursuit of the +truth; his best intellectual qualities were plainly visible. The +resolutions were not acted upon, and doubtless their actual passage had +never been expected; but they were a good shot well placed; and they +were sufficiently noteworthy to save Lincoln from being left among the +herd of the nobodies of the House. + +In view of his future career, but for no other reason, a brief paragraph +is worth quoting. He says:-- + +"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the +_right_ to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new +one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred +right,--a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. +Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an +existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such +people, that _can_, may revolutionize, and make their _own_ of so much +of the territory as they inhabit." This doctrine, so comfortably +applied to Texas in 1848, seemed unsuitable for the Confederate States +in 1861. But possibly the point lay in the words, "having the power," +and "can," for the Texans "had the power" and "could," and the South had +it not and could not; and so Lincoln's practical proviso saved his +theoretical consistency; though he must still have explained how either +Texas or the South could know whether they "had the power," and "could," +except by trial. + +Lincoln's course concerning the war and the administration did not +please his constituents. With most of the Whigs he voted for Ashmun's +amendment, which declared that the war had been "unnecessarily and +unconstitutionally commenced by the President." But soon he heard that +the people in Springfield were offended at a step which might weaken the +administration in time of stress; and even if the President had +transcended the Constitution, they preferred to deny rather than to +admit the fact. When Douglas afterward charged Lincoln with lack of +patriotism, Lincoln replied that he had not chosen to "skulk," and, +feeling obliged to vote, he had voted for "the truth" rather than for "a +lie."[60] He remarked also that he, with the Whigs generally, always +voted for the supply bills. He took and maintained his position with +entire manliness and honesty, and stated his principles with perfect +clearness, neither shading nor abating nor coloring by any conciliatory +or politic phrase. It was a question of conscience, and he met it +point-blank. Many of his critics remained dissatisfied, and it is +believed that his course cost the next Whig candidate in the district +votes which he could not afford to lose. It is true that another paid +this penalty, yet Lincoln himself would have liked well to take his +chance as the candidate. To those "who desire that I should be +reflected," he wrote to Herndon, "I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the +annexation of Texas, that '_personally_ I would not object.' ... If it +should so happen _that nobody else wishes to be elected_, I could not +refuse the people the right of sending me again. But to enter myself as +a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so to enter me, is what +my word and honor forbid." It did so happen that Judge Logan, whose turn +it seemed to be, wished the nomination and received it. He was, however, +defeated, and probably paid the price of Lincoln's scrupulous honesty. + +In the canvassing of the spring of 1848 Lincoln was an ardent advocate +for the nomination of General Taylor as the Whig candidate for the +presidency; for he appreciated how much greater was the strength of the +military hero, with all that could be said against him, than was that of +Mr. Clay, whose destiny was so disappointingly non-presidential. When +the nomination went according to his wishes, he entered into the +campaign with as much zeal as his congressional duties would +permit,--indeed, with somewhat an excess of zeal, for he delivered on +the floor of the House an harangue in favor of the general which was +little else than a stump speech, admirably adapted for a backwoods +audience, but grossly out of place where it was spoken. He closed it +with an assault on General Cass, as a military man, which was designed +to be humorous, and has, therefore, been quoted with unfortunate +frequency. So soon as Congress adjourned he was able to seek a more +legitimate arena in New England, whither he went at once and delivered +many speeches, none of which have been preserved. + +Lincoln's position upon the slavery question in this Congress was that +of moderate hostility. In the preceding Congress, the Twenty-ninth, the +famous Wilmot Proviso, designed to exclude slavery from any territory +which the United States should acquire from Mexico, had passed the House +and had been killed in the Senate. In the Thirtieth Congress efforts to +the same end were renewed in various forms, always with Lincoln's favor. +He once said that he had voted for the principle of the Wilmot Proviso +"about forty-two times," which, if not an accurate mathematical +computation, was a vivid expression of his stanch adherence to the +doctrine. At the second session Mr. Lincoln voted against a bill to +prohibit the slave trade in the District of Columbia, because he did not +approve its form; and then introduced another bill, which he himself +had drawn. This prohibited the bringing slaves into the District, except +as household servants by government officials who were citizens of slave +States; it also prohibited selling them to be taken away from the +District; children born of slave mothers after January 1, 1850, were to +be subject to temporary apprenticeship and finally to be made free; +owners of slaves might collect from the government their full cash value +as the price of their freedom; fugitive slaves escaping into Washington +and Georgetown were to be returned; finally the measure was to be +submitted to popular vote in the District. This was by no means a +measure of abolitionist coloring, although Lincoln obtained for it the +support of Joshua R. Giddings, who believed it "as good a bill as we +could get at this time," and was "willing to pay for slaves in order to +save them from the Southern market." It recognized the right of property +in slaves, which the Abolitionists denied; also it might conceivably be +practicable, a characteristic which rarely marked the measures of the +Abolitionists, who professed to be pure moralists rather than practical +politicians. From this first move to the latest which he made in this +great business, Lincoln never once broke connection with practicability. +On this occasion he had actually succeeded in obtaining from Mr. Seaton, +editor of the "National Intelligencer" and mayor of Washington, a +promise of support, which gave him a little prospect of success. Later, +however, the Southern Congressmen drew this influential gentleman to +their side, and thereby rendered the passage of the bill impossible; at +the close of the session it lay with the other corpses in that grave +called "the table." + +When his term of service in Congress was over Lincoln sought, but failed +to obtain, the position of Commissioner of the General Lands Office. He +was offered the governorship of the newly organized Territory of Oregon; +but this, controlled by the sensible advice of his wife, he fortunately +declined. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Lamon, pp. 238-252, tells the story of Lincoln's marriage at great +length, sparing nothing; he liberally sets forth the gossip and the +stories; he quotes the statements of witnesses who knew both parties at +the time, and he gives in full much correspondence. The spirit and the +letter of his account find substantial corroboration in the narrative of +Herndon, pp. 206-231. So much original material and evidence of +acquaintances have been gathered by these two writers, and their own +opportunities of knowing the truth were so good, that one seems not at +liberty to reject the _substantial_ correctness of their version. +Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, vol. i. ch. 11, give a narrative for the most +part in their own language. Their attempt throughout to mitigate all +that is disagreeable is so obvious, not only in substance but in the +turn of every phrase, that it is impossible to accept their chapter as a +picture either free from obscurity or true in color, glad as one might +be to do so. Arnold, pp. 68, 72, and Holland, p. 90, simply mention the +marriage, and other biographers would have done well to imitate this +forbearance; but too much has been said to leave this course now open. + +[49] It is fair to say that my view of this "duel" is not that of other +writers. Lamon, p. 260, says that "the scene is one of transcendent +interest." Herndon, p. 260, calls it a "serio-comic affair." Holland, +pp. 87-89, gives a brief, deprecatory account of what he calls +"certainly a boyish affair." Arnold, pp. 69-72, treats it simply enough, +but puts the whole load of the ridicule upon Shields. Nicolay and Hay, +vol. i. ch. 12, deal with it gravely, and in the same way in which, in +the preceding chapter, they deal with the marriage; that is to say, they +eschew the production of original documents, and, by their own gloss, +make a good story for Lincoln and a very bad one for Shields; they speak +lightly of the "ludicrousness" of the affair. To my mind the opinion +which Lincoln himself held is far more correct than that expressed by +any of his biographers. + +[50] Serious practice only began with him when he formed his partnership +with Judge Logan in 1841; in 1860 his practice came to an end; in the +interval he was for two years a member of Congress. + +[51] A story is told by Lamon, p. 321, which puts Lincoln in a position +absolutely indefensible by any sound reasoning. + +[52] For accounts of Lincoln at the bar, as also for many illustrative +and entertaining anecdotes to which the plan of this volume does not +permit space to be given, see Arnold, 55-59, 66, 73, 84-91; Holland, 72, +73, 76-83, 89; Lamon, 223-225, ch. xiii. 311-332; N. and H. i. 167-171, +213-216, ch. xvii. 298-309; Herndon, 182-184, 186, 264-266, 306 n., +307-309, 312-319, 323-331, ch. xi. 332-360. + +[53] Holland, 95; but _per contra_ see Herndon, 271. + +[54] March, 1843. + +[55] By way of example of his methods, see letter to Herndon, June 22, +1848, Lamon, 299. + +[56] The treaty of peace, subject to some amendments, was ratified by +the Senate March 10, 1848, and officially promulgated on July 4. + +[57] Von Holst, _Const. Hist. of U.S._ iii. 336. All historians are +pretty well agreed upon the relation of the Polk administration to the +Mexican war. But the story has never been so clearly and admirably +traced by any other as by von Holst in the third volume of his history. + +[58] December 22, 1847. + +[59] Printed by Lamon, 282. See, also, Herndon, 277. + +[60] Herndon, 281; see letters given in full by Lamon, 291, 293, 295 (at +296); N. and H. i. 274 + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NORTH AND SOUTH + + +The Ordinance of 1787 established that slavery should never exist in any +part of that vast northwestern territory which had then lately been +ceded by sundry States to the Confederation. This Ordinance could not be +construed otherwise than as an integral part of the transaction of +cession, and was forever unalterable, because it represented in a +certain way a part of the consideration in a contract, and was also in +the nature of a declaration of trust undertaken by the Congress of the +Confederation with the granting States. The article "was agreed to +without opposition;" but almost contemporaneously, in the sessions of +that convention which framed the Constitution, debate waxed hot upon the +topic which was then seen to present grave obstacles to union. It was +true that many of the wisest Southerners of that generation regarded the +institution as a menacing misfortune; they however could not ignore the +fact that it was a "misfortune" of that peculiar kind which was endured +with much complacency by those afflicted by it; and it was equally +certain that the great body of slave-owners would resent any effort to +relieve them of their burden. Hence there were placed in the +Constitution provisions in behalf of slavery which involved an admission +that the institution needed protection, and should receive it. The idea +of protection implied the existence of hostility either of men or of +circumstances, or of both. Thus by the Ordinance and the Constitution, +taken together, there was already indirectly recognized an antagonism +between the institutions, interests, and opinions of the South and those +of the North. + +Slowly this feeling of opposition grew. The first definite mark of the +growth was the struggle over the admission of Missouri, in 1820. This +was settled by the famous "Compromise," embodied in the Act of March 6, +1820, whereby the people of the Territory of Missouri were allowed to +frame a state government with no restriction against slavery; but a +clause also enacted that slavery should never be permitted in any part +of the remainder of the public territory lying north of the parallel of +36 deg. 30'. By its efficiency during thirty-four years of constantly +increasing strain this legislation was proved to be a remarkable +political achievement; and as the people saw it perform so long and so +well a service so vital they came to regard it as only less sacred than +the Constitution itself. Even Douglas, who afterward led in repealing +it, declared that it had an "origin akin to the Constitution," and that +it was "canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred +thing." Yet during the long quietude which it brought, each section +kept a jealous eye upon the other; and especially was the scrutiny of +the South uneasy, for she saw ever more and more plainly the disturbing +truth that her institution needed protection. Being in derogation of +natural right, it was peculiarly dependent upon artificial sustention; +the South would not express the condition in this language, but acted +upon the idea none the less. It was true that the North was not +aggressive towards slavery, but was observing it with much laxity and +indifference; that the crusading spirit was sleeping soundly, and even +the proselyting temper was feeble. But this state of Northern feeling +could not relieve the South from the harassing consciousness that +slavery needed not only toleration, but positive _protection_ at the +hands of a population whose institutions were naturally antagonistic to +the slave idea. This being the case, she must be alarmed at seeing that +population steadily outstripping her own in numbers and wealth.[61] +Since she could not possibly even hold this disproportion stationary, +her best resource seemed to be to endeavor to keep it practically +harmless by maintaining a balance of power in the government. Thus it +became unwritten law that slave States and free States must be equal in +number, so that the South could not be outvoted in the Senate. This +system was practicable for a while, yet not a very long while; for the +North was filling up that great northwestern region, which was eternally +dedicated to freedom, and full-grown communities could not forever be +kept outside the pale of statehood. On the other hand, apart from any +question of numbers, the South could make no counter-expansion, because +she lay against a foreign country. After a time, however, Texas +opportunely rebelled against Mexico, and then the opportunity for +removing this obstruction was too obvious and too tempting to be lost. A +brief period of so-called independence on the part of Texas was followed +by the annexation of her territory to the United States,[62] with the +proviso that from her great area might in the future be cut off still +four other States. Slavery had been abolished in all Mexican territory, +and Texas had been properly a "free" country; but in becoming a part of +the United States she became also a slave State. + +Mexico had declared that annexation of Texas would constitute a _casus +belli_, yet she was wisely laggard in beginning vindictive hostilities +against a power which could so easily whip her, and she probably never +would have done so had the United States rested content with an honest +boundary line. But this President Polk would not do, and by theft and +falsehood he at last fairly drove the Mexicans into a war, in which they +were so excessively beaten that the administration found itself able to +gather more plunder than it had expected. By the treaty of peace the +United States not only extended unjustly the southwestern boundary of +Texas, but also got New Mexico and California. To forward this result, +Polk had asked the House to place $2,000,000 at his disposal. Thereupon, +as an amendment to the bill granting this sum, Wilmot introduced his +famous proviso, prohibiting slavery in any part of the territory to be +acquired. Repeatedly and in various shapes was the substance of this +proviso voted upon, but always it was voted down. Though New Mexico had +come out from under the rule of despised Mexico as "free" country, a +contrary destiny was marked out for it in its American character. A +plausible suggestion was made to extend the sacred line of the Missouri +Compromise westward to the Pacific Ocean; and very little of the new +country lay north of that line. By all these transactions the South +seemed to be scoring many telling points in its game. They were definite +points, which all could see and estimate; yet a price, which was +considerable, though less definite, less easy to see and to estimate, +had in fact been paid for them; for the antagonism of the rich and +teeming North to the Southern institution and to the Southern policy for +protecting it had been spread and intensified to a degree which involved +a menace fully offsetting the Southern territorial gain. One of the +indications of this state of feeling was the organization of the "Free +Soil" party. + +Almost simultaneously with this important advancement of the Southern +policy there occurred an event, operative upon the other side, which +certainly no statesman could have foreseen. Gold was discovered in +California, and in a few months a torrent of immigrants poured over the +land. The establishment of an efficient government became a pressing +need. In Congress they debated the matter hotly; the friends of the +Wilmot proviso met in bitter conflict the advocates of the westward +extension of the line of 36 deg. 30'. Neither side could prevail, and amid +intense excitement the Thirtieth Congress expired. For the politicians +this was well enough, but for the Californians organization was such an +instant necessity that they now had to help themselves to it. So they +promptly elected a Constitutional Convention, which assembled on +September 1, 1849, and adjourned on October 13. Though this body held +fifteen delegates who were immigrants from slave States, yet it was +unanimous in presenting a Constitution which prohibited slavery, and +which was at once accepted by a popular vote of 12,066 yeas against 811 +nays. + +Great then was the consternation of the Southern leaders when +Californian delegates appeared immediately upon the assembling of the +Thirty-first Congress, and asked for admission beneath this unlooked-for +"free" charter of statehood. The shock was aggravated by the fact that +New Mexico, actually instigated thereto by the slaveholding President +Taylor himself, was likely to follow close in the Californian +foot-tracks. The admission of Texas had for a moment disturbed the +senatorial equilibrium between North and South, which, however, had +quickly been restored by the admission of Wisconsin. But the South had +nothing to offer to counterbalance California and New Mexico, which were +being suddenly filched from her confident expectation. In this emergency +those extremists in the South who offset the Abolitionists at the North +fell back upon the appalling threat of disunion, which could hardly be +regarded as an idle extravagance of the "hotspurs," since it was +substantially certain that the Senate would never admit California with +her anti-slavery Constitution; and thus a real crisis seemed at hand. +Other questions also were cast into the seething caldron. Texas, whose +boundaries were as uncertain as the ethics of politicians, set up a +claim which included nearly all New Mexico, and so would have settled +the question of slavery for that region at least. Further, the South +called for a Fugitive Slave Law sufficiently stringent to be +serviceable. Also, in encountering the Wilmot proviso, Southern +statesmen had asserted the doctrine, far-reaching and subversive of +established ideas and of enacted laws, that Congress could not +constitutionally interfere with the property-rights of citizens of the +United States in the Territories, and that slaves were property. Amid +such a confused and violent hurly-burly the perplexed body of +order-loving citizens were, with reason, seriously alarmed. + +To the great relief of these people and to the equal disgust of the +extremist politicians, Henry Clay, the "great compromiser," was now +announced to appear once more in the role which all felt that he alone +could play. He came with much dramatic effect; an aged and broken man, +he emerged from the retirement in which he seemed to have sought a brief +rest before death should lay him low, and it was with an impressive air +of sadness and of earnestness that he devoted the last remnants of his +failing strength to save a country which he had served so long. His +friends feared that he might not survive even a few months to reach the +end of his patriotic task. On January 29, 1850, he laid before the +Senate his "comprehensive scheme of adjustment." But it came not as oil +upon the angry waters; every one was offended by one or another part of +it, and at once there opened a war of debate which is among the most +noteworthy and momentous in American history. Great men who belonged to +the past and great men who were to belong to the future shared in the +exciting controversies, which were prolonged over a period of more than +half a year. Clay was constantly on his feet, doing battle with a voice +which gained rather than lost force from its pathetic feebleness. "I am +here," he solemnly said, "expecting soon to go hence, and owing no +responsibility but to my own conscience and to God." Jefferson Davis +spoke for the extension westward of the Missouri Compromise line to the +Pacific Ocean, with a proviso positively establishing slavery south of +that line. Calhoun, from the edge of the grave, into which only a few +weeks later he was to fall, once more faced his old adversaries. On +March 4 he sat beside Mason of Virginia, while that gentleman read for +him to a hushed audience the speech which he himself was too weak to +deliver. Three days later Webster uttered that speech which made the +seventh day of March almost as famous in the history of the United +States as the Ides of the same month had been in that of Rome. In the +eyes of the anti-slavery men of New England the fall of Webster was +hardly less momentous than the fall of Caesar had appeared in the +Eternal City. Seward also spoke a noteworthy speech, bringing upon +himself infinite abuse by his bold phrase, _a higher law than the +Constitution_. Salmon P. Chase followed upon the same side, in an +exalted and prophetic strain. In that momentous session every man gave +out what he felt to be his best, while anxious and excited millions +devoured every word which the newspapers reported to them. + +Clay had imprudently gathered the several matters of his Compromise into +one bill, which was soon sneeringly nicknamed "the Omnibus Bill." It was +sorely harassed by amendments, and when at last, on July 31, the Omnibus +reached the end of its journey, it contained only one passenger, viz., a +territorial government for Utah. Its trip had apparently ended in utter +failure. But a careful study of individual proclivities showed that not +improbably those measures might be passed one by one which could not be +passed in combination. In this hope, five several bills, being all the +ejected contents of the Omnibus, were brought forward, and each in turn +had the success which had been denied to them together. First: Texas +received $10,000,000, and for this price magnanimously relinquished her +unfounded claim upon New Mexico. Second: California was admitted as a +free State. Third: New Mexico was organized as a Territory, with the +proviso that when she should form a state constitution the slavery +question should be determined by the people, and that during her +territorial existence the question of property in a slave should be left +undisturbed by congressional action, to be determined by the Supreme +Court of the United States. Fourth: A more efficient Fugitive Slave Law +was passed. Fifth: Slave trading in the District of Columbia was +abolished. Such were the terms of an arrangement in which every man saw +so much which he himself disliked that he felt sure that others must be +satisfied. Each plumed himself on his liberality in his concessions +nobly made in behalf of public harmony. "The broad basis," says von +Holst, "on which the compromise of 1850 rested, was the conviction of +the great majority of the people, both North and South, that it was +fair, reasonable, and patriotic to come to a friendly understanding." + +Thus in the midsummer of 1850 did the nation, with intense relief, see +the imminent disaster of civil discord averted,--or was it only +postponed? It was ominous that no men who were deeply in earnest in +public affairs were sincerely satisfied. The South saw no gain which +offset the destruction of the balance of power by the admission of +California. Thinking men at the North were alarmed at the recognition of +the principle of non-intervention by Congress concerning slavery in the +Territories, a principle which soon, under the seductive title of +"popular sovereignty" in the Territories, threatened even that partial +restriction heretofore given by the Missouri Compromise. Neither party +felt sufficiently secure of the strength of its legal position to be +altogether pleased at seeing the doctrine of treating the slave in the +Territories as "property" cast into the lottery of the Supreme Court. +Lincoln recognized the futility of this whole arrangement, and said +truly that the slavery question could "never be successfully +compromised." Yet he accepted the situation, with the purpose of making +of it the best that was possible. The mass of the people, less +far-sighted, were highly gratified at the passing of the great danger; +refused to recognize that a more temporary compromise was never patched +up to serve a turn; and applauded it so zealously that in preparing for +the presidential campaign of 1852 each party felt compelled to declare +emphatically--what all wise politicians knew to be false--the "finality" +of the great Compromise of 1850. Never, never more was there to be a +revival of the slavery agitation! Yet, at the same time, it was +instinctively felt that the concord would cease at once if the nation +should not give to the South a Democratic President! In this campaign +Lincoln made a few speeches in Illinois in favor of Scott; but Herndon +says that they were not very satisfactory efforts. Franklin Pierce was +chosen, and slavery could have had no better man. + +This doctrine of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the +Territories lay as the seed of mortal disease imbedded in the vitals of +the great Compromise even at the hour of its birth. All the howlings of +the political medicine-men in the halls of Congress, and in the wigwams +where the party platforms were manufactured, could not defer the +inevitable dissolution. The rapid peopling of the Pacific coast already +made it imperative to provide some sort of governmental organization for +the sparsely inhabited regions lying between these new lands and the +fringe of population near the Mississippi. Accordingly bills were +introduced to establish as a Territory the region which was afterward +divided between Kansas and Nebraska; but at two successive sessions they +failed to pass, more, as it seemed, from lack of interest than from any +open hostility. In the course of debate it was explained, and not +contradicted, that slavery was not mentioned in the bills because the +Missouri Compromise controlled that matter. Yet it was well known that +the Missouri Compromise was no longer a sure barrier; for one wing of +the pro-slavery party asserted that it was unconstitutional on the +ground that slaves, being property, could not be touched in the +Territories by congressional enactments; while another wing of the party +preferred the plausible cry of "popular sovereignty," than which no +words could ring truer in American ears; and no one doubted that, in +order to give that sovereignty full sway, they would at any convenient +moment vote to repeal even the "sacred" Compromise. It could not be +denied that this was the better course, if it were practicable; and +accordingly, January 16, 1854, Senator Dixon of Kentucky offered an +amendment to the pending Nebraska bill, which substantially embodied the +repeal. In the Senate Douglas was chairman of the Committee on +Territories, and was induced to cooeperate.[63] January 23, 1854, he +introduced his famous "Kansas-Nebraska bill," establishing the two +Territories and declaring the Missouri Compromise "inoperative" therein. +A later amendment declared the Compromise to be "inconsistent with the +principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and +Territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850," and therefore +"inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this Act +not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it +therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and +regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to +the Constitution." After a long and hard fight the bill was passed with +this clause in it, which Benton well stigmatized as a "stump speech +injected into the belly of the bill." The insertion of the word State +was of momentous significance. + +This repeal set the anti-slavery party all ablaze. Among the rest +Lincoln was fired with strenuous indignation, and roused from the +condition of apparent indifference to public affairs in which he had +rested since the close of his term in Congress. Douglas, coming home in +the autumn, was so disagreeably received by an angry audience in Chicago +that he felt it imperative to rehabilitate his stricken popularity. This +difficult task he essayed at the great gathering of the State Fair in +October. But Lincoln was put forward to answer him, and was brilliantly +successful in doing so, if the highly colored account of Mr. Herndon may +be trusted. Immediately after Lincoln's close, Owen Lovejoy, the +Abolitionist leader, announced "a meeting in the same place that evening +of all the friends of freedom." The scheme was to induce Lincoln to +address them, and thus publicly to commit him as of their faith. But the +astute Herndon, though himself an Abolitionist, felt that for Lincoln +personally this was by no means desirable. So he hastened to Lincoln and +strenuously said: "Go home at once! Take Bob with you, and drive +somewhere into the country, and stay till this thing is over;" and +Lincoln did take Bob and drove away to Tazewell Court House "on +business." Herndon congratulates himself upon having "saved Lincoln," +since either joining, or refusing to join, the Abolitionists at that +time would have been attended with "great danger." Lincoln had upon his +own part a wise instinct and a strong purpose to keep hard by Douglas +and to close with him as often as opportunity offered. Soon afterward +the two encountered again, and on this occasion it is narrated that +Lincoln gave Douglas so much trouble that Douglas cried for a truce, +proposing that neither of them should make any more speeches that +autumn, to which Lincoln good-naturedly assented. + +During this winter Lincoln was elected to the state legislature, but +contrary to his own wish. For he designed to be a candidate for the +United States Senate, and there might be a question as to his +eligibility if he remained a member of the electing body. Accordingly he +resigned his seat, which, to his surprise and chagrin, was immediately +filled by a Democrat; for there was a reaction in Sangamon County. On +February 8, 1855, the legislature began voting to elect a senator. The +"Douglas Democrats" wished to reelect Shields, the present incumbent. +The first ballot stood, Lincoln, 45, Shields, 41, Lyman Trumbull, 5, +scattering, 5 (or, according to other authority, 8). After several +ballots Shields was thrown over in favor of a more "practicable" +candidate, Governor Matteson, a "quasi-independent," who, upon the ninth +ballot, showed a strength of 47, while Trumbull had 35, Lincoln had run +down to 15, and "scattering" caught 1. Lincoln's weakness lay in the +fact that the Abolitionists had too loudly praised him and publicly +counted him as one of themselves. For this reason five Democrats, +disgusted with Douglas for his attack on the Missouri Compromise, but +equally bitter against Abolitionism, stubbornly refused ever to vote for +a Whig, above all a Whig smirched by Abolitionist applause. So it seemed +that Owen Lovejoy and his friends had incumbered Lincoln with a fatal +handicap. The situation was this: Lincoln could count upon his fifteen +adherents to the extremity; but the five anti-Douglas Democrats were +equally stanch against him, so that his chance was evidently gone. +Trumbull was a Democrat, but he was opposed to the policy of Douglas's +Kansas-Nebraska bill; his following was not altogether trustworthy, and +a trifling defection from it seemed likely to occur and to make out +Matteson's majority. Lincoln pondered briefly; then, subjecting all else +to the great principle of "anti-Nebraska," he urged his friends to +transfer their votes to Trumbull. With grumbling and reluctance they did +so, and by this aid, on the tenth ballot, Trumbull was elected. In a +letter to Washburne, Lincoln wrote: "I think you would have done the +same under the circumstances, though Judge Davis, who came down this +morning, declares he never would have consented to the 47 men being +controlled by the 5. I regret my defeat moderately, but am not nervous +about it." If that was true which was afterwards so frequently +reiterated by Douglas during the campaign of 1858, that a bargain had +been struck between Lincoln and Trumbull, whereby the former was to +succeed Shields and the latter was to succeed Douglas at the election +two years later, then Lincoln certainly displayed on this occasion a +"generosity" which deserves more than the very moderate praise which has +been given it, of being "above the range of the mere politician's +vision."[64] + +An immediate effect of this repealing legislation of 1854 was to cast +Kansas into the arena as booty to be won in fight between anti-slavery +and pro-slavery. For this competition the North had the advantage that +its population outnumbered that of the South in the ratio of three to +two, and emigration was in accord with the habits of the people. Against +this the South offset proximity, of which the peculiar usefulness soon +became apparent. Then was quickly under way a fair fight, in a certain +sense, but most unfairly fought. Each side contended after its fashion; +Northern anti-slavery merchants subscribed money to pay the expenses of +free-state immigrants. "Border ruffians" and members of "Blue Lodges" +and of kindred fraternities came across the border from Missouri to +take a hand in every politico-belligerent crisis. The parties were +not unequally matched; by temperament the free-state men were inclined +to orderly and legitimate ways, yet they were willing and able to fight +fire with fire. On the other hand, the slave-state men had a native +preference for the bowie-knife and the shot-gun, yet showed a kind of +respect for the ballot-box by insisting that it should be stuffed with +votes on their side. Thus for a long while was waged a dubious, savage, +and peculiar warfare. Imprisonments and rescues, beatings, shootings, +plunderings, burnings, sieges, and lootings of towns were interspersed +with elections of civil officers, with legislative enactments in +ordinary form, with trials, suits at law, legal arguments, and decisions +of judges. It is impossible here to sketch in detail this strange +phantasmagory of arson, bloodshed, politics, and law. + +[Illustration: Lyman Trumbull] + +Meantime other occurrences demand mention. In May, 1854, the seizure in +Boston of Anthony Burns, as an escaped slave, caused a riot in which the +court-house was attacked by a mob, one of the assailants was killed, and +the militia were called out. Other like seizures elsewhere aroused the +indignation of people who, whatever were their abstract theories as to +the law, revolted at the actual spectacle of a man dragged back from +freedom into slavery. May 22, 1856, Preston S. Brooks strode suddenly +upon Charles Sumner, seated and unarmed at his desk in the +senate-chamber, and beat him savagely over the head with a cane, +inflicting very serious injuries. Had it been a fair fight, or had the +South repudiated the act, the North might have made little of it, for +Sumner was too advanced in his views to be politically popular. But, +although the onslaught was even more offensive for its cowardice than +for its brutality, nevertheless the South overwhelmed Brooks with +laudation, and by so doing made thousands upon thousands of Republican +votes at the North. The deed, the enthusiastic greeting, and the angry +resentment marked the alarming height to which the excitement had risen. + +The presidential campaign of the following summer, 1856, showed a +striking disintegration and re-formation of political groups. Nominally +there were four parties in the field: Democrats, Whigs, Native Americans +or Know-Nothings, and Republicans. The Know-Nothings had lately won some +state elections, but were of little account as a national organization, +for they stood upon an issue hopelessly insignificant in comparison with +slavery. Already many had gone over to the Republican camp; those who +remained nominated as their candidates Millard Fillmore and Andrew J. +Donelson. The Whigs were the feeble remnant of a really dead party, held +together by affection for the old name; too few to do anything by +themselves, they took by adoption the Know-Nothing candidates. The +Republican party had been born only in 1854. Its members, differing on +other matters, united upon the one doctrine, which they accepted as a +test: opposition to the extension of slavery. They nominated John C. +Fremont and William L. Dayton, and made a platform whereby they declared +it to be "both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the +Territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery;" by +which vehement and abusive language they excited the bitter resentment +of the Southern Democracy. In this convention 110 votes were cast for +Lincoln for the second place on the ticket. Lamon tells the little story +that when this was told to Lincoln he replied that he could not have +been the person designated, who was, doubtless, "the great Lincoln from +Massachusetts."[65] In the Democratic party there were two factions. The +favorite candidate of the South was Franklin Pierce, for reelection, +with Stephen A. Douglas as a substitute or second choice; the North more +generally preferred James Buchanan, who was understood to be displeased +with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The struggle was sharp, but +was won by the friends of Buchanan, with whom John C. Breckenridge was +coupled. The campaign was eager, for the Republicans soon developed a +strength beyond what had been expected and which put the Democrats to +their best exertions. The result was + + | Popular vote | Electoral vote + -------------------------+--------------+--------------- + Democrats. | 1,838,169 | 174 + Republicans. | 1,341,264 | 114 + Know-Nothings and Whigs. | 874,534 | 8 + +Thus James Buchanan became President of the United States, March 4, +1857,--stigmatized somewhat too severely as "a Northern man with +Southern principles;" in fact an honest man and of good abilities, who, +in ordinary times, would have left a fair reputation as a statesman of +the second rank; but a man hopelessly unfit alike in character and in +mind either to comprehend the present emergency or to rise to its +demands.[66] Yet, while the Democrats triumphed, the Republicans enjoyed +the presage of the future; they had polled a total number of votes which +surprised every one; on the other hand, the Democrats had lost ten +States[67] which they had carried in 1852 and had gained only two +others,[68] showing a net loss of eight States; and their electoral +votes had dwindled from 254 to 174. + +On the day following Buchanan's inauguration that occurred which had +been foreshadowed with ill-advised plainness in his inaugural address. +In the famous case of Dred Scott,[69] the Supreme Court of the United +States established as law the doctrine lately advanced by the Southern +Democrats, that a slave was "property," and that his owner was entitled +to be protected in the possession of him, as such, in the Territories. +This necessarily demolished the rival theory of "popular sovereignty," +which the Douglas Democrats had adopted, not without shrewdness, as +being far better suited to the Northern mind. For clearly the people +enjoyed no sovereignty where they had no option. Consequently in the +Territories there was no longer a slavery question. The indignation of +anti-slavery men of all shades of opinion was intense, and was +unfortunately justifiable. For wholly apart from the controversy as to +whether the law was better expounded by the chief justice or by Judge +Curtis in his dissenting opinion, there remained a main fact, undeniable +and inexcusable, to wit: that the court, having decided that the lower +court had no jurisdiction, and being therefore itself unable to remand +the cause for a new trial, had then outstepped its own proper function +and outraged legal propriety by determining the questions raised by the +rest of the record,--questions which no longer had any real standing +before this tribunal. This course was well known to have been pursued +with the purpose on the part of the majority of the judges to settle by +judicial authority, and by a _dictum_ conspicuously _obiter_, that great +slavery question with which Congress had grappled in vain. It was a +terrible blunder, for the people were only incensed by a volunteered and +unauthorized interference. Moreover, the reasoning of Chief Justice +Taney was such that the Republicans began anxiously to inquire why it +was not as applicable to States as to Territories, and why it must not +be extended to States when occasion should arrive; and in this +connection it seemed now apparent why "States" had been named in the +bill which repealed the Missouri Compromise.[70] In spite of this menace +the struggle in Kansas was not slackened. Time had been counting heavily +in favor of the North. Her multitudinous population ceaselessly fed the +stream of immigrants, and they were stubborn fellows who came to stay, +and therefore were sure to wear out the persistence of the +boot-and-saddle men from over the Missouri border. Accordingly, in 1857, +the free-state men so vastly outnumbered the slavery contingent, that +even pro-slavery men had to acknowledge it. Then the slavery party made +its last desperate effort. Toward the close of that year the Lecompton +Constitution was framed by a convention chosen at an election in which +the free-state men, perhaps unwisely, had refused to take part. When +this pro-slavery instrument was offered to the people, they were not +allowed to vote simply Yea or Nay, but only "for the Constitution with +slavery," or "for the Constitution with no slavery." Again the +free-state men refrained from voting, and on December 21, 6,143 ballots +were declared to have been cast "for the Constitution with slavery," and +589 "for the Constitution with no slavery." Much more than one third of +the 6,143 were proved to be fraudulent, but the residue far exceeded the +requisite majority. January 4, 1858, state officers were to be chosen, +and now the free-state men decided to make an irregular opportunity to +vote, in their turn, simply for or against the Lecompton Constitution. +This time the pro-slavery men, considering the matter already lawfully +settled, refused to vote, and the result was that this polling showed +10,226 against the Constitution, 138 for the Constitution with slavery, +24 for the Constitution without slavery. It is an instance of Lincoln's +political foresight that nearly two years and a half before this +condition of affairs came about he had written: "If Kansas fairly votes +herself a slave State, she must be admitted, or the Union must be +dissolved. But how if she votes herself a slave State unfairly?... Must +she still be admitted, or the Union be dissolved? That will be the phase +of the question when it first becomes a practical one."[71] + +The struggle was now transferred to Washington. President Buchanan had +solemnly pledged himself to accept the result of the popular vote. Now +he was confronted by two popular votes, of which the one made somewhat +the better technical and formal showing, and the other undeniably +expressed the true will of a large majority of lawful voters. He +selected the former, and advised Congress to admit Kansas under the +Lecompton Constitution with slavery. But Douglas took the other side. +The position of Douglas in the nation and in the Democratic party +deserves brief consideration, for in a way it was the cause of Lincoln's +nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1860. From +1852 to 1860 Douglas was the most noteworthy man in public life in the +country. Webster, Clay, and Calhoun had passed away. Seward, Chase, and +Sumner, still in the earlier stages of their brilliant careers, were +organizing the great party of the future. This interval of eight years +belonged to Douglas more than to any other one man. He had been a +candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1852 and +again in 1856; and had failed to secure it in part by reason of that +unwritten rule whereby the leading statesmen are so often passed over, +in order to confer the great prize upon insignificant and therefore +presumably submissive men. Douglas was not of this type; he had high +spirit, was ambitious, masterful, and self-confident; he was also an +aggressive, brilliant, and tireless fighter in a political campaign, an +orator combining something of the impressiveness of Webster with the +readiness and roughness of the stump speaker. He had a thorough +familiarity with all the politics, both the greater and the smaller, of +the time; he was shrewd and adroit as a politician, and he had as good a +right as any man then prominent in public life to the more dignified +title of statesman. He had the art of popularity, and upon sufficient +occasion could be supple and accommodating even in the gravest matters +of principle. He had always been a Democrat. He now regarded himself as +properly the leader of the Democratic party; and of course he still +aimed at the high office which he had twice missed.[72] With this object +in view, he had gone very far to retain his hold upon the South. He told +Southerners that by his happy theory of "popular sovereignty" he had +educated the public mind, and accomplished the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise. When the Dred Scott decision took the life out of his +"popular sovereignty," he showed his wonted readiness in adapting +himself to the situation. To the triumphant South he graciously admitted +the finality of a decision which sustained the most extreme Southern +doctrine. To the perturbed and indignant North he said cheeringly that +the decision was of no practical consequence whatsoever! For every one +knew that slavery could not exist in any community without the aid of +friendly legislation; and if any anti-slavery community should by its +anti-slavery legislature withhold this essential friendly legislation, +then slavery in that State might be lawful but would be impossible. So, +he said, there is still in fact "popular sovereignty."[73] When the +pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution came up for consideration Douglas +decided not to rest content with the form of popular approval, but to +stand out for the substance. He quarreled with Buchanan, and in an angry +interview they exchanged threats and defiance. Douglas felt himself the +greater man of the two in the party, and audaciously indicated something +like contempt for the rival who was not leader but only President. +Conscience, if one may be allowed gravely to speak of the conscience of +a professional politician, and policy were in comfortable unison in +commending this choice to Douglas. For his term as senator was to expire +in 1858, and reelection was not only in itself desirable, but seemed +essential to securing the presidency in 1860. Heretofore Illinois had +been a Democratic State; the southern part, peopled by immigrants from +neighboring slave States, was largely pro-slavery; but the northern +part, containing the rapidly growing city of Chicago, had been filled +from the East, and was inclined to sympathize with the rest of the +North. Such being the situation, an avowal of Democratic principles, +coupled with the repudiation of the Lecompton fraud, seemed the shrewd +and safe course in view of Douglas's political surroundings, also the +consistent, or may we say honest, course in view of his antecedent +position. If, in thus retaining his hold on Illinois, he gave to the +Southern Democracy an offense which could never be forgotten or +forgiven, this misfortune was due to the impracticable situation and not +to any lack of skillful strategy on his part. In spite of him the bill +passed the Senate, but in the House twenty-two Northern Democrats went +over to the opposition, and carried a substitute measure, which +established that the Lecompton Constitution must again be submitted to +popular vote. Though this was done by the body of which Douglas was not +a member, yet every one felt that it was in fact his triumph over the +administration. A Committee of Conference then brought in the "English +bill." Under this the Kansans were to vote, August 3, 1858, either to +accept the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, with the _douceur_ of a +land grant, or to reject it. If they accepted it, the State was to be +admitted at once; if they rejected it, they were not to be admitted +until the population should reach the number which was required for +electing a member to the House of Representatives. At present the +population was far short of this number, and therefore rejection +involved a long delay in acquiring statehood. Douglas very justly +assailed the unfairness of a proposal by which an anti-slavery vote was +thus doubly and very severely handicapped; but the bill was passed by +both Houses of Congress and was signed by the President. The Kansans, +however, by an enormous majority,[74] rejected the bribes of land and +statehood in connection with slavery. For his action concerning the +Lecompton Constitution and the "English bill" Douglas afterward took +much credit to himself. + +Such was the stage of advancement of the slavery conflict in the +country, and such the position of Douglas in national and in state +politics, when there took place that great campaign in Illinois which +made him again senator in 1858, and made Lincoln President in 1860. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[61] For a striking comparison of the condition of the South with that +of the North in 1850, see von Holst's _Const. Hist. of U.S._ v. 567-586. + +[62] December, 1845. + +[63] For a description of Douglas's state of mind, see N. and H. i. +345-351, quoting original authorities. + +[64] N. and H. i. 388. + +[65] Thus when John Adams first landed in Europe, and was asked whether +he was "the great Mr. Adams," he said: No, the great Mr. Adams was his +cousin, Samuel Adams of Boston. + +[66] For a fair and discriminating estimate of Buchanan, see Blaine, +_Twenty Years in Congress_, vol. i. ch. x., especially pp. 239-241. + +[67] Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Ohio, +Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, all for Fremont; Maryland for Fillmore. + +[68] Tennessee and Kentucky. + +[69] Dred Scott, plff. in error, _vs._ Sandford, Sup. Ct. of U.S. Dec. +Term, 1856, 19 Howard, 393. After the conclusion of this case Scott was +given his freedom by his master. + +[70] _Ante_, pp. 94, 95. + +[71] August 24, 1855; Holland, 145. + +[72] For a good sketch of Douglas, see Elaine, _Twenty Years of +Congress_, i. 144. + +[73] This doctrine was set forth by Douglas in a speech at Springfield, +Ill., June 12, 1857. A fortnight later, June 26, at the same place, +Lincoln answered this speech. N. and H. ii. 85-89. + +[74] By 11,300 against 1,788, August 2, 1858. Kansas was admitted as a +State at the close of January, 1861, after many of the Southern States +had already seceded. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS JOINT DEBATE + + +About this time Lincoln again became active in the politics of his +State, aiding in the formation of the Republican party there. On May 29, +1856, a state convention of "all opponents of anti-Nebraska legislation" +was held at Bloomington. After "a platform ringing with strong +anti-Nebraska sentiments" had been adopted, Lincoln, "in response to +repeated calls, came forward and delivered a speech of such earnestness +and power that no one who heard it will ever forget the effect it +produced." It was "never written out or printed," which is to be +regretted; but it lives in one of those vivid descriptions by Herndon +which leave nothing to the imagination. For the moment this triumph was +gratifying; but when Lincoln, leaving the hot enthusiasts of +Bloomington, came home to his fellow townsmen at Springfield, he passed +into a chill atmosphere of indifference and disapproval. An effort was +made to gather a mass meeting in order to ratify the action of the state +convention. But the "mass" consisted of three persons, viz., Abraham +Lincoln, Herndon, and one John Pain. It was trying, but Lincoln was +finely equal to the occasion; in a few words, passing from jest to +earnest, he said that the meeting was larger than he _knew_ it would be; +for while he knew that he and his partner would attend, he was not sure +of any one else; and yet another man had been found brave enough to come +out. But, "while all seems dead, the age itself is not. It liveth as +sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of life and motion +the world does move, nevertheless. Be hopeful, and now let us adjourn +and appeal to the people!" + +In the presidential campaign of 1856 the Republicans of Illinois put +Lincoln on their electoral ticket, and he entered into the campaign +promptly and very zealously. Traveling untiringly to and fro, he made +about fifty speeches. By the quality of these, even more than by their +number, he became the champion of the party, so that pressing demands +for him came from the neighboring States. He was even heard of in the +East. But there he encountered a lack of appreciation and in some +quarters an hostility which he felt to be hurtful to his prospects as +well as unjust towards a leading Republican of the Northwest. Horace +Greeley, enthusiastic, well meaning, ever blundering, the editor of the +New York "Tribune," cast the powerful influence of that sheet against +him; and as the senatorial contest of 1858 was approaching, in which +Lincoln hoped to be a principal, this ill feeling was very +unfortunate.[75] "I fear," he said, "that Greeley's attitude will +damage me with Sumner, Seward, Wilson, Phillips, and other friends in +the East,"--and by the way, it is interesting to note this significant +list of political "friends." Thereupon Herndon, as guardian of Lincoln's +political prospects, went to pass the opening months of the important +year upon a crusade among the great men of the East, designing to +extinguish the false lights erroneously hung out by persons ignorant of +the truth. Erelong he cheered Lincoln by encouraging accounts of +success, and of kind words spoken by many Eastern magnates. + +In 1858, ability, courage, activity, ambition, the prestige of success, +and a plausible moderation in party politics combined to make Douglas +the most conspicuous individual in the public view. There was no other +way whereby any other man could so surely attract the close and +interested attention of the whole people as by meeting Douglas in direct +personal competition. If Douglas had not held the position which he did, +or if, holding it, he had lived in another State than Illinois, Lincoln +might never have been President of the United States. But the essential +facts lay favorably for effecting that presentation before the people +which was indispensable for his fortunes. In April, 1858, the +Democratic State Convention of Illinois indorsed the position which +Douglas had taken in the Kansas business. This involved that the party +should present him as its candidate for reelection to the national +Senate by the legislature whose members were to be chosen in the +following autumn. "In the very nature of things," says the enthusiastic +Herndon, Lincoln was at once selected by the Republicans, and on June 16 +their convention resolved that "Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and +only choice for United States senator to fill the vacancy about to be +created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas's term of office." Immediately +the popular excitement gave measure of the estimate placed upon the two +men by those who most accurately knew their qualities. All Illinoisians +looked forward eagerly to the fine spectacle of a battle royal between +real leaders. + +The general political condition was extremely confused. The great number +of worthy citizens, who had been wont to save themselves from the worry +of critical thought in political matters by the simple process of +uniform allegiance to a party, now found the old familiar organizations +rapidly disintegrating. They were dismayed and bewildered at the scene; +everywhere there were new cries, new standards, new leaders, while small +bodies of recruits, displaying in strange union old comrades beside old +foes, were crossing to and fro and changing relationships, to the +inextricable confusion of the situation. In such a chaos each man was +driven to do his own thinking, to discover his genuine beliefs, and to +determine in what company he could stand enduringly in the troublous +times ahead. It was one of those periods in which small men are laid +aside and great leaders are recognized by popular instinct; when the +little band that is in deepest earnest becomes endowed with a force +which compels the mass of careless, temporizing human-kind to gravitate +towards it. Such bands were now the Abolitionists at the North and the +Secessionists at the South. Between them lay the nation, disquieted, +contentious, and more than a little angry at the prevalent discomfort +and alarm. At the North nine men out of ten cared far less for any +principle, moral or political, than they did for the discovery of some +course whereby this unwelcome conflict between slavery and freedom could +be prevented from disorganizing the course of daily life and business; +and since the Abolitionists were generally charged with being in great +measure responsible for the present menacing condition, they were +regarded with bitter animosity by a large number of their fellow +citizens. The Secessionists were not in equal disfavor at the South, yet +they were still very much in the minority, even in the Gulf States. + +Illinois had been pretty stanchly Democratic in times past, but no one +could forecast the complexion which she would put on in the coming +campaign. The Whigs were gone. The Republican party, though so lately +born, yet had already traversed the period of infancy and perhaps also +that of youth; men guessed wildly how many voters would now cast its +ballot. On the other hand, the Democrats were suffering from internal +quarrels. The friends of Douglas, and all moderate Democrats, declared +him to be the leader of the Democracy; but Southern conventions and +newspapers were angrily "reading him out" of the party, and the singular +spectacle was witnessed of the Democratic administration sending out its +orders to all Federal office-holders in Illinois to oppose the +Democratic nominee, even to the point of giving the election to the +Republicans; for if discipline was to exist, a defection like that of +which Douglas had been guilty must be punished with utter and +everlasting destruction at any cost. This schism of course made the +numerical uncertainties even more uncertain than they rightfully should +have been. Yet, in an odd way, the same fact worked also against +Lincoln; for Douglas's recent votes against the pro-slavery measures of +the administration for the admission of Kansas, together with his own +direct statements on recent occasions, had put him in a light which +misled many Northern anti-slavery men, whose perception did not +penetrate to the core-truth. For example, not only Greeley, but Henry +Wilson, Burlingame, Washburne, Colfax, and more, really believed that +Douglas was turning his back upon his whole past career, and that this +brilliant political strategist was actually bringing into the +anti-slavery camp[76] all his accumulations of prestige, popularity, and +experience, all his seductive eloquence, his skill, and his grand +mastery over men. Blinded by the dazzling prospect, they gave all their +influence in favor of this priceless recruit, forgetting that, if he +were in fact such an apostate as they believed him to be, he would come +to them terribly shrunken in value and trustworthiness. Some even were +so infatuated as to insist that the Republicans of Illinois ought to +present no candidate against him. Fortunately the Illinoisians knew +their fellow citizen better; yet in so strange a jumble no one could +deny that it was a doubtful conflict in which these two rivals were +joining. + +Lincoln had expected to be nominated, and during several weeks he had +been thinking over his speech of acceptance. However otherwise he might +seem at any time to be engaged, he was ceaselessly turning over this +matter in his mind; and frequently he stopped short to jot down an idea +or expression upon some scrap of paper, which then he thrust into his +hat. Thus, piece by piece, the accumulation grew alike inside and +outside of his head, and at last he took all his fragments and with +infinite consideration moulded them into unity. So studiously had he +wrought that by the time of delivery he had unconsciously committed the +whole speech accurately to memory. If so much painstaking seemed to +indicate an exaggerated notion of the importance of his words, he was +soon vindicated by events; for what he said was subjected to a +dissection and a criticism such as have not often pursued the winged +words of the orator. When at last the composition was completed, he +gathered a small coterie of his friends and admirers, and read it to +them. The opening paragraph was as follows:-- + +"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we +could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the +fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and +confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the +operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but +has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a +crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against +itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure +permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be +dissolved,--I do not expect the house to fall,--but I do expect 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 alike lawful in all the States, old as +well as new,--North as well as South." + +As the reader watched for the effect of this exordium he only saw +disapproval and consternation. His assembled advisers and critics, each +and all save only the fiery Herndon, protested that language so daring +and advanced would work a ruin that might not be mended in years. +Lincoln heard their condemnation with gravity rather than surprise. But +he had worked his way to a conviction, and he was immovable; all he said +was, that the statement was true, right, and just, that it was time it +should be made, and that he would make it, even though he might have "to +go down with it;" that he would "rather be defeated with this expression +in the speech ... than to be victorious without it." Accordingly, on the +next day he spoke the paragraph without the change of a word. + +It is not without effort that we can now appreciate fully why this +utterance was so momentous in the spring of 1858.[77] By it Lincoln came +before the people with a plain statement of precisely that which more +than nine hundred and ninety-nine persons in every thousand, especially +at the North, were striving with all their might to stamp down as an +untruth; he said to them what they all were denying with desperation, +and with rage against the asserters. Their bitterness was the greater +because very many, in the bottom of their hearts, distrusted their own +painful and strenuous denial. No words could be more unpopular than that +the divided house could not permanently stand, when the whole nation was +insisting, with the intensity of despair, that it could stand, would +stand, must stand. Consequently occurrences soon showed his friends to +be right so far as concerned the near, practical point: that the +paragraph would cost more voters in Illinois than Lincoln could lose +without losing his election. But beyond that point, a little farther +away in time, much deeper down amid enduring results, Lincoln's judgment +was ultimately seen to rest upon fundamental wisdom, politically as well +as morally. For Lincoln was no idealist, sacrificing realities to +abstractions; on the contrary, the right which he saw was always a +practical right, a right which could be compassed. In this instance, the +story goes that he retorted upon some of those who grumbled about his +"mistake," that in time they "would consider it the wisest thing he ever +said." In this he foretold truly; that daring and strong utterance was +the first link in the chain of which a more distant link lay across the +threshold of the White House. + +A battle opened by so resounding a shot was sure to be furious. Writers +and speakers fell upon the fateful paragraph and tore it savagely. They +found in it a stimulus which, in fact, was not needed; for already were +present all the elements of the fiercest struggle,--the best man and the +best fighter in each party at the front, and not unevenly matched; a +canvass most close and doubtful; and a question which stirred the souls +of men with the passions of crusading days. Douglas added experience and +distinction to gallantry in attack, adroitness in defense, readiness in +personalities, and natural aptitude for popular oratory. Lincoln frankly +admitted his formidable qualifications. But the Republican managers had +a shrewd appreciation of both opponents; they saw that Lincoln's forte +lay in hitting out straight, direct, and hard; and they felt that blows +of the kind he delivered should not go out into the air, but should +alight upon a concrete object,--upon Douglas. They conceived a wise +plan. On July 24, 1858, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of joint +debates. Douglas accepted, and named seven meetings, which he so +arranged that he opened and closed four times and Lincoln opened and +closed three times; but Lincoln made no point of the inequality; the +arrangement was completed, and this famous duel constituted another link +in that White House chain. + +The setting of the spectacle had the picturesqueness of the times and +the region. The people gathered in vast multitudes, to the number of +ten thousand, even of twenty thousand, at the places named for the +speech-making; they came in their wagons from all the country round, +bringing provisions, and making camps in the groves and fields. There +were bonfires and music, parading and drinking. He was a singular man in +Illinois who was not present at some one of these encounters. + +Into a competition so momentous Lincoln entered with a full appreciation +of the burden and responsibility which it put upon him. He had at once +to meet a false gloss of his famous sentence; and though he had been +very precise and accurate in his phraseology for the express purpose of +escaping misinterpretation, yet it would have been a marvel in applied +political morals if the paraphrases devised by Douglas had been strictly +ingenuous. The favorite distortion was to alter what was strictly a +forecast into a declaration of a policy, to make a prediction pass for +an avowal of a purpose to wage war against slavery until either the +"institution" or "Abolitionism" should be utterly defeated and forever +exterminated. It was said to be a "doctrine" which was "revolutionary +and destructive of this government," and which "invited a warfare +between the North and the South, to be carried on with ruthless +vengeance, until the one section or the other shall be driven to the +wall and become the victim of the rapacity of the other." Such +misrepresentation annoyed Lincoln all the more because it was +undeserved. The history of the utterance thus maltreated illustrates the +deliberate, cautious, thorough way in which his mind worked. So long ago +as August 15, 1855, he had closed a letter with the paragraph: "Our +political problem now is: Can we, as a nation, continue together +_permanently_--_forever_, half slave and half free? The problem is too +mighty for me. May God in his mercy superintend the solution."[78] This +is one among many instances which show how studiously Lincoln pondered +until he had got his conclusion into that simple shape in which it was +immutable. When he had found a form which satisfied him for the +expression of a conviction, he was apt to use it repeatedly rather than +to seek new and varied shapes, so that substantially identical sentences +often recur at distant intervals of time and place. + +When one has been long studying with much earnest intensity of thought a +perplexing and moving question, and at last frames a conclusion with +painstaking precision in perfectly clear language, it is not pleasant to +have that accurate utterance misstated with tireless reiteration, and +with infinite art and plausibility. But for this vexation Lincoln could +find no remedy, and it was in vain that he again and again called +attention to the fact that he had expressed neither a "doctrine," nor an +"invitation," nor any "purpose" or policy whatsoever. But as it seemed +not altogether courageous to leave his position in doubt, he said: "Now, +it is singular enough, if you will carefully read that passage over, +that I did not say in it that I was in favor of anything. I only said +what I expected would take place.... I did not even say that I desired +that slavery should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so +now, however, so there need be no longer any difficulty about that." He +felt that nothing short of such extinction would surely prevent the +revival of a dispute which had so often been settled "_forever_." "We +can no more foretell," he said, "where the end of this slavery agitation +will be than we can see the end of the world itself.... There is no way +of putting an end to the slavery agitation amongst us but to put it back +upon the basis where our fathers placed it.... Then the public mind will +rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction." + +There was much of this eloquence about "the fathers," much evocation of +the shades of the great departed, who, having reached the eternal +silence, could be claimed by both sides. The contention was none the +less strenuous because it was entirely irrelevant; since the opinion of +"the fathers" could not make slavery right or wrong. Many times +therefore did Douglas charge Lincoln with having said "that the Union +could not endure divided as our fathers made it, with free and slave +States;" as though this were a sort of blasphemy against the national +demigods. Lincoln aptly retorted that, as matter of fact, these same +distinguished "fathers"--"Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, +Hamilton, Jay, and the great men of that day"--did not _make_, but +_found_, the nation half slave and half free; that they set "many clear +marks of disapprobation" upon slavery, and left it so situated that the +popular mind rested in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate +extinction. Unfortunately it had not been allowed to remain as they had +left it; but on the contrary, "all the trouble and convulsion has +proceeded from the efforts to spread it over more territory." + +Pursuing this line, Lincoln alleged the purpose of the pro-slavery men +to make slavery "perpetual and universal" and "national." In his great +speech of acceptance at Springfield he put this point so well that he +never improved upon this first presentation of it. The repeal of the +Missouri Compromise in 1854 "opened all the national territory to +slavery, and was the first point gained. But so far Congress only had +acted, and an indorsement by the people, real or imaginary," was +obtained by "the notable argument of 'squatter sovereignty,' otherwise +called 'sacred right of self-government,' which latter phrase, though +expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so +perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: that if +any _one_ man choose to enslave _another_, no _third_ man shall be +permitted to object. That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska +bill." In May, 1854, this bill was passed. Then the presidential +election came. "Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement was +secured. That was the second point gained." Meantime the celebrated case +of the negro, Dred Scott, was pending in the Supreme Court, and the +"President in his inaugural address fervently exhorted the people to +abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then in a few +days came the decision," which was at once emphatically indorsed by +Douglas, "the reputed author of the Nebraska bill," and by the new +President. + +"At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of +the Nebraska bill on the mere question of _fact_, whether the Lecompton +Constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of +Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a +fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted +_down_ or voted _up_. + +... "The several points of the Dred Scott decision in connection with +Senator Douglas's 'care not' policy constitute the piece of machinery in +its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained. + +... "We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the +result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different +portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and +places and by different workmen,--Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, +for instance,--and when we see these timbers joined together, and see +they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and +mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the +different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a +piece too many or too few,--not omitting even scaffolding; or, if a +single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted +and prepared yet to bring such piece in,--in such a case, we find it +impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James +all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a +common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck. + +"It should not be overlooked that by the Nebraska bill the people of a +_State_ as well as a Territory were to be left 'perfectly free,' +'subject only to the Constitution.' Why mention a _State_?... Why is +mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law? + +... "Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, +which we may erelong see filled with another Supreme Court decision, +declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a +_State_ to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may especially be +expected if the doctrine of 'care not whether slavery be voted down or +voted up' shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise +that such a decision can be maintained when made. Such a decision is all +that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States." +Following out this idea, Lincoln repeatedly put to Douglas a question to +which he could never get a direct answer from his nimble antagonist: "If +a decision is made, holding that the people of the _States_ cannot +exclude slavery, will he support it, or not?" + +Even so skillful a dialectician as Douglas found this compact structure +of history and argument a serious matter. Its simple solidity was not so +susceptible to treatment by the perverting process as had been the +figurative and prophetic utterance about the "house divided against +itself." Neither could he find a chink between the facts and the +inferences. One aspect of the speech, however, could not be passed over. +Lincoln said that he had not charged "Stephen and Franklin and Roger and +James" with collusion and conspiracy; but he admitted that he had +"arrayed the evidence tending to prove," and which he "thought did +prove," these things.[79] It was impossible for the four distinguished +gentlemen[80] who owned the rest of these names to refuse to plead. +Accordingly Douglas sneered vehemently at the idea that two presidents, +the chief justice, and he himself had been concerned in that grave crime +against the State which was imputed to them; and when, by his lofty +indignation, he had brought his auditors into sympathy, he made the only +possible reply: that the real meaning, the ultimate logical outcome, of +what Lincoln had said was, that a decision of the Supreme Court was to +be set aside by the political action of the people at the polls. The +Supreme Court had interpreted the Constitution, and Lincoln was inciting +the people to annul that interpretation by some political process not +known to the law. For himself, he proclaimed with effective emphasis his +allegiance to that great tribunal in the performance of its +constitutional duties. Lincoln replied that he also bowed to the Dred +Scott decision in the specific case; but he repudiated it as a binding +rule in political action.[81] His point seemed more obscure than was +usual with him, and not satisfactory as an answer to Douglas. But as +matter of fact no one was deceived by the amusing adage of the +profession: that the courts do not _make_ the law, but only _declare +what it is_. Every one knew that the law was just what the judges chose +from time to time to say that it was, and that if judicial +_declarations_ of the law were not reversed quite so often as +legislative _makings_ of the law were repealed, it was only because the +identity of a bench is usually of longer duration than the identity of a +legislative body. If the people, politically, willed the reversal of the +Dred Scott decision, it was sure in time to be judicially reversed.[82] + +Douglas boasted that the Democrats were a national party, whereas the +"Black Republicans" were a sectional body whose creed could not be +uttered south of Mason and Dixon's line. He was assiduous in fastening +upon Lincoln the name of "Abolitionist," and "Black Republican," +epithets so unpopular that those who held the faith often denied the +title, and he only modified them by the offensive admission that +Lincoln's doctrines were sometimes disingenuously weakened to suit +certain audiences: "His principles in the north [of Illinois] are jet +black; in the centre they are in color a decent mulatto; and in lower +Egypt[83] they are almost white." + +Concerning sectionalism, Lincoln countered fairly enough on his +opponent by asking: Was it, then, the case that it was slavery which was +national, and freedom which was sectional? Or, "Is it the true test of +the soundness of a doctrine that in some places people won't let you +proclaim it?" But the remainder of Douglas's assault was by no means to +be disposed of by quick retort. When Lincoln was pushed to formulate +accurately his views concerning the proper status of the negro in the +community, he had need of all his extraordinary care in statement. +Herein lay problems that were vexing many honest citizens and clever men +besides himself, and were breeding much disagreement among persons who +all were anti-slavery in a general way, but could by no means reach a +comfortable unison concerning troublesome particulars. The "all men free +and equal" of the Constitution, and the talk about human brotherhood, +gave the Democrats wide scope for harassing anti-slavery men with +vexatious taunts and embarrassing cross-interrogatories on practical +points. "I do not question," said Douglas, "Mr. Lincoln's conscientious +belief that the negro was made his equal, and hence is his brother. But +for my own part, I do not regard the negro as my equal, and positively +deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever." He said that +"the signers of the Declaration had no reference to the negro,... or any +other inferior and degraded race, when they spoke of the equality of +men," but meant only "white men, of European birth and descent." This +topic opens the whole subject of Lincoln's political affiliations and of +his opinions concerning slavery and the negro, opinions which seem to +have undergone no substantial change during the interval betwixt this +campaign and his election to the presidency. Some selections from what +he said may sufficiently explain his position. + +At Freeport, August 27, replying to a series of questions from Douglas, +he declared that he had supposed himself, "since the organization of the +Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as a party man by +the platforms of the party, then and since." He said: "I do not now, nor +ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive +Slave Law." He believed that under the Constitution the Southerners were +entitled to such a law; but thought that the existing law "should have +been framed so as to be free from some of the objections that pertain to +it, without lessening its efficiency." He would not "introduce it as a +new subject of agitation upon the general question of slavery." + +He should be "exceedingly sorry" ever to have to pass upon the question +of admitting more slave States into the Union, and exceedingly glad to +know that another never would be admitted. But "if slavery shall be kept +out of the Territories during the territorial existence of any one given +Territory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance and a clear +field, when they come to adopt their constitution, do such an +extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by +the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no alternative, +if we own the country, but to admit them into the Union." He should +also, he said, be "exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the +District of Columbia," and he believed that Congress had "constitutional +power to abolish it" there; but he would favor the measure only upon +condition: "First, that the abolition should be gradual; second, that it +should be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters in the District; +and, third, that compensation should be made to unwilling owners." As to +the abolition of the slave trade between the different States, he +acknowledged that he had not considered the matter sufficiently to have +reached a conclusion concerning it. But if he should think that Congress +had power to effect such abolition, he should "not be in favor of the +exercise of that power unless upon some conservative principle, akin to +what I have said in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District +of Columbia." As to the territorial controversy, he said: "I am +impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the _right_ and +_duty_ of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States +Territories." Concerning the acquisition of new territory he said: "I am +not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and in any +given case I would or would not oppose such acquisition, according as I +might think such acquisition would or would not aggravate the slavery +question among ourselves." The statement derived its immediate +importance from the well-known purpose of the administration and a +considerable party in the South very soon to acquire Cuba. All these +utterances were certainly clear enough, and were far from constituting +Abolitionist doctrine, though they were addressed to an audience "as +strongly tending to Abolitionism as any audience in the State of +Illinois," and Mr. Lincoln believed that he was saying "that which, if +it would be offensive to any person and render them enemies to himself, +would be offensive to persons in this audience." + +At Quincy Lincoln gave his views concerning Republicanism with his usual +unmistakable accuracy, and certainly he again differentiated it widely +from Abolitionism. The Republican party, he said, think slavery "a +moral, a social, and a political wrong." Any man who does not hold this +opinion "is misplaced and ought to leave us. While, on the other hand, +if there be any man in the Republican party who is impatient over the +necessity springing from its actual presence, and is impatient of the +constitutional guarantees thrown around it, and would act in disregard +of these, he, too, is misplaced, standing with us. He will find his +place somewhere else; for we have a due regard ... for all these +things." ... "I have always hated slavery as much as any +Abolitionist,... but I have always been quiet about it until this new +era of the introduction of the Nebraska bill again." He repeated often +that he had "no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the +institution of slavery in the States where it exists;" that he had "no +lawful right to do so," and "no inclination to do so." He said that his +declarations as to the right of the negro to "life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness" were designed only to refer to legislation "about +any new country which is not already cursed with the actual presence of +the evil,--slavery." He denied having ever "manifested any impatience +with the necessities that spring from the ... actual existence of +slavery among us, where it does already exist." + +He dwelt much upon the equality clause of the Declaration. If we begin +"making exceptions to it, where will it stop? If one man says it does +not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?" +Only within three years past had any one doubted that negroes were +included by this language. But he said that, while the authors "intended +to include _all_ men, they did not mean to declare all men equal _in all +respects_,... in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social +capacity," but only "equal in certain inalienable rights." "Anything +that argues me into his [Douglas's] idea of perfect social and political +equality with the negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of +words, by which a man can prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut +horse.... I have no purpose to produce political and social equality +between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference +between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid +their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch +as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as +Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the +superior position.... But I hold that ... there is no reason in the +world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated +in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the +white man. I agree with Judge Douglas that he is not my equal in many +respects,--certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual +endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of +anybody else, which his own hand earns, _he is my equal, and the equal +of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man_." Later at +Charleston he reiterated much of this in almost identical language, and +then in his turn took his fling at Douglas: "I am not in favor of making +voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor +to intermarry with white people.... I do not understand that because I +do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a +wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone.... I have never +had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes, if +there was no law to keep them from it; but as Judge Douglas and his +friends seem to be in great apprehension that _they_ might, if there +were no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that +I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids +the marrying of white people with negroes." + +By all this it is made entirely evident that Lincoln held a faith widely +different from that of the great crusading leaders of Abolitionism at +the East.[84] Equally marked was the difference between him and them in +the matters of temper and of the attitude taken towards opponents. The +absence of any sense of personal hostility towards those who assailed +him with unsparing vindictiveness was a trait often illustrated in his +after life, and which was now noted with surprise, for it was rare in +the excited politics of those days. In this especial campaign both +contestants honestly intended to refrain from personalities, but the +difference between their ways of doing so was marked. Douglas, under the +temptation of high ability in that line, held himself in check by an +effort which was often obvious and not always entirely successful. But +Lincoln never seemed moved by the desire. "All I have to ask," he said, +"is that we talk reasonably and rationally;" and again: "I hope to deal +in all things fairly with Judge Douglas." No innuendo, no artifice, in +any speech, gave the lie to these protestations. Besides this, his +denunciations were always against _slavery_, and never against +_slaveholders_. The emphasis of condemnation, the intensity of feeling, +were never expended against persons. By this course, unusual among the +Abolitionists, he not only lost nothing in force and impressiveness, +but, on the contrary, his attack seemed to gain in effectiveness by +being directed against no personal object, but exclusively against a +practice. His war was against slavery, not against the men and women of +the South who owned slaves. At Ottawa he read from the Peoria speech of +1854: "I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just +what we would [should] be in their situation. If slavery did not now +exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among +us, we should not instantly give it up.... It does seem to me that +systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their +tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the +South." Repeatedly he admitted the difficulty of the problem, and +fastened no blame upon those Southerners who excused themselves for not +expelling the evil on the ground that they did not know how to do so. At +Peoria he said: "If all earthly power were given me, I should not know +what to do as to the existing institution." He contributed some +suggestions which certainly were nothing better than chimerical. +Deportation to Africa was his favorite scheme; he also proposed that it +would be "best for all concerned to have the colored population in a +State by themselves." But he did not abuse men who declined to adopt his +methods. Though he was dealing with a question which was arousing +personal antagonisms as bitter as any that history records, yet he never +condemned any one, nor ever passed judgment against his fellow men. + +Diagnosis would perhaps show that the trait thus illustrated was mental +rather than moral. This absence of animosity and reproach as towards +individuals found its root not so much in human charity as in fairness +of thinking. Lincoln's ways of mental working are not difficult to +discover. He thought slowly, cautiously, profoundly, and with a most +close accuracy; but above all else he _thought fairly_. This capacity +far transcended, or, more correctly, differed from, what is ordinarily +called the judicial habit of mind. Many men can weigh arguments without +letting prejudice get into either scale; but Lincoln carried on the +whole process of thinking, not only with an equal clearness of +perception, but also with an entire impartiality of liking or disliking +for both sides. His aim, while he was engaged in thinking, was to +discover what was really true; and later when he spoke to others his +purpose was to show them the truth which he had discovered, and to +state to them on what grounds he believed it to be the truth; it did not +involve a judgment against the individuals who failed to recognize that +truth. His singular trait of impersonality was not made more apparent in +any other way. His effort never was to defeat the person who happened to +be his adversary, but always was to overcome the arguments of that +adversary. Primarily he was discussing a topic and establishing a truth; +it was only incidental that in doing these things he had to oppose a +man. It is noteworthy that his opponents never charged him with +misstating their case in order to make an apparently effective answer to +it. On the contrary, his hope of success seemed always to lie in having +both sides presented with the highest degree of clearness and honesty. +He had perfect confidence in the ultimate triumph of the truth; he was +always willing to tie fast to it, according as he could see it, and then +to bide time with it. This being a genuine faith and not mere +lip-service, he used the same arguments to others which he used to +himself, and staked his final success upon the probability that what had +persuaded his mind would in time persuade also the minds of other +intelligent men. It has been well said of him by an excellent judge: "He +loved the truth for the truth's sake. He would not argue from a false +premise, or be deceived himself, or deceive others, by a false +conclusion.... He did not seek to say merely the thing which was best +for that day's debate, but the thing which would stand the test of +time, and square itself with eternal justice.... His logic was severe +and faultless. He did not resort to fallacy."[85] + +To return to the points made in the debate: Douglas laid down the "great +principle of non-interference and non-intervention by Congress with +slavery in the States and Territories alike;" which he assured his +audience would enable us to "continue at peace with one another." In the +same connection he endeavored to silver-coat for Northern palates the +bitter pill of the Dred Scott decision, by declaring that the people of +any State or Territory might withhold that protecting legislation, those +"friendly police regulations," without which slavery could not exist. +But this was, indeed, a "lame, illogical, evasive answer," which enabled +Lincoln to "secure an advantage in the national relations of the contest +which he held to the end." + +Lincoln, in replying, agreed that "all the States have the right to do +exactly as they please about all their domestic relations, including +that of slavery." But he said that the proposition that slavery could +not enter a new country without police regulations was historically +false; and that the facts of the Dred Scott case itself showed that +there was "vigor enough in slavery to plant itself in a new country even +against unfriendly legislation." Beyond this issue of historical fact, +Douglas had already taken and still dared to maintain a position which +proved to be singularly ill chosen. The right to hold slaves as property +in the Territories had lately, to the infinite joy of the South, been +declared by the Supreme Court to be guaranteed by the Constitution; and +now Douglas had the audacity to repeat that notion of his, so abhorrent +to all friends of slavery,--that this invaluable right could be made +practically worthless by unfriendly local legislation, or even by the +negative hostility of withholding friendly legislation! From the moment +when this deadly suggestion fell from his ingenious lips, the Southern +Democracy turned upon him with vindictive hate and marked him for +destruction. He had also given himself into the hands of his avowed and +natural enemies. The doctrine, said Mr. Lincoln, is "no less than that a +thing may lawfully be driven away from a place where it has a lawful +right to be." "If you were elected members of the legislature, what +would be the first thing you would have to do, before entering upon your +duties? _Swear to support the Constitution of the United States_. +Suppose you believe, as Judge Douglas does, that the Constitution of the +United States guarantees to your neighbor the right to hold slaves in +that Territory,--that they are his property,--how can you clear your +oaths, unless you give him such legislation as is necessary to enable +him to enjoy that property? What do you understand by supporting the +Constitution of a State, or of the United States? Is it not to give such +constitutional helps to the rights established by that Constitution as +may be practically needed?... And what I say here will hold with still +more force against the judge's doctrine of 'unfriendly legislation.' How +could you, having sworn to support the Constitution, and believing it +guaranteed the right to hold slaves in the Territories, assist in +legislation _intended to defeat that right_?" "Is not Congress itself +under obligation to give legislative support to any right that is +established under the United States Constitution?" Upon what other +principle do "many of us, who are opposed to slavery upon principle, +give our acquiescence to a Fugitive Slave Law?" Does Douglas mean to say +that a territorial legislature, "by passing unfriendly laws," can +"_nullify a constitutional right_?" He put to Douglas the direct and +embarrassing query: "If the slaveholding citizens of a United States +Territory should need and demand congressional legislation for the +protection of their slave property in such Territory, would you, as a +member of Congress, vote for or against such legislation?" "Repeat +that," cried Douglas, ostentatiously; "I want to answer that question." +But he never composed his reply. + +Another kindred question had already been put by Lincoln: "Can the +people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish +of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, +prior to the formation of a State Constitution?" Friends advised him not +to force this, as it seemed against the immediate policy of the present +campaign. But it was never his way to subordinate his own deliberate +opinion to the opinions of advisers; and on this occasion he was +merciless in pressing this question. A story has been very generally +repeated that he told the protesters that, whatever might be the bearing +on the senatorship, Douglas could not answer that question and be +elected President of the United States in 1860. "I am killing larger +game," he said; "the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this."[86] A +few legends of this kind are extant, which tend to indicate that Lincoln +already had in mind the presidential nomination, and was fighting the +present fight with an eye to that greater one in the near future. It is +not easy to say how much credit should be given to such tales; they may +not be wholly inventions, but a remark which is uttered with little +thought may later easily take on a strong color in the light of +subsequent developments. + +In presenting the Republican side of the question Lincoln seemed to feel +a duty beyond that of merely outarguing his opponent. He bore the +weighty burden of a responsibility graver than personal success. He +might prevail in the opinions of his fellow citizens; without this +instant triumph he might so present his cause that the jury of posterity +would declare that the truth lay with him; he might even convince both +the present and the coming generations; and though achieving all these +triumphs, he might still fall far short of the peculiar and exacting +requirement of the occasion. For the winning of the senatorship was the +insignificant part of what he had undertaken; his momentous charge was +to maintain a grand moral crusade, to stimulate and to vindicate a great +uprising in the cause of humanity and of justice. His full appreciation +of this is entirely manifest in the tone of his speeches. They have an +earnestness, a gravity, at times even a solemnity, unusual in such +encounters in any era or before any audiences, but unprecedented "on the +stump" before the uproarious gatherings of the West at that day. +Repeatedly he stigmatized slavery as "a moral, a social, a political +evil." Very impressively he denounced the positions of an opponent who +"cared not whether slavery was voted down or voted up," who said that +slavery was not to be differentiated from the many domestic institutions +and daily affairs which civilized societies control by police +regulations. He said that slavery could not be treated as "only equal to +the cranberry laws of Indiana;" that slaves could not be put "upon a par +with onions and potatoes;" that to Douglas he supposed that the +institution really "looked small," but that a great proportion of the +American people regarded slavery as "a vast moral evil." "The real issue +in this controversy--the one pressing upon every mind--is the sentiment +on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery _as +a wrong_, and of another class that does _not_ look upon it as a +wrong.... No man can logically say he does not care whether a wrong is +voted up or voted down. He [Douglas] contends that whatever community +wants slaves has a right to have them. So they have, if it is not a +wrong. But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to do +wrong. He says that, upon the score of equality, slaves should be +allowed to go into a new Territory, like other property. This is +strictly logical if there is no difference between it and other +property.... But if you insist that one is wrong and the other right, +there is no use to institute a comparison between right and wrong.... +That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this +country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be +silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles, right +and wrong, throughout the world. They are the two principles that have +stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to +struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the +divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it +develops itself. It is the same spirit that says: 'You work and toil and +earn bread, and I'll eat it.'" "I ask you if it is not a false +philosophy? Is it not a false statesmanship that undertakes to build up +a system of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about _the very +thing that everybody does care the most about_?" + +We cannot leave these speeches without a word concerning their literary +quality. In them we might have looked for vigor that would be a little +uncouth, wit that would be often coarse, a logic generally sound but +always clumsy,--in a word, tolerably good substance and very poor form. +We are surprised, then, to find many and high excellences in art. As it +is with Bacon's essays, so it is with these speeches: the more +attentively they are read the more striking appears the closeness of +their texture both in logic and in language. Clear thought is accurately +expressed. Each sentence has its special errand, and each word its +individual importance. There is never either too much or too little. The +work is done with clean precision and no waste. Nowhere does one pause +to seek a meaning or to recover a connection; and an effort to make out +a syllabus shows that the most condensed statement has already been +used. There are scintillations of wit and humor, but they are not very +numerous. When Lincoln was urged to adopt a more popular style, he +replied: "The occasion is too serious; the issues are too grave. I do +not seek applause, or to amuse the people, but to convince them." This +spirit was upon him from the beginning to the end. Had he been +addressing a bench of judges, subject to a close limitation of minutes, +he would have won credit by the combined economy and force which were +displayed in these harangues to general assemblages. To speak of the +lofty tone of these speeches comes dangerously near to the distasteful +phraseology of extravagant laudation, than which nothing else can +produce upon honest men a worse impression. Yet it is a truth visible to +every reader that at the outset Lincoln raised the discussion to a very +high plane, and held it there throughout. The truth which he had to +sustain was so great that it was perfectly simple, and he had the good +sense to utter it with appropriate simplicity. In no speech was there +fervor or enthusiasm or rhetoric; he talked to the reason and the +conscience of his auditors, not to their passions. Yet the depth of his +feeling may be measured by the story that once in the canvass he said to +a friend: "Sometimes, in the excitement of speaking, I seem to see the +end of slavery. I feel that the time is soon coming when the sun shall +shine, the rain fall, on no man who shall go forth to unrequited toil. +How this will come, when it will come, by whom it will come, I cannot +tell,--but that time will surely come."[87] It is just appreciation, and +not extravagance, to say that the cheap and miserable little volume, now +out of print, containing in bad newspaper type, "The Lincoln and Douglas +Debates,"[88] holds some of the masterpieces of oratory of all ages and +nations. + +The immediate result of the campaign was the triumph of Douglas, who had +certainly made not only a very able and brilliant but a splendidly +gallant fight, with Republicans assailing him in front and +Administrationists in rear.[89] Lincoln was disappointed. His feelings +had been so deeply engaged, he had worked so strenuously, and the result +had been so much in doubt, that defeat was trying. But he bore it with +his wonted resolute equanimity. He said that he felt "like the boy that +stumped his toe,--'it hurt too bad to laugh, and he was too big to +cry.'" In fact, there were encouraging elements.[90] The popular vote +stood,[91] Republicans, 126,084; Douglas Democrats, 121,940; Lecompton +Democrats, 5,091. But the apportionment of districts was such that the +legislature contained a majority for Douglas.[92] So the prestige of +victory seemed separated from its fruits; for the nation, attentively +watching this duel, saw that the new man had convinced upwards of four +thousand voters more than had the great leader of the Democracy. +Douglas is reported to have said that, during his sixteen years in +Congress, he had found no man in the Senate whom he would not rather +encounter in debate than Lincoln. If it was true that Lincoln was +already dreaming of the presidency, he was a sufficiently shrewd +politician to see that his prospects were greatly improved by this +campaign. He had worked hard for what he had gained; he had been +traveling incessantly to and fro and delivering speeches in unbroken +succession during about one hundred of the hot days of the Western +summer, and speeches not of a commonplace kind, but which severely taxed +the speaker. After all was over, he was asked by the state committee to +contribute to the campaign purse! He replied: "I am willing to pay +according to my ability, but I am the poorest hand living to get others +to pay. _I have been on expense_ so long, without earning anything, that +I am absolutely without money now for even household expenses. Still, if +you can put in $250 for me,... I will allow it when you and I settle the +private matter between us. This, with what I have already paid,... will +exceed my subscription of $500. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary +expenses during the campaign, all of which being added to my loss of +time and business bears pretty heavily upon one no better off than I +am.... You are feeling badly; 'and this, too, shall pass away;' never +fear." + +The platform which, with such precision and painstaking, Lincoln had +constructed for himself was made by him even more ample and more strong +by a few speeches delivered in the interval between the close of this +great campaign and his nomination by the Republicans for the presidency. +In Ohio an important canvass for the governorship took place, and +Douglas went there, and made speeches filled with allusions to Lincoln +and the recent Illinois campaign. Even without this provocation Lincoln +knew, by keen instinct, that where Douglas was, there he should be also. +In no other way had he yet appeared to such advantage as in encountering +"the Little Giant." To Ohio, accordingly, he hastened, and spoke at +Columbus and at Cincinnati.[93] To the citizens of the latter place he +said: "This is the first time in my life that I have appeared before an +audience in so great a city as this. I therefore make this appearance +under some degree of embarrassment." There was little novelty in +substance, but much in treatment. Thus, at Cincinnati, he imagined +himself addressing Kentuckians, and showed them that their next nominee +for the presidency ought to be his "distinguished friend, Judge +Douglas;" for "in all that there is a difference between you and him, I +understand he is sincerely for you, and more wisely for you than you are +for yourselves." Through him alone pro-slavery men retained any hold +upon the free States of the North; and in those States, "in every +possible way he can, he constantly moulds the public opinion to your +ends." Ingeniously but fairly he sketched Douglas as the most efficient +among the pro-slavery leaders. Perhaps the clever and truthful picture +may have led Mr. Greeley and some other gentlemen at the East to suspect +that they had been inconsiderate in their choice between the Western +rivals; and perhaps, also, Lincoln, while addressing imaginary +Kentuckians, had before his inner eye some Eastern auditors. For at the +time he did not know that his voice would ever be heard at any point +nearer to their ears than the hall in which he then stood. Within a few +weeks, however, this unlooked-for good fortune befell. In October, 1859, +he was invited to speak in the following winter in New York. That the +anti-slavery men of that city wished to test him by personal observation +signified that his reputation was national, and that the highest +aspirations were, therefore, not altogether presumptuous. He accepted +gladly, and immediately began to prepare an address which probably cost +him more labor than any other speech which he ever made. He found time, +however, in December to make a journey through Kansas, where he +delivered several speeches, which have not been preserved but are +described as "repetitions of those previously made in Illinois." Lamon +tells us that the journey was an "ovation," and that "wherever Lincoln +went, he was met by vast assemblages of people." The population of this +agricultural State was hardly in a condition to furnish "vast +assemblages" at numerous points, but doubtless the visitor received +gratifying assurance that upon this battle-ground of slavery and +anti-slavery the winning party warmly appreciated his advocacy of their +cause. + +On Saturday, February 25, 1860, Lincoln arrived in New York. On Monday +his hosts "found him dressed in a sleek and shining suit of new black, +covered with very apparent creases and wrinkles, acquired by being +packed too closely and too long in his little valise. He felt uneasy in +his new clothes and a strange place." Certainly nothing in his previous +experience had prepared him to meet with entire indifference an audience +of metropolitan critics; indeed, had the surroundings been more +familiar, he had enough at stake to tax his equanimity when William +Cullen Bryant introduced him simply as "an eminent citizen of the West, +hitherto known to you only by reputation." Probably the first impression +made upon those auditors by the ungainly Westerner in his outlandish +garb were not the same which they carried home with them a little later. +The speech was so condensed that a sketch of it is not possible. +Fortunately it had the excellent quality of steadily expanding in +interest and improving to the end. + +Of the Dred Scott case he cleverly said that the courts had decided it +"_in a sort of way_;" but, after all, the decision was "mainly based +upon a mistaken statement of fact,--the statement in the opinion that +'the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed +in the Constitution.'" + +In closing, he begged the Republicans, in behalf of peace and harmony, +to "do nothing through passion and ill-temper;" but he immediately went +on to show the antagonism between Republican opinion and Democratic +opinion with a distinctness which left no hope of harmony, and very +little hope of peace. To satisfy the Southerners, he said, we must +"cease to call slavery _wrong_, and join them in calling it _right_. And +this must be done thoroughly,--done in _acts_ as well as in _words_.... +We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We +must pull down our free-state Constitutions.... If slavery is right, all +words, acts, laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, +and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot object +to its nationality, its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly +insist upon its extension, its enlargement. All they ask we could +readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as +readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our +thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole +controversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for +desiring its full recognition, as being right; but thinking it wrong, as +we do, can we yield to them?... Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet +afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the +necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, +while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national +Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States? If our sense +of duty forbids this ... let us be diverted by no sophistical +contrivances, such as groping for some middle ground between the right +and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a +living man nor a dead man; such as a policy of 'don't care' on a +question about which all true men do care; such as Union appeals +beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine +rule and calling not the sinners but the righteous to repentance." + +The next morning the best newspapers gave full reports of the speech, +with compliments. The columns of the "Evening Post" were generously +declared to be "indefinitely elastic" for such utterances; and the +"Tribune" expressed commendation wholly out of accord with the recent +notions of its editor. The rough fellow from the crude West had made a +powerful impression upon the cultivated gentlemen of the East. + +From New York Lincoln went to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New +Hampshire, and Connecticut. In this last-named State he delivered +speeches which are said to have contributed largely to the Republican +success in the closely contested election then at hand. In Manchester it +was noticed that "he did not abuse the South, the administration, or +the Democrats, or indulge in any personalities, with the exception of a +few hits at Douglas's notions."[94] + +These speeches of 1858, 1859, and 1860 have a very great value as +contributions to history. During that period every dweller in the United +States was hotly concerned about this absorbing question of slavery, +advancing his own views, weighing or encountering the arguments of +others, quarreling, perhaps, with his oldest friends and his nearest +kindred,--for about this matter men easily quarreled and rarely +compromised. Every man who fancied that he could speak in public got +upon some platform in city, town, or village, and secured an audience by +his topic if not by his ability; every one who thought that he could +write found some way to print what he had to say upon a subject of which +readers never tired; and for whatever purpose two or three men were +gathered together, they were not likely to separate without a few words +about North and South, pro-slavery and anti-slavery. Never was any +matter more harried and ransacked by disputation. Now to all the +speaking and writing of the Republicans Lincoln's condensed speeches +were what a syllabus is to an elaborate discourse, what a lawyer's brief +is to his verbal argument. Perhaps they may better be likened to an +anti-slavery gospel; as the New Testament is supposed to cover the whole +ground of Christian doctrines and Christian ethics, so that theologians +and preachers innumerable have only been able to make elaborations or +glosses upon the original text, so Lincoln's speeches contain the whole +basis of the anti-slavery cause as maintained by the Republican party. +They also set forth a considerable part of the Southern position, +doubtless as fairly as the machinations of the Devil are set forth in +Holy Writ. They only rather gingerly refrain from speaking of the small +body of ultra-Abolitionists,--for while Lincoln was far from agreeing +with these zealots, he felt that it was undesirable to widen by any +excavation upon his side the chasm between them and the Republicans. So +the fact is that the whole doctrine of Republicanism, as it existed +during the political campaign which resulted in the election of Lincoln, +also all the historical facts supporting that doctrine, were clearly and +accurately stated in these speeches. Specific points were more +elaborated by other persons; but every seed was to be found in this +granary. + +This being the case, it is worth noticing that both Lincoln and Douglas +confined their disputation closely to the slavery question. Disunion and +secession were words familiar in every ear, yet Lincoln referred to +these things only twice or thrice, and incidentally, while Douglas +ignored them. This fact is fraught with meaning. American writers and +American readers have always met upon the tacit understanding that the +Union was the chief cause of, and the best justification for, the war. +An age may come when historians, treating our history as we treat that +of Greece, stirred by no emotion at the sight of the "Stars and +Stripes," moved by no patriotism at the name of the United States of +America, will seek a deeper philosophy to explain this obstinate, +bloody, costly struggle. Such writers may say that a rich, civilized +multitude of human beings, possessors of the quarter of a continent, +believing it best for their interests to set up an independent +government for themselves, fell back upon the right of revolution, +though they chose not to call it by that name. Now, even if it be +possible to go so far as to say that every nation has always a right to +preserve by force, if it can, its own integrity, certainly it cannot be +stated as a further truth that no portion of a nation can ever be +justified in endeavoring to obtain an independent national existence; no +citizen of this country can admit this, but must say that such an +endeavor is justifiable or not justifiable according as its cause and +basis are right or wrong. Far down, then, at the very bottom lay the +question whether the Southerners had a sufficient cause upon which to +base a revolution. Now this question was hardly conclusively answered by +the perfectly true statement that the North had not interfered with +Southern rights. Southerners might admit this, and still believe that +their welfare could be best subserved by a government wholly their own. +So the very bottom question of all still remained: Was the South +endeavoring to establish a government of its own for a justifiable +reason and a right purpose? Now the avowed purpose was to establish on +an enduring foundation a permanent slave empire; and the declared reason +was, that slavery was not safe within the Union. Underneath the question +of the Union therefore lay, logically, the question of slavery. + +Lincoln and the other Republican leaders said that, if slavery extension +was prevented, then slavery was in the way of extinction. If the +assertion was true, it pretty clearly followed that the South could +retain slavery only by independence and a complete imperial control +within the limits of its own homogeneous nationality; for undeniably the +preponderant Northern mass was becoming firmly resolved that slavery +should not be extended, however it might be tolerated within its present +limits. So still, by anti-slavery statement itself, the ultimate +question was: whether or not the preservation of slavery was a right and +sufficient cause or purpose for establishing an independent nationality. +Lincoln, therefore, went direct to the logical heart of the contention, +when he said that the real dispute was whether slavery was a right thing +or a wrong thing. If slavery was a right thing, a Union conducted upon a +policy which was believed to doom it to "ultimate extinction" was not a +right thing. But if slavery was a wrong thing, a revolution undertaken +with the purpose of making it perpetual was also a wrong thing. +Therefore, from beginning to end, Lincoln talked about slavery. By so +doing he did what he could to give to the war a character far higher +even than a war of patriotism, for he extended its meaning far beyond +the age and the country of its occurrence, and made of it, not a war for +the United States alone, but a war for humanity, a war for ages and +peoples yet to come. In like manner, he himself also gained the right to +be regarded as much more than a great party leader, even more than a +great patriot; for he became a champion of mankind and the defender of +the chief right of man. I do not mean to say that he saw these things in +this light at the moment, or that he accurately formulated the precise +relationship and fundamental significance of all that was then in +process of saying and doing. Time must elapse, and distance must enable +one to get a comprehensive view, before the philosophy of an era like +that of the civil war becomes intelligible. But the philosophy is not +the less correct because those who were framing it piece by piece did +not at any one moment project before their mental vision the whole in +its finished proportions and relationship. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[75] As an example of Greeley's position, see letter quoted by N. and H. +ii. 140, note. The fact that he was strenuously pro-Douglas and +anti-Lincoln is well known. Yet afterward he said that it "was hardly in +human nature" for Republicans to treat Douglas as a friend. Greeley's +_American Conflict_, i. 301. + +[76] Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, ii. 567; for sketches +of Douglas's position, see Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. +141-144; von Holst, _Const. Hist. of U.S._ vi. 280-286; Herndon, +391-395; N. and H. ii. 138-143; Lamon, 390-395; Holland, 158. Crittenden +was one of the old Whigs, who now sorely disappointed Lincoln by +preferring Douglas. N. and H. ii. 142. + +[77] Several months afterward, October 25, 1858, Mr. Seward made the +speech at Rochester which contained the famous sentence: "It is an +irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it +means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become +either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free-labor nation." +Seward's _Works_, new edition, 1884, iv. 292. But Seward ranked among +the extremists and the agitators. See _Lincoln and Douglas Deb._ 244. +After all, the idea had already found expression in the Richmond +_Enquirer_, May 6, 1856, quoted by von Hoist, vi. 299, also referred to +by Lincoln; see _Lincoln and Douglas Deb._ 262. + +[78] Letter to Hon. Geo. Robertson, N. and H. i. 392; and see Lamon, +398; also see remarks of von Holst, vi. 277. + +[79] _Lincoln and Douglas Deb._ 93. W.P. Fessenden, "who," says Mr. +Blaine, "always spoke with precision and never with passion," expressed +his opinion that if Fremont had been elected instead of Buchanan, that +decision would never have been given. _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. +133. + +[80] Stephen A. Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Roger B. Taney, James +Buchanan. + +[81] _Lincoln and Douglas Deb._ 198. At Chicago he said that he would +vote for the prohibition of slavery in a new Territory "in spite of the +Dred Scott decision." _Lincoln and Douglas Deb._ 20; and see the rest of +his speech on the same page. The Illinois Republican Convention, June +16. 1858, expressed "condemnation of the principles and tendencies of +the extra-judicial opinions of a majority of the judges," as putting +forth a "political heresy." Holland, 159. + +Years ago Salmon P. Chase had dared to say that, if the courts would not +overthrow the pro-slavery construction of the Constitution, the people +would do so, even if it should be "necessary to overthrow the courts +also." Warden's _Life of Chase_, 313. + +[82] For Lincoln's explanation of his position concerning the Dred Scott +decision, see _Lincoln and Douglas Deb._ 20. + +[83] A nickname for the southern part of Illinois. + +[84] Henry Wilson has made his criticism in the words that "some of his +[Lincoln's] assertions and admissions were both unsatisfactory and +offensive to anti-slavery men; betrayed too much of the spirit of caste +and prejudice against color, and sound harshly dissonant by the side of +the Proclamation of Emancipation and the grand utterances of his later +state papers." _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, ii. 576. + +[85] Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. 145 + +[86] N. and H. ii. 159, 160, 163; Arnold, 151; Lamon, 415, 416, and see +406; Holland, 189; Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, ii. 576; +Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. 148. + +[87] Arnold, 144. This writer speaks with discriminating praise +concerning Lincoln's oratory, p. 139. It is an illustration of Lincoln's +habit of adopting for permanent use any expression that pleased him, +that this same phrase had been used by him in a speech made two years +before this time. Holland, 151. + +[88] Published in Columbus, in 1860, for campaign purposes, from copies +furnished by Lincoln; see his letter to Central Exec. Comm., December +19, 1859, on fly-leaf. + +[89] Many tributes have been paid to Douglas by writers who oppose his +opinions; _e.g._, Arnold says: "There is, on the whole, hardly any +greater personal triumph in the history of American politics than his +reelection," pp. 149, 150; Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. 149. + +[90] See Lincoln's letter to Judd, quoted N. and H. ii. 167; also +_Ibid._ 169. + +[91] Raymond, 76. + +[92] The Senate showed 14 Democrats, 11 Republicans; the House, 40 +Democrats, 35 Republicans. + +[93] In September, 1859. These are included in the volume of _The +Lincoln and Douglas Debates_, printed at Columbus, 1860. + +[94] _The Mirror_, quoted by Lamon, 442. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ELECTION + + +Mr. J.W. Fell, a leading citizen of Illinois, says that after the +debates of 1858 he urged Lincoln to seek the Republican nomination for +the presidency in 1860. Lincoln, however, replied curtly that men like +Seward and Chase were entitled to take precedence, and that no such +"good luck" was in store for him. In March, 1859, he wrote to another +person: "In regard to the other matter that you speak of, I beg that you +will not give it further mention. I do not think I am fit for the +presidency." He said the same to the editor of the "Central Illinois +Gazette;" but this gentleman "brought him out in the issue of May 4," +and "thence the movement spread rapidly and strongly."[95] In the winter +of 1859-60 sundry "intimate friends," active politicians of Illinois, +pressed him to consent to be mentioned as a candidate. He considered the +matter over night and then gave them the desired permission, at the same +time saying that he would not accept the vice-presidency. + +Being now fairly started in the race, he used all his well-known skill +as a politician to forward his campaign, though nothing derogatory is +to be inferred from these words as to his conduct or methods. February +9, 1860, he wrote to Mr. Judd: "I am not in a position where it would +hurt much for me not to be nominated on the national ticket; but I am +where it would hurt some for me not to get the Illinois delegates.... +Can you help me a little in this matter at your end of the vineyard?" +This point of the allegiance of his own State was soon made right. The +Republican State Convention met in the "Wigwam" at Decatur, May 9 and +10, 1860. Governor Oglesby, who presided, suggested that a distinguished +citizen, whom Illinois delighted to honor, was present, and that he +should be invited to a place on the stand; and at once, amid a tumult of +applause, Lincoln was lifted over the heads of the crowd to the +platform. John Hanks then theatrically entered, bearing a couple of +fence rails, and a flag with the legend that they were from a "lot made +by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom, in the year +1830." The sympathetic roar rose again. Then Lincoln made a "speech," +appropriate to the occasion. At last, attention was given to business, +and the convention resolved that Abraham Lincoln was the first choice of +the Republican party of Illinois for the presidency, and instructed +their delegates to the nominating convention "to use all honorable means +to secure his nomination, and to cast the vote of the State as a unit +for him." + +With the opening of the spring of 1860 the several parties began the +campaign in earnest. The Democratic Convention met first, at Charleston, +April 23; and immediately the line of disruption opened. Upon the one +side stood Douglas, with the moderate men and nearly all the Northern +delegates, while against him were the advocates of extreme Southern +doctrines, supported by the administration and by most of the delegates +from the "Cotton States." The majority of the committee appointed to +draft the platform were anti-Douglas men; but their report was rejected, +and that offered by the pro-Douglas minority was substituted, 165 yeas +to 138 nays.[96] Thereupon the delegations of Alabama, Mississippi, +Florida, and Texas, and sundry delegates from other States, withdrew +from the convention,[97] taking away 45 votes out of a total of 303. +Those who remained declared the vote of two thirds of a full convention, +_i.e._, 202 votes, to be necessary for a choice. Then during three days +fifty-seven ballots were cast, Douglas being always far in the lead, but +never polling more than 152-1/2 votes. At last, on May 3, an adjournment +was had until June 18, at Baltimore. At this second meeting contesting +delegations appeared, and the decisions were uniformly in favor of the +Douglas men, which provoked another secession of the extremist Southern +men. A ballot showed 173-1/2 votes for Douglas out of a total of +191-1/2; the total was less than two thirds of the full number of the +original convention, and therefore it was decided that any person +receiving two thirds of the votes cast by the delegates present should +be deemed the nominee. The next ballot gave Douglass 181-1/2. Herschel +V. Johnson of Georgia was nominated for vice-president. + +On June 28, also at Baltimore, there came together a collection composed +of original seceders at Charleston, and of some who had been rejected +and others who had seceded at Baltimore. Very few Northern men were +present, and the body in fact represented the Southern wing of the +Democracy. Having, like its competitor, the merit of knowing its own +mind, it promptly nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky and Joseph +Lane of Oregon, and adopted the radical platform which had been reported +at Charleston. + +These doings opened, so that it could never be closed, that seam of +which the thread had long been visible athwart the surface of the old +Democratic party. The great record of discipline and of triumph, which +the party had made when united beneath the dominion of imperious +leaders, was over, and forever. Those questions which Lincoln +obstinately and against advice had insisted upon pushing in 1858 had +forced this disastrous development of irreconcilable differences. The +answers, which Douglas could not shirk, had alienated the most +implacable of men, the dictators of the Southern Democracy. His +"looking-both-ways" theory would not fit with their policy, and their +policy was and must be immutable; modification was in itself defeat. On +the other hand, what he said constituted the doctrine to which the mass +of the Northern Democracy firmly held. So now, although Republicans +admitted that it was "morally certain" that the Democratic party, +holding together, could carry the election,[98] yet these men from the +Cotton States could not take victory and Douglas together.[99] It had +actually come to this, that, in spite of all that Douglas had done for +the slaveholders, they now marked him for destruction at any cost. Many +also believe that they had another motive; that they had matured their +plans for secession; and that they did not mean to have the scheme +disturbed or postponed by an ostensibly Democratic triumph in the shape +of the election of Douglas. + +In May the convention of the Constitutional Union party met, also at +Baltimore. This organization was a sudden outgrowth designed only to +meet the present emergency. Its whole political doctrine lay in the +opening words of the one resolution which constituted its platform: +"That it is both the part of patriotism and of duty to recognize no +political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the +union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws." This party +gathered nearly all the peaceable elements of the community; it assumed +a deprecatory attitude between angry contestants, and of course received +the abuse and contempt of both; it was devoid of combative force, yet +had some numerical strength. The Republicans especially mocked at these +"trimmers," as if their only platform was moral cowardice, which, +however, was an unfair statement of their position. The party died, of +necessity, upon the day when Lincoln was elected, and its members were +then distributed between the Republicans, the Secessionists, and the +Copperheads. John Bell of Tennessee, the candidate for the presidency, +joined the Confederacy; Edward Everett of Massachusetts, the candidate +for the vice-presidency, became a Republican. The party never had a hope +of electing its men; but its existence increased the chance of throwing +the election into Congress; and this hope inspired exertions far beyond +what its own prospects warranted. + +On May 16 the Republican Convention came together at Chicago, where the +great "Wigwam" had been built to hold 10,000 persons. The intense +interest with which its action was watched indicated the popular belief +that probably it would name the next President of the United States. +Many candidates were named, chiefly Seward, Lincoln, Chase, Cameron, +Edward Bates of Missouri, and William L. Dayton of New Jersey. Thurlow +Weed was Seward's lieutenant. Horace Greeley, chiefly bent upon the +defeat of Seward, would have liked to achieve it by the success of +Bates. David Davis, aided by Judge Logan and a band of personal friends +from Illinois, was manager for Lincoln. Primarily the contest lay +between Seward and Lincoln, and only a dead-lock between these two could +give a chance to some one of the others. But Seward's friends hoped, and +Lincoln's friends dreaded, that the New Yorker might win by a rush on +the first ballot. George Ashmun of Massachusetts presided. With little +discussion a platform was adopted, long and ill-written, overloaded with +adjectives and rhetoric, sacrificing dignity to the supreme pleasure of +abusing the Democracy, but honest in stating Republican doctrines, and +clearly displaying the temper of an earnest, aggressive party, hot for +the fight and confident of victory. The vote of acceptance was greeted +with such a cheering that "a herd of buffaloes or lions could not have +made a more tremendous roaring." + +The details of the brief but sharp contest for the nomination are not +altogether gratifying. The partisans of Seward set about winning votes +by much parading in the streets with banners and music, and by +out-yelling all competitors within the walls of the convention. For this +intelligent purpose they had engaged Tom Hyer, the prize fighter, with +a gang of roughs, to hold possession of the Wigwam, and to howl +illimitably at appropriate moments. But they had undertaken a difficult +task in trying to outdo the great West, in one of its own cities, at a +game of this kind. The Lincoln leaders in their turn secured a couple of +stentorian yellers (one of them a Democrat), instructed them carefully, +and then filled the Wigwam full actually at daybreak, while the Seward +men were marching; so in the next yelling match the West won +magnificently. How great was the real efficiency of these tactics in +affecting the choice of the ruler of a great nation commonly accounted +intelligent, it is difficult to say with accuracy; but it is certain +that the expert managers spared no pains about this scenic business of +"enthusiasm." + +Meanwhile other work, entirely quiet, was being done elsewhere. The +objection to Seward was that he was too radical, too far in advance of +the party. The Bates following were pushing their candidate as a +moderate man, who would be acceptable to "Union men." But Bates's chance +was small, and any tendency towards a moderate candidate was likely to +carry his friends to Lincoln rather than to Seward; for Lincoln was +generally supposed, however erroneously,[100] to be more remote from +Abolitionism than Seward was. To counteract this, a Seward delegate +telegraphed to the Bates men at St. Louis that Lincoln was as radical +as Seward. Lincoln, at Springfield, saw this dispatch, and at once wrote +a message to David Davis: "Lincoln agrees with Seward in his +irrepressible-conflict idea, and in Negro Equality; but he is opposed to +Seward's Higher Law. _Make no contracts that will bind me_." He +underscored the last sentence; but when his managers saw it, they +recognized that such independence did not accord with the situation, and +so they set it aside. + +The first vote was:-- + + Whole number 465 + Necessary for choice 233 + + William H. Seward of New York 173-1/2 + Abraham Lincoln of Illinois 102 + Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania 50-1/2 + Salmon P. Chase of Ohio 49 + Edward Bates of Missouri 48 + William L. Dayton of New Jersey 14 + John McLean of Ohio 12 + Jacob Collamer of Vermont 10 + + Scattering 6 + +The fact was, and Lincoln's friends perfectly understood it, that +Cameron held that peculiar kind of power which gave him no real prospect +of success, yet had a considerable salable value. Could they refrain +from trying the market? They asked the owners of the 50-1/2 Cameron +votes what was their price. The owners said: The Treasury Department. +Lincoln's friends declared this extravagant. Then they all chaffered. +Finally Cameron's men took a place in the cabinet, without further +specification. Lamon says that another smaller contract was made with +the friends of Caleb B. Smith. Then the Lincoln managers rested in a +pleasing sense of security. + +The second ballot showed slight changes:-- + + Seward 184-1/2 + Lincoln 181 + Cameron 2 + Chase 42-1/2 + Bates 5 + Dayton 10 + McLean 8 + + Scattering 2 + +Upon the third ballot delivery was made of what Mr. Davis had bought. +That epidemic foreknowledge, which sometimes so unaccountably foreruns +an event, told the convention that the decision was at hand. A dead +silence reigned save for the click of the telegraphic instruments and +the low scratching of hundreds of pencils checking off the votes as the +roll was called. Those who were keeping the tally saw that it stood:-- + + Seward 180 + Lincoln 231-1/2 + Chase 24-1/2 + Bates 22 + Dayton 1 + McLean 5 + + Scattering 1 + +Cameron was out of the race; Lincoln was within 1-1/2 votes of the goal. +Before the count could be announced, a delegate from Ohio transferred +four votes to Lincoln. This settled the matter; and then other +delegations followed, till Lincoln's score rose to 354. At once the +"enthusiasm" of 10,000 men again reduced to insignificance a "herd of +buffaloes or lions." When at last quiet was restored, William M. Evarts, +who had led for Seward, offered the usual motion to make the nomination +of Abraham Lincoln unanimous. It was done. Again the "tremendous +roaring" arose. Later in the day the convention nominated Hannibal +Hamlin[101] of Maine, on the second ballot, by 367 votes, for the +vice-presidency. Then for many hours, till exhaustion brought rest, +Chicago was given over to the wonted follies; cannon boomed, music +resounded, and streets and barrooms were filled with the howling and +drinking crowds of the intelligent promoters of one of the great moral +crusades of the human race. + +Lamon says that the committee deputed to wait upon Lincoln at +Springfield found him "sad and dejected. The reaction from excessive joy +to deep despondency--a process peculiar to his constitution--had already +set in."[102] His remarks to these gentlemen were brief and colorless. +His letter afterward was little more than a simple acceptance of the +platform. + + * * * * * + +Since white men first landed on this continent, the selection of +Washington to lead the army of the Revolution is the only event to be +compared in good fortune with this nomination of Abraham Lincoln. Yet +the convention deserved no credit for its action. It did not know the +true ratio between Seward and Lincoln, which only the future was to make +plain. By all that it did know, it ought to have given the honor to +Seward, who merited it by the high offices which he had held with +distinction and without blemish, by the leadership which he had acquired +in the party through long-continued constancy and courage, by the force +and clearness with which he had maintained its principles, by his +experience and supposed natural aptitude in the higher walks of +statesmanship. Yet actually by reason of these very qualifications[103] +it was now admitted that the all-important "October States" of Indiana +and Pennsylvania could not be carried by the Republicans if Seward were +nominated; while Greeley, sitting in the convention as a substitute for +a delegate from Oregon, cast as much of the weight of New York as he +could lift into the anti-Seward scale. In plain fact, the convention, by +its choice, paid no compliment either to Lincoln or to the voters of the +party. They took him because he was "available," and the reason that he +was "available" lay not in any popular appreciation of his merits, but +in the contrary truth,--that the mass of people could place no +intelligent estimate upon him at all, either for good or for ill. +Outside of Illinois a few men, who had studied his speeches, esteemed +him an able man in debate; more had a vague notion of him as an +effective stump speaker of the West; far the greatest number had to find +out about him.[104] In a word, Mr. Lincoln gained the nomination because +Mr. Seward had been "too conspicuous," whereas he himself was so little +known that it was possible for Wendell Phillips to inquire indignantly: +"Who is this huckster in politics? Who is this county court +advocate?"[105] For these singular reasons he was the most "available" +candidate who could be offered before the citizens of the United States! + +It cannot be said that the nomination was received with much +satisfaction. "Honest old Abe the rail-splitter!" might sound well in +the ear of the masses; but the Republican party was laden with the +burden of an immense responsibility, and the men who did its thinking +could not reasonably feel certain that rail-splitting was an altogether +satisfactory training for the leader in such an era as was now at hand. +Nevertheless, nearly[106] all came to the work of the campaign with as +much zeal as if they had surely known the full value of their candidate. +Shutting their minds against doubts, they made the most spirited and +energetic canvass which has ever taken place in the country. The +organization of the "Wide-Awake" clubs was an effective success.[107] +None who saw will ever forget the spectacle presented by these +processions wherein many thousands of men, singing the campaign songs, +clad in uniform capes of red or white oil-cloth, each with a flaming +torch or a colored lantern, marched nightly in every city and town of +the North, in apparently endless numbers and with military precision, +making the streets a brilliant river of variously tinted flame. +Torchlight parades have become mere conventional affairs since those +days, when there was a spirit in them which nothing has ever stirred +more lately. They were a good preparation for the more serious marching +and severer drill which were soon to come, though the Republicans +scoffed at all anticipations of such a future, and sneered at the timid +ones who croaked of war and bloodshed. + +Almost from the beginning it was highly probable that the Republicans +would win, and it was substantially certain that none of their +competitors could do so. The only contrary chance was that no election +might be made by the people, and that it might be thrown into Congress. +Douglas with his wonted spirit made a vigorous fight, traveling to and +fro, speaking constantly in the North and a few times in the South, but +defiant rather than conciliatory in tone. He did not show one whit the +less energy because it was obvious that he waged a contest without hope. +If there were any road to Democratic success, which it now seems that +there was not, it lay in uniting the sundered party. An attempt was made +to arrange that whichever Democratic candidate should ultimately display +the greater strength should receive the full support of the party. +Projects for a fusion ticket met with some success in New York. In +Pennsylvania like schemes were imperfectly successful. In other Northern +States they were received with scant favor. Except some followers of +Bell and Everett, men were in no temper for compromise. At the South +fusion was not even attempted; the Breckenridge men would not hear of +it; the voters in that section were controlled by leaders, and these +leaders probably had a very distinct policy, which would be seriously +interfered with by the triumph of the Douglas ticket. + +The chief anxiety of Lincoln and the Republican leaders was lest some +voters, who disagreed with them only on less important issues, might +stay away from the polls. All the platforms, except that of the +Constitutional Union party, touched upon other topics besides the +question of slavery in the Territories; the tariff, native Americanism, +acquisition of Cuba, a transcontinental railway, public lands, internal +improvements, all found mention. The Know-Nothing party still by +occasional twitchings showed that life had not quite taken flight, and +endeavors were made to induce Lincoln to express his views. But he +evaded it.[108] For above all else he wished to avoid the stirring of +any dissension upon side issues or minor points; his hope was to see all +opponents of the extension of slavery put aside for a while all other +matters, refrain from discussing troublesome details, and unite for the +one broad end of putting slavery where "the fathers" had left it, so +that the "public mind should rest in the belief that it was in the way +of ultimate extinction." He felt it to be fair and right that he should +receive the votes of all anti-slavery men; and ultimately he did, with +the exception only of the thorough-going Abolitionists. + +It was not so very long since he had spoken of the Abolitionist leaders +as "friends;" but they did not reciprocate the feeling, nor indeed could +reasonably be expected to do so, or to vote the Republican ticket. They +were even less willing to vote it with Lincoln at the head of it than if +Seward had been there.[109] But Republicanism itself under any leader +was distinctly at odds with their views; for when they said +"_abolition_" they meant accurately what they said, and abolition +certainly was impossible under the Constitution. The Republicans, and +Lincoln personally, with equal directness acknowledged the supremacy of +the Constitution. Lincoln, therefore, plainly asserted a policy which +the Abolitionists equally plainly condemned. In their eyes, to be a +party to a contract maintaining slavery throughout a third of a +continent was only a trifle less criminal than aiding to extend it over +another third. Yet it should be said that the Abolitionists were not all +of one mind, and some voted the Republican ticket as being at least a +step in the right direction. Joshua R. Giddings was a member of the +Republican Convention which nominated Lincoln. But Wendell Phillips, +always an extremist among extremists, published an article entitled +"Abraham Lincoln, the Slave-hound of Illinois," whereof the keynote was +struck in this introductory sentence: "We gibbet a Northern hound +to-day, side by side with the infamous Mason of Virginia." Mr. Garrison, +a man of far larger and sounder intellectual powers than belonged to +Phillips, did not fancy this sort of diatribe, though five months +earlier he had accused the Republican party of "slavish subserviency to +the Union," and declared it to be "still insanely engaged in glorifying +the Union and pledging itself to frown upon all attempts to dissolve +it." Undeniably men who held these views could not honestly vote for Mr. +Lincoln. + +The popular vote and the electoral vote were as follows:[110]-- + + Li: Abraham Lincoln, Illinois. + Do: Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois. + Br: John C. Breckenridge, Kentucky. + Be: John Bell, Tennessee. + + Popular Vote | Electoral Vote + State Li Do Br Be | Li Do Br Be + -------------------------------------------------------+-------------- + Maine 62,811 26,693 6,368 2,046 | 8 -- -- -- + New Hampshire 37,519 25,881 2,112 441 | 5 -- -- -- + Vermont 33,808 6,849 218 1,969 | 5 -- -- -- + Massachusetts 106,533 34,372 5,939 22,231 | 13 -- -- -- + Rhode Island 12,244 7,707[B] -- -- | 4 -- -- -- + Connecticut 43,792 15,522 14,641 3,291 | 6 -- -- -- + New York 362,646 312,510[B] -- -- | 35 -- -- -- + New Jersey 58,324 62,801[B] -- -- | 4 3 -- -- + Pennsylvania 268,030 16,765 178,871[B] 12,776 | 27 -- -- -- + Delaware 3,815 1,023 7,337 3,864 | -- -- 3 -- + Maryland 2,294 5,966 42,482 41,760 | -- -- 8 -- + Virginia 1,929 16,290 74,323 74,681 | -- -- -- 15 + North Carolina -- 2,701 48,539 44,990 | -- -- 10 -- + South Carolina[A] -- -- -- -- | -- -- 8 -- + Georgia -- 11,590 51,889 42,886 | -- -- 10 -- + Florida -- 367 8,543 5,437 | -- -- 3 -- + Alabama -- 13,651 48,831 27,875 | -- -- 9 -- + Mississippi -- 3,283 40,797 25,040 | -- -- 7 -- + Louisiana -- 7,625 22,861 20,204 | -- -- 6 -- + Texas -- -- 47,548 15,438[B]| -- -- 4 -- + Arkansas -- 5,227 28,732 20,094 | -- -- 4 -- + Missouri 17,028 58,801 31,317 58,372 | -- 9 -- -- + Tennessee -- 11,350 64,709 69,274 | -- -- -- 12 + Kentucky 1,364 25,651 53,143 66,058 | -- -- -- 12 + Ohio 231,610 187,232 11,405 12,194 | 23 -- -- -- + Michigan 88,480 65,057 805 405 | 6 -- -- -- + Indiana 139,033 115,509 12,295 5,306 | 13 -- -- -- + Illinois 172,161 160,215 2,404 4,913 | 11 -- -- -- + Wisconsin 86,110 65,021 888 161 | 5 -- -- -- + Minnesota 22,069 11,920 748 62 | 4 -- -- -- + Iowa 70,409 55,111 1,048 1,763 | 4 -- -- -- + California 39,173 38,516 34,334 6,817 | 4 -- -- -- + Oregon 5,270 3,951 5,006 183 | 3 -- -- -- + -------------------------------------------------------+-------------- + Totals 1,866,452 1,375,157 847,953 590,631 | 180 12 72 39 + + [A] By legislature. + [B] Fusion electoral tickets. + +Messrs. Nicolay and Hay say that Lincoln was the "indisputable choice of +the American people," and by way of sustaining the statement say that, +if the "whole voting strength of the three opposing parties had been +united upon a single candidate, Lincoln would nevertheless have been +chosen with only a trifling diminution of his electoral majority."[111] +It might be better to say that Lincoln was the "indisputable choice" of +the electoral college. The "American people" fell enormously short of +showing a majority in his favor. His career as president was made +infinitely more difficult as well as greatly more creditable to him by +reason of the very fact that he was _not_ the choice of the American +people, but of less than half of them,--and this, too, even if the +Confederate States be excluded from the computation.[112] + +The election of Lincoln was "hailed with delight" by the extremists in +South Carolina; for it signified secession, and the underlying and real +desire of these people was secession, and not either compromise or +postponement.[113] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[95] Lamon, 422. + +[96] The majority report was supported by 15 slave States and 2 free +States, casting 127 electoral votes; the minority report was supported +by 15 free States, casting 176 electoral votes. N. and H. ii. 234. + +[97] This action was soon afterward approved in a manifesto signed by +Jefferson Davis, Toombs, Iverson, Slidell, Benjamin, Mason, and others. +_Ibid._ 245. + +[98] Greeley's _Amer. Conflict_, i. 326. + +[99] _Ibid._ i. 306, 307. + +[100] Mr. Blaine says that Lincoln "was chosen in spite of expressions +far more radical than those of Mr. Seward." _Twenty Years of Congress_, +i. 169. + +[101] "In strong common sense, in sagacity and sound judgment, in rugged +integrity of character, Mr. Hamlin has had no superior among public +men." Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. 170. + +[102] Lamon, 453. + +[103] McClure adds, or rather mentions as the chief cause, Seward's +position on the public-school question in New York. _Lincoln and Men of +War-Times_, 28, 29. + +[104] "To the country at large he was an obscure, not to say an unknown +man." _Life of W.L. Garrison_, by his children, iii. 503. + +[105] _Life of W.L. Garrison_, by his children, iii. 503. + +[106] See remarks of McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War-Times_, 28, 29. + +[107] See N. and H. ii. 284 n. + +[108] See letter of May 17, 1859, to Dr. Canisius, Holland, 196; N. and +H. ii. 181. + +[109] _Life of W.L. Garrison_, by his children, iii. 502. + +[110] This table is taken from Stanwood's _History of Presidential +Elections_. + +[111] N. and H. iii. 146. + +[112] The total popular vote was 4,680,193. Lincoln had 1,866,452. In +North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, +Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee, no vote was cast for the Lincoln ticket; +in Virginia only 1929 voted it. Adding the total popular vote of all +these States (except the 1929), we get 854,775; deducting this from the +total popular vote leaves a balance of 3,825,418, of which one half is +1,912,709; so that even outside of the States of the Confederacy Lincoln +did not get one half of the popular vote. South Carolina is not included +in any calculation concerning the popular vote, because she chose +electors by her legislature. + +[113] Letter of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, May 28, 1858, quoted N. and +H. ii. 302 n. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +INTERREGNUM + + +For a while now the people of the Northern States were compelled +passively to behold a spectacle which they could not easily reconcile +with the theory of the supreme excellence and wisdom of their system of +government. Abraham Lincoln was chosen President of the United States +November 6, 1860; he was to be inaugurated March 4, 1861. During the +intervening four months the government must be conducted by a chief +whose political creed was condemned by an overwhelming majority of the +nation.[114] The situation was as unfair for Mr. Buchanan as it was +hurtful for the people. As head of a republic, or, in the more popular +phrase, as the chief "servant of the people," he must respect the +popular will, yet he could not now administer the public business +according to that will without being untrue to all his own convictions, +and repudiating all his trusted counselors. In a situation so +intrinsically false efficient government was impossible, no matter what +was the strength or weakness of the hand at the helm. Therefore there +was every reason for displacing Buchanan from control of the national +affairs in the autumn, and every reason against continuing him in that +control through the winter; yet the law of the land ordained the latter +course. It seemed neither sensible nor even safe. During this doleful +period all descriptions of him agree: he seemed, says Chittenden, +"shaken in body and uncertain in mind,... an old man worn out by worry;" +while the Southerners also declared him as "incapable of purpose as a +child." To the like purport spoke nearly all who saw him. + +During the same time Lincoln's position was equally absurd and more +trying. After the lapse of four months he was, by the brief ceremony of +an hour, to become the leader of a great nation under an exceptionally +awful responsibility; but during those four months he could play no +other part than simply to watch, in utter powerlessness, the swift +succession of crowding events, which all were tending to make his +administration of the government difficult, or even impossible. +Throughout all this long time, the third part of a year, which statutes +scarcely less venerable than the Constitution itself freely presented to +the disunion leaders, they safely completed their civil and military +organization, while the Northerners, under a ruler whom they had +discredited, but of whom they could not get rid, were paralyzed for all +purposes of counter preparation. + +As a trifling compensation for its existence this costly interregnum +presents to later generations a curious spectacle. A volume might be +made of the public utterances put forth in that time by men of familiar +names and more or less high repute, and it would show many of them in +most strange and unexpected characters, so entirely out of keeping with +the years which they had lived before, and the years which they were to +live afterward, that the reader would gaze in hopeless bewilderment. In +the "solid" South, so soon to be a great rebelling unit, he would find +perhaps half of the people opposed to disunion; in the North he would +hear everywhere words of compromise and concession, while coercion would +be mentioned only to be denounced. If these four months were useful in +bringing the men of the North to the fighting point, on the other hand +they gave an indispensable opportunity for proselyting, by whirl and +excitement, great numbers at the South. Even in the autumn of 1860 and +in the Gulf States secession was still so much the scheme of leaders +that there was no popular preponderance in favor of disunion doctrines. +In evidence of this are the responses of governors to a circular letter +of Governor Gist of South Carolina, addressed to them October 5, 1860, +and seeking information as to the feeling among the people. From North +Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama came replies that secession +was not likely to be favorably received. Mississippi was non-committal. +Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama desired a convention of the +discontented States, and might be influenced by its action. North +Carolina, Louisiana, and Alabama would oppose forcible coercion of a +seceding State. Florida alone was rhetorically belligerent. These +reports were discouraging in the ears of the extremist governor; but +against them he could set the fact that the disunionists had the +advantage of being the aggressive, propagandist body, homogeneous, and +pursuing an accurate policy in entire concert. They were willing to take +any amount of pains to manipulate and control the election of delegates +and the formal action of conventions, and in all cases except that of +Texas the question was conclusively passed upon by conventions. By every +means they "fired the Southern heart," which was notoriously +combustible; they stirred up a great tumult of sentiment; they made +thunderous speeches; they kept distinguished emissaries moving to and +fro; they celebrated each success with an uproar of cannonading, with +bonfires, illuminations, and processions; they appealed to those +chivalrous virtues supposed to be peculiar to Southerners; they preached +devotion to the State, love of the state flag, generous loyalty to +sister slave-communities; sometimes they used insult, abuse, and +intimidation; occasionally they argued seductively. Thus Mr. Cobb's +assertion, that "we can make better terms out of the Union than in it," +was, in the opinion of Alexander H. Stephens, the chief influence which +carried Georgia out of the Union. In the main, however, it was the +principle of state sovereignty and state patriotism which proved the one +entirely trustworthy influence to bring over the reluctant. "I abhor +disunion, but I go with my State," was the common saying; and the States +were under skillful and resolute leadership. So, though the popular +discontent was far short of the revolutionary point, yet individuals, +one after another, yielded to that sympathetic, emotional instinct which +tempts each man to fall in with the big procession. In this way it was +that during the Buchanan interregnum the people of the Gulf States +became genuinely fused in rebellion. + +It is not correct to say that the election of Lincoln was the cause of +the Rebellion; it was rather the signal. To the Southern leaders, it was +the striking of the appointed hour. His defeat would have meant only +postponement. South Carolina led the way. On December 17, 1860, her +convention came together, the Palmetto flag waving over its chamber of +conference, and on December 20 it issued its "Ordinance."[115] This +declared that the Ordinance of May 23, 1788, ratifying the Constitution, +is "hereby repealed," and the "Union now subsisting between South +Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of +America, is hereby dissolved." A Declaration of Causes said that South +Carolina had "resumed her position among the nations of the world as a +separate and independent State." The language used was appropriate for +the revocation of a power of attorney. The people hailed this action +with noisy joy, unaccompanied by any regret or solemnity at the +severance of the old relationship. The newspapers at once began to +publish "Foreign News" from the other States. The new governor, Pickens, +a fiery Secessionist, and described as one "born insensible to +fear,"--presumably the condition of most persons at that early period of +existence,--had already suggested to Mr. Buchanan the impropriety of +reinforcing the national garrisons in the forts in Charleston harbor. He +now accredited to the President three commissioners to treat with him +for the delivery of the "forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real +estate, with their appurtenances, in the limits of South Carolina; and +also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all +other property held by the government of the United States as agent of +the Confederate States of which South Carolina was recently a member." +This position, as of the dissolution of a copartnership, or the +revocation of an agency, and an accounting of debts and assets, was at +least simple; and by way of expediting it an appraisal of the "real +estate" and "appurtenances" within the state limits had been made by the +state government. Meanwhile there was in the harbor of Charleston a sort +of armed truce, which might at any moment break into war. Major Anderson +in Fort Moultrie, and the state commander in the city, watched each +other like two suspicious animals, neither sure when the other will +spring. In short, in all the overt acts, the demeanor and the language +of this excitable State, there was such insolence, besides hostility, +that her emissaries must have been surprised at the urbane courtesy with +which they were received, even by a President of Mr. Buchanan's views. + +After the secession of South Carolina the other Gulf States hesitated +briefly. Mississippi followed first; her convention assembled January 7, +1861, and on January 9 passed the ordinance, 84 yeas to 15 nays, +subsequently making the vote unanimous. The Florida convention met +January 3, and on January 10 decreed the State to be "a sovereign and +independent nation," 62 yeas to 7 nays. The Alabama convention passed +its ordinance on January 11 by 61 yeas to 39 nays; the President +announced that the idea of reconstruction must be forever "dismissed." +Yet the northern part of the State appeared to be substantially +anti-secession. In Georgia the Secessionists doubted whether they could +control a convention, yet felt obliged to call one. Toombs, Cobb, and +Iverson labored with tireless zeal throughout the State; but in spite of +all their proselyting, Unionist feeling ran high and debate was hot. The +members from the southern part of the State ventured to menace and +dragoon those from the northern part, who were largely Unionists. The +latter retorted angrily; a schism and personal collisions were narrowly +avoided. Alexander H. Stephens spoke for the Union with a warmth and +logic not surpassed by anything that was said at the North. He and +Herschel V. Johnson both voted against secession; yet, on January 18, +when the vote was taken, it showed 208 yeas against 89 nays. On January +26 Louisiana followed, the vote of the convention being 113 yeas to 17 +nays; but it refused to submit the ordinance to the people for +ratification. The action of Texas, the only other State which seceded +prior to the inauguration of Lincoln, was delayed until February 1. +There Governor Houston was opposing secession with such vigor as +remained to a broken old man, whereby he provoked Senator Iverson to +utter the threat of assassination: "Some Texan Brutus may arise to rid +his country of this old hoary-headed traitor." But in the convention, +when it came to voting, the yeas were 166, the nays only 7. + +By the light that was in him Mr. Buchanan was a Unionist, but it was a +sadly false and flickering light, and beneath its feeble illumination +his steps staggered woefully. For two months he diverged little from the +path which the Secessionist leaders would have marked out for him, had +they controlled his movements. At the time of the election his cabinet +was:-- + + Lewis Cass of Michigan, secretary of state. + Howell Cobb of Georgia, secretary of the treasury. + John B. Floyd of Virginia, secretary of war. + Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, secretary of the navy. + Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, secretary of the interior. + Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee, postmaster-general. + Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania, attorney-general. + +Of these men Cobb, Floyd, and Thompson were extreme Secessionists. Many +felt that Cobb should have been made President of the Southern +Confederacy instead of Davis. In December Thompson went as commissioner +from Mississippi to North Carolina to persuade that State to secede, and +did not resign his place in the cabinet because, as he said, Mr. +Buchanan approved his mission. + +Betwixt his own predilections and the influence of these advisers Mr. +Buchanan composed for the Thirty-sixth Congress a message which carried +consternation among all Unionists. It was of little consequence that he +declared the present situation to be the "natural effect" of the +"long-continued and intemperate interference" of the Northern people +with slavery. But it was of the most serious consequence that, while he +condemned secession as unconstitutional, he also declared himself +powerless to prevent it. His duty "to take care that the laws be +faithfully executed" he knew no other way to perform except by aiding +federal officers in the performance of their duties. But where, as in +South Carolina, the federal officers had all resigned, so that none +remained to be aided, what was he to do? This was practically to take +the position that half a dozen men, by resigning their offices, could +make the preservation of the Union by its chief executive +impossible![116] Besides this, Mr. Buchanan said that he had "no +authority to decide what should be the relations between the Federal +government and South Carolina." He afterward said that he desired to +avoid a collision of arms "between this and any other government." He +did not seem to reflect that he had no right to recognize a State of the +Union as being an "other government," in the sense in which he used the +phrase, and that, by his very abstention from the measures necessary for +maintaining unchanged that relationship which had hitherto existed, he +became a party to the establishment of a new relationship, and that, +too, of a character which he himself alleged-to be unconstitutional. In +truth, his chief purpose was to rid himself of any responsibility and to +lay it all upon Congress. Yet he was willing to advise Congress as to +its powers and duties in the business which he shirked in favor of that +body, saying that the power to coerce a seceding State had not been +delegated to it, and adding the warning that "the Union can never be +cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war." So the nation +learned that its ruler was of opinion that to resist the destruction of +its nationality was both unlawful and inexpedient. + +If the conclusions of the message aroused alarm and indignation, its +logic excited ridicule. Senator Hale gave a not unfair synopsis: The +President, he said, declares: 1. That South Carolina has just cause for +seceding. 2. That she has no right to secede. 3. That we have no right +to prevent her from seceding; and that the power of the government is "a +power to do nothing at all." Another wit said that Buchanan was willing +to give up a _part_ of the Constitution, and, if necessary, the _whole_, +in order to preserve the _remainder_! But while this message of Mr. +Buchanan has been bitterly denounced, and with entire justice, from the +hour of its transmission to the present day, yet a palliating +consideration ought to be noted: he had little reason to believe that, +if he asserted the right and duty of forcible coercion, he would find at +his back the indispensable force, moral and physical, of the people. +Demoralization at the North was widespread. After the lapse of a few +months this condition passed, and then those who had been beneath its +influence desired to forget the humiliating fact, and hoped that others +might either forget or never know the measure of their weakness. In +order that they might save their good names, it was natural that they +should seek to suppress all evidence which had not already found its way +upon the public record; but enough remains to show how grievously for a +while the knees were weakened under many who enjoy--and rightfully, by +reason of the rest of their lives--the reputation of stalwart patriots. +For example, late in October, General Scott suggested to the President +a division of the country into four separate confederacies, roughly +outlining their boundaries. Scott was a dull man, but he was the head of +the army and enjoyed a certain prestige, so that it was impossible to +say that his notions, however foolish in themselves, were of no +consequence. But if the blunders of General Scott could not fatally +wound the Union cause, the blunders of Horace Greeley might conceivably +do so. If there had been in the Northern States any newspaper--apart +from Mr. Garrison's "Liberator"--which was thoroughly committed to the +anti-slavery cause, it was the New York "Tribune," under the guidance of +that distinguished editor. Republicans everywhere throughout the land +had been educated by his teachings, and had become accustomed to take a +large part of their knowledge and their opinions in matters political +from his writings. It was a misfortune for Abraham Lincoln, which cannot +be overrated, that from the moment of his nomination to the day of his +death the "Tribune" was largely engaged in criticising his measures and +in condemning his policy. + +No sooner did all that, which Mr. Greeley had been striving during many +years to bring about, seem to be on the point of consummation, than the +demoralized and panic-stricken reformer became desirous to undo his own +achievements, and to use for the purpose of effecting a sudden +retrogression all the influence which he had gained by bold leadership. +November 9, 1860, it was appalling to read in the editorial columns of +his sheet, that "if the Cotton States shall decide that they can do +better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in +peace;" that, while the "Tribune" denied the right of nullification, yet +it would admit that "to withdraw from the Union is quite another +matter;" that "whenever a considerable section of our Union shall +deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures +designed to keep it in."[117] At the end of another month the +"Tribune's" famous editor was still in the same frame of mind, declaring +himself "averse to the employment of military force to fasten one +section of our confederacy to the other," and saying that, "if eight +States, having five millions of people, choose to separate from us, they +cannot be permanently withheld from so doing by federal cannon." On +December 17 he even said that the South had as good a right to secede +from the Union as the colonies had to secede from Great Britain, and +that he "would not stand up for coercion, for subjugation," because he +did not "think it would be just." On February 23, 1861, he said that if +the Cotton States, or the Gulf States, "choose to form an independent +nation, they have a clear moral right to do so," and if the "great body +of the Southern people" become alienated from the Union and wish to +"escape from it, we will do our best to forward their views." A volume +could be filled with the like writing of his prolific pen at this time, +and every sentence of such purport was the casting of a new stone to +create an almost impassable obstruction in the path along which the new +President must soon endeavor to move. Thurlow Weed, editor of the Albany +"Evening Journal," and the confidential adviser of Seward, wrote in +favor of concessions; he declared that "a victorious party can afford to +be tolerant;" and he advocated a convention to revise the Constitution, +on the ground that, "after more than seventy years of wear and tear, of +collision and abrasion, it should be no cause of wonder that the +machinery of government is found weakened, or out of repair, or even +defective." Frequently he uttered the wish, vague and of fine sound, but +enervating, that the Republicans might "meet secession as patriots and +not as partisans." On November 9 the Democratic New York "Herald," +discussing the election of Lincoln, said: "For far less than this our +fathers seceded from Great Britain;" it also declared coercion to be +"out of the question," and laid down the principle that each State +possesses "the right to break the tie of the confederacy, as a nation +might break a treaty, and to repel coercion as a nation might repel +invasion." + +Local elections in New York and Massachusetts "showed a striking and +general reduction of Republican strength." In December the mayor of +Philadelphia, though that city had polled a heavy Republican majority, +told a mass meeting in Independence Square that denunciations of slavery +were inconsistent with national brotherhood, and "must be frowned down +by a just and law-abiding people." The Bell and Everett men, generally, +desired peace at any price. The business men of the North, alarmed at +the prospect of disorder, became loudly solicitous for concession, +compromise, even surrender.[118] In Democratic meetings a threatening +tone was adopted. One proposal was to reconstruct the Union, leaving out +the New England States. So late even as January 21, 1861, before an +immense and noteworthy gathering in New York, an orator ventured to say: +"If a revolution of force is to begin, it shall be inaugurated at home;" +and the words were cheered. The distinguished Chancellor Walworth said +that it would be "as brutal to send men to butcher our own brothers of +the Southern States as it would be to massacre them in the Northern +States." When DeWitt Clinton's son, George, spoke of secession as +"rebellion," the multitude hailed the word with cries of dissent. Even +at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, "a very large and respectable meeting" was +emphatically in favor of compromise. It was impossible to measure +accurately the extent and force of all this demoralization; but the +symptoms were that vast numbers were infected with such sentiments, and +that they would have been worse than useless as backers of a vigorous +policy on the part of the government. + +With the North wavering and ready to retreat, and the South aggressive +and confident, it was exacting to expect Mr. Buchanan to stand up for a +fight. Why should he, with his old-time Democratic principles, now by a +firm, defiant attitude precipitate a crisis, possibly a civil war, when +Horace Greeley and Wendell Phillips were conspicuously running away from +the consequences of their own teachings, and were loudly crying "Peace! +peace!" after they themselves had long been doing all in their power to +bring the North up to the fighting point? When these leaders faced to +the rear, it was hard to say who could be counted upon to fill the front +rank. In truth, it was a situation which might have discouraged a more +combative patriot than Buchanan. Meanwhile, while the Northerners talked +chiefly of yielding, the hot and florid rhetoric of the Southern +orators, often laden with contemptuous insult, smote with disturbing +menace upon the ears even of the most courageous Unionists. It was said +at the South and feared at the North that secession had a "Spartan band +in every Northern State," and that blood would flow in Northern cities +at least as soon and as freely as on the Southern plantations, if +forcible coercion should be attempted. Was it possible to be sure that +this was all rodomontade? To many good citizens there seemed some reason +to think that the best hope for avoiding the fulfillment at the North of +these sanguinary threats might lie in the probability that the +anti-slavery agitators would not stand up to encounter a genuinely +mortal peril. + +When the Star of the West retired, a little ignominiously, from her task +of reinforcing Fort Sumter, Senator Wigfall jeered insolently. "Your +flag has been insulted," he said; "redress it if you dare! You have +submitted to it for two months, and you will submit forever.... We have +dissolved the Union; mend it if you can; cement it with blood; try the +experiment!" Mr. Chestnut of South Carolina wished to "unfurl the +Palmetto flag, fling it to the breeze ... and ring the clarion notes of +defiance in the ears of an insolent foe." Such bombastic but confident +language, of which a great quantity was uttered in this winter of +1860-61, may exasperate or intimidate according to the present temper of +the opponent whose ear it assaults; for a while the North was more in +condition to be awestruck than to be angered. Her spokesmen failed to +answer back, and left her to listen not without anxiety to fierce +predictions that Southern flags would soon be floating over the dome of +the Capitol and even over Faneuil Hall, if she should be so imprudent as +to test Southern valor and Southern resources. + +Matters looked even worse for the Union cause in Congress than in the +country. Occasionally some irritated Northern Republican shot out words +of spirit; but the prevalent desire was for conciliation, compromise, +and concession, while some actually adopted secession doctrines. For +example, Daniel E. Sickles, in the House, threatened that the secession +of the Southern States should be followed by that of New York city; and +in fact the scheme had been recommended by the Democratic mayor, +Fernando Wood, in a message to the Common Council of the city on January +6; and General Dix conceived it to be a possibility. In the Senate Simon +Cameron declared himself desirous to preserve the Union "by any +sacrifice of feeling, and I may say of principle." A sacrifice of +political principle by Cameron was not, perhaps, a serious matter; but +he intended the phrase to be emphatic, and he was a leading Republican +politician, had been a candidate for the presidential nomination, and +was dictator in Pennsylvania. Even Seward, in the better days of the +middle of January, felt that he could "afford to meet prejudice with +conciliation, exaction with concession which surrenders no principle, +and violence with the right hand of peace;" and he was "willing, after +the excitement of rebellion and secession should have passed away, to +call a convention for amending the Constitution." + +This message of Buchanan marked the lowest point to which the +temperature of his patriotism fell. Soon afterward, stimulated by heat +applied from outside, it began to rise. The first intimation which +impressed upon his anxious mind that he was being too acquiescent +towards the South came from General Cass. That steadfast Democrat, of +the old Jacksonian school, like many of his party at the North, was +fully as good a patriot and Union man as most of the Republicans were +approving themselves to be during these winter months of vacillation, +alarm, and compromise. In November he was strenuously in favor of +forcibly coercing a seceding State, but later assented to the tenor of +Mr. Buchanan's message. The frame of mind which induced this assent, +however, was transitory; for immediately he began to insist upon the +reinforcement of the garrisons of the Southern forts, and on December 13 +he resigned because the President refused to accede to his views. A few +days earlier Howell Cobb had had the grace to resign from the Treasury, +which he left entirely empty. In the reorganization Philip F. Thomas of +Maryland, a Secessionist also, succeeded Cobb; Judge Black was moved +into the State Department; and Edwin M. Stanton of Pennsylvania followed +Black as attorney-general. Mr. Floyd, than whom no Secessionist has left +a name in worse odor at the North, had at first advised against any +"rash movement" in the way of secession, on the ground that Mr. +Lincoln's administration would "fail, and be regarded as impotent for +good or evil, within four months after his inauguration." None the less +he had long been using his official position in the War Department to +send arms into the Southern States, and to make all possible +arrangements for putting them in an advantageous position for +hostilities. Fortunately about this time the famous defalcation in the +Indian Department, in which he was guiltily involved, destroyed his +credit with the President, and at the same time he quarreled with his +associates concerning Anderson's removal to Fort Sumter. On December 29 +he resigned, and the duties of his place were laid for a while upon +Judge Holt, the postmaster-general. + +On Sunday morning, December 30, there was what has been properly called +a cabinet crisis. The South Carolina commissioners, just arrived in +Washington, were demanding recognition, and to treat with the government +as if they were representatives of a foreign power. The President +declined to receive them in a diplomatic character, but offered to act +as go-between betwixt them and Congress. The President's advisers, +however, were in a far less amiable frame of mind, for their blood had +been stirred wholesomely by the secession of South Carolina and the +presence of these emissaries with their insolent demands. Mr. Black, now +at the head of the State Department, had gone through much the same +phases of feeling as General Cass. In November he had been "emphatic in +his advocacy of coercion," but afterward had approved the President's +message and even declared forcible coercion to be "_ipso facto_ an +expulsion" of the State from the Union; since then he had drifted back +and made fast at his earlier moorings. On this important Sunday morning +Mr. Buchanan learned with dismay that either his reply to the South +Carolinians must be substantially modified, or Mr. Black and Mr. Stanton +would retire from the cabinet. Under this pressure he yielded. Mr. Black +drafted a new reply to the commissioners, Mr. Stanton copied it, Holt +concurred in it, and, in substance, Mr. Buchanan accepted it. This +affair constituted, as Messrs. Nicolay and Hay well say, "the +President's virtual abdication," and thereafterward began the "cabinet +regime." Upon the commissioners this chill gust from the North struck so +disagreeably that, on January 2, they hastened home to their +"independent nation." From this time forth the South covered Mr. +Buchanan with contumely and abuse; Mr. Benjamin called him "a senile +executive, under the sinister influence of insane counsels;" and the +poor old man, really wishing to do right, but stripped of friends and of +his familiar advisers, and confounded by the views of new counselors, +presented a spectacle for pity. + +On January 8 Mr. Thompson, secretary of the interior, resigned, and the +vacancy was left unfilled. A more important change took place on the +following day, when Mr. Thomas left the Treasury Department, and the New +York bankers, whose aid was essential, forced the President, sorely +against his will, to give the place to General John A. Dix. This proved +an excellent appointment. General Dix was an old Democrat, but of the +high-spirited type; he could have tolerated secession by peaceable +agreement, but rose in anger at menaces against the flag and the Union. +He conducted his department with entire success, and also rendered to +the country perhaps the greatest service that was done by any man during +that winter. On January 29 he sent the telegram which closed with the +famous words: "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot +him on the spot."[119] This rung out as the first cheering, stimulating +indication of a fighting temper at the North. It was a tonic which came +at a time of sore need, and for too long a while it remained the +solitary dose! + +So much of the President's message as concerned the condition of the +country was referred in the House to a Committee of Thirty-three, +composed by appointing one member from each State. Other resolutions and +motions upon the same subject, to the number of twenty-five, were also +sent to this committee. It had many sessions from December 11 to January +14, but never made an approach to evolving anything distantly +approaching agreement. When, on January 14, the report came, it was an +absurd fiasco: it contained six propositions, of which each had the +assent of a majority of a quorum; but seven minority reports, bearing +together the signatures of fourteen members, were also submitted; and +the members of the seceding States refused to act. The only actual fruit +was a proposed amendment to the Constitution: "That no amendment shall +be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the +power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic +institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service +by the laws of said State." In the expiring hours of the Thirty-sixth +Congress this was passed by the House, and then by the Senate, and was +signed by the President. Lincoln, in his inaugural address, said of it: +"Holding such a provision to be now constitutional law, I have no +objection to its being made express and irrevocable." This view of it +was correct; it had no real significance, and the ill-written sentence +never disfigured the Constitution; it simply sank out of sight, +forgotten by every one. + +Collaterally with the sitting of this House committee, a Committee of +Thirteen was appointed in the Senate. To these gentlemen also "a string +of Union-saving devices" was presented, but on the last day of the year +they reported that they had "not been able to agree upon any general +plan of adjustment." + +The earnest effort of the venerable Crittenden to Affect a compromise +aroused a faint hope. But he offered little else than an extension +westward of the Missouri Compromise line; and he never really had the +slightest chance of effecting that consummation, which in fact _could +not be_ effected. His plan was finally defeated on the last evening of +the session. + +Collaterally with these congressional debates there were also proceeding +in Washington the sessions of the Peace Congress, another futile effort +to concoct a cure for an incurable condition. It met on February 4, +1861, but only twenty-one States out of thirty-four were represented. +The seven States which had seceded said that they could not come, being +"Foreign Nations." Six other States[120] held aloof. Those Northern +States which sent delegates selected "their most conservative and +compromising men," and so great a tendency towards concession was shown +that Unionists soon condemned the scheme as merely a deceitful cover +devised by the Southerners behind which they could the more securely +carry on their processes of secession. These gentlemen talked a great +deal and finally presented a report or plan to Congress five days before +the end of the session; the House refused to receive it, the Senate +rejected it by 7 ayes to 28 nays. The only usefulness of the gathering +was as evidence of the unwillingness of the South to compromise. In fact +the Southern leaders were entirely frank and outspoken in acknowledging +their position; they had said, from the beginning, that they did not +wish the Committee of Thirty-three to accomplish anything; and they had +endeavored to dissuade Southerners from accepting positions upon it. +Hawkins of Florida said that "the time of compromise had passed +forever." South Carolina refused to share in the Peace Congress, because +she did "not deem it advisable to initiate negotiations when she had no +desire or intention to promote the object in view." Governor Peters of +Mississippi, in poetic language, suggested another difficulty: "When +sparks cease to fly upwards," he said, "Comanches respect treaties, and +wolves kill sheep no more, the oath of a Black Republican might be of +some value as a protection to slave property." Jefferson Davis +contemptuously stigmatized all the schemes of compromise as "quack +nostrums," and he sneered justly enough at those who spun fine arguments +of legal texture, and consumed time "discussing abstract questions, +reading patchwork from the opinions of men now mingled with the dust." + +It is not known by what logic gentlemen who held these views defended +their conduct in retaining their positions in the government of the +nation for the purpose of destroying it. Senator Yulee of Florida +shamelessly gave his motive for staying in the Senate: "It is thought we +can keep the hands of Mr. Buchanan tied and disable the Republicans from +effecting any legislation which will strengthen the hands of the +incoming administration." Mr. Toombs of Georgia, speaking and voting at +his desk in the Senate, declared himself "as good a rebel and as good a +traitor as ever descended from Revolutionary loins," and said that the +Union was already dissolved,--by which assertion he made his position in +the Senate absolutely indefensible. The South Carolina senators resigned +before their State ordained itself a "foreign nation," and incurred +censure for being so "precipitate." In a word, the general desire was to +remain in office, hampering and obstructing the government, until March +4, 1861, and at a caucus of disunionists it was agreed to do so. But the +pace became too rapid, and resignations followed pretty close upon the +formal acts of secession. + +On the same day on which the Peace Congress opened its sessions in +Washington, there came together at Montgomery, in Alabama, delegates +from six States for the purpose of forming a Southern Confederacy. On +the third day thereafter a plan for a provisional government, +substantially identical with the Constitution of the United States, was +adopted. On February 9 the oath of allegiance was taken, and Jefferson +Davis and Alexander H. Stephens were elected respectively President and +Vice-President. On February 13 the military and naval committees were +directed to report plans for organizing an army and navy. Mr. Davis +promptly journeyed to Montgomery, making on the way many speeches, in +which he told his hearers that no plan for a reconstruction of the old +Union would be entertained; and promised that those who should interfere +with the new nation would have to "smell Southern powder and to feel +Southern steel." On February 18 he was inaugurated, and in his address +again referred to the "arbitrament of the sword." Immediately afterward +he announced his cabinet as follows:-- + + Robert Toombs of Georgia, secretary of state. + C.G. Memminger of South Carolina, secretary of the treasury. + L.P. Walker of Alabama, secretary of war. + S.R. Mallory of Florida, secretary of the navy. + J.H. Reagan of Texas, postmaster-general. + Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana, attorney-general. + +On March 11 the permanent Constitution was adopted.[121] Thus the +machine of the new government was set in working order. Mr. Greeley +gives some interesting figures showing the comparative numerical +strength of the sections of the country at this time:[122]-- + + The free population of the seven States which + had seceded, was 2,656,948 + The free population of the eight slave States[123] + which had not seceded, was 5,633,005 + Total 8,289,953 + The slaves in the States of the first list were 2,312,046 + The slaves in the States of the second list were 1,638,297 + Total of slaves 3,950,343 + The population of the whole Union by the + census of 1860, was 31,443,321 + +[Illustration: Alexander H. Stephens] + +The disproportion would have discouraged the fathers of the new +nation, if they had anticipated that the North would be resolute in +using its overwhelming resources. But how could they believe that this +would be the case when they read the New York "Tribune" and the reports +of Mr. Phillips's harangues? + + * * * * * + +On February 13 the electoral vote was to be counted in Congress. Rumors +were abroad that the Secessionists intended to interfere with this by +tumults and violence; but the evidence is insufficient to prove that any +such scheme was definitely matured; it was talked of, but ultimately it +seems to have been laid aside with a view to action at a later date. +Naturally enough, however, the country was disquieted. In the emergency +the action of General Scott was watched with deep anxiety. A Southerner +by birth and by social sympathies, he had been expected by the +Secessionists to join their movement. But the old soldier--though broken +by age and infirmities, and though he had proposed the folly of +voluntarily quartering the country, like the corpse of a traitor--had +his patriotism and his temper at once aroused when violence was +threatened. On and after October 29 he had repeatedly advised +reinforcement of the Southern garrisons; though it must be admitted, in +Buchanan's behalf, that the general made no suggestion as to how or +where the troops could be obtained for this purpose. In the same spirit +he now said, with stern resolution, that there should be ample military +preparations to insure both the count and the inauguration; and he told +some of the Southerners that he would blow traitors to pieces at the +cannon's mouth without hesitation. Disturbed at his vehemence, they +denounced him bitterly, and sent him frequent notices of assassination. +Floyd distributed orders concerning troops and munitions directly from +the War Department, and carefully concealed them from the general who +was the head of the army. But secrecy and intimidation were in vain. The +aged warrior was fiercely in earnest; if there was going to be any +outbreak in Washington he was going to put it down with bullets and +bayonets, and he gathered his soldiers and instructed his officers +accordingly. But happily the preparation of these things was sufficient +to render the use of them unnecessary. When the day came Vice-President +Breckenridge performed his duty, however unwelcome, without flinching. +He presided over the joint session and conducted the count with the air +of a man determined to enforce law and order, and at the close declared +the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. + +Still only the smaller crisis had been passed. Much more alarming +stories now flew from mouth to mouth,--of plots to seize the capital and +to prevent the inauguration, even to assassinate Lincoln on his journey +to Washington. How much foundation there was for these is not accurately +known. That the idea of capturing Washington had fascinated the +Southern fancy is certain. "I see no reason," said Senator Iverson, "why +Washington city should not be continued the capital of the Southern +Confederacy." The Richmond "Examiner" railed grossly: "That filthy cage +of unclean birds must and will assuredly be purified by fire.... Our +people can take it,--they will take it.... Scott, the arch-traitor, and +Lincoln, the beast, combined, cannot prevent it. The 'Illinois Ape' must +retrace his journey more rapidly than he came." The abundant talk of +this sort created uneasiness; and Judge Holt said that there was cause +for alarm. But a committee of Congress reported that, though it was +difficult to speak positively, yet they found no evidence sufficient to +prove "the existence of a secret organization." Alexander H. Stephens +has denied that there was any intention to attack the city, and probably +the notion of seizure did not pass beyond the stage of talk. + +But the alleged plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln was more definite. He +had been spending the winter quietly in Springfield, where he had been +overrun by visitors, who wished to look at him, to advise him, and to +secure promises of office; fortunately the tedious procession had lost +part of its offensiveness by touching his sense of humor. Anxious people +made well-meaning but useless efforts to induce him to say something for +effect upon the popular mind; but he resolutely and wisely maintained +silence. His position and opinions, he said, had already been declared +in his speeches with all the clearness he could give to them, and the +people had appeared to understand and approve them. He could not improve +and did not desire to change these utterances. Occasionally he privately +expressed his dislike to the conceding and compromising temper which +threatened to undo, for an indefinite future, all which the long and +weary struggle of anti-slavery men had accomplished. In this line he +wrote a letter of protest to Greeley, which inspired that gentleman to a +singular expression of sympathy; let the Union go to pieces, exclaimed +the emotional editor, let presidents be assassinated, let the Republican +party suffer crushing defeat, but let there not be "another nasty +compromise." To Mr. Kellogg, the Illinoisian on the House Committee of +Thirty-three, Lincoln wrote: "Entertain no proposition for a compromise +in regard to the extension of slavery. The instant you do, they have us +under again; all our labor is lost, and sooner or later must be done +over again." He repeated almost the same words to E.B. Washburne, a +member of the House. Duff Green tried hard to get something out of him +for the comfort of Mr. Buchanan, but failed to extort more than +commonplace generalities. To Seward he wrote that he did not wish to +interfere with the present status, or to meddle with slavery as it now +lawfully existed. To like purport he wrote to Alexander H. Stephens, +induced thereto by the famous Union speech of that gentleman. He +eschewed hostile feeling, saying: "I never have been, am not now, and +probably never shall be, in a mood of harassing the people, either North +or South." Nevertheless, while he said that all were "brothers of a +common country," he was perfectly resolved that the country should +remain "common," even if the bond of brotherhood had to be riveted by +force. He admitted that this necessity would be "an ugly point;" but he +was perfectly clear that "the right of a State to secede is not an open +or debatable question." He desired that General Scott should be prepared +either to "hold or retake" the Southern forts, if need should be, at or +after the inauguration; but on his journey to Washington he said to many +audiences that he wished no war and no bloodshed, and that these evils +could be avoided if people would only "keep cool" and "keep their +temper, on both sides of the line." + +On Monday, February 11, 1861, Mr. Lincoln spoke to his fellow citizens +of Springfield a very brief farewell, so solemn as to sound ominous in +the ears of those who know what afterward occurred. It was arranged that +he should stop at various points upon the somewhat circuitous route +which had been laid out, and that he should arrive in Washington on +Saturday, February 23. The programme, was pursued accurately till near +the close; he made, of course, many speeches, but none added anything to +what was already known as to his views. + +Meantime the thick rumors of violence were bringing much uneasiness to +persons who were under responsibilities. Baltimore was the place where, +and its villainous "Plug Uglies" were the persons by whom, the plot, if +there was one, was to be executed. Mr. Felton, president of the +Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, engaged Allan +Pinkerton to explore the matter, and the report of this skillful +detective indicated a probability of an attack with the purpose of +assassination. At that time the cars were drawn by horses across town +from the northern to the southern station, and during the passage an +assault could be made with ease and with great chance of success. As yet +there was no indication that the authorities intended to make, even if +they could make,[124] any adequate arrangements for the protection of +the traveler. At Philadelphia Mr. Lincoln was told of the fears of his +friends, and talked with Mr. Pinkerton, but he refused to change his +plan. On February 22 he was to assist at a flag-raising in Philadelphia, +and was then to go on to Harrisburg, and on the following day he was to +go from there to Baltimore. He declined to alter either route or hours. + +But other persons besides Mr. Felton had been busy with independent +detective investigations, the result of which was in full accord with +the report of Mr. Pinkerton. On February 22 Mr. Frederick W. Seward, +sent by his father and General Scott, both then at Washington, delivered +to Mr. Lincoln, at Philadelphia, the message that there was "serious +danger" to his life if the time of his passage through Baltimore should +be known. Yet Lincoln still remained obdurate. He declared that if an +escorting delegation from Baltimore should meet him at Harrisburg, he +would go on with it. But at Harrisburg no such escort presented itself. +Then the few who knew the situation discussed further as to what should +be done, Norman B. Judd being chief spokesman for evading the danger by +a change of programme. Naturally the objection of seeming timid and of +exciting ridicule was present in the minds of all, and it was put +somewhat emphatically by Colonel Sumner. Mr. Lincoln at last settled the +dispute; he said: "I have thought over this matter considerably since I +went over the ground with Pinkerton last night. The appearance of Mr. +Frederick Seward, with warning from another source, confirms Mr. +Pinkerton's belief. Unless there are some other reasons besides fear of +ridicule, I am disposed to carry out Judd's plan." + +This plan was accordingly carried out with the success which its +simplicity insured. Mr. Lincoln and his stalwart friend, Colonel Lamon, +slipped out of a side door to a hackney carriage, were driven to the +railway station, and returned by the train to Philadelphia. Their +departure was not noticed, but had it been, news of it could not have +been sent away, for Mr. Felton had had the telegraph wires secretly cut +outside the town. He also ordered, upon a plausible pretext, that the +southward-bound night train on his road should be held back until the +arrival of this train from Harrisburg. Mr. Lincoln and Colonel Lamon +passed from the one train to the other without recognition, and rolled +into Washington early on the following morning. Mr. Seward and Mr. +Washburne met Lincoln at the station and went with him to Willard's +Hotel. Soon afterward the country was astonished, and perhaps some +persons were discomfited, as the telegraph carried abroad the news of +his arrival. + +Those who were disappointed at this safe conclusion of his journey, if +in fact there were any such, together with many who would have contemned +assassination, at once showered upon him sneers and ridicule. They said +that Lincoln had put on a disguise and had shown the white feather, when +there had been no real danger. But this was not just. Whether or not +there was the completed machinery of a definite, organized plot for +assault and assassination is uncertain; that is to say, this is not +_proved_; yet the evidence is so strong that the majority of +investigators seem to agree in the opinion that _probably_ there was a +plan thoroughly concerted and ready for execution. Even if there was +not, it was very likely that a riot might be suddenly started, which +would be as fatal in its consequences as a premeditated scheme. But, +after all, the question of the plot is one of mere curiosity and quite +aside from the true issue. That issue, so far as it presented itself for +determination by Mr. Lincoln, was simply whether a case of such +probability of danger was made out that as a prudent man he should +overrule the only real objection,--that of exciting ridicule,--and avoid +a peril which the best judges believed to exist, and which, if it did +exist, involved consequences of immeasurable seriousness not only to +himself but to the nation. For a wise man only one conclusion was +possible. The story of the disguise was a silly slander, based upon the +trifling fact that for this night journey Lincoln wore a traveling cap +instead of his hat. + +Lincoln's own opinion as to the danger is not quite clear.[125] He said +to Mr. Lossing that, after hearing Mr. Seward, he believed "such a plot +to be in existence." But he also 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." + +The reflection can hardly fail to occur, how grossly unfair it was that +Mr. Lincoln should be put into the position in which he was put at this +time, and then that fault should be found with him even if his prudence +was overstrained. Many millions of people in the country hated him with +a hatred unutterable; among them might well be many fanatics, to whom +assassination would seem a noble act, many desperadoes who would regard +it as a pleasing excitement; and he was to go through a city which men +of this stamp could at any time dominate. The custom of the country +compelled this man, whom it had long since selected as its ruler, to +make a journey of extreme danger without any species of protection +whatsoever. So far as peril went, no other individual in the United +States had ever, presumably, been in a peril like that which beset him; +so far as safeguards went, he had no more than any other traveler. A few +friends volunteered to make the journey with him, but they were useless +as guardians; and he and they were so hustled and jammed in the railway +stations that one of them actually had his arm broken. This +extraordinary spectacle may have indicated folly on the part of the +nation which permitted it, but certainly it did not involve the disgrace +of the individual who had no choice about it. The people put Mr. Lincoln +in a position in which he was subjected to the most appalling, as it is +the most vague, of all dangers, and then left him to take care of +himself as best he could. It was ungenerous afterward to criticise him +for exercising prudence in the performance of that duty which he ought +never to have been called upon to perform at all.[126] + +Immediately after his arrival in Washington Mr. Lincoln received a +visit from the members of the Peace Congress. Grotesque and ridiculous +descriptions of him, as if he had been a Caliban in education, manners, +and aspect, had been rife among Southerners, and the story goes that the +Southern delegates expected to be at once amused and shocked by the +sight of a clodhopper whose conversation would be redolent of the +barnyard, not to say of the pigsty. Those of them who had any skill in +reading character were surprised,--as the tradition is,--discomfited, +even a little alarmed, at what in fact they beheld; for Mr. Lincoln +appeared before them a self-possessed man, expressing to them such clear +convictions and such a distinct and firm purpose as compelled them into +new notions of his capacity and told them of much trouble ahead. His +remark to Mr. Rives, coming from one who spoke accurately, had an +ominous sound in rebellious ears: "My course is as plain as a turnpike +road. It is marked out by the Constitution. I am in no doubt which way +to go." The wiser Southerners withdrew from this reception quite sober +and thoughtful, with some new ideas about the man with whom their +relationship seemed on the verge of becoming hostile. After abundant +allowance is made for the enthusiasm of Northern admirers, it remains +certain that Lincoln bore well this severe ordeal of criticism on the +part of those who would have been glad to despise him. Ungainly they saw +him, but not undignified, and the strange impressive sadness seldom +dwelt so strikingly upon his face as at this time, as though all the +weight of misery, which the millions of his fellow citizens were to +endure throughout the coming years, already burdened the soul of the +ruler who had been chosen to play the most responsible part in the +crisis and the anguish. + +March 4, 1861, inauguration day, was fine and sunny. If there had ever +been any real danger of trouble, the fear of it had almost entirely +subsided. Northerners and Southerners had found out in good season that +General Scott was not in a temporizing mood; he had in the city two +batteries, a few companies of regulars,--653 men, exclusive of some +marines,--and the corps of picked Washington Volunteers. He said that +this force was all he wanted. President Buchanan left the White House +in an open carriage, escorted by a company of sappers and miners under +Captain Duane. At Willard's Hotel Mr. Lincoln entered the carriage, and +the two gentlemen passed along the avenue, through crowds which cheered +but made no disturbance, to the Capitol. General Scott with his regulars +marched, "flanking the movement, in parallel streets." His two +batteries, while not made unpleasantly conspicuous, yet controlled the +plateau which extends before the east front of the Capitol. Mr. Lincoln +was simply introduced by Senator Baker of Oregon, and delivered his +inaugural address. His voice had great carrying capacity, and the vast +crowd heard with ease a speech of which every sentence was fraught with +an importance and scrutinized with an anxiety far beyond that of any +other speech ever delivered in the United States. At its close the +venerable Chief Justice Taney administered the oath of office, thereby +informally but effectually reversing the most famous opinion delivered +by him during his long incumbency in his high office. + +The inaugural address was simple, earnest, and direct, unincumbered by +that rhetorical ornamentation which the American people have always +admired as the highest form of eloquence. Those Northerners who had +expected magniloquent periods and exaggerated outbursts of patriotism +were disappointed; and as they listened in vain for the scream of the +eagle, many grumbled at the absence of what they conceived to be +_force_. Yet the general feeling was of satisfaction, which grew as the +address was more thoroughly studied. The Southerners, upon their part, +looking anxiously to see whether or not they must fight for their +purpose, construed the words of the new President correctly. They heard +him say: "The union of these States is perpetual." "No State upon its +own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union." "I shall take care, +as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of +the Union be faithfully executed in all the States." He also declared +his purpose "to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places +belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts." +These sentences made up the issue directly with secession, and the +South, reading them, knew that, if the North was ready to back the +President, war was inevitable; none the less so because Mr. Lincoln +closed with patriotic and generous words: "We are not enemies, but +friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it +must not break our bonds of affection." + +Until after the election of Mr. Lincoln in November, 1860, the sole +issue between the North and the South, between Republicans on the one +hand and Democrats and Compromisers on the other, had related to +slavery. Logically, the position of the Republicans was impregnable. +Their platforms and their leaders agreed that the party intended +strictly to respect the Constitution, and not to interfere at all with +slavery in the States within which it now lawfully existed. They said +with truth that they had in no case deprived the slaveholding +communities of their rights, and they denied the truth of the charge +that they cherished an inchoate design to interfere with those rights; +adding very truly that, at worst, a mere design, which did not find +expression in an overt act, could give no right of action to the South. +Mr. Lincoln had been most explicit in declaring that the opposition to +slavery was not to go beyond efforts to prevent its _extension_, which +efforts would be wholly within the Constitution and the law. He repeated +these things in his inaugural. + +But while these incontrovertible allegations gave the Republicans a +logical advantage of which they properly made the most, the South +claimed a right to make other collateral and equally undeniable facts +the ground of action. The only public matter in connection with which +Mr. Lincoln had won any reputation was that of slavery. No one could +deny that he had been elected because the Republican party had been +pleased with his expression of opinion on this subject. Now his most +pointed and frequently reiterated expression of that opinion was that +slavery was a "moral, social, and political evil;" and this language was +a fair equivalent of the statement of the Republican platform of 1856, +classing Slavery and Mormonism together, as "twin relics of barbarism." +That the North was willing, or would long be willing, to remain in +amicable social and political bonds with a moral, social, and political +evil, and a relic of barbarism, was intrinsically improbable, and was +made more improbable by the symptoms of the times.[127] Indeed, Mr. +Seward had said, in famous words, that his section would not play this +unworthy part; he had proclaimed already the existence of an +"irrepressible conflict;" and therefore the South had the word of the +Republican leader that, in spite of the Republican respect for the law, +an anti-slavery crusade was already in existence. The Southern chiefs +distinctly recognized and accepted this situation.[128] There was an +avowed Northern condemnation of their institution; there was an +acknowledged "conflict." Such being the case, it was the opinion of the +chief men at the South that the position taken by the North, of strict +performance of clear constitutional duties concerning an odious +institution, would not suffice for the safe perpetuation of that +institution.[129] This, their judgment, appeared to be in a certain way +also the judgment of Mr. Lincoln; for he also conceived that to put +slavery where the "fathers" had left it was to put it "in the way of +ultimate extinction;" and he had, in the most famous utterance of his +life, given his forecast of the future to the effect that the country +would in time be "all free." The only logical deduction was that he, and +the Republican party which had agreed with him sufficiently to make him +president, believed that the South had no lawful recourse by which this +result, however unwelcome or ruinous, could in the long run and the +fullness of time be escaped. Under such circumstances Southern political +leaders now decided that the time for separation had come. In speaking +of their scheme they called it "secession," and said that secession was +a lawful act because the Constitution was a compact revocable by any of +the parties. They might have called it "revolution,"[130] and have +defended it upon the general right of any large body of people, +dissatisfied with the government under which they find themselves, to +cast it off. But, if the step was _revolution_, then the burden of proof +was upon them; whereas they said that _secession_ was their lawful +right, without any regard whatsoever to the motive which induced them to +exercise it.[131] Such was the character of the issue between the North +and the South prior to the first ordinance of secession. The action of +South Carolina, followed by the other Gulf States, at once changed that +issue, shifting it from pro-slavery versus anti-slavery to union versus +disunion. This alteration quickly compelled great numbers of men, both +at the North and at the South, to reconsider and, upon a new issue, to +place themselves also anew. + +It has been said by all writers that in the seven seceding States there +was, in the four months following the election, a very large proportion +of "Union men." The name only signified that these men did not think +that the present inducements to disunion were sufficient to render it a +wise measure. It did not signify that they thought disunion unlawful, +unconstitutional, and treasonable. When, however, state conventions +decided the question of advisability against their opinions, and they +had to choose between allegiance to the State and allegiance to the +Union, they immediately adhered to the State, and this none the less +because they feared that she had taken an ill-advised step. That is to +say, at the South a "Union man" _wished_ to preserve the Union, whereas +at the North a "Union man" recognized a supreme _obligation_ to do so. + +While the South, by political alchemy, was becoming solidified and +homogeneous, a corresponding change was going on at the North. In that +section the great numbers--of whom some would have re-made the +Constitution, others would have agreed to peaceable separation, and +still others would have made any concession to retain the integrity of +the Union--now saw that these were indeed, as Jefferson Davis had said, +"quack nostrums," and that the choice lay between permitting a secession +accompanied with insulting menaces and some degree of actual violence, +and maintaining the Union by coercion. In this dilemma great multitudes +of Northern Democrats, whose consciences had never been in the least +disturbed by the existence of slavery in the country or even by efforts +to extend it, became "Union men" in the Northern sense of the word, +which made it about equivalent to coercionists. Their simple creed was +the integrity and perpetuity of the nation. + +Mr. Lincoln showed in his inaugural his accurate appreciation of the new +situation. Owing all that he had become in the world to a few +anti-slavery speeches, elevated to the presidency by votes which really +meant little else than hostility to slavery, what was more natural than +that he should at this moment revert to this great topic and make the +old dispute the main part and real substance of his address? But this +fatal error he avoided. With unerring judgment he dwelt little on that +momentous issue which had only just been displaced, and took his stand +fairly upon that still more momentous one which had so newly come up. He +spoke for the Union; upon that basis a united North _ought_ to support +him; upon that basis the more northern of the slave States might remain +loyal. As matter of fact, Union had suddenly become the real issue, but +it needed at the hands of the President to be publicly and explicitly +announced as such; this recognition was essential; he gave it on this +earliest opportunity, and the announcement was the first great service +of the new Republican ruler. It seems now as though he could hardly have +done otherwise, or have fallen into the error of allying himself with +bygone or false issues. It may be admitted that he could not have passed +this new one by; but the important matter was that of proportion and +relation, and in this it was easy to blunder. In truth it was a crisis +when blundering was so easy that nearly all the really able men of the +North had been doing it badly for three or four months past, and not a +few of them were going to continue it for two or three months to come. +Therefore the sound conception of the inaugural deserves to be +considered as an indication, one among many, of Lincoln's capacity for +seeing with entire distinctness the great main fact, and for recognizing +it as such. Other matters, which lay over and around such a fact, side +issues, questions of detail, affairs of disguise or deception, never +confused or misled him. He knew with unerring accuracy where the biggest +fact lay, and he always anchored fast to it and stayed with it. For many +years he had been anchored to anti-slavery; now, in the face of the +nation, he shifted his anchorage to the Union; and each time he held +securely. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[114] Breckenridge was the legitimate representative of the +administrationists, and his ticket received only 847,953 votes out of +4,680,193. Douglas and Buchanan were at open war. + +[115] See remarks of Mr. Elaine upon use of this word. _Twenty Years of +Congress_, i. 219. + +[116] But it should be said that Attorney-General Black supported these +views in a very elaborate opinion, which he had furnished to the +President, and which was transmitted to Congress at the same time with +the message. + +[117] Greeley afterwards truly said that his journal had plenty of +company in these sentiments, even among the Republican sheets. _Amer. +Conflict_, i. 359. Reference is made in the text to the utterances of +the _Tribune_ more because it was so prominent and influential than +because it was very peculiar in its position. + +[118] Wilson, _Rise and Fall of Slave Power_, iii. 63-69; N. and H. in. +255. See account of "the Pine Street meeting," New York, in Dix's +_Memoirs of Dix_, i. 347. + +[119] For an account of this by General Dix himself, see _Memoirs of +John A. Dix_, by Morgan Dix, i. 370-373. + +[120] Arkansas, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, and Wisconsin + +[121] It differed from that of the United States very little, save in +containing a distinct recognition of slavery, and in being made by the +States instead of by the people. + +[122] _American Conflict_, i. 351. + +[123] This includes Delaware, 110,420, and Maryland, 599,846. + +[124] Marshal Kane and most of the police were reported to be +Secessionists. Pinkerton, _Spy of the Rebellion_, 50, 61. + +[125] Lamon says that Mr. Lincoln afterwards regretted this journey, and +became convinced "that he had committed a grave mistake." Lamon, 527. So +also McClure, 45, 48. + +[126] For accounts of this journey and statements of the evidence of a +plot, see Schouler, _Hist. of Mass. in Civil War_, i. 59-65 (account by +Samuel M. Felton, Prest. P.W. & B.R.R. Co.); N. and H. iii. ch. 19 and +20; Chittenden, _Recoll. of Lincoln_, x.; Holland, 275; Arnold, 183-187; +Lamon, ch. xx. (this account ought to be, and doubtless is, the most +trustworthy); Herndon, 492 (a bit of gossip which sounds improbable); +Pinkerton, _Spy of the Rebellion_, 45-103. On the anti-plot side of the +question the most important evidence is the little volume, _Baltimore +and the Nineteenth of April_, 1861, by George William Brown. This +witness, whose strict veracity is beyond question, was mayor of the +city. One of his statements, especially, is of the greatest importance. +It is obvious that, if the plot existed, one of two things ought to +occur on the morning of February 23, viz.: either the plotters and the +mobsmen should know that Mr. Lincoln had escaped them, or else they +should be at the station at the hour set for his arrival. In fact they +were not at the station; there was no sudden assault on the cars, nor +other indication of assassins and a mob. Had they, then, received +knowledge of what had occurred? Those who sustain the plot-theory say +that the news had spread through the city, so that all the assassins and +the gangs of the "Plug Uglies" knew that their game was up. This was +_possible_, for Mr. Lincoln had arrived in the Washington station a few +minutes after six o'clock in the morning, and the train which was +expected to bring him to Baltimore did not arrive in Baltimore until +half after eleven o'clock. But, on the other hand, the news was not +dispatched from Washington immediately upon his arrival; somewhat later, +though still early in the morning, the detectives telegraphed to the +friends of Mr. Lincoln, but in cipher. Just at what time intelligible +telegrams, which would inform the public, were sent out cannot be +learned; but upon any arrangement of hours it is obvious that the time +was exceedingly short for distributing the news throughout the lower +quarters of Baltimore by word of mouth, and there is no pretense of any +publication. But while the believers in the plot say, nevertheless, that +this had been done and that the story of the journey had spread through +the city so that all the assassins and "Plug Uglies" knew it in time to +avoid assembling at the railway station about eleven o'clock, yet it +appears that Mr. Brown, the mayor, knew nothing about it. On the +contrary, he tells us that in anticipation of Mr. Lincoln's arrival he, +"as mayor of the city, accompanied by the police commissioners and +supported by a strong force of police, was at the Calvert Street station +on Saturday morning, February 23, at 11.30 o'clock ... ready to receive +with due respect the incoming President. An open carriage was in +waiting, in which I was to have the honor of escorting Mr. Lincoln +through the city to the Washington station, and of sharing in any danger +which he might encounter. It is hardly necessary to say that I +apprehended none." To the "great astonishment" of Mr. Brown, however, +the train brought only "Mrs. Lincoln and her three sons," and "it was +then announced that he had passed through the city _incognito_ in the +night train." This is a small bit of evidence to set against the +elaborate stories of the believers in the plot, yet to some it will seem +like the little obstruction which suffices to throw a whole railway +train from the track. I would rather let any reader, who is sufficiently +interested to examine the matter, reach his own conclusion, than +endeavor to furnish one for him; for I think that a dispute more +difficult of really conclusive settlement will not easily be found. + +[127] Some of the Southern members of Congress collected and recited +sundry noteworthy utterances of Republicans concerning slavery, and +certainly there was little in them to induce a sense of security on the +part of slaveholders. Wilson, _Rise and Fall of Slave Power_, iii. 97, +154. + +[128] Toombs declared, as Lincoln had said, that what was wanted was +that the North should _call slavery right_. Wilson, _Rise and Fall of +Slave Power_, iii. 76. Stephens declared the "corner-stone" of the new +government to be "the great truth that the negro is not equal to the +white man; that slavery ... is his natural and normal condition;" and +said that it was the first government "in the history of the world based +upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." N. and H. +iii. 203; and see his letter to Lincoln, _ibid._ 272, 273. Mississippi, +in declaring the causes of her secession, said: "Our position is +thoroughly identical with the institution of slavery,--the greatest +material interest in the world." N. and H. iii. 201. Senator Mason of +Virginia said: "It is a war of sentiment, of opinion; a war of one form +of society against another form of society." Wilson, _Rise and Fall of +Slave Power_, iii. 26. Green of Missouri ascribed the trouble to the +"vitiated and corrupted state of public sentiment." _Ibid._ 23. Iverson +of Georgia said it was the "public sentiment" at the North, not the +"overt acts" of the Republican administration, that was feared; and said +that there was ineradicable enmity between the two sections, which had +not lived together in peace, were not so living now, and could not be +expected to do so in the future. _Ibid._ 17. + +[129] Historians generally seem to admit that the South had to choose +between making the fight now, and seeing its favorite institution +gradually become extinct. + +[130] Sometimes, though very rarely, the word was used. + +[131] See Lincoln's message to Congress, July 4, 1861. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BEGINNING OF WAR + + +From the inaugural ceremonies Lincoln drove quietly back through +Pennsylvania Avenue and entered the White House, the President of the +United States,--alas, united no longer. Many an anxious citizen breathed +more freely when the dreaded hours had passed without disturbance. But +burdens a thousand fold heavier than any which were lifted from others +descended upon the new ruler. Save, however, that the thoughtful, +far-away expression of sadness had of late seemed deeper and more +impressive than ever before, Lincoln gave no sign of inward trouble. His +singular temperament armed him with a rare and peculiar strength beneath +responsibility and in the face of duty. He has been seen, with entire +tranquillity, not only seeking, but seeming to assume as his natural due +or destiny, positions which appeared preposterously out of accord alike +with his early career and with his later opportunities for development. +In trying to explain this, it is easier to say what was _not_ the +underlying quality than what it was. Certainly there was no taint +whatsoever of that vulgar self-confidence which is so apt to lead the +"free and equal" citizens of the great republic into grotesque +positions. Perhaps it was a grand simplicity of faith; a profound +instinctive confidence that by patient, honest thinking it would be +possible to know the right road, and by earnest enduring courage to +follow it. Perhaps it was that so-called divine inspiration which seems +always a part of the highest human fitness. The fact which is distinctly +visible is, that a fair, plain and honest method of thinking saved him +from the perplexities which beset subtle dialecticians in politics and +in constitutional law. He had lately said that his course was "as plain +as a turnpike road;" it was, to execute the public laws. + +His duty was simple; his understanding of it was unclouded by doubt or +sophistry; his resolution to do it was firm; but whether his hands would +be strengthened sufficiently to enable him to do it was a question of +grave anxiety. The president of a republic can do everything if the +people are at his back, and almost nothing if the people are not at his +back. Where, then, were now the people of the United States? In seven +States they were openly and unitedly against him; in at least seven more +they were under a very strong temptation to range themselves against him +in case of a conflict; and as for the Republican States of the North, on +that fourth day of March, 1861, no man could say to what point they +would sustain the administration. There had as yet come slight +indications of any change in the conceding, compromising temper of that +section. Greeley and Seward and Wendell Phillips, representative men, +were little better than Secessionists. The statement sounds ridiculous, +yet the proof against each comes from his own mouth. The "Tribune" had +retracted none of those disunion sentiments, of which examples have been +given. Even so late as April 10, 1861, Mr. Seward wrote officially to +Mr. C.F. Adams, minister to England: "Only an imperial and despotic +government could subjugate thoroughly disaffected and insurrectionary +members of the state. This federal, republican country of ours is, of +all forms of government, the very one which is the most unfitted for +such a labor." He had been and still was favoring delay and +conciliation, in the visionary hope that the seceders would follow the +scriptural precedent of the prodigal son. On April 9 the rumor of a +fight at Sumter being spread abroad, Mr. Phillips said:[132] "Here are a +series of States, girding the Gulf, who think that their peculiar +institutions require that they should have a separate government. They +have a right to decide that question without appealing to you or me.... +Standing with the principles of '76 behind us, who can deny them the +right?... Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter.... +There is no longer a Union.... Mr. Jefferson Davis is angry, and Mr. +Abraham Lincoln is mad, and they agree to fight.... You cannot go +through Massachusetts and recruit men to bombard Charleston or New +Orleans.... We are in no condition to fight.... Nothing but madness can +provoke war with the Gulf States;"--with much more to the same effect. + +If the veterans of the old anti-slavery contest were in this frame of +mind in April, Lincoln could hardly place much dependence upon the +people at large in March. If he could not "recruit men" in +Massachusetts, in what State could he reasonably expect to do so? +Against such discouragement it can only be said that he had a singular +instinct for the underlying popular feeling, that he could scent it in +the distance and in hiding; moreover, that he was always willing to run +the chance of any consequences which might follow the performance of a +clear duty. Still, as he looked over the dreary Northern field in those +chill days of early March, he must have had a marvelous sensitiveness in +order to perceive the generative heat and force in the depths beneath +the cheerless surface and awaiting only the fullness of the near spring +season to burst forth in sudden universal vigor. Yet such was his +knowledge and such his faith concerning the people that we may fancy, if +we will, that he foresaw the great transformation. But there were still +other matters which disturbed him. Before his inauguration, he had heard +much of his coming official isolation. One of the arguments reiterated +alike by Southern Unionists and by Northerners had been that the +Republican President would be powerless, because the Senate, the House, +and the Supreme Court were all opposed to him. But the supposed lack of +political sympathy on the part of these bodies, however it might beget +anxiety for the future, was for the present of much less moment than +another fact, viz., that none of the distinguished men, leaders in his +own party, whom Lincoln found about him at Washington, were in a frame +of mind to assist him efficiently. If all did not actually distrust his +capacity and character,--which, doubtless, many honestly did,--at least +they were profoundly ignorant concerning both. Therefore they could not +yet, and did not, place genuine, implicit confidence in him; they could +not yet, and did not, advise and aid him at all in the same spirit and +with the same usefulness as later they were able to do. They were not to +blame for this; on the contrary, the condition had been brought about +distinctly against their will, since certainly few of them had looked +with favor upon the selection of an unknown, inexperienced, ill-educated +man as the Republican candidate for the presidency. How much Lincoln +felt his loneliness will never be known; for, reticent and +self-contained at all times, he gave no outward sign. That he felt it +less than other men would have done may be regarded as certain; for, as +has already appeared to some extent, and as will appear much more in +this narrative, he was singularly self-reliant, and, at least in +appearance, was strangely indifferent to any counsel or support which +could be brought to him by others. Yet, marked as was this trait in him, +he could hardly have been human had he not felt oppressed by the +personal solitude and political isolation of his position when the +responsibility of his great office rested newly upon him. Under all +these circumstances, if this lonely man moved slowly and cautiously +during the early weeks of his administration, it was not at his door +that the people had the right to lay the reproach of weakness or +hesitation. + +Mr. Buchanan, for the convenience of his successor, had called an extra +session of the Senate, and on March 5 President Lincoln sent in the +nominations for his cabinet. All were immediately confirmed, as +follows:-- + + William H. Seward, New York, secretary of state. + Salmon P. Chase, Ohio, secretary of the treasury. + Simon Cameron, Pennsylvania, secretary of war. + Gideon Welles, Connecticut, secretary of the navy. + Caleb B. Smith, Indiana, secretary of the interior. + Edward Bates, Missouri, attorney-general. + Montgomery Blair, Maryland, postmaster-general. + +It is matter of course that a cabinet slate should fail to give general +satisfaction; and this one encountered fully the average measure of +criticism. The body certainly was somewhat heterogeneous in its +composition, yet the same was true of the Republican party which it +represented. Nor was it by any means so heterogeneous as Mr. Lincoln +had designed to have it, for he had made efforts to place in it a +Southern spokesman for Southern views; and he had not desisted from the +purpose until its futility was made apparent by the direct refusal of +Mr. Gilmer of North Carolina, and by indications of a like unwillingness +on the part of one or two other Southerners who were distantly sounded +on the subject. Seward, Chase, Bates, and Cameron were the four men who +had manifested the greatest popularity, after Lincoln, in the national +convention, and the selection of them, therefore, showed that Mr. +Lincoln was seeking strength rather than amity in his cabinet; for it +was certainly true that each one of them had a following which was far +from being wholly in sympathy with the following of any one of the +others. The President evidently believed that it was of more importance +that each great body of Northern men should feel that its opinions were +fairly presented, than that his cabinet officers should always +comfortably unite in looking at questions from one and the same point of +view. Judge Davis says that Lincoln's original design was to appoint +Democrats and Republicans alike to office. He carried this theory so far +that the radical Republicans regarded the make-up of the cabinet as a +"disgraceful surrender to the South;" while men of less extreme views +saw with some alarm that he had called to his advisory council four +ex-Democrats and only three ex-Whigs, a criticism which he met by saying +that he himself was an "old-line Whig" and should be there to make the +parties even. On the other hand, the Republicans of the middle line of +States grumbled much at the selection of Bates and Blair as +representatives of their section. + +The cabinet had not been brought together without some jarring and +friction, especially in the case of Cameron. On December 31 Mr. Lincoln +intimated to him that he should have either the Treasury or the War +Department, but on January 3 requested him to "decline the appointment." +Cameron, however, had already mentioned the matter to many friends, +without any suggestion that he should not be glad to accept either +position, and therefore, even if he were willing to accede to the +sudden, strange, and unexplained request of Mr. Lincoln, he would have +found it difficult to do so without giving rise to much embarrassing +gossip. Accordingly he did not decline, and thereupon ensued much +wire-pulling. Pennsylvania protectionists wanted Cameron in the +Treasury, and strenuously objected to Chase as an ex-Democrat of +free-trade proclivities. On the other hand, Lincoln gradually hardened +into the resolution that Chase should have the Treasury. He made the +tender, and it was accepted. He then offered consolation to Pennsylvania +by giving the War portfolio to Cameron, which was accepted with +something of chagrin. How far this Cameron episode was affected by the +bargain declared by Lamon to have been made at Chicago cannot be told. +Other biographers ignore this story, but I do not see how the direct +testimony furnished by Lamon and corroborated by Colonel McClure can +justly be treated in this way; neither is the temptation so to treat it +apparent, since the evidence entirely absolves Lincoln from any +complicity at the time of making the alleged "trade," while he could +hardly be blamed if he felt somewhat hampered by it afterward. + +Seward also gave trouble which he ought not to have given. On December 8 +Lincoln wrote to him that he would nominate him as secretary of state. +Mr. Seward assented and the matter remained thus comfortably settled +until so late as March 2, 1861, when Seward wrote a brief note asking +"leave to withdraw his consent." Apparently the Democratic complexion of +the cabinet, and the suggestions of suspicious friends, made him fear +that his influence in the ministry would be inferior to that of Chase. +Coming at this eleventh hour, which already had its weighty burden of +many anxieties, this brief destructive note was both embarrassing and +exasperating. It meant the entire reconstruction of the cabinet. Never +did Lincoln's tranquil indifference to personal provocation stand him in +better stead than in this crisis,--for a crisis it was when Seward, in +discontent and distrust, desired to draw aloof from the administration. +He held the note of the recalcitrant politician for two days unanswered, +then he wrote a few lines: "Your note," he said, "is the subject of the +most painful solicitude with me; and I feel constrained to beg that you +will countermand the withdrawal. The public interest, I think, demands +that you should; and my personal feelings are deeply enlisted in the +same direction." These words set Mr. Seward right again; on March 5 he +withdrew his letter of March 2, and in a few hours was appointed. + +Immediately after the installation of the new government three +commissioners from the Confederacy came to Washington, and requested an +official audience. They said that seven States of the American Union had +withdrawn therefrom, had reassumed sovereign power, and were now an +independent nation in fact and in right; that, in order to adjust upon +terms of amity and good-will all questions growing out of this political +separation, they were instructed to make overtures for opening +negotiations, with the assurance that the Confederate government +earnestly desired a peaceful solution and would make no demand not +founded in strictest justice, neither do any act to injure their late +confederates. From the Confederate point of view these approaches were +dignified and conciliatory; from the Northern point of view they were +treasonable and insolent. Probably the best fruit which Mr. Davis hoped +from them was that Mr. Seward, who was well known to be desirous of +finding some peace-assuring middle course, might be led into a +discussion of the situation, inevitably provoking divisions in the +cabinet, in the Republican party, and in the country. But though +Seward's frame of mind about this time was such as to put him in great +jeopardy of committing hurtful blunders, he was fortunate enough to +escape quite doing so. To the agent of the commissioners he replied that +he must "consult the President," and the next day he wrote, in terms of +personal civility, that he could not receive them. Nevertheless they +remained in Washington a few weeks longer, gathering and forwarding to +the Confederate government such information as they could. In this they +were aided by Judge Campbell of Alabama, a Secessionist, who still +retained his seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court. This gentleman +now became a messenger between the commissioners and Mr. Seward, with +the purpose of eliciting news and even pledges from the latter for the +use of the former. His errands especially related to Fort Sumter, and he +gradually drew from Mr. Seward strong expressions of opinion that Sumter +would in time be evacuated, even declarations substantially to the +effect that this was the arranged policy of the government. Words which +fell in so agreeably with the wishes of the judge and the commissioners +were received with that warm welcome which often outruns correct +construction, and later were construed by them as actual assurances, at +least in substance, whereby they conceived themselves to have been +"abused and overreached," and they charged the government with +"equivocating conduct." In the second week in April, contemporaneously +with the Sumter crisis, they addressed to Mr. Seward a high-flown +missive of reproach, in which they ostentatiously washed the hands of +the South, as it were, and shook from their own departing feet the dust +of the obdurate North, where they had not been met "in the conciliatory +and peaceful spirit" in which they had come. They invoked "impartial +history" to place the responsibility of blood and mourning upon those +who had denied the great fundamental doctrine of American liberty; and +they declared it "clear that Mr. Lincoln had determined to appeal to the +sword to reduce the people of the Confederate States to the will of the +section or party whose President he is." In this dust-cloud of glowing +rhetoric vanished the last deceit of peaceful settlement. + +About the same time, April 13, sundry commissioners from the Virginia +convention waited upon Lincoln with the request that he would +communicate the policy which he intended to pursue towards the +Confederate States. Lincoln replied with a patient civility that cloaked +satire: "Having at the beginning of my official term expressed my +intended policy as plainly as I was able, it is with deep regret and +some mortification I now learn that there is great and injurious +uncertainty in the public mind as to what that policy is, and what +course I intend to pursue." To this ratification of the plain position +taken in his inaugural, he added that he might see fit to repossess +himself of the public property, and that possibly he might withdraw the +mail service from the seceding States. + +The inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was followed by a lull which endured for +several weeks. A like repose reigned contemporaneously in the +Confederate States. For a while the people in both sections received +with content this reaction of quiescence. But as the same laws of human +nature were operative equally at the North and at the South, it soon +came about that both at the North and at the South there broke forth +almost simultaneously strong manifestations of impatience. The genuine +President at Washington and the sham President at Montgomery were +assailed by the like pressing demand: Why did they not do something to +settle this matter? Southern irascibility found the situation +exceedingly trying. The imposing and dramatic attitude of the +Confederate States had not achieved an appropriate result. They had +organized a government and posed as an independent nation, but no power +in the civilized world had yet recognized them in this character; on the +contrary, Abraham Lincoln, living hard by in the White House, was +explicitly denying it, contumaciously alleging himself to be their +lawful ruler, and waiting with an exasperating patience to see what they +were really going to do in the business which they had undertaken. They +must make some move or they would become ridiculous, and their +revolution would die and their confederacy would dissolve from sheer +inanition. The newspapers told their leaders this plainly; and a +prominent gentleman of Alabama said to Mr. Davis: "Sir, unless you +sprinkle blood in the face of the people of Alabama, they will be back +in the Union in ten days." On the other hand, the people of the North +were as energetic as the sons of the South were excitable, and with +equal urgency they also demanded a conclusion. If the Union was to be +enforced, why did not Mr. Lincoln enforce it? How long did he mean +placidly to suffer treason and a rival government to rest undisturbed +within the country? + +With this state of feeling growing rapidly more intense in both +sections, action was inevitable. Yet neither leader wished to act first, +even for the important purpose of gratifying the popular will. As where +two men are resolved to fight, yet have an uneasy vision of a judge and +jury in waiting for them, each seeks to make the other the assailant and +himself to be upon his defense, so these two rulers took prudent thought +of the tribunal of public sentiment not in America alone but in Europe +also, with perhaps a slight forward glance towards posterity. If Mr. +Lincoln did not like to "invade" the Southern territory, Mr. Davis was +equally reluctant to make the Southern "withdrawal" actively belligerent +through operations of military offense. Both men were capable of +statesmanlike waiting to score a point that was worth waiting for; Davis +had been for years biding the ripeness of time, but Lincoln had the +capacity of patience beyond any precedent on record. + +The spot where the strain came, where this question of the first blow +must be settled, was at Fort Sumter, in the mid-throat of Charleston +harbor. On December 27, 1860, by a skillful movement at night, Major +Anderson, the commander at Fort Moultrie, had transferred his scanty +force from that dilapidated and untenable post on the shore to the more +defensible and more important position of Fort Sumter. Thereafter a +precarious relationship betwixt peace and war had subsisted between him +and the South Carolinians. It was distinctly understood that, sooner or +later, by negotiation or by force, South Carolina intended to possess +herself of this fortress. From her point of view it certainly was +preposterous and unendurable that the key to her chief harbor and city +should be permanently held by a "foreign" power. Gradually she erected +batteries on the neighboring mainland, and kept a close surveillance +upon the troops now more than half besieged in the fort. + +Under the Buchanan regime the purpose of the United States government +had been less plain than it became after Mr. Lincoln's accession; for +Buchanan had not the courage either to order a surrender, or to provoke +real warfare by reinforcing the place. In vain did the unfortunate Major +Anderson seek distinct instructions; the replies which he received were +contradictory and more obscure than Delphic oracles. This unfair, +vacillating, and contemptible conduct indicated the desire to lay upon +him alone the whole responsibility of the situation, with a politic and +selfish reservation to the government of the advantage of disavowing and +discrediting him, whatever he might do. On January 9 a futile effort at +communication was made by the steamer Star of the West; it failed, and +left matters worse rather than better. On March 3, 1861, the Confederate +government put General Beauregard in command at Charleston, thereby +emphasizing the resolution to have Sumter ere long. Such was the +situation on March 4, when Mr. Lincoln came into control and declared a +policy which bound him to "hold, occupy, and possess" Sumter. On the +same day there came a letter from Major Anderson, describing his +position. There were shut up in the fort together a certain number of +men and a certain quantity of biscuit and of pork; when the men should +have eaten the biscuit and the pork, which they would probably do in +about four weeks, they would have to go away. The problem thus became +direct, simple, and urgent. + +Lincoln sought an opinion from Scott, and was told that "evacuation +seems almost inevitable." He requested a more thorough investigation, +and a reply to specific questions: "To what point of time can Anderson +maintain his position in Sumter? Can you, with present means, relieve +him in that time? What additional means would enable you to do so?" The +general answered that four months would be necessary to prepare the +naval force, and an even longer time to get together the 5000 regular +troops and 20,000 volunteers that would be needed, to say nothing of +obtaining proper legislation from Congress. Equally discouraging were +the opinions of the cabinet officers. On March 15 Lincoln put to them +the question: "Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, +under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it?" Only Chase and +Blair replied that it would be wise; Seward, Cameron, Wells, Smith, and +Bates were against it. + +The form of this question indicated that Lincoln contemplated a +possibility of being compelled to recede from the policy expressed in +his inaugural. Yet it was not his temperament to abandon a purpose +deliberately matured and definitely announced, except under absolute +necessity. To determine now this question of necessity he sent an +emissary to Sumter and another to Charleston, and meantime stayed +offensive action on the part of the Confederates by authorizing Seward +to give assurance through Judge Campbell that no provisioning or +reinforcement should be attempted without warning. Thus he secured, or +continued, a sort of truce, irregular and informal, but practical. +Meantime he was encouraged by the earnest propositions of Mr. G.V. Fox, +until lately an officer of the navy, who was ready to undertake the +relief of the fort. Eager discussions ensued, wherein naval men backed +the project of Mr. Fox, and army men condemned it. Such difference of +expert opinion was trying, for the problem was of a kind which Mr. +Lincoln's previous experience in life did not make it easy for him to +solve with any confidence in the correctness of his own judgment. + +Amid this puzzlement day after day glided by, and the question remained +unsettled. Yet during this lapse of time sentiment was ripening, and +perhaps this was the real purpose of Lincoln's patient waiting. On March +29 his ministers again put their opinions in writing, and now Chase, +Welles, and Blair favored an effort at reinforcement; Bates modified his +previous opposition so far as to say that the time had come either to +evacuate or relieve the fort; Smith favored evacuation, but only on the +ground of military necessity; and Seward alone advocated evacuation in +part on the ground of policy; he deemed it unwise to "provoke a civil +war," especially "in rescue of an untenable position." + +Was it courtesy or curiosity that induced the President to sit and +listen to this warm debate between his chosen advisers? They would have +been angry had they known that they were bringing their counsel to a +chief who had already made his decision. They did not yet know that upon +every occasion of great importance Lincoln would make up his mind for +and by himself, yet would not announce his decision, or save his +counselors the trouble of counseling, until such time as he should see +fit to act. So in this instance he had already, the day before the +meeting of the cabinet, directed Fox to draw up an order for such ships, +men, and supplies as he would require, and when the meeting broke up he +at once issued formal orders to the secretaries of the navy and of war +to enter upon the necessary preparation. + +Contemporaneously with this there was also undertaken another enterprise +for the relief of Fort Pickens at Pensacola. It was, however, kept so +strictly secret that the President did not even communicate it to Mr. +Welles. Apparently his only reason for such extreme reticence lay in the +proverb: "If you wish your secret kept, keep it." But proverbial wisdom +had an unfortunate result upon this occasion. Both the President and Mr. +Welles set the eye of desire upon the warship Powhatan, lying in New +York harbor. The secretary designed her for the Sumter fleet; the +President meant to send her to Pensacola. Of the Sumter expedition she +was an absolutely essential part; for the Pensacola plan she was not +altogether indispensable. + +On April 6 Captain Mercer, on board the Powhatan as his flagship, and on +the very point of weighing anchor to sail in command of the Sumter +reinforcement, under orders from Secretary Welles, was astounded to find +himself dispossessed and superseded by Lieutenant Porter, who suddenly +came upon the deck bringing an order signed by the President himself. A +few hours later, at Washington, a telegram startled Mr. Welles with the +news. Utterly confounded, he hastened, in the early night-time, to the +White House, and obtained an audience of the President. Then Mr. Lincoln +learned what a disastrous blunder he had made; greatly mortified, he +requested Mr. Seward to telegraph with all haste to New York that the +Powhatan must be immediately restored to Mercer for Sumter. Lieutenant +Porter was already far down the bay, when he was overtaken by a swift +tug bringing this message. But unfortunately Mr. Seward had so phrased +the dispatch that it did not purport to convey an order either from the +President or the secretary of the navy, and he had signed his own name: +"Give up the Powhatan to Mercer. SEWARD." To Porter, hurriedly +considering this unintelligible occurrence, it seemed better to go +forward under the President's order than to obey the order of an +official who had no apparent authority to command him. So he steamed on +for Pensacola. + +On April 8, discharging the obligation of warning, Mr. Lincoln notified +General Beauregard that an attempt would be made to put provisions into +Sumter, but not at present to put in men, arms, or ammunition, unless +the fort should be attacked. Thereupon Beauregard, at two o'clock P.M. +on April 11, sent to Anderson a request for a surrender. Anderson +refused, remarking incidentally that he should be starved out in a few +days. At 3.20 A.M., on April 12, Beauregard notified Anderson that he +should open fire in one hour. That morning the occupants of Sumter, 9 +commissioned officers, 68 non-commissioned officers and privates, 8 +musicians, and 43 laborers, breakfasted on pork and water, the last +rations in the fort. Before daybreak the Confederate batteries were +pouring shot and shell against the walls. Response was made from as many +guns as the small body of defenders could handle. But the fort was more +easily damaged than were the works on the mainland, and on the morning +of the 13th, the officers' quarters having caught fire, and the magazine +being so imperiled that it had to be closed and covered with earth, the +fort became untenable. Early in the evening terms of capitulation were +agreed upon. + +Meantime three transports of the relief expedition were lying outside +the bar. The first arrived shortly before the bombardment began, the +other two came only a trifle later. All day long these vessels lay to, +wondering why the Powhatan did not appear. Had she been there upon the +critical night of the 12th, the needed supplies could have been thrown +into the fort, for the weather was so dark that the rebel patrol was +useless, and it was actually believed in Charleston that the relief had +been accomplished. But the Powhatan was far away steaming at full speed +for Pensacola. For this sad blunder Lincoln generously, but fairly +enough, took the blame to himself. The only excuse which has ever been +advanced in behalf of Mr. Lincoln is that he allowed himself to be led +blindfold through this important business by Mr. Seward, and that he +signed such papers as the secretary of state presented to him without +learning their purport and bearing. But such an excuse, even if it can +be believed, seems fully as bad as the blunder which it is designed to +palliate. + +Other blame also has been laid upon Lincoln on the ground that he was +dilatory in reaching the determination to relieve the fort. That the +decision should have been reached and the expedition dispatched more +promptly is entirely evident; but whether or not Lincoln was in fault is +quite another question. Three facts are to be considered: 1. The highest +military authority in the country advised him, a civilian, that +evacuation was a necessity. 2. Most of his ministers were at first +against reinforcement, and they never unanimously recommended it; +especially his secretary of state condemned it as bad policy. 3. The +almost universal feeling of the people of the North, so far as it could +then be divined, was compromising, conciliatory, and thoroughly opposed +to any act of war. Under such circumstances it was rather an exhibition +of independence and courage that Lincoln reached the conclusion of +relieving the fort at all, than it was a cause of fault-finding that he +did not come to the conclusion sooner. He could not know in March how +the people were going to feel after the 13th of April; in fact, if they +had fancied that he was provoking hostilities, their feeling might not +even then have developed as it did. Finally, he gained his point in +forcing the Confederacy into the position of assailant, and there is +every reason to believe that he bought that point cheaply at the price +of the fortress. + +The news of the capture of Sumter had an instant and tremendous effect. +The States which had seceded were thrown into a pleasurable ferment of +triumph; the Northern States arose in fierce wrath; the Middle States, +still balancing dubiously between the two parties, were rent with +passionate discussion. For the moment the North seemed a unit; there had +been Southern sympathizers before, and Southern sympathizers appeared in +considerable numbers later, but for a little while just now they were +very scarce. Douglas at once called upon the President, and the +telegraph carried to his numerous followers throughout the land the news +that he had pledged himself "to sustain the President in the exercise of +all his constitutional functions to preserve the Union, and maintain the +government, and defend the Federal capital." By this prompt and generous +action he warded off the peril of a divided North. Douglas is not in +quite such good repute with posterity as he deserves to be; his attitude +towards slavery was bad, but his attitude towards the country was that +of a zealous patriot. His veins were full of fighting blood, and he was +really much more ready to go to war for the Union than were great +numbers of Republicans whose names survive in the strong odor of +patriotism. During the presidential campaign he had been speaking out +with defiant courage regardless of personal considerations, and in this +present juncture he did not hesitate an instant to bring to his +successful rival an aid which at the time and under the circumstances +was invaluable. + +In every town and village there were now mass meetings, ardent speeches, +patriotic resolutions, a confusing stir and tumult of words that would +become deeds as fast as definite plans could furnish opportunity. The +difficulty lay in utilizing this abundant, this exuberant zeal. +Historians say rhetorically that the North sprang to arms; and it really +would have done so if there had been any arms to spring to; but muskets +were scarce, and that there were any at all was chiefly due to the fact +that antiquated and unserviceable weapons had been allowed to accumulate +undestroyed. Moreover, no one knew even the manual of arms; and there +were no uniforms, or accoutrements, or camp equipment of any sort. There +was, however, the will which makes the way. Simultaneously with the +story of Sumter came also the President's proclamation of April 15. He +called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve for three +months,--an insignificant body of men, as it now seems, and a period of +time not sufficient to change them from civilians into soldiers. Yet for +the work immediately visible the demand seemed adequate. Moreover, as +the law stood, a much longer term could not have been named,[133] and +an apparently disproportionate requisition in point of numbers might +have been of injurious effect; for nearly every one was cheerfully +saying that the war would be no such very great affair after all. In his +own mind the President may or may not have forecast the future more +accurately than most others were doing; but his idea plainly was to ask +no more than was necessary for the visible occasion. He stated that the +troops would be used to "repossess the forts, places, and property which +had been seized from the Union," and that great care would be taken not +to disturb peaceful citizens. Amid all the prophesying and theorizing, +and the fanciful comparisons of the respective fighting qualities of the +Northern and Southern populations, a sensible remark is attributed to +Lincoln: "We must not forget that the people of the seceded States, like +those of the loyal States, are American citizens with essentially the +same characteristics and powers. Exceptional advantages on one side are +counterbalanced by exceptional advantages on the other. We must make up +our minds that man for man the soldier from the South will be a match +for the soldier from the North, and _vice versa_." This was good common +sense, seasonably offsetting the prevalent but foolish notion that the +Southerners were naturally a better fighting race than the Northerners. +Facts ultimately sustained Lincoln's just estimate of equality; for +though the North employed far greater numbers than did the South, it was +because the North had the burdens of attack and conquest upon exterior +lines of great extent, because it had to detail large bodies of troops +for mere garrison and quasi-police duty, and because during the latter +part of the war it took miserable throngs of bounty-bought foreigners +into its ranks. Man for man, as Lincoln said at the outset, the war +proved that Northern Americans and Southern Americans were closely +matched.[134] + +By the same instrument the President summoned Congress to assemble in +extra session on July 4. It seemed a distant date; and many thought that +the Executive Department ought not to endeavor to handle alone all the +possible novel developments of so long a period. But Mr. Lincoln had his +purposes. By July 4 he and circumstances, together, would have wrought +out definite conditions, which certainly did not exist at present; +perhaps also, like most men who find themselves face to face with +difficult practical affairs, he dreaded the conclaves of the +law-makers; but especially he wished to give Kentucky a chance to hold a +special election for choosing members of this Congress, because the +moral and political value of Kentucky could hardly be overestimated, and +the most tactful manoeuvring was necessary to control her. + +The Confederate cabinet was said to have greeted Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation with "bursts of laughter." The governors of Kentucky, North +Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri telegraphed that no troops +would be furnished by their respective States, using language clearly +designed to be offensive and menacing. The Northern States, however, +responded promptly and enthusiastically. Men thronged to enlist. +Hundreds of thousands offered themselves where only 75,000 could be +accepted. Of the human raw material there was excess; but discipline and +equipment could not be created by any measure of mere willingness. Yet +there was great need of dispatch. Both geographically and politically +Washington lay as an advanced outpost in immediate peril. General Scott +had been collecting the few companies within reach; but all, he said on +April 8, "may be too late for this place." By April 15, however, he +believed himself able to hold the city till reinforcements should +arrive. The total nominal strength of the United States army, officers +and men, was only 17,113, of whom not two thirds could be counted upon +the Union side, and even these were scattered over a vast expanse of +country, playing police for Indians, and garrisoning distant posts. +Rumors of Southern schemes to attack Washington caused widespread alarm; +the government had no more definite information than the people, and all +alike feared that there was to be a race for the capital, and that the +South, being near and prepared, would get there first. As matter of +fact, the Southern leaders had laid no military plan for this +enterprise, and the danger was exaggerated. The Northerners, however, +did not know this, and made desperate haste. + +The first men to arrive came from Philadelphia, 460 troops, as they were +called, though they came "almost entirely without arms." In +Massachusetts, Governor Andrew, an anti-slavery leader, enthusiastic, +energetic, and of great executive ability, had been for many months +preparing the militia for precisely this crisis, weeding out the holiday +soldiers and thoroughly equipping his regiments for service in the +field. For this he had been merrily ridiculed by the aristocracy of +Boston during the winter; but inexorable facts now declared for him and +against the local aristocrats. On April 15 he received the call from +Washington, and immediately sent forth his own summons through the +State. All day on the 16th, amid a fierce northeasterly storm, the +troops poured into Boston, and by six o'clock on that day three full +regiments were ready to start.[135] Three days before this the governor +had asked Secretary Cameron for 2000 rifled muskets from the national +armory at Springfield, in the State. The secretary refused, and the +governor managed to supply his regiment with the most improved arms[136] +without aid from the national government. On the forenoon of the 17th, +the Sixth Regiment started for Washington. Steamers were ready to take +it to Annapolis; but the secretary of war, with astonishing ignorance of +facts easily to be known, ordered it to come through Baltimore. +Accordingly the regiment reached Baltimore on the 19th, the anniversary +of the battle of Lexington. Seven companies were transported in +horse-cars from the northern to the southern station without serious +hindrance; but then the tracks of the street railway were torn up, and +the remaining four companies had to leave the cars and march. A furious +mob of "Plug Uglies" and Secessionists assailed them with paving-stones, +brickbats, and pistol-shots. The mayor and the marshal of the police +force performed fairly their official duty, but were far from quelling +the riot. The troops, therefore, thrown on their own resources, +justifiably fired upon their assailants. The result of the conflict was +that 4 soldiers were killed and 36 were wounded, and of the rioters 12 +were killed, and the number of wounded could not be ascertained. The +troops reached Washington at five o'clock in the afternoon, the first +armed rescuers of the capital; their presence brought a comforting +sense of relief, and they were quartered in the senate chamber itself. + + * * * * * + +What would be the effect of the proclamation, of the mustering of troops +in the capital, and of the bloodshed at Baltimore upon the slave States +which still remained in the Union, was a problem of immeasurable +importance. The President, who had been obliged to take the +responsibility of precipitating the crisis in these States, appreciated +more accurately than any one else the magnitude of the stake involved in +their allegiance. He watched them with the deepest anxiety, and brought +the utmost care and tact of his nature to the task of influencing them. +The geographical position of Maryland, separating the District of +Columbia from the loyal North, made it of the first consequence. The +situation there, precarious at best, seemed to be rendered actually +hopeless by what had occurred. A tempest of uncontrollable rage whirled +away the people and prostrated all Union feeling. Mayor Brown admits +that "for some days it looked very much as if Baltimore had taken her +stand decisively with the South;" and this was putting it mildly, when +the Secessionist Marshal Kane was telegraphing: "Streets red with +Maryland blood. Send express over the mountains of Maryland and Virginia +for the riflemen to come without delay." Governor Hicks was opposed to +secession, but he was shaken like a reed by this violent blast. Later +on this same April 19, Mayor Brown sent three gentlemen to President +Lincoln, bearing a letter from himself, in which he said that it was +"not possible for more soldiers to pass through Baltimore unless they +fight their way at every step." That night he caused the northward +railroad bridges to be burned and disabled; and soon afterward the +telegraph wires were cut. + +The President met the emergency with coolness and straightforward +simplicity, abiding firmly by his main purpose, but conciliatory as to +means. He wrote to the governor and the mayor: "For the future troops +_must_ be brought here, but I make no point of bringing them _through_ +Baltimore;" he would "march them _around_ Baltimore," if, as he hoped, +General Scott should find it feasible to do so. In fulfillment of this +promise he ordered a detachment, which had arrived at a station near +Baltimore, to go all the way back to Philadelphia and come around by +water. He only demurred when the protests were extended to include the +whole "sacred" soil of Maryland,--for it appeared that the presence of +slavery accomplished the consecration of soil! His troops, he said, +could neither fly over the State, nor burrow under it; therefore they +must cross it, and the Marylanders must learn that "there was no piece +of American soil too good to be pressed by the foot of a loyal soldier +on his march to the defense of the capital of his country." For a while, +however, until conditions in Baltimore changed, Eastern regiments came +by way of Annapolis, though with difficulty and delay. Yet, even upon +this route, conflict was narrowly avoided. + +Soon, however, these embarrassments came to an end, and the President's +policy was vindicated by its fruits. It had been strictly his own; he +alone ruled the occasion, and he did so in the face of severe pressure +to do otherwise, some of which came even from members of his cabinet. +Firmness, reasonableness, and patience brought things right; Lincoln +spoke sensibly to the Marylanders, and gave them time to consider the +situation. Such treatment started a reaction; Unionism revived and +Unionists regained courage. Moreover, the sure pressure of material +considerations was doing its work. Baltimore, as an isolated secession +outpost, found, even in the short space of a week, that business was +destroyed and that she was suffering every day financial loss. In a +word, by the end of the month, "the tide had turned." Baltimore, if not +quite a Union city, at least ceased to be secessionist. On May 9 +Northern troops passed unmolested through it. On May 13 General Butler +with a body of troops took possession of Federal Hill, which commands +the harbor and city, and fortified it. If the Baltimore question was +still open at that time, this settled it. Early in the same month the +state legislature came together, Mr. Lincoln refusing to accept the +suggestion of interfering with it. This body was by no means Unionist, +for it "protested against the war as unjust and unconstitutional, +announced a determination to take no part in its prosecution, and +expressed a desire for the immediate recognition of the Confederate +States." Yet practically it put a veto on secession by voting that it +was inexpedient to summon a convention; it called on all good citizens +"to abstain from violent and unlawful interference with the troops." +Thus early in May this brand, though badly scorched, was saved from the +conflagration; and its saving was a piece of good fortune of which the +importance cannot be exaggerated; for without Maryland Washington could +hardly have been held, and with the national capital in the hands of the +rebels European recognition probably could not have been prevented. +These momentous perils were in the mind of the administration during +those anxious days, and great indeed was the relief when the ultimate +turn of affairs became assured. For a week officials in Washington were +painfully taught what it would mean to have Baltimore a rebel city and +Maryland a debatable territory and battle-ground. For a week Mr. Lincoln +and his advisers lived almost in a state of siege; they were utterly cut +off from communication with the North; they could get no news; they +could not learn what was doing for their rescue, nor how serious were +the obstructions in the way of such efforts; in place of correct +information they heard only the most alarming rumors. In a word, they +were governing a country to which they really had no access. The +tension of those days was awful; and it was with infinite comfort that +they became certain that, whatever other strain might come, this one at +least could not be repeated. Henceforth the loyalty of Maryland, so +carefully nurtured, gradually grew in strength to the end. Many +individuals long remained in their hearts disloyal, and thousands[137] +joined the Confederate ranks; but they had to leave their State in order +to get beneath a secessionist standard, for Maryland was distinctly and +conclusively in the Union. + +The situation, resources, and prestige of Virginia made her next to +Maryland in importance among the doubtful States. Her Unionists were +numerically preponderant; and accordingly the convention, which +assembled early in January, was opposed to secession by the overwhelming +majority of 89 to 45. But the Secessionists here as elsewhere in the +South were propagandists, fiery with enthusiasm and energy, and they +controlled the community although they were outnumbered by those who +held, in a more quiet way, contrary opinions. When the decisive conflict +came it was short and sharp and carried with a rush. By intrigue, by +menace, by passionate appeals seasonably applied with sudden intensity +of effort at the time of the assault upon Sumter, the convention was +induced to pass an ordinance of secession. Those who could not bring +themselves to vote in the affirmative were told that they might "absent +themselves or be hanged." On the other hand, there were almost no lines +along which the President could project any influence into the State to +encourage the Union sentiment. He sought an interview with a political +leader, but the gentleman only sent a substitute, and the colloquy +amounted to nothing. He fell in with the scheme of General Scott +concerning Robert E. Lee, which might have saved Virginia; but this also +miscarried. General Lee has always been kindly spoken of at the North, +whether deservedly or not is a matter not to be discussed here. Only a +few bare facts and dates can be given: April 17, by a vote of 88 to 55, +the dragooned convention passed an "ordinance to repeal the ratification +of the Constitution of the United States," but provided that this action +should for the present be kept secret, and that it might be annulled by +the people at a popular voting, which should be had upon it on the +fourth Thursday in May. The injunction of secrecy was immediately +broken, and before the polls were to be opened for the balloting +Virginia was held by the military forces of the Confederacy, so that the +vote was a farce. April 18 Mr. F.P. Blair, Jr., had an interview in +Washington with Lee, in which he intimated to Lee that the President and +General Scott designed to place him in command of the army which had +just been summoned.[138] Accounts of this conversation, otherwise +inconsistent, all agree that Lee expressed himself as opposed to +secession,[139] but as unwilling to occupy the position designed for +him, because he "could take no part in an invasion of the Southern +States." April 20 he tendered his resignation of his commission in the +army, closing with the words, "Save in defense of my native State, I +never desire again to draw my sword."[140] On April 22-23 he was +appointed to, and accepted, the command of the state forces. In so +accepting he said: "I devote myself to the service of my native State, +in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword."[141] April 24 a +military league was formed between Virginia and the Confederate States, +and her forces were placed under the command of Jefferson Davis; also an +invitation was given, and promptly accepted, to make Richmond the +Confederate capital. May 16 Virginia formally entered the Confederacy, +and Lee became a general--the third in rank--in the service of the +Confederate States, though the secession of his State was still only +inchoate and might never become complete, since the day set for the +popular vote had not arrived, and it was still a possibility that the +Unionists might find courage to go to the polls. Thus a rapid succession +of events settled it that the President could save neither Virginia nor +Robert E. Lee for the Union. Yet the failure was not entire. The +northwestern counties were strongly Union in their proclivities, and +soon followed to a good end an evil example; for they in turn seceded +from Virginia, established a state government, sought admission into the +Union, and became the State of West Virginia. + +Next in order of importance came Kentucky. The Secessionists, using here +the tactics so successful in other States, endeavored to drive through +by rush and whirl a formal act of secession. But the Unionists of +Kentucky were of more resolute and belligerent temper than those of +Georgia and Virginia, and would not submit to be swept away by a torrent +really of less volume than their own.[142] Yet in spite of the spirited +head thus made by the loyalists the condition in the State long remained +such as to require the most skillful treatment by the President; during +several critical weeks one error of judgment, a single imprudence, upon +his part might have proved fatal. For the condition was anomalous and +perplexing, and the conflict of opinion in the State had finally led to +the evolution of a theory or scheme of so-called "neutrality." A +similar notion had been imperfectly developed in Maryland, when her +legislature declared that she would take no part in a war. The idea was +illogical to the point of absurdity, for by it the "neutral" State would +at once stay in the Union and stand aloof from it. Neutrality really +signified a refusal to perform those obligations which nevertheless were +admitted to be binding, and it made of the State a defensive barrier for +the South, not to be traversed by Northern troops on an errand of +hostility against Confederate Secessionists. It was practical +"non-coercion" under a name of fairer sound, and it involved the +inconsequence of declaring that the dissolution of an indissoluble Union +should not be prevented; it was the proverbial folly of being "for the +law but ag'in the enforcement of it." In the words of a resolution +passed by a public meeting in Louisville: it was the "duty" of Kentucky +to maintain her "independent position," taking sides neither with the +administration nor with the seceding States, "_but with the Union +against them both_." + +Nevertheless, though both logic and geography made neutrality +impracticable, yet at least the desire to be neutral indicated a +wavering condition, and therefore it was Mr. Lincoln's task so to +arrange matters that, when the State should at last see that it could by +no possibility avoid casting its lot with one side or the other, it +should cast it with the North. For many weeks the two Presidents played +the game for this invaluable stake with all the tact and skill of which +each was master. It proved to be a repetition of the fable of the sun +and the wind striving to see which could the better make the traveler +take off his cloak, and fortunately the patience of Mr. Lincoln +represented the warmth of the sun. He gave the Kentuckians time to learn +by observation and the march of events that neutrality was an +impossibility, also to determine with which side lay the probable +advantages for themselves; also he respected the borders of the State +during its sensitive days, though in doing so he had to forego some +military advantages of time and position. Deliberation brought a sound +conclusion. Kentucky never passed an ordinance of secession, but +maintained her representation in Congress and contributed her quota to +the armies; and these invaluable results were largely due to this wise +policy of the President. Many of her citizens, of course, fought upon +the Southern side, as was the case in all these debatable Border States, +where friends and even families divided against each other, and each man +placed himself according to his own convictions. It may seem, therefore, +in view of this individual independence of action, that the ordinance of +secession was a formality which would not have greatly affected +practical conditions; and many critics of Mr. Lincoln at the time could +not appreciate the value of his "border-state policy," and thought that +he was making sacrifices and paying prices wholly against wisdom, and +out of proportion to anything that could be gained thereby. But he +understood the situation and comparative values correctly. Loyalty to +the State governed multitudes; preference of the State over the United +States cost the nation vast numbers of would-be Unionists in the +seceding States, and in fact made secession possible; and the same +feeling, erroneous though it was from the Unionist point of view, yet +saved for the Unionist party very great numbers in these doubtful States +which never in fact seceded. Mr. Davis appreciated this just as much as +Mr. Lincoln did; both were shrewd men, and were wasting no foolish +efforts when they strove so hard to carry or to prevent formal state +action. They appreciated very well that success in passing an ordinance +would gain for the South throngs of adherents whose allegiance was, by +their peculiar political creed, due to the winner in this local contest. + +In Tennessee the Unionist majority, as indicated early in February, was +overwhelming. Out of a total vote of less than 92,000, more than 67,000 +opposed a state convention. The mountaineers of the eastern region +especially were stalwart loyalists, and later held to their faith +through the severe ordeal of a peculiarly cruel invasion. But the +political value of these scattered settlements was small; and in the +more populous parts the Secessionists pursued their usual aggressive and +enterprising tactics with success. Ultimately the governor and the +legislature despotically compelled secession. It was not decreed by a +popular vote, not even by a convention, but by votes of the legislature +cast in secret session, a proceeding clearly _ultra vires_ of that body. +Finally, on June 8, when a popular vote was taken, the State was in the +military control of the Confederacy. + +Very similar was the case of North Carolina. The people of the uplands, +like their neighbors of Tennessee, were Unionists, and in the rest of +the State there was a prevalent Union sentiment; but the influence of +the political leaders, their direct usurpations of power, and the +customary energetic propagandism, ultimately won. After a convention had +been once voted down by popular vote, a second effort to bring one +together was successfully made, and an ordinance of secession was passed +on May 20. Arkansas was swept along with the stream, seceding on May 6, +although prior to that time the votes both for holding a state +convention and afterward in the convention itself had shown a decided +Unionist preponderance. These three States, Tennessee, North Carolina, +and Arkansas, were entirely beyond the reach of the President. He had +absolutely no lines of influence along which he could work to restrain +or to guide them. + +Missouri had a career peculiar to herself. In St. Louis there was a +strong Unionist majority, and especially the numerous German population +was thoroughly anti-slavery, and was vigorously led by F.P. Blair, Jr. +But away from her riverfront the State had a sparse population +preserving the rough propensities of frontiersmen; these men were not +unevenly divided between loyalty and secession and they were an +independent, fighting set of fellows, each one of whom intended to +follow his own fancy. The result was that Missouri for a long while +carried on a little war of her own within her own borders, on too large +a scale to be called "bushwhacking," and yet with a strong flavor of +that irregular style of conflict. The President interested himself a +good deal in the early efforts of the loyalists, and amid a puzzling +snarl of angry "personal politics" he tried to extend to them aid and +countenance, though with imperfect success. It was fortunate that +Missouri was away on the outskirts, for she was the most vexatious and +perplexing part of the country. Her population had little feeling of +state allegiance, or, indeed, of any allegiance at all, but what small +amount there was fell upon the side of the Union; for though the +governor and a majority of the legislature declared for secession, yet +the state convention voted for the Union by a large majority. It is true +that a sham convention passed a sham ordinance, but this had no weight +with any except those who were already Secessionists. + +Thus by the close of May, 1861, President Lincoln looked forth upon a +spectacle tolerably definite at last, and certainly as depressing as +ever met the eyes of a great ruler. Eleven States, with area, +population, and resources abundant for constituting a powerful nation +and sustaining an awful war, were organized in rebellion; their people +were welded into entire unity of feeling, were enthusiastically +resolute, and were believed to be exceptionally good fighters. The +population of three Border States was divided between loyalty and +disloyalty. The Northern States, teeming with men and money, had +absolutely no experience whatsoever to enable them to utilize their vast +resources with the promptitude needful in the instant emergency. There +was a notion, prevalent even among themselves, that they were by +temperament not very well fitted for war; but this fancy Mr. Lincoln +quietly set aside, knowing better. He also had confidence in the +efficiency of Northern men in practical affairs of any kind whatsoever, +and he had not to tax his patience to see this confidence vindicated. +His appeal for military support seemed the marvelous word of a magician, +and wrought instant transformation throughout the vast loyal territory. +One half of the male population began to practice the manual, to drill, +and to study the text-books of military science; the remainder put at +least equal energy into the preparations for equipment; every +manufacturer in the land set the proverbial Yankee enterprise and +ingenuity at work in the adaptation of his machinery to the production +of munitions of war and all the various outfit for troops. Every +foundry, every mill, and every shipyard was at once diverted from its +accustomed industries in order to supply military demands; patriotism +and profit combined to stimulate sleepless toil and invention. In a +hard-working community no one had ever before worked nearly so hard as +now. The whole North was in a ferment, and every human being strained +his abilities of mind and of body to the utmost in one serviceable +direction or another; the wise and the foolish, the men of words and the +men of deeds, the projectors of valuable schemes and the venders of +ridiculous inventions, the applicants for military commissions and the +seekers after the government's contracts, all hustled and crowded each +other in feverish eagerness to get at work in the new condition of +things. It was going to take time for all this energy to produce +results,--yet not a very long time; the President had more patience than +would be needed, and the spirit of his people reassured him. If the +lukewarm, compromising temper of the past winter had caused him to feel +any lurking anxious doubts as to how the crisis would be met, such +illusive mists were now cleared away in a moment before the sweeping +gale of patriotism. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[132] At New Bedford, in a lecture "which was interrupted by frequent +hisses." Schouler, _Hist. of Mass. in the Civil War_, i. 44-47. + +[133] The Act of 1795 only permitted the use of the militia until thirty +days after the next session of Congress; this session being now summoned +for July 4, the period of service extended only until August 3. + +[134] When General Grant took command of the Eastern armies he said that +the country should be cautioned against expecting too great success, +because the loyal and rebel armies were made up of men of the same race, +having about the same experience in war, and neither able justly to +claim any great superiority over the other in endurance, courage, or +discipline. Chittenden, _Recoll._ 320. + +[135] The third, fourth, and sixth. Schouler, _Mass. in the Civil War_, +i. 52. + +[136] Schouler, _Mass. in the Civil War_, i. 72. + +[137] Mayor Brown thinks that the estimate of these at 20,000 is too +great. Brown, _Baltimore and Nineteenth April_, 1861, p. 85. + +[138] N. and H. iv. 98; Chittenden, 102; Lee's biographer, Childe, says +that "President Lincoln offered him the effective command of the Union +Army," and that Scott "conjured him ... not to quit the army." Childe, +_Lee_, 30. + +[139] Shortly before this time he had written to his son that it was +"idle to talk of secession," that it was "nothing but revolution" and +"anarchy." N. and H. iv. 99. + +[140] Childe, _Lee_, 32; Mr. Childe, p. 33, says that Lee's resignation +was accepted on the 20th (the very day on which his letter was dated!), +so that he "ceased to be a member of the United States Army" before he +took command of the state forces. _Per contra_, N. and H. iv. 101. + +[141] Childe, _Lee_, 34. + +[142] Greeley in his _Amer. Conflict_, i. 349, says that the "open +Secessionists were but a handful." This, however, is clearly an +exaggerated statement. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A REAL PRESIDENT, AND NOT A REAL BATTLE + + +The capture of Fort Sumter and the call for troops established one fact. +There was to be a war. The period of speculation was over and the period +of action had begun. The transition meant much. The talking men of the +country had not appeared to advantage during the few months in which +they had been busy chiefly in giving weak advice and in concocting +prophecies. They now retired before the men of affairs, who were to do +better. To the Anglo-Saxon temperament it was a relief to have done with +waiting and to begin to do something. Activity cleared the minds of men, +and gave to each his appropriate duty. + +The gravity of the crisis being undeniable, the people of the North +queried, with more anxiety than ever before, as to what kind of a chief +they had taken to carry them through it. But the question which all +asked none could answer. Mr. Lincoln had achieved a good reputation as a +politician and a stump speaker. Whatever a few might _think_, this was +all that any one _knew_. The narrow limitations of his actual experience +certainly did not encourage a belief in his probable fitness to +encounter duties more varied, pressing, numerous, novel, and difficult +than had ever come so suddenly to confound any ruler within recorded +time. Later on, when it was seen with what rare capacity he met demands +so exacting, many astonished and excitable observers began to cry out +that he was inspired. This, however, was sheer nonsense. That the very +peculiar requirements of these four years found a president so well +responding to them may be fairly regarded, by those who so please, as a +specific Providential interference,--a striking one among many less +striking. But, in fact, nothing in Mr. Lincoln's life requires, for its +explanation, the notion of divine inspiration. His doings, one and all, +were perfectly intelligible as the outcome of honesty of purpose, strong +common sense, clear reasoning powers, and a singular sagacity in reading +the popular mind. Intellectually speaking, a clear and vigorous thinking +capacity was his chief trait. This sounds commonplace and uninteresting, +but a more serviceable qualification could not have been given him. The +truth is, that it was part of the good fortune of the country that the +President was not a brilliant man. Moreover, he was cool, shrewd, +dispassionate, and self-possessed, and was endowed really in an +extraordinary degree with an intermingling of patience and courage, +whereby he was enabled both to await and to endure results. Above all he +was a masterful man; not all the time and in small matters, and not +often in an opinionated way; but, from beginning to end, whenever he +saw fit to be master, master he was.[143] + +This last fact, when it became known, answered another question which +people were asking: In whose hands were the destinies of the North to +be? In those of Mr. Lincoln? or in those of the cabinet? or in those of +influential advisers, something like what have been called "favorites" +in Europe, and "kitchen cabinet" in the more homely phrase of the United +States? The early impression was that Mr. Lincoln did not know a great +deal. How could he? Where and how could he have learned much? It must be +admitted that it was entirely natural that his advisers, and other +influential men concerned in public affairs, should adopt and act upon +the theory that Mr. Lincoln, emerging so sharply from such a past as his +had been, into such a crisis as was now present, must need a vast amount +of instruction, guidance, suggestion. Accordingly there were many +gentlemen who stood ready, not to say eager, to supply these fancied +wants, and who could have supplied them very well had they existed. +Therefore one of the first things which Mr. Lincoln had to do was, +without antagonizing Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase, to indicate to them that +they were to be not only in name but also in rigid fact his secretaries, +and that he was in fact as well as by title President. This delicate +business was done so soon as opportunity offered, not in any disguised +way but with plain simplicity. Mr. Chase never took the disposition +quite pleasantly. He managed his department with splendid ability, but +in the personal relation of a cabinet adviser upon the various matters +of governmental policy he was always somewhat uncomfortable to get along +with, inclined to fault-finding, ever ready with discordant suggestions, +and in time also disturbed by ambition. + +Mr. Seward behaved far better. After the question of supremacy had been +settled, though in a way quite contrary to his anticipation, he frankly +accepted the subordinate position, and discharged his duties with hearty +good-will. Indeed, this settlement had already come, before the time +which this narrative has reached; but the people did not know it; it was +a private matter betwixt the two men who had been parties to it. Only +Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward knew that the secretary had suggested his +willingness to run the government for the President, and that the +President had replied that he intended to run it himself. It came about +in this way: on April 1 Mr. Seward presented, in writing, "Some thoughts +for the President's consideration." He opened with the statement, not +conciliatory, that "We are at the end of a month's administration, and +yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign." He then proceeded to +offer suggestions for each. For the "policy at home" he proposed, as the +"ruling idea:" "Change the question before the public from one upon +slavery, or about slavery, for a question upon Union or Disunion." It +was odd and not complimentary that he should seem to forget or ignore +that precisely this thing had already been attempted by Mr. Lincoln in +his inaugural address. Also within a few days, as we all know now, +events were to show that the attempt had been successful. Further +comment upon the domestic policy of Mr. Seward is, therefore, needless. +But his scheme "For Foreign Nations" is more startling:-- + +"I would demand explanations from Spain and France categorically at +once. + +"I would seek explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and send +agents into Canada, Mexico, and Central America, to rouse a vigorous +spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention. + +"And, if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and +France, + +"Would convene Congress and declare war against them. + +"But whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of +it. + +"For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it +incessantly. + +"Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in +it, or + +"Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. + +"Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide. + +"It is not in my especial province. + +"But I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility." + +Suggestions so wild could not properly constitute material for +"consideration" by the President; but much consideration on the part of +students of those times and men is provoked by the fact that such +counsel emanated from such a source. The secretary of state, heretofore +the most distinguished leader in the great Republican movement, who +should by merit of actual achievement have been the Republican candidate +for the presidency, and who was expected by a large part of the country +to save an ignorant president from bad blunders, was advancing a +proposition to create pretexts whereby to force into existence a foreign +war upon a basis which was likely to set one half of the civilized world +against the other half. The purpose for which he was willing to do this +awful thing was: to paralyze for a while domestic discussions, and to +undo and leave to be done anew by the next generation all that vast work +which he himself, and the President whom he advised, and the leaders of +the great multitude whom they both represented, had for years been +engaged in prosecuting with all the might that was in them. But the +explanation is simple: like many another at that trying moment, the +secretary was smitten with sudden panic at the condition which had been +brought about so largely by his own efforts. It was strictly a panic, +for it passed away rapidly as panics do. + +The biographer of Mr. Seward may fairly enough glide lightly over this +episode, since it was nothing more than an episode; but one who writes +of Mr. Lincoln must, in justice, call attention to this spectacle of the +sage statesman from whom, if from any one, this "green hand," this +inexperienced President, must seek guidance, thus in deliberate writing +pointing out a course which was ridiculous and impossible, and which, if +it had been possible, would have been an intolerably humiliating +retreat. The anxious people, who thought that their untried President +might, upon the worst estimate of his own abilities, get on fairly well +by the aid of wise and skilled advisers, would have been aghast had they +known that, inside of the government, the pending question was: not +whether Mr. Lincoln would accept sound instruction, but whether he would +have sense to recognize bad advice, and independence to reject it. +Before Mr. Seward went to bed on that night of April 1, he was perhaps +the only man in the country who knew the solution of this problem. But +he knew it, for Mr. Lincoln had already answered his letter. It had not +taken the President long! The secretary's extraordinary offer to assume +the responsibility of pursuing and directing the policy of the +government was rejected within a few hours after it was made; rejected +not offensively, but briefly, clearly, decisively, and without thanks. +Concerning the proposed policies, domestic and foreign, the President +said as little as was called for; he actually did not even refer to the +scheme for inaugurating gratuitously a war with a large part of Europe, +in order for a while to distract attention from slavery. + +To us, to-day, it seems that the President could not have missed a +course so obvious; yet Mr. Seward, who suggested the absurdity, was a +great statesman. In truth, the President had shown not only sense but +nerve. For the difference between Seward's past opportunities and +experience and his own was appreciated by him as fully as by any one. He +knew perfectly well that what seemed the less was controlling what +seemed the greater when he overruled his secretary. It took courage on +the part of a thoughtful man to put himself in such a position. Other +solemn reflections also could not be avoided. Not less interested than +any other citizen in the fate of the nation, he had also a personal +relation to the ultimate event which was exclusively his own. For he +himself might be called, in a certain sense, the very cause of +rebellion; of course the people who had elected him carried the real +responsibility; but he stood as the token of the difference, the +concrete provocation to the fight. The South had said: _Abraham Lincoln_ +brings secession. It was frightful to think that, as he was in fact the +signal, so posterity might mistake him for the very cause of the rending +of a great nation, the failure of a grand experiment. It might be that +this destiny was before him, for the outcome of this struggle no one +could foretell; it might be his sad lot to mark the end of the line of +Presidents of the United States. Lincoln was not a man who could escape +the full weight of these reflections, and it is to be remembered that +all actions were taken beneath that weight. It was a strong man, then, +who stood up and said, This is my load and I will carry it; and who did +carry it, when others offered to shift much of it upon their own +shoulders; also who would not give an hour's thought to a scheme which +promised to lift it away entirely, and to leave it for some other who by +and by should come after him. + +It is worth while to remember that Mr. Lincoln was the most advised man, +often the worst advised man, in the annals of mankind. The torrent must +have been terribly confusing! Another instance deserves mention: shortly +before Mr. Seward's strange proposal, Governor Hicks, distracted at the +tumult in Maryland, had suggested that the quarrel between North and +South should be referred to Lord Lyons as arbitrator! It was difficult +to know whether to be amused or resentful before a proposition at once +so silly and so ignominious. Yet it came from an important official, and +it was only one instance among thousands. With war as an actuality, such +vagaries as those of Hicks and Seward came sharply to an end. People +wondered and talked somewhat as to how long hostilities would last, how +much they would cost, how they would end; and were not more correct in +these speculations than they had been in others. But though the day of +gross absurdities was over, the era of advice endured permanently. That +peculiar national trait whereby every American knows at least as much on +every subject whatsoever as is known by any other living man, produced +its full results during the war. Every clergyman and humanitarian, every +village politician and every city wire-puller, every one who conned the +maps of Virginia and imbibed the military wisdom of the newspapers, +every merchant who put his name to a subscription paper, considered it +his privilege and his duty to set the President right upon every +question of moral principle, of politics, of strategy, and of finance. +In one point of view it was not flattering that he should seem to stand +in need of so much instruction; and this was equally true whether it +came bitterly, as criticism from enemies, or sugar-coated, as advice +from friends. That friends felt obliged to advise so much was in itself +a criticism. Probably, however, Mr. Lincoln was not troubled by this +view, for he keenly appreciated the idiosyncrasies as well as the better +qualities of the people. They, however, were a long while in +understanding him sufficiently to recognize that there was never a man +whom it was less worth while to advise. + + * * * * * + +Business crowded upon Mr. Lincoln, and the variety and novelty of it was +without limit. On April 17 Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation +offering "letters of marque and reprisal" to owners of private armed +vessels. Two days later the President retorted by proclaiming a blockade +of Confederate ports.[144] Of course this could not be made effective +upon the moment. On March 4 the nominal total of vessels in the navy was +90. Of these, 69 were classed as "available;" but only 42 were actually +in commission; and even of these many were in Southern harbors, and fell +into the hands of the Confederates; many more were upon foreign and +distant stations. Indeed, the dispersion was so great that it was +commonly charged as having been intentionally arranged by secessionist +officials under Mr. Buchanan. Also, at the very moment when this +proclamation was being read throughout the country, the great navy yard +of Gosport, at Norfolk, Virginia, "always the favored depot" of the +government, with all its workshops and a great store of cannon and other +munitions, was passing into the hands of the enemy. Most of the vessels +and some other property were destroyed by Federals before the seizure +was consummated; nevertheless, the loss was severe. Moreover, even had +all the vessels of the regular navy been present, they would have had +other duties besides lying off Southern ports. Blockading squadrons, +therefore, had to be improvised, and orders at once issued for the +purchase and equipment of steam vessels from the merchant marine and +the coasting service. Fortunately the summer season was at hand, so that +these makeshifts were serviceable for many months, during which better +craft were rapidly got together by alteration and building. Three +thousand miles of coast and many harbors were included within the +blockade limits, and were distributed into departments under different +commanders. Each commander was instructed to declare his blockade in +force as soon as he felt able to make it tolerably effective, with the +expectation of rapidly improving its efficiency. The beginning was, +therefore, ragged, and was naturally criticised in a very jealous and +hostile spirit by those foreign nations who suffered by it. Dangerous +disputes threatened to arise, but were fortunately escaped, and in a +surprisingly short time "Yankee" enterprise made the blockade too +thorough for question. + +Amid the first haste and pressure it was ingeniously suggested that, +since the government claimed jurisdiction over the whole country and +recognized only a rebellion strictly so called, therefore the President +could by proclamation simply _close_ ports at will. Secretary Welles +favored this course, and in the extra session of the summer of 1861 +Congress passed a bill giving authority to Mr. Lincoln to pursue it, in +his discretion. Mr. Seward, with better judgment, said that it might be +legal, but would certainly be unwise. The position probably could have +been successfully maintained by lawyers before a bench of judges; but +to have relied upon it in the teeth of the commercial interests and +unfriendly sentiment of England and France would have been a fatal +blunder. Happily it was avoided; and the President had the shrewdness to +keep within a line which shut out technical discussion. Already he saw +that, so far as relations with foreigners were concerned, the domestic +theory of a rebellion, pure and simple, must be very greatly modified. +In a word, that which began as rebellion soon developed into civil war; +the two were closely akin, but with some important differences. + +Nice points of domestic constitutional law also arose with the first +necessity for action, opening the broad question as to what course +should be pursued in doubtful cases, and worse still in those cases +where the government could not fairly claim the benefit of a real doubt. +The plain truth was that, in a condition faintly contemplated in the +Constitution, many things not permitted by the Constitution must be done +to preserve the Constitution. The present crisis had been very scantily +and vaguely provided for by "the fathers." The instant that action +became necessary to save the Union under the Constitution, it was +perfectly obvious that the Constitution must be stretched, transcended, +and most liberally interlined, in a fashion which would furnish annoying +arguments to the disaffected. The President looked over the situation, +and decided, in the proverbial phrase, to take the bull by the horns; +that which clearly ought to be done he would do, law or no law, doubt +or no doubt. He would have faith that the people would sustain him; and +that the courts and the lawyers, among whose functions it is to see to +it that laws and statutes do not interfere too seriously with the +convenience of the community, would arrive, in what subtle and +roundabout way they might choose, at the conclusion that whatever must +be done might be done. These learned gentlemen did their duty, and +developed the "war powers" under the Constitution in a manner equally +ingenious, comical, and sensible. But the fundamental basis was, that +necessity knows no law; every man in the country knew this, but the +well-intentioned denied it, as matter of policy, while the +ill-intentioned made such use of the opportunities thus afforded to them +as might have been expected. Among the "war Democrats," however, there +was at least ostensible liberality. + +An early question related to the writ of habeas corpus. The Maryland +legislature was to meet on April 26, 1861, and was expected to guide the +State in the direction of secession. Many influential men urged the +President to arrest the members before they could do this. He, however, +conceived such an interference with a state government, in the present +condition of popular feeling, to be impolitic. "We cannot know in +advance," he said, "that the action will not be lawful and peaceful;" +and he instructed General Scott to watch them, and, in case they should +make a movement towards arraying the people against the United States, +to counteract it by "the bombardment of their cities, and, in the +extremest necessity, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus." This +intimation that the suspension of the venerated writ was a measure +graver than even bombarding a city, surely indicated sufficient respect +for laws and statutes. The legislators restrained their rebellious ardor +and proved the wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's moderation. In the autumn, +however, the crisis recurred, and then the arrests seemed the only means +of preventing the passage of an ordinance of secession. Accordingly the +order was issued and executed. Public opinion upheld it, and Governor +Hicks afterward declared his belief that only by this action had +Maryland been saved from destruction. + +The privilege of habeas corpus could obviously, however, be made +dangerously serviceable to disaffected citizens. Therefore, April 27, +the President instructed General Scott: "If at any point on or in the +vicinity of any military line which is now, or which shall be, used +between the city of Philadelphia and the city of Washington, you find it +necessary to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for the public safety, +you ... are authorized to suspend that writ." Several weeks elapsed +before action was taken under this authority. Then, on May 25, John +Merryman, recruiting in Maryland for the Confederate service, was seized +and imprisoned in Fort McHenry. Chief Justice Taney granted a writ of +habeas corpus. General Cadwalader replied that he held Merryman upon a +charge of treason, and that he had authority under the President's +letter to suspend the writ. The chief justice thereupon issued against +the general an attachment for contempt, but the marshal was refused +admittance to the fort. The chief justice then filed with the clerk, and +also sent to the President, his written opinion, in which he said: "I +understand that the President not only claims the right to suspend the +writ of habeas corpus at his discretion, but to delegate that +discretionary power to a military officer;" whereas, according to the +view of his honor, the power did not lie even with the President +himself, but only with Congress. Warming to the discussion, he used +pretty strong language, to the effect that, if authority intrusted to +other departments could thus "be usurped by the military power at its +discretion, the people ... are no longer living under a government of +laws; but every citizen holds life, liberty, and property at the will +and pleasure of the army officer in whose military district he may +happen to be found." It was unfortunate that the country should hear +such phrases launched by the chief justice against the President, or at +least against acts done under orders of the President. Direct retort was +of course impossible, and the dispute was in abeyance for a short +time.[145] But the predilections of the judicial hero of the Dred Scott +decision were such as to give rise to grave doubts as to whether or not +the Union could be saved by any process which would not often run +counter to his ideas of the law; therefore in this matter the President +continued to exercise the useful and probably essential power, though +taking care, for the future, to have somewhat more regard for form. +Thus, on May 10, instead of simply writing a letter, he issued through +the State Department a proclamation authorizing the Federal commander on +the Florida coast, "if he shall find it necessary, to suspend there the +writ of habeas corpus." + +In due time the assembling of Congress gave Mr. Lincoln the opportunity +to present his side of the case. In his message he said that arrests, +and suspension of the writ, had been made "very sparingly;" and that, if +authority had been stretched, at least the question was pertinent: "Are +all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the government itself to go +to pieces, lest that one be violated?" He, however, believed that in +fact this question was not presented, and that the law had not been +violated. "The provision of the Constitution, that the privilege of the +writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of +rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it, is equivalent +to a provision that such privilege may be suspended when, in cases of +rebellion or invasion, the public safety does require it." As between +Congress and the executive, "the Constitution itself is silent as to +which or who is to exercise the power; and as the provision was plainly +made for a dangerous emergency it cannot be believed that the framers of +the instrument intended that in every case the danger should run its +course until Congress could be called together, the very assembling of +which might be prevented, as was intended in this case by the +rebellion." + +If it was difficult, it was also undesirable to confute the President's +logic. The necessity for military arrests and for indefinite detention +of the arrested persons was undeniable. Congress therefore recognized +the legality of what had been done, and the power was frequently +exercised thereafter, and to great advantage. Of course mistakes +occurred, and subordinates made some arrests which had better have been +left unmade; but these bore only upon discretion in individual cases, +not upon inherent right. The topic, however, was in itself a tempting +one, not only for the seriously disaffected, but for the far larger body +of the quarrelsome, who really wanted the government to do its work, yet +maliciously liked to make the process of doing it just as difficult and +as disagreeable as possible. Later on, when the malcontent class +acquired the organization of a distinct political body, no other charge +against the administration proved so plausible and so continuously +serviceable as this. It invited to florid declamation profusely +illustrated with impressive historical allusions, and to the free use of +vague but grand and sonorous phrases concerning "usurpation," "the +subjection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen to the +mere will of a military commander," and other like terrors. +Unfortunately men much more deserving of respect than the Copperheads, +men of sound loyalty and high ability, but of anxious and conservative +temperament, were led by their fears to criticise severely arrests of +men who were as dangerous to the government as if they had been soldiers +of the Confederacy. + +May 3, 1861, by which time military exigencies had become better +understood, Mr. Lincoln called "into the service of the United States +42,034 volunteers," and directed that the regular army should be +increased by an aggregate of 22,714 officers and enlisted men. More +suggestive than the mere increase was the fact that the volunteers were +now required "to serve for a period of three years, unless sooner +discharged." The opinion of the government as to the magnitude of the +task in hand was thus for the first time conveyed to the people. They +received it seriously and without faltering. + +July 4, 1861, the Thirty-seventh Congress met in extra session, and the +soundness of the President's judgment in setting a day which had at +first been condemned as too distant was proved. In the interval, nothing +had been lost which could have been saved by the sitting of Congress; +while, on the other hand, the members had had the great advantage of +having time to think soberly concerning the business before them, and to +learn the temper and wishes of their constituents. + +Mr. Lincoln took great pains with his message, which he felt to be a +very important document. It was his purpose to say simply what events +had occurred, what questions had been opened, and what necessities had +arisen; to display the situation and to state facts fairly and fully, +but not apparently to argue the case of the North. Yet it was essential +for him so to do this that no doubt could be left as to where the right +lay. This peculiar process of argument by statement had constituted his +special strength at the bar, and he now gave an excellent instance of +it. He briefly sketched the condition of public affairs at the time when +he assumed the government; he told the story of Sumter, and of the +peculiar process whereby Virginia had been linked to the Confederacy. +With a tinge of irony he remarked that, whether the sudden change of +feeling among the members of the Virginian Convention was "wrought by +their great approval of the assault upon Sumter, or their great +resentment at the government's resistance to that assault, is not +definitely known." + +He explained the effect of the neutrality theory of the Border States. +"This," he said, "would be disunion completed. Figuratively speaking, it +would be the building of 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 the Union men, and freely pass +supplies to the insurrectionists.... At a stroke it would take all the +trouble off the hands of secession, except what proceeds from the +external blockade." It would give to the disunionists "disunion, without +a struggle of their own." + +Of the blockade and the calls for troops, he said: "These measures, +whether strictly legal or not, were ventured upon under what appeared to +be a popular demand and a public necessity, trusting then, as now, that +Congress would ratify them." At the same time he stated the matter of +the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which has been already +referred to. + +Speaking of the doctrine that secession was lawful under the +Constitution, and that it was not rebellion, he made plain the genuine +significance of the issue thus raised: "It presents ... 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 the +administration according to the organic law in any case, can always, +upon the pretenses made in this case, or any other pretenses, or +arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their government, and thus +practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us +to ask: Is there in all Republics this inherent 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?" The Constitution of +the Confederacy was a paraphrase with convenient adaptations of the +Constitution of the United States. A significant one of these +adaptations was the striking out of the first three words, "We, the +people," and the substitution of the words, "We, the deputies of the +sovereign and independent States." "Why," said Mr. Lincoln, "why this +deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of +the people? This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the +Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and +substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition +of men ... to afford to all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the +race of life.... This is the leading object of the government for whose +existence we contend. I am most happy to believe that the plain people +understand and appreciate this." + +Many persons, not gifted with the power of thinking clearly, were +disturbed at what seemed to them a purpose to "invade" and to +"subjugate" sovereign States,--as though a government could invade its +own country or subjugate its own subjects! These phrases, he said, were +producing "uneasiness in the minds of candid men" as to what would be +the course of the government toward the Southern States after the +suppression of the rebellion. The President assured them that he had no +expectation of changing the views set forth in his inaugural address; +that he desired "to preserve the government, that it may be administered +for all as it was administered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens +everywhere have a right to expect this,... and the government has no +right to withhold or neglect it. It is not perceived that in giving it +there is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation." + +In closing he said that it was with the deepest regret that he had used +the war power; but "in defense of the government, forced upon him, he +could but perform this duty or surrender the existence of the +government." Compromise would have been useless, for "no popular +government can long survive a marked precedent that those who carry an +election can only save the government from immediate destruction by +giving up the main point upon which the people gave the election." To +those who would have had him compromise he explained that only the +people themselves, not their servants, can safely reverse their own +deliberate decisions. He had no power to agree to divide the country +which he had the duty to govern. "As a private citizen the executive +could not have consented that these institutions shall perish; much less +could he, in betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as these free +people have confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to +shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life in what might +follow." + +The only direct request made in the message was that, to make "this +contest a short and decisive one," Congress would "place at the control +of the government for the work at least 400,000 men, and $400,000,000. +That number of men is about one tenth of those of proper ages within the +regions where apparently all are willing to engage, and the sum is less +than a twenty-third part of the money value owned by the men who seem +ready to devote the whole." + +The message was well received by the people, as it deserved to be. + +The proceedings of Congress can only be referred to with brevity. Yet a +mere recital of the names of the more noteworthy members of the Senate +and the House must be intruded, if merely for the flavor of reminiscence +which it will bring to readers who recall those times. In the Senate, +upon the Republican side, there were: Lyman Trumbull from Illinois, +James Harlan and James W. Grimes from Iowa, William P. Fessenden from +Maine, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson from Massachusetts, Zachariah +Chandler from Michigan, John P. Hale from New Hampshire, Benjamin F. +Wade from Ohio, and John Sherman, who was elected to fill the vacancy +created by the appointment of Salmon P. Chase to the Treasury +Department, David Wilmot from Pennsylvania, filling the place of Simon +Cameron, Henry B. Anthony from Rhode Island, Andrew Johnson from +Tennessee, Jacob Collamer from Vermont, and James R. Doolittle from +Wisconsin. On the Democratic side, there were: James A. McDougall of +California, James A. Bayard and William Saulsbury of Delaware, Jesse D. +Bright of Indiana, who was expelled February 5, 1862, John C. +Breckenridge of Kentucky, who a little later openly joined the +Secessionists, and was formally expelled December 4, 1861; he was +succeeded by Garrett Davis, an "American or Old Line Whig," by which +name he and two senators from Maryland preferred to be described; James +W. Nesmith of Oregon. Lane and Pomeroy, the first senators from the free +State of Kansas, were seated. In the House Galusha A. Grow of +Pennsylvania, who had lately knocked down Mr. Keitt of South Carolina in +a fisticuff encounter on the floor of the chamber, was chosen speaker, +over Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri. Thaddeus Stevens of +Pennsylvania was the most prominent man in the body. Among many familiar +names in running down the list the eye lights upon James E. English of +Connecticut; E.B. Washburne, Isaac N. Arnold, and Owen Lovejoy of +Illinois; Julian, Voorhees, and Schuyler Colfax of Indiana; Crittenden +of Kentucky; Roscoe Conkling, Reuben E. Fenton, and Erastus Corning of +New York; George H. Pendleton, Vallandigham, Ashley, Shellabarger, and +S.S. Cox of Ohio; Covode of Pennsylvania; Maynard of Tennessee. The +members came together in very good temper; and the great preponderance +of Republicans secured dispatch in the conduct of business; for the +cliques which soon produced intestine discomfort in that dominant party +were not yet developed. No ordinary legislation was entered upon; but in +twenty-nine working days seventy-six public Acts were passed, of which +all but four bore directly upon the extraordinary emergency. The demands +of the President were met, with additions: 500,000 men and $500,000,000 +were voted; $207,000,000 were appropriated to the army, and $56,000,000 +to the navy. August 6 Congress adjourned. + + * * * * * + +The law-makers were treated, during their session, to what was regarded, +in the inexperience of those days, as a spectacle of real war. During a +couple of months past large bodies of men had been gathering together, +living in tents, shouldering guns, and taking the name of armies. +General Butler was in command at Fortress Monroe, and was faced by +Colonel Magruder, who held the peninsula between the York and the James +rivers. Early in June the lieutenants of these two commanders performed +the comical fiasco of the "battle" of Big Bethel. In this skirmish the +Federal regiments fired into each other, and then retreated, while the +Confederates withdrew; but in language of absurd extravagance the +Confederate colonel reported that he had won a great victory, and +Northern men flushed beneath the ridicule incurred by the blunder of +their troops. + +A smaller affair at Vienna was more ridiculous; several hundred +soldiers, aboard a train of cars, started upon a reconnoissance, as if +it had been a picnic. The Confederates fired upon them with a couple of +small cannon, and they hastily took to the woods. When they got home +they talked wisely about "masked batteries." But the shrewdness and +humor of the people were not thus turned aside, and the "masked battery" +long made the point of many a bitter jest. + +Up the river, Harper's Ferry was held by "Stonewall" Jackson, who was +soon succeeded by J.E. Johnston. Confronting and watching this force was +General Patterson, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with a body of men +rapidly growing to considerable numbers by the daily coming of recruits. +Not very far away, southeastward, the main body of the Confederate army, +under Beauregard, lay at Manassas, and the main body of the Federal +army, under McDowell, was encamped along the Potomac. On May 23 the +Northern advance crossed that river, took possession of Arlington +Heights and of Alexandria, and began work upon permanent defensive +intrenchments in front of the capital. + +The people of the North knew nothing about war or armies. Wild with +enthusiasm and excitement, they cheered the departing regiments, which, +as they vaguely and eagerly fancied, were to begin fighting at once. +Yet it was true that no one would stake his money on a "football team" +which should go into a game trained in a time so short as that which had +been allowed for bringing into condition for the manoeuvres and +battlefields of a campaign an army of thirty or forty thousand men, with +staff and commissariat, and arms of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, +altogether constituting an organization vast, difficult, and complex in +the highest degree of human cooeperation. Nevertheless "On to Richmond!" +rolled up the imperious cry from every part of the North. The +government, either sharing in this madness, or feeling that it must be +yielded to, passed the word to the commander, and McDowell very +reluctantly obeyed orders and started with his army in that +direction,--not, however, with any real hope of reaching this nominal +objective; for he was an intelligent man and a good soldier, and was +perfectly aware of the unfitness of his army. But when, protesting, he +suggested that his troops were "green," he was told to remember that the +Southern troops were of the same tint; for, in a word, the North was +bound to have a fight, and would by no means endure that the three +months' men should come home without doing something more positive than +merely preventing the capture of Washington. + +On July 16, therefore, McDowell began his advance, having with him about +35,000 men, and by the 19th he was at the stream of Bull Run, behind +which the Confederates lay. He planned his battle skillfully, and began +his attack on the morning of the 21st. On the other hand, Beauregard was +at the double disadvantage of misapprehending his opponent's purpose, +and of failing to get his orders conveyed to his lieutenants until the +fight was far advanced. The result was, that at the beginning of the +afternoon the Federals had almost won a victory which they fully +deserved. That they did not finally secure it was due to the +inefficiency of General Patterson. This general had crossed the Potomac +a few days before and had been instructed to watch Johnston, who had +drawn back near Winchester, and either to prevent him from moving his +force from the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas, or, failing this, to keep +close to him and unite with McDowell. But Patterson neither detained nor +followed his opponent. On July 18 Beauregard telegraphed to Johnston: +"If you wish to help me, now is the time." If Patterson wished to help +McDowell, then, also, was the time. The Southern general seized his +opportunity, and the Northern general let his opportunity go. Johnston, +uninterrupted and unfollowed by Patterson, brought his troops in from +Manassas Junction upon the right wing of the Federals at the very moment +and crisis when the battle was actually in the process of going in their +favor. Directly all was changed. Older troops would not have stood, and +these untried ones were defeated as soon as they were attacked. Speedily +retreat became rout, and rout became panic. At a great speed the +frightened soldiers, resolved into a mere disorganized mob of +individuals, made their way back to the camps on the Potomac; many +thought Washington safer, and some did not stop short of their distant +Northern homes. + +The Southerners, who had been on the point of running away when the +Northerners anticipated them in so doing, now triumphed immoderately, +and uttered boastings magniloquent enough for Homeric heroes. Yet they +were, as General Johnston said, "almost as much disorganized by victory +as were the Federals by defeat." Many of them also hastened to their +homes, spreading everywhere the cheering tidings that the war was over +and the South had won. + +In point of fact, it was a stage of the war when defeat was more +wholesome than victory. Fortunately, too, the North was not even +momentarily discouraged. The people had sense enough to see that what +had happened was precisely what should have been expected. A little +humiliated at their own folly, about as much vexed with themselves as +angry with their enemies, they turned to their work in a new spirit. +Persistence displaced excitement, as three years' men replaced three +months' men. The people settled down to a long, hard task. Besides this, +they had now some idea of what was necessary to be done in order to +succeed in that task. Invaluable lessons had been learned, and no lives +which were lost in the war bore fruit of greater usefulness than did +those which seemed to have been foolishly thrown away at Bull Run. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[143] So said Hon. George W. Julian, somewhat ruefully acknowledging +that Lincoln "was always himself the President." _Polit. Recoll._ 190. + +[144] South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, +and Texas were covered by this proclamation; on April 27, North Carolina +and Virginia were added. + +[145] For the documents in this case, and also for some of the more +famous professional opinions thereon, see McPherson, _Hist. of +Rebellion, 154 et seq._; also (of course from the side of the chief +justice), Tyler's _Taney_, 420-431; and see original draft of the +President's message on this subject; N. and H. iv. 176. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FIRST ACT OF THE MCCLELLAN DRAMA + + +On the day after the battle of Bull Run General George B. McClellan was +summoned to Washington, where he arrived on July 26. On the 25th he had +been assigned to the command of the army of the Potomac. By all the +light which President Lincoln had at the time of making this +appointment, it seemed the best that was possible; and in fact it was +so, in view of the immediate sphere of usefulness of a commanding +general in Virginia. McClellan was thirty-four years old, of vigorous +physique and fine address. After his graduation at West Point, in 1846, +he was attached to the Engineer Corps; he served through the Mexican +war, and for merit received a captaincy. In 1855 he was sent by +Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, to Europe to study the +organizing and handling of armies in active service; and he was for a +while at the British headquarters during the siege of Sebastopol, +observing their system in operation. In January, 1857, he resigned from +the army; but with the first threatenings of the civil war he made ready +to play an active part. April 23, 1861, he was appointed by the governor +of Ohio a major-general, with command of all the state forces. May 13, +by an order from the national government, he took command of the +Department of the Ohio, in which shortly afterward Western Virginia was +included. He found the sturdy mountaineers of this inaccessible region +for the most part loyalists, but overawed by rebel troops, and toward +the close of May, upon his own sole responsibility, he inaugurated a +campaign for their relief. In this he had the good fortune to be +entirely successful. By some small engagements he cleared the country of +armed Secessionists and returned it to the Union; and in so doing he +showed energy and good tactical ability. These achievements, which later +in the war would have seemed inconsiderable, now led to confidence and +promotion. + +In his new and exalted position McClellan became commander of a great +number of men, but not of a great army. The agglomeration of civilians, +who had run away from Manassas under the impression that they had fought +and lost a real battle, was utterly disorganized and demoralized. Some +had already reached the sweet safety of the villages of the North; +others were lounging in the streets of Washington and swelling the +receipts of its numerous barrooms. The majority, it is true, were in +camp across the Potomac, but in no condition to render service. All, +having been enlisted for three months, now had only a trifling remnant +of so-called military life before them, in which it seemed to many +hardly worth while to run risks. The new call for volunteers for three +years had just gone forth, and though troops began to arrive under it +with surprising promptitude and many three months' men reenlisted, yet a +long time had to elapse before the new levies were all on hand. Thus +betwixt departing and coming hosts McClellan's duty was not to use an +army, but to create one. + +The task looked immeasurable, but there was a fortunate fitness for it +upon both sides. The men who in this awful crisis were answering the +summons of President Lincoln constituted a raw material of a kind such +as never poured into any camp save possibly into that of Cromwell. For +the most part they were courageous, intelligent, self-respecting +citizens, who were under the noble compulsion of conscience and +patriotism in leaving reputable and prosperous callings for a military +career. The moral, mental, and physical average of such a body of men +was a long way above that of professional armies, and insured readiness +in acquiring their new calling. But admirable as were the latent +possibilities, and apt as each individual might be, these multitudes +arrived wholly uninstructed; few had even so much as seen a real +soldier; none had any notion at all of what military discipline was, or +how to handle arms, or to manoeuvre, or to take care of their health. +Nor could they easily get instruction in these things, for officers knew +no more than privates; indeed, for that matter, one of the great +difficulties at first encountered lay in the large proportion of utterly +unfit men who had succeeded in getting commissions, and who had to be +toilfully eliminated. + +That which was to be done, McClellan was well able to do. He had a +passion for organization, and fine capacity for work; he showed tact and +skill in dealing with subordinates; he had a thorough knowledge and a +high ideal of what an army should be. He seemed the Genius of Order as +he educated and arranged the chaotic gathering of human beings, who came +before him to be transmuted from farmers, merchants, clerks, +shopkeepers, and what not into soldiers of all arms and into leaders of +soldiers. To that host in chrysalis he was what each skillful +drill-master is to his awkward squad. Under his influence privates +learned how to obey and officers how to command; each individual merged +the sense of individuality in that of homogeneousness and cohesion, +until the original loose association of units became one grand unit +endowed with the solidarity and machine-like quality of an efficient +army. Patient labor produced a result so excellent that General Meade +said long afterward: "Had there been no McClellan there could have been +no Grant, for the army made no essential improvement under any of his +successors." + +That the formation of this great complex machine was indispensable, and +that it would take much time, were facts which the disaster at Bull Run +had compelled both the administration and the people to appreciate +moderately well. Accordingly they resolutely set themselves to be +patient. The cry of "On to Richmond!" no longer sounded through the +land, and the restraint imposed by the excited masses upon their own +ardor was the strongest evidence of their profound earnestness. In a +steady stream they poured men and material into the camps in Virginia, +and they heard with satisfaction of the advance of the levies in +discipline and soldierly efficiency. For a while the scene was pleasant +and without danger. "It was," says Arnold, describing that of which he +had been an eye-witness, "the era of brilliant reviews and magnificent +military displays, of parades, festive parties, and junketings." Members +of Congress found excursions to the camps attractive for themselves and +their visitors. Glancing arms, new uniforms, drill, and music +constituted a fine show. Thus the rest of the summer passed away, and +autumn came and was passing, too. Then here and there signs of +impatience began again to be manifested. It was observed with discontent +that the glorious days of the Indian Summer, the perfect season for +military operations, were gliding by as tranquilly as if there were not +a great war on hand, and still the citizen at home read each morning in +his newspaper the stereotyped bulletin, "All quiet on the Potomac;" the +phrase passed into a byword and a sneer. By this time, too, to a nation +which had not European standards of excellence, the army seemed to have +reached a high state of efficiency, and to be abundantly able to take +the field. Why did not its commander move? Amid all the drilling and +band-playing the troops had been doing hard work: a chain of strong +fortifications scientifically constructed had been completed around the +capital, and rendered it easy of defense. It could be left in safety. +Why, then, was it not left? Why did the troops still linger? + +For a moment this monotony was interrupted by the ill-conducted +engagement at Ball's Bluff. On October 21 nearly 2000 troops were sent +across the Potomac by the local commander, with the foolish expectation +of achieving something brilliant.[146] The actual result was that they +were corralled in an open field; in their rear the precipitous bank +dropped sharply to the river, upon which floated only the two or three +little boats which had ferried them across in small parties; in front +and flank from the shelter of thick woods an outnumbering force of +rebels poured a steady fire upon them. They were in a cruel snare, and +suffered terribly in killed and drowned, wounded and captured. The +affair was, and the country at once saw that it was, a gross blunder. +The responsibility lay upon General Stone and Colonel Baker. Stone, a +military man by education, deserved censure, but he was treated in a +manner so cruel, so unjust, and so disproportionate to his deserts, that +his error has been condoned in sympathy for his wrongs. The injustice +was chargeable chiefly to Stanton, in part to the Committee on the +Conduct of the War. Apparently Mr. Lincoln desired to know as little as +possible about a wrong which he could not set right without injury to +the public interests. He said to Stanton concerning the arrest: "I +suppose you have good reasons for it, and having good reasons I am glad +I knew nothing of it until it was done." To General Stone himself he +said that, if he should tell all he knew about it, he should not tell +much. Colonel Baker, senator from Oregon, a personal friend of the +President, a brilliant orator, and a man beloved and admired by all who +knew him, was a favorable specimen of the great body of new civilian +officers. While brimming over with gallantry and enthusiasm, he was +entirely ignorant of the military art. In the conduct of this enterprise +a considerable discretion had been reposed in him, and he had, as was +altogether natural, failed in everything except courage. But as he paid +with his life on the battlefield the penalty of his daring and his +inexperience, he was thought of only with tenderness and regret. + +This skirmish illustrated the scant trust which could yet be reposed in +the skill and judgment of subordinate officers. The men behaved with +encouraging spirit and constancy under severe trial. But could a +commander venture upon a campaign with brigadier-generals and colonels +so unfit to assume responsibility? + +Nevertheless impatience hardly received a momentary check from this +lesson. With some inconsistency, people placed unlimited confidence in +McClellan's capacity to beat the enemy, but no confidence at all in his +judgment as to the feasibility of a forward movement. The grumbling did +not, however, indicate that faith in him was shaken, for just now he was +given promotion by Mr. Lincoln, and it met with general approval. For +some time past it had been a cause of discomfort that he did not get on +altogether smoothly with General Scott; the elder was irascible and +jealous, the younger certainly not submissive. At last, on October 31, +the old veteran regretfully but quite wisely availed himself of his +right to be placed upon the retired list, and immediately, November 1, +General McClellan succeeded him in the distinguished position of +commander-in-chief (under the President) of all the armies of the United +States. On the same day Mr. Lincoln courteously hastened out to +headquarters to make in person congratulations which were unquestionably +as sincere as they were generous. Every one felt that a magnificent +opportunity was given to a favorite general. But unfortunately among all +his admirers there was not one who believed in him quite so fully as he +believed in himself; he lost all sense of perspective and proportion, +and felt upon a pinnacle from which he could look down even on a +president.[147] Being in this masterful temper, he haughtily disregarded +the growing demand for an advance. On the other hand the politicians, +always eager to minister to the gratification of the people, began to be +importunate; they harried the President, and went out to camp to prick +their civilian spurs into the general himself. But McClellan had a +soldierly contempt for such intermeddling in matters military, and was +wholly unimpressible. When Senator Wade said that an unsuccessful battle +was preferable to delay, for that a defeat would easily be repaired by +swarming recruits, the general tartly replied that he preferred a few +recruits before a victory to a great many after a defeat. But, however +cleverly and fairly the military man might counter upon the politician, +there was no doubt that discontent was developing dangerously. The +people had conscientiously intended to do their part fully, and a large +proportion of them now sincerely believed that they had done it. They +knew that they had been lavish of men, money, and supplies; and they +thought that they had been not less liberal of time; wherefore they +rebelled against the contrary opinion of the general, whose ideal of a +trustworthy army had by no means been reached, and who, being of a +stubborn temperament, would not stir till it had been. + +It is difficult to satisfy one's self of the real fitness of the army +to move at or about this time,--that is to say, in or near the month of +November, 1861,--for the evidence is mixed and conflicting. The +Committee on the Conduct of the War asserted that "the army of the +Potomac was well armed and equipped and had reached a high state of +discipline by the last of September or first of October;" but the +committee was not composed of experts. Less florid commendation is given +by the Comte de Paris, of date October 15. McClellan himself said: "It +certainly was not till late in November that the army was in any +condition to move, nor even then were they capable of assaulting +intrenched positions." At that time winter was at hand, and advance was +said to be impracticable. That these statements were as favorable as +possible seems probable; for it is familiar knowledge that the call for +these troops did not issue until July, that at the close of November the +recruits were still continuing "to pour in, to be assigned and equipped +and instructed;"[148] that many came unarmed or with useless weapons; +and that these "civilians, suddenly called to arms as soldiers and +officers, did not take kindly to the subordination and restraints of the +camp."[149] Now McClellan's temperament did not lead him to run risks in +the effort to force achievements with means of dubious adequacy. His +purpose was to create a machine perfect in every part, sure and +irresistible in operation, and then to set it in motion with a +certainty of success. He wrote to Lincoln: "I have ever regarded our +true policy as being that of fully preparing ourselves, and then seeking +for the most decisive results."[150] Under favoring circumstances this +plan might have been the best. But circumstances were not favoring. +Neither he nor the government itself, nor indeed both together, could +afford long or far to disregard popular feeling. Before the close of +November that popular feeling was such that the people would have +endured without flinching the discouragement of a defeat, but would not +endure the severe tax of inaction, and from this time forth their +impatience gathered volume until it became a controlling element in the +situation. Themselves intending to be reasonable, they grew more and +more convinced that McClellan was unreasonable. General and people +confronted each other: the North would fight, at the risk of defeat; +McClellan would not fight, because he was not sure to win. Any one who +comprehended the conditions, the institutions of the country, the +character of the nation, especially its temper concerning the present +conflict, also the necessities beneath which that conflict must be +waged, if it was to be waged at all, would have seen that the people +must be deferred to. The question was not whether they were right or +wrong. Assuming them to be wrong, it would still be a mistake to +withstand them beyond a certain point. If yielding to them should +result in disastrous consequences, they must be called upon to rally, +and could be trusted to do so, instructed but undismayed by their +experience. All this McClellan utterly failed to appreciate, thereby +leading Mr. Swinton very justly to remark that he was lacking in "the +statesmanlike qualities that enter into the composition of a great +general."[151] + +On the other hand, no man ever lived more capable than Mr. Lincoln of +precisely appreciating the present facts, or more sure to avoid those +peculiar blunders which entrapped the military commander. He was very +loyal in living up to his pledge to give the general full support, and +by his conduct during many months to come he proved his readiness to +abide to the last possible point. He knew, however, with unerring +accuracy just where that last point lay, and he saw with disquietude +that it was being approached too rapidly. He was getting sufficient +knowledge of McClellan's character to see that the day was not distant +when he must interfere. Meantime he kept his sensitive finger upon the +popular pulse, as an expert physician watches a patient in a fever. With +the growth of the impatience his anxiety grew, for the people's war +would not be successfully fought by a dissatisfied people. Repeatedly he +tested the situation in the hope that a movement could be forced +without undue imprudence; but he was always met by objections from +McClellan. In weighing the Northern and the Southern armies against each +other, the general perhaps undervalued his own resources and certainly +overvalued those of his opponent. He believed that the Confederate +"discipline and drill were far better than our own;" wherein he was +probably in error, for General Lee admitted that, while the Southerners +would always fight well, they were refractory under discipline. +Moreover, they were at this time very ill provided with equipment and +transportation. Also McClellan said that the Southern army had thrown up +intrenchments at Manassas and Centreville, and therefore the "problem +was to attack victorious and finely drilled troops in intrenchment." But +the most discouraging and inexplicable assertion, which he emphatically +reiterated, concerned the relative numerical strength. He not only +declared that he himself could not put into the field the numbers shown +by the official returns to be with him, but also he exaggerated the +Southern numbers till he became extravagant to the point of absurdity. +So it had been from the outset, and so it continued to be to the time +when he was at last relieved of his command. Thus, on August 15, he +conceived himself to be "in a terrible place; the enemy have three or +four times my force." September 9 he imagined Johnston to have 130,000 +men, against his own 85,000; and he argued that Johnston could move +upon Baltimore a column 100,000 strong, which he could meet with only +60,000 or 70,000. Later in October he marked the Confederates up to +150,000. He estimated his own requirement at a "total effective force" +of 208,000 men, which implied "an aggregate, present and absent, of +about 240,000 men." Of these he designed 150,000 as a "column of active +operations;" the rest were for garrisons and guards. He said that in +fact he had a gross aggregate of 168,318, and the "force present for +duty was 147,695." Since the garrisons and the guards were a fixed +number, the reduction fell wholly upon the movable column, and reduced +"the number disposable for an advance to 76,285." Thus he made himself +out to be fatally overmatched. But he was excessively in error. In the +autumn Johnston's effective force was only 41,000 men, and on December +1, 1861, it was 47,000.[152] + +Such comparisons, advanced with positiveness by the highest authority, +puzzled Mr. Lincoln. They seemed very strange, yet he could not disprove +them, and was therefore obliged to face the perplexing choice which was +mercilessly set before him: "either to go into winter quarters, or to +assume the offensive with forces greatly inferior in number" to what +was "desirable and necessary." "If political considerations render the +first course unadvisable, the second alone remains." The general's most +cheering admission was that, by stripping all other armies down to the +lowest numbers absolutely necessary for a strict defensive, and by +concentrating all the forces of the nation and all the attention of the +government upon "the vital point" in Virginia, it might yet be possible +for this "main army, whose destiny it [was] to decide the +controversy,... to move with a reasonable prospect of success before the +winter is fairly upon us." A direct assertion of impossibility, +provocative of denial or discussion, would have been less disheartening. + +In passing, it may be remarked that McClellan's prevision that the +ultimate arbitrament of the struggle must occur in Virginia was correct. +But in another point he was wrong, and unfortunately this was of more +immediate consequence, because it corroborated him in his purpose to +delay till he could make success a certainty. He hoped that when he +moved, he should be able to win one or two overwhelming victories, to +capture Richmond, and to crush the rebellion in a few weeks. It was a +brilliant and captivating programme,[153] but impracticable and +undesirable. Even had the Southerners been quelled by so great a +disaster,--which was not likely,--they would not have been thoroughly +conquered, nor would slavery have been disposed of, and both these +events were indispensable to a definitive peace between the two +sections. Whether the President shared this notion of his general is not +evident. Apparently he was not putting his mind upon theories reaching +into the future so much as he was devoting his whole thought to dealing +with the urgent problems of the present. If this was the case, he was +pursuing the wise and sound course. In the situation, it was more +desirable to fight a great battle at the earliest possible moment than +to await a great victory many months hence. + +It is commonplace wisdom that it is foolish for a civilian to undertake +the direction of a war. Yet our Constitution ordains that "the President +shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, +and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual +service of the United States." It is not supposable that the delegates +who suggested this function, or the people who ordained it, anticipated +that presidents generally would be men skilled in military science. +Therefore Mr. Lincoln could not escape the obligation on the ground of +unfitness for the duty which was imperatively placed upon him. It might +be true that to set him in charge of military operations was like +ordering a merchant to paint a picture or a jockey to sail a ship, but +it was also true that he was so set in charge. He could not shirk it, +nor did he try to shirk it. In consequence hostile critics have dealt +mercilessly with his actions, and the history of this winter and spring +of 1861-62 is a painful and confusing story of bitter controversy and +crimination. Further it is to be remembered that, apart from the +obligation imposed on the President by the Constitution, it was true +that if civilians could not make rapid progress in the military art, the +war might as well be abandoned. They were already supposed to be doing +so; General Banks, a politician, and General Butler, a lawyer, were +already conducting important movements. Still it remains undeniable that +finally it was only the professional soldiers who, undergoing +successfully the severe test of time, composed the illustrious front +rank of strategists when the close of the war left every man in his +established place. In discussing this perplexing period, extremists upon +one side attribute the miscarriages and failure of McClellan's campaign +to ceaseless, thwarting interference by the President, the secretary of +war, and other civil officials. Extremists upon the other side allege +the marvel that a sudden development of unerring judgment upon every +question involving the practical application of military science took +place on Mr. Lincoln's part.[154] Perhaps the truth lies between the +disputants, but it is not likely ever to be definitely agreed upon so +long as the controversy excites interest; for the discussion bristles +with _ifs_, and where this is the case no advocate can be irremediably +vanquished. + +It seems right, at this place, to note one fact concerning Mr. Lincoln +which ought not to be overlooked and which cannot be denied. This is his +entire _political unselfishness_, the rarest moral quality among men in +public life. In those days of trouble and distrust slanders were rife in +a degree which can hardly be appreciated by men whose experience has +been only with quieter times. Sometimes purposes and sometimes methods +were assailed; and those prominent in civil life, and a few also in +military life, were believed to be artfully and darkly seeking to +interlace their personal political fortunes in the web of public +affairs, naturally subordinating the latter fabric. Alliances, enmities, +intrigues, schemes, and every form of putting the interest of self +before that of the nation, were insinuated with a bitter malevolence +unknown except amid such abnormal conditions. The few who escaped +charges of this kind were believed to cherish their own peculiar +fanaticisms, desires, and purposes concerning the object and results of +the struggle, which they were resolved to satisfy at almost any cost and +by almost any means. While posterity is endeavoring very wisely to +discredit and to forget a great part of these painful criminations, it +is cheering to find that no effort has to be made to forget anything +about the President. In his case injurious gossip has long since died +away and been buried. Whatever may be said of him in other respects, at +least the purity and the singleness of his patriotism shine brilliant +and luminous through all this cloud-dust of derogation. By his position +he had more at stake, both in his lifetime and before the tribunal of +the future, than any other person in the country. But there was only one +idea in his mind, and that was,--not that _he should save the country_, +but _that the country should be saved_. Not the faintest shadow of self +ever fell for an instant across this simple purpose. He was intent to +play his part out faithfully, with all the ability he could bring to it; +but any one else, who could, might win and wear the title of savior. He +chiefly cared that the saving should be done. Never once did he +manipulate any covert magnet to draw toward himself the credit or the +glory of a measure or a move. To his own future he seemed to give no +thought. It would be unjust to allow the dread of appearing to utter +eulogy rather than historic truth to betray a biographer into +overlooking this genuine magnanimity. + + * * * * * + +It was in December, 1861, that Congress created the famous Committee on +the Conduct of the War, to some of whose doings it has already been +necessary to allude. The gentlemen who were placed upon it were selected +partly of course for political reasons, and were all men who had made +themselves conspicuous for their enthusiasm and vehemence; not one of +them had any military knowledge. The committee magnified its office +almost beyond limit,--investigated everything; haled whom it chose to +testify before it; made reports, expressed opinions, insisted upon +policies and measures in matters military; and all with a dictatorial +assumption and self-confidence which could not be devoid of effect, +although every one knew that each individual member was absolutely +without fitness for this business. So the committee made itself a great +power, and therefore also a great complication, in the war machinery; +and though it was sometimes useful, yet, upon a final balancing of its +long account, it failed to justify its existence, as, indeed, was to +have been expected from the outset.[155] In the present discussions +concerning an advance of the army, its members strenuously insisted upon +immediate action, and their official influence brought much strength to +that side. + +The first act indicating an intention on the part of the President to +interfere occurred almost simultaneously with the beginning of the +general's illness. About December 21, 1861, he handed to McClellan a +brief memorandum: "If it were determined to make a forward movement of +the army of the Potomac, without awaiting further increase of numbers +or better drill and discipline, how long would it require to actually +get in motion? After leaving all that would be necessary, how many +troops could join the movement from southwest of the river? How many +from northeast of it?" Then he proceeded briefly to hint rather than +distinctly to suggest that plan of a direct advance by way of +Centreville and Manassas, which later on he persistently advocated. Ten +days elapsed before McClellan returned answers, which then came in a +shape too curt to be respectful. Almost immediately afterward the +general fell ill, an occurrence which seemed to his detractors a most +aggravating and unjustifiable intervention of Nature herself in behalf +of his policy of delay. + +On January 10 a dispatch from General Halleck represented in his +department also a condition of check and helplessness. Lincoln noted +upon it: "Exceedingly discouraging. As everywhere else, nothing can be +done." Yet something must be done, for the game was not to be abandoned. +Under this pressure, on this same day, he visited McClellan, but could +not see him; nor could he get any definite idea how long might be the +duration of the typhoid fever, the lingering and uncertain disease which +had laid the general low. Accordingly he summoned General McDowell and +General Franklin to discuss with him that evening the military +situation. The secretaries of state and of the treasury, and the +assistant secretary of war, also came. The President, says McDowell, +"was greatly disturbed at the state of affairs," "was in great +distress," and said that, "if something was not soon done, the bottom +would be out of the whole affair; and if General McClellan did not want +to use the army, he would like to '_borrow it_,' provided he could see +how it could be made to do something." The two generals were directed to +inform themselves concerning the "actual condition of the army," and to +come again the next day. Conferences followed on January 11 and 12, +Postmaster-General Blair and General Meigs being added to the council. +The postmaster-general condemned a direct advance as "strategically +defective," while Chase descanted on the "moral power" of a victory. The +picture of the two civilians injecting their military suggestions is not +reassuring. Meigs is somewhat vaguely reported to have favored a "battle +in front." + +McDowell and Franklin had not felt justified in communicating these +occurrences to McClellan, because the President had marked his order to +them "private and confidential." But the commander heard rumors of what +was going forward,[156] and on January 12 he came from his sick-room to +see the President; he was "looking quite well," and apparently was "able +to assume the charge of the army." The apparition put a different +complexion upon the pending discussions. On the 13th the same gentlemen +met, but now with the addition of General McClellan. The situation was +embarrassing. McClellan took scant pains to conceal his resentment. +McDowell, at the request of the President, explained what he thought +could be done, closing "by saying something apologetic;" to which +McClellan replied, "somewhat coldly if not curtly: 'You are entitled to +have any opinion you please.'" Secretary Chase, a leader among the +anti-McClellanites, bluntly asked the general to explain his military +plans in detail; but McClellan declined to be interrogated except by the +President, or by the secretary of war, who was not present. Finally, +according to McClellan's account, which differs a little but not +essentially from that of McDowell, Mr. Lincoln suggested[157] that he +should tell what his plans were. McClellan replied, in substance, that +this would be imprudent and seemed unnecessary, and that he would only +give information if the President would order him in writing to do so, +and would assume the responsibility for the results.[158] McDowell adds +(but McClellan does not), that the President then asked McClellan "if he +had counted upon any particular time; he did not ask what that time was, +but had he in his own mind any particular time fixed, when a movement +could be commenced. He replied, he had. 'Then,' rejoined the President, +'I will adjourn this meeting.'" This unfortunate episode aggravated the +discord, and removed confidence and cooeperation farther away than ever +before. + +The absence of the secretary of war from these meetings was due to the +fact that a change in the War Department was in process +contemporaneously with them. The President had been allowed to +understand that Mr. Cameron did not find his duties agreeable, and might +prefer a diplomatic post. Accordingly, with no show of reluctance, Mr. +Lincoln, on January 11, 1862, offered to Mr. Cameron the post of +minister to Russia. It was promptly accepted, and on January 13 Edwin M. +Stanton was nominated and confirmed to fill the vacancy.[159] The +selection was a striking instance of the utter absence of vindictiveness +which so distinguished Mr. Lincoln, who, in fact, was simply insensible +to personal feeling as an influence. In choosing incumbents for public +trusts, he knew no foe, perhaps no friend; but as dispassionately as if +he were manoeuvring pieces on a chessboard, he considered only which +available piece would serve best in the square which he had to fill. In +1859 he and Stanton had met as associate counsel in perhaps the most +important lawsuit in which Mr. Lincoln had ever been concerned, and +Stanton had treated Lincoln with his habitual insolence.[160] Later, +in the trying months which closed the year 1861, Stanton had abused the +administration with violence, and had carried his revilings of the +President even to the point of coarse personal insults.[161] No man, not +being a rebel, had less right to expect an invitation to become an +adviser of the President; and most men, who had felt or expressed the +opinions held by Mr. Stanton, would have had scruples or delicacy about +coming into the close relationship of confidential adviser with the +object of their contempt; but neither scruples nor delicacy delayed him; +his acceptance was prompt.[162] + +[Illustration: Edwin M. Stanton] + +So Mr. Lincoln had chosen his secretary solely upon the belief of the +peculiar fitness of the individual for the special duties of the war +office. Upon the whole the choice was wisely made, and was evidence of +Mr. Lincoln's insight into the aptitudes and the uses of men. Stanton's +abilities commanded some respect, though his character never excited +either respect or liking; just now, however, all his good qualities and +many of his faults seemed precisely adapted to the present requirements +of his department. He had been a Democrat, but was now zealous to +extremity in patriotism; in his dealings with men he was capable of much +duplicity, yet in matters of business he was rigidly honest, and it was +his pleasure to protect the treasury against the contractors; he loved +work, and never wearied amid the driest and most exacting toil; he was +prompt and decisive rather than judicial or correct in his judgments +concerning men and things; he was arbitrary, harsh, bad-tempered, and +impulsive; he often committed acts of injustice or cruelty, for which he +rarely made amends, and still more rarely seemed disturbed by remorse or +regret. These traits bore hard upon individuals; but ready and +unscrupulous severity was supposed to have its usefulness in a civil +war. Many a time he taxed the forbearance of the President to a degree +that would have seemed to transcend the uttermost limit of human +patience, if Mr. Lincoln had not taken these occasions to show to the +world how forbearing and patient it is possible for man to be. But those +who knew the relations of the two men are agreed that Stanton, however +browbeating he was to others, recognized a master in the President, and, +though often grumbling and insolent, always submitted if a crisis came. +Undoubtedly Mr. Lincoln was the only ruler known to history who could +have cooeperated for years with such a minister. He succeeded in doing so +because he believed it to be for the good of the cause, to which he +could easily subordinate all personal considerations; and posterity, +agreeing with him, concedes to Stanton credit for efficiency in the +conduct of his department. + +It is worth while here to pause long enough to read part of a letter +which, on this same crowded thirteenth day of January, 1862, the +President sent to General Halleck, in the West: "For my own views: I +have not offered, and do not now offer, them as orders; and while I am +glad to have them respectfully considered, I would blame you to follow +them contrary to your own clear judgment, unless I should put them in +the form of orders.... With this preliminary, I state my general idea of +this war to be that we have the greater numbers and the enemy has the +greater facility of concentrating forces upon points of collision; that +we must fail unless we can find some way of making our advantage an +overmatch for his; and that this can only be done by menacing him with +superior forces at different points at the same time, so that we can +safely attack one or both if he makes no change; and if he weakens one +to strengthen the other, forbear to attack the strengthened one, but +seize and hold the weakened one, gaining so much." + +In a personal point of view this short letter is pregnant with interest +and suggestion. The writer's sad face, eloquent of the charge and burden +of one of the most awful destinies of human-kind, rises before us as we +read the expression of his modest self-distrust amid the strange duties +of military affairs. But closely following this comes the intimation +that in due time "_orders_" will come. Such was the quiet, unflinching +way in which Lincoln always faced every test, apparently with a tranquil +and assured faith that, whatever might seem his lack of fitting +preparation, his best would be adequate to the occasion. The habit has +led many to fancy that he believed himself divinely chosen, and +therefore sure of infallible guidance; but it is observable far back, +almost from the beginning of his life; it was a trait of mind and +character, nothing else. The letter closes with a broad general theory +concerning the war, wrought out by that careful process of thinking +whereby he was wont to make his way to the big, simple, and fundamental +truth. The whole is worth holding in memory through the narrative of the +coming weeks. + +The conference of January 13 developed a serious difference of opinion +as to the plan of campaign, whenever a campaign should be entered upon. +The President's notion, already shadowed forth in his memorandum of +December, was to move directly upon the rebel army at Centreville and +Manassas and to press it back upon Richmond, with the purpose of +capturing that city. But McClellan presented as his project a movement +by Urbana and West Point, using the York River as a base of supplies. +General McDowell and Secretary Chase favored the President's plan; +General Franklin and Postmaster Blair thought better of McClellan's. The +President had a strong fancy for his own scheme, because by it the Union +army was kept between the enemy and Washington; and therefore the +supreme point of importance, the safety of the national capital, was +insured. The discussion, which was thus opened and which remained long +unsettled, had, among other ill effects, that of sustaining the +vexatious delay. While the anti-McClellan faction--for the matter was +becoming one of factions[163]--grew louder in denunciation of his +inaction, and fastened upon him the contemptuous nickname of "the +Virginia creeper," the friends of the general retorted that the +President, meddling in what he did not understand, would not let the +military commander manage the war. + +Nevertheless Mr. Lincoln, dispassionate and fair-minded as usual, +allowed neither their personal difference of opinion nor this abusive +outcry to inveigle into his mind any prejudice against McClellan. The +Southerner who, in February, 1861, predicted that Lincoln "would do his +own thinking," read character well. Lincoln was now doing precisely this +thing, in his silent, thorough, independent way, neither provoked by +McClellan's cavalier assumption of superior knowledge, nor alarmed by +the danger of offending the politicians. In fact, he decided to go +counter to both the disputants; for he resolved, on the one hand, to +compel McClellan to act; on the other, to maintain him in his command. +He did not, however, abandon his own plan of campaign. On January 27, as +commander-in-chief of the army, he issued his "General War Order No. 1." +In this he directed "that the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for +a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States +against the insurgent forces;" and said that heads of departments and +military and naval commanders would "be held to their strict and full +responsibilities for prompt execution of this order." By this he +practically repudiated McClellan's scheme, because transportation and +other preparations for pursuing the route by Urbana could not be made +ready by the date named. + +Critics of the President have pointed to this document as a fine +instance of the follies to be expected from a civil ruler who conducts a +war. To order an advance all along a line from the Mississippi to the +Atlantic, upon a day certain, without regard to differing local +conditions and exigencies, and to notify the enemy of the purpose nearly +a month beforehand, were acts preposterous according to military +science. But the criticism was not so fair as it was obvious. The order +really bore in part the character of a manifesto; to the people of the +North, whose confidence must be kept and their spirit sustained, it +said that the administration meant action at once; to commanding +officers it was a fillip, warning them to bestir themselves, obstacles +to the contrary notwithstanding. It was a reveille. Further, in a +general way it undoubtedly laid out a sound plan of campaign, +substantially in accordance with that which McClellan also was evolving, +viz.: to press the enemy all along the western and middle line, and thus +to prevent his making too formidable a concentration in Virginia. In the +end, however, practicable or impracticable, wise or foolish, the order +was never fulfilled. The armies in Virginia did nothing till many weeks +after the anniversary of Washington's birthday; whereas, in the West, +Admiral Foote and General Grant did not conceive that they were enforced +to rest in idleness until that historic date. Before it arrived they had +performed the brilliant exploits of capturing Fort Henry and Fort +Donelson. + +On January 31 the President issued "Special War Order No. 1," directing +the army of the Potomac to seize and occupy "a point upon the railroad +southwestward of what is known as Manassas Junction;... the expedition +to move before or on the 22d day of February next." This was the +distinct, as the general order had been the indirect, adoption of his +own plan of campaign, and the overruling of that of the general. +McClellan at once remonstrated, and the two rival plans thus came face +to face for immediate and definitive settlement. It must be assumed +that the President's order had been really designed only to force +exactly this issue; for on February 3, so soon as he received the +remonstrance, he invited argument from the general by writing to him a +letter which foreshadowed an open-minded reception for views opposed to +his own:-- + +"If you will give satisfactory answers to the following questions, I +shall gladly yield my plan to yours:-- + +"1st. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of _time_ +and _money_ than mine? + +"2d. Wherein is a victory _more certain_ by your plan than mine? + +"3d. Wherein is a victory _more valuable_ by your plan than mine? + +"4th. In fact, would it not be _less_ valuable in this: that it would +break no great line of the enemy's communications, while mine would? + +"5th. In case of disaster would not a retreat be more difficult by your +plan than mine?" + +To these queries McClellan replied by a long and elaborate exposition of +his views. He said that, if the President's plan should be pursued +successfully, the "results would be confined to the possession of the +field of battle, the evacuation of the line of the upper Potomac by the +enemy, and the moral effect of the victory." On the other hand, a +movement in force by the route which he advocated "obliges the enemy to +abandon his intrenched position at Manassas, in order to hasten to +cover Richmond and Norfolk." That is to say, he expected to achieve by a +manoeuvre what the President designed to effect by a battle, to be +fought by inexperienced troops against an intrenched enemy. He +continued: "This movement, if successful, gives us the capital, the +communications, the supplies, of the rebels; Norfolk would fall; all the +waters of the Chesapeake would be ours; all Virginia would be in our +power, and the enemy forced to abandon Tennessee and North Carolina. The +alternative presented to the enemy would be, to beat us in a position +selected by ourselves, disperse, or pass beneath the Caudine forks." In +case of defeat the Union army would have a "perfectly secure retreat +down the Peninsula upon Fort Monroe." "This letter," he afterward wrote, +"must have produced some effect upon the mind of the President!" The +slur was unjust. The President now and always considered the views of +the general with a liberality of mind rarely to be met with in any man, +and certainly never in McClellan himself. In this instance the letter +did in fact produce so much "effect upon the mind of the President" that +he prepared to yield views which he held very strongly to views which he +was charged with not being able to understand, and which he certainly +could not bring himself actually to believe in. + +Yet before quite taking this step he demanded that a council of the +generals of division should be summoned to express their opinions. This +was done, with the result that McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman, and +Barnard voted against McClellan's plan; Keyes voted for it, with the +proviso "that no change should be made until the rebels were driven from +their batteries on the Potomac." Fitz-John Porter, Franklin, W.F. Smith, +McCall, Blenker, Andrew Porter, and Naglee (of Hooker's division) voted +for it. Stanton afterward said of this: "We saw ten generals afraid to +fight." The insult, delivered in the snug personal safety which was +suspected to be very dear to Stanton, was ridiculous as aimed at men who +soon handled some of the most desperate battles of the war; but it is +interesting as an expression of the unreasoning bitterness of the +controversy then waging over the situation in Virginia, a controversy +causing animosities vastly more fierce than any between Union soldiers +and Confederates, animosities which have unfortunately lasted longer, +and which can never be brought to the like final and conclusive +arbitrament. The purely military question quickly became snarled up with +politics and was reduced to very inferior proportions in the noxious +competition. "Politics entered and strategy retired," says General Webb, +too truly. McClellan himself conceived that the politicians were leagued +to destroy him, and would rather see him discredited than the rebels +whipped. In later days the strong partisan loves and hatreds of our +historical writers have perpetuated and increased all this bad blood, +confusion, and obscurity. + +The action of the council of generals was conclusive. The President +accepted McClellan's plan. Therein he did right; for undeniably it was +his duty to allow his own inexperience to be controlled by the +deliberate opinion of the best military experts in the country; and this +fact is wholly independent of any opinion concerning the intrinsic or +the comparative merits of the plans themselves. Indeed, Mr. Lincoln had +never expressed positive disapproval of McClellan's plan _per se_, but +only had been alarmed at what seemed to him its indirect result in +exposing the capital. To cover this point, he now made an imperative +preliminary condition that this safety should be placed beyond a +question. He was emphatic and distinct in reiterating this proviso as +fundamental. The preponderance of professional testimony, from that day +to this, has been to the effect that McClellan's strategy was sound and +able, and that Mr. Lincoln's anxiety for the capital was groundless. But +in spite of all argument, and though military men may shed ink as if it +were mere blood, in spite even of the contempt and almost ridicule which +the President incurred at the pen of McClellan,[164] the civilian will +retain a lurking sympathy with the President's preference. It is +impossible not to reflect that precisely in proportion as the safety of +the capital, for many weighty reasons, immeasurably outweighed any other +possible consideration in the minds of the Northerners, so the desire to +capture it would be equally overmastering in the estimation of the +Southerners. Why might not the rebels permit McClellan to march into +Richmond, provided that at the same time they were marching into +Washington? Why might they not, in the language afterward used by +General Lee, "swap Queens?" They would have a thousand fold the better +of the exchange. The Northern Queen was an incalculably more valuable +piece on the board than was her Southern rival. With the Northern +government in flight, Maryland would go to the Confederacy, and European +recognition would be sure and immediate; and these two facts might, +almost surely would, be conclusive against the Northern cause. Moreover, +memory will obstinately bring up the fact that long afterward, when +General Grant was pursuing a route to Richmond strategically not +dissimilar to that proposed by McClellan, and when all the circumstances +made the danger of a successful attack upon Washington much less than it +was in the spring of 1862, the rebels actually all but captured the +city; and it was saved not alone by a rapidity of movement which would +have been impossible in the early stages of the war, but also by what +must be called the aid of good luck. It is difficult to see why General +Jackson in 1862 might not have played in fatal earnest a game which in +1864 General Early played merely for the chances. Pondering upon these +things, it is probable that no array of military scientists will ever +persuade the non-military world that Mr. Lincoln was so timid, or so +dull-witted, or so unreasonable, as General McClellan declared him to +be. + +Another consideration is suggested by some remarks of Mr. Swinton. It is +tolerably obvious that, whether McClellan's plan was or was not the +better, the President's plan was entirely possible; all that could be +said against it was that it promised somewhat poorer results at somewhat +higher cost. This being the case, and in view of the fact that the +President's disquietude concerning Washington was so profound and his +distrust of McClellan's plan so ineradicable, it would have been much +better to have had the yielding come from the general than from the +President. A man of less stubborn temper and of broader intellect than +belonged to McClellan would have appreciated this. In fact, it was in a +certain sense even poor generalship to enter upon a campaign of such +magnitude, when a thorough and hearty cooeperation was really not to be +expected. For after all might be ostensibly settled and agreed upon, and +however honest might be Mr. Lincoln's intentions to support the +commanding general, one thing still remained certain: that the safety of +the capital was Mr. Lincoln's weightiest responsibility, that it was a +matter concerning which he was sensitively anxious, and that he was +perfectly sure in any moment of alarm concerning that safety to insure +it by any means in his power and at any sacrifice whatsoever. In a word, +that which soon did happen was precisely that which ought to have been +foreseen as likely to happen. For it was entirely obvious that Mr. +Lincoln did not abandon his own scheme because his own reason was +convinced of the excellence of McClellan's; in fact, he never was and +never pretended to be thus convinced. To his mind, McClellan's reasoning +never overcame his own reasoning; he only gave way before professional +authority; and, while he sincerely meant to give McClellan the most +efficient aid and backing in his power, the anxiety about Washington +rested immovable in his thought. If the two interests should ever, in +his opinion, come into competition, no one could doubt which would be +sacrificed. To push forward the Peninsula campaign under these +conditions was a terrible mistake of judgment on McClellan's part. Far +better would it have been to have taken the Manassas route; for even if +its inherent demerits were really so great as McClellan had depicted, +they would have been more than offset by preserving the undiminished +cooeperation of the administration. The personal elements in the problem +ought to have been conclusive. + +An indication of the error of forcing the President into a course not +commended by his judgment, in a matter where his responsibility was so +grave, was seen immediately. On March 8 he issued General War Order No. +3: That no change of base should be made "without leaving in and about +Washington such a force as, in the opinion of the general-in-chief and +the commanders of army corps, shall leave said city entirely secure;" +that not more than two corps (about 50,000 men) should be moved en route +for a new base until the Potomac, below Washington, should be freed from +the Confederate batteries; that any movement of the army via Chesapeake +Bay should begin as early as March 18, and that the general-in-chief +should be "responsible that it moves as early as that day." This greatly +aggravated McClellan's dissatisfaction; for it expressed the survival of +the President's anxiety, it hampered the general, and by its last clause +it placed upon him a responsibility not properly his own. + +Yet at this very moment weighty evidence came to impeach the soundness +of McClellan's opinion concerning the military situation. On February 27 +Secretary Chase wrote that the time had come for dealing decisively with +the "army in front of us," which he conceived to be already so weakened +that "a victory over it is deprived of half its honor." Not many days +after this writing, the civilian strategists, the President and his +friends, seemed entitled to triumph. For on March 7, 8, and 9 the North +was astonished by news of the evacuation of Manassas by Johnston. At +once the cry of McClellan's assailants went up: If McClellan had only +moved upon the place! What a cheap victory he would have won, and +attended with what invaluable "moral effects"! Yet, forsooth, he had +been afraid to move upon these very intrenched positions which it now +appeared that the Confederates dared not hold even when unthreatened! +But McClellan retorted that the rebels had taken this backward step +precisely because they had got some hint of his designs for advancing by +Urbana, and that it was the exact fulfillment, though inconveniently +premature, of his predictions. This explanation, however, wholly failed +to prevent the civilian mind from believing that a great point had been +scored on behalf of the President's plan. Further than this, there were +many persons, including even a majority of the members of the Committee +on the Conduct of the War, who did not content themselves with mere +abuse of McClellan's military intelligence, but who actually charged him +with being disaffected and nearly, if not quite, a traitor. None the +less Mr. Lincoln generously and patiently adhered to his agreement to +let McClellan have his own way. + +Precisely at the same time that this evacuation of Manassas gave to +McClellan's enemies an argument against him which they deemed fair and +forcible and he deemed unfair and ignorant, two other occurrences added +to the strain of the situation. McClellan immediately put his entire +force in motion towards the lines abandoned by the Confederates, not +with the design of pressing the retreating foe, which the "almost +impassable roads" prevented, but to strip off redundancies and to train +the troops in marching. On March 11, immediately after he had started, +the President issued his Special War Order No. 3: "Major-General +McClellan having personally taken the field at the head of the army of +the Potomac,... he is relieved from the command of the other military +departments, he retaining command of the Department of the Potomac." +McClellan at once wrote that he should continue to "work just as +cheerfully as before;" but he felt that the removal was very +unhandsomely made just as he was entering upon active operations. +Lincoln, on the other hand, undoubtedly looked upon it in precisely the +opposite light, and conceived that the opportunity of the moment +deprived of any apparent sting a change which he had determined to make. +The duties which were thus taken from McClellan were assumed during +several months by Mr. Stanton. He was utterly incompetent for them, and, +whether or not it was wise to displace the general, it was certainly +very unwise to let the secretary practically succeed him.[165] The way +in which, both at the East and West, our forces were distributed into +many independent commands, with no competent chief who could compel all +to cooeperate and to become subsidiary to one comprehensive scheme, was a +serious mistake in general policy, which cost very dear before it was +recognized.[166] McClellan had made some efforts to effect this +combination or unity in purpose, but Stanton gave no indication even of +understanding that it was desirable. + +The other matter was the division of the army of the Potomac into four +army corps, to be commanded respectively by the four senior generals of +division, viz., McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes. The propriety +of this action had been for some time under consideration, and the step +was now forced upon Mr. Lincoln by the strenuous insistence of the +Committee on the Conduct of the War. That so large an army required +organization by corps was admitted; but McClellan had desired to defer +the arrangement until his generals of division should have had some +actual experience in the field, whereby their comparative fitness for +higher responsibilities could be measured. An incapable corps commander +was a much more dangerous man than an incapable commander of a division +or brigade. The commander naturally felt the action now taken by the +President to be a slight, and he attributed it to pressure by the band +of civilian advisers whose untiring hostility he returned with +unutterable contempt. Not only was the taking of the step at this time +contrary to his advice, but he was not even consulted in the selection +of his own subordinates, who were set in these important positions by +the blind rule of seniority, and not in accordance with his opinion of +comparative merit. His irritation was perhaps not entirely +unjustifiable. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[146] A reconnoissance or "slight demonstration" ordered for the day +before by McClellan had been completed, and is not to be confounded with +this movement, for which he was not responsible. + +[147] For example, see his _Own Story_, 82; but, unfortunately, one may +refer to that book _passim_ for evidence of the statement. + +[148] N. and H. iv. 469. + +[149] _Ibid._ v. 140. + +[150] Letter to Lincoln, February 3, 1862. + +[151] _Army of Potomac_, 97. Swinton says: "He should have made the +lightest possible draft on the indulgence of the people." _Ibid._ 69. +General Webb says: "He drew too heavily upon the faith of the public." +_The Peninsula_, 12. + +[152] The Southern generals had a similar propensity to overestimate the +opposing force; _e.g._, Johnston's _Narrative_, 108, where he puts the +Northern force at 140,000, when in fact it was 58,000; and on p. 112 his +statement is even worse. + +[153] The Southerners also had the same notion, hoping by one great +victory to discourage and convince the North and make peace on the basis +of independence; _e.g._, see Johnston's _Narrative_ 113, 115. Grant +likewise had the notion of a decisive battle. _Memoirs_, i. 368. + +[154] The position taken by Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, I think, fully +warrants this language. + +[155] General Palfrey says of this committee that "the worst spirit of +the Inquisition characterized their doings." _The Antietam and +Fredericksburg_ (Campaigns of Civil War Series), 182. + +[156] Through Stanton; McClellan, _Own Story_, 156. + +[157] Only a few days before this time Lincoln had said that he had no +"right" to insist upon knowing the general's plans. Julian, _Polit. +Recoll._ 201. + +[158] It appears that he feared that what he said would leak out, and +ultimately reach the enemy. + +[159] For an interesting account of these incidents, from Secretary +Chase's Diary, see Warden, 401. + +[160] Lamon, 332; Herndon, 353-356; N. and H. try to mitigate this +story, v. 133. + +[161] He did not always feel his tongue tied afterward by the +obligations of office; _e.g._, see Julian, _Polit. Recoll._ 210. + +[162] For a singular tale, see McClellan, _Own Story_, 153. + +[163] In fact, the feeling against McClellan was getting so strong that +some of his enemies were wild enough about this time to accuse him of +disloyalty. He himself narrates a dramatic tale, which would seem +incredible if his veracity were not beyond question, of an interview, +occurring March 8, 1862, in which the President told him, apparently +with the air of expecting an explanation, that he was charged with +laying his plans with the traitorous intent of leaving Washington +defenseless. McClellan's _Own Story_, 195. On the other hand, McClellan +retaliated by believing that his detractors wished, for political and +personal motives, to prevent the war from being brought to an early and +successful close, and that they intentionally withheld from him the +means of success; also that Stanton especially sought by underhand means +to sow misunderstanding between him and the President. _Ibid._ 195. + +[164] McClellan afterward wrote that the administration "had neither +courage nor military insight to understand the effect of the plan I +desired to carry out." _Own Story_, 194. This is perhaps a mild example +of many remarks to the same purport which fell from the general at one +time and another. + +[165] See remarks of Mr. Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, i. 368. + +[166] _E.g._, McClellan, _Rep._ (per Keyes), 82; Grant, _Mem._ i. 322; +and indeed all writers agree upon this. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MILITARY MATTERS OUTSIDE OF VIRGINIA + + +The man who first raised the cry "On to Richmond!" uttered the formula +of the war. Richmond was the gage of victory. Thus it happened, as has +been seen, that every one at the North, from the President down, had his +attention fast bound to the melancholy procession of delays and +miscarriages in Virginia. At the West there were important things to be +done; the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, trembling in the +balance, were to be lost or won for the Union; the passage down the +Mississippi to the Gulf was at stake, and with it the prosperity and +development of the boundless regions of the Northwest. Surely these were +interests of some moment, and worthy of liberal expenditure of thought +and energy, men and money; yet the swarm of politicians gave them only +side glances, being unable for many minutes in any day to withdraw their +eyes from the Old Dominion. The consequence was that at the East matters +military and matters political, generals and "public men" of all +varieties were mixed in a snarl of backbiting and quarreling, which +presented a spectacle most melancholy and discouraging. On the other +hand, the West throve surprisingly well in the absence of political +nourishment, and certain local commanders achieved cheering successes +without any aid from the military civilians of Washington. The contrast +seems suggestive, yet perhaps it is incorrect to attach to these facts +any sinister significance, or any connection of cause and effect. Other +reasons than civilian assistance may account for the Virginia failures, +while Western successes may have been won in spite of neglect rather +than by reason of it. Still, simply as naked facts, these things were +so. + +Upon occurrences outside of Virginia Mr. Lincoln bestowed more thought +than was fashionable in Washington, and maintained an oversight strongly +in contrast to the indifference of those who seemed to recognize no +other duty than to discuss the demerits of General McClellan. The +President had at least the good sense to see the value of unity of plan +and cooeperation along the whole line, from the Atlantic seaboard to the +extreme West. Also at the West as at the East he was bent upon +advancing, pressing the enemy, and doing something positive. He had not +occasion to use the spur at the West either so often or so severely as +at the East; yet Halleck and Buell needed it and got it more than once. +The Western commanders, like those at the East, and with better reason, +were importunate for more men and more equipment. The President could +not, by any effort, meet their requirements. He wrote to McClernand +after the battle of Belmont: "Much, very much, goes undone; but it is +because we have not the power to do it faster than we do." Some troops +were without arms; but, he said, "the plain matter of fact is, our good +people have rushed to the rescue of the government faster than the +government can find arms to put in their hands." Yet, withal, it is true +that Mr. Lincoln's actual interferences at the South and West were so +occasional and incidental, that, since this writing is a biography of +him and not a history of the war, there is need only for a list of the +events which were befalling outside of that absorbing domain which lay +around the rival capitals. + +Along the southern Atlantic coast some rather easy successes were +rapidly won. August 29, 1861, Hatteras Inlet was taken, with little +fighting. November 7, Port Royal followed. Lying nearly midway between +Charleston and Savannah, and being a very fine harbor, this was a prize +of value. January 7, 1862, General Burnside was directed to take command +of the Department of North Carolina. February 8, Roanoke Island was +seized by the Federal forces. March 14, Newbern fell. April 11, Fort +Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River, was taken. April 26, +Beaufort was occupied. The blockade of the other Atlantic ports having +long since been made effective, the Eastern seaboard thus early became a +prison wall for the Confederacy. + +At the extreme West Missouri gave the President some trouble. The +bushwhacking citizens of that frontier State, divided not unequally +between the Union and Disunion sides, entered upon an irregular but +energetic warfare with ready zeal if not actually with pleasure. +Northerners in general hardly paused to read the newspaper accounts of +these rough encounters, but the President was much concerned to save the +State. As it lay over against Illinois along the banks of the +Mississippi River, and for the most part above the important strategic +point where Cairo controls the junction of that river with the Ohio, +possession of it appeared to him exceedingly desirable. In the hope of +helping matters forward, on July 3, 1861, he created the Department of +the West, and placed it under command of General Fremont. But the choice +proved unfortunate. Fremont soon showed himself inefficient and +troublesome. At first the President endeavored to allay the local +bickerings; on September 9, 1861, he wrote to General Hunter: "General +Fremont needs assistance which it is difficult to give him. He is losing +the confidence of men near him.... His cardinal mistake is that he +isolates himself;... he does not know what is going on.... He needs to +have by his side a man of large experience. Will you not, for me, take +that place? Your rank is one grade too high;... but will you not serve +the country, and oblige me, by taking it voluntarily?" Kindly +consideration, however, was thrown away upon Fremont, whose self-esteem +was so great that he could not see that he ought to be grateful, or that +he must be subordinate. He owed his appointment largely to the friendly +urgency of the Blair family; and now Postmaster-General Blair, puzzled +at the disagreeable stories about him, went to St. Louis on an errand of +investigation. Fremont promptly placed him under arrest. At the same +time Mrs. Fremont was journeying to Washington, where she had an +extraordinary interview with the President. "She sought an audience with +me at midnight," wrote Lincoln, "and taxed me so violently with many +things that I had to exercise all the awkward tact I have to avoid +quarreling with her.... She more than once intimated that if General +Fremont should decide to try conclusions with me, he could set up for +himself." Naturally the angry lady's threats of treason, instead of +seeming a palliation of her husband's shortcomings, tended to make his +displacement more inevitable. Yet the necessity of being rid of him was +unfortunate, because he was the pet hero of the Abolitionists, who stood +by him without the slightest regard to reason. Lincoln was loath to +offend them, but he felt that he had no choice, and therefore ordered +the removal. He preserved, however, that habitual strange freedom from +personal resentment which made his feelings, like his action, seem to be +strictly official. After the matter was all over he uttered a fair +judgment: "I thought well of Fremont. Even now I think well of his +impulses. I only think he is the prey of wicked and designing men; and I +think he has absolutely no military capacity." For a short while General +Hunter filled Fremont's place, until, in November, General Henry W. +Halleck was assigned to command the Department of Missouri. In February, +1862, General Curtis drove the only regular and considerable rebel force +across the border into Arkansas; and soon afterward, March 7 and 8, +within this latter State, he won the victory of Pea Ridge. + +In Tennessee the vote upon secession had indicated that more than two +thirds of the dwellers in the mountainous eastern region were Unionists. +Mr. Lincoln had it much at heart to sustain these men, and aside from +the personal feeling of loyalty to them it was also a point of great +military consequence to hold this district. Near the boundary separating +the northeastern corner of the State from Kentucky, the famous +Cumberland Gap gave passage through the Cumberland Mountains for the +East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, "the artery that supplied the +rebellion." The President saw, as many others did, and appreciated much +more than others seemed to do, the desirability of gaining this place. +To hold it would be to cut in halves, between east and west, the +northern line of the Confederacy. In the early days a movement towards +the Gap seemed imprudent in face of Kentucky's theory of "neutrality." +But this foolish notion was in time effectually disposed of by the +Confederates. Unable to resist the temptation offered by the important +position of Columbus at the western end of the State on the Mississippi +River, they seized that place in September, 1861. The state legislature, +incensed at the intrusion, immediately embraced the Union cause and +welcomed the Union forces within the state lines. + +This action opened the way for the President to make strenuous efforts +for the protection of the East Tennesseeans and the possession of the +Gap. In his annual message he urged upon Congress the construction of a +military railroad to the Gap, and afterward appeared in person to +advocate this measure before a committee of the Senate. If the place had +been in Virginia, he might have gained for his project an attention +which, as matters stood, the politicians never accorded to it. He also +endeavored to stir to action General Buell, who commanded in Kentucky. +Buell, an appointee and personal friend of General McClellan, resembled +his chief somewhat too closely both in character and history. Just as +Mr. Lincoln had to prick McClellan in Virginia, he now had to prick +Buell in Kentucky; and just as McClellan, failed to respond in Virginia, +Buell also failed in Kentucky. Further, Buell, like McClellan, had with +him a force very much greater than that before him; but Buell, like +McClellan, would not admit that his troops were in condition to move. +The result was that Jefferson Davis, more active to protect a crucial +point than the North was to assail it, in December, 1861, sent into East +Tennessee a force which imprisoned, deported, and hanged the loyal +residents there, harried the country without mercy, and held it with the +iron hand. The poor mountaineers, with good reason, concluded that the +hostility of the South was a terribly serious evil, whereas the +friendship of the North was a sadly useless good. The President was +bitterly chagrined, although certainly the blame did not rest with him. +Then the parallel between Buell and McClellan was continued even one +step farther; for Buell at last intimated that he did not approve of the +plan of campaign suggested for him, but thought it would be better +tactics to move upon Nashville. It so happened, however, that when he +expressed these views McClellan was commander-in-chief of all the +armies, and that general, being little tolerant of criticism from +subordinates when he himself was the superior, responded very tartly and +imperiously. Lincoln, on the other hand, according to his wont, wrote +modestly: "Your dispatch ... disappoints and distresses me.... I am not +competent to criticise your views." Then, in the rest of the letter, he +maintained with convincing clearness both the military and the political +soundness of his own opinions. + +In offset of this disappointment caused by Buell's inaction, the western +end of Kentucky became the theatre of gratifying operations. So soon as +policy ceased to compel recognition of the "neutrality" of the State, +General Grant, on September 6, 1861, entered Paducah at the confluence +of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. By this move he checked the water +communication hitherto freely used by the rebels, and neutralized the +advantage which they had expected to gain by their possession of +Columbus. But this was only a first and easy step. Farther to the +southward, just within the boundaries of Tennessee, lay Fort Henry on +the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, presenting a +kind of temptation which Grant was less able to resist than were most of +the Union generals at this time. Accordingly he arranged with Admiral +Foote, who commanded the new gunboats on the Mississippi, for a joint +excursion against these places. On February 6, Fort Henry fell, chiefly +through the work of the river navy. Ten days later, February 16, Fort +Donelson was taken, the laurels on this occasion falling to the land +forces. Floyd and Pillow were in the place when the Federals came to it, +but when they saw that capture was inevitable they furtively slipped +away, and thus shifted upon General Buckner the humiliation of the +surrender. This mean behavior excited the bitter resentment of that +general, which was not alleviated by what followed. For when he proposed +to discuss terms of capitulation, General Grant made that famous reply +which gave rise to his popular nickname: "No terms except unconditional +and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately +upon your works." + +Halleck telegraphed the pleasant news that the capture of Fort Donelson +carried with it "12,000 to 15,000 prisoners, including Generals Buckner +and Bushrod R. Johnson, also about 20,000 stands of arms, 48 pieces of +artillery, 17 heavy guns, from 2000 to 4000 horses, and large quantities +of commissary stores." He also advised: "Make Buell, Grant, and Pope +major-generals of volunteers, and give me command in the West. I ask +this in return for Forts Henry and Donelson." Halleck was one of those +who expect to reap where others sow. The achievements of Grant and Foote +also led him, by some strange process of reasoning, to conclude that +General C.W. Smith was the most able general in his department. + +Congress, highly gratified at these cheering events, ordered a grand +illumination at Washington for February 22; but the death of the +President's little son, at the White House, a day or two before that +date, checked a rejoicing which in other respects also would not have +been altogether timely. + +The Federal possession of these two forts rendered Columbus untenable +for the Confederates, and on March 2 they evacuated it. This was +followed by the fall of New Madrid on March 13, and of Island No. 10 on +April 7. At the latter place between 6000 and 7000 Confederates +surrendered. Thus was the Federal wedge being driven steadily deeper +down the channel of the Mississippi. + +Soon after this good service of the gunboats on the Western rivers, the +salt-water navy came in for its share of glory. On March 8 the ram +Virginia, late Merrimac, which had been taking on her mysterious iron +raiment at the Norfolk navy yard, issued from her concealment, an ugly +and clumsy, but also a novel and terrible monster. Straight she steamed +against the frigate Cumberland, and with one fell rush cut the poor +wooden vessel in halves and sent her, with all on board, to the bottom +of the sea. Turning then, she mercilessly battered the frigate Congress, +drove her ashore, and burned her. All this while the shot which had +rained upon her iron sides had rolled off harmless, and she returned to +her anchorage, having her prow broken by impact with the Cumberland, but +otherwise unhurt. Her armor had stood the test, and now the Federal +government contemplated with grave anxiety the further possible +achievements of this strange and potent destroyer. + +But the death of the Merrimac was to follow close upon her birth; she +was the portent of a few weeks only. For, during a short time past, +there had been also rapidly building in a Connecticut yard the Northern +marvel, the famous Monitor. When the ingenious Swede, John Ericsson, +proposed his scheme for an impregnable floating battery, his hearers +were divided between distrust and hope; but fortunately the President's +favorable opinion secured the trial of the experiment. The work was +zealously pushed, and the artisans actually went to sea with the craft +in order to finish her as she made her voyage southward. It was well +that such haste was made, for she came into Hampton Roads actually by +the light of the burning Congress. On the next day, being Sunday, March +9, the Southern monster again steamed forth, intending this time to make +the Minnesota her prey; but a little boat, that looked like a +"cheese-box" afloat, pushed forward to interfere with this plan. Then +occurred a duel which, in the annals of naval science, ranks as the most +important engagement which ever took place. It did not actually result +in the destruction of the Merrimac then and there, for, though much +battered, she was able to make her way back to the friendly shelter of +the Norfolk yard. But she was more than neutralized; it was evident that +the Monitor was the better craft of the two, and that in a combat _a +outrance_ she would win. The significance of this day's work on the +waters of Virginia cannot be exaggerated. By the armor-clad Merrimac and +the Monitor there was accomplished in the course of an hour a revolution +which differentiated the naval warfare of the past from that of the +future by a chasm as great as that which separated the ancient Greek +trireme from the flagship of Lord Nelson. + +As early as the middle of November, 1861, Mr. Lincoln was discussing +the feasibility of capturing New Orleans. Already Ship Island, off the +Mississippi coast, with its uncompleted equipment, had been seized as a +Gulf station, and could be used as a base. The naval force was prepared +as rapidly as possible, but it was not until February 3 that Captain +Farragut, the commander of the expedition, steamed out of Hampton Roads +in his flagship, the screw steam sloop Hartford. On April 18 he began to +bombard forts St. Philip and Jackson, which lie on the river banks +seventy-five miles below New Orleans, guarding the approach. Soon, +becoming impatient of this tardy process, he resolved upon the bold and +original enterprise of running by the forts. This he achieved in the +night of April 24; and on April 27 the stars and stripes floated over +the Mint in New Orleans. Still two days of shilly-shallying on the part +of the mayor ensued, delaying a formal surrender, until Farragut, who +had no fancy for nonsense, sharply put a stop to it, and New Orleans, in +form and substance, passed under Northern control. On April 28 the two +forts, isolated by what had taken place, surrendered. On May 1 General +Butler began in the city that efficient regime which so exasperated the +men of the South. On May 7 Baton Rouge, the state capital, was occupied, +without resistance; and Natchez followed in the procession on May 12. + +[Illustration: The Fight Between The Monitor And The Merrimac] + +With one Union fleet at the mouth of the Mississippi and another at +Island No. 10, and the Union army not far from the riverside in +Kentucky and Tennessee, the opening and repossession of the whole stream +by the Federals became a thing which ought soon to be achieved. On June +5 the gunboat fleet from up the river came down to within two miles of +Memphis, engaged in a hard fight and won a complete victory, and on the +next day Memphis was held by the Union troops. Farragut also, working in +his usual style, forced his way up to Vicksburg, and exchanged shots +with the Confederate batteries on the bluffs. He found, however, that +without the cooeperation of a land force he could do nothing, and had to +drop back again to New Orleans, arriving there on June 1. In a few weeks +he returned in stronger force, and on June 27 he was bombarding the +rebel works. On June 28, repeating the operation which had been so +successful below New Orleans, he ran some of his vessels by the +batteries and got above the city. But there was still no army on the +land, and so the vessels which had run by, up stream, had to make the +dangerous gauntlet again, down stream, and a second time the fleet +descended to New Orleans. + +General Halleck had arrived at St. Louis on November 18, 1861, to take +command of the Western Department. Perhaps a more energetic commander +would have been found ready to cooeperate with Farragut at Vicksburg by +the end of June, 1862; for matters had been going excellently with the +Unionists northeast of that place, and it would seem that a powerful +and victorious army might have been moving thither during that month. +Early in March, however, General Halleck reported that Grant's army was +as much demoralized by victory as the army at Bull Run had been by +defeat. He said that Grant "richly deserved" censure, and that he +himself was worn out by Grant's neglect and inefficiency. By such +charges he obtained from McClellan orders relieving General Grant from +duty, ordering an investigation, and even authorizing his arrest. But a +few days later, March 13, more correct information caused the reversal +of these orders, and March 17 found Grant again in command. He at once +began to busy himself with arrangements for moving upon Corinth. General +Buell meanwhile, after sustaining McClellan's rebuke and being taught +his place, had afterward been successful in obtaining for his own plan +preference over that of the administration, had easily possessed himself +of Nashville toward the end of February, and was now ready to march +westward and cooeperate with General Grant in this enterprise. Corinth, +lying just across the Mississippi border, was "the great strategic +position" at this part of the West. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad ran +through it north and south; the Memphis and Charleston Railroad passed +through east and west. If it could be taken and held, it would leave, as +the only connection open through the Confederacy from the Mississippi +River to the Atlantic coast, the railroad line which started from +Vicksburg. The Confederates also had shown their estimation of Corinth +by fortifying it strongly, and manifesting plainly their determination +to fight a great battle to hold it. Grant, aiming towards it, had his +army at Pittsburg Landing, on the west bank of the Tennessee, and there +awaited Buell, who was moving thither from Nashville with 40,000 men. +Such being the status, Grant expected General A.S. Johnston to await in +his intrenchments the assault of the Union army. But Johnston, in an +aggressive mood, laid well and boldly his plan to whip Grant before +Buell could join him, then to whip Buell, and, having thus disposed of +the Northern forces in detail, to carry the war up to, or even across, +the Ohio. So he came suddenly out from Corinth and marched straight upon +Pittsburg Landing, and precipitated that famous battle which has been +named after the church of Shiloh, because about that church the most +desperate and bloody fighting was done. + +The conflict began on Sunday, April 6, and lasted all day. There was not +much plan about it; the troops went at each other somewhat +indiscriminately and did simple stubborn fighting. The Federals lost +much ground all along their line, and were crowded back towards the +river. Some say that the Confederates closed that day on the way to +victory; but General Grant says that he felt assured of winning on +Monday, and that he instructed all his division commanders to open with +an assault in the morning. The doubt, if doubt there was, was settled +by the arrival of General Buell, whose fresh forces, coming in as good +an hour as the Prussians came at Waterloo, were put in during the +evening upon the Federal left. On Sunday the Confederates had greatly +outnumbered the Federals, but this reinforcement reversed the +proportions, so that on Monday the Federals were in the greater force. +Again the conflict was fierce and obstinate, but again the greater +numbers whipped the smaller, and by afternoon the Confederates were in +full retreat. Shiloh, says General Grant, "was the severest battle +fought at the West during the war, and but few in the East equaled it +for hard, determined fighting." It ended in a complete Union victory. +General A.S. Johnston was killed and Beauregard retreated to Corinth, +while the North first exulted because he was compelled to do so, and +then grumbled because he was allowed to do so. It was soon said that +Grant had been surprised, that he was entitled to no credit for winning +clumsily a battle which he had not expected to fight, and that he was +blameworthy for not following up the retreating foe more sharply. The +discussion survives among those quarrels of the war in which the +disputants have fought over again the contested field, with harmless +fierceness, and without any especial result. Congress took up the +dispute, and did a vast deal of talking, in the course of which there +occurred one sensible remark. This was made by Mr. Richardson of +Illinois, who said that the armies would get along much better if the +Riot Act could be read, and the members of Congress dispersed and sent +home. + +General Grant found that General Halleck was even more obstinately in +the way of his winning any success than were the Confederates +themselves. As commander of the department, Halleck now conceived that +it was his fair privilege to do the visible taking of that conspicuous +prize which his lieutenant had brought within sure reach. Accordingly, +on April 11, he arrived and assumed command for the purpose of moving on +Corinth. Still he was sedulous in his endeavors to neglect, suppress, +and even insult General Grant, whom he put nominally second in command, +but practically reduced to insignificance, until Grant, finding his +position "unendurable," asked to be relieved. This conduct on the part +of Halleck has of course been attributed to jealousy; but more probably +it was due chiefly to the personal prejudice of a dull man, perhaps a +little stimulated by a natural desire for reputation. Having taken +charge of the advance, he conducted it slowly and cautiously, +intrenching as he went, and moving with pick and shovel, in the phrase +of General Sherman, who commanded a division in the army. "The +movement," says General Grant, "was a siege from the start to the +close." Such tactics had not hitherto been tried at the West, and +apparently did not meet approval. There were only about twenty-two miles +to be traversed, yet four weeks elapsed in the process. The army +started on April 30; twice Pope got near the enemy, first on May 4, and +again on May 8, and each time he was ordered back. It was actually May +28, according to General Grant, when "the investment of Corinth was +complete, or as complete as it was ever made." But already, on May 26, +Beauregard had issued orders for evacuating the place, which was +accomplished with much skill. On May 30 Halleck drew up his army in +battle array and "announced in orders that there was every indication +that our left was to be attacked that morning." A few hours later his +troops marched unopposed into empty works. + +Halleck now commanded in Corinth a powerful army,--the forces of Grant, +Buell, and Pope, combined,--not far from 100,000 strong, and he was +threatened by no Southern force at all able to face him. According to +the views of General Grant, he had great opportunities; and among these +certainly was the advance of a strong column upon Vicksburg. If he could +be induced to do this, it seemed reasonable to expect that he and +Farragut together would be able to open the whole Mississippi River, and +to cut the last remaining east-and-west line of railroad communication. +But he did nothing, and ultimately the disposition made of this splendid +collection of troops was to distribute and dissipate it in such a manner +that the loss of the points already gained became much more probable +than the acquisition of others. + +Early in July, as has been elsewhere said, Halleck was called to +Washington to take the place of general-in-chief of all the armies of +the North; and at this point perhaps it is worth while to devote a +paragraph to comparing the retirement of McClellan with the promotion of +Halleck. Some similarities and dissimilarities in their careers are +striking. The dissimilarities were: that McClellan had organized the +finest army which the country had yet seen, or was to see; also that he +had at least made a plan for a great campaign; and he had not suppressed +any one abler than himself; that Halleck on the other hand had done +little to organize an army or to plan a campaign, had failed to find out +the qualities of General W.T. Sherman, who was in his department, and +had done all in his power to drive General Grant into retirement. The +similarities are more worthy of observation. Each general had wearied +the administration with demands for reinforcements when each already +outnumbered his opponent so much that it was almost disgraceful to +desire to increase the odds. If McClellan had been reprehensibly slow in +moving upon Yorktown, and had blundered by besieging instead of trying +an assault, certainly the snail-like approach upon Corinth had been +equally deliberate and wasteful of time and opportunity; and if +McClellan had marched into deserted intrenchments, so also had Halleck. +If McClellan had captured "Quaker guns" at Manassas, Halleck had found +the like peaceful weapons frowning from the ramparts of Corinth. If +McClellan had held inactive a powerful force when it ought to have been +marching to Manassas, Halleck had also held inactive another powerful +force, a part of which might have helped to take Vicksburg. If the +records of these two men were stated in parallel columns, it would be +difficult to see why one should have been taken and the other left. But +the explanation exists and is instructive, and it is wholly for the sake +of the explanation that the comparison has been made. McClellan was "in +politics," and Halleck was not; McClellan, therefore, had a host of +active, unsparing enemies in Washington, which Halleck had not; the +Virginia field of operations was ceaselessly and microscopically +inspected; the Western field attracted occasional glances not conducive +to a full knowledge. Halleck, as commander in a department where +victories were won, seemed to have won the victories, and no politicians +cared to deny his right to the glory; whereas the politicians, whose +hatred of McClellan had, by the admission of one of themselves, become a +mania,[167] were entirely happy to have any one set over his head, and +would not imperil their pleasure by too close an inspection of the new +aspirant's merits. These remarks are not designed to have any +significance upon the merits or demerits of McClellan, which have been +elsewhere discussed, nor upon the merits or demerits of Halleck, which +are not worth discussing; but they are made simply because they afford +so forcible an illustration of certain important conditions at +Washington at this time. The truth is that the ensnarlment of the +Eastern military affairs with politics made success in that field +impossible for the North. The condition made it practically inevitable +that a Union commander in Virginia should have his thoughts at least as +much occupied with the members of Congress in the capital behind him as +with the Confederate soldiers in camp before him. Such division of his +attention was ruinous. At and before the outbreak of the rebellion the +South had expected to be aided efficiently by a great body of +sympathizers at the North. As yet they had been disappointed in this; +but almost simultaneously with this disappointment they were surprised +by a valuable and unexpected assistance, growing out of the open feuds, +the covert malice, the bad blood, the partisanship, and the wire-pulling +introduced by the loyal political fraternity into campaigning business. +The quarreling politicians were doing, very efficiently, the work which +Southern sympathizers had been expected to do. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[167] George W. Julian, _Polit. Recoll._ 204. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FOREIGN AFFAIRS + + +To the people who had been engaged in changing Illinois from a +wilderness into a civilized State, Europe had been an abstraction, a +mere colored spot upon a map, which in their lives meant nothing. Though +England had been the home of their ancestors, it was really less +interesting than the west coast of Africa, which was the home of the +negroes; for the negroes were just now of vastly more consequence than +the ancestors. So even Dahomey had some claim to be regarded as a more +important place than Great Britain, and the early settlers wasted little +thought on the affairs of Queen Victoria. Amid these conditions, +absorbed even more than his neighbors in the exciting questions of +domestic politics, and having no tastes or pursuits which guided his +thoughts abroad, Mr. Lincoln had never had occasion to consider the +foreign relations of the United States, up to the time when he was +suddenly obliged to take an active part in managing them. + +At an early stage of the civil dissensions each side hoped for the +good-will of England. For obvious reasons, that island counted to the +United States for more than the whole continent of Europe; indeed, the +continental nations were likely to await and to follow her lead. +Southern orators, advocating secession, assured their hearers that "King +Cotton" would be the supreme power, and would compel that realm of +spinners and weavers to friendship if not to alliance with the +Confederacy. Northern men, on the other hand, expressed confidence that +a people with the record of Englishmen against slavery would not +countenance a war conducted in behalf of that institution; nor did they +allow their hopes to be at all impaired by the consideration that, in +order to found them upon this support, they had to overlook the fact +that they were at the same time distinctly declaring that slavery really +had nothing to do with the war, in which only and strictly the question +of the Union, the integrity of the nation, was at stake. When the issue +was pressing for actual decision, each side was disappointed; and each +found that it had counted upon a motive which fell far short of exerting +the anticipated influence. It was, of course, the case that England +suffered much from the short supply of cotton; but she made shift to +procure it elsewhere, while the working people, sympathizing with the +North, were surprisingly patient. Thus the political pressure arising +from commercial distress was much less than had been expected, and the +South learned that cotton was only a spurious monarch. Not less did the +North find itself deceived; for the upper and middle classes of Great +Britain appeared absolutely indifferent to the humanitarian element +which, as they were assured, underlay the struggle. Perhaps they were +not to be blamed for setting aside these assurances, and accepting in +place thereof the belief that the American leaders spoke the truth when +they solemnly told the North that the question at issue was purely and +simply of "the Union." The unfortunate fact was that it was necessary to +say one thing to Englishmen and a different thing to Americans. + +That which really did inspire the feelings and the wishes, and which did +influence, though it could not be permitted fully to control, the action +of England, had not been counted upon by either section of the country; +perhaps its existence had not been appreciated. This was the intense +dislike felt for the American republic by nearly all Englishmen who were +above the social grade of mechanics and mill operatives. The extent and +force of this antipathy and even contempt were for the first time given +free expression under the irresistible provocation which arose out of +the delightful likelihood of the destruction of the United States. The +situation at least gave to the people of that imperiled country a chance +to find out in what estimation they were held across the water. The +behavior of the English government and the attitude of the English press +during the early part of the civil war have been ascribed by different +historians to one or another dignified political or commercial motive. +But while these influences were certainly not absent, yet the English +newspapers poured an inundating flood of evidence to show that genuine +and deep-seated dislike, not to say downright hatred, was by very much +the principal motive. This truth is so painful and unfortunate that many +have thought best to suppress or deny it; but no historian is entitled +to use such discretion. From an early period, therefore, in the +administration of Mr. Lincoln, he and Mr. Seward had to endeavor to +preserve friendly relations with a power which, if she could only make +entirely sure of the worldly wisdom of yielding to her wishes, would +instantly recognize the independence of the South. This being the case, +it was matter for regret that the rules of international law concerning +blockades, contraband of war, and rights of neutrals were perilously +vague and unsettled. + +Earl[168] Russell was at this time in charge of her majesty's foreign +affairs. Because in matters domestic he was liberal-minded, Americans +had been inclined to expect his good-will; but he now disappointed them +by appearing to share the prejudices of his class against the republic. +A series of events soon revealed his temper. So soon as there purported +to be a Confederacy, an understanding had been reached betwixt him and +the French emperor that both powers should take the same course as to +recognizing it. About May 1 he admitted three Southern commissioners to +an audience with him, though not "officially." May 13 there was +published a proclamation, whereby Queen Victoria charged and commanded +all her "loving subjects to observe a strict neutrality" in and during +the hostilities which had "unhappily commenced between the government of +the United States and certain States styling themselves 'the Confederate +States of America.'" This action--this assumption of a position of +"neutrality," as between enemies--taken while the "hostilities" had +extended only to the single incident of Fort Sumter, gave surprise and +some offense to the North. It was a recognition of belligerency; that is +to say, while not in any other respect recognizing the revolting States +as an independent power, it accorded to them the rights of a +belligerent. The magnitude very quickly reached by the struggle would +have made this step necessary and proper, so that, if England had only +gone a trifle more slowly, she would soon have reached the same point +without exciting any anger; but now the North felt that the queen's +government had been altogether too forward in assuming this position at +a time when the question of a real war was still in embryo. Moreover, +the unfriendliness was aggravated by the fact that the proclamation was +issued almost at the very hour of the arrival in London of Mr. Charles +Francis Adams, the new minister sent by Mr. Lincoln to the court of St. +James. It seemed, therefore, not open to reasonable doubt that Earl +Russell had purposely hastened to take his position before he could hear +from the Lincoln administration. + +When Mr. Seward got news of this, his temper gave way; so that, being +still new to diplomacy, he wrote a dispatch to Mr. Adams wherein +occurred words and phrases not so carefully selected as they should have +been. He carried it to Mr. Lincoln, and soon received it back revised +and corrected, instructively. _A priori_, one would have anticipated the +converse of this. + +The essential points of the paper were:-- + +That Mr. Adams would "desist from all intercourse whatever, unofficial +as well as official, with the British government, so long as it shall +continue intercourse of either kind with the domestic enemies of this +country." + +That the United States had a "right to expect a more independent if not +a more friendly course" than was indicated by the understanding between +England and France; but that Mr. Adams would "take no notice of that or +any other alliance." + +He was to pass by the question as to whether the blockade must be +respected in case it should not be maintained by a competent force, and +was to state that the "blockade is now, and will continue to be, so +maintained, and therefore we expect it to be respected." + +As to recognition of the Confederacy, either by publishing an +acknowledgment of its sovereignty, or officially receiving its +representatives, he was to inform the earl that "no one of these +proceedings will pass unquestioned." Also, he might suggest that "a +concession of belligerent rights is liable to be construed as a +recognition" of the Confederate States. Recognition, he was to say, +could be based only on the assumption that these States were a +self-sustaining power. But now, after long forbearance, the United +States having set their forces in motion to suppress the insurrection, +"the true character of the pretended new state is at once revealed. It +is seen to be a power existing in pronunciamento only. It has never won +a field. It has obtained no forts that were not virtually betrayed into +its hands or seized in breach of trust. It commands not a single port on +the coast, nor any highway out from its pretended capital by land. Under +these circumstances, Great Britain is called upon to intervene, and give +it body and independence by resisting our measures of suppression. +British recognition would be British intervention to create within our +own territory a hostile state by overthrowing this republic itself." In +Mr. Seward's draft a menacing sentence followed these words, but Mr. +Lincoln drew his pen through it. + +Mr. Adams was to say that the treatment of insurgent privateers was "a +question exclusively our own," and that we intended to treat them as +pirates.[169] If Great Britain should recognize them as lawful +belligerents and give them shelter, "the laws of nations afford an +adequate and proper remedy;"--"_and we shall avail ourselves of it_," +added Mr. Seward; but again Mr. Lincoln's prudent pen went through these +words of provocation. + +Finally Mr. Adams was instructed to offer the adhesion of the United +States to the famous Declaration of the Congress of Paris, of 1856, +which concerned sundry matters of neutrality. + +The letter ended with two paragraphs of that patriotic rodomontade which +seems eminently adapted to domestic consumption in the United States, +but which, if it ever came beneath the eye of the British minister, +probably produced an effect very different from that which was aimed at. +Mr. Lincoln had the good taste to write on the margin: "Drop all from +this line to the end;" but later he was induced to permit the nonsense +to stand, since it was really harmless. + +The amendments made by the President in point of quantity were trifling, +but in respect of importance were very great. All that he did was here +and there to change or to omit a phrase, which established no position, +but which in the strained state of feeling might have had serious +results. The condition calls to mind the description of the summit of +the Alleghany Ridge, where the impulses given by almost imperceptible +inequalities in the surface of the rock have for their ultimate result +the dispatching of mighty rivers either through the Atlantic slope to +the ocean, or down the Mississippi valley to the Gulf of Mexico. A few +adjectives, two or three ever so little sentences, in this dispatch, +might have led to peace or to war; and peace or war with England almost +surely meant, respectively, Union or Disunion in the United States. In +fact, no more important state paper was issued by Mr. Seward. It +established our relations with Great Britain, and by consequence also +with France and with the rest of Europe, during the whole period of the +civil war. Its positions, moderate in themselves, and resolutely laid +down, were never materially departed from. The English minister did not +afterward give either official or unofficial audiences to accredited +rebel emissaries; the blockade was maintained by a force so competent +that the British government acquiesced in it; no recognition of the +Confederacy was ever made, either in the ways prohibited or in any way +whatsoever; it is true that bitter controversies arose concerning +Confederate privateers, and to some extent England failed to meet our +position in this matter; but it was rather the application of our rule +than the rule itself which was in dispute; and she afterward, under the +Geneva award, made full payment for her derelictions. The behavior and +the proposal of terms, which constituted a practical exclusion of the +United States from the benefits of the Treaty of Paris, certainly +involved something of indignity; but in this the country had no actual +_rights_; and to speak frankly, since she had refused to come in when +invited, she could hardly complain of an inhospitable reception when, +under the influence of immediate and stringent self-interest, her +diplomatists saw fit to change their course. So, on the whole, it is not +to be denied that delicate and novel business in the untried department +of foreign diplomacy was managed with great skill, under trying +circumstances. A few months later, in his message to Congress, at the +beginning of December, 1861, the President referred to our foreign +relations in the following paragraphs:-- + +"The disloyal citizens of the United States, who have offered the ruin +of our country in return for the aid and comfort which they have invoked +abroad, have received less patronage and encouragement than they +probably expected. If it were just to suppose, as the insurgents have +seemed to assume, that foreign nations, in this case, discarding all +moral, social, and treaty obligations, would act solely and selfishly +for the speedy restoration of commerce, including especially the +acquisition of cotton, those nations appear as yet not to have seen +their way to their object more directly or clearly through the +destruction than through the preservation of the Union. If we could dare +to believe that foreign nations are actuated by no higher principle than +this, I am quite sure a sound argument could be made to show them that +they can reach their aim more readily and easily by aiding to crush this +rebellion than by giving encouragement to it. + +"The principal lever relied on by these insurgents for exciting foreign +nations to hostility against us, as already intimated, is the +embarrassment of commerce. Those nations, however, not improbably saw +from the first that it was the Union which made as well our foreign as +our domestic commerce. They can scarcely have failed to perceive that +the effort for disunion produces the existing difficulty; and that one +strong nation promises more durable peace and a more extensive, +valuable, and reliable commerce than can the same nation broken into +hostile fragments. + +"It is not my purpose to review our discussions with foreign states; +because, whatever might be their wishes or dispositions, the integrity +of our country and the stability of our government mainly depend not +upon them but on the loyalty, virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of +the American people. The correspondence itself with the usual +reservations is herewith submitted. I venture to hope it will appear +that we have practiced prudence and liberality toward foreign powers, +averting causes of irritation, and with firmness maintaining our own +rights and honor." + +While this carefully measured language certainly fell far short of +expressing indifference concerning European action, it was equally far +from betraying any sense of awe or dependence as towards the great +nations across the Atlantic. Yet in fact beneath its self-contained +moderation there unquestionably was politic concealment of very profound +anxiety. Since the war did in fact maintain to the end an entirely +domestic character, it is now difficult fully to appreciate the +apprehensions which were felt, especially in its earlier stages, lest +England or France or both might interfere with conclusive effect in +favor of the Confederacy. It was very well for Mr. Lincoln to state the +matter in such a way that it would seem an unworthy act upon their part +to encourage a rebellion, especially a pro-slavery rebellion; and very +well for him also to suggest that their commerce could be better +conducted with one nation than with two. In plain fact, they were +considering nothing more lofty than their own material interests, and +upon this point their distinguished statesmen did not feel the need of +seeking information or advice from the Western lawyer who had just been +so freakishly picked out of a frontier town to take charge of the +destinies of the United States. The only matter which they contemplated +with some interest, and upon which they could gather enlightenment from +his words, related to the greater or less degree of firmness and +confidence with which he was likely to meet them; for even in their eyes +this must be admitted to constitute one of the elements in the +situation. It was, therefore, fortunate that Mr. Lincoln successfully +avoided an appearance either of alarm or of defiance. + +But, difficult as it may have been skillfully to compose the sentences +of the message so far as it concerned foreign relationships, some +occurrences were taking place, at this very time of the composition, +which reduced verbal manoeuvring to insignificance. A sudden and +unexpected menace was happily turned into a substantial aid and +advantage; and the administration, not long after it had firmly declared +its resolution to maintain its clear and lawful rights, was given the +opportunity greatly to strengthen its position by an event which, at +first, seemed untoward enough. In the face of very severe temptation to +do otherwise, it had the good sense to seize this opportunity, and to +show that it had upon its own part the will not only to respect, but to +construe liberally as against itself, the rights of neutrals; also that +it had the power to enforce its will, upon the instant, even at the cost +of bitterly disappointing the whole body of loyal citizens in the very +hour of their rejoicing. + +The story of Mason and Slidell is familiar: accredited as envoys of the +Confederacy to England and France, in the autumn of 1861, they ran the +blockade at Charleston and came to Havana. There they did not conceal +their purpose to sail for England, by the British royal mail steamship +Trent, on November 7. Captain Wilkes of the United States steam sloop of +war San Jacinto, hearing all this, lay in wait in the Bahama Channel, +sighted the Trent on November 8, fired a shot across her bows, and +brought her to. He then sent on board a force of marines to search her +and fetch off the rebels. This was done against the angry protests of +the Englishman, and with such slight force as constituted technical +compulsion, but without violence. The Trent was then left to proceed on +her voyage. The envoys, or "missionaries," as they were called by way of +avoiding the recognition of an official character, were soon in +confinement in Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor. Everywhere at the North +the news produced an outburst of joy and triumph. Captain Wilkes was the +hero of the hour, and received every kind of honor and compliment. The +secretary of the navy wrote to him a letter of congratulation, declaring +that his conduct was "marked by intelligence, ability, decision, and +firmness, and has the emphatic approval of this department." Secretary +Stanton was outspoken in his praise. When Congress convened, on December +1, almost the first thing done by the House of Representatives was to +hurry through a vote of thanks to the captain for his "brave, adroit, +and patriotic conduct." The newspaper press, public meetings, private +conversation throughout the country, all reechoed these joyous +sentiments. The people were in a fever of pleasurable excitement. It +called for some nerve on the part of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward suddenly +to plunge them into a chilling bath of disappointment. + +Statements differ as to what was Mr. Seward's earliest opinion in the +matter.[170] But all writers agree that Mr. Lincoln did not move with +the current of triumph. He was scarcely even non-committal. On the +contrary, he is said at once to have remarked that it did not look right +to stop the vessel of a friendly power on the high seas and take +passengers out of her; that he did not understand whence Captain Wilkes +derived authority to turn his quarter-deck into a court of admiralty; +that he was afraid the captives might prove to be white elephants on our +hands; that we had fought Great Britain on the ground of like doings +upon her part, and that now we must stick to American principles; that, +if England insisted upon our surrendering the prisoners, we must do so, +and must apologize, and so bind her over to keep the peace in relation +to neutrals, and to admit that she had been wrong for sixty years. + +The English demand came quickly, forcibly, and almost offensively. The +news brought to England by the Trent set the whole nation in a blaze of +fury,--and naturally enough, it must be admitted. The government sent +out to the navy yards orders to make immediate preparations for war; the +newspapers were filled with abuse and menace against the United States; +the extravagance of their language will not be imagined without actual +reference to their pages. Lord Palmerston hastily sketched a dispatch to +Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, demanding instant +reparation, but couched in language so threatening and insolent as to +make compliance scarcely possible. Fortunately, in like manner as Mr. +Seward had taken to Mr. Lincoln his letter of instructions to Mr. Adams, +so Lord Palmerston also felt obliged to lay his missive before the +queen, and the results in both cases were alike; for once at least +royalty did a good turn to the American republic. Prince Albert, ill +with the disease which only a few days later carried him to his grave, +labored hard over that important document, with the result that the +royal desire to eliminate passion sufficiently to make a peaceable +settlement possible was made unmistakably plain, and therefore the +letter, as ultimately revised by Earl Russell, though still disagreeably +peremptory in tone, left room for the United States to set itself right +without loss of self-respect. The most annoying feature was that Great +Britain insisted upon instant action; if Lord Lyons did not receive a +favorable reply within seven days after formally preferring his demand +for reparation, he was to call for his passports. In other words, delay +by diplomatic correspondence and such ordinary shilly-shallying meant +war. As the London "Times" expressed it, America was not to be allowed +"to retain what she had taken from us, at the cheap price of an +interminable correspondence." + +December 19 this dispatch reached Lord Lyons; he talked its contents +over with Mr. Seward informally, and deferred the formal communication +until the 23d. Mr. Lincoln drew up a proposal for submission to +arbitration. But it could not be considered; the instructions to Lord +Lyons gave no time and no discretion. It was aggravating to concede what +was demanded under such pressure; but the President, as has been said, +had already expressed his opinion upon the cardinal point,--that England +had the strength of the case. Moreover he remarked, with good common +sense, "One war at a time." So it was settled that the emissaries must +be surrendered. The "prime minister of the _Northern States of +America_," as the London "Times" insultingly called Mr. Seward, was wise +enough to agree; for, under the circumstances, to allow discourtesy to +induce war was unjustifiable. On December 25 a long cabinet council was +held, and the draft of Seward's reply was accepted, though with sore +reluctance. The necessity was cruel, but fortunately it was not +humiliating; for the President had pointed to the road of honorable exit +in those words which Mr. Lossing heard uttered by him on the very day +that the news arrived. In 1812 the United States had fought with England +because she had insisted, and they had denied, that she had the right to +stop their vessels on the high seas, to search them, and to take from +them British subjects found on board them. Mr. Seward now said that the +country still adhered to the ancient principle for which it had once +fought, and was glad to find England renouncing her old-time error. +Captain Wilkes, not acting under instructions, had made a mistake. If he +had captured the Trent and brought her in for adjudication as prize in +our admiralty courts, a case might have been maintained and the +prisoners held. He had refrained from this course out of kindly +consideration for the many innocent persons to whom it would have caused +serious inconvenience; and, since England elected to stand upon the +strict rights which his humane conduct gave to her, the United States +must be bound by their own principles at any cost to themselves. +Accordingly the "envoys" were handed over to the commander of the +English gunboat Rinaldo, at Provincetown, on January 1, 1862. + +The decision of the President and the secretary of state was thoroughly +wise. Much hung upon it; "no one," says Arnold, "can calculate the +results which would have followed upon a refusal to surrender these +men." An almost certain result would have been a war with England; and a +highly probable result would have been that erelong France also would +find pretext for hostilities, since she was committed to friendship with +England in this matter, and moreover the emperor seemed to have a +restless desire to interfere against the North. What then would have +been the likelihood of ultimate success in that domestic struggle, +which, by itself, though it did not exhaust, yet very severely taxed +both Northern endurance and Northern resources? It is fair also to these +two men to say that, in reaching their decision, instead of receiving +aid or encouragement from outside, they had the reverse. Popular feeling +may be estimated from the utterances which, even after there had been +time for reflection, were made by men whose positions curbed them with +the grave responsibilities of leadership. In the House of +Representatives Owen Lovejoy pledged himself to "inextinguishable +hatred" of Great Britain, and promised to bequeath it as a legacy to his +children; and, while he was not engaging in the war for the integrity of +his own country, he vowed that if a war with England should come, he +would "carry a musket" in it. Senator Hale, in thunderous oratory, +notified the members of the administration that if they would "not +listen to the voice of the people, they would find themselves engulfed +in a fire that would consume them like stubble; they would be helpless +before a power that would hurl them from their places." The great +majority at the North, though perhaps incapable of such felicity of +expression, was undoubtedly not very much misrepresented by the +vindictive representative and the exuberant senator. Yet a brief period, +in which to consider the logic of the position, sufficed to bring nearly +all to intelligent conclusions; and then it was seen that what had been +done had been rightly and wisely done. There was even a sense of pride +in doing fairly and honestly, without the shuffling evasions of +diplomacy, an act of strict right; and the harder the act the greater +was the honor. The behavior of the people was generous and intelligent, +and greatly strengthened the government in the eyes of foreigners. By +the fullness and readiness of this reparation England was put under a +moral obligation to treat the United States as honorably as the United +States treated her. She did not do so, it is true; but in more ways than +one she ultimately paid for not doing so. At any rate, for the time +being, after this action it would have been nothing less than indecent +for her to recognise the Confederacy at once; and a little later +prudence had the like restraining effect. Yet though recognition and war +were avoided they never entirely ceased to threaten, and Mr. Chittenden +is perfectly correct in saying that "every act of our government was +performed under the impending danger of a recognition of the +Confederacy, a disregard of the blockade, and the actual intervention of +Great Britain in our attempt to suppress an insurrection upon our own +territory." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[168] Lord John Russell was raised to the peerage, as Earl Russell, just +after this time, _i.e._, in July, 1861. + +[169] An effort was made to carry out this theory in the case of the +crew of the privateer Savannah; but the jury failed to agree, and the +attempt was not afterward renewed, privateersmen being exchanged like +other prisoners of war. + +[170] Mr. Welles declares that Seward at first opposed the surrender; +but Mr. Chittenden asserts that he knows that Mr. Seward's first opinion +coincided with his later action; see Mr. Welles's _Lincoln and Seward_, +and Chittenden's _Recollections_, 148. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., by John T. 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